Welcome to Inside Reach
All six teams have made it safely to their o-treach
locations. The following excerpts
are from emails we have received from the teams.
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Thailand Team
Bekah (TL), Bethany, Kimberly, Janessa, Charity,
and Naomi
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The Thailand team is focusing on language study, building
strategic relationships, and is beginning to teach English in a Buddhist
school. They are also becoming involved with several local m-nistries. Bethany shares…
“Well, we have officially
been back in Samut Prakan
for a week! It seems so different than all that we have experienced in the
past few weeks, and those places seem a world away. We came back to
wonderfully familiar faces, as well as the welcomed face of Wa, who followed Tom and Eliza back from Mae Sot to live
with the Mast's in Bangkok during her summer break from school! We were so
glad to see her smiling face here!
Shortly after we returned to familiar ground we had to say goodbye to two
dear friends. Kim and Charity returned to Mae Sot to teach English at a
school there. They'll be there for three weeks and return in time to help
with the SE Asia retreat the end of April. It was hard to say goodbye to two
close teammates and a roommate so shortly after returning from host
families. Then last night we had a farewell party for the last of last
year's interns. Reyna, Efraim, and Nixson will be flying tomorrow night to return to
Nicaragua. It seems our small team here has been reduced rather quickly. I
am glad that we are not a six-month team so that we can lend our aid for four
more months!
So what will we be doing for the next four months? While Kim and Charity
are teaching in the west, Bekah will be moving in with Uphim
(the local small ch-rch voice) and helping her
with an English camp for the neighborhood kids. Naomi and Janessa will be teaching a local masters
student conversational English.
Next week is also the start of Song Krang,
which is a Thai New Year celebration. It lasts about three days. You may
see many pictures in that time of us girls drenched and powdered. It is
great fun during the hottest time of year, to go into the streets and throw
water on anyone you see (foreigners are especially fun targets!) And then
after being watered down, they throw powder on you as well...not sure of
that reasoning! Candice says it is great fun, so we will just have to take
her word on that!”
Pr-yer requests for the Thailand
team:
·
Pr-y for Kim and Charity as
they adjust to life in Mae Sot, teach English, and build relationships.
·
Pr-y for team unity while the team
is separated from each other in different parts of Thailand.
·
Pr-y for safety for the team
with the current political situation in Thailand.
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South Africa Team
Jonathan, Andrew (TL),Kalen, Karen, Meredith, and
Joseph
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The South Africa team is volunteering with a nongovernment organization
as teachers, laborers, children’s aid workers, and office personnel. They
are continuing m-nistry that began with the last REACH
team. Andrew writes…
“We just got back from Cape Town on Sunday. We were vacationing there for
the past week. I can’t say we got a lot of rest, but it was nice to see the
sites around the area.
The team is doing very well in general. We jumped back into
work today and personally I feel so good about being back here.
I am so happy with Jonny and Karen and how they have pushed
through tough job situations. Their attitude is just the best attitude to
have and they see the bigger picture. Karen was feeling somewhat lonely
because she works with people who don’t live on the site here so she only
sees them at work. Anyway, her attitude through this is amazing because she
knows she’s called to work with those kids and her co-workers that even in
some lonely times she refuses to spend any less time there. Jonny doesn’t
enjoy the teaching job but is really putting himself into it and knows that
this experience is preparing him for the future. Joseph and Kalen are still working very hard and they are happy
because about five guys who they work with who were going to be fired
because of lack of funds ended up staying around because the government
didn’t cut their funding. Meredith’s work has been getting to her because
she sometimes goes out into the community and has to deal with the terrible
situations that people are living in. For instance: one time she had to
feed a guy who hadn’t eaten for seven days and was dying of AIDs. The guy
could hardly eat the porridge. It’s those kinds of things that have made it
difficult for her to deal with the job she has. Her team is doing a lot of
training courses that she doesn’t take part in so she’s not out in the
community a lot.”
Pr-yer Requests for the South Africa Team:
- Pr-y for each team member as they work that they could be
a light to those around them.
- Pr-y for good relationships within the team.
- Pr-y for safety for the team.
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Kenya Team
Sara, Jeremy, Amanda, Zach & Allyah (TL), and Brittany
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The Kenya team is working in the desert assisting a local ch-rch planter. They are also being a light in the
nearby refugee camp. Jeremy writes…
“So this past week was the last
and busiest week we spent in Kakuma. We met with
three more families we could help with Negosh.
Being able to get to know him and work with him was a gift from G-d.
Looking back on our time there, G-d had orchestrated everything. All the
people we met and the relationships we built were just awesome and it’s sad
to say that we’ll probably never see them again.
Solo from Thika was up here and
stayed with us Friday night and Saturday morning. It was good to touch base
with him again. Before we came here we weren’t sure what was going to
happen or if it would even be that great. But we did a lot of pr-ying that G-d would open up doors for us to do m-nistry. G-d came through and answered more than just
our pr-yers. He’s awesome. We weren’t ready to
leave the camp yet. The refugee camp will be greatly missed by us all, but
we are happy to be back in Lodwar with Benson.
