Israel and beyond

Once again I have been less than timely on posting things to my blog! Right now I am currently in Germany enjoying hard Brotchen, bratwurst and lots of pastries. Germans take their food seriously! I will try and sum up what has happened over the last month as DTS has ended and aftertravel began. After Uganda my team went to Dahab Egypt for team debrief. Relaxing by the blue green waters of the red sea was just what we needed after 2 1/2 months of outreach. The conclusion of our outreach was a good one with all of us leaving with good memories and all of us had grown in our identity in God. The last few days with my team were really good and also sad realizing that this time that had made us so close was ending. In a few hours we would meet up with the other 34 members of our school and disperse amongst them. A real highlight of debrief was that another team was at the same place and my 2 good friends Melanie and Grace were on that team so I got to see them a little earlier! I didn't realize how much I had missed them until I saw them again. On the 2nd of August we made it to Israel no problem with the border thank God! We arrived in the old city of Jerusalem and met up with ther rest of our school! To be honest, I was really overwhelmed by everyone when I had been used to us 9! Over the next 12 days we toured Jerusalem. We saw the garden tomb and the Holy Sepluchure 2 places where they believe Jesus died and was buried. I personally believe it was the garden tomb but ultimately it doesn't matter, it happend regardless of where! It was amazing, sureal and incredible to see all the Holy sites, where Jesus actually was. We went to the Mount of Olives, Mount of the Beatitudes (where 5 others and I recited the sermon on the mount by memory) , saw capernum where Jesus spent a lot of His ministry, some were baptized in the sea of Gallilee, and on the 13th of August we graduated on the Mount of Olives where Jesus gave the great commission to the disciples! Wow. It was very interesting to be in Jerusalem. The tension between the muslims and the Jews is palpable at times but I never felt unsafe. Once we went into a muslim shop and he just randomly started saying hateful things about the jews. It was out of the blue and I was really shaken up by some of the hatred from both sides. Neither side will give in so there will never really be peace until Jesus comes again. Melanie, Grace and I stayed for the wedding of 2 of our classmates and then we headed to egypt to see a friend. Just a forewarning, don't ever travel during ramadon!! All of the muslims are not allowed to eat or drink during the day yet they go about their normal business! They are more angry and prone to violence during this month and we decided to travel into a muslim nation! We got to the border of Isreal fine but ended up staying in Eilat for the night because we couldn't get a visa for Egypt. The next day we got through the border then caught a van ride to Cairo. Unfortunately, our driver was muslim so he was fasting. He was driving like a maniac and finally had to pull over for food because he was falling asleep! Thankfully God was watching out for us because we arrived in Cairo in one piece. The spiritual atmosphere of Egypt is heavy with a mosk on every corner and hearing calls for prayer 5 times a day and readings from the koran in KFC! you can't get away from it! We were in Egypt for 5 days then on the 28th we headed to Rome, Italy! It was such a nice change to be in a western nation and instead of mosks there were churches on every corner! We did all the touristy things like the colloseum and the vatican and just enjoyed relaxing. Venice was amazing also. No cars in the city! That was so nice! On the 7th of Sept we headed to Germany: Frankfurt, Munich, Dresden and Hamburg. All to stay with friend we met from Mercy Ships! We have only had to spend one night in a hostel out of 10! Much easier on the pocket book! Tomorrow we leave for Ireland which has been a dream come true for me! If only I wasn't so tired of traveling! A week in Dublin and then home!! I will offically be home the 27th of September and I look forward to seeing all of you and telling you in person all I have expirienced in the last 7 months and 18 days since leaving home. Please pray for travel mercies for my friends and I. God Bless!

