Saturday, March 29, 2008

BACKPACKERS VISION STATEMENT

Our vision is to radically impact the global nomadic youth with the good news of Jesus Christ. We are called to reach out to the intrepid adventurers by the way of relational friendship evangelism, hospitality and discipleship training. We will travel alongside them, eat with them, live life with them and share the love of God with them. We will be their family. We see them searching. We see them being transformed by the places they have seen and the people they have met along their journey. We refuse to be bystanders. We insist that we have what they are searching for and we commit to sharing the truth with them. Even if that means that we are cold, hungry, lonely and road weary. They are on the heart of God and so on our hearts too.

Posted by Nicki at 23:19:59 | Permalink | No Comments »

Final thank you to supporters

The famous author and Christian, J. R.R. Tolken once wrote, “not all who wander are lost.” I believe that we are all on a journey; we are wandering our own way toward discovery about ourselves and the world and most importantly truth. We are seeking for truth and justice our lives. It is a true joy and blessing the day, we realize that as we are wandering, we have not been lost, without purpose or divine perusal. God, as the creator of the universe and our very selves, is involved in our walk, our journey. He directs our path always toward himself and for his holy purposes.

Jesus guided me to New Zealand to specifically set aside time for him, to learn more about him and his love for me. I did not realize what this would cost or what I would discover. For three months, I was a part of a community that loved and encouraged me. For three months, I listened and learned from lecturers that shared wisdom and insight into God’s character, love and power. For three months, God held a mirror of my life up to my eyes and I saw myself as God did: proud, hesitant, selfish and wanting more of Him. He lovingly showed me that I did not understand true prayer. My prayer times included much talking but never listening or allowing God to speak into my life. Jesus showed me that I had doubts and hesitations about speaking boldly about him. I lacked confidence and feared what other people thought of my beliefs and me more than I feared my God. I also did not understand the true power of God and the Holy Spirit who lives in me. I disbelieved and ignored the Spirit’s counsel in my life. God’s mirror in my life showed me weaknesses that Jesus wanted to strengthen. For three months, God worked, I worked, he spoke and I listened.

Then, God sent me out. As a team of seven, we headed to Thailand and Cambodia to reflect, like a mirror, what we had absorbed and give it to others. I met backpackers from around the world; God brought these people to me. I was stretched out of my introverted comfort zone and asked by God to speak truth, love and justice into these people’s lives. At times, this meant just listening to an old man in the park for hours as he talked about his life. It was meeting a new friend and offering to pay for their meal. Seeing others’ needs before my own and sacrificing time and money. I spent a week with a German traveler who was hurting and sought friendship and something different than her life previously offered. I offered advice, friendship and prayer for a stranger. Our team shared meals, lodging, boats, taxis, time, love and JESUS! It was a difficult two months. Yes, we saw beautiful places, islands, culture and food. However, we were not vacationers. We had a mission and the mission was Jesus. We had a focus; and, that focus was others before ourselves. As seven individuals who are not perfect, along the way, we learned much about showing each other grace, forgiving when we hurt each other, prayer for one another and strength in God to get us through. It was a struggle at times but God’s purpose was bigger than us and He saw us through. I have been truly blessed by this experience.

I believe that the people we met have been impacted. They are following their own wandering trail and God has once again impacted their lives and given them direction. God has made himself clearly known to them and to all people.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, the things that have been
 made. So they are without an excuse.” Romans 1:20

There is no denying God’s existence, he is everywhere; may we all live in this truth. My heart is particularly for the people I have met and I care about. May more Christians who are bold and faithful come into their lives and may God speak through them.

Even before my wandering journey in New Zealand, Thailand and Cambodia, God prepared me for this. He gave me a support team. These people cared about me and chose to strengthen me through finances, encouragement and prayer. You are my support! You have blessed me and been apart of my travels and experiences. Every dollar, every thoughtful word and email and every prayer has been significant. I am grateful and appreciate what it cost you to read my emails, give notes and encouragement, send me money and pray for my struggles and joys. I pray that God honors you and blesses you. May the Holy Spirit guide you and counsel you. And I pray that as you live, other see Jesus in you!

