I feel like my REAL life has taken a recess. That real life stopped on January 11 2006 when I got on the plane to New Zealand. OR perhaps even before that when I moved to small town Saskatchewan. Now that I am heading home for an indefinate ammount of time, does that mean that real life will begin again?
OR is this real life? Is travelling the world with just a backpack and a bible real life? Should I consider it real life? It certainly isn't a holiday. I think I need to change my perspective. This is as real as it gets. Being who I am and living for God, thats what real life is. That is as real as it gets. Living for him. Thats the reality. Collosians 2:15 I believe says that 'The reality however is found in Christ."
Thats real life...Christ. It doesn't matter if I am a missionary, a carpenter, salesman, pilot, actor, waitress, garbage man, it doesn't matter. Its who I am, it is if I am living for God.
It has taken me awhile to realize that. The reality is in him. In him. Not in me, not in things, not in places, not in people, but in him. That is the ultimate reality.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
apologies are due
i would just like to apologize for my last blog...as I did not mean everything that I said.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
media lies
Today, I had a huge realization...Media Lies. Like I knew that it lied, but I didn't know the extent to which it did. I sat and had dinner with a Palestinian man and shopkeeper today. He was an absolutely wonderful man. Totally hospitable. He told me his story. The Palestinian people have no identity. They can't leave yet they can't stay. They aren't accepted. They are hated. They are hated by religion.
Religion is the killer of society. Religion is a disease. Religion is the root of all problems. Actually my tears are falling right now. How can people live a religious life? The Jewish pray at the western wall, they wail, they cry because that is basically the closest they can get to the holy of holys because a muslim mosque is built on the old temple. How sad a life it must be to think that you have to get close to the presence of God cuz you can't experience it anywhere else. What kind of hope is that?
And the Muslim put a graveyard around the Golden gates where the jewish believe that their messiah comes through. Why would the muslim do that if they don't believe that there is a messiah that will come?
3 of the worlds religions meet here. And the worst parasite that I have seen here is not Islam or Judaism...but so called Christians. I am absolutely ashamed to refer to myself as one. They are the most ignorant people I have ever met. It hurt. What is the point of living this life for Jesus Christ, if in the place where peopel need to see love and life, we don't show it. It hurt me.
I am ashamed to call myself a Christian. Ashamed. BUt you know what, its cuz we have turned something very pure and holy into a religion. GOd doesn't want religion. He wants our hearts. He doesn't want to place rules and regulations on our heads. He doesn't want to suffocate us. why is the north american church becoming religious? Trying to prove our religion right, getting into religious arguments and trying to be right instead of trying to be filled with love.
Its pathetic. What can we do? How can we avoid becoming religious? I haven't figured it out yet, but all I know that there is no life in relgion. And Jesus came to give us life and life to the full.
Religion is the killer of society. Religion is a disease. Religion is the root of all problems. Actually my tears are falling right now. How can people live a religious life? The Jewish pray at the western wall, they wail, they cry because that is basically the closest they can get to the holy of holys because a muslim mosque is built on the old temple. How sad a life it must be to think that you have to get close to the presence of God cuz you can't experience it anywhere else. What kind of hope is that?
And the Muslim put a graveyard around the Golden gates where the jewish believe that their messiah comes through. Why would the muslim do that if they don't believe that there is a messiah that will come?
3 of the worlds religions meet here. And the worst parasite that I have seen here is not Islam or Judaism...but so called Christians. I am absolutely ashamed to refer to myself as one. They are the most ignorant people I have ever met. It hurt. What is the point of living this life for Jesus Christ, if in the place where peopel need to see love and life, we don't show it. It hurt me.
I am ashamed to call myself a Christian. Ashamed. BUt you know what, its cuz we have turned something very pure and holy into a religion. GOd doesn't want religion. He wants our hearts. He doesn't want to place rules and regulations on our heads. He doesn't want to suffocate us. why is the north american church becoming religious? Trying to prove our religion right, getting into religious arguments and trying to be right instead of trying to be filled with love.
