Like Jesus

Here at DTS we're learning a lot about ourselves by reading the Bible. I have no idea who this little girl is, but I like how she thinks.

A few stories

A few stories for your enjoyment:

• This past week our team went to our first Bible study with a group of Hispanic young adults from the church we're attending. As we were introducing ourselves, they responded, "Beth?! Like 'I have to go to the bethroom?!'" No. Not like that. :)
• As I was helping one of my new 4th-grader friends at the trailer park last week, we had a conversation that went a little like this:
• girl: "Where is your dad?"
• me: "He lives in Michigan with my mom."
• girl: "Oh. You live by yourself?"
• me: "Well, not any more. I live with my friends now, but I used to live by myself."
• girl: "Weren't you scared?"
• me: "Well, sometimes."
• girl: "What did you do?"
• me: "I prayed."
• girl: "Oh."
• That went on for a while longer. It was just a neat, natural little door into cool conversations for the future. Our outreach there continues to be great. My teammates have really been digging in and just loving on those kids. The lady who is there long term has told us that they haven't had this many kids in a long, long time. Especially the older kids. She told us that we are the reason they're coming. A very encouraging thought.
• Jean's birthday is this week! We're excited to celebrate her!
• Today we were slipping and sliding as we played a rainy game of Ultimate Frisbee with a couple other teams. A soggy and enjoyable time was had by all. Though it wasn't taken today, below is picture proof of my (very limited) Ultimate skills. I'm in the navy shorts.

• Hopefully, if all goes as planned, we will be taking a group of our trailer park kids to a bowling alley on Saturday. The homework help program we are volunteering with promised them that if they were able to raise their grades or teacher comments on their report cards by "10 points" (1 point per increase [ex. C+ to B- = 1 point]), then she would reward them with a bowling trip. A lot of the kids met the challenge (awesome!), but she didn't have a way to transport them all. Well it just so happens that Team Chile's assigned vehicle is a huge, old 15-passenger van (named "Ike" with a LOT of personality). We are so excited to be meeting such practical needs there!
• This past weekend, our house held a 24-hour prayer vigil during which 1 person (we took turns) read Scripture, and 3 or more people prayed. We made it through the entire New Testament as well as the Psalms and Proverbs. I personally read 1 Corinthians 13 through Galatians 4 on my assigned hour. During this time we also participated in a "Daniel fast" - only raw fruits and vegetables, and juice. A very cool experience.

DTS is happening!

DTS (Discipleship Training School) is well underway! Here is a peek at a typical weekly schedule for Team Chile, as well as the 4 other teams at the RIC (Rosedale International Center).

• Each morning starts with breakfast at 7:30am (if you didn't decide to get up earlier to exercise), followed by an hour of quiet time/personal devotional time.
• After quiet time, a team (all 5 on a rotational basis) leads a short worship time before the morning session. Each session takes us up to lunch time, and covers a wide variety of topics. We are blessed to have great speakers from all over, coming to teach us about their topic of expertise.
• Each Wednesday over the lunch hour, our teams participate in a fasting and intercession time. These times have been particularly bonding for Team Chile so far.
• After lunch, things get a bit less consistent.

• For Team Chile:
• Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons you'll find us at a nearby trailer park, which houses a great deal of Hispanic children. We visit them after school to assist them in their homework, since their classes are taught in English, and their parents speak mostly or only Spanish.
• On Saturday evenings, we will be help the youth group at the Spanish-speaking church we are attending.
• We also coordinate "Team Prep" times which are focused on preparing us for Chile - Spanish lessons, culture study, etc.
• Every once in a while, we manage to have a little fun. :) That's a gross understatement. Our team is enjoying each other's company very much, but we do have structured fun times in our schedule as well. Last week, we took a walk to the park and played a great game of Urban Golf (golfing toward tree or picnic table holes, with tennis balls, and golf clubs).
• Tuesday is our team's turn to do all the dishes for the teams, and on Monday nights, we prepare Tuesday's breakfast. So far, that has been pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, yogurt, and fruit. Next week, we're looking forward to trying our luck with scones.
• To make sure we're in shape for all of the walking/hiking we will be doing in Chile, we also have a whole DTS recreation time (usually a rousing game of Ultimate Frisbee), 2 hours of individual exercise, and an hour of team exercise. This week, we challenged Team Nepal and Austin to a sand volleyball game. Good times were had, but I think the wind was the official winner of the game.

• By the end of the day, we're ready for our lights out time to get some sweet rest before it starts all over again.

More posts to come soon!

Orientation

It's hard to believe that my team has been here for a week already!

Here is a picture of Team Chile on day 1:

(Kirsten, Jean, myself, Clayton, and Jeffrey)

This week has been jam-packed with sessions, get-to-know-you activities, orientation to policies, good discussions and fun times. We've been learning about the book of Matthew, the leadership of David "A Tale of Three Kings"), worship, cultivating intimacy with God, and prayer.

Between our sessions, we've also had a great time just enjoying eachother. On our first day, the teams competed in the 2nd annual REACH OLYMPICS. We competed in displays of enthusiasm, team attire, a 3-legged obstacle race (Kirsten rocked it - competing 3 times!), Bible skis (the prophets of Baal), a newspaper fashion show (Clay took one for the team by allowing us to make him a Chilean dress), charades, a Fear Factor-style eating race (Jean and Jeff even put down baby food and Spam respectively), and team cheers. We are proud to report that Team Chile (CHI CHI CHI! LE LE LE! or Ch-ch-ch-CHILE! [to the tune of the ChiaPet commercials]) took home 1st place!

On Wednesday, the teams hit the streets of inner-city Columbus to complete the Prayer Challenge, in which we look for opportunities to pray for anything and everything (people we meet, places we pass by (churches, government buildings, bus stops, etc.). God placed some really great people in our path, and we were challenged in some great ways. It was a good opportunity for us to reach out to Columbus, but also to see how our team would work together in outreach. We also did a LOT of walking - a taste of things to come.

Just a few days ago, all of the staff and team leaders disguised themselves (pretty dramatically, too), and were hiding at the Easton mall. The unsuspecting REACHers were then told that we had been captured and were in need of finding. They were then told to approach us saying, "Shiver me timbers, ye land lover! Give me your number!"

Yesterday, our team met one of our Columbus outreaches for the first time. On Tuesdays and Thursdays (and maybe even Wednesdays), we will be visiting a nearby trailer park that has an 80% Hispanic population. A local church owns a trailer there, that provides after-school homework help. We will be working with the kids to help them with their homework, as well as general English skills.

Today we're helping with a fundraiser for the RIC at a local Sweetcorn Festival.

We have a busy week planned, but we're all excited about what God has in store for us.

I feel very blessed to have the team that I have been given. We are all eager to learn, and be stretched, and to see where this adventure will take us.

Hasta luego!