I am back in Denver after a crazy trip encompassing the globe. We are finishing up here with some lectures designed to help us integrate the lessons we learned on outreach into our daily lives and how we can properly share our stories with others. It has been crazy to try and process everything I've seen and experienced, not to mention be around "normal" culture again. The time has been good though and God is still showing us new things as well as reminding us of His faithfullness on the trip. It's amazing how quickly you forget it!
I will be heading home this weekend so please pray for travel safety for me. Also, pray for my future as I try to figure out where God is leading me next in life and where He wants me to serve. I am excited to see and share my experiences (there are countless ones) with all of you, and also to hear what God has been doing in your life.
Have a great day and God bless
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Final Week
Final greetings from the ATW team,
Our time in Amsterdam has come to a close and by this time tomorrow we will be back in the United States. The last 12 days in Amsterdam have flown by. It has been a great last stop for our little trip around the world really preparing us for when we return back to our western lifestyles.
We have been working with a ywam ministry called Ethnos. Amsterdam is the most multicultural city in the world with over 180 nations represented. Ethnos seeks to reach these nations by being an impact on some of the different spheres of society here in the city. We have had alot of fun ministering and fellowshiping with their team. We have also been able to spend alot of time worshipping and praying over the city, a good amount of these times we spent with the Tabernacle of the Nations a ywam prayer house in the heart of the redlight district.
It has been great getting God's heart for the city and seeing His dreams and desires for this city to not be known for it's redlight district and what it allows, but as a place where the spirit of God dwells. We have enjoyed coming along side our ywam Amsterdam family and seeing all the amazing work they have been doing over the years, it is really easy to see that God has some big plans for this city.
Our team was able to really finish strong and make an impact in this city although it was our last stop after alot of ministry in many different parts of the world. These last 12 days have been the perfect exclamation point to this incredible adventure with God.
Thanks for your prayers, we will be seeing many of you very soon.
God Bless
The ATW team
Our time in Amsterdam has come to a close and by this time tomorrow we will be back in the United States. The last 12 days in Amsterdam have flown by. It has been a great last stop for our little trip around the world really preparing us for when we return back to our western lifestyles.
We have been working with a ywam ministry called Ethnos. Amsterdam is the most multicultural city in the world with over 180 nations represented. Ethnos seeks to reach these nations by being an impact on some of the different spheres of society here in the city. We have had alot of fun ministering and fellowshiping with their team. We have also been able to spend alot of time worshipping and praying over the city, a good amount of these times we spent with the Tabernacle of the Nations a ywam prayer house in the heart of the redlight district.
It has been great getting God's heart for the city and seeing His dreams and desires for this city to not be known for it's redlight district and what it allows, but as a place where the spirit of God dwells. We have enjoyed coming along side our ywam Amsterdam family and seeing all the amazing work they have been doing over the years, it is really easy to see that God has some big plans for this city.
Our team was able to really finish strong and make an impact in this city although it was our last stop after alot of ministry in many different parts of the world. These last 12 days have been the perfect exclamation point to this incredible adventure with God.
Thanks for your prayers, we will be seeing many of you very soon.
God Bless
The ATW team
Week 9
Greetings family (or in my preferred manner of speaking, "Hey dudes"),
So we concluded our time in Nepal in a village down south. The village is home to around 9,000 people, with only about 50 Christians. We stayed with host families in the village, and were able to spend a lot of quality time with them despite the language barrier. Smiles and laughter made up the majority of our communication. A YWAM Frontier Missions team began planting the church about 4 years ago, and were able to build the actual church building around 3 months ago. Their most recent project focus has been building bathroom facilities for the church. We were able to cover the cost for all the supplies, and spent time digging and moving rocks for the foundation of the bathroom. One afternoon, we were able to share with a few different groups of villagers as well as visiting the home of a Christian family where the mother was sick with a heart condition. The father of the household had been paralized and became a Christian after being prayed forand healed. The whole family became believers after that, but it was heartbreaking as we looked into their faces when we first arrived. They were blank, almost hopeless. We spent time praying and really asking God to touch their lives and also to bring overwhelming joy. As we left, they were both smiling. It was incredible to see how God had already begun to work.