Its pathetic. What can we do? How can we avoid becoming religious? I haven't figured it out yet, but all I know that there is no life in relgion. And Jesus came to give us life and life to the full.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Love unfailing
Loved, hated, cried, laughed, danced, knealed, jumped, failed, triumphed, screamed, whined, hugged, fell in love, fell out of love, climbed, fell, sunk, leaped, drowned, up, down, round and round, lied, held someone close, been held close. all those things describe the last few months. it was a plethara of feelings. how can i answer how it has been? what can i say after God has kicked my ass numerous times in a row for the same thing. Why can't i just close the door on the old me. the me who wasnt me at all. the more i get to know my God the more i know myself, so who was the old me...was there any me at all?
I know who I am right now, at this moment in time I feel secure in knowing that I am what I am. I am who I am in Christ.
i am realizing that its not where you are or what your doing, but who you are and who you are living for....so who am I? Who are you? If you are wondering who you are...seek who he is. You will find more than you bargained for, you will find you also.
I know who I am right now, at this moment in time I feel secure in knowing that I am what I am. I am who I am in Christ.
i am realizing that its not where you are or what your doing, but who you are and who you are living for....so who am I? Who are you? If you are wondering who you are...seek who he is. You will find more than you bargained for, you will find you also.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Finally
Several of you contacted me and told me that I need to update my blog. It felt nice to know that quite a few people actually check this out and all my work isn't in vain...haha.
So I have spent the past few days in Israel, our whole group from back in New Zealand met here and we are staying in the Jewish quarters of the old city of Jerusalem. Yes its a major mouth full eh. Time here has been pretty good except a bank machine ate my bank card and so I haven't been able to buy anything for the past few days, but the good news is that the card should be delivered soon...so i am getting it back.
My team and I debriefed in Greece on an amazing greek island called Aegina. THere is so much to talk about but I couldn't possibly write it all. I got in a scooter accident and had to pay a chunk load of money, but its ok i am surprisingly ok. everyone thought that i would be really hurt, i slid under the scooter for a good ammount of time and the only reason i stopped is cuz my head hit a pole...thankfully i was wearing a helmet.
But overall it was a good experience. But Natalia, one of the girls on my team only got to spend one day in Israel because she found out the the tumor that was growing was actually 2 and that she was bleeding in her head. please please pray for her, and stand with her during this time!
Anyways other than that, my time is almost over. Actually a week from today and this phase of my life is over. I have a few things up my sleeve, but we shall see whats up Gods sleeve.
Talk to you all later!@
Angee
So I have spent the past few days in Israel, our whole group from back in New Zealand met here and we are staying in the Jewish quarters of the old city of Jerusalem. Yes its a major mouth full eh. Time here has been pretty good except a bank machine ate my bank card and so I haven't been able to buy anything for the past few days, but the good news is that the card should be delivered soon...so i am getting it back.
My team and I debriefed in Greece on an amazing greek island called Aegina. THere is so much to talk about but I couldn't possibly write it all. I got in a scooter accident and had to pay a chunk load of money, but its ok i am surprisingly ok. everyone thought that i would be really hurt, i slid under the scooter for a good ammount of time and the only reason i stopped is cuz my head hit a pole...thankfully i was wearing a helmet.
But overall it was a good experience. But Natalia, one of the girls on my team only got to spend one day in Israel because she found out the the tumor that was growing was actually 2 and that she was bleeding in her head. please please pray for her, and stand with her during this time!
Anyways other than that, my time is almost over. Actually a week from today and this phase of my life is over. I have a few things up my sleeve, but we shall see whats up Gods sleeve.
Talk to you all later!@
Angee
Monday, June 12, 2006
Last day
Today was our last formal day of outreach. Our last day of outreach. Tomorrow we will be in greece and thats when the debrief of our time begins. How on earth did this all go so fast? This is completely karazy I tell ya!
So more to think about, so much to just let go ya know? Like so many huge, good, bad, hard, fun, exciting things happened in the past 6 months and in less than 20 days this thing called DTS will be over, and I Angela Melanson will once again have no plan for my life. Its a good place to be I tell ya :)
So more to think about, so much to just let go ya know? Like so many huge, good, bad, hard, fun, exciting things happened in the past 6 months and in less than 20 days this thing called DTS will be over, and I Angela Melanson will once again have no plan for my life. Its a good place to be I tell ya :)
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Mac and Greece
Heyhey
I finally got to Macedonia a few days ago. I has been a really good experience and we got the opportunity to chill with some DTSers here in Macedonia. It was good, and tomorrow afternoon we are heading to Greece!!!!
