I know its been so long since I last posted! Here's an update!
The end of our trip to Nepal was amazing! Our last week spent in Pokhara was one of my favourite weeks out of our entire trip! The first few nights we went to dance bars to chat with the dancers and waitresses and share with them the love of Jesus. My group went to the same club three times to visit and talk with the same three waitresses. These girls were all under the age of 18 and were working there to provide for their families and couldn't get another job because of their lack of education. We were able to encourage them and share the gospel with them, one of the girls had never even heard the name of Jesus before! We were also able to meet with them outside of the club for lunch to talk and just spend some more time with them! For our other 3 nights in Pokhara, we showed The Passion of the Christ in three different areas. We saw many people get healed, including an older grandpa who walked in with a cane and after praying for him, he was marching around behind one of our translators saying "left, right, left, right, hallelujah!" in Nepali! The Lord truly blew our expectation of our last week of ministry in Pokhara!
I've been home now for just over a month and its been super busy! In the past month two of my best friends have gotten married! Its been a super fun month of celebrating with them and getting to love and serve them in this special season of life! I've spent lots of time helping them get things ready for the day, planning showers and parties and just offering moral support! :) I love weddings! And its one of my favourite things to love on my friends and help make their day the best it can be! Other than weddings, it has been so good to be back home with my family and friends. I been having many opportunities to share what the Lord did in our team, in Nepal and in my heart, encouraging friends and getting excited together about what the Lord's doing all over the earth! I'm getting to lead worship at my church this sunday night and I'm really looking forward to it, especially after how much I've learned from the Lord during DTS!
Since being back at home, I've decided and felt the call and direction of the Lord to return to Kona and go on staff with YWAM, continuing with the Community Transformations family! I am so excited about returning to Kona to continue to run with this incredible group of people who are wholeheartedly abandoned and following Jesus! I am committing to the base and this community for a year. It will include living in intentional community, sharpening each other, intentional discipleship, prayer room hours, serving the campus, local ministry and developing leadership skills. The year will also consist of staffing the next Community Transformations DTS starting this coming September! The DTS will run from September through March, three months of lecture phase in Kona, then I will co-lead an outreach team for the following three months, starting in January '13. The Lord has given me a heart and vision for this next generation to be raised up, in love with Him, armed with truth, and trained and sent out to make Him known and give Him glory in the nations! I will of course be very involved in singing and worship on base, in corporate sets and in the prayer room! I'm so excited to see the doors the Lord is going to open for me during my time in Kona and to fall more in love with him and help disciple and train the ones He brings to our school!
I am looking for partnership for this next calling from the Lord! I will be raising financial support with the goal of $800 a month. Please pray and consider partnering with me and Community Transformations! For more information please let me know!
Email: carlypetersen89@gmail.com
Phone: 604-724-4054
I have a paypal account link to this blog if you would like to donate, I will also be setting up an account with YWAM Canada and information on how to set up monthly support will be coming soon! I'd love to share more of my heart and vision with you if you are interested in partnering with me so please let me know! Thanks!
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Some Highlights!!
Sorry for the delayed next update! The last few weeks have been busy and flown by! There's so much to say but I'll just stick to a few highlights!
First our second trek up to the village Puma. Praise God we went again! Haha although I was slightly nervous to go back, especially for a whole week, because of how sick I got last time... It ended up being a great trip and totally redeemed the first one! We spent the week building relationships and helping wherever we could - mudding houses, chopping and carrying tons of wood and teaching english to the woman's club that hosts us! We also went to a nearby village to share the gospel and pray for them. We ended up having an epic dance party and people got healed and some kids got saved! It was a really fun time in the mountains! While we were there the Lord started challenging my view and expectation of ministry and evangelism and what it "should" look like. He's been teaching me how to share the gospel in word and deed! There's been a bunch of freedom and release of random false pressure I tend to put on myself because of this. Learning how to love and walk like Jesus is incredible! And often looks different than we think!