After 4 days, the church sent us off with prayers and a farewell party complete with leis and a time of sharing appreciation. It was a short time, but so well spent.Our bus trip back to Delhi went very smooth. It felt a lot quicker and safer than the last trip. We even had one of the same drivers from our first trip, and Jacob was able to hold hands with him (which is a normal part of their culture). It was cool how we were able to build relationships with the bus drivers and guides. We arrived in Amsterdam last night. We are staying at the YWAM base in the city center. We'll be working with a couple YWAM ministries, but the majority of our time will be unscheduled and open to God's leading. It will be a good opportunity for our students to practice hearing God's voice and being led by the spirit. Continue praying for us that we finish out strong. There is still a lot of excitement among our team for our remaining days. It's already been a blessing being able to share more openly in our own language. We are looking forward to lots of divine appointments and partnering with God to see His kingdom come here in Amsterdam.
Blessed be your name,
Hannah, the mexi-white, and the ATW kids
So we concluded our time in Nepal in a village down south. The village is home to around 9,000 people, with only about 50 Christians. We stayed with host families in the village, and were able to spend a lot of quality time with them despite the language barrier. Smiles and laughter made up the majority of our communication. A YWAM Frontier Missions team began planting the church about 4 years ago, and were able to build the actual church building around 3 months ago. Their most recent project focus has been building bathroom facilities for the church. We were able to cover the cost for all the supplies, and spent time digging and moving rocks for the foundation of the bathroom. One afternoon, we were able to share with a few different groups of villagers as well as visiting the home of a Christian family where the mother was sick with a heart condition. The father of the household had been paralized and became a Christian after being prayed forand healed. The whole family became believers after that, but it was heartbreaking as we looked into their faces when we first arrived. They were blank, almost hopeless. We spent time praying and really asking God to touch their lives and also to bring overwhelming joy. As we left, they were both smiling. It was incredible to see how God had already begun to work.
After 4 days, the church sent us off with prayers and a farewell party complete with leis and a time of sharing appreciation. It was a short time, but so well spent.Our bus trip back to Delhi went very smooth. It felt a lot quicker and safer than the last trip. We even had one of the same drivers from our first trip, and Jacob was able to hold hands with him (which is a normal part of their culture). It was cool how we were able to build relationships with the bus drivers and guides. We arrived in Amsterdam last night. We are staying at the YWAM base in the city center. We'll be working with a couple YWAM ministries, but the majority of our time will be unscheduled and open to God's leading. It will be a good opportunity for our students to practice hearing God's voice and being led by the spirit. Continue praying for us that we finish out strong. There is still a lot of excitement among our team for our remaining days. It's already been a blessing being able to share more openly in our own language. We are looking forward to lots of divine appointments and partnering with God to see His kingdom come here in Amsterdam.
Blessed be your name,
Hannah, the mexi-white, and the ATW kids
Friday, July 25, 2008
Week 8
Greetings from Pokhara Nepal,
Well we all made it back from our 4 day trek in the Himalayas. It was quite the experience. A bit physically challenging we climbed over 7000 vertical feet from 3,000 to 10,000 and back totaling over 20+ hours of trekking with much of it in the rain. It was absolutely beautiful, we traversed from Jungle to Mountain tops through an immense gorge with numerous waterfalls to our final destination of Ghorepani. We were even able to get a glimpse of Annapurna and some of the other mountains in the range. Which was an answer to prayer since this is the raining season and there had not been clear skies in over 20 days. It was literally breathtaking, when they first appeared through the clouds I could not believe they were that high in the horizon when we were already at over 10,000 feet. Truly a testament to the greatness of God.
We were able to minister to a Christian family along the path spending time worshiping and fellowshipping with them. It was a blessed divinely appointed time as one of their sisters is having health problems and they can't be with her.
