Well I leave in about a week and a half now. So much has happened from the day I graduated up until this point in time. It's been quiet the roller coaster. Originally the plan was to take part in a DTS progam in Brazil and do my mission in China. I had my plane tickets to and from Brazil, all my vaccinations. Six exactly. Funny story, my nurse had obviously had a very long day and i was one of her last patients. She sits me down on the counter and injects me with four viruses and hands me a perscription for the fifth. Stamps my card for six vaccinations and is about to send me on my way. But 4+1 didn't quiet add up in my head to six. I looked at the bottles. and asked where the last one was. She was so embarrased she was about ready to send me on my way, with out polio! She promtly dug up the polio bottle and gave me the shot and sent me on my way. My card was stamped and everything for it. So no one would have ever known. haha oh well. Glad we caught that one. I learned alot form her though. Such as tribal medicines to get rid of worms,using three cloves of garlic ground up into a glass of milk and drinking that. Not only will you keep away the worms but the vampires too! I digress....
So recieved my vaccinations, my plan tickets, all was going well, got my passport with no problem. Sent in a request for visas to Brazil and China. A long story short my chinese visa came back just fine but my Brazilian visa was denied. I wrote YWAM down as my contact in Brazil. The embassy knew what YWAM was all about. Didn't like that and denied me on the grounds that I would be doing volenteer work as a missionary. In a nutshell alot of conflict is going on with the goverment of Brazil and missionaries there. The goverment is in lack of better words trying to exploit the poor tribal indians of Brazil and missionaries and organizations such as YWAM are helping those people get back up on there feet. The goverment sees this as a problem and is limiting the amount of missionaries they allow in. My first mistake was to show affiliation with YWAM my second is just bad timing. Thus I am forced to re-route. Within four days I searched, contacted, discussed, and finalized participating in a DTS progam with some folks in San Francisco. There outreach is mainly to the inner city residents of the Golden Gate City. For the last month we will be traveling to Italy and be doing some mission work there. My plane leaves on the 5th of January and I should be back by the end of June.
This is not what I thought God had planned for me, in fact throughout the months my heart got pretty set on Brazil. But life happens, God re-routes and he will use this new experience in my life and use me in this new city. I will go full heartedly into whatever he has for me. I have always said this. But I know now I really mean it, because that is the very thing that this trip requires.
The trip is no cheaper because it's closer. Infact it is more expensive. In Brazil the american dollar is double. The first three months at YWAM always costs 3000. In Brazil that would be R$3000 meaning I would only have to pay $1500 american dollars. The same applies for the last three months. This is some what of a set back but I have faith the Lord will provide. I've been working full time up until this point. But now donations is really all that'll keep this going. I'm setting my mom up with access to my bank account so she can deposit money that comes in or wire me money while i'm in Italy if the circumstance may arise.
I wanna thank all of you for all your prayers and support. It's really been great.
So that is the latest update! Quiet the turn of events I'd say. But hey, that's life.
It's christmas, we're snowed in with a solid foot and a half of snow. We watched the classic White Christmas last night. It was fitting. I'd never seen it before. Cute movie.
Anyways, hope your all having a wonderful day with your families!
............Just remember don't eat the yellow snow!
