It's hard to believe we've been in SE Asia for a whole 2 weeks now! It feels like we just got here and yet it feels like we've been here FOREVER! Anyone relate?!? …
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Cambo Checks In Again…
June 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment
This Doesn’t Happen in America!
June 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Jambo! Habari gani? In case you don’t speak Kiswahili that means, “Hello! What’s new?” Over the past couple of weeks we have been spending our mornings learning Kiswhalili from our new friend Ann. We have learned some useful phrases and have been practicing throughout town, in church, at schools and during youth and children’s fellowships. We received a challenge to have a full day of Kiswahili by the end of our trip…we’ll be using a lot of body language that day.
During the past couple of days, we have had the opportunity to embrace the Kenyan (primarily Maasai) culture through our visits to various primary and secondary schools. Yesterday, we were able to take part in the Maasai Girl’s Secondary School church service as we learned dances and talked over a cup of chai.
We have also had the pleasure of making friends with a number of the local youth workers. We have been able to invite them over for games and hot …
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Meet the Interns!
June 22, 2011 by 1 Comment
The 2011 YouthHOPE Internships are well under way. Take a few minutes to hear straight for the horses' mouths about what they hope to get out of their summer and what they are up to right this very minute! …
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Transformational Trash: Donating Your Old Cell Phones
June 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Hey all, guess what? We donated a box of junkie old cell phones and won big money for YouthHOPE: $29.41!! It was like magic. Let me show you how we did it:
1. We collected used cell phones (plus their chargers if we had them) in a box.
2. I went to http://www.integritycsi.com/cpr and clicked on "Donate a Cell Phone." I selected YouthHOPE from the list of charitable options and filled in my information.
3. Integrity Communications sent me an email that I printed out and included in the box. They also provided FedEx shipping costs because we had more than five phones!
4. I sealed up the box.
5. I addressed the box and affixed the FedEx pre-paid label from Integrity.
6. I called FedEx to find the nearest drop off location. Then I dropped it off!
Integrity Communications received the phones, wiped the information off of them for us, sold the ones they could online and …
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Kenya hits the ground running!
June 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment
![airport[1]](http://www.youthhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/airport1-300x168.jpg "airport[1]")
Upon our arrival at pre-field orientation, we were surprised with an adventurous cultural experience to prepare us for our time in Kenya. During orientation we became unified as a team through the cultural-entry adventure, seminars, team-building activities, sharing our personal testimonies, and spending time socializing together.
We left orientation feeling prepared as possible to serve together in Kenya. Our travels to Kenya entailed an overnight flight from Miami to London. We endured a 9-hour layover, during which we ate, slept and began to write lesson plans. Feeling sleep deprived, our next overnight flight from London to Nairobi departed at 9pm. After obtaining several hours of sleep on the plane, we arrived in Nairobi, Kenya! Thank the Lord, none of our bags were lost in the process!
We were greeted with a humorous introduction to our host missionary, Elijah Ombati, and one of the gentlemen with witch we will be …
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What’s Going on in Malawi?
June 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Muli Bwanji? (How are you?),
Greetings from Team Malawi! We have arrived in Malawi just 2 days ago after a long couple days of traveling. The journey was met with little to no problems. It was a good experience as a team to venture into London for a few hours during our 9 hour layover at Heathrow. It was wonderful to be reunited with the Banda's as they welcomed us warmlyinto their home. It has taken us a while to recoup our energy and sleep and now we are doing well. Laney, Amy, and Katie went into town yesterday with the national missionaries Rutherford and Tsahai Banda to get traditional clothing called "Zitenge" to wear in the village's. They visited the town market for vegetables and fruit which was a immersive experience.." Never experienced anything like that before. It was intimidating and a bit overwhelming but stretched me in a positive way." - Laney Binkley
The next two days we are preparing lessons for the youth …
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Cambodia – Here we Come!!
June 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We're finally on the last leg of our journey to our home for the summer. We've spent 23 hours in 4 different airplanes, 8 hours in airports, 3 overnights - 1 in Bangkok and 2 in Phnom Penh, and now we're in the middle of our 6 hour bus ride to our YWAM base. Needless to say, we've gotten to know each other quite well already! Lots of laughs, lots of yawns, & not much sleep. Here are the highlights of our journey across the globe:
Being served breakfast, lunch and dinner on the plane to Tokyo
A 2 a.m. tour of Bangkok with pit stops for some authentic street food and a drive through the flower market
Sweating through multiple pairs of clothes
Paying in U.S. Dollars and getting change in Khmer Riel
Meeting and LOVING our host, Jenni
Drive-bys of the King's Palace
No shoes, cushion seats, AMAZING dinner
Lots of tuk-tuk rides all around the city
Bartering in the market
A trip to the TUOL SLENG Genocide Museum …
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Our Summer Interns are AMAZING!
June 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I had the chance to spend a day with our intern teams at Pre-Field Orientation which took place at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. After having followed the process of planning and recruiting for the four YouthHOPE internships, it was great to finally meet the people that will be sent out as global youth ministry ambassadors. I must tell you that I was very impressed with the quality of each and every one of the interns. One of the reasons that I spent the day with them was to provide some training in the area of global youth ministry, to share the vision of YouthHOPE and also to teach on the subjects of worldview and culture. They interacted well and seemed very eager to learn. To me a "learner spirit" is one of the of important characteristics that we look for in our interns. While they go to serve the people in the country of their internship, they also go to learn from them. It is only with …
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Jobs for teens not always a good thing
June 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment
One of the projects that YouthHOPE is developing is about creating jobs for youth. Unemployment for youth is at an all-time high and it is impacting their lives and communities in a very negative way. Many youth are looked to in order to help provide for their families and for the millions of AIDS orphans, even to be the head of the household. We feel like one very tangible way that we can share the love of Christ with them is through the creation of jobs. You can read more about this type of ministry in our Southeast Asia project.
There is a flip-side to this. And it is even uglier. One of the things that we like to talk about is the potential that youth have. We are not the only ones that believe that. However, there are too many that want to take advantage of that potential rather than empower. Child labor was dealt with in the United States in 1924 when the Child Labor Amendment was passed to limit, …
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