november newsletter

Another month has flown by! November has been very busy but good! I also turned 19 which is exciting!
This month our base had 2 major events. On November 14^th we had “Fully Launching The Pier” event, The Pier being our community resource center at our YWAM base. It was a grand opening type event, although we’ve been open for about a year now. Around 150-200 people showed up. We had bounce castles, live DJ, free raffle draw with prizes, vendors, and tons of other things. It was great to have an event that attracted our community so we could tell them about what we do in the area to serve and help them!
Also, on November 22^nd we had an art day called “Art in Motion” (or AIM) which Brett headed up. It was an afternoon where we used art to reach out to the kids in our community and allow them to express themselves through art! It was a fun day with tons of creative art projects to do with the kids. It was a huge success with about 25 kids and tons of volunteers. We hope to do it on more of a regular basis.

*making art with the kids*
For Thanksgiving break I went to California for a week. One of my YWAM friends who I went to Turkey with, Peter, and his family opened their home to me for the week. They blessed me with a plane ticket to San Francisco; otherwise I would have had to stay in Las Vegas. It was a great week and a much needed break. It was also my first American Thanksgiving. Not much different than Canadian, but Americans go all out and it’s a bigger deal here. I also got to see one of my best friends Kristen who did the 5 month school with me in Las Vegas and Turkey. I missed being able to hang out with Peter and Kristen all the time. It was awesome to see them again as it had been 5 months since I’d seen them last.As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I am still waiting for my Visa to come in. Since it hasn’t come yet, I’m leaving the country for Christmas since my current Visa expires soon. I’ll be going to Calgary, Alberta on the 18^th to spend the holidays with my oldest sister Megan. I’m excited to see her again and I’m going to be an auntie! She’s due shortly after the New Year so I’m hoping she’ll have the baby before I have to go back to Las Vegas. Please continue to pray that my Visa will come in the near future so that I can return after my Christmas vacation.
Everything has been going well with Mission Adventures and recruiting teams for next year. As our 2010 schedule of teams starts to fill, I continue to get more excited about the students that will come and get excited about missions! We have a very busy year ahead of us!
Thank you for your continued support and prayers. My next newsletter will be in the New Year, so I hope you have a great Christmas surrounded by family, friends, eggnog and cookies. J

Prayer points:
-For my Visa!!!
-Safety as I travel during Christmas
-For our YWAM base as we face challenges

Praise points:
-I had a great and refreshing Thanksgiving break!
-Mission Adventures continues to have more teams interested for 2010
-I get to go to Calgary!

October Newsletter

Here's my most recent newsletter if you haven't already received it! :) (Sorry if the formatting is weird; it didn't transfer well).

Hello from Las Vegas! Time has flown by and I’ve been back in Vegas for a little over a month now. I ended up leaving for Vegas at the end of September, rather than the beginning like originally planned. There were some complications with me getting a Visa; which one to get, when to get it, etc. but everything has worked itself out (for now at least) and I’m here on a 3 month Visa. Since arriving, I have applied for my “Religious Worker Visa” which will allow me to stay in the states for 2 years. It’s still in the works of being processed, so please pray that I will be able to get the Visa before my other Visa runs out in December.

I live on base with 5 other people; four boys and one girl. This is Andrea (my roommate) and I.

It’s nice to be able to wake up and walk down the hall to your office to work (this comes in handy when you wake up minutes before your suppose to be there!)

I’ve been keeping myself busy with tons of things to do around the base to get the Mission Adventures (MA) program ready for next year. Currently, we are focusing on recruiting; trying to get more teams (youth groups) for next year. Recruiting for us means phone calls, mail outs, emails, and more phone calls. This is the first time that the MA program here in Vegas has had more than one staff member running the program, so we’re far ahead in recruiting compared to where they usually would be. I work alongside 2 other people who are also passionate about seeing youth equipped to go to the nations; Sam (who has been running the program for the past 2 years), and Brett (who also just joined staff). Recently, we prayed about how many students we should aim for next year and we felt like God wanted us to try and get 600 students. This past year, MA saw about 300 students come through. So with 2 extra staff, 600 is totally do-able!

In September, a few of us at the base took part in a child trafficking walk our friend Joe headed up. Aside from the fact we walked for over 45 minutes just to get to the meeting place for the walk because we got lost, it was great to be part of a movement here in Vegas.

