hello seattle!

hi all!


WOW I AM BAD AT THIS BLOGGING THING. my apologies yet again. i keep thinking that it's been not too long since my last post, maybe 4 days... HA just kidding; it's been 8. sorry :(


WELL this last week was probably the best week of trek so far! we studied cross-cultural ministry, and it was definitely what we all needed to hear last week. all 10 of us are just so excited to leave now, and thinking about  heavy, theological subjects is pretty hard on most of our brains.
a gentleman by the name of bryan, as well as a lady named christy, were our main speakers.
bryan spoke about cross-cultural ministry. he was such an incredible speaker - dynamic, engaging, real. he was a long term missionary in botswana for 12 years, and he inspired me to travel, live for Jesus, and love life, in no particular order. i was definitely sad to see our time with him go, because i loved every second of all his sessions. he even taught us how to dance like they did back in his church in botswana!
christy was our teacher on esl - she gave us many practical skills and tips about how to teach children, teens, and adults english as a second language (esl). it was fun to learn about how english works, and also how easy it is to incorporate teaching into games. she was a really interactive - she helped us to learn by engaging us in the exact activities we could use with the students!


God works in neat ways. i had to get some shots last week in order to travel, and i had a hard time with one doctor not wanting to give me one of my very important vaccinations - which i wasn't too happy about, so i called my dad and he contacted a doctor here, who immediately agreed to take me on as a new, temporary patient in order for me to receive this vaccination. it was definitely a blessing to see God work so immediately in this situation to help me get the needed vaccine, because if i hadn't, i could have been at risk for some un-fun illnesses in the philippines.
God also has been gracious to my teams in relieving some stress about small details, such as our visas. so what i mean really is that He is taking care of all the big things that we have been stressing about, because God is good. so encouraging!


this evening, we had a banquet! it was fun to see everyone all dressed up and then take pictures together. we were served some very delicious appetizers, caesar salad, steak, asparagus, potatoes, and dessert by the trek leadership team. it was an evening to celebrate getting this far in trek and to enjoy hanging out with each other. i think every single one of us had a great time, and i definitely was blessed by our time to just hang out!

some of us at banquet! :)

my team also made tie-dye shirts! we had a lot of fun - and even more adventure - doing this! it was a crazy time trying to figure out how all the instructions worked, and then dying shirts at 10:30pm in the pitch dark was also a new experience! the shirts turned out really well in the end, though, and i will definitely enjoy wearing this one during and after trek :)

charis and i washed these shirts so many times - what a project! 

this past weekend, my family arrived here!! they are here for the week to visit both me and family/friends who live in the area. on saturday, they picked me up and we went to seattle for the weekend to visit my mum's cousin and family. it was really great to see my family again and just visit with some extended family i hadn't seen in a number of years. we had a fun time hanging out with my second cousin, who is 5! she is really cute, and VERY outgoing! we ran around the mall near their house holding hands and giving her piggybacks for a couple hours, which was definitely a highlight!

i also got to eat indian food again, so i was a happy camper all weekend :)
the best part was just to be able to see my parents, siblings, and my grandma again! it will be hard to not see them for another 3.5 months, but at least i am able to see them for 1 week here.


well, i'm tired, and you're probably bored by now.
talk to you soon!
tejal :)

prayer for the nations.

hello!

wow again i have been bad at blogging! i am so sorry guys. thanks for reading even through my inconsistency :)

SO what a whirlwind life i am living right now! things are moving so quickly here, and i can barely absorb everything that is going on.

this past week we looked at evangelism, which is a scary topic for most of us here. it is intimidating to think about just going out and talking to people we don't know about our faith. that scares me, that's for sure.
this guy, phil, came and talked to us for most of the week about this topic. he has led teams to many countries many times to evangelize. he is probably the most comfortable with evangelizing out of anyone i have ever met.
he talked about how we should actually call evangelism "witnessing" - that it isn't about introducing a certain number of people to Jesus, but it's more about accurately giving testimony to the life Jesus lived. that was definitely a new way to think about this avoided topic, and it made me - if not everyone else too! - feel better. it took the pressure off - to know that God won't judge us because we didn't lead 50 people to the Lord, but that He knows we are trying.
thursday morning we all headed out to actually witness! most of us went to the mall, and we just went out in 1s or 2s to go talk to people. phil said that we would have a successful day if all of us took one more step out of our comfort zone than we had before. i think we can all say that happened - some people actually did share their faith, while others took the step of taking their Bible out in public. it was actually really awesome! i don't know if this is the way God is calling me to share my faith every day, but i do think it holds merit and maybe next time i will be more receptive to hearing the Holy Spirit prompting me to talk to someone.