We returned from the trek and had our pastoral visit from one of our school leaders, Steve Schallert! It was so fun to have him here with us and experience nepal and be encouraged by him! We also had our second 24 hour burn with all our Comm Trans teams all around the world! This time we hosted it in the YWAM cafe here in Kathmandu, and were able to have our friends from Iris ministries and other ywamers come and worship with us! It was an amazing 24 hours of ministering to the Lords heart! All of our team took slots to worship in their own way, like drawing, painting, reading or singing scripture, sing hymns.. Things like that! It was really cool to see how creative the lord is in how unique he made us all! For me the burn also gave me time and space to dream with the lord and he's given me increased vision about the future! :) I love spending long hours with the lord!
The last couple weeks we've been continuing our ministries here in the city. Still helping out at higher grounds bakery and building relationships, hanging out with the Iris children's home kids, praying for people around the city and building up and encouraging other believers!
Last Thursday a few of us went with one of translators, Ganga, to a rehabilitation center for the disabled and people with leprosy. We met with a group of believers there, worshiped and prayed with them and each of us gave a word of encouragement, it was so amazing to see their love and dedication to the Lord. We also played with some of disabled kids... They we're so full of life!
On Saturday we went to a youth service that another one of our translators, Nelson's, band was playing at. We had a fun afternoon with the small group of youth that came and the band worshipping together! Singing in both Nepali and English! At the meeting I also got to speak and share briefly what the lord has been doing in my heart and a word of encouragement that the lord had given me to share! It was really cool to be able to speak and share!
We only have 14 more days here in Nepal! It's crazy how fast and yet how long it feels like we've been here! We're finishing off the week here in Kathmandu and on Saturday we leave with the Iris team for one last trip with them to Pokhara, the other main tourist city in Nepal. From what we hear it's beautiful with lots of ministry opportunities. We're exactly sure what it will look like yet, but probably lots of evangelism and we will be showing the Jesus film in a few parks and sharing our testimonies. We then will start our debrief week off there and will finish it up here in Kathmandu! Continue to pray for the rest of our time here, for us to walk out in the fullness of everything he has for us in the next 2 weeks! Love you and miss you all and I'll be seeing you soon!!
First our second trek up to the village Puma. Praise God we went again! Haha although I was slightly nervous to go back, especially for a whole week, because of how sick I got last time... It ended up being a great trip and totally redeemed the first one! We spent the week building relationships and helping wherever we could - mudding houses, chopping and carrying tons of wood and teaching english to the woman's club that hosts us! We also went to a nearby village to share the gospel and pray for them. We ended up having an epic dance party and people got healed and some kids got saved! It was a really fun time in the mountains! While we were there the Lord started challenging my view and expectation of ministry and evangelism and what it "should" look like. He's been teaching me how to share the gospel in word and deed! There's been a bunch of freedom and release of random false pressure I tend to put on myself because of this. Learning how to love and walk like Jesus is incredible! And often looks different than we think!
We returned from the trek and had our pastoral visit from one of our school leaders, Steve Schallert! It was so fun to have him here with us and experience nepal and be encouraged by him! We also had our second 24 hour burn with all our Comm Trans teams all around the world! This time we hosted it in the YWAM cafe here in Kathmandu, and were able to have our friends from Iris ministries and other ywamers come and worship with us! It was an amazing 24 hours of ministering to the Lords heart! All of our team took slots to worship in their own way, like drawing, painting, reading or singing scripture, sing hymns.. Things like that! It was really cool to see how creative the lord is in how unique he made us all! For me the burn also gave me time and space to dream with the lord and he's given me increased vision about the future! :) I love spending long hours with the lord!
The last couple weeks we've been continuing our ministries here in the city. Still helping out at higher grounds bakery and building relationships, hanging out with the Iris children's home kids, praying for people around the city and building up and encouraging other believers!
Last Thursday a few of us went with one of translators, Ganga, to a rehabilitation center for the disabled and people with leprosy. We met with a group of believers there, worshiped and prayed with them and each of us gave a word of encouragement, it was so amazing to see their love and dedication to the Lord. We also played with some of disabled kids... They we're so full of life!