As we walked, people held signs that said things like “Real men don’t buy sex”, “Our girls are not for sale”, and “Over 400 child sex slaves sold in Las Vegas in 1 month”. It’s scary to think that a thing like child trafficking happens right down the street (literally!).

I’m still in the search for a local church to get connected with. Currently I’ve been going to “Church of the Way” which is a smaller church with mainly younger people. Recently Sam and I went to hang out with some of them at a going away party for a friend. Afterwards, five of us went 4 wheeling in a jeep in the desert. As the sun was setting we got ‘stuck’ on the side of a mountain and decided it wasn’t safe to drive any further in fear of rolling. We ended up waiting for about 3 hours for someone to bring us tools to release the sway bar (what that is, I’m not sure but it worked). As we stood waiting, we began to share our testimonies. It was so encouraging to hear where everyone was coming from and the things that God had brought them through. Aside from the fact that I was wearing a dress, I was thankful for this time to grow and share God’s glory in our lives as we shivered and looked over the city of Las Vegas.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers! Hope to hear from you soon!

Prayer Points:
-For my Visa to come in on time!
-For continued finances as I live a "faith based lifestyle"
-For the MA program; unity as a staff, more teams, energy

Praise Points:
-I was blessed with a plane ticket to California in November for Thanksgiving with friends
-We've had a great start to the recruiting season with teams already interested for 2010

im back!

I made it back to Las Vegas after a long day of flying (halifax to toronto to denver to las vegas). It seams to be cheaper with the more stops you have, which i dont mind too much. i flew in on tuesday the 22nd in the evening, greeted by all the other YWAM staff that live on base with me. it was great to see their lovely faces again. i was grateful for not having any problems getting a 3 month visa while in immigration in to. suuuch an answer to prayer; ever since i missed my flight in january to las vegas, i always get extremely nervous and shaky when going through immigration.
on wednesday, most of my day was spent sitting in an empty bunk room with brett and sam (my co-staff for Mission Adventures) while sam talked .. and talked some more, about what we'll be doing the next while, and within the next 2 years .. expectations, the whole 9 yards. sam left on thursday for the weekend to go to LA for a youth specialities conference where theres a YWAM MA booth and tons of other ministries booths for youth pastors to look at for missions trips. hopefully he'll get to meet some youth pastors/leaders to come to vegas for a week. while sam was gone, myself and brett called, and called, and emailed and called youth pastors/leaders to tell them about the MA program, trying to get more teams. and reading as well .. im going to be the main registrar for teams so i have a lot of info to read up on, and just other general things for the MA program to read about.
this weekend is when the DTS students for the next DTS are arriving!!! it starts on monday .. the dts only has 3 students .. all girls! just waiting on one last one to arrive in a couple of hours. it'll be nice to have some other girls living at the base .. me and andrea are out numbered by the male staff that live on base .. 4 to 2.
OHHH. how could i forget to mention.
yesterday, andrea and I bought a new member to our YWAM family. his name is puddles and is a fat big gold fish .. with one funky black eye. because of his size, i think we need to buy him a new bowl. the one we bought him is a 3$ glass bowl for a kitchen, but seams to be a little bit to small for him. hopefully he doesnt die sooon .. im hoping that if he plans on dying soon, that he dies within the next 48 hours so that we can get a full refund at walmart.
other than that, not a whole lot else is new! got moved back into my room with andrea .. its nice to have such a large room, and only have to share it with one other person! the other day we also moved around one of the offices in order to put myself and brett by sams desk so its a bit easier to work that way. alllsssoo, recently ive been learning how to drive the 15 passenger vans, which is quite fun!! not as hard as i thought it was going to be .. i have yet to try parking, so i bet that'll be a treat in itself. it'll be great to be able to drive instead of having to depend on other people to drive me places when i need to get something, go somewhere, etc.. paying for gas for such a large boat sucks tho.
one last thing; yesterday afternoon/evening, 5 of us went to fremont street (usually about a 20 min walk) to join up with our friend who was leading a 'las vegas stop child trafficking now' walk. we thought that since it wasnt very far, we could walk to the walk. turns out, we got lost (understandably) and walked for 45 min .. to far. aventually we found the cross street (n. 8th) we were looking for, and as we walked up, they were all just leaving to start the walk. great 'protest' to be able to be a part of!!
i'll try my best to keep this thing updated .. maybe some pictures too !
:)
blessings !
beth!

update on my life .. whats next!