I am so excited. but anyways an update will be sent to yall later on!
Angee
I finally got to Macedonia a few days ago. I has been a really good experience and we got the opportunity to chill with some DTSers here in Macedonia. It was good, and tomorrow afternoon we are heading to Greece!!!!
I am so excited. but anyways an update will be sent to yall later on!
Angee
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Rejected by FYROM?
I am writing this blog from, k get this a Japanese guest house. How me and 2 of my team mates ended up here is an exciting tale of many twists and turns. So sit back and relax while you enjoy the story.
It all started on the eve of June 4th when the karazy Eastern European team caught a night train from Istanbul to Sofia. The team was expecting the night to be incidence free and were hoping that there would be plenty of sleep involved during this endeavour.
The first 3 hours of the train were rather sleepful, but then the Turkish border came. Everyone in the train had to wake up and get out of the train to hand their passports to officials. As I stepped out of the train I was bombarded and my breath was taken away from me because the cold night air was exactly that...completely freezing. It was the coldest we had been since Russia, and all of our warm clothes we had either given away or were packed at the bottom of our bags.
We spent about an hour and a half at the Turkish border and for what reason I am not quite sure at all. Then came border number one of Bulgaria, basically incident free. After a few more hours of fitfull sleep (I woke up smelling something horribly rancid and I thought that we were being gassed and that people were gonna rob us...but other than that it was an enjoyable train ride) We get to Sofia which is in Bulgaria after about 16 hours on the train, and we rush to the bus station just in time to catch a bus that is heading to Macedonia (or FYROM former Yugoslavian republic of macedonia) the bus ride was enjoyable, for 4 hours I slept on the bus and did other useless things.
Then came the second Bulgarian border of the day. Once again was quite uneventful. Then came the FYROM border. The man came and collected the passports of all 50 or so people on the bus and when he got to me he said "visa" and I gave him the blank look which has come in handy so many times on this trip. And then he left. I was a little confused that he had only asked me for a visa.
About 15 long and agonizing minutes later...just kidding. He came back in and he said Canada and Korea off the bus. So I walked off the bus with Stacey my fellow canadian and Jong Kyu the karazy korean. Turns out we needed a visa and they weren't going to let us to Macedonia. So I go back on the bus and collect my stuff and say goodbye to the other 6 members of our team.
Here is where the fun times began. So this man escorts us thru this gate and we are all thinking that he is going to help us get things sorted out, but all he says to us is that we need to go to Sofia to get a visa. And then slams and locks a gate in our faces. A flippin gate that I could have jumped over if I had want to. So here we were, the 3 of us standing in unfamilar territory. And I started laughing. Its all I could do. We were thrown off the bus with like basically no money.
So I suggested that we save money *save the non existant money and hitch back. Well we got picked up by a strange man, and he took us through the Bulgarian border for the 3rd time that day, and we were marked as unaccepted...I have an unaccepted stamp in my passport. I think that thats quite funny.
Anyways so this man drives us to Sofia and drops us off and we wander around for a while trying to find the FYROM embassy, and then I go and ask at a hostel if they will give us a super good deal. And I told the story to this one man, the whole sad story and he had pity and lead me to another way cheaper hostel. Which brings us to where we are now. I was noticing that we were the only non asian ones here...me and stace. Well turns out that its a Japanese guest house. HAHAHA. so ya i though thtat was funny.
So tomorrow we will be going and trying to get our visas....the funny never stops :)
angee
It all started on the eve of June 4th when the karazy Eastern European team caught a night train from Istanbul to Sofia. The team was expecting the night to be incidence free and were hoping that there would be plenty of sleep involved during this endeavour.
The first 3 hours of the train were rather sleepful, but then the Turkish border came. Everyone in the train had to wake up and get out of the train to hand their passports to officials. As I stepped out of the train I was bombarded and my breath was taken away from me because the cold night air was exactly that...completely freezing. It was the coldest we had been since Russia, and all of our warm clothes we had either given away or were packed at the bottom of our bags.