On Saturday we went to a youth service that another one of our translators, Nelson's, band was playing at. We had a fun afternoon with the small group of youth that came and the band worshipping together! Singing in both Nepali and English! At the meeting I also got to speak and share briefly what the lord has been doing in my heart and a word of encouragement that the lord had given me to share! It was really cool to be able to speak and share!
We only have 14 more days here in Nepal! It's crazy how fast and yet how long it feels like we've been here! We're finishing off the week here in Kathmandu and on Saturday we leave with the Iris team for one last trip with them to Pokhara, the other main tourist city in Nepal. From what we hear it's beautiful with lots of ministry opportunities. We're exactly sure what it will look like yet, but probably lots of evangelism and we will be showing the Jesus film in a few parks and sharing our testimonies. We then will start our debrief week off there and will finish it up here in Kathmandu! Continue to pray for the rest of our time here, for us to walk out in the fullness of everything he has for us in the next 2 weeks! Love you and miss you all and I'll be seeing you soon!!
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Half way through outreach!
By the end of this week we will be half way done outreach! Looking back it feels like we've been here forever, but looking forward to what we have planned it feels like it's going to fly by. The past two weeks we've all been doing some different ministry things around the Kathmandu valley. A couple of us girls have gotten involved with a local business ministry called Higher Grounds, a cafe, bakery, crafts and jewelry making for women out of the sex trafficking trade or high risk women. It's been really fun helping out in the crafts and jewelry making, getting to know the girls working there, tons of open doors for friendship ministry and discipleship. I help out there twice a week usually. They took us to their church on Saturday and we spent the day with them just hanging out and getting to know each other better. The other days as a team we've visited other temples to pray and worship, and spent a morning learning about the sex trade and trafficking industry here and how we can be involved as a short term team. We're hoping to go into some dance bars to minister to some of the girls working and potentially share the love of Christ and offer them another way than dancing. I'm excited to see how the lord will lead us in that and who he'll lead us too!!
I'm definitely feeling more settled here and into the outreach swing. Every day I feel the lord teaching me and opening my heart more and planting new dreams into my heart. I have been leading most of the worship times for our team and have learned so much about worship leading and grown in confidence so much. The Holy Spirit has truly been my teacher in all of it and because of that I have fallen in love with him more! The intimacy and closeness i've felt with the Lord had been so sweet and refreshing. I've even had the chance and encouragement to start writing a few songs as well. :) This weekend I'm helping lead worship with a team from the international church for their service.
That's really all to report for now! We're super expectant to see what the second half of outreach is going to be like and what the Lord is going to do. We're pressing in for the fullness of our time here, everything he has for us. Please continue to pray for us! We head out on another trek to the same village and then to a few surrounding ones on the 31st for a week. Definitely pray for us then! Especially for health, I really don't want to get sick again! Also of course for the Lord to lead us and move through us as we preach the gospel and serve the people!
Fun facts about Nepal - to help paint a bit of a picture of what it's like here for you all!
1. There is always room on the bus for one more! Even when there seems no humanly possible way, there always is! They are not afraid for people to hang off the side either!
2. Socks with sandals is culturally appropriate
3. The honking of horns are continual and are the cars communication to each other, meaning many different things! Including: "hello" "hi" "hows it going?" "I'm here!" "I'm happy" "I'm sad" "I'm angry!" "I'm turning" "I'm passing you" "I'm not passing you" "you're in my way" "go faster" "go slower" "it's my birthday!" "I'm leaving" "bye" "see ya later" ... You get the idea! :)
4. Grocery bags are used for groceries and lawn ornaments
5. The bus boys sound like auctioneers yelling the names of the towns out the side of the bus. As well as whistling and hitting the side of the bus!
6. Food is ridiculously cheap! I can get a good full meal for around $3. And a decent latte for just over a $1
7. Snickers has become my favorite treat here! :)
That's all for now! As I think of more I'll add them!
Blessings!