HELLO. Another post from Beth!! This is a long one, but there's some pictures to keep you entertained! Please take some time to read this important blog if you haven't already received this via letter/email. It's basically what I've been doing for the past year with some stories, and what I'm going to be up to for the next while! Love to hear what you think, so shoot me a email! :)

PAST(Jan.-April)
After graduating from high school a semester early, I left for Las Vegas to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). YWAM is an international interdenominational Christian organization that equips youth to share the gospel all over the world with the goal of “knowing God and making Him known”. For 3 months of my DTS myself, 6 other students and 3 leaders (from 5 different countries) stayed in Vegas for “lecture phase”. Lecture phase is the first half of DTS devoted to hearing from different speakers every week on various topics.

This was a great time for me to take a season of my life away to focus on God and learn more about the person that I am and becoming.

(April-June)
At the end of April we left for 2 months of “outreach” to Turkey where we traveled around from city to city. This was time for us to apply things that we had learned previously and experiencing life on the mission field. While in Turkey we ...
· Passed out Bibles (NT)
· Childcare at a YWAM conference
· Shared our testimonies with non-believers
· Taught English
· Helped during services at international churches
· Met English speaking students on university campuses and built relationships with them
· Building work for a small church
· Working with the fulltime missionaries
· & many other fun and exciting things!

*At Zeus’s Temple. We got to see tons of ruins and famous sites (Like the Blue Mosque, Ephesus, and Ayo Sophia)*

While in Turkey, God opened my eyes to another part of the world. Being in a country that is so influenced by Islamic ways (which we were reminded by every morning at 5am and four other times during the day) was something that we had to adjust to. At the beginning of the trip, I doubted the effectiveness that we could have because of our lack of Turkish. Throughout the trip I was reminded again and again that God is bigger than any language barrier, and He was still able to use us in unimaginable ways. I saw this through our campus ministries where God seemed to lead us directly towards English speaking students. Near the end of our trip, two of my team mates and I were able to share the gospel with a man who didn’t speak English. Using a Turkish Bible, we were able to show him verses and further explain the gospel. As the man’s eyes started to fill up with tears, I couldn’t help but be reminded of how BIG of a God we serve. These types of experiences get me excited about taking the gospel to new and unreached areas of the world.

(June)
We then returned to Vegas for one last week of debriefing. We had our graduation as we finished DTS.

I said goodbye to my DTS mates the same day I started another season in my life.

(June-August)
I then started a season of discipling youth. My summer consisted of staying in Vegas at our base on staff with Mission Adventures (MA). MA is a program that disciples and equips teenagers to do missions; within their city and around the world. Every week a team (usually a youth group) came in from all over North America. We fed and housed them at our base and taught them about evangelism and how to do it effectively. We took them out on the streets of Las Vegas to apply it all; to share Christ through different types of evangelism.
Last year I was an MA student in Las Vegas. It’s the program that got me into doing missions and a DTS. My goal for the summer was to do the same thing for other youth; getting them excited about missions.

*MA Summer Staff 2009*

FUTURE
Recently, God has put it on my heart to make a commitment to the Mission Adventures program. My heart is to show youth the calling on their lives; to teach them to do their part to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) and show them how to live it out.
What will I be doing as MA staff for the next 2 years?
· Hands on work; planning outreaches, lessons, preparing the base for teams, and discipling students to walk out evangelism and fulfill the Great Commission
· Mobile tours; travelling to churches in North America to promote MA and recruit future teams
· Helping plan and organize local outreaches for short term teams that will pass through our base

CURRENTLY
I’m home in Nova Scotia to visit family and friends and recuperate from the last 7 months. I’m also home to inform everyone about the next big step in my life, and invite people to get on board with what God’s doing in my life. In September, I’ll be returning to Las Vegas to start my commitment.

LASTLY
Thank you all for your support; through prayers and finances. I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do my DTS without all your help. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart!! If you’re interested in continuing to receive my newsletters once I return to Vegas, I’d be more than willing to send it to you either by mail or email.

Prayer Points
· Safety as I return to Las Vegas and live in “Sin City”
· For the Mission Adventures program to reach its full potential
· God’s guidance as I start support raising
· To use my talents and abilities to glorify God

Want to help? Well, here's how & why!