We spent about an hour and a half at the Turkish border and for what reason I am not quite sure at all. Then came border number one of Bulgaria, basically incident free. After a few more hours of fitfull sleep (I woke up smelling something horribly rancid and I thought that we were being gassed and that people were gonna rob us...but other than that it was an enjoyable train ride) We get to Sofia which is in Bulgaria after about 16 hours on the train, and we rush to the bus station just in time to catch a bus that is heading to Macedonia (or FYROM former Yugoslavian republic of macedonia) the bus ride was enjoyable, for 4 hours I slept on the bus and did other useless things.
Then came the second Bulgarian border of the day. Once again was quite uneventful. Then came the FYROM border. The man came and collected the passports of all 50 or so people on the bus and when he got to me he said "visa" and I gave him the blank look which has come in handy so many times on this trip. And then he left. I was a little confused that he had only asked me for a visa.
About 15 long and agonizing minutes later...just kidding. He came back in and he said Canada and Korea off the bus. So I walked off the bus with Stacey my fellow canadian and Jong Kyu the karazy korean. Turns out we needed a visa and they weren't going to let us to Macedonia. So I go back on the bus and collect my stuff and say goodbye to the other 6 members of our team.
Here is where the fun times began. So this man escorts us thru this gate and we are all thinking that he is going to help us get things sorted out, but all he says to us is that we need to go to Sofia to get a visa. And then slams and locks a gate in our faces. A flippin gate that I could have jumped over if I had want to. So here we were, the 3 of us standing in unfamilar territory. And I started laughing. Its all I could do. We were thrown off the bus with like basically no money.
So I suggested that we save money *save the non existant money and hitch back. Well we got picked up by a strange man, and he took us through the Bulgarian border for the 3rd time that day, and we were marked as unaccepted...I have an unaccepted stamp in my passport. I think that thats quite funny.
Anyways so this man drives us to Sofia and drops us off and we wander around for a while trying to find the FYROM embassy, and then I go and ask at a hostel if they will give us a super good deal. And I told the story to this one man, the whole sad story and he had pity and lead me to another way cheaper hostel. Which brings us to where we are now. I was noticing that we were the only non asian ones here...me and stace. Well turns out that its a Japanese guest house. HAHAHA. so ya i though thtat was funny.
So tomorrow we will be going and trying to get our visas....the funny never stops :)
angee
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Gobble.Gobble.Gobble.
Just thought that I would start my blog off with a cliche 'joke' about Turkey :)
Man alive what a strange journey I am on right now. Sometimes it blows my mind.
BUt anyways I have been putting off writing an update on everything and I am really not sure why. But I thought that I would stop putting it off.
To start my update I need to bring you all back to Bulgaria, a place called Demetrograd. We were told that our train left at 11pm, and around 8 pm me and my team were chilling and eating supper at a cafe and then one of our contacts comes in and tells us that they heard that our train leaves at 9:30. So we were just like ok keep us posted (none of us were packed at all yet.) So after we just went back and packed and another one of our contacts came by and told us that our train wouldn't leave until 5am cuz there was a train accident. Well we weren't allowd to stay at the hotel. SO there was a big long decision process to decide where we would go until 5 am. Finally Nascow our one contact got a hold of a church for us to stay at. So we get to the church and we get settled in and I am on the top floor of this church and some people were in the bathroom on the bottom floor, and i heard someone say 'unbelievable'. and it turns out that Nascow called and said that our train was coming in 15 minutes. So I announced to all the people who were upstairs "A STAT HAS BEEN CALLED, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT A STAT HAS BEEN CALLED"
So we frantically got ready to go and rushed to the train station. We all got settled into the train and we didn't leave that flippin place til after 4 am. I couldn't believe it...we rushed to get on that flippin train and we stayed in one spot for over 4 hours.
So we were late to our church service that we were supposed to do. We didn't get to the border of turkey until about 8:30am. When we were at the Turkish border we had to get out and we had to buy visas, which they tried to charge us double for. But we fought against it :) and won.
It was much more frantic and exciting at the time...I guess my story telling abilities are dwindling.
But ya our time in Turkey has been quite good. We stayed at a church for about 5 days. We got shuffled around to a bunch of different contacts. We were involved in various prayer meetings and worked with different "christian" organizations.
One of my favorite afternoons was we did 'evangelism' with a group called BCC (bible course correspondance) me and this girl...the 2 most ironic people to be picked to deliver tracts...ya we were sent not knowing any turkish to walk around and give people tracts. Well the man sent us down an absolutely empty street. So there was noone. And so finally we turned giving tracts into a game. We ended up going to this mall and pretending we were spies and putting the tracts and random locations. Like in a pair of jeans at a store, or ya it was a lot of fun when we turned it into a game.
