Egypt thus far

Totally just trying to absorb at this point but let's relay as much as possible. Right now I'm sitting on the roof of our hostel, tucked in a corner that has pillows to rest on a shade to hide under. The flies are all over me and the filth of the city is something you just have to look past. The sky is smoggy and clean is a word left sunken at the bottom of the Nile. Having a few moments to look back on the first few hours of Cairo, makes me want to rest my eyes and catch up on the sleep I lost but I won't. Even though I'm super tired, my body has adjusted pretty well the the 24 hour time change. We were so blessed on the plane over there to have some leg room seats. The 10 hour ride to Amsterdam was a little rough but this 4 hours ride from Amsterdam to Egypt was simple. I actually slept and felt semi rested when we got into Egypt. Let's just be honest I was so tired on the plane rides that I'm pretty sure I once said, "man I really like this food". So being well rested is a loose term I will use, probably throughout this trip. Well there we were getting of the plane. I had watched our flight track all the way - passing under and over countries I've dreamed about going and I couldn't fathom that I was so close to them. Once we landed and it was time to step foot in Africa the reality started to set in. I honestly didn't feel like I was in another country when I was in Amsterdam but now that I'm here, I am for sure far from home. We have one bag lost in transit and it just so happens to be one of the donation bags under my name. So with that came a little hold up at the airport but nothing big and we are just praying it will show up before we leave Cairo. Once we finally got our bags loaded and found the hostel. Which was a funny time finding because they took the sign down, but luckily Robert is well - Robert and remembered where it was. The hostel is so epic. It is called the Dahab Hostel and it's seriously epic. I will for sure take some photos and try to upload them (the uploading process is proving to be an issue with the shotty connection we have here). We are on the seventh floor and the elevator that takes you there is for sure the oldest elevator I've ever step foot on, or even seen working. So with the time being around 5:00 a.m., we were all pretty stoked on finding a bed. The shower... ha the "shower" was what we now call -"Egyptian water torture". It was refreshingly freezing cold and humorously dripping, to the point it was a fill your hands and splash sort of shower. We all rested for about three hours and than called it good and headed out for more adventure. We fell asleep as the sun was rising and mask was being called out - what a lullaby :) This morning we went to a corner shop and had some tea and felalfel for breakfast. It was a funny little shop and well waking this morning to what Egypt really looks like was an experience. The smog was so heavy, you felt more as if your eyes were hazy than the sky. The city is packed with tall buildings, cars every where, stray cats, and odd stores. The architecture is mind boggling and the history here is beyond what I can imagine. Just walking around the town you totally get lost in your surroundings. The tea shops are so fun, one the tea is amazing and two the people are just so fun to talk to (mainly because they don't understand you and they look at you like "oh you silly American") After our tea time as a team and finally meeting up with Sam and Viktor it was "Middle East Team" launch! We went back to the hostel, grabbed a few things, dropped off cameras and headed out to the Museum. We went to the Egypt Museum -- yeah that's right... the Egypt Museum. It was amazing. I could do a whole new blog post about how crazy it was to walk around and see the things I've read and studied about in school. The crazy thing about this place was the lack of security, I seriously touched tombs, statues, and other old what nots. I mean think about it. We saw all of king Tuts stuff and had a private tour around the whole place. Our tour guide was amazing and we even got to talk a little "bible" with him. It was interesting to here all he had to say and than he was convinced we were Israeli, which was a funny conversation. After the tour we headed for lunch. But first we stopped by to see the Nile. Yup that's right I went to go see the Nile and yes it's a dirty as you would imagine. After that it was lunch...guess what it was Felafal again :) We had tea (well I chose to drink some coffee) again and sat and chilled out from our super long tour. The best thing about today was the human frogger we played to cross the streets. It was straight up crazy. Cars never stopping, you just had to run and pray that you ran fast enough across the four lanes of honking cars. Well and than that brings us back to now, sitting here with flies covering my body, chatting with Viktor, and soaking in this new experience. This time here is so about relationships with those we meet and I'm stoked to have some shotty tea places to sit at and chat with the owners, which was what we did today. Tonight we are going to go to the Bazaar and see the Egyptian night life as well as meet up with a friend of STN's from prior years. Super stoked.

That's a super quick update on the first few hours in Egypt. I'm excited to have more time to meet those we see, get to know them better and be able to share with you guys their stories and needs. Pray for the hearts of those we get to befriend.

I praise God that our team is so solid. We are having a blast together and I'm crazy stoked to get to know these hearts better. Egypt so far is blowing my mind and I'm simply trying to process it all. I can see already how this experience is going to taint my ability to ever stop traveling, learning, seeing, and being across the nations.

Amsterdam

Well okay here is going to be the issue at hand. I want to blog and update but I usually end up writing in my journal first and that's no fun writing the same thing twice and vise versa if I blog first. So hmm we'll see how that works itself out. So Amsterdam.... (journal entry)

Well Amsterdam came and went pretty fast and now we are on our way to Cairo. We had a blast playing tourist, but I guess we weren't playing because well we were tourists. We went into a "coffee" shop and had an interesting time seeing the Amsterdam scene. We hit up this place called Mannican Piss - yes you read it right. It was a fry place that sold fries with ketchup and mayo on top. Sick I know but we had to - it was a cultural must they say. The logo was complete with a little boy peeing too - it was pretty classic. We walked the town, the canals and the fun stores. We saw the red light district and bought a few souvenirs. Oh we found an epic book place where I grabbed a "dummy" book that had a few poems in the first few pages (in dutch) and the rest were blank - aka the best journal I could dream of. We hit up another coffee shop and have some more "legit" coffee. The train ride was uber fun and the delirium of traveling for days with no sleep started to set in. Re and I would laugh about nothing for ever. We continued to dance across the nation (literally -- wait for the video at the end of the trip). It was a fun experience, the architecture was amazing, the weather was beautiful, the people were a kick and the culture totally something I've never experienced. The exchange rate was about .69 euros to a US $1, so things got spendy quick. I'm still pretty suck so I spent more money on cold meds than I would have wanted but it was beyond needed. I got to skype my Papa today, which was totally worth the extra euros.

Well so that was my journal entry that now I re-read it sounds so not personal. God did some serious work on the leg of our trip and the anticipation of more people we are going to meet gets me super giddy. We have met some awesome people and had some epic conversations, especially on the plane rides. God has opened up some great opportunities to poor into our fellow travelers.

As super quick update

So I have no time really... the net is super spendy here. But here is an update I wrote on the plane the other day.

Ha already we are loaded with choke stories. We are all now checked in and awaiting to board with our Starbucks in hand and giddy smiles pasted. When we were loading up the bags to the weigh them, there weren’t too many hassles with the bags - just a few adjustments here and there with the weight. We were super blessed with the ladies being okay with a few 50+ bags and almost all of us had no hiccups, all but Renee. Renee got set with this lady, Ilene, oh man was she a character. Ilene was totally crazed and out of her mind. She was having issues letting our bags go all the way to Cairo because of our 13 hour lay over in Amsterdam she didn’t want to let us go without checking in our bags again. She was dead set on the fact that if we change countries we have to take a new responsibility over our bags. Ilene was so “excited” (she kept apologizing for being excited), even though in all reality she was super frazzled and excited would not be the word I would describe. Any ways she was pushing buttons, asking people, breathing heavy and totally not knowing what to do. She finally decided to let our bags go through without a stop in Amsterdam. Renee was the only one that really got held up with a crazy checker. After the bag issue got done, it was on the board issue. I’m sure Renee could relay a bit more about how this lady truly was, since we were all in and out and she had to deal the whole time. With the whole board issue she wanted to charge us $400 for our boards, due to the fact that we had two boards in one bag. And let me tell you prayer works. She was so set on charging us this amount and Renee was so good at dealing with her. She just killed her with Re kindness and she finally snapped. We all were praying for God to work a miracle and have us only charged the minimum $200. It was a long shot because she was certainly dead set on asking her supervisor for every decision. Well yes prayer works and she charged us only $200. Now we are all just lying low laughing at all the stories we already have and that right there - Ilene that story is just #1 of so many more. Thanks to Kristen and Chris for walking us through the logistics of all the check in. There is no way that things would have gone as smoothly without them. Until next time.

So that's all for now. More pics and stories to come. Especially from Amsterdam. I'll wait until I find cheaper net or free net.. hoping!

God is doing great things and working miracles already. Pray we are all healthy. Robert and I have a pretty horrid cold right now.

Love. The Middle East Team!

As we prepare

Man I wish I had time to unpack all of my photo gear and upload the images of the bags we are packing for donations. We have so many bags, so much clothes, tons of toys and blessings of books and DVD's. It has been a crazy preparation for this trip and I'm so stoked to head out on this adventure. We fly out at 11:30 p.m. and from there land in San Fran than to Amsterdam for a 13 hour lay over (FUN!). From there we head straight to Cairo. God has totally rocked my heart these past days and I can't wait to see how crazed this Middle East trip will be. Today we had a time where the whole crew of STN got to pray over us and just lay hands on us in preparation for our trip. It was so powerful and amazing to have such support and love getting us ready for this trip. Leaving is so bitter sweet. Bitter because I am the first of the crew to leave the interns and leaving 20 of my fellow interns will bring so much sadness in the absence of knowing they will all soon be spread to the corners of the world. It breaks my heart to know that I'm not going to see them when I return from this trip but I'm stoked to see how God carries them through the challenges going home will bring. So here we go -- next post will be when we are full fledged into the trip.

Please pray for us as we travel. Pray for protection over our team, both in physically and spiritually. Pray for devine appointments and amazing stories. Pray for our hearts to be molded as well as those we are to meet. Pray that God blazes a trail for us and we have the steps to follow.

The Team
Jazz
Emily
Renee
Julie
Sam
Robert
Viktor
Jeff

1:30 and I can't seem to close my eyes

This last week has been a week of craziness. There has been so much change, so much worry, doubt, encouragement, challenges, breakthroughs, breakdowns -- you name it's been there. I have exactly one week until the Middle East trip and the Lord is working in my heart each and every moment in preparation of this trip. The preparation I talk about has nothing to do with packing, sight seeing, traveling expectations of fears -- it has everything to do with my character and how and what needs to be molded to be more like Christ. God has shown me corners of my heart I have never addressed and I thank him for those trials and tests. It's so tough but I'm humbled by the ways he is showing me the dirt in my life.

I have stepped out on a limb and chosen to stay at STN for another year after Christmas. I am so stoked to see my family for Christmas but leaving them for a year will be tough. I'm crazy with thinking I can hold the responsibility for next year on my shoulders and today has been a day of complete surrender of all doubt I have. As I study for some tests we have tomorrow, I seem to realize I'm studying exactly the way to pray about my struggles. For the enemy works in ways of doubt. Doubting God -- his word, his power, his calling on my life and that is exactly what my heart is wrestling. Wrestling my motives, my passions, desires, and humility. Though this week has crushed me - this day has brought the start of restoration for I have come to realize that passions, desires and talents God puts in my heart are there because he has made me to be fearfully and wonderfully made. For I know if I delight in him he will give me the desires of my heart, so no longer will I doubt rather I will trust. Trust his word, his power, and his calling on my life. So tonight I pray that I am captivated by that trust and live in the light of that promise. 

As I look back

As I look back on my blog posts and see how horrible I have been the last month. The first month I was here I blogged just about every day and October brought a few and November is just as sad. I'm sorry for the lack of blogging. I think about why that is and I come to this conclusion - I don't have one. I think that last month or so my mind has been so captivated and my heart so swollen with love that I can't seem to sit down and write it down for I know if I do I might miss out on something else. But don't let that trick you into thinking that God is doing any less in my life than he was the first month I was here. If anything I would say it's a sign that he is doing more. We had an art show last week for the kids... oh my was I blown away with the impact that had on the community.  The Bar was packed out ... I mean packed out with people all night.

 

Last week's surf outreach was the best outreach yet and the kids are starting to trust us as more than just leaders and rather a friend. Our Feeding The Hungry outreach this past Thursday was amazing, I bonded with the Aunties and had some of the best conversations with fellow STN'ers.

 

I'm also at the point where I have 11 days until I will never see some of these faces and again and sitting down to stair at my computer means that I am not spending time with those who have changed me life during this internship. God has shown my so much of how a true community lives for Christ and the 60 people that live on this property continue to blow my mind with the selflessness they have. In 11 days I not only leave those in my internship, I leave one of my best friends Tiff and her family. Her and her husband Cody + her two little beautiful boys move to Sri Lanka to follow the calling God has on their life. I can't imagine being here without Tiff but I know God is doing some amazing things in their life and has epic plans for them in Sri Lanka. This post is not only a odd update of where my heart is but a commitment that I will be better from now on to include more of what my life consists of.

Sorry for the delay....

Before I even start to type anything, I let out a big sigh. I question at first why? At what that sigh was saying and I think it's just a sigh of relief to finally write a post about this and a sigh of understanding that this post opens the gates to a lot more letters to write and trust to have in the Lord's provisions. So within the last few weeks I have totally been at peace with the way the next year is going to unfold. It's already November and in 11 days I leave for the Middle East. The trip to Moloka'i was amazing and totally rocked my world and I'm so ready for another outreach to rock me even harder. I've been so stoked for the Middle East trip for months now and the one and only time I doubted whether the Lord had blessed me with this trip or I had selfishly wanted to travel and picked this trip for myself the Lord pushed those doubts aside. I was sitting on the bus on the way to the beach and while discussing with other STN'ers about the upcoming trip, I was held back by thinking for the first time my motives for the trip. The minute I doubted someone tapped my on the shoulder. Miss did you just say you are going to Israel? I was sort of taken back - we are on the bus in Oahu and some lady is asking me about Israel... she later tells me that she lives in Israel (specifically in a town we will be spending time in)  and wants me to make sure I find her when I'm passing through. It was just so cool how for that one moment that I doubted where my heart was within the Middle East this lady just totally eased that with a total divine appointment on the bus - it was great. That was the only and last time I ever thought twice about this amazing trip I'm going to be blessed to go on.

Now a little fast forward to where my heart is now. Within the last few weeks I have been overwhelmed with the decision to follow the path the Lord has provided. It has definitely not been a path easy to choose, or a path I would have ever expected but non the less the direction the Lord is leading me. During my time here at Surfing The Nations my life has been radically changed. I have had been blessed with not only an epic family(ohana) here on property but also been totally amazed by the town I live in. The community here is so mind blowing. The outreaches that we have each week have allowed us to dive deeper within our friendships with the community. I have been overwhelmed with joy the amount I get when we are doing our outreaches and the Lord has totally taken my passions and talents and put them to use here. Just yesterday we had our surf outreach and the kids are learning so quick. This outreach goes on every week and it's pretty amazing to see the kids start to open up and trust. They are all at risk youth and are all pretty much under the age of 14. It's amazing to see how God has used a passion of mine (surfing), a job of mine (teaching), and the heart I have for children to put me in a position to be involved in this specific outreach of ours. This is one of the many outreaches we have been involved in and each week it changes and grows. Today we have the Feeding The Hungry outreach and I know I've posted a lot about that, so hopefully you have gotten the image of love and grace and total blessings. So this new path I talk about, the tough choice to make I'm addressing is the fact that I have decided to stay. Deciding to stay was super hard and a choice I know was right but it doesn't excuse for the fact it will continue to be hard. My stay is a minimum of one year and within that one year I will doing a program called SLS (Surfers Leadership School). The rest of the nine months will be filled with finding where the Lord draws my heart and where there is a need to be met at Surfing The Nations. My heart tells me to go - go - go. I hope to find myself in Sri Lanka for a good amount of time, as well as Indo and Bangladesh. I know this next year will bring so much joy but with coming a full time missionary, comes the stress of not having control. Join me as I pray for provisions to allow me to stay as well as the strength and endurance I will need this next year. Thanks to all of you guys who follow my blog and keep updated on what is going on. Your thoughts and prayers are felt.

Stay tuned for more!