106 days!

In approximately 106 days I will be back in Stafford VIRGINIA AMERICA!!!!! I am SUPER excited!

I will give you a break down of whats happening from now until May.

Today is Wednesday, 16 January and the school and myself are graduating in TWO DAYS! I graduate from the leadership training and our twenty students are graduating from the 6 month Discipleship training school. So that's Friday!

After Friday we have to sick around for two weeks to close off the school with paper work and HEAPS of scanning! (pray for patience:}) After that I will be helping around the centre on a logistical position. That involves hospitality, community outreach, kitchen work, and logistical work. I will be helping with this until early April.

I will fly to the states for my roommate's wedding and then I fly home in early MAY!!!!

God has taught me so much over these 18 months. I need to write more specifically what he has done but I am very tired and should go to bed. I am hoping to spend a few days alone with the Lord processing all the things that have happened and how blessed I am.

Things you could pray for:
Students following after God with their whole hearts as they go home.
A place to spend time with God alone.
A plane ticket home.
Logistical wrap up.
Future plans in mission's!


I love you all, thank you for your support and encouragement.

Shannon
671 Samford Road
Mitchelton, QLD 4053
AUSTRALIA

Illustrations to life.

Ambo=wow

I'm back in Brisbane after SIXish weeks in INDIA!

I will break up the outreach by weeks...hopefully adding pictures at the end!

WEEK ONE: 19-25 November 2012 Location: Darjeeling, India 
Monday-wednesday we were travelling...which consisted of three planes and a 12 hour train ride. We arrived in Darjeeling India on the 21st. We had our first cup of chai and fell in love! We finally went to bed after 4 days of intense travel and then we had orientation. We got orientated to the culture and the town by going on a "scavenger hunt". We also got taken to the markets by some of the local DTS staff and the girls bought kurtas! We went to church and experienced our first 4 hour church service! It was so cool. The pastor had all of the children stand by their parents and had their parents bless them and dedicate them to Christ. And then he called up all of the couples that had gotten married when they were hindu but had since become Christian so that he could pray blessing over them! It was so cool to see such a powerful service the first Sunday!

WEEK TWO: 26 November -2 December 2012 Location: Makra Pera (4 hours south/east of Darj) {plains village}
We left of the Tuesday of this week to go to a village. We arrived at night time after a very cramped 2.5 bus ride! We were greeted by a crowd of small children saying "praise the Lord". We were shown to our hosts' home and quickly served tea and a delicious meal! The next morning while I was having a quiet time I met my best friend...her name is Ankita and she's three! We were best pals and she drew in my journal as I read my bible EVERY MORNING! She was a little spunky and once stole my bible and RAN AWAY! I had to chase after her and then another time she stole my shoe, hid it, then came laughing at me! Our translator had to ask her to get it for me! It was one of the best moments of my life. haha. Another personal highlight during this week was....I got to MILK A COW!!!! IN INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!! I wasn't the best at it, but I've wanted to do this for YEARS and I FINALLY got to!!! I still get super excited about it.

The ministry that we were involved with in this village were: kids ministry (ALL THE TIME), prayer services, house visits, house fellowship, built a toilet, and healing!
Some of the ministry highlights is a hindu lady came to the house we were staying at and she wanted us to pray for her sister. Her sister lived a few hours away and was about to go into surgery for cancer in her stomach...and she was pregnant. We prayed for her and the lady left. A few hours later the woman comes RUNNING to the house with a HUGE smile on her face...she went and found someone who spoke a little english and told me through this man that her sister was completely healed and didn't need to surgery and that the baby had been born and she was healthy! This lady left with a smile beaming off her face! She didn't verbalise her desire for a Saviour but seeds were planted!!!

Another time was when we went to pray for a paralytic man. He lived in a little hut that was built up off the ground because of elephants. We couldn't go inside because of how the house was built so some people carried the man onto the porch and we laid hands on him from the ground. He was SCREAMING and crying with the amount of pain he was in. He had been fine a few years back then got into an accident...(he was hindu) then Christians prayed for him and he was healed...then he started persecuting christians and he became paralysed again. As a team we prayed into forgiveness and repentance and the pain in his arm started going away. He couldn't walk that day but a few days later we found out that he had gone to the bathroom by himself! Which is down the stairs and outside!!!!!

