Africa Update

Hey friends! Our leader went into Paris yesterday to work on our African visas at the consulate office, and they told her that because we're not French citizens, we can't apply for a visa to the African country we're going to while we're in France. She's going to call the base tomorrow and see what to do, so we're kind of in limbo right now. Be praying for us! Pray that God will grant us favor with the governments and give us wisdom so we can get to the places he wants us to go! I'll keep you all updated when we have any new information.

I had a chance to upload a few more pictures from the last few days. I just can't stop taking pictures! It's too beautiful here!!! ;-}

Week 2, #1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046905&id=44901593&l=3072b32196

Week 2, #2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046915&id=44901593&l=8b52e604dc

First Week of Outreach!

After a good sleep our first night here, I finally felt like a real human being again! We had a pretty chill day our first full day of outreach--cooking, grocery shopping, and a talk with some of the people involved with ministry at the base about France as a mission field. It's going to be really challenging--pray for us! France is known as the most pagan nation in Europe and has a reputation for burning out missionaries faster than almost anywhere else in the world. The people have pretty much turned their back on God and everything that he stands for, so we have our work cut out for us! We're going to be working with a youth group in the area and also doing a lot of practical work around the base.

Yesterday, we had some prayer and intercession, then went on a tour of our village which is pretty amazing. We did some practical work in the afternoon and had more prayer and Bible reading in the evening. We also had a chance to start planning for the youth group meeting that we will be leading on Saturday. The worship team is attempting to learn One Way Jesus (the chorus), Majesty, and Our God is an Awesome God in French. Pray for us--we're gonna need it.... ;-}

We led a Youth Group meeting on Saturday which was really fun, then we led worship for a church in a nearby village on Sunday. Next week, we are going to a nearby town to do some performing arts in the town square, which we are all really excited about.

We have heard some awesome news from our other team in Tahiti and the base back in Sydney. In Tahiti, the team had a healing meeting their first week, and a lady came and got healed of a whole bunch of stuff and dedicated her life back to the Lord, which was amazing!!! They also said that two of the team members had significant healing with ear problems they've had. At the base, they had their second Youth Street meeting this last weekend. They told us that four kids gave their lives to the Lord!!!! AMAZING! I'm so excited for all that God is doing, and I hope to see some of the cool stuff he wants to do in France first hand in the next couple weeks!

I have been trying to upload all my pictures for the last week, but I keep taking so many that it's hard to keep up! Like I said earlier, the base is absolutely beautiful! A little country village about an hour and a half outside of Paris. I am expecting the garden in the backyard to make for some amazing quiet times in the next three weeks!

Here are the pictures from our last week at the base--our final dinner together before outreach, and the launch of Youth Street:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046666&id=44901593&l=6415ada3fa

Here are the endless albums from the first week of France. You may need a week's worth of food and water with several breaks in order to get through all these pictures--my camera is going to get a work out here!!!

France 1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046667&id=44901593&l=8da40bf59e

France 2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046671&id=44901593&l=53c84a7d0e

France 3:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046735&id=44901593&l=9ffd4072e7

France 4:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046856&id=44901593&l=605c9c3a15

France 5:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046865&id=44901593&l=5a54291f89

France 6:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046866&id=44901593&l=613885e265


More to come very soon!
A plus tard! (Actually pronounced "aye plu tar" and means "see you later"!)

France!

Hey all! After 21 incredibly long hours in a plane and a two hour layover in Hong Kong, we have arrived in Paris! The rest of our team (the ones who flew through Korea) will be here this evening. The flights were a little sketch--everyone was wearing face masks, and before we landed in Paris, they hosed down the whole plane with disinfectant spray! EEK! Hopefully none of us will come down with Swine flu....

We're staying at a YWAM base in the countryside about an hour and a half out of Paris. The base is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I took a bunch of pictures, but I can't upload them yet because my computer's film card reader is being funky. I'll try to get them up ASAP. We have wireless at the base, so I'll have readily available internet and Skype for the time that we're here! YAY! More updates after I have slept and can form coherent sentences... Hopefully I can stay up all day and beat the jetlag--I've slept about 4 out of the last 70 hours, so I'm pretty loopy right now...

Je vous aime! (French for I love you all!)
~Maggie

Travel Update

Hi friends! We went to the travel agent again yesterday, and to get us the best deal, they had to split us up on two different airlines. They had only confirmed 5 of the tickets when we went Friday night because it was so late, so they were only able to get 7 of our team on Korean Air. The rest of us (including me) are flying through Hong Kong. We don't have a stop over on the way there, but we do on the way back, so we'll get to spend a night in Hong Kong, which is pretty cool! It's lame that our team is split up, but I'm just happy that we have confirmed, booked, paid for tickets! It's actually good that we're split, because we leave in the afternoon, and the base hadn't taken our ground fees out of the bank yet, so if we had all left on the early Korean Air flight, we wouldn't have gone with any money! I guess God really knows what he's doing, hey?

