So,

This past week has had a few ups and downs.

After recently talking to Josh (team Thailand) Candi and I felt mildly discouraged in what we were ....or in this case WERN’T doing.

The team from Thailand is doing different work than we are, and so for me it was hard too see that even the little work ( to me it seems) that we are doing is STILL making a huge difference out here.

Candi and I have been doing a lot of babysitting. The kids are actually teaching us a lot of German. So far for me I love the transit system here. Our team has train passes that give us free travel basically anywhere.

On Saturday Candi,Jo, and Dave all were invited to play at a church a few hours away from here. This actually was really beneficial to me. I used the time apart from Candi, to really unwind and get some time to myself. I took a two hour walk in the snow. I didn’t have a plan for where I was headed, but i just started to walk. I ended up in this beautifully creepy cemetery. The paths were all made of cobblestone and the trees, that lined the paths, had ivy winding up them. There were these amazing boarded up red brick buildings that had a weird feeling to them.

I spend a good 2 hours just talking to God, and I really feel like right now he is straight out asking me

“How much are you willing to give me?”

After walking aimlessly down these paths I came across a HUGE stone statue. At first I thought it was Jesus, but then I thought NO....Jesus isn’t THAT butch. But then I noticed his hands and feet, they had incisions where nails had been.

I have to say it was one of the most memorable and moving experiences of my life.

As I was taking pictures of the Jesus, I noticed something on the base of the statue. Oddly enough there was a D written on the stone. Not just a plain D but a D in the font of how I draw my D’s when I spell my name. I kind of took that of a sign.

As I moved away from it, I turned back and it kinda just hit me that....Jesus is set in stone. Even if I walk 5 minutes down this path....I will turn around and he will STILL be there. He will ALWAYS be there.

I know that sounds obvious....

“Dinah you are looking at a statue...it’s not like he’s going to book it when you turn away!”

But it really was something that hit me hard. Especially when I had read Lamentations 3:22-33 THAT day

 

Lamentations 3:22-33

 

"The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

his mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh every morning.

I say to myself," the Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him!"

The Lord is good to those who depend on him,

to those who search for him.

So it is good to wait quietly

for salvation from the Lord.

and it is good for people to submit at an early age

to the yoke of his discipline:

Let them sit alone in silence

beneath the Lord's demands.

Let them lie face down in the dust,

for there may be hope at last.

Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them

and accept the insults of their enemies.

for no one is abandoned

by the Lord forever.

Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion

Because of the greatness of his unfailing love.

For he does not enjoy hurting people

or causing them sorrow.

 

Another highlight of this week was going to visit a Jewish museum downtown. Some of the history I learnt about, I will never forget in my life. The way some of these Jews were treated by Christians was...beyond words. I know “he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow” but sometimes in life...it is hard to see past the tough stuff. And I as I was recently reminded, live in the moment. God is using whatever you are experiencing RIGHT now for a reason. Use the time he’s given you to grow and mature and really examine yourself and your relationship with God.

Sometimes when I feel like my relationship with God is “sucking” I get frustrated and try to blame shift my troubles on to different things.

Romans 5:3-5

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly god LOVES us...”

Pray for patience. For yourselves, and MAYBE if you wannnnnttt for me too?

 

Xo

d

Hey hahaha sorry it has been so long.

SO in a nut shell...i am in Berlin!!! Finally. I STILL can't believe i'm here and it has almost been a week.

We are living in a church here, and if you have Candi Fender on the F-book you can see our living situation.

So far we have been doing alot of construction such as removing fiber glass and cleaning rooms and even shoveling dirt into wheelbarrows.

YEsterday we rode the train into downtown Berlin. I have to say I was amazed. It was SO beautiful at night. So much of the city has been modernized and seeing the old landmarks with metal and glass sculptures surrounding them is really amazing.

Raf wanted us to see most of the city at night, and at first i was confused. I thought the city would definitely be easier to see in the day. I'm so happy we decided to wait to see the city lights. One of the more amazing buildings was the train station. We have transit passes that allow us to travel for pretty much free, and thank god because this city is expensive. I read my bible a lot on the trains and have recently become obsessed with reading it. 

In Abbotsford we were given journals that included daily scripture to read, and so far i have been reading it for almost 2 months.  I would love to have psalm 139 memorized by the time i get home. For most people this may not be hard... unfortunately i'm not the BEST at memorization. I also would LOVE to be able to come back with a more fluent German tongue.

Our team is reading James as a group in the mornings after breakfast.

The church here still needs ALOT of work. The windows FINALLY arrived and the warm water for showers is MUCH appreciated.

