DTS Day 76.

Ahhh!!! We are leaving for outreach in one week. One week. Whoooooaaa.

Last week was our evangelism week in Coventry, which was awwwesome. I love DTS gatherings. I feel so at home in big groups of YWAMers. I really enjoyed praying around Cov, and really getting a heart for the city. I can't wait for this summer and the Olympics! Coventry will never be the same :-)

This is our final week of lectures, and so far it seems to be random lectures on different subjects. We have a lot of time off for packing and preparing as well. I'm almost completely packed, I am so ready to go! 7 more days.
We went and saw the Hunger Games on Saturday night, which was aWesoMe, since I've been waiting for it to come out for two years now :-)

ALSO, I am very happy to say that I have almost got all my money for outreach! I still need about £250 though, so keep praying :-D

How is everything with you?

Okay, I need to go check if my laundry is done drying so I can pack it now. See you!
-Abbey

On my own...

Here I am, in England. Soon it will be only me. What then? Thankfully in my aloneness I am not alone. There are still 25 or 30 other people on base. Just not mon famille. And, as it has been everytime I am left somewhat alone for periods of time, I haven't really noticed... not that I don't miss my family - I do, It's just that It almost feels... normal. Somehow living in a separate country from my family, living with friends, going about my life on my own (ish) feels... normal. Why the heck is that?? Well, YWAM has twisted my mind I guess. I have on the other hand, found myself singing On My Own much more often, but I think that may have more to do with my obsession with making life a musical than loneliness. Plus, it's one of my favourite songs. Oh how I love musicals.

I finally went to the doctor yesterday! So, it turns out that the reason I can see and feel my heartbeat in my stomach so well is... I'm skinny. Yeah, big surprise. I still have to get a stupid, evil, vampiric, blood test done though, just to make sure I don't have an overactive thyroid. Mah. I thoroughly despise having smiling, pain-loving women who know they are making the world a better place stab my veins with their cleverly designed blood stealers. I want to keep all of my blood, thank you very much. Is that strange? Hum.

Soo, I have watched SO much filmness since I got here. It's like this flat has a filmy aura-around it... You walk in and you just want to watch films... okay, so that is way over-exaggerated. But fun so say. I got up this morning and found my flat-mates/in loco parentises watching a show online :-) I love it.

Okay, so what is this all about - my parents are gone for what... 5 days, and my brother already has an injury! Apparently he fell out of the back of a pick-up truck... don't ask me how, none of my family will reply to anything we have written to them about it. So, he is supposedly okay, but you know Alex. He would say he was okay if he had just fallen off the side of the empire state building and landed in a truck full of steak knives. Ouch.

So, speaking of school, I should do some. I miss you world! Have a good life!

-Sincerely, Oxxana

Back in the Land of Eng.

Hola, Bonjour, Friendly World Wide Web! I am, and have been for about two weeks, back from my mad adventures in Spain and Belgium. Sooo, last week in debrief we had to think about how we could tell someone about our whole time in 2 minutes, so I'm going to try to write that here... NOW!

So, you know the Youth With A Mission base I live on? We run this school called the Discipleship Training School, that's got about 3 months of lectures, and then 2 months of practical outreach in another country somewhere in the world. My dad was staffing the one that started in September last year, so when outreach came, I decided, hey! I want to go with them! So about two weeks before we left I started collecting pennies, and somehow God provided me with all the money I needed for 2 months of outreach in Europe :-). So first we went to Spain, which was reallly super amazing. We got to help with the opening of the base in Caceres, and see some of the local churches unite. In Spain a lot of our ministry was prayer, and I believe we made a huge difference in the spiritual atmosphere of Spain.

Then, after about 6 weeks, we left for Brussels! The base there was much different, because they were already very well established. Brussels is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to, the architecture is breathtaking. In Belgium we did a lot of moving around, apart from Brussels we also spent some time in Kortrijk and Genk, in the Flanders half of the country. In our time there we got to prayer walk, work in a school for a week, do some street evangelism, help with a food distribution group and lots of other stuff. After 4 weeks in Belgium, we finally few back to England! This was the best outreach I've ever been on in my life. The team was really, really amazing, and let me fit right into the group even though I wasn't a student. They all mean soo much to me now, and I will value their friendships, hopefully for the rest of my life.

Last week was debrief from outreach, and then on Friday night was commissioning them all off into the real world. Most of them left the next day, and I miss them all like crazy :-( . Yepp! That was my outreach this year!

Oh my, that may have gone over two minutes... Oh well. So yeah, then this week I've just been really ill, sitting at home, doing nothing, feeling like I'm in solitary confinement. So much fun. I guess that's all for now, I should go get dressed, just in case on the off chance something actually happens today. Talk to you later, blog! See ya! Have a lovely day!

-Abbbbbey

DTS

Halla blog, how are you? Tired of being stuck in a dusty old box in the attic? Sorry I don't take you out much any more. Shoot, is talking to a blog a sign of insanity? Oh well. Not sure why I'm writing on here, I guess it's just faster and easier than journalling in an actual journal. So, DTS. This DTS is really awesome. Dang. Cool. Awesome. Sucky. I can't make up my mind about how I should feel about DTSes anymore. All the people on this DTS seem really really amazing. And, I really want to get to know them more... but... Ahh! I can't stand this. So, I feel like I've gotten to know this DTS faster than I pretty much ever have. Which is... good I suppose. Or maybe bad. Because, it just means that I will probably get to know them better by the end than any other DTS so far... Which is awesome, but it also sucks. Because the closer I get to them, the more amazing they are, the more I love them, the harder it is to let go of them. And that I will have to let go of them is, obviously, inevitable. I want to talk to them, get to know them, hear their stories, their loves, their hates... but I just know that every talk, every conversation, every memory will just stab me all the more once they're gone. And honestly, 5 months is not that long. Soon I will be all alone again. Again. Ugh. And I almost just really don't want to think about this yet, 5 months in advance... but I also know I sort of need to... I think. 'Cause, maybe, just maybe if I try to get over it now, it won't hurt so bad then. Or maybe it will hurt every single bit as much, and more. But hey, whatever, right? I'm apparently a 'strong person'. So a little masochism shouldn't hurt too much. Riiiight. Uh-huh.

I just don't know what to do... I mean, I would kill [not literally] to go on outreach with them, but will that just make it worse? or would it give me more amazing memories to dwell on when I'm 99? I just can't stand the fact that again, for about the 116th time in the past 3 years, I'm getting close to another group of people, and really starting to love them, when I know that in less than 6 months they will just run off and rip my freaking heart out again, like very other school ever. Grrrrr..... I mean, I don't want to blame them for it... It's not like they need to stick around and waste their lives just to make me happy. I just wish they would stay, or at least come back... but they almost never do. No matter how many times I've been promised "It's okay, I'll come and visit!" or "I'm sure I'll be back to staff in a few years", it never happens. They all move on. They don't need me as much as I need them I guess. Probably because most normal people have friends that stay in one spot. But not me. Oh well. Now, stop whining Abbey! That's a direct order. Sheez, who knew I had all this teenage angst stored up in me? I didn't. Weird. [I have just noticed, the word "Weird" completely defies the rules. You know, I before E except after C. I see no C. Hmm.] Farewell cyberspace! I shall talk to you soon. Au Revoir!