So, we leave TOMORROW!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!! SO excited! Pray that we are all able to make out last minute preparations without any hindrances. Also pray for protection as we travel--no Swine Flu in Jesus' Name! I don't know what our internet situation will be in Paris, but I'll try to keep you updated as often as I can. It's the start of another big adventure, and I can't wait to see what God does!

Love you all!
~M

GOD IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (just in case you didn't know)...

Ok, so God is pretty much amazing. Just thought I'd let you in on that little secret. So, before the fundraiser, we still needed over $27,000 to get everyone on our school to outreach. We raised $3500 at the fundraiser, which was amazing, but we still had a long way to go. As of today, we are down to **drum roll, please** $2,000!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?!?!?! GOD GAVE US $25,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know why I'm surprised honestly... He is the God of the universe after all. The rest of the money is totally coming in, and we are going on outreach!

Once we heard the good news about the finances this afternoon, I started looking for plane tickets again. I had found fares anywhere from $1,400 to $2,500 per person for Paris round trip. When I started searching again today, all of the fares I found were SUUUUPER expensive--way out of our price range. I immediately forgot the God who provided the $25,000 just a few hours ago and began to stress about how we were going to get plane tickets. Long story short, one of the staff members at the base found an AMAZING deal for all of our team on Korean Air for $1590 a person!!!! We went and booked the tickets tonight, and we're leaving for Paris on May 4th! I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!! The really fun thing about our flight is that we get a night's stay over in Seoul with enough time to get out and see the city AND a hotel stay included in our ticket price! We have two South Korean students on our outreach teams, so they're pretty stoked to see a bit of home, even if it's just for a day.

So, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your prayers! God is so faithful to provide in HIS timing and HIS way, and I know that your prayers played a huge part in that! Keep praying for us! There is one person on our team who doesn't have her money in yet and might have to fly out later than the rest of the group. Pray for a miracle for her finances so she can come with us! Also, be praying for us to find cheap airfare for the second leg of our journey and pray that we will get our visas processed ASAP!

Love you and miss you all! I'll be sending you greetings from Paris in three days!

Outreach Update

Hi friends! I just wanted to give you a quick update on our outreach. We had planned to go to two countries in North Africa, but the doors have been closing for one of the countries, so we've decided to spend our first three weeks of outreach with one of the other teams in Paris! We all feel a huge peace about it, especially me, because I'm pretty sure I'm called to go to the other country some time in the future, so it's not totally off the books for me. ;-} So, be praying for us! We really need to get a heart for France before we leave and have some hardkore unity going on with the other team. We have praise reports of finances coming in already, but keep praying! Know that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. I can't wait to update you all after God provides for us!!! More details when I have them.

Love you all!!!
Au revoir!

Invisible Children

Hey friends! Just a quick update on the last week, because it's super late and I should be in bed, but this is the only time that the internet works (after midnight) so alas, here I am! The fundraiser on Friday went really well--we raised Over $3500! Praise the Lord! Please continue to pray for our team, as we are supposed to be leaving for outreach in a week and we still don't have the funds. We can't buy plane tickets until our leader has her funds, so pray that she gets the money she needs so we can go on outreach!

On Saturday, we went into the city to volunteer for an event called Invisible Children. Some of you are probably already familiar with IC, but the basics of it is that a man named Joseph Kony has been kidnapping Ugandan children for the past 20 some odd years to fight in a guerrilla war against the government. On April 25th, over 100 cities in 10 countries around the world staged peaceful protests to bring about the end of this war and see Joseph Kony brought to justice. There are a lot of Christians who participate in these events, but they aren't necessarily religious in nature. In Sydney, the Island Breeze YWAMers (me and my crew) started a huge African dance circle singing some of the African worship songs our base leader has taught us. We got over 1,000 people singing "hold on to Jesus" and "always pray, always give, always praise the Lord"! It was completely amazing! I got the bright idea to drag a couple of rubbish bins into the middle of the circle and use them as drums, and pretty soon, we had an all-out dance party! I'll try to get some photos or videos of it uploaded, because it was pretty stinkin' amazing!

None of them have comments or tags yet because I'm too tired, but here are all of the newest photo albums, including fundraiser and IC:

Week 10: Evangelism
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046145&id=44901593&l=302dd0d9ef

Week 11: Missions
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046281&id=44901593&l=2d0d67068c

DTS Fundraiser
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046297&id=44901593&l=9be8ad73a5

Invisible Children I
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046298&id=44901593&l=64222b3e36

Invisible Children II
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046299&id=44901593&l=fab46c72ee

Invisible Children III
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046301&id=44901593&l=fdeb89107f

Invisible Children IV
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046303&id=44901593&l=ec75d2ce43