On the Sunday we ran the sunday school and preached the sermon. We taught the kids a memory verse with actions and the song "I'm in the Lord's army", they LOVED IT! I shared a sermon on Christ's Love. It was extremely challenging but so rewarding. I struggle heaps with realising I am loved by God just because he is the full expression of love and not because I have "deserved" it. The night before I preached I was frustrated because even though I've TAUGHT about this topic several times it hasn't gotten easier. Then my co-leader told me "Shannon, you struggle with trust...maybe the reason you keep having trouble with teaching this is that you aren't getting the trust lesson and so you keep having to do it!" God straight spoke through her! It was still hard but it was so good and I finally GOT the trust thing a little bit more! PTL!

WEEK THREE:
3-9 December 2012 Location: Burmaik (3 hours away from Darj) {Mountain village} 
The view from this village was incredible. We did ministry in a lot of churches, we did devotions every day for the church members, and we fasted and prayed with them on the Saturday. On the Sunday we shared a skit, a testimony, and we had the opportunity to pray for all of the believers and speak truth into their lives. The presence of God was so evident. It was really cool to look around at our precious students and see how much they had grown at this point. And how much trust these pastors and elders had given us at such a young age. I was so proud of our youngest student for allowing God to develop a heart for intercession and then sharing it with the village. God worked through each of our student and taught them so much about speaking.

We didn't do as much church ministry but we went on HEAPS of prayer walks. UP, up,up, and UP the mountain! We strengthened our legs and our hearts for India. The last day we were in this village we were invited to a man's house for breakfast...at 7am. He gave us a FEAST. The amazing part of this story is that we had never met this man before...he just knew we were in town and wanted to bless us. He wasn't a christian either. He got up around 4am to do this...and he's not married so his sister in law helped him. (who is also not a christian!) We got the opportunity to pray for this family at the end of breakfast before we headed off.

A cool thing that God revealed to me in this village is that I'm worth being protected and taken care of. This is quite a journey because I don't like when people do things for me, even though my dad and brothers treated me like a princess growing up. It's getting better...He's humbling me heapppppps.


WEEK FOUR& FIVE: 10-16 December Location: Siliguri. {city} 17-23 December Siliguri. {city}
It started to look a lot like christmas this week! We partnered with a ministry called "Ambassadors for Christ" and we did HEAPS of kids ministry, christmas programs, gospel sharing, christmas carolling, and HEAPS OF DANCING! We carolled every night from the 16th until the 23rd.  We also had the opportunity to share the gospel with a hindu family that was having a birthday party for their daughter and their house was FULL of people. After we shared they asked for some Christian songs so they could learn them! MORE SEEDS PLANTED!
We also shared the gospel with three hindu dancers. (dancing isn't look at as the best job.) One was on the verge of accepting Christ, one was a back sliding christian, and the last one was full blown hindu. We had lunch with them and prayed for all of them. They cried and God really moved in them. I visited a few days later and the backsliding christian realised that when we were praying for her she felt different and she really should be following the Lord!!


WEEK SIX: 24-30 December Location: Salu {mountain village} 
In this village we were helping out a single women that has adopted 6 children ranging from 17-6 years old. She started and is running a Christian school in this village. She was also putting on a program for the 25th of December. This year all the non-believers were invited to the program. We helped decorate, we played with all the kids, we learned to cook Indian Roti and we shared the gospel on Christmas day. A whole family came to know God that day! Which in India a family means a husband, wife, children, brother in laws, sister in laws, and parents! It was amazing!!!!!!!

I also met on of the most adorable children....her name is Progeta. Recently some awful stuff happened to her and her family but through it their family came to know Christ!!!!! Everytime I held this little girl God would tell me how innocent and precious she was. It was the coolest feeling to love this little girl.

On the 28th we travelled back to Darj, had a day off, did an open air with another DTS outreach team, and then packed to head home. I got to share my faith and what I do with a Czech Republic lady that was married to an Indian man at the airport. We also got to evangelise to the flight attendant in the plane. When we got to Australia we had a faith day and we picked up trash, met HEAPS of indian people in the city, handed out Love Letters from God, and shared the gospel with people who had NEVER heard of Jesus before....IN A WESTERN COUNTRY. It was amazing.

That pretty much sums up the past few weeks. I am missing heaps of details and many more precious God stories, lessons, and people, but for now that will have to do! Our students will be graduating on 18 January. I will be staying in Australia until April 2013 and then heading back to VA in May 2013. I will update more and what that looks like and why another day! Now i will get some photos for yall.

Thank you so much for all of your support. To think of the journey of provision God took me on to get to India and back is absolutely amazing. I could not have done it without each of you!

If you have questions please email me! Also, I would love to hear about your christmas and the things that God taught you over 2012!

Love,
Shannon
671 Samford Road
Mitchelton, QLD 4053
AUSTRALIA
hugmemore08@gmail.com

Is He enough for you?