I'm definitely feeling more settled here and into the outreach swing. Every day I feel the lord teaching me and opening my heart more and planting new dreams into my heart. I have been leading most of the worship times for our team and have learned so much about worship leading and grown in confidence so much. The Holy Spirit has truly been my teacher in all of it and because of that I have fallen in love with him more! The intimacy and closeness i've felt with the Lord had been so sweet and refreshing. I've even had the chance and encouragement to start writing a few songs as well. :) This weekend I'm helping lead worship with a team from the international church for their service.
That's really all to report for now! We're super expectant to see what the second half of outreach is going to be like and what the Lord is going to do. We're pressing in for the fullness of our time here, everything he has for us. Please continue to pray for us! We head out on another trek to the same village and then to a few surrounding ones on the 31st for a week. Definitely pray for us then! Especially for health, I really don't want to get sick again! Also of course for the Lord to lead us and move through us as we preach the gospel and serve the people!
Fun facts about Nepal - to help paint a bit of a picture of what it's like here for you all!
1. There is always room on the bus for one more! Even when there seems no humanly possible way, there always is! They are not afraid for people to hang off the side either!
2. Socks with sandals is culturally appropriate
3. The honking of horns are continual and are the cars communication to each other, meaning many different things! Including: "hello" "hi" "hows it going?" "I'm here!" "I'm happy" "I'm sad" "I'm angry!" "I'm turning" "I'm passing you" "I'm not passing you" "you're in my way" "go faster" "go slower" "it's my birthday!" "I'm leaving" "bye" "see ya later" ... You get the idea! :)
4. Grocery bags are used for groceries and lawn ornaments
5. The bus boys sound like auctioneers yelling the names of the towns out the side of the bus. As well as whistling and hitting the side of the bus!
6. Food is ridiculously cheap! I can get a good full meal for around $3. And a decent latte for just over a $1
7. Snickers has become my favorite treat here! :)
That's all for now! As I think of more I'll add them!
Blessings!
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Three Weeks In!
We have just finished our third full week here in Kathmandu. In most ways it feels like we've been here so much longer yet it's crazy to think we're heading in to our forth week. After our first week of really praying into what the Lord has for us here and getting to know the city, our town, the contacts and settling in we started to go after some of the words the Lord gave us. Week two we went to a few different temples to pray for people and pray and worship in and around the temple. Giving the one true God the honor and praise due his name! On our way to the first temple we stopped for this older couple sitting on the side of the path, half in a puddle of water with just a thin blanket. They talked through our translators and found out she had been blind for the last 10 months. We all gathered around them and prayed over her that the Lord would come meet them and heal her. Almost immediately she sat up and started saying "hallelujah" and "I believe" in Nepali. We continued to pray for a while and the Lord continued to minister to them and began healing in her eyes, she was able to see some light and shadows!! Some of our team then took them to get some food and help provide for their physical needs. We continued to the temple and prayed and worshiped overlooking the entire city, declaring the Lords goodness and lordship over this land! It was so amazing to be able to play the guitar and lead my team in worship in the middle of the Hindu temple. The next day we went to a lake that one of the girls on my team had heard of in prayer, and met a Nepali believer who had a business there and was able to pray and encourage her. She also was blind in one eye and as the lord ministered to her heart, he also started to heal her eye as well. She was able to see more light by the time we left! Praise! But more incredibly the Lord specifically lead us to her to be the body of Christ and encourage our sister and she said her hope had been restored! I've been learning tons about how the lord cares about everything, but He mostly cares and desires our hearts to come and be restored and find our rest in him. Our spiritual health he loves to meet us in and bring full healing every time! That were we also visited a mother Teresa home and helped out with practical duties - washing clothed and dishes. We also broke into two groups and together walked the road that encircles the main part of the city and prayed for it the entire time. It has been a journey of listening to the lord and seeing what he wants us to do daily. Which, honestly, can be exciting and somewhat frustrating as well! The lord is working and challenging me in so many ways, but He is so good. We finished that week with a 24 hour burn with everyone around the world from our DTS! Its 24 straight hours of prayer and worship. It was amazing!! Too much to tell!! :) but to some up my heart was drawn closer to the lord and my passion set more on fire for the place of intimacy and ministering to His heart! Week three we trekked up to a village called Puma. We went with the purpose of helping rebuild a house and disciple recent believers. We had a 6 hour bus ride and three hour hike to this little village built up on the side of the mountain with the most beautiful view of the Himalayans! It was beautiful and the people were super welcoming. Unfortunately I got really sick and was taken out for most of the trip! :( which made it more difficult and not fun! So not the best trekking experience.. But our team as a whole worked hard and helped with the house and we ended up more disciplining by example and the village was definitely impacted.