As I mentioned, I am making a 2 year commitment at YWAM Las Vegas to the Mission Adventures program. YWAM is a non-profit organization; all its full time workers are responsible for raising their own support/funds for living. We all live a faith based life style, which is only possible through people who partner with us. Everyone is called to reaching the world (Matt.28:19); “Go into all the world” is a command for all of us. However, some of us go physically, some go in prayer, and some also partner with those going physically with the gift of giving. In order for me to effectively join staff and complete my tasks as a Mission Adventures Staff member, I will need around $900 a month. (If you would like to see a copy of budget to see where these funds are going, feel free to contact me!)

My goal is to have:
· two supporters at $100 monthly
· two supporters at $75 monthly
· three supporters at $50 monthly
· eight supporters at $35 monthly
· five supporters at $25 monthly

(for a total of $905/month)

Would you please pray about partnering with me through prayer, partnering with taking on part of the financial burden monthly, or just a onetime gift? I am new at this and at the moment without any supporters, but I trust that God will put it on people’s heart to agree with what I’m doing and want to get on board!

If you are interested in helping me out in ANY way, PLEASE contact me! (tax deductible receipts are available for all donations). Anything is greatly appreciated and needed. Thanks again! :)

email: konrathbeth@gmail.com

homeeeee.

after a long day of travelling from las vegas, to houston, to new jersey, and then halifax (13 hours) .. i made it home. i left vegas on one hour of sleep from the night before. when i got into hfx at 12am .. i went to bed at 2am and woke up 14 hours later at 4pm. what a shock. im still on a messed up sleeping schedule; didnt sleep much the last few days in vegas, and jet leg doesnt help the situation much.

this past weekend was our last weekend together as a staff. on saturday we had a free day where we just sleep in, hung out .. went around vegas and did stuff. and sunday we had a "love feast" for dinner .. put candels and nice lights out and whatnot. dresses up all pretty and ate steak! and other yummy things. it was also sams 21st birthday on the 2nd so after the love feast all the legal aged staff went out to get drinks. while some of the staff were gone, me and 2 other girls took advantage of the situation and decided to do some birthday pranking. for 2 hours we sat in sams room and filled it with balloons. while andrea and sadie blew them up, i sat and drew on the balloons. (blowing up 75 balloons hurts your lungs and face!) so that was a fun night.

on monday we had "debrief" where we talked about 're entry' and everything that went on in the summer. basically a repeat of everything i heard at the end of DTS.

its good to be home; weird. havent done a whole lot yet .. or seen anyone. just taking the first couple of days easy . trying to get used to the fact that im home for a month. im excited to get to see everyone, but im also geting over whelmed with everything to do this upcoming month. megan and emily are both coming home (emilys coming home from germany, and megans coming home for a week from alberta). its the first time in 2 and a half years that we've all been together, so thats exciting. also, in the midst of seeing everyone and catching up on life, i have all this to do in mearly a month.

if you havent heard already, im going back to Las Vegas at the beginning of September. Im joining on staff for 2 years, working with the Mission Adventures program. more info on all that later. so i'll be trying to focus on support raising while im home too .. and getting on my feet that way before i jump back into missions.

contact me to hang out with me while im only home for a month !! i'll try and keep you updated on how everythings going!

coming home! .. only for a visit.

august 4th .. leaving las vegas for nova scotia ! long flight with 2 stop overs so i wont be in NS until the 5th. tons of stuff to do, as i will only be home for a short time (5-6 weeks). keep checking my blog for updates on what i'll be doing in september !! :)

my summer with mission adventures in vegas (with ywam still) has been great. crazy. we were supposed to have 5 weeks of teams, but only have 3 because of teams dropping out. but on the weeks where we didnt have students, as staff we did a lot of community outreaches meeting our neighbors which was sweet !! and we also did a lot of intercession (praying) for different things in las vegas which was great.

i cant believe im coming home soon; for the first time since january. its been weird not having/seeing family and friends for such a long time. ive made tons of friends here in vegas that will be hard, and have been hard to leave. its weird saying goodbye to people (my dts mates, who left in june) after youve spent every day with them .. about 12 hours, for 5 long months. i miss them dearly !! hopefully going to meet up with some of them later on in the year.

im excited about my plans for september .. but youll have to wait for the big news !! hehe. :) miss you all, and hope you see you when i come home!!

yay

dts is over .. we had our graduation.
theyre all gone.
and now im moving on .. but staying .. a new season is beginning.

its weird and hard being away from the people that ive been around 24/7 for the past 5 months .. many of them became like family to me. but its easier on me than for them i think since im staying in ywam and am still going to be living in community, which im thankful of !

