Passports!

As some of you may know,  I was unable to leave this past Sunday for India. My passport did not show up in time. Nor did two of my teammates, so thankfully I was not the only DTS student left on base. Usually there is about 70-100 people on base, but throughout this week it has emptied out and currently it is myself and about seven other people. It has been a quiet week.

Today I returned after a lunch off base to find out that my passport had arrived. It has been a joyous day. I was also able to go see the new Hobbit movie. Let me tell you. It is pretty good. Go see it. This coming Sunday I will be leaving for India with one of my teammates. We will be departing from Hawaii at 12:30 am Monday. It has been a crazy ride up until this point. God is so good through everything. 

Unfortunately, one of my teammates will be headed home this weekend and will not be joining us on outreach. She had a lot of complications with her passport/visa because Fed Ex lost her original passport/visa. We are all very sad to see her return home to Canada. In all things, God is still good. Even through crappy things such as this.

I would very much appreciate prayers this week, as well as the following nine weeks. I ask that you pray for safety as the three of us travel to various parts of the world. I also ask that the adjustment for all of us will go smoothly. It will be a difficult transition for Austin and I as we join our team a week late. Our team will have already had time to adjust to the time difference and their surroundings, whereas we will have to just jump right in. Unity is also a prayer request. It is hard to do things with twelve people if there is no unity involved. God is going to stretch us all and move us in incredible ways and I cannot wait to experience it.

 

As you can see above, I was thrilled to see my passport. 

Blessings on all of you! I will try to update in the following months, but I cannot make any promises!

Project Exploration

Departure for India is in three days. Today was a packing day and I can happily say that all of my stuff is packed away. It was pretty nice because my parents took a whole suitcase home for me and made this a lot less stressful. For those of you who do not know, my parents flew in and spent a week with me in Hawaii. It was a wonderful time to be able to see them before I leave for India/Sri Lanka. I was able to see Pearl Harbor the day before the 73rd anniversary. I also went on a tour to Kualoa Ranch. Kualoa Ranch was a beautiful place in Hawaii where many different movies and TV shows have been filmed. Such as Hawaii Five-0, Lost, Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, Fifty First Dates, Soul Surfer, and Karate Kid. Here are some photos of the tour.

The photo above is of the dead tree from Jurassic Park that the kids and Dr. Grant hid behind in the dinosaur stampede. It was a dream come true to be able to see this. The photo below is of a real life dinosaur attacking me. Terrifying.

I was also able to go to the zoo and see elephants, giraffes, and zebras for the first time. It was quite the experience. While I was there, I found out that there is in fact a zoo in New Delhi. I am still in the works of trying to convince my team to let us go to the zoo in India on one of our days off. What an adventure that would be.

 

It is crazy to think of how fast two and a half months flew by. There are so many things that have happened since I landed in Honolulu, Hawaii. One of the biggest things that has happened was when I rededicated my life to Jesus and was baptized yesterday. It was such an incredible experience. I have been baptized before when I was around a month old. I also made profession of faith the summer after my 9th grade year. When I made profession of faith I definitely was not ready and rushed into that choice. Yesterday, I was completely and 100% ready to follow Jesus. It really was one of the coolest things in my life.

These last few weeks in Hawaii have simply been incredible. I cannot wait for God to stretch me and use me when I go on outreach to India and Sri Lanka. It is going to be the best time. Myself and twelve others are about to head off for an unforgettable time period of our lives.

Here are a few recent photos of the group. The top photo has all of us in it. I would really appreciate it if you all would pray for my team over the next two and a half months. Back row: Margrete, myself, Mariesa, Bree, Cambree, Cassidy, Ashley, and Saara. Front row: Tony, Jed, Link (white), Joz, Tanner, and Brice. Brice is not coming on outreach with us since he is support staff; he is actually part of the January school and he will be getting ready to co-lead his own team to on outreach shortly after we return from our outreach in February. 

I found out recently that while on outreach I will only be able to be able to update my blog three times, if that. I also will not have my computer, so I am not sure if I will even be able to blog. If I cannot, I will be updating via Facebook since that will be the easiest way for me. My flight leaves Sunday night/Monday morning at 1am Hawaii time, 6am Michigan time. It has been a great adventure so far and I thank all of you for supporting me to be able to get here. Thank you so very much for everything, and I would love love love for you to keep praying for me while my team and I go off on outreach.

|T H A N K S G I V I N G|

Many apologies for not writing again. We are getting closer and closer to the leaving date for outreach and because of that my time has been fairly busy. It is crazy to think that in fifteen days, myself and twelve others will be in the airport leaving for India. It is a whole new adventure and I cannot wait to journey out into the world.

