This is actually a picture from Russia. I decided to put it on becuz I am now missing the cold weather. It has been so hot here and honestly I miss a cold breeze and a little snow. Enough of this showering and then being covered in sweat before you leave the room.

The top picture is of one of our dramas...Agnus Dei. The one where I play a blind person. Fun times travelling the world I tell ya :)

I was thinking the other day about what in the world I am actually doing. Who gets to do this? Like seriously. All I have I carry on my back so to speak. I am a girl travelling through eastern europe with 9 people and a backpack on my back. Who gets to do this? God is so ridiculous. Like seriously this is karazy insane.

....Maybe I will get to do it again some day :)

2 orphanages and a wedding....

Thought that you would like to see a picture of my karazy outreach team.

Right to Left : Daniel (formerly known as Jong Kyu), Lauren, Will, Jordan(back), Wendy, Stacey, Nate, Natalia, Me...

Hello Everyone

Round 2 shall now begin. Ok funny story, this always happens to me. I just finished writing an amazing super cool exciting update, and all of a sudden right before I press send the flippin power goes off at this internet cafe.... Unbelievable. Shall I start again?

Well right now I am in an internet cafe in Demetrigard Bulgaria. I feel like I have been in Bulgaria for a very long time since we stayed in Sofia, Hissary and now here. In Sofia we had a 2 day holiday and stayed at a hostel with this women who treated us like we were her kids, she even scolded us when we were out too late. It was quite amusing. In Hissarya we stayed in this rented house and we worked with local missionarys who are also with YWAM. While in Hissarya we worked with several different gypsy villages and the local church.

For the past 2 days while being in Demetrigard, we have worked at 2 different orphanages. Yesterday we went to one orphanage that was for mentally sick kids. It was a lot of fun, but it was really hard. Because think of working with those kind of kids where you are, and then add the language barrier. For 2 hours I ran around with a little boy, who I fondly refer to as Lloyd...since I couldn't ever figure out his name. I ran around with him on my back in the scorching 38 degree heat. I wanted to put him down and just leave him, but the only time he smiled was when I was running around and skipping and such with him on my back. And I realized, what am I here for, if I don't even show this kid love the way he needs it right now. BUt it was a lot of fun, it definately took me out of my comfort zone, some of you may know my gag reflex and bad smells and how I gag at the thought of bad smells. Well this kid peed on me during the ride, and how I did not even make a big deal about it I do not know. But it was really funny, cuz after we left the orphanage we are riding in a flippin hot van and everyone was asking where that pee smell was coming from....I pretended it wasn't me. :)

That night some of our people walked us around a gypsy village. Random children would run up and hug me and try to hold my hand. IT was really weird becuz they would bypass the other people and head for me. The children are so beautiful. When we passed one house this women came running at us, shouting 'sofia, sofia!'. And she was pointing at me. I was like I am not sure what was going on. Well it turns out that when I was in Sofia, this women was at a very touristy place and she was sitting on the street begging for money. And I hadn't had any money at the time that I had seen her, but I shook her hand and I gave her daughter my sandwich and coke. And like she remembered me becuz I was one of the only people that had shaken her hand and made an attempt to communicate with her. It was just something I would do naturally, I never knew that I would see this women again. But it was really cool to just see such a simple act of shaking someones hand had a major impact. She was practically crying as she told the story. And while she was telling the story I was holding her naked dirty baby. Let me just say if you plan to live in the real world and plan to help people in need...antibacterial soap is an amazing invention :)

Then that night, we got taken to a gypsy wedding. I walk up first and next thing I know this women who I can only assume was the brides maid grabbed my hand, pulled me through the whole crowd to the middle of the dance floor so that I could meet the bride and groom and take a picture of them. Next thing I know the microphone is being shoved in my face...they wanted me to make a speech. So I say 'congratulations on your wedding.' Blank faces stare at me, so then I was like 'Opa!' and ya the dancing and music began again. IT was such a weird thing. THen the next thing I know is I am back with the rest of my group and they are seating us and serving us drinks. IT was such an amazing time, I wish I could have stayed longer. If any of you ever get the chance to go to a gypsy wedding I would advise that you take it. The gypsy culture is an amazingly diverse and beautiful culture. No one can really define it, especially since there are so many different kinds. And basically every country in Europe has a gypsy population. Someone asked me if I had gypsy in my blood, becuz apparantly I have personality traits of one.