Another highlight was when we were able to spend and evening with the congregation of the only Christian church in the region. Many of the members hike up to 3 or 4 hours to meet. We were able to share testimonies and a teaching but the highlight was at the end of the night when we were able to sit and talk and pray with them for a couple hours drinking hot tea. We were able to lead two young men to the Lord that night, who were not even from that area but happened to be traveling through the village this particular evening. How cool is our God!
We are now spending a day recouping before we head out to a village farther south for a few days.
Being praying for the remaining time we have here in Nepal and also our travels back to India and our flight from there to Amsterdam for our final ministry location.
Thanks for praying for us as a team we recently had some doors open up for us for our housing in Amsterdam which was a huge answer to prayer.
Many Blessings: the ATW team
Well we all made it back from our 4 day trek in the Himalayas. It was quite the experience. A bit physically challenging we climbed over 7000 vertical feet from 3,000 to 10,000 and back totaling over 20+ hours of trekking with much of it in the rain. It was absolutely beautiful, we traversed from Jungle to Mountain tops through an immense gorge with numerous waterfalls to our final destination of Ghorepani. We were even able to get a glimpse of Annapurna and some of the other mountains in the range. Which was an answer to prayer since this is the raining season and there had not been clear skies in over 20 days. It was literally breathtaking, when they first appeared through the clouds I could not believe they were that high in the horizon when we were already at over 10,000 feet. Truly a testament to the greatness of God.
We were able to minister to a Christian family along the path spending time worshiping and fellowshipping with them. It was a blessed divinely appointed time as one of their sisters is having health problems and they can't be with her.
Another highlight was when we were able to spend and evening with the congregation of the only Christian church in the region. Many of the members hike up to 3 or 4 hours to meet. We were able to share testimonies and a teaching but the highlight was at the end of the night when we were able to sit and talk and pray with them for a couple hours drinking hot tea. We were able to lead two young men to the Lord that night, who were not even from that area but happened to be traveling through the village this particular evening. How cool is our God!
We are now spending a day recouping before we head out to a village farther south for a few days.
Being praying for the remaining time we have here in Nepal and also our travels back to India and our flight from there to Amsterdam for our final ministry location.
Thanks for praying for us as a team we recently had some doors open up for us for our housing in Amsterdam which was a huge answer to prayer.
Many Blessings: the ATW team
Week 7
Hello to all,
We have been a very busy team since the last time you heard from us. Our time in Thailand concluded smoothly. We finished off the week teaching alot of english in schools and english camps, it went very well. After our time in the south we returned to Bangkok for a day of debrief. This was our mid-outreach debrief time. It came at a good time, and proved to be a great time for us as a team. It was awesome to take inventory of where we are all at and to unify us in our vision and purpose for the last four weeks of our outreach. We are at a good place as a team, we've been able to do some amazing things so far, but are very excited for what God still has in store. All of us were looking forward to India and Nepal realizing it would probably be the most stretching and hard core part of of our trip.
It has definitely lived up to the expectation so far as we started it off with a bang a 40 hour bus ride to Nepal from Delhi. It was quite the experience a miracle in itself that it all worked out smoothly. The trip started off with me catching my finger in an industrial fan (luckily it is still intact could have been bad) our taxi to the bus station had a flat before we left to be met with crazy Delhi traffic then one taxi running out of gas after being off to a late start. But we made it to our bus. The bus trip was not without some exciting highlights including one slight accident with an oil tanker followed by 2 police bribery sessions. One breakdown with a three hour wait as they replaced the water pump and many bumps in the road literally. It felt like we were in a rally car race for 40 hours on a bus, none of us were aware a bus could go that fast.
But we made at 2 am in Pokhara Nepal. Which happens to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Tomorrow we begin a 4 day trekking time heading into the Annapurna Himalayan range during monsoon season. It is going to be fun!
Be praying for our health and safety as we spend the next few days on the trail and in mountain villages.
Blessing the from the hard core ATW team
P.S. we love you all!