This week we had our very own base director, Cary Solima, as the speaker of our lectures. The topic was on Hearing God's voice. Because of it being Thanksgiving, we only had three lectures this week rather than the normal five. We spent one of the lectures praying about what lies we believed and asked God to reveal the truth of those lies to us. That in itself was a pretty radical thing. The next day in class we spent praying for other people. We asked God to show us a picture or vision, or give us a verse or word about the person that we were praying for. It was a comforting thing, hearing everything that people said.

•Thanksgiving•

I never thought that spending a holiday away from home would feel so normal. Nothing on my family - I love them to death. But spending Thanksgiving with the family of YWAM was one of the best things that I have experienced while being here. We had a large dinner the night before Thanksgiving. Everyone spent the whole afternoon getting ready for the exciting night. The dinner consisted of turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls that were to die for, and pumpkin pie. I was slightly upset that there was no cream corn casserole, although nobody would be able to make it as good as my Aunt Bambi. After dinner, we had the privilege to watch a YWAM team from Kona dance. Island Breeze has been staying at our base for the past week while finishing up their outreach. It was so cool to be able to watch them dance. I myself have never really gotten into dancing, but this was a different story. Island Breeze focused on different forms of hula dancing. My favorite one that they performed was where the male off their team took a stick that was on fire and spun it. It was pretty rad.
The morning of Thanksgiving, we had a brunch at ten. There were more pancakes than what I could name. If anyone tells you that they do not feed us well here, that would be a lie. There was an abundance of food and it was like heaven came down to earth. So good. Before brunch, I had the chance to skype my entire family from home. It was such a blessing to be able to talk to each and every one of them. So this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my family. Not only my Michigan family, but also my YWAM family. I never thought I could be blessed by so many different people at once.

More exciting news - Yesterday I found out that I have all of my outreach fees paid off! I have never been more thankful for all of you, especially those who donated. Like I said before and will keep saying, I couldn't do it without each and every one of you. 

Halfway There!

Hello all! These past two weeks have been pretty hectic, so many apologies for not writing. I have spent my days listening to lectures. Our speakers are so interesting and are really good at explaining things in a new light. 

Two weeks ago we had Aaron Larson speak on Nature/Character of God and Discipleship. One of the things I took from his lecture was that being a disciple is a process. Mark 1:17 says, "Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." Notice how it was not an instant transformation, but instead said become. They will become fishers of men. It is a process. So often I find myself wondering why I have not had a radical transformation so when I heard this, it really stuck out to me. Yes, there are people who have radical transformations, but for the most part people have to go through a process to change. 

This past week, we had Keith Martens speak on Spiritual Warfare. He spoke a lot about freedom in Christ. A big thing this week was freedom prayers. He shared experiences of how he has done freedom prayers and how people have been set free from demons and bad dreams and so on. I really enjoyed having the opportunity of a freedom prayer and felt freedom in what I was prayed for. 

Besides the time spent in lecture, I have had the opportunity to try surfing. I was not very good, but I did love it and will be trying it again this coming week. Living in Hawaii is the dream-I cannot explain how much I love it here. 

This week I also found out more details about outreach. I leave for India on December 14. The first city that we will be in is New Dehli and we will be there for two weeks. We have the possibility of being at the Taj Mahal on Christmas, so that is pretty cool. We are in India for six weeks and then Sri Lanka for four weeks. We finally found out what the cost of the outreach would be, and after everything it comes to $2,500. It is a bit more costly than I thought that it would end up being. If you are feeling led to donate, it is possible to get another tax deduction, and I would greatly appreciate it any donations. To be able to get a tax deduction one would have to write a check out without my name on it. Just explain on a separate note that the money is meant for me. The address for mailing it is this

YWAM Honolulu

2707 Hipawai Place

Honolulu, HI 96822

If you feel led to give, I need the money by November 26. Many thanks to all of you who have given money and who are feeling led! I appreciate it so much!