Saturday we headed back to Lodwar. We all forgot
how much hotter it is here and how much more we have to walk. Kakuma spoiled us. We didn’t have to walk all that far
and it wasn’t as hot. On Friday we were at a Somolian
ladies house for lunch and it turns out she served us camel meat! It was so
good. Saturday was my birthday and the team decided to sneak up on me and
dump water on me before breakfast. That water was cold. We are in Lodwar until Tuesday the 14th. That evening
we will be heading down to Thika.”
Pr-yer Requests for the Kenya Team:
- Pr-y for health for the team.
- Pr-y for the team as they leave Lodwar
that they would have good closure with the relationships they have
built.
- Pr-y for good team relationships and strong
communication.
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Israel Team
Nick, Derek (TL), Carla, Creigh, Matt,
and Laura
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The Israel team is
spending time building intentional relationships with the many travelers
seeking truth as they tour the holy land. They are also teaching
conversational English. Matt shares…
“We just got back from doing our English w-rship service! YA! The hostel is doing very good we
have the entire place booked out, and I think 31 people are here right now
eating dinner and enjoying fellowship.
The J-sus trail is being blazed this week and we are helping
out with it. Word in the Fauzi is we have a guest
going tomorrow, so Nick and I will be going tomorrow if we do not go to Golani.
This past week we
had a senior high school group from Canada stay, and it was really fun. We
played some pranks on some of the team mates and got to play poker and just
chill out and do some w-rship.
Also this past
week we have moved into a new house! We are out of our old apartment and
have spent a few days (12-hour work days) finishing and moving into the new
house. We painted the living room, kitchen, girl’s room, and Derek and my
room. We are borrowing a friend’s furniture and our living room has a couch,
love seat, and nice, big blue chair.”
Pr-yer Requests for the Israel Team:
- Pr-y that the team would be intentional in their last
few weeks in Israel.
- Pr-y for all the
relationships the team has and is making, that they could be used by
Him to speak of His love and truth.
- Pr-y for strong relationships within the team.
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Madagascar Team
Keith, Matt, Courtney, Erin (TL),
Stacey, and Ryan
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The Madagascar team has recently moved to South Africa because
of the unrest in Madagascar. They are working with a local ch-rch and orphanage in South Africa for the remainder
of their o-treach. Keith shares…
“Before leaving for Madagascar, I spent a lot of time
wondering what it would be like. Will we be doing physical work, teaching,
preaching? I really didn't know what to expect. One thing that never
crossed my mind was moving to South Africa two-thirds of the way through o-treach. Well, that being said, we are safely in South
Africa. After arriving we were taken to the organization where the original
South Africa team is working. It was awesome to see everybody on the team,
and we spent time working with them. We are staying here until Wednesday,
which is tomorrow, and then we will be moving into Johannesburg working
with a p-stor there. English is nice. Most
everybody I have encountered here speaks English. The guys have been doing
things like pulling weeds, and the girls have been helping with that and also
today they went to some poorer areas and talked with people there. I think
I have mentioned before how inadequate I felt playing soccer with people in
Madagascar. While playing soccer here in South Africa, I realized that I
felt the same way. It is still a lot of fun regardless. So tomorrow we will
head into some apartments in town, not knowing really what to expect again.
I think, even though nobody saw this change coming, G-d did. I will miss
the friends we've made in Madagascar, but I am looking forward to making
new ones here.”
Pr-yer Requests for the Madagascar
Team:
- Pr-y for the team as they adjust to life in South
Africa.
- Pr-y for good relationships to be built with locals in
South Africa.
- Pr-y for the safety and well being of the team.
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Southeast Asia Team
Andrea (TL), Justin, and Alicia
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The Southeast Asia team is learning the language and partnering
with an organization to teach English, do library work, and build
relationships with young adults. Justin writes…
“We began this week with a play at Beta M. A friend from
last year brought her drama class there at 8 o'clock. We got up a bit later
and showed up a little before 10 a.m., when the play was supposed to start.
Unfortunately the group who was still using the room was running a little
late. The play started at 1 p.m.
A new focus for us is making crafts and ‘Story-Telling’
packets for new books that we bought. Some booksellers came to the library
and we chose nine months worth of Story Telling books-36 books. On Saturday
we went to Jakarta and browsed around a market for craft supplies. I saw
more funny kinds of paper, feathery things, and felts than I ever want to
see in my life, and I left about three hours before the girls. Anyways,
we'll be looking at the books for a while and trying to match them up with
appropriate crafts for all the branch libraries.
Today we sang a song at ch-rch.
We'd been practicing for two weeks and got the final version worked out
last night. We went home from a long practice at around 11 p.m. very tired
and with sore throats. The songs went well—we sang at two services, the
high school age and the college age services (noon and 4 p.m.).”
Pr-yer Requests for the Southeast Asia
Team:
- Pr-y for creativity and ideas for the crafts.
- Pr-y for focus during the remainder of their time.
- Pr-y for love and encouragement to give to the people
they are working with and have built relationships with.
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