Guess who is going to be back in Canada in a mere fourteen days? That's right; me. It is crazy to me that I will be home in such a short time and that I have not been there for what seems like forever. I am definitely looking forward to putting my feet on home soil once more! 

These past few weeks have been full of fun and friends and fellowship. There has also been time to debrief, reflect, process, learn and relearn, understand, and experience things of the past as well as brand new things. Coming back to Germany after Africa has been such a blessing and I truly adore being in this lovely world here in Herrnhut.

The first week back consisted of resting and debriefing our outreach, and just ending the whole thing in prayer and giving it back to God. We also had the opportunity as a school to put together a magazine, to show what we have been doing in the past half year. All of us were incredibly busy writing stories and gathering pictures to get that together. I was on the editing team, so there were many late nights editing countless stories. With much help from a lot of the staff here at the base, we completed it. There are thousands of copies being printed, and I will be sure to bring as many as I can fit into my bags home!

When the first weekend we had back in Germany came, a few of my friends and I decided we wanted to go on a faith walk. In other words, we wanted to walk right out of our comfort zones to wherever God led us and see him provide and come through for us. We left early Saturday morning with what we felt we needed to bring: four people, three Bibles, some art supplies, a camera, and one guitar. No food and no water, and no money. We began to walk, just praying and trusting that God would bring us where we needed to go. So many things happened in the next 30 hours of my life where I was challenged to the core and where God taught me so many things. We got rides to different towns from strangers who we did our best to bless with encouragement of the Good News, and in turn we were blessed with 30 euros from one really kind man and his son. We played music in a tunnel while it was raining and were able to make enough money to buy a hot chocolate for a stranger at Starbucks. We ended up falling asleep in the mall but were kicked out by security. We walked for endless hours in the rain, desperately seeking guidance from God. Those hours were so exhausting; all of us were ready to give up. We were wet and hungry and wanted to sleep in our beds at home in Herrnhut. Yet we were an hours drive from home, and our only choice was to lean more on God to truly provide for us. We ate some of the best tasting bread I have ever had out of a garbage can, and we were able to stay warm and dry overnight by sleeping in a public bathroom. 
It all sounds incredibly crazy, as if I am a crazy person, right? If you told me you did all of this, that is what I would think. But I learned things that I could not have learned in any other situation, and I saw with my own eyes my God personally provide for me and answer my specific prayers. I finally came to understand that everything comes out of true love for God, when you are focused on his goodness and just want to praise and worship him. If you want to know more about this crazy, challenging, crucial adventure, please ask me! 


The second week of being back was filled with a lot of doing art, in preparation for our report back/exhibition evening that we hosted last night. We still had lectures every day, filled with teaching to inspire us to continue to seek God and do more with what he has blessed us with. For my last weekend in Herrnhut, some friends that I have made in Germany came to visit me and we were able to spend a lot of time together. It was a really awesome last weekend :) 


During this last week we are just spending time in lectures talking about going back home and what that will look like and how to best share our experience. Our report back night went really well; we were able to set up a gallery to show our photographs and art work as a school and a few of us were able to share a couple testimonies of the amazing work that God did with us on outreach. Now that night is over, we are all doing our best to take full advantage of our little time left here with each other. Graduation is this Thursday, and then goodbyes will need to be said. I am not looking forward to that part at all; prayers for strength are appreciated. 


After graduation, I will depart for Holland to spend some time with my mom who will be flying out to meet me, then, as I said, I will be home soon! 
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support! I look forward to seeing you all very shortly. May God continue to bless each of you in your daily walks with him. :) 


Love always, 
Fina

Hello to all :)

There seems to be so many words to say...

First comes first, outreach is over. My three months spent in Africa is finished. This in and of itself seems so crazy to think about. There is so much on my mind. I am attempting to process all that God has done in these past three months, and also in the past six months of my life. My heart is excited for what the last twenty days in Germany will hold, and I am thinking ahead to how I am supposed to say goodbye to my friends that I have come to deeply love and cherish in YWAM. Then after that I will hopefully be able to spend some solid quality time with my mom as she comes to take a long-deserved vacation in Holland. After that, finally, I will be heading home! Yet time is so short and I have such little time at home before I head off to school in Alberta. It feels like I will only be able to say hello then time for goodbyes will come again. I am getting ahead of myself though. Back to what God has on hand for me now!

Since I wrote last, I was heading back to Ethiopia. We flew from Nairobi, Kenya, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It all went well and it was so good to rejoin with the rest of the team that stayed in Ethiopia the entire time. The last few weeks of outreach were spent solely in Ethiopia with the whole team together again. We had started together in Ethiopia and it was a good finish to end together in Ethiopia. The Kenya/Uganda team had the opportunity to join in on the ministries that the Ethiopia team had started. Much of my focus was on the Jaja community, which is a small and unknown section of Addis Ababa where the majority of those who live there are HIV+. I would go down into the village, which was about a ten minute walk from the house we were living in, and would hang out with the kids there, playing football, duck duck goose, singing, and even just sitting with them. A lot of these kids should have been in school but because of no money for fees and no food for nutrition, many of them stayed home. I would also get to know the women there and they would kindly invite me into their home and would offer me coffee. In the past few weeks I have drank more coffee than I ever would have liked to and am quite enjoying not having to drink any coffee. Anyways, those last three weeks went by in a flash. I became really connected with the Jaja people and it was a wonderful experience. Saying goodbye to the women there and also to all the kids was incredibly difficult. That was the part of the outreach I had never considered and there were many tears shed. Yet I know that even though I am gone, Jesus is still taking care of them and my prayer is that my life showed them something that makes them know Jesus’ great love for them.

In the last few days of outreach, my team and I headed a few hours out of Addis Ababa and went to a lake, just to have some time to relax and reflect before we went back to Germany. Those couple days were awesome and very relaxing. The lake we were at is the only swimmable one in Ethiopia, so I took advantage of that and swam. If I closed my eyes and imagined really hard, I almost felt like I was back home swimming in a lake in Canada. But then I would open my eyes and see palm trees and I would remember where I am; oh how I look forward to being back in Canada!

After those days at the lake, we drove back to Addis, and it was the last night to be in Africa. At 11 in the morning the next day, on Saturday, we boarded a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany, and in the late afternoon we safely arrived there. We then took the train from Frankfurt to where our base is located, and finally got there at 3 in the morning on Sunday. So I have only been in Germany for about two days. That is crazy to think about. Everything here in Germany is already back to normal: I have eaten yogurt again for breakfast, I was able to play the piano, I have a bed to sleep in a hot shower to take, and I am even back to my work duty of cleaning the stairs every day. It is gorgeous here and so green; I love it! I relish the luxury of being able to walk by myself and to enjoy the nature.

You’re probably wondering if I am culture-shocking or what I am feeling now that I am in Germany after 3 months in Africa, and to be honest, I am wondering the same thing. I don’t think that whole fact has quite hit me yet, some parts of my day feel like a dream. I am thankful for my time in Africa and I am so glad to be back. I will spend only 20 days here at my YWAM base in Herrnhut and I pray to God that I will not waste a single moment of these days. I am very much looking forward to going back home, because while Germany is amazing, it is not quite Canada. I pray you are all well, and I will be seeing you soon!

Love always,

Fina