KONA

This past week I was able to travel to the big island and spend four days in Kona for Corporate week. It was definitely an experience, but it also made me realize how thankful I am for what I have here in Honolulu. The University of the Nations has about twelve DTS schools going on, as well as countless other upper level courses and seminars. There is around one thousand people on their campus daily. Whereas here at home, our base has around seventy to eighty. It was quite a large upscale. While at Kona we had a three hour lecture every morning and had the privilege to hear from Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of YWAM. It was interesting to hear all about their life and their travels all over the world spreading the gospel. And as a bonus, I was able to see two girls who I went to high school with. It was like a little bit of home for a few days.

When I wasn't on campus, I was down near my room at YWAM Ships. It was really cool because it was right next to the water and it was near a bunch of little shops. Being able to walk straight to the beach in less than two minutes was a nice perk of not being on base. The whole week was pretty relaxing. One of the only downsides was that we had quite a hill to walk up to base if we happened to miss the shuttle. I missed it a few times, but was able to hitchhike with a few other people. It was quite an interesting experience.

All in all, my time in Kona was pretty fun, but I was very happy to come back home to Honolulu. The night we came back, I received a few letters and a care package. To those of you who mailed me things, I thank you so much! It was such a blessing to be able to know that people are thinking of me and praying for me back home in Michigan. Still overwhelmed by how lucky I am to come from such a great community. 

Life is hard

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Job 1:21

Yesterday morning I awoke to four or five text messages regarding a teacher from my high school, South Christian. As it turns out, he passed away in a car accident only a few hours prior. To be this far away from my South Christian community during this rough period is incredibly hard for me to deal with. There are few things that I want more than to be able to go home and be with my school. With my community. Sadly, I am unable to do so. Mr. VanDyke was never my teacher, but that does not mean that he did not know me. That he did not call my name when he saw me in the hallways. I cannot imagine South being without those interesting golf pants that he so often wore. Heaven gained an amazing angel yesterday. Life is hard but I know that we will be able to get through this.






I would appreciate prayer in this area specifically, but also for my sore throat. I've been sick for about five days so far and it has not been healing. Not only that, but also my finger was jammed when playing dodge ball last weekend and that is taking a while to heal. Thanks to all of you for your prayers! 

Exciting news!

As many of you know, I went into ywam unsure about where my outreach location was going to be. As of yesterday, it is no longer a question, but instead there is an answer! On December 14, I will be headed out on a journey to India and Sri Lanka. I am so excited to be able to go on this journey for 2-2 1/2 months with this amazing team.

I could not have been blessed with a better team. The Lord is amazing and I cannot thank Him enough for this opportunity in my life. 

Yesterday evening I was able to evangelize. Every Tuesday night I will be going to China Town and Hotel street to evangelize to the homeless with a group of about thirteen people. Last night was our first time and it was definitely difficult to say the least. It was pouring rain and it was a lot of our first attempts. I met a man named Bob. He was such a rad man. One of the people I was with prayed for him, and then he turned around and prayed for us. I thought we came out there to bless those who we were evangelizing to, but instead I was blessed. This morning I went to Ho'maka Hou with two other students to teach people who were trying to get back on their feet. I have the privilege of teaching algebra to this wonderful lady named Sarah. Which if you know me, math was not my strong subject in high school. It will be interesting to see how the next two months will go with the math considering Sarah caught on very quickly and I do not understand much math past Algebra. At least not well enough considering it's been five months since I was in a math class and what I do understand I am unsure how to teach it. The Lord will provide for me.

Tonight I had the privileged to worship for two hours. In those two hours I was broken and made new. It's a bit complicated to explain, but the Lord works in such mysterious ways. I know I've said this again and again, but I KNOW that this is where I am supposed to be. I feel such content from learning my location outreach and I have learned so much in the past week than I have in my fourteen years of schooling. I am blessed to be here. I am so utterly blessed and I cannot even explain how much it means to me.   

Scavenger What?

Tonight myself and a group of ten others decided to go on a spontaneous hike. So at four in the afternoon we left the base and rode a bus an hour and a half away. The sun sets at roughly 6:20 every night so it was not looking very promising that we would be able to make it to the top to see the view. While walking along the sidewalk, one of my friends happened to wander off and find us a ride to the top. It was such a gracious act of kindness. The couple that drove us up could only get us so far as the neighborhood went. Once they dropped us off, we had roughly a five to ten minute walk. Upon arriving at the top, we were amazed. The view was so incredible, and the photos I took cannot do it justice. Here are various shots from the night.