Today we went to another orphange, did a program and chilled with the kids and played this game with some of the guys where I think violence is the name of the game...hitting someone with a volleyball :) They were ages 9-18. It was a really good time. Then on the way back to the city we took a mini bus (which is a 15 seater van.) Have you ever seen 27 people in a 15 seater van? Flip its funny.

But ya on a serious note I would like to ask for your prayers on our final leg of this outreach journey. All of the 6 outreach teams are facing major opposition it seems. All of our teams are running out of money. our team has about 300 euros left. But apparantly when we go to Turkey we still have to pay for visas...and it is 3 times as much for a Canadian to get a visa than an American....what the crap is that? BUt ya as soon as we enter Turkey I believe that we will probly be out of money. And we still have 3 countrys left. But God will provide. All of the other teams are in the same or worse boat.

Also medically there are some challenges. On our team Natalya, her brain tumor is now growing. She is choosing to stay on our team til the end, but please pray because she is losing her vision and has constant headaches. Lauren another girl on her team, her Grandfather whom she is very clsoe with is dying, and she will most likely go home for the funeral. On the Africa team, a 3rd person now has Malaria. On the far east asia team, one of the team leaders while in Mongolia had to be air lifted to China because he had a very serious case of Pneumonia. While he is doing much better, please continue to pray for him so that he may join his outreach team again. On the South east asia team, one girl has been in the hospital in Bangkok for more than a week, and had to have an emergency appendix removal surgery and will be remaining at the hospital for the remainder of outreach along with her team leader. Another girl on that team has an unknown sickness and has to have more tests and will be staying in Thailand for another week with one more girl from the team. The remaining 5 team members all had to switch their ticket dates and stay in Thailand longer but are moving on to India today I believe. Please pray for us all! Its obvious that someone (not gonna mention any names) is intimidated by all the good things that have occured the past few months. But its ok, I know that we have an amazing God.

Other than that God has just really been teaching me to be real with him ya know? So many times I pray and do devotions and yet I am only scratching the surface, so this next phase of outreach I shall be focusing on going deeper and getting more real with him. Anyways thanks for your prayers and support!

Love Angee (Gela)

Dashboard Confessional

Hello Hello,

I am writing to you from...actually I am really not sure where I am. We have moved to yet another location here in Bulgaria. Right now I am in a totally sketch looking internet cafe, where you have to walk down the stairs of what looks like an abandoned appartment building, into a dark room filled with cigarette smoke and little kids playing internet games. Yes filled with little kids, the 8 year old kid next to me just whipped out a cigarette and a zippo. I almost wanted to take a picture.

Lets just say that this creepy little place is better than the hotel we are staying in. By Hotel, I mean hole-tel. Ok so ya, first of all we saw the largest snake we had ever seen outside of captivity, right outside of the hotel. Even our bulgarian driver was shocked. Second of all we are the only girls in the whole hotel. This is once of those places that locals probably knwo to stay away from. ONe of those places that you just know has an hourly rate. Alot of men stay here. Last night I came home and there was water coming out of my room, not a little water, our bathroom had flooded, one of the faucets had fallen off and water was just shooting out of the place. atleast some of the water took or atleast appeared to take some of the blood stains off of the bathroom door. oh but there are still blood stains all over the linens and the curtains in the room.

But all in all its a roof over our head, and if thats the worst condition that i have to endure on this outreach its all good :) I believe that we will be working with 2 orphanges on Wednesday and Thursday. And on Wednesday I think we get to go to a gypsy wedding! Which is flippin exciting! I am excited, I said that if I didn't see a gypsy dance it would ruin my impression of gypsies. So hopefully tomorrow I shall see some dance :)

Anyways God is still flippin ridiculously good....

Gela

internet cafe's...my home away from home

Hello all

I woke up early this morning just so I could go and check my email...how sad is that.? Well today we are making another move. This will be our 3rd location that we have been in, in Bulgaria.

Packing has become like a hobby to me. Seriously I have only packed like how many times on this karazy outreach??

To get serious again, if you could pray for my team right now. We are at an interesting place right now. Well we have been at an interesting place all of outreach, but ya right now especially. We need to go deeper before we go to Turkey, and like alot of things are preventing us from ya know? One girl on my team, she used to have a brain tumor and such and she thinks that it might be coming back, so she is going to get an MRI today. And some of us have started fasting for her healing, so if you could pray for that it would be good. I believe that she won't need surgery again, and that God will heal her, but I would just like more people to join with us in faith that she will be healed. The bible says that prayers offered in faith will heal the sick. And I am holding tight to the promises in Gods word.