this week is our first week of Mission Adventures students. theres only about 25 of them which is nice, and makes the first week much less stressful. ive been taking the mornings off, and will be for the next week, to just sleep in/rest, and do some reflecting on the past 5 months which is completly needed and im so very thankful that Sam is allowing .. insisting that i do so.

thats about all thats new with me; i had a cold which sucks, but i ll hopefully get over it soon.

comment and send me emails. id love to hear from you all.

beth!

im hommmeeee

home .. as in las vegas home. where i ll be spending my summer volunteering as Mission Adventures summer staff. im really excited for this next step in my life and i cant wait to see how God's going to use me.

we got back from turkey early tuesday morning. our flights were both really good .. only a minor delay in NY .. nothing overly terrible which was a nice change. we're all glad to be back in vegas on our 'home turf' where people actually speak the same language as us ! how exciting.

this is our last week together as a DTS, and on Saturday we all part and go our seperate ways which is sad. its going to be hard seeing my friends leave .. it'll be weird since we've spent the last 5 months together nearly 24/7. our last week here is mainly debriefing and processing things that went on in the past 5 months. MA staff training is going on (the rest of the staff have been here since about the 10th) getting things ready for the summer. So i havent been able to do much work with them, just trying to rest and focus on processing everything thats been going on the past 5 months. our first team of students comes this saturday night .. and DTS ends this friday night. so i dont have any time of rest really, to just soak and relax. but im super excited for this summer, so i guess its worth it. tomorrow is also our DTS graduation which im REALLY excited about. since im missing my high school gradution, this seams more important to me than it probably would to the rest of my DTS mates. i think it'll be really fun time of looking back at all the memories we have together and getting my certificate!!! heck ya.

thats about all thats new .. just trying to move into my new room .. i have WAY more stuff than i should. i dont know how ive collected all this stuff over the past 5 months. i feel bad for my new room mates! im also interested to see how i ll get all this stuff back home some day!

beth, heather, kristen and zianna ! near zeus' temple.

last week!

we're currently ın the mıddle of our last week here ın Turkey. Rıght now we're ın Cappadocıa-famous for ıts pottery and cermaıcs. Thıs ıs our debrıef week .. so we arent doıng a lot of 'mınıstry' type stuff .. but beıng tourısts and reflectıng on how outreach has been. Its been a great restıng tıme sınce ı ll need all the energy that ı can get for Vegas.
Frıday nıght we take the nıght bus to Istanbul (10 hours) and stay there untıl Monday when we fly back to Vegas. Its been a great tıme ın Turkey but ım ready to go back to Vegas and settle down for a bıt and not have to lıve out of a backpack! ım ready for a summer of mıssıon adventures and spendıng tıme sharıng wıth other kıds!
check for updates from me once ı get back to turkey!
beth!

still here

ım stıll ın Turkey ! sorry for no blog updates .. havent really had much tıme.
we've been keepıng busy and havıng a great tıme. we have 2 weeks left before we fly back to vegas for 1 more week of debrıef. then ı get to just rıght ınto Mıssıon Adventures! ım excıted .. yet stressed about that upcomıng week wıth everythıng that ı have to do!

the weathers been great ın turkey .. but hot. humıd much lıke nova scotıa. us gırls usually cant wear shorts so we're stuck ın thıs brutally hot weather wearıng jeans that we often just roll up as much as we can wıthout beıng 'scandelous'.

after beıng ın ıstanbul for 3 weeks ın the same stop, we've been movıng from place to place for the rest of outreach. (more of whıch ı ll be able to talk about once ım out of turkey). thıs week we're ın a small vıllage workıng at a small church. the boys are sleepıng ın the church whıle us gırls are sleepıng near by at the pastors house. we've been doıng a lot of constructıon here (lıke cementıng walls and paıntıng) whıch has been a nıce change. tomorrow we're leadıng the church servıce that they have every week .. we arent sure how many to expect but ıt wont be a whole lot of people. we're doıng the worshıp message and testımony .. whıch ım doıng the testımony whıch ım really excıted about doıng ! not somethıng ım used to sharıng wıth a larger group but ı couldnt turn down the opportunıty; ıts outreach!

my mom wıll be glad to hear that ı have a tan !! ı cant belıeve how whıte ı used to be. ı ll be even more tan after a summer ın las vegas!

another excıtıng update; yesterday 3 of our team members got to baptıse a Turkısh man that we met at a bus stop who had just became a belıever a couple of months ago. we were also able to gıve hım a turkısh bıble whıch was cool.

other than that .. thıngs are goıng great ! ıve enjoyed my tıme ın Turkey so far .. and God has opened my eyes to a lot of new thıngs ... and some new ıdeas whıch ım really excıted about (to come later!)

BETH !

alive

here we are. alive and well ın turkey ! everythıng ıs goıng great so far; almost done sufferıng from jet leg. (turkey ıs 10 hours ahead of Vegas tıme). Its been faırly cold out so far, actually ıt was freezıng yesterday and we ended up spendıng the whole day outsıde helpıng out wıth a local outreach on an ısland. ıt felt lıke the worlds longest day; most of us were awake well before 6 and we left the apartment at around 7. we dıdnt end up gettıng home untıl about 9 or 10 at nıght. also, on our way back from the ısland 8 of the 11 of us mıssed the stop and ended up havıng to try and fınd our way back to our town, whıch took us an extra 2 or so hours. ın the course of one day, ı took pretty much all the means of transportatıon there are; taxı bus, boat, horse carrıage (not jokıng! ıt was cool), ferry boat, subway, and publıc bus !! quıte the day. today we had orıentatıon whıch went well; nothıng overly excıtıng.
we had troubles gettıng here, we flew to New York from Vegas, and then NY to Turkey. When leavıng NY, we got about as far as the bottom tıp of Nova Scotıa (probably about 1 and a half hours of flyıng) when we had to turn the plane around and go back to NY because one of the two aır condıtıonıng unıts broke or somethıng. So basıcally 3 hours of poıntless flyıng. and then when we got to the aırport, we sat on the plane for a bıt and then they got us to swıtch planes about a hour later. then we sat on the run way for about another hour and a half waıtıng ın lıne to take off. so we ended up arrıvıng ın turkey about 7 hours later than expected. and then we had a 2 hour bus rıde to our apartment !! what a day. but everythıngs goıng well now! theres tons of ınternet cafes by where we lıve so hopefully ı'll be able to check my emaıl often, but ı probably wont blog that much (youll have to emaıl me ıf you want to get our weekly emaıl updates). these keyboards are hard to type on too, wıth extra letters and some of them moved around (you mıght have notıced that the i's ıve been usıng dont have the dots .. an extra letter ın the turkısh alphabet whıch ıs ın the spot of the i)
anywho, everythıng ıs goıng great here so far! hope you enjoyed thıs update. please be prayıng for us as well! thanks :)
beth

gooood byeee!!

well, mondays the big day! turkturk day as we call it. i still cant believe we're going. im sad to leave vegas; i love this city!! but im sure i ll fall in love with turkey too. we just moved back to the pier; where we've been living the past 3 months. we moved to canyon ridge churches missonary house for the past week since there was a mission adventures team of 60 kids coming. little did we know how little we'd have at this house, but we made due. we travelled every morning for about 30 minutes to the beach house for lectures and meals. im pretty sure 1/2 of our week was spent driving between the pier, beach house, and mission house.

on monday, me and zianna decided that for our free night we wanted to join the MA kids, and help them do some free prayer on fremont. i actually started getting 'home sick' from the base .. i really did miss it. i feel like ive packed way too many times in the past week, trying to get stuff packed away for the next couple of months, and what i ll need for turkey and everything else in between. im interested to see how im going to make 6 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts last for 2 months .. hmmm.

this week, josh, one of the FT staff here, was our speaker for the week. the topic was 'bible discovery'. SUPPPER interesting; i loved it, and learned a lot. the week felt like it went by really quick!

last night, for speaker hang out we went to the hot springs (about 35 min away?) by hoover dam. its a 2 mile hike into the springs, in pitch blackness, climbing rocks and whatnot. when we finally got to the springs, there was 3 pools; really warm, warm, and cool. it ended up being a really long hike; about 3 hours or so in total. we didnt get back to the house until after 12. we left at like 7 !

heather, zianna, woo, kristen & me in the hot spring !

so monday; the 9 of us are off to new york (and then meeting up with a guy from the last dts, peter, whos joining us on outreach) and then the 10 of us are flying to turkey, later meeting up with richard (one of our leaders who went back on tuesday to england just for the week). its going to be a long day of flying; 6 hours to NY, 2 hour lay over, and 11 hours to turkey.

ive sent out a email to all the email addresses that i had on my gmail letting them know about our weekly update email. if you want to get in on it, you better email me sooon! konrathbeth@gmail.com . we wