Hi everyone!!!!

Wow it's been a long while since I posted anything... Well.. ALOT has happened since my last post. I am no longer working at the childcare I mentioned then. I worked at a girls youth home where I worked 3rd shift as the girls had to have 24 hour care. Then after 6 months of working there, I FINALLY went on to do Youth With A Mission Dayton Discipleship Training School (YWAM Dayton DTS) to learn how to be a missionary from Sept through Feb, which included an almost 2 1/2 month outreach to India after 3 months of a lecture phase. We went to Bangalore, Goa and Ongole, India. We had skits, a hip hop dance to a Christian hip hop song (since dance is VERY much a part of their culture) got to know some people through relationships and prayed for orphans, children and adults. We went to schools, slum areas, orphanages and other churches there to encourage them.

We mostly ministered to hindus and to children who had hindu and I'm sure muslim parents, but I think the most touching thing that we did was when people asked for us to pray for healing and when people decided to follow Jesus. That happened in both churches and slum areas. It's so neat seeing the change that people get after just accepting Christ. They look so free, peaceful and happy after that. Being a part of helping someone come to Christ is such a rewarding feeling, because I know that they are accepting the TRUE freedom giver and the TRUE God that can give them true Peace and Eternal life!!!

I was able to minister to a hindu man when we were at the beach in Ongole and while he was trying to tell me about his religion, I was able to gently move the topic into talking about Christianity and what God (the real, True God) thought about him by how He loves him no matter what. I even gave the illustration about how big the ocean and the sky is, that God loves him even MORE than how big they are. I didn't lead him to the prayer of salvation, because I felt like I was just planting a seed in his life, and that God would do the rest. I did tell him, though about Jesus and what God did through Jesus for ALL of us!!! He was VERY interested in that.

An Indian guy who we helped in ministering in India told us that it's very hard for hindus to understand Jesus not just being another god (like they have in their religion, since they have temples that has a statue and pictures of Jesus in them, so it is VERY deceiving to them, because their god temples also have statues of their gods in their temples) because of that they have a hard time understanding who Jesus really is and the connection that He has with God... Him being his One and only begotten son (being born by the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit) & with (God, big "G" God) they can't not understand God not being just another god. It's confusing to them.

When I started talking about about God (Big "G" God, THE God) and I told him that... "Big letter "G" God being THE Creator of everything that he sees, he kind of got cold hearted and didn't listen. I sensed that, so I then started talking about how God even created his heart and wants a relationship with him, & how much he loves him again so much that he gave his One and Only son, Jesus to die on the cross for ALL of our sins, quoting John 3:16 to him. That is what helped him become more interested and he started listening more again. Hindus DO understand what sins are, and that is why they go to all their other gods and burn sacrifices to them for their sins to be forgiven. If they don't understand, or someone doesn't explain to them what Jesus ultimately did and who He really was (THE son of God who was the ULTIMATE sacrifice for ALL of our sins to EVERYONE), then they can't understand who Jesus really is and what He did. He was very attentive during the rest of the time that we talked as I was able to explain all that to him and to help him understand.

I was able to pray a blessing over him... by the way, the whole time I was talking to him there was a translator with me, except for when I prayed the blessing over him, that was in English. I felt bad about not having the prayer be translated afterwards, so I asked the translator if I should of had it translated, and she said in her sincere way, (I miss her, by the way...) "no it was okay" she said with an understanding smile... So that made me feel better, since it was just a prayer of blessing and for God to continue to reveal Himself to him. God knew what I said and that's what mostly matters. :) Please pray for him and ALL the people that we came in contact with in all the places we went to in India.

So, now I'm back home in Ohio, we all (the team of 11 of us) got home on Feb 11th and we had our graduation on Feb 18th, having some time to debrief and had some more time with each other after the trip before the graduation. I am now a graduate of Youth With A Missions (YWAM's) Discipleship Training School (DTS) as I've wanted and God wanted me to do for a while and I FINALLY did it!!! I AM going to go back to that after I work a little bit (for about a year or a little more) to pay off some bills. Then I'm going back to YWAM Dayton to do staff training and become a small group leader. In the meantime I am still looking for a job (another childcare job) and seeking God more in what He wants to tell me and show me. Over all, God is faithful and Good!!!

Hey everyone,
Okay, so I'm off work today... Yes I HAVE started my "new" (since I've worked there before) job, but I'm only there for 2 days of the week ... Tuesdays and Thursdays for now. I thought for sure that I had put full time on my application. I'm definitely gonna have to talk to her about that. I do need full time during the summer, just part time during the school year. I'm happy to be back. It's so fun seeing the little kids all grown up after not being there for 3 years. I think I've already mentioned that on here, but that just shows how amazed I am about how fast they grow up.

This past weekend I went to a Onething Regionals conference from IHOP (International House of Prayer) stationed  in Kanses City Missouri , but this regional confrence was at Ft. Wayne, IN and it was Amazing!!! Not quite as amazing as conferences there AT the IHOP campus, but nonetheless amazing enough... They had praise, teaching and breakout sessions. The session i went to was called "The Consuming Fire" talking about God wanting Him to be our consuming fire in everything that we do. Him  wanting our WHOLE heart and soul, of course being our own decision about if we want Him in our life that way. He can do UH MAZING things through us if we just surrender and invite him to consume our heart, soul and life in everything we do. If you want to check out their website from the Onething conference in Ft, Wayne you can go here. and see what they and IHOP in general is all about. I'll put the original IHOP (International House of Prayer) website html on here as well. Check 'em out.  You will be Totally Blessed!!! :)

http://www.ihopfw.com

http://www.ihop.org/

Okay, well I'm off for now... Hope you all have a wonderful one!!!

~Amy :)

This is my Passion.... Africa and children in Africa. Here's a taste of their language and musical culture from their famous African Children's choir. Just click on the CD photo and you'll go onto the Amazon page where you can scroll on down to hear some clips of their songs. A MUST listen to.

 Yes, they were the ones who were on American Idol for Idol Gives Back that night.  I am going to Africa for missions soon. I know I'll be going to South Africa first, just don't know exactly where there, yet. Then to Zimbabwe and Mozambiquie, maybe Mozambique first, we'll see. It's all in God's hands.