But ya besides that we are at a very interesting time. We only have like 3 and a 1/2 weeks left of outreach, its so karazy to me. I can't honestly believe it. But I don't feel like I am ready to go home. I'm not ready for this to be done. as soon as this is done, i once again have no idea what I will be doing with my life. And I think that I am scared of going home. I have changed, I know that, and sometimes when someone changes and then goes back to the people and the life that they had before, its hard to keep the change ya know?

And I want to keep this change. I want and desire to grow more and more in love with God every single day ya know?

Anyways ya I would appreciate your prayers.

Angee

reflections on life

So ya, just thought that i would just share my heart with whoever reads this blog thing I've got going on here. I am in bulgaria right now. With the same 9 people that i have been traveling throught eastern europe with for the past month and a half. We have less than a month left until we meet up with the rest of our school.

Time is passing by so quickly. Seriously. Its passing by before my very eyes. I don't feel ready for this time in my life to end. I don't feel ready to settle into routine just yet. I don't feel ready to lead a normal life. I don't feel ready to work and just be. Even though travelling is hard, and this serving God thing is very hard, and living with the same people for months at a time is freaking freaking hard, I love it. I love it. I want to keep doing this, I don't want to have a life that is just work and living just to make money.

I would love to do this again ya know? Maybe staff or something next year. But as I was reminded today I have serious debt. Student loans and a bank loan. But why am I letting my financial status affect God's plan? He supplied flipping 70,000$ in 3 days. Why wouldn't he supply for me?

Its just the world that gets me down, makes me think that this life of travelling and serving God, is not real life. Its just a holiday. I have had so many people asking me how i am enjoying my holiday. I have a few choice words for those people. THis is definately not a holiday. I suggest that if you think what I am doing is a holiday, try it for yourself.

Its times like these you find out who you are. YOu find out what your made of. you find out things that maybe you don't want to know. And it sucks. It really sucks, when you find out your not the person that you thought you were. But then again its good too, becuz when i find out that i don't know who i am, i can look to God for my identity. Its when i am at that point of need when I have no idea who the crap i am, when i humble myswelf and cry out to my Father in Heaven. And I realize who I am, I am a daughter of the king, and that is so cool. That he looks past hte sin and crap and stupid things that I do, and he sees my heart. He sees me, a child in his eyes, a broken, sometimes hurt child and he just wants to hold me. althought sometimes i dont let him, but when i finally give in its the best thing ever.

So many people try to deny that there is a God, but deep inside everyone knows that there has to be something out there. there has to be something out there that loves them. Everything in this life is earned, we feel obligated to perform and do things so that people like us. But we have a father in heaven whose love is completely unearned. there is ntohing at all that we could possibly do that could make God love us more or less. and thats hard for people to realize in a world where nothing is free.

"I come to bring life...and life to the fullest." John 10:10.

where am i?

right now i dont have very long to write. i am leaving for some little town in bulgaria called hissarya. we are gonna be working with ywam bulgaria there. the past 2 days have been our holiday, in a karazy little city called sofia. it has been a lot of fun.

I shall update more later.
angee

my 20th bday

Hello Hello,
I woke up this morning in a horrible mood. It was my birthday and all I wanted to do was sleep in. I was so mad at the world too. So I decided that I would go for a walk to try to buy a phone card. All I really wanted to do was call home. I was just in some dire need of talking to someone from home ya know?
So I walk down the road to buy a phone card, I try 3 or 4 stores til I find one that sells them. And like I walk in the store and I wanted to know if it was for long distance calls or cell phones. Well I just wanted to look at them and see what they were for. All of a sudden the woman at the store starts yelling at me (this was my worst moment of communication since being in Europe) and I have no clue why she was yelling at me, and i was so upset that I just left amidst her yelling. And I was hardcore upset and I started crying right in front of the store, on the side of the road in Constanta Romania. I was soo pissed off :)

Looking back it was a funny moment, but at the time i was sooo mad. So i go to one last store and I buy a calling card. I go home to the base and try to make a phone call, and ya its a stupid cell phone card, I was flippin mad. My team was wishing me a happy bday and i was like this day sucks, henceforth and forever more my birthday is cancelled. And you know me, I made a big dramatic display of this.

