The Plot Thickens.....

Finally I managed to get the pictures I've taken up on the computer! And, as the faithful blog author I am to all of you, I've only uploaded the best of the best.

One of the first days us young budding missionaries had at DTS without our parental units present consisted of the 2nd annual DTS Olympics! Each of the 6 or so events "prepared" us for the challenges that lay ahead when we embarked on our trips for our respective countries.

One of these such events dealt with our becoming accustomed to our country's culture, including the way the

locals dressed.

 So, each country dressed up a volunteer (me) in newspaper and then each "model" was judged.

Another day of the pre-embryotic stages of DTS 2011 was the Prayer Challenge. This was when all of us were dropped off in inner-city Columbus and were given a scavenger-hunt themed mission to find our group sponsors, pray for the people we met, and give a lunch to a hungry person (not necessarily homeless).



The first sponsor we found was our (Chile's) own, Brian (Bam) Troyer. He presented us with water bottles and told us to give them to someone, maybe talk with them for a bit, and then offer to pray for them.

The next person we found was Toby Maust, whom we found near Columbus's replica of the Santa Maria, one of the ships Christopher Columbus sailed to North America in.

Another staff member we found was Jesse Swartz, who was chillin' at the courthouse. We had to find references to God and faith in the POW letters that were inscribed on nearby memorials.

We also found the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile!!!!!!!!! It was kind of awesome, at least I thought so. The rest of the team unfortunately didn't quite completely share my excitement.

The RIC (Rosedale International Center) where everyone lives is one great place to be. In a matter of days, the 20-odd participants, including team leaders and staff, gelled with each other incredibly well with such enthusiasm that it just couldn't be explained with anything other than the Spirit of God among us, and it definitely is.

There are absolutely no tomfoolery or hijiinks or any shenanigans of any sort that take place during our free time. None.

If I ever had any doubts about my choice to come here and sacrifice a year of my life to the service of God, they're completely gone now.

(More awesome posts to come, complete with PICTURES!!!!)



It's only been how long???

I've gotta say, even though myself and the rest of us here at REACH have only been in training for 4 days now, it seems like it's been so much longer than that. It's just incredible how much God has revealed to us in such a short period of time. I would've posted a couple pictures with this post, but unfortunately my camera and the computers provided here aren't on the best of terms with each other. Hopefully I'll be able to figure that out. So far we've already gone out into the heart of Columbus, praying for basically everything in sight or anything that the Lord made us feel should be prayed for.

Each of the twenty-odd young adults here are already well on our way to becoming seasoned veterans at confronting complete strangers on the streets and offering them with a free lunch or the opportunity to be prayed for. It's amazing how much some people are willing to share their stories and to see what they desire of life in what kind of prayer requests they make. I've learned so much about prayer and worship and establishing an intimate relationship with my Father in heaven in just four days, it completely blows my mind when I remember that we still have TEN more weeks after this one to learn and grow in Christ, and that's only the end of training!

Another thing that amazes me is how quickly each of the REACH participants here became best friends and were just as concerned about another's spiritual walk as they were with their own. Many of us have shared our stories and life journies with each other, and it's only served to bring us so close together. God is so much at work here, it's almost tangible. I'm doing my best, but it is so unbelievably hard to express in words how much God has blessed me through this program already, I feel like I'm not doing it justice.

Anyway, hopefully next time I'll be able to accompany my post with a few pictures and a couple awesome stories to go along with them. Until then,

God Bless!