We have been a very busy team since the last time you heard from us. Our time in Thailand concluded smoothly. We finished off the week teaching alot of english in schools and english camps, it went very well. After our time in the south we returned to Bangkok for a day of debrief. This was our mid-outreach debrief time. It came at a good time, and proved to be a great time for us as a team. It was awesome to take inventory of where we are all at and to unify us in our vision and purpose for the last four weeks of our outreach. We are at a good place as a team, we've been able to do some amazing things so far, but are very excited for what God still has in store. All of us were looking forward to India and Nepal realizing it would probably be the most stretching and hard core part of of our trip.
It has definitely lived up to the expectation so far as we started it off with a bang a 40 hour bus ride to Nepal from Delhi. It was quite the experience a miracle in itself that it all worked out smoothly. The trip started off with me catching my finger in an industrial fan (luckily it is still intact could have been bad) our taxi to the bus station had a flat before we left to be met with crazy Delhi traffic then one taxi running out of gas after being off to a late start. But we made it to our bus. The bus trip was not without some exciting highlights including one slight accident with an oil tanker followed by 2 police bribery sessions. One breakdown with a three hour wait as they replaced the water pump and many bumps in the road literally. It felt like we were in a rally car race for 40 hours on a bus, none of us were aware a bus could go that fast.
But we made at 2 am in Pokhara Nepal. Which happens to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Tomorrow we begin a 4 day trekking time heading into the Annapurna Himalayan range during monsoon season. It is going to be fun!
Be praying for our health and safety as we spend the next few days on the trail and in mountain villages.
Blessing the from the hard core ATW team
P.S. we love you all!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
A long awaited greeting...
Hello from Phang-nga, Thailand!! (pronounced "pong-na")
It's very hot here and I'm enjoying my first Internet cafe experience of the trip because it is air-conditioned. I apologize for not be able to update you more often about our trip but access to the Internet for extended periods of time has been very limited. But it also has been refreshing to not have it as a distraction as well.
We are in the south of Thailand and are enjoying it very much. We had a second day of prison ministry this morning. The inmates were all women and they enjoyed our dramas, songs, and teaching of English very much. It was very encouraging to see many of them begin to understand who Christ was and what He means to us. We are praying that God will be reminding them of our words, especially one of the guards who was very kind to us and seemed interested in hearing what we had to say.
Thailand has been a very trying time for our team as it has been frustrating to not witness any "results" from our ministry efforts and Andrew, the talkative Canadian, had to spend about 2 days in the hospital for dehydration and stomach pains. Thankfully, God has restored him, but it was difficult to present our dramas without him and we are very thankful that he was sick for only a short time. God is faithful!!
I'm not sure what we will be doing in the upcoming days as we usually have been finding out our activities the day they happen, but we have an upcoming day off. I am looking forward to maybe visiting an area here where they filmed a James Bond film as it is supposed to be very scenic. I have enjoyed experiencing new things in the countries we have visited (I ate a cockroach about the size of my finger a few days ago...I don't recommend it).
I have posted some updates about our previous weeks below if you're interested. I am so grateful for your support and prayers. It has been pretty cool to see where your prayers have encouraged us and even paved a path for us in some dark places. I hope to keep you better updated, but I can't promise I will be able to. Well, my time is up so I must go.
Have a great day and may God reveal Himself to you in a tangible way,
Sam Blommel
It's very hot here and I'm enjoying my first Internet cafe experience of the trip because it is air-conditioned. I apologize for not be able to update you more often about our trip but access to the Internet for extended periods of time has been very limited. But it also has been refreshing to not have it as a distraction as well.
We are in the south of Thailand and are enjoying it very much. We had a second day of prison ministry this morning. The inmates were all women and they enjoyed our dramas, songs, and teaching of English very much. It was very encouraging to see many of them begin to understand who Christ was and what He means to us. We are praying that God will be reminding them of our words, especially one of the guards who was very kind to us and seemed interested in hearing what we had to say.
