Hello Everyone! Needless to say it's been a while since my last update, so heres whats been going on these last few months :)
We spent 3 weeks in Marseille. Had a wonderful time! We partnered with two different churches helping them with their ministry in the city. Mostly doing street evangelism in various different ways, from simple things like giving free hugs to doing questionnaires :) We helped out with some youth programs, got to share our testimonies and just kind of hang out with the youth in the churches. On one of our days off we went hiking and then jumped into the mediterranean with our clothes on cause we forgot our swimsuits (of course). We found a hidden cove, found a water butterfly then layer out in the sun! After we found a nice rock to jump off of into the water! :) Needless to say we had a great time with our last few weeks in the south of France! We made some awesome relationships with the people there (and I got to practice my french more!), and even though it was tough to leave we made sure to keep in contact with everyone as we headed off to Italy!
13 hours later...
We arrived in Italy!
We went to Rome :) (of course)
Roman beauty :)
We were located in a little town called Francavilla al Mare in the region of Abruzzo on the eastern coast of Italy by the Adriatic Sea :) And our Hotel room was (no joke) right on the beach! We could jump onto the beach from our back porch! :) Our work in Italy consisted mainly of teaching English lessons in the middle schools and hanging out on the beach with the Italian youth! We were in Italy for a little over 3 weeks mainly doing the things stated above but also preparing for a free-sports event that we would help host on the last week of our stay. We set up a parkour park and trampoline, and on the 3rd week the event started! A bunch of Parkour professionals from England, Germany, and Canada came down for the week to teach kids parkour, and to spread Gods love! It was an awesome time of learning new things, about God, myself, and Parkour! For example, I learned how to do a back flip on a trampoline! (thanks Martin!) And I also learned something else. The leader of the event who was also hosting us in Italy (Phil) gave me this picture of what it is to be a Christian. He said:
"I used to think I was a broken down car, and when I became a christian my job was to fix up the car as best as I could to please God. I tried for years and years to 'do it on my own', years later I realized I was doing it all wrong. When Jesus came down lived a perfect life and then died for us on the cross he took our sinful nature with him and it was crucified along with him. He made us completely blameless and perfect in Gods eyes. Not because of anything that we could ever do, but because of what Jesus did. But because God reached down for us, we no longer have to try and climb up to him. (because that is impossible!) When we become a christian, we are transformed into a Ferrari! (remember this is a guys analogy, you can use a butterfly if you want!) You see, because of Jesus we are no longer sinners, we are perfect. Obviously we still sin, and we need to repent from our sins. But the beauty of Christ is that through him, we no longer have to try and perfect ourselves so that God accepts us, all we can do now is discover how fast our Ferrari can go, and it can go fast! We can do anything we set our minds to. Focus on what God has MADE YOU INTO, not on your old self or you will start thinking that you need to improve yourself again, but you don't. You are already perfect in Christ. Recognize that Jesus has made you awesome and focus on that, the more time you spend thinking about how awesome Jesus is and how awesome He made you the less time you'll have to fall into sin. So stop trying to do it yourself, Jesus has already made you into something beautiful!"
This is a bit paraphrased, but the principle still remains! I think I already knew this, but it was applying it to my life that I still had yet to do. It's still hard for me to remember that I don't need to be perfect, but it's a knowledge that gives so much freedom! Jesus is awesome! :)
Italy was amazing! And probably my favorite outreach destination we have had! We made wonderful relationships with the kids in the schools and got to give them so much love! Besides a little battle with lice, we had an amazing time in Italy! I'm going to miss it!
But, Outreach isn't over yet :)
Now, we are in Barcelona!
After a little stop in Marseille (and some more driving!) We have arrived! We are staying here for one more week, two weeks in total! We did not have allot of ministry contacts for Barcelona, so we are doing allot of stuff on our own here. We have one contact with a church here, and we have been helping them with youth stuff but mostly we have been taking it day by day, coming to God every morning and asking him what we should do. So far we have been going out picking up garbage and having bible studies in cafes, doing little things to bless the people of this area. This last Friday and Saturday we split up the bible into 9 parts and my team read the entire bible out over the city. God is so good to have provided us with things to do, and our time here has been so great so far!
I got sick last week and am still getting through the after effects, but God gives grace, prayer for my whole team would be cool though! As we are in our last week of outreach it's more important than ever that we finish strong with unity and preferably health for our bodies as well!
We head back to Biarritz in about 6 days now! It's crazy to think my DTS is coming to an end, a little freaky, but exciting nonetheless! I'm sad to think about leaving, but still super excited to see all of the other teams again! I thank God for every day that I got to spend with these girls on my team, sometimes it was hard, but through hardship relationships grow stronger! When I look back I see that God really blessed my team with unity and a great outreach!!! Could not have asked for anything more!
-Ashley :)