Like I said before. The photos do not do it justice. Amazingly enough, the view was even better than the photos show. After taking all those photos, the sun had set and we had to make our journey back to the base. Walking down in the dark was not as easy as it had been going up seeing as many of us did not pay attention while we rode to the top. Needless to say, we took a few wrong turns. It took us about an hour for all of us to make it back down and at that point we began our journey back on the bus. We arrived back at base shortly after nine. 

I have not been in Hawaii for a week and I have already had so many adventures and have been challenged in an ample amount of ways. Yesterday the thirty three students were split into eleven groups and had a scavenger hunt around the local beaches. The staff drove us to Honolulu zoo and told us that we had to take pictures of all the items on the list with at least one member from our group in the photo. There were about thirty different things on the list such as an aerial view of Waikiki, with a police officer, a ukulele, a lei, in the ocean, and with three people from different countries. We did not have enough money to take the bus back, so after walking an hour through the drizzle, we arrived back at base for dinner. Unfortunately the scavenger hunt was a game that was only for fun, which is upsetting because my team did really well and was able to complete the entire thing. We also got an amazing aerial view of Waikiki. My teammates and I walked into the highest hotel we could find, and at the thirtieth floor somehow convinced a man to let us into his room and let us take a picture of the amazing view.

Unfortunately I was the designated photographer, so I was unable to be a part of this incredible photo. Before and after the scavenger hunt, we were given the opportunity to share our testimonies. So one by one, everyone went up to the daunting stage and told their stories. It was so cool to see where everyone had been in their life and where they currently are. I especially liked hearing all the testimonies of the dts staff. Some people came from really cruddy lives and some came from great ones, yet we all ended up at the same place. I was really nervous about sharing my testimony, but once it was done and over with I was incredibly glad that all of us were able to do that because that means our friendships will be so much deeper. 

Today is the fifth day that I have been living in Honolulu and it has been such a ride so far. Before leaving for ywam I was incredibly nervous to be away from home for six months, let alone with a group of strangers that I did not know. But God has taken me on such an adventure so far, and I cannot wait to see where he takes me in the future. 

Also! I was informed that some of you may want to write me and were unsure of my address. If you look under the Donate tab, you will find my address. For now, I will just share it under this post.

Abby Ellens DTS Sept 2014

2707 Hipawai Place

Honolulu, HI 96822

Classes start this coming Monday, and I would so appreciate it if you would keep that in your prayers for me. Thanks again! God bless!

Aloha from Hawaii!

After about thirteen hours of travel, I arrived safely yesterday at 2pm Hawaiian time (8pm Michigan time). Quite a time adjustment. When I arrived I was put into a room with five other girls. We are in a house with four different rooms and three bathrooms. There is about thirty-three people here so far, but there are a few more students that have yet to arrive. Life in Hawaii is so different from Michigan, but it is so incredibly amazing. 

Today was my first full day here, and all of the dts students decided to walk to Ala Moana beach. It was about an hour and a half walk there but it was so worth it upon arrival. The water was a perfect warm temperature and I was able to stand up on coral. It was incredible. We went to the mall for lunch and I ate pizza from a place called Sbarro. After that, we went back to the beach for about an hour before heading back to base. The rest of my night has been filled with dinner and getting to know other people. There are people from from all over the world; Norway, Finland, Japan, Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and all sorts of states. There are so many different cultures thrown together, and I'm so excited to be able to spend the next five months with all sorts of different people. It is such a blessing to be able to live here. Thanks again to all of you for your prayers with everything. It means the world to me.

I've attached some photos below that I took today while walking through Honolulu.

Adventure Is Out There

This summer is finally starting to reach the end and with that brings a whole new adventure. On September 23, I am taking a huge step of faith and am flying out to Honolulu, Hawaii for a DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). If you are curious as to what this is or what I might be doing there, here is a link that explains all about it:  http://www.ywamhonolulu.com/dts/

Recently, I have been listening heavily to Hillsong United's song Oceans to rid myself of the anxiety that has made itself present in the weeks prior to leaving. Matthew 14 is what the song is based upon, and I would like to share what it says.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water. "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.


As the day to leave comes closer, I become more and more terrified of the unknown. Just as Peter became terrified when he stepped out on the water, I also am filled with those same emotions. My entire life I have talked about wanting to travel the world, and now that I have an opportunity, I am scared out of my wits about it all. I very well could just stay home, but then I would miss out on so much that I was created for. A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. So as September 23 creeps closer and closer, not only are my fears elevated, but also is my faith. I know that when I leave I will be afraid. But just as Peter, I will learn to replace my fear with faith.