Time ticks

Dear Friends,

I have done it! I booked the plane tickets all the way

from Munich to Phuket to get on the Logos Hope Ship for 2,5 months

from Kualu Lumpur to Enteppe Uganda

and from Uganda back to Auckland New Zealand.

Wow, its reality now. I am going.

In the last two weeks I struggled with emotions of not having a job, uncertainty, insecurity and worried about what the future might hold. Today, I am so convinced; I am on the right track. I am going to Malaysia and Uganda for God's purpose.

I am one of God's daughters and HE will look after me and never forsake me. However, HE has plans for us and sometimes we need to do the first step. That's what I believe and trust in.
I know that God has a divine plan for each one of us; HE created each one of us so unique and so wonderful that he has a purpose for each of us.
I have often heard comments about God having a plan for our lives and in the past I often didn't quite grasp it. This mission experience will be life changing, I am sure, however no one ever said that it will be easy. No one ever said that there won't be difficult times or doubts, but I believe that if I put my trust in God, HE always provides.
His provisions might not be exactly how we thought, but HE will come through.

Thank you for all of you who have made a contribution for my mission trip. I know it is not easy to spare anything. Life is for most of us a bit uncertain in the job, home or even with disasters like the Christchurch earthquakes. Thank you. I feel honoured and incredible grateful.

I have another 3 weeks here in Germany to prepare my trip. Yes, I have packed my bags in NZ, however, I will need to do some more preparations for my medical kit, getting some spare batteries for my torch, writing my name in all of my clothes, shoes and I guess everything else.

Good time to do those kind of things at the moment, as it's been one of the coldest weeks I had in Germany during summer (11 degrees yesterday - 13 degrees today in Munich) brrrr.. I do trust summer will be back for a few days before I will leave.
Thank you my friends for believing in me and I do hope life is treating you very well at the moment. Loving regards also to all my friends who are on mission trips at the moment around the Mediterranean Sea and in Africa :o)

Lots of love

Barbara

Transform Conference in Italy

  the first roads build during the Roman Empire - WOW!

  Outreach in Rome - how great is our GOD

OM Transform Conference

God is amazing, about 200 young  (and a few older ones) came together to worship GOD, to receiving teaching and specific country orientations for their outreach. We were  amazed and enjoyed the UNITY we felt, coming together as Christians.  God allowed us to feel so deeply connected and in peace even though we represented about 110 countries, different languages and various cultural differences. God is amazing he brings us together in unity despite where we are from. 

I feel well equipped from those last few days in fellowship. Teaching, praying and praising filled me with knowledge and an even stronger sense of the need to reach the unreached. Teaching included for me seminar about the movement in the world of believers in the living God, cultural differences and various denominations, religions, cults… A seminar about “ Reaching Youth in Europe” changed me too. I realized how alive I feel when I talked about the need of youth work in Bavaria. During my short time in Bavaria I noticed that there are hardly any community based possibilities for young people, young adults to come together. Not really any placed to hear about Jesus, having fun while connecting without being either in sports club or going out clubbing, drinking… I was surprised to see that the petrol station seems to be a very common place to hang out. Hm, not really the most exciting place for fellowship  and learning about the values of life. I guess, without being consciously aware, I feel there is a great need to get generations in general together again. I am sure I will explore more and learn more about it on the ship, when I will be living closely with a couple of hundred youngsters. Can’t wait!

During one afternoon in Rome we had the opportunity to experience bringing hope and displaying Jesus’ love to the people of Rome. Handing out informational material, displaying a dance and a short analogy that  Jesus values us was amazing. I was even more touched while worshiping with fellow believers  Rome, that  was very special. The harvest is huge, the workers so few.

Thank you so much for making this experience possible. This meant a lot to me. I was nervous to about the idea to go onto mission and not knowing what this will include and how that would be put in reality. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to learn and get prepared for my next step – the Logos Hope Ship in Thailand and Malaysia. I am looking forward to more teaching and outreaching on the Logos Hope from mid of August onwards and will use the time from now to then to finalize my travel to Thailand and then to Africa. Some more paper work  but I am sure time will fly and soon I will be back at the airport flying out to my biggest adventure so far in my life – reaching people with the love of God – Jesus is alive and loves you. He is also your reliable friend.

Bless you all and thank you for all your support

Barbara

Start of my Mission

The Start of the journey

God’s favour is on my life. It is summer here in Germany (Bavaria). The air is filled with hundreds of fine perfumes of flourishing bushes, fresh cut grass, honey scented flowers, roses of all kinds …

The next day hold meetings with friends and sharing my plans to raise more funds for, so far my greatest adventure in life, however this time I know this is GODS’s plan.

God certainly already showed me that he is in control to keep things interesting.

My flight to Dubai included an emergency landing for a passenger which meant most of us missed the connection flights. We had the opportunity to step out into the indescribable moist and super hot air of Dubai. Wow! Anyone who has not experienced it before, it is hard to describe. Imagine you are in a sauna and someone blows the hot air of an airplane engine at you! HOT! So hot that the air is extremely hazy and one has trouble to see the big buildings along Dubai’s waterfront. 

 God blessed me with the company of an Australian Dad, who was visiting his son racing motorbikes in Germany and who was so kind to drive me to my friends place by midnight.

The next few days included visiting friends and sharing my plans to raise funds, preparing myself for the OM’s Transform Conference close to Rome, further preparations for Logos Hope and following up on Watoto.