We also, I don't know if you read my last blog. We got to witness a demon manifestation. I know it sounds really silly but its true. It was a real learning experience. I don't really feel like getting into the details right now. But i will if you wanna hear more about it. BUt apparantly God has blessed me with a whole bunch of gifts that I don't necessarily want.
But this whole thing has really spurred different thoughts in my head. Like why don't we see these kind of things all that much in North America. Is it because our churches don't have true worship.?
Anyways this was kinda a fast blog/update thing my heart is not really in this update but i will update more later
angee
Man alive what a strange journey I am on right now. Sometimes it blows my mind.
BUt anyways I have been putting off writing an update on everything and I am really not sure why. But I thought that I would stop putting it off.
To start my update I need to bring you all back to Bulgaria, a place called Demetrograd. We were told that our train left at 11pm, and around 8 pm me and my team were chilling and eating supper at a cafe and then one of our contacts comes in and tells us that they heard that our train leaves at 9:30. So we were just like ok keep us posted (none of us were packed at all yet.) So after we just went back and packed and another one of our contacts came by and told us that our train wouldn't leave until 5am cuz there was a train accident. Well we weren't allowd to stay at the hotel. SO there was a big long decision process to decide where we would go until 5 am. Finally Nascow our one contact got a hold of a church for us to stay at. So we get to the church and we get settled in and I am on the top floor of this church and some people were in the bathroom on the bottom floor, and i heard someone say 'unbelievable'. and it turns out that Nascow called and said that our train was coming in 15 minutes. So I announced to all the people who were upstairs "A STAT HAS BEEN CALLED, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT A STAT HAS BEEN CALLED"
So we frantically got ready to go and rushed to the train station. We all got settled into the train and we didn't leave that flippin place til after 4 am. I couldn't believe it...we rushed to get on that flippin train and we stayed in one spot for over 4 hours.
So we were late to our church service that we were supposed to do. We didn't get to the border of turkey until about 8:30am. When we were at the Turkish border we had to get out and we had to buy visas, which they tried to charge us double for. But we fought against it :) and won.
It was much more frantic and exciting at the time...I guess my story telling abilities are dwindling.
But ya our time in Turkey has been quite good. We stayed at a church for about 5 days. We got shuffled around to a bunch of different contacts. We were involved in various prayer meetings and worked with different "christian" organizations.
One of my favorite afternoons was we did 'evangelism' with a group called BCC (bible course correspondance) me and this girl...the 2 most ironic people to be picked to deliver tracts...ya we were sent not knowing any turkish to walk around and give people tracts. Well the man sent us down an absolutely empty street. So there was noone. And so finally we turned giving tracts into a game. We ended up going to this mall and pretending we were spies and putting the tracts and random locations. Like in a pair of jeans at a store, or ya it was a lot of fun when we turned it into a game.
We also, I don't know if you read my last blog. We got to witness a demon manifestation. I know it sounds really silly but its true. It was a real learning experience. I don't really feel like getting into the details right now. But i will if you wanna hear more about it. BUt apparantly God has blessed me with a whole bunch of gifts that I don't necessarily want.
But this whole thing has really spurred different thoughts in my head. Like why don't we see these kind of things all that much in North America. Is it because our churches don't have true worship.?
Anyways this was kinda a fast blog/update thing my heart is not really in this update but i will update more later
angee
Friday, June 02, 2006
All Glory to God
Ok so. sorry i haven't updated sooner. i have been avoiding updating things and I don't know why. but i feel the need to update right now...i need everyone to join with me and pray. I need your prayers to be with our team. tonight was one of the hardest nights of my life. i really realized that...well i think that our whole team realized that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against the dark forces and principalities of this world. this whole thing just got real tonight. i don;t know what to feel to be completely honest, all my skeptisicm about this fight was blown out the window tonight. all glory to God the Father who lives in heaven. Jesus is Lord, he definately is. i may write more about it later, but what i ask right now is please pray. Pray for the next step that our team takes. pray for me. pray for all the other students on dts. PRAY HARD PLEASE
angee
angee
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