Thailand has been a very trying time for our team as it has been frustrating to not witness any "results" from our ministry efforts and Andrew, the talkative Canadian, had to spend about 2 days in the hospital for dehydration and stomach pains. Thankfully, God has restored him, but it was difficult to present our dramas without him and we are very thankful that he was sick for only a short time. God is faithful!!
I'm not sure what we will be doing in the upcoming days as we usually have been finding out our activities the day they happen, but we have an upcoming day off. I am looking forward to maybe visiting an area here where they filmed a James Bond film as it is supposed to be very scenic. I have enjoyed experiencing new things in the countries we have visited (I ate a cockroach about the size of my finger a few days ago...I don't recommend it).
I have posted some updates about our previous weeks below if you're interested. I am so grateful for your support and prayers. It has been pretty cool to see where your prayers have encouraged us and even paved a path for us in some dark places. I hope to keep you better updated, but I can't promise I will be able to. Well, my time is up so I must go.
Have a great day and may God reveal Himself to you in a tangible way,
Sam Blommel
Week 5
Hello friends and family,
We arrived safely into Bangkok on Tuesday morning after layovers in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. When we arrived to the base in Bangkok our team was thrilled to find out they would be sharing dorm rooms with the YWAM Denver Thailand team. It was a blessing and a treat to see them after being on the road for over a month.
The majority of our time in Bangkok was spent working with Ban Jai Diaow a ywam college ministry. We were able to do some practical things for their building like painting as well as help clean up a bocce ball court for a local church they partner with. After a few hours of hard labor we ended the workday with a competitive session of Thai Bocce ball. On one of the days the girls were able to go into a local slum, the ministry has been building relationship with and love on people.
One of the highlights of the week without a doubt was the time we were able to spend in the redlight districts of Bangkok partnering with the MST project. A ministry ywam has started focusing on the male sex tourist. We had a couple of pretty powerful nights down in an area known as Nana. It was amazing to see the Lord reach down His hand to these men in the midst of all the darkness that was around us.
Yesterday evening we ended our time in Bangkok. We took a 12 hour bus ride to the south of Thailand towards Phuket to a beautiful town called Phang Nga. We will spend the next week here working with a church plant. We will be helping them reach out to their community through evangelism, English teaching, work projects and even spending some time in a Muslim village they have been reaching out to.
Tomorrow morning we head to a prison, continue to be praying for us to press in and not let up. Also for continued health and safety we have a couple people having some "common" stomach issues (a.k.a. diarrhea).
Blessings,
the ATW team
We arrived safely into Bangkok on Tuesday morning after layovers in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. When we arrived to the base in Bangkok our team was thrilled to find out they would be sharing dorm rooms with the YWAM Denver Thailand team. It was a blessing and a treat to see them after being on the road for over a month.
The majority of our time in Bangkok was spent working with Ban Jai Diaow a ywam college ministry. We were able to do some practical things for their building like painting as well as help clean up a bocce ball court for a local church they partner with. After a few hours of hard labor we ended the workday with a competitive session of Thai Bocce ball. On one of the days the girls were able to go into a local slum, the ministry has been building relationship with and love on people.
One of the highlights of the week without a doubt was the time we were able to spend in the redlight districts of Bangkok partnering with the MST project. A ministry ywam has started focusing on the male sex tourist. We had a couple of pretty powerful nights down in an area known as Nana. It was amazing to see the Lord reach down His hand to these men in the midst of all the darkness that was around us.
Yesterday evening we ended our time in Bangkok. We took a 12 hour bus ride to the south of Thailand towards Phuket to a beautiful town called Phang Nga. We will spend the next week here working with a church plant. We will be helping them reach out to their community through evangelism, English teaching, work projects and even spending some time in a Muslim village they have been reaching out to.
Tomorrow morning we head to a prison, continue to be praying for us to press in and not let up. Also for continued health and safety we have a couple people having some "common" stomach issues (a.k.a. diarrhea).
Blessings,
the ATW team
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)