5 skits learned

7 plane tickets bought

7 visas approved

12 days until departure

14 sermons written

14 testimonies thought about

49 days of adventure with Jesus!

10 team goals prayed about and made into existence.

66 books of the bible

72 hours

30 people's voices

Right now, as I type we are reading through the WHOLE bible as a school. We are currently in Numbers. We started on the 7^th of November and are ending on 10 November! When we were praying as a staff team for this bible reading time we felt like God wanted to show up and do miracles. Last night was Community worship [which is an open worship night for everyone in the community] and one of the girls on staff, Becki, had a friend pray for her. [She has scoliosis] This girl prayed for Becki's scoliosis and when I felt her back a few minutes later, her spin was straighter! Because her spin has been twisted for so long Becki has two muscle lumps. Those are SMALLER but not gone yet! Becki is nervous to speak healing out but she is SO wanting to! If you think about it you could pray for her and the journey of healing that accompanies scoliosis! So that is the first miracle we've seen since we started reading the bible. [the second miracle is that I did some crafting! ;)]

OUTREACH UPDATE:

My team bought there tickets for India yesterday, praise the LORD! We don't have specific ministry in India, but everyone is SUPER excited. I personally have been CRAVING rice. I dream about eating it. Which is weird but God's grace in this season I suppose!

There really isn't much more to say! If you have questions please ask me, but if not I probably wont update until the new year because of lack of internet access!

The most important thing for yall to know is that I love the Lord. I am learning to accept his love. It's the most fantastic thing in the whole world. It sounds so cheesy, but I've realised that without letting him love me I just strive to love/serve others. When I let him love me, loving others comes SO MUCH MORE NATURALLY.

That is really all I have.

Thank you for reading, PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS/EMAIL ME! I LOVE EMAILS!

Have a blessed Christmas! Enjoy your family and God's love through the birth of His son!

Love yall,

Shannon

21 hours later....

We travelled from Chinchilla to Airlie beach yesterday. It's supposed to be around 14-16 hours but it took us 21 hours!!! We started at 2230 on Saturday night and arrived in Airlie around 1915 on Sunday!  I got about three hours of sporadic sleep!

Today we have the day off and some of the students are going on a rafting adventure to see the Great Barrier reef!

My co-leader is back in Australia!!!!!! We leave for India in four weeks. Two visas are completely processed. Slum-dog millionaire has been watched. Our bellies have been prepped for heaps of rice. Hearts have been pricked with His love for this place!!!

God is good.

smile cause it happened!

It's been quite a while I feel!
So I will start with an update on team India! 6 out of 7 members of team India have visas in process. It should take about 10 days for all of them to be back. God is starting to give us excitement and vision as a team!

We are about to leave on the Pass it On tour in Chinchilla! [this is one of my FAVOURITE places AND where God started to heal my back!] Please pray for our whole school but especially my team. My co-leader had to go back to the states for 1 week because of some "technical difficulties" so I will be leading our team solo. We will be doing school programs and work projects all week!

 [I am not stressed at all but it's weird not having her around. I know God has a plan and wants to challenge and grow me in ways I couldn't be if I had her here for this week!]

After being in Chinchilla for a week we will drive 17+ hours to Airlie beach for a week of lectures on Missions. From Airlie we will migrate to Stradbroke Island to do lectures, from Stradbroke we will head back to Brisbane for two weeks then on to INDIA, SAIPAN, GUAM, PERU, JAPAN, INDO, MALAYSIA!

During the two weeks we are on base we will be joining with another Discipleship school that has the focus of Music, Art and Dance for lectures on worship and then we will go on a mini road trip to read the bible ALL THE WAY THROUGH IN ONE WEEKEND!!!!! We have about 76 people and we are going to a really hard place to read through it. As you can see with the all caps that I am HEAPS excited. The bible is my favourite book and has changed my life. Every time I get something new out of it! It really is living and active.


That pretty much sums up the next few weeks for me. I am, as I type this, sitting among a pile of clean laundry around what used to be my couch waiting to be placed in a suitcase.

Honestly I could go on and on about what God is teaching me and how good he is and how much life isn't about me, but I am heaps tired.

A few prayer requests are:
-Jennifer gets all logistical stuff worked out in America.
-We have favour with our visas.
-Jennifer and I get money for outreach so we can buy tickets. [ASAP]
-Our team continues to have a heart/vision for India.

Thank you so much for reading! I truly appreciate everyone that reads this. My heart is content and I enjoy see people's lives change because of the Lord. I do miss people and events back home and every once in a while my heart gets sad. But I know that life goes on and I know that I am supposed to be here. So again, thank you for putting up with my sporadic updates and random quirks.