 

Thank you for blessing me,
Nicki

Posted by Nicki at 23:18:35 | Permalink | No Comments »

March 20th update

Dear supporters, friends and family,
Hello from the homefront. I have now been home in Aloha, Oregon for about a week and a half. I am rested, settled and glad to be living out of a closet instead of a bag and sleeping in the same comfortable bed each night. The joy of little pleasures!
My main goals at home right now are to process my last five months and look for a job to earn some money. I am going through all of my notes from the new zealand lecture phase and rewriting and examining everything I’ve learned.  I’m also job hunting for a local position involving the outdoors and kids (my two big passions in life). Both of these are keeping me busy. I can’t help feeling blessed and encouraged by my experiences and the love/patience God has shown me. You have been a part of my blessing, my support and my journey. I thank you for joining me and putting up with my sometimes long emails :^) I thank you for your prayers, your financial support, and your time! May God bless you in new and exciting ways!
Blessings,
Nicki
P.S. I have finally uploaded the rest of my outreach photos and here they are for your viewing pleasure.
Posted by Nicki at 23:17:19 | Permalink | No Comments »

March 4th updates

Hello friends and family,
It has been weeks since I have shared any updates and news. I am sorry for the lack of information. We spent four weeks down in the south of Thailand and internet was expensive. But, now our missions team is back in Oxford, New Zealand and it is time to bring everyone up to date!
All of the school is back together again. The team from the Middle East, India and the two New Zealand teams are all together as a family! I’ve missed these friends and it is a blessing to share stories and experiences from the last two months. Each team has an opportunity to present pictures, videos, stories and everything.
This brings me to describe the last month on the islands. After leaving Cambodia, our team spent a few days in Bangkok resting up. We then took a night bus (12 hours) down to Krabi. This is a coastal town on the west side of Southern Thailand. We were picked up by a missionary couple (our contacts in the region) who would house us for a few nights. It turns out that this couple, Doc and Zina are from California. They are Muay Thai boxers and their mission is to love, serve and reach out to the Thai boxers and people who come to matches. It turned into an opportunity for us to be blessed. We spent three great nights with these amazing people. They were extremely hospitable, encouraged us, shared wisdom & experience and sent us off with blessing and love. After spending a month constantly giving out, it was a joy to be served and refreshed.
We were sent out refreshed and ready to meet backpackers on the islands. We started on Raliegh Beach… a well-known rock climbing spot. There are reggae bars everywhere with live fire shows, cobra shows and muay Thai fighting. I have a hard time meeting people in bars so it was an interesting few days. We did make a great connection with some Swedish travelers. We arrived on Raliegh Beach and due to a miscommunication, we purchased one room too many for the night. We decided to give the room away to someone who walked in. Sure enough, three Swedes and a Norwegian walked in needing a room. We freely gave them our room. They were amazed…why would we give it away for free? They tried to pay us, but we just wanted to bless them. We didn’t know it then but this was the beginning of a great relationship. The group was made up of Yasu (Swedish guy), Lisa and Jill (Swedish girls) and Julia (Norwegian girl). Lisa went rock climbing with a few people form our group. We had dinner with them all a few times in the next few days.
After three nights, we took a two-hour boat ride to Koh Phi Phi…my favorite place in Thailand. This is an island shaped like an hourglass. In the middle is the town with markets, restaurants and more reggae bars. We stayed in the town for one night and needed to find a cheaper, more backpacker-friendly place to stay. So, we found another beach within walking distance of the town. We stayed in cheap, cockroach scampering, hot bungalows for one week. And it was a very blessed week!! I met more people that week and had more great conversations about beliefs, God, the Bible, etc than anywhere else on our trip. Our Swedish girls (as we call them collectively) met up with us on the beach and we spent the week together. Yasu…we never made plans to meet up with him. But he kept showing up everywhere. Our teammate Steven spent a lot of time with Yasu going on hikes, kayaking, sharing meals, etc.
We spent many evenings with the Swedish girls and had an amazing conversation one night. We ended up talking about evolution vs. creation, Adam/Eve and original sin, sex, drinking, parties, churches, hypocrisy in the church, the Bible and its reliability, etc. The great thing about our talk was that it was a discussion. There was no one trying to argue their side and make the other person wrong. We were all respectful…no question or opinion was dumb or off limits. Lisa especially had a very opposite opinion from the rest of us and I was thankful for her complete honesty and openness on everything. The next afternoon, a few of our team went snorkeling with the girls. Lisa commented to Christine (teammate) that her and her friends had been talking about us after that night of discussion. Lisa admitted that they are jealous of the peace and joy we have in life. They want what we have. They are earnestly seeking for more out of life. Two nights later was Julia’s birthday. So our team had dinner with the girls and we presented a huge chocolate cake we had bought. Then as a present to all the girls we gave them Bibles, each with personal notes form us, and pictures of our team. They were so touched that we would care about them so much. What special girls they are….you cannot help but love them.
There were so many people that we met on the island that this email would get too long if I wrote them all out. But I’ll list them off and perhaps if you’re interested I could share the story with you.