We have to watch every penny we spend, so budgeting for food has been hard. We get groceries at the local "Kaiser". Our favorite German treat so far is the sparkling apple juice called Aphel Schorle. Mmmm we go through about 3 bottles a day.

anyways... i'm GOING to keep you updated. I'm sorry I haven't in the past.

talk to you soon.... whoever  you are reading this.

x

d

Germany!!

Kelsey T ( im nt gunna try and write ur last name) A NEW BLOGG!!!

hellooo...
im sorry my blogs suck and i never update them...but heres the newest blog
we had our scilent retreat as i mentioned...me and Josh cheated a bit
i went into it thinking i wouldnt get anything ou o it and that t was a waste of time. but 48 hours of no speaking can challenge you alot. We were only allowed our bibles and notebooks and pens...and i mayyyy have listend to my ipod once or twice....but i got 5key things out of it.
For me a ig thing is FAITH, i seem to lack it haha. I allways doubt him, and so when i went into the scilent retreat, i asked if he ould give me a sign. I allways hear about people asking for fire works and crazy miricles and then crazy junk appening and then..iduno its a huge faith booster for them. I wanted that. soo i was reading in matthew and Matt4:7 said " do not put thelord your god to the test"....for me that was a huge thing. Wheni am constalty asking him for a sign, i'm pretty much testing him...and i know I can't do that, God will show me himself when he wants.
I also realised through all this that I SUCK at submitting to authority...I have trouble with change, and so when they told us bout the no talk for 48 hours, i didnt even give it a chance...i automatically judged it and thought it was stupid...well i was wrong..it was kinda super sweet.
I also realised i have trouble accepting Gods GRACE. I knwo he died for my sins, but i still cant help to think im not worthy of his forgivness, how can he not need anything back from me?
as I wrote in my journal:
"How is it ook , for me, to put myself down but not others? I can't let myelf recieve love from myself, others, and god. It doesnt feel humble"

anyays....in a nut shell thats kinda what i was thinking about. there was more...but its like lame and boring personal junk. ummm thiisss week we have "AMAZING TREK" the lead people here are trying to make it this HUGE surprise adventure on Thursday....but we allready know its a hike haha. annnnd BIG NEWS we find out ( on MA bday!!) the 24th where we are going..Germany, Thialand, or Brazil..Tres fantastic. Ive made myself open to all of them because chances of getting my number 1 choie are one in three( obvisouy) sooo i shall blog about where the're shipping me off to on WEDNESDAY, only if im not raging it up out here in abby for my 18th....WHOOT?

PCE HOMBRE's
xoxox
-d

This upcoming week...

SOOOOOOO

as of this Thursday we have a silent retreat...

this means from dinner on Thursday till Saturday round 3pm us TREKers have only our bibles notepads and pens to entertain us. We can not talk, facebook, ipod it/ They have given us a mentor here at TREK and we are aloud ONE HOUR with them.

Personally i'm really exited for it, i never read my bible, so this is going to push me to read. Others are NOT so exited...

so anyways....

i shall write more later

PEACE!

First week

SO this is my first blog thing,

This first week has been mostly a bonding week for all of us TREKERS. I am in the room "peace" at the Mark centre we we all lodge. The Mark Centre reminds me of a whistler lodge of sorts. The basement holds "The Great Room" and the kitchen, you can find most of us chillen in here. I share my room with two girls named Candi and Achley. We got the handicapped bathroom, so we lucked out!! The first day we got here we had a pool party at Lori's sister's house here in Abbotsford. The house was HUGE with a baseball diamond and a soccer field, pool with a slide and diving board, and hot tub. It was the perfect opportunity to try out my new under water digital camera, i may have got a little annoying with my enthusiasm. We read the book of Mark that night, it was really helpful to read a whole chapter of the bible in one sitting, t really helps too connect the stories. We also visited a church and walked around the neighborhood to explore.

Our Whistler trip was fun, our first day we were given the task of a photo scavenger hunt. We were placed in 4 teams and given a set of different pictures to take around Whistler Village. Some of these included sleeping, bible story, birds eye view,blond moment,all of us in a taxi, most original....ex. Point were awarded on originality. Unfortunately we didn't win, and Josh's team won Candy apples from rocky mountain chocolate factory. The next day we had free time, most of us chose to shop Whistler village. Sadly for Josh the sales were too hard to pass up and he walked away with a snowboarding jacket and hoodie and a lighter wallet. My shopping group ( Racheal, Andre, Coryn, Nakita, and Josh) the decided to return to the chalet. The chalet we stayed in consisted of 5 adjoining floors with two family rooms and a kitchen. After lunch we headed to the lake with everyone who hadn't gone on a hike to Rainbow lake. A few insane people went swimming in the glacial lake, most of us chilled on the grass. After we had dinner. Today we got back to Abbotsford around 12 am.

I still feel as if I don't know everyone yet, i'm sure after 2 months with these people i will know them better than family.

Ok BYYEE!!!!