And also today we were going to this village town city thing called Madgedia. I was not looking forward to it at all. We had to take like an hour bus ride to Madgedia, and still being really madl, I went and sat at the back of the bus by myself. I guess I had fallen asleep and when I woke up there were people sittig all around me and just looking at me. It was really quite funny, but it turns out while I had been sleeping Will my team leader came back and put a little birthday packawe goge beside me, and it was taking up a whole seat where people could have been sitting. It made me feel a little better. and in the card was all the bible verse references to verses about peace...which is what i am seeking right now :) haha...inside story.

But ya we got to the village and it was good, and we met the people who we would be working with. We split up into 2 groups and our group walked around the village. You see Madgedia is a Turkish Muslim, and a Gypsie town. So its a pretty poor town. And we walked around and like people came out of their houses to stare at us, and kids would run ahead and tell people that we were walking by. I truly felt like i was in a different country. More so than any other place yet.
In the afternoon we did a kids program. It was one of the funnest programs ever. I just had so much fun. The kids were so stinkin adorable, I enjoyed myself so much. We did a program and tothen we just played with them. This one guy one my team was holding this little girl on his shoulders and we look and i guess she had ripped pants so her right bum cheek was on his shoulder. It was so funny. These kids were so starved for love and attention. It was really hard to leave them.

In the evening we did a youth program which was a lot of fun too. Actually skipping back to before the programs when we were deciding who would speak and such, I was so mad cuz they wanted me to speak cuz i apparantly have the most in common with turkish muslims and gypsies...im really not sure what that means. but it went really good.

And during each thing my team got the kids/ youth to sing happy birthday in romanian, turkish and english. what are you supposed to do when people sing to you? i just sat there and grinned like an idiot. and it was a joke that the kids thing was my bday party cuz we had balloons and kids and games :)

And so after everything was done, we were leaving and i thought we were going to catch the bus back. but turns out we were gonna go out for supper for my birthday. and the missionaries we had been working with came too. it was so sneaky. we went to this sweet pizzaria. the pizza took so long that we missed the last bus too. it was funny, we ended up having to take a train! my first real train on my birthday! isnt that cool, although on saturday i will start traveling by train everywhere. it was fun. In the train station this guy kept trying to take secretive pictures of us. but i totally knew and so i posed (on his camera phone) and some girls on our team were freaking out that we were gonna e find our faces on naked bodies on the internet. and i thought taht that would be flippin hilarious!But ya I got home and a girl here at hte base who barely knows me had bought me flowers!!! it ,was so cool, and there were little gifts on my bed, and cards from my team, and cards that everyone from new zealand had signed. over all it turned into a good day.

anyways ya tyhis is turning into a book, i shall talk to you soon!
Angee

My Birthday

So ya tomorrow...May 9 is my 20 birthday...and i certainly am not looking forward to it. Not only is it my first birthday away from home, actually i am not sure why i am so upset about it. maybe cuz its my 20th bday and i am no longer a teen.

but k get this, for my 20th bday i will be spending the day working with turkish muslims and gypsies at a small village in romania. ya i am in romania. who else gets to work with turkish muslims and gypsies on their bday in romania.

but so far romania has been quite good, i didnt really do an update on poland, but it was good. here in romania we are working with the constanta ywam. they are a pretty cool group of people. tomro i will be working with street kids. i guess there are a ton of street kids here.

and our base where we live is a 5 min walk from the black sea which is pretty darn cool...and for those of you who have stayed up late at night wondering...yes it is actually black.

so funny i met the italian hIandball team. stacey my team leader got her arm shut in the door of a bus...i cant explain it cuz we arent really sure what happened but it was flippin funny and she has bruises and a large bump on her arm...ya they laughed at her. i have to admit i almost peed my pants.

i almost got pick pocketed but fortunately my hand was already in my pocket so they just grabbed my hand. it was quite embarassing for the guy. oh and its like totally normal to see carts with horses pulling them just drve down the road. yesteray i saw a cart parked beside a beamer. (bmw)

and today i made up my own language. me and my friend went out this afternoon and some creepy guys started hitting on us and when they realized we didnt speak romanian they started speaking english to us, so i just started rambling in some foreign tongue. it was quite amusing.

anyways i should go i will talk to yall later!

Angee

POland Poland POland

hEY GUYS,
once again i wrote a big long update but erased it...woe is me :) haha anyways i am going to romania tomoro. keep emailing me!
Angee