Please continue to pray for me and us as we head into our fourth week. Pray for health as a bunch of us have been and still are sick. Miss you all! I'll try and update again soon!! Blessings!
Please continue to pray for me and us as we head into our fourth week. Pray for health as a bunch of us have been and still are sick. Miss you all! I'll try and update again soon!! Blessings!
Friday, 30 December 2011
Welcome to The Himalayas!
We have arrived in Nepal!!
I have internet for a few moments so I just wanted to give everyone a brief update! We had about a full 4 days of traveling from kona to kathmandu. We spent two days in Bangkok thailand, where we had an awesome Christmas with one of our other teams headed to Cambodia. We then arrived in Nepal on the afternoon of the 26th and have spent the last few days adjusting, getting to know our town and the city, and praying into what the Lord has for our time here. We are working with Iris ministries Nepal which consists of a family from the US, a couple from Canada and a few Nepalese men and women. We spent our first full day with them worshiping and receiving the Lords heart for our time here, and a few specific words. The next few days have been spent exploring, prayer walking, meeting the people, and getting our necessary warm clothes!! The weather is cold! Especially compared to Kona! Please continue to pray for us as we pray into what the Lord has planned and as we continue to minister to the people here in Nepal!!! I'll update more with some stories when I get Internet next!
Happy new year all!! Blessings on 2012!
I have internet for a few moments so I just wanted to give everyone a brief update! We had about a full 4 days of traveling from kona to kathmandu. We spent two days in Bangkok thailand, where we had an awesome Christmas with one of our other teams headed to Cambodia. We then arrived in Nepal on the afternoon of the 26th and have spent the last few days adjusting, getting to know our town and the city, and praying into what the Lord has for our time here. We are working with Iris ministries Nepal which consists of a family from the US, a couple from Canada and a few Nepalese men and women. We spent our first full day with them worshiping and receiving the Lords heart for our time here, and a few specific words. The next few days have been spent exploring, prayer walking, meeting the people, and getting our necessary warm clothes!! The weather is cold! Especially compared to Kona! Please continue to pray for us as we pray into what the Lord has planned and as we continue to minister to the people here in Nepal!!! I'll update more with some stories when I get Internet next!
Happy new year all!! Blessings on 2012!
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Off to Nepal!!!
Well the time has come and my team and I depart for Nepal in less than 9 hours!! I can't believe lecture phase is over and its on to outreach! I'm so excited to head off and to see all the Lord is going to do in and through us. I don't know how often I'll be able to update on here, but our team is doing a team blog and the link is: thecalltonepal.tumblr.com . A girl on my team will be updating it with stories and prayer requests as they come! The last weeks of lecture phase were amazing and the Lord totally prepared our hearts to go. We fly out early Thursday (the 22nd) morning and fly to Bangkok, Thailand where we'll have two days over Christmas, and will arrive in Nepal on the 26th. I am so excited, nervous, and expectant for everything that will happen during our time living in Nepal. Keep us in your prayers!!
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
God is Provider!
He is so faithful! I have been raising support, as most of you know, to finish paying for my outreach phase to Nepal! In the last two weeks the Lord has been so good to bring it all in! The last $2400 will be paid off by tomorrow!!! Praise Jesus! He is our great provider and such a good daddy! Faithful to do what seem impossible or hard in our eyes when we do what is possible!
THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who gave and financially supported me and my team to send us off to Nepal to share the love and life of Jesus with the people there. How the Lord moves and works, the lives that are changed and transformed and saved while we are there, are in direct partnership and is possible because of your support! I wouldn't be able to go without you so THANK YOU! Blessings to you! I can't wait to share all of the stories and people that I meet in Nepal with you when I get back! We are at 22 days until we depart for Nepal!! I can't believe that it's coming so fast!!!
Lecture phase continues to be amazing! Week 7... (sorry I haven't updated you all in so long!) we had incredible teaching on the Bible, specifically the gospel of John, by our school leader's dad, John Gillespie Sr. he's a pastor in England. The excitement and realness about the word of God and the history of the bible really came alive to me through his teaching and impartations to us. He challenged us to celebrate in the miracles in the bible as if we were there and a part of them. It is part of our history. We should be just as excited and praising Jesus now that He raised Lazarus from the dead as if we were there, because it is REAL! Jesus really did raise him from the dead! It happened!! What an incredible God we serve! AND He's still moving and working in power NOW! Week 8 was a short week (it was Thanksgiving on Thursday here so we had a long weekend, which was awesome!) and we had our co-school leader Steve Schallert teach on worldview, and what having a Christocentric worldview looks like. It was a very challenging and amazing week, shattering some of our views and thoughts that were not Christ-centered or how He would think. Allow us to enter into a dialogue about what life would look like if Jesus really meant what He preached on in the Sermon on the Mount.
This week is another corporate week, with all the DTS' coming together for corporate worship and teaching. This weeks focus is on "making God known", on evangelism and the gospel. Getting teaching and practical tools and equipping us on proclaiming the gospel.
Another fun thing is my parents are here this week which has been so fun and such a blessing! Its been great being able to see them and share with them what life has been like here and what the Lord is doing face to face!
Thank you all for your support and prayers! The Lord is so good to me and continues to show me His faithfulness. I love His presence, I love worshipping my King! I love that this is my job for the rest of my life, to be loved by Him and to love Him! Praise! :)
THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who gave and financially supported me and my team to send us off to Nepal to share the love and life of Jesus with the people there. How the Lord moves and works, the lives that are changed and transformed and saved while we are there, are in direct partnership and is possible because of your support! I wouldn't be able to go without you so THANK YOU! Blessings to you! I can't wait to share all of the stories and people that I meet in Nepal with you when I get back! We are at 22 days until we depart for Nepal!! I can't believe that it's coming so fast!!!
Lecture phase continues to be amazing! Week 7... (sorry I haven't updated you all in so long!) we had incredible teaching on the Bible, specifically the gospel of John, by our school leader's dad, John Gillespie Sr. he's a pastor in England. The excitement and realness about the word of God and the history of the bible really came alive to me through his teaching and impartations to us. He challenged us to celebrate in the miracles in the bible as if we were there and a part of them. It is part of our history. We should be just as excited and praising Jesus now that He raised Lazarus from the dead as if we were there, because it is REAL! Jesus really did raise him from the dead! It happened!! What an incredible God we serve! AND He's still moving and working in power NOW! Week 8 was a short week (it was Thanksgiving on Thursday here so we had a long weekend, which was awesome!) and we had our co-school leader Steve Schallert teach on worldview, and what having a Christocentric worldview looks like. It was a very challenging and amazing week, shattering some of our views and thoughts that were not Christ-centered or how He would think. Allow us to enter into a dialogue about what life would look like if Jesus really meant what He preached on in the Sermon on the Mount.
This week is another corporate week, with all the DTS' coming together for corporate worship and teaching. This weeks focus is on "making God known", on evangelism and the gospel. Getting teaching and practical tools and equipping us on proclaiming the gospel.
Another fun thing is my parents are here this week which has been so fun and such a blessing! Its been great being able to see them and share with them what life has been like here and what the Lord is doing face to face!
Thank you all for your support and prayers! The Lord is so good to me and continues to show me His faithfulness. I love His presence, I love worshipping my King! I love that this is my job for the rest of my life, to be loved by Him and to love Him! Praise! :)
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