1. Swedish guys: Joel, William and Birkt  (sp?) We talked about the spiritual world
2. Chris from Germany We talked also talked about the spiritual world. He believed in negative and positive energies and some other new age ideas.
3. Saki, a Thai man working on the island. He and his family are Muslim. He shared about what he believes in the Muslim faith and I shared what I believe as a Christian.
4. Dave and Rachel from Wisconsin. They are Christians teaching English in China and were on vacation on the islands. We encouraged each other and shared about our ministries.
5. Rosanna and Henry from Scotland. They are a Christian couple in their 80’s. Rosanna taught on YWAM schools like ours for a number of years. She was lively, joyful and full of wisdom for our team.
6. Howard from Norway. We talked about his life in Norway and briefly, what he believes and values.
What a blessed week!
            For our last week and a half, we traveled to the East coast of Southern Thailand to Koh Samui. There we stayed in some horrible bungalows for only two nights. They were moldy and Christine and I had a few cockroach friends. Luckily, we found a much better place to live. That week was somewhat crazy. It rained almost the entire week that we were there. We have had such beautiful weather that the rain was quite unexpected but thoroughly enjoyed. One day Christine and I met a name named Boris. He was standing on a corner waiting for a taxi and we started up a friendly conversation with him. We told him all about us and what we are doing here in Thailand. He was so open to talking and receiving encouragement. We asked him about what he believed and he explained that he has a Christian friend back home and he wants to believe in a God that protects him. He also didn’t think that he was significant for God to care about. Christine and I just kept speaking life over him and letting him know that he is loved. We asked if we could pray for him and he jumped at the chance. He was so excited and accepting of God. He actually started to cry and was emotional. We prayed for him, exchanged emails and then he headed on his way.
Another interesting man we met was named Wolf. He is a native Thai man that married an American and lived in the states for about 15years until his wife was murdered. He then moved back to Thailand to be with his family. We met him because he is an artist and has an art studio on one of the main tourist streets. We hung out in his shop just talking about art, life and a lot about what we all believed. Wolf was a great guy. He grew up in a Buddhist culture, married a woman from a very Christian family and now lives in a touristy town with many who believe in new age spirituality. This was a great opportunity to just show love and share experiences/beliefs.
            The last thing we did as a ministry is a bit different. Every month on the island: Koh Pha Nga there is a party during the full moon. Then every February, during the full moon is a massively large party…called: The Full Moon Party. When I say party, I don’t just mean a few bars and people hanging out drinking with music. There are over 15,000 people on this small beach. Drugs are everywhere, drinking, and sex is everywhere and wasted people are everywhere. The party goes on until the next day as well. We had the crazy idea of showing up the morning after with goodie bags to hand out. So, what we did is create 150 bags with a water bottle, an orange, Tylenol, some candy and a card (created and drawn by Christine the artist) about Jesus. I thought that it would be hard to hand out the bags…who would accept it from strangers?
            Five of us from the team decided to go to the island for the after party blessing. We took a ferry to the island early in the morning and arrived to a downpour of rain. Apparently, it had been raining all night…there were puddles everywhere. There was trash everywhere and the entire beach reeked of alcohol. We started offering the drunk and staggering these waters and goodies and received mixed reactions. Some people were completely surprised and didn’t know what to think. Some people didn’t want to take the waters. But the majority of people were extremely grateful and excited to have free water and treats. It was awesome to just bless these people. The hard part was walking around the beaches and bars and seeing the mess that was left behind. Most of these people are backpackers and believe in taking care of the land. They travel because they want to see the world and be a part of it. Yet, they come to this party and trash the beach!
            Christine and met a man sitting at a bar early in the morning. His name is Andy and he’s from Manchester, England. We explained about the bags we were handing out and why we were doing it. He was interested in our story and asked us to join him. This started a conversation about his drinking, why he does it, his understanding of God and past hurt about his parents’ death. We shared our testimonies of us becoming Christians and how and why we pray to God. He was so amazed about prayer and how we simply talk to God. He bought us soda pops at the bar and we stayed for a long while and chatted. When it was time to leave, we gave him a Bible and our emails so we can stay in touch.
            That day was our last official day of outreach. Our team of seven left on Friday afternoon from Bangkok, Thailand and flew to Sydney, Australia. It should have been easy for us to return….we only had one more flight from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand. Due to troubles with visas, we had to leave our team leader (Katie) behind. The airport would not let her board the plane because of a red flag on her passport. After two months together, we all had to get on a plane and leave her behind. It was so hard to do. We’ve been home in New Zealand now for three days and she is still stuck there. The immigration office keeps giving her trouble and she officially cannot get a New Zealand visa in time. She won’t make it for our debrief week or her own staff debrief week…she is just going to fly home to the states. 