I am truly blessed by my parents, siblings, my church: Image, friends, and family.

Cheers,
Shannon
671 Samford Road
Mitchelton, QLD 4053
AUSTRALIA

**Urgent need.

We have 5 students and two leaders. All of our students have enough money for outreach. Currently neither my co-leader or I have money for the initial deposit to buy plane tickets. As we are travelling over christmas and new years the longer we wait the higher the prices. We have been emailing, writing support, prayer, fundraising the best that we can and we still have no money. I DID [thank the Lord] have enough for my Indian visa, but Jennifer cannot get hers until she is back in Australia. [and has enough money] So all of that being said our team cannot go on outreach without one of us. [preferably BOTH! (; ]  We are really stumped as to the next step. We both felt that he lead us to go and it looks "impossible" right now. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray/support/tell friends/shout from the roof tops for our financial needs!!!

If you are in America you can send support to my church. Or you can direct deposit it into the YWAM account hear with an online form. That I will attempt to attach and if not you can email me at: shannon@goywam.com

You had me at 'hello'.-Jesus

Team India:

To bring hope, purity, and strength through the journeys God has each of us on!

Us doing kids ministry in town.

       

                                       Team India doing service projects around town.

Who is on our team:

We are 7 in total, it's a great number because we can get to know each persons strengths and give everyone an opportunity to step out into the role that God is calling us to.

The team is me,Shannon from Virginia 21 years old, my co-leader Jennifer from California also 21 years old, Mitch from Australia 19 years old, Ian from Switzerland 18 years old, Olivia from Alabama 19 years old, Christine from Massachusetts 18 years old and finally Haley from Michigan 17 years old. It's exciting that our team in from everywhere, it's a good oppurtunity to find out what unity means even though we are all very different. We all are so excited to go and know that God has great plans for each one of us.

Our Need:  

My co-leader and me.

God has been such a blessing in this time. We have a team of 7, AND there are 5 of us that already have the finances to go to India. Praise Him! I am leading with another girl named Jennifer Pezzi who originally lived in California. Like I previously stated, she is also 21 years old. She has been living as a missionary for almost 2 years, and I have been living for almost 1 and a half years. We both have seen Him support us and learned to live on very little. We both have a strong passion to be here in this place and to keep living as missionaries. Unfortunately it’s just her and I that are still in need for  $2,800. [plus visa] God has placed India very strongly on both our hearts and we can’t wait to go and share the gospel and spread His love to people who have never been told they have value or worth before. We both know this is what He is calling us to and are fully trusting in God in this time to provide us with the finances to send us off to India to lead the team! 

If you would like to give us money please email at:

Jenniferp@goywam.com

or

Shannon@goywam.com

We will give you more details on how to do that when you email.

What we will be doing:

We will be doing so many different types of ministries and have a strong passion to serve in whatever way that we can. Our main ministry in India we’ll be working in the city of Darjeeling. It’s a very central place in India and we are so excited to be fully immersed into the culture.

Mercy Ministry.

Mercy Ministry.

Poverty is a trap that people find very hard to break out of. The world's poorest families are the ones who have the worst health care, the lowest standards of education and the highest child mortality rates. They often earn meager wages and are easily exploited As a team we will be going into these places and doing what we can to love and support these families in the slums. 

Village Ministry.

Village Ministry.

We will be traveling up into the mountains of Nepal, going to villages that have never seen white people before, possibly never heard the gospel or the name of Jesus. We will be hiking with heavy bags on our backs, ready to serve and love there. Share the gospel with them and share His community and everything that He has taught us.

Kids Ministry.

Kids Ministry.

We will be working with children, in the slums, villages and churches. The cast system there is really in graded into the culture so we are there to show these little kids their value and worth. To speak life over them and show them the creator of the universe loves them more than anything. We will be doing skits, programs, testimonies, songs and just playing with them.

Church Ministry.

Church Ministry.

We will be going into different churches to lead the services. We are there to exhort, encourage and release messages we feel God has put on our hearts for them. There is a lot of disunity amongst the churches in India, so we are happy to come in and bring support and unity amongst our team to them. 

What God has said to me personally:

As Jennifer and I have been preparing God has been speaking to me about India, what MY purpose is there and how to love and encourage our team in that before we go. He has spoken the words redemption, hope, beauty and stitches [in a quilt]. And again, saying that as we say yes to personal healing, growth, and adventure with Him he will build strength out of that for our team and ministry. 

Thank you for reading. Please email us if you would like to donate to Jennifer or I. [we cannot buy plane tickets until one of us has enough funds.] 
but most importantly, please keep us in your prayers!!!!


I love you all thanks heaps!

Shannon