how many of you have pulled an all nighter? well, i value my sleep, and until friday, i hadn't ever.
that changed, though, when we had "all night prayer", an event that is mandatory for us and voluntary for the public.
what is it? we pray. all night. for the nations.
so, over the night we prayed for many countries, in scheduled one-hour blocks. we watched videos about the countries, heard former and current missionaries from different countries, and worked through prayer lists for each country. we even were able to skype missionaries in peru and ukraine! that was really neat to be able to talk to people about their country and how we can pray for them.
it really was beneficial for me, because we live in a very us-first,-you-later culture, and this event did not allow for that. in fact, it forced us to do the exact opposite! we had to sacrifice our sleep for the well being of others - for God's people doing His work overseas. it was also a good reminder that every country needs prayer in its own way, and, as God's people, we are called to pray for them.
one block of time that struck me particularly hard was praying for the persecuted church. we weren't asked to pray that the persecution would stop, but that God's glory would become evident in these men and women, and that more people would come to love Jesus through that. that seems normal to us here in north america, but God has warned us that we won't have it easy all the time if we follow Him.
here's a picture of jonas and i, ready for all night prayer!

what a night; i will never forget it!

on saturday, we all went out to celebrate birthdays! one of the guys, mitch, and ashley both have their birthdays today! so we went out for supper last night, as well as giving gifts with a "surprise birthday" - which entailed us decorating the room and yelling "SURPRISE!!" while they pretended to be surprised. which they weren't ;)
we got tshirts made for each - mitch has a real man complex going on (mitch if you're reading this, it's all in love i say that), and he likes to be called BOSS, so we got BOSS written on his.
ashley wants to be a canadian, and LOVES saying "eh" (she really has it down! i've never seen a non-canadian master 'eh' so well!), so we got her a tank top with 'eh' written on it. they loved them! i'd say that was a success.

just had to add another photo of micah. i am going to miss that baby when i leave for the philippines. do you think luke and joanne would let me pack him in my carry-on?

love to all!
tejal :)

beauty beyond expectation

hey all!


my sincerest apologies for the delay in blogging! life has been slightly more than hectic in the last little while.


last weekend, from thursday til sunday, we had the privilege of going out to a small island near here, to a cabin part owned (or leased? i'm not entirely sure, sorry :P) by the people who started trek. it was so incredibly beautiful out there; definitely a reminder of God's greatness and His creation! i loved every second of my time there. i will try not to write too much about our time there on my blog, as my newsletter is going out sometime in the next 5 days, and i have included a more detailed summary there. i will, though, include some pictures we took there! the view was magnificent, being able to look out onto the ocean from 3 or 4 sides of the cabin.

one morning, brady, megan, and i took a canoe ride out on to the ocean. it was about 8:30 in the morning, and the sun had just begun to clear the thick fog that surrounded the cabin. even though we were all a bit groggy, we had a great time just enjoying the scenery and feeling of the fresh ocean air on our faces. it was also the first time i'd been able to go canoeing since the summer! good to get those muscles back in action :)

charis and i also had the chance to go to a different part of the island and go seashell collecting! we discovered that we had a mutual love of seashells, and off we went! while this picture doesn't show the shells very clearly, you will notice charis holding out her left hand, in which she has a number of shells! they were so beautiful, and we had a lot of fun shell-hunting on that beach.

this shot was actually taken from inside the cabin, out the kitchen window! down closer to the water, jonas and ashley were building a fire, and the smoke drifted up past the window right after lunch. incredible how the sun was shining through the clouds just at the moment when the smoke floated by. so beautiful! God is so creative :)


this week we have been talking about spiritual authority. this has been a new topic for many of the people here. i had heard SOME, but not much, about spiritual authority before this week. it was encouraging to be reminded that the same power that raised Christ from the grave has been given to us - and with that, do the will of God.
this idea is a bit weird for a few of us here, because casting out demons or healing the sick or freeing the oppressed is not something that we normally talk about in our every day life. we found many examples in scripture to back this up, though, and even though it may take me a while to wrap my head around this, i don't doubt the concept.


micah continues to be a highlight for me on trek. i have never been one to gravitate to children, and being with children is certainly not my strength, but there is something about this baby that draws me to him. joanne  took a couple pictures of me with micah while on our weekend island retreat - i will try to post one when i get them from her!


well, i'm off to work on my newsletter now! hopefully you will receive that, along with my prayer card, soon!


soon,
tejal :)