 We have three days left in New Zealand of debrief and spending time together. We are a family and it’s time to bring closure to the group before leaving. I love you all and I am happy to finally share the news with you. I’ve desired to keep you all informed and it’s great to finally be able to. I do not know what my next chapter in life will be. I have many interests and opportunities to choose from. I’m excited to finally have some down time to pray and plan my next step. I will let you know what God has in store for me next. You’re prayers and encouragement have been such a support to me. You are truly a blessing.
Thank you and God Bless,
Nicki
Posted by Nicki at 23:16:27 | Permalink | No Comments »

Events from February 3rd!

this past week and a half was nothing that I expected it to be. My last email update said that our team was heading to cambodia on last thursday, that my german friend Ute was joining us and that we’d be back in about a week. Well…scratch those last notes and let me tell you what really happened!
**eh eh eh…clears throat****
It all started earlier in the week with a man named Erik. My teammate Christine met a man in an internet cafe named Erik. He’s an older gentleman, from Canada and dying of Cancer. She saw him laying on a couch in the cafe crying and had compassion for him. She started a conversation with him, found out about his condition and quickly was attached to showing this man love and being his friend. Erik doesn’t think that he is worthy of love and attention. He is abrupt and reistant to friends. His condition has worsened and he needs to go to the Canadian embassy to get a flight home. She offers to take the taxi with him and help him out. He tries to pay her and others when they help him…he doesn’t think he’s worthy of friends and people who just want to help him. Well, his health is deteriorating and he’s admited to the hospital. The doctors only give him a few days to live.
So, it’s wednesday night and we’re supposed to leave for Cambodia the next day. We have our daily team meeting and Christine feels that God wants her to stay with Erik. She needs to be with him during his stay in the hospital and his last few days. We discuss as a team our options. Do we split up (a few of us stay and a few go), do we all stay or all go. Well, none of us felt right about splitting. We are a united team that God has brought together, we stay together. And since Christine says that God wants her to stay…okay, we’ll stay for a few days. Well, with this decision, Ute decides that she’s spent enough time in Bangkok and wants to move on to the islands. I don’t blame her…it’s not a great city to spend much time in.
I am disapointed because I feel like it’s a missed opportunity with her. But the week that we spent together was amazing. We spent much time talking, learning about each other, opening up and sharing our own life expereinces/beliefs. She joined our team one night for our singing worship and enjoyed it. The night that she decided to not join us in Cambodia, we had a great talk. We talked about God’s miracles, believing in things we’ve never seen before, and praying. She has some stuff going on back home and asked for prayer. So, I asked her if we could pray together right then. She agreed and it was beautiful to hear her pour out her concerns and heart to God. RIght after that, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me that I needed to give her my Bible. The funny thing is that back in New Zealand, I actually felt like God wanted me to give my Bible away when we were on missions outreach. I even looked at Bibles in a store in New Zealand, thinking that I could buy another one to give away. But no, God wanted me to give mine away. Even since then, I feel like I’ve been preparing it for someone. When I met Ute, I thought it might be her, but I wasn’t sure. THat night after we prayed, God wanted me to give it away right then. So, I asked her if she would accept my Bible. She agreed and was excited. But she felt uncomfotable taking mine so we agreed that she’s only borrowing it until we meet again on the islands. I’m going to pray about it, but I’m already pretty sure that she is meant to permanantly keep it. Our last night we hung out we had another great conversation about God. (As a side note,what I love about our talks is that she’s the one who is curious and asks me questions. I never have to push her or bring it up. SHe is pursuing GOd and wants to know.) So, Ute said that she wants to keep praying to God and wanted some advice on how to do that. We talked about what she wanted prayer for and I explained that everything she said to me, she could say to God. There is no formula, no fancy words, no right way of saying it. God just wants a conversation with her. She can share all her emtions, feelings, thoughts..all of it in a jumbled mess as well! It was such an encouragement talking with her. SHe left the next afternoon and we’re communicating through email until we meet up on the islands again. She could use some prayer as she is searching out God!
What happens with Erick: Erik’s condition does not improve, but his attitude does. He begins to accept Christine, Bryan and Steven’s love and friendship. They spend a lot of time with him at the hospital. He still doesn’t want them to pray for him, he is resistant. They have many great and many discouraging conversations about God and what he believes. He is basically a man without hope. By the weekend…it is time for us to leave. Our visas in Thailand are up and we have to leave the country to get new ones. So,  they say their goodbyes to Erik, leave him with a Bible, a worship CD and Steven leaves him his CD player. I know that it was difficult for them to leave him…but they have shared God with him and now it’s between God and Erik to figure out the rest. God is always more capable than we are.