Uganda

So I am sorry that this is so late! Thank you for being interested in what I am doing! So Uganda! We arrived on the 12th in Entebbe. It felt a little warmer than South Africa but not as much as we were expecting! We were picked up by youth working with African Renewal Ministries and driven to Gabba a neighborhood outside of Kampala the capital city. We stayed in a beautiful guesthouse all to ourselves and had our own chef! Flo actually went to school to be a chef and wants to open her own cooking school! Needless to say we felt really spoiled! The next day however, we left for a little village called Bugono about 5 hours drive away. Now this was the Africa I was picturing! Huts with grass roofs, no running water, women carrying things on their heads, and 50 children swarming around us when we got there. We had about 15 of the local youth from Gaba come with us to the village for about 6 days. We slept in the church, had crusades( evangelistic programs) every night, went door to door, prayed for healing, did programs in schools, and discipled the local church. The youth that went with us are amazing! They have such a passion and zeal for God and to see everyone saved! These were people our own age taking a risk for God. It was awesome to be a part of it. While we went door to door it was humbling because many people had never heard the gospel and to be able to share that with them was amazing. Hundreds of people came to Christ through the door to door ministry and the crusades. Alot of people listened just because we were white and had come all the way around the world just to share that God loves them. It was so cool! Many people also recieved healing while we were there also. Even while I am typing these things I don't want to be fixated on the miraculous but just on how good God is! We were really convicted as a group to continually seek God's face and not His hand. Even if I never see another healing or other signs, I will be satisfied because I am focused on God's face and just loving Him. We came back to Gaba tired but amazed at how God had used us. We spend the next 4 days in Kampala going to slums, praying and handing out food to people, and sharing the gospel. It was really nice to meet their physical needs as well as spritual. The last part of our time in Uganda was spent with Bethany village. This is a Christian children's group home that also provides sponsorship for these children. There are about 180 children in 12 different homes. Each home has a "mother" and they do devotions every night. We were able to be a part of that. During the day we ministered to the kids encouraging them and praying for them. It was a special time. Some of the children's sponsors had to drop them due to extenuating circumstances. If you feel lead to sponsor a child through African Renewal Ministries, I can personally vouch for them!! We spend those 4 days just loving on those kids they are incredible! Also while I was there I vistied the clinic where one nurse takes care of 700 people! So who knows, I may find myself back there helping her out any way I can. God willing! That is Uganda in a nutshell. On the 29th we left uganda for egypt for team debrif and had a wonderful 3 days relaxing in Dahab by the red sea. It was gorgeous!
Prayer points:
-Bethany village and all the children there, also that they would recieve the nurse they are praying for
- Bugono village: that the new Christains there would have followup and discipling; that God would send people to plant churches in those villages that many have reiceved Christ
-For the youth at Gaba community church that their faith would grow and continue to be an impact for their community and country
God Bless!

South Africa!

Hello from the beautiful beaches of Cape Town South Africa! As I am writing this my team is preparing to leave the beautiful city of Muizenburg. No more team meetings on the roof where we can watch the waves of the indian ocean, no more drinking water out of the tap, no more western toilets and we will no longer be surrounded by 100 other ywamers at the base. Sad day! We have been VERY spoiled here with being able to flush toliet paper and having hamburgers and all the other western conviences! I have to keep reminding myself I am still on outreach. We arrived on the 26th after being in a jeep, 4 planes and 5 airports! Boy were we tired! We stayed at the YWAM base in Muizenburg which is a township of Capetown for 2 whole weeks. The longest we had been in one place was 10days. It is so exciting to be able to unpack for awhile. We worked with an organization called Catalyst 9 that stemmed from Mega Cities from Perth, Austrailia. 4 cities are chosen every year to be impacted with ywam teams and this year Capetown is one of them. The world cup is going to be held here in 2010 and ywam is trying to coordinate a huge outreach as 4 million people from all over the world flood South Africa. It is really cool because African South Africans can't go all over the world but now the world is coming to them. It is a huge opportunity to reach people for Christ! Who knows maybe I will be back here exactly a year from now! Over the next 3 months 34 ywam teams will be coming and partering with local churches to disciple and motivate them to catch the vision for 2010 and reach the people around them. My team worked with 2 different churches over our 2 weeks. Both different with different focuses and mostly "colored"(it is an ethnic term here and not offensive: a mix of the black african and the Dutch that settled here)/Black African. We lead their church services, prayer walked, did door to door evanglelism, discipled youth, and just got to know the people in their congregations. It was really good, challenging, and exciting. It is fun when the people catch the vision for finishing the great commission! We are leaving today for Uganda where it will be less comfortable and probably more intense. We will be working with African Renewal Ministries in a village discipling youth and getting to know people there. I am almost positive we won't have internet! So this may be the last post until Israel! Thanks so much for the prayers! I love you all!
Prayer points:
For the 2 churches we worked with Shiquina ministries and New Hope Church
Pastor Collin and Pastor Josi
The youth of New Hope- that they would be a powerhouse for God
The drug problem- it is HUGE
Travle mercies for my team and that the soil would be ready in Uganda

India!

Well it looks like I will be doing an update for every country. Sorry it is so spiradic but between the power outages, ministry and having to pay for internet, It just doesn't get done. so India...Well we arrived in Kolkata on the early morning hours of the 4th. As soon as we stepped out of the airport a lot of us felt a heaviness that wasn't just the humidity! So picture this, 9 exhausted sweaty white people trying to get taxi's while hanging on for dear life to their luggage so they don't have to pay someone for helping. All of this while 20 other indians with nothing else to do just stand and stare at you. Not a great first impression. We finally got to our place in one piece. We had to split up and some of us got to have A/C and others didn't. Nice. We had to stay in Kolkata an extra day due to unavalability of train tickets. It turned out to be a good thing. we saw some other YWAM teams at the Mother Teresa house and we got to encourage and pray for them. The train ride up to siligry was a fun expirience. We were late getting our seats so we were running through the train with our HUGE backpacks and hitting everyone along the way! It was an overnight train so we had beds, we took turns watching our bags and sleeping. We finally made it to Kalimpong where we found out the next day we would leave and do a mini DTS near the border of Bhutan! What?! The students became the teachers! It turned out to be an amazing 4 days. We taught lectures for the first 2 days and then had an outreach day. During this time we saw at least 75 people be healed through our nightly programs and open air. The deaf heard, the blind saw, it was amazing that He used us in this way. Once we got back to Kalimpong we were exhausted but excited about what He is doing in a small village. Oh, side note, we also got to step into Bhutan where it costs 200/day to get in and we took pictures! The rest of our time in Kalimpong constisted of rest, doing a cultural show, and taking part in their DTS graduation. On the 14th we left to go to Darjeeling. We stayed in a lovely apartment and some of the things we did were; praying over the city, meeting and spending time with locals, teaching "moral values" at a drug rehab, doing childrens programs, praying at buddist and hindu temples, ect. It was an amazing week. Now we have our "vacation" for a couple days and them we head to Cape town, south africa. we should be there by this next saturday. It is nice that one of our school leaders Will Rosenburg is here with us for a few days. He is an encouragement to us and he also brings news of other teams. I hope this filled you in a little. It is hard to put 2 weeks of outreach in one post!
prayer points: continued health of our team
-travel mercies
- that the seeds we planted here would be watered and harvested
- helen- a woman that has been hanging out with our team, she isn't a christian, but she is lovely-that she sees that she can have life abundantly.
- the ywam team here and the local nepalis close with them specifically, anup and joseph
-that the men the the drug rehab program realize where their hope lies
thanks!

Team Blog

Hey! If you would like to know more about what we are doing, here is the team blog which will probably be updated more often than mine! Love you all!!
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/erincastillo/4/tpod.html

Thailand!!

Sawadee Kah! Hello fromThailand! So we finally have internet after 10 days. Yeah! I will give you a brief update on how things went. We arrived in Bangkok on the 17th of May and stayed at the YWAM base for a couple nights. During this time we explored Bangkok and had orientation. Then we took the night bus up to Chang mai where we stayed at another YWAM base called the Lighthouse that works with prostitutes in the red light district. We were able to visit the redlight district but we did not do any ministry at the time. The next morning we headed out to the mountains! We arrived in Musagee last thursday after a 6 hour tuk tuk ride (this is a pick-up truck that has a covered bed with benches). We met our translators Tei Tei and Tanin. The girls stayed in a house and the boys stayed in a room in a house with some of the school boys. This place is a center for kids to go to school in a Christian atmosphere. Some of the kids are orphans, some are abandoned and others just don't have a school near where they live. Tei Tei is the wonderful Christian woman that runs the center and God has blessed her ministry abundantly! These kids are well fed both physically and spiritually. Tanin is the young man in charge of the children. He is in charge of the nightly worship/teaching sessions and he is so good with the kids. When I told him that, he just said, "I love them." Simple as that. He is 23 and loves God passionately. He reminds me of David, a man after God's own heart. We stayed in Musagee for 10 days taking over the worship/teaching sessions every night, visiting schools, working in the rice fields, planting trees and peanuts, teaching english, praying for the sick and generally just being with the kids. Thai children are so beautiful and amazing! They will make you cry when you hear them sing because they worship with their whole heart. It is incredible. It didn't matter that they didn't speak the same language when they sang, they helped me worship God. It was a relaxing , fulfilling, amazing week and it was incredibly hard to say goodbye. The children did a program for us last night and thanked us for coming. It must be so hard for them to have people coming and going from their life. There were many tears on both sides as they said "I love you" and "God bless you" in broken english. Thank goodness hugs and smiles don't need translation! Now we are back in "civilization" and i want to go back to the mountains! Tonight we take the night bus to Bangkok and then fly to Kolkata, India on Wednesday. In India we will be working in Kalompong and Darjeeling for a week respectively.
Prayer points:
-Musagee village-for the leaders Tei Tei and Tanin that they will bless the kids' lives
-Travel -We will be traveling ALOT in India, pray that everything goes smoothly
-Spiritual protection- India is pretty dark spiritually, pray for the armor of God over our team and over any spiritual attacks
-Health- Everyone has been pretty healthy but Erin is struggling with stomach issues and fever and I have a cold.
- Those we will meet in India- softening of hearts
In Chirst,
Alison

Well I am off!

In a little less than 15hrs at 5am tomorrow I will be leaving my home away from home, Oxford, and leaving for Thailand!! It is crazy! I am feeling a little overwhelmed but very excited about starting outreach and giving away what I have learned. This has been an amazing 3 months and I can't wait to see what God has in store for my outreach team. Oh by the way all of us in our class are going on outreach! The money came in by the grace of God!! So cool. I covet your prayers as I and my fellow classmates begin this journey for the next three months. I am not sure when I will have time or access to keep up my blog but I will try to as much as possible. I love you all and thank you so much for your support!