On saturday afternoon, the day before leaving for Cambodia…we are all relaxing (in the airconditioned lounge) of everyvody’s favorite Starbucks. We start up a conversation with a man named Daniel. He is from Atlanta, Georgia…he’s 19, just graduated from High School and has been traveling the around (greece, turkey, syria, thailand) alone since september. He’s waiting for his plane to leave in a week and has already been in Bangkok for two weeks. He’s bored and tired of the city. So we did the obvious thing (sarcastic and amused tone) after talking with him only a little while and invited him to Cambodia with us!  He thought about it, joined us for dinner that night and agreed to meet up with us in Cambodia the day after we leave.
God is amazing! I knew that someone was supposed to come with us to Cambodia and when Ute wasn’t coming, it just didn’t seem right. What a blessing to have him join us. We left early sunday morning and took a mini bus to the border. Went through the border, got on another non-airconditioned, not comfortable, dusty bus and started out. It’s about a six hour drive to go about 150 K. It’s known as the worst well-traveled road in the world (according to lonely planet). I beleive it. It was a washboard the entire way, swerving, potholes and dusty. But the scenery was amazing. I found out during that drive that I absolutely love Cambodia. THe part we drove through is flat, dry and you can see for miles. THere is a lot of farmland and small local villages. We stayed in Siem Reap for about five days (by the way, the food is amazing, way better than thai food). Daniel joined with us a day later. We spent our first day resting. We got into town really late the first night, so we just spent a day resting from all our travels. It was well needed and great.
THe next two days were spent at Ankor Wat. Ankor means city and Wat means temple…it’s essentially a city of temples…in the jungle. We’re up in the green jungle hills of Cambodia. These temples used to be for hindu gods, then a few centuries they turned into buddhist temples and now they are mostly ruins. A few monks reside there but it’s mostly run-down temples with tourists everywhere. What I loved about this place was the jungle. The trees and vines are taking over these temples in miraclous ways. WHen I have a chance to post pictures..you’ll see what I mean. There are buildings with gigantic trees coming out of the top and their huge roots wrap around columns and climb up walls. I love trees….I have a small fascination with them and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen…the jungle (God’s creation) taking over these temple ruins. We even watched the sunrise over the main temple one morning and had a praise and worship time (singing, reading scripture and praying). It was freeing and beautiful to give God glory in this place. While we were there, we spent our time talking with Daniel, getting to know him and blessing him when we could (paying for his meals, helping him out however we can). It was great to just show him love.
While we were at the temples, we encountered a lot of the children there. They are as young as four and as old as about fourteen. THey wander around selling things to the foriegners. Bracelets, books, whatever. THey are pushy and they say that they need the money for school and it’s so sad to see them. It’s so easy as a tourist to just brush them off. But even though we didn’t always buy things (you never know where the money goes), we would offer them food or just talk with them. There was a girl about 12 named Dala (sp?) that we talked to for a while. We actually talked about God and found out that her best friend’s family are christians. (these kids speak great english by the way). We listened to her and shared with her about God and Jesus. THen we offered her a Bible and wrote a note to her inside. She was very excited to get it. I never thought we’d minister to these children…but they need hope in their lives too!.
After two days at the temples, it was time to move on back to Bangkok, Thailand.  All of us packed into taxis this time (not big bumpy buses) for a quicker, cooler and less dusty ride back. Well, I prefer the bus. These taxis drive that maniacs! Swerving back and forth, flying over bumps and basically just making me feel sick. I’ve never been so ready to get out of a taxi. We made it through the border, grabbed another bus and headed back to Bangkok. We spent a last meal with Daniel and said our goodbyes. He flew out the next day to Greece and we had a day in Bangkok before taking a night bus.
So, we had a day to hangout at the Bangkok YWAM base. THen onto the night bus we went as we traveled down to the south of Thailand. We are currently in Krabi, an oceanside town. We will stay here a while (not sure how long) and head to the islands after this. And that is the most updated news of our team.
I know that this was a ridiculously long email. Forgive me my wordiness…but I felt like there was so much to say. Thank you again for all of your prayers and encouragement. Please pray for Ute, Erik, Daniel and Dala that God continues to work on them and speak to them. Please pray for the encounters that we will have here in the south.
I love and appreciate you all!
God Bless,
Nicki
Posted by Nicki at 23:14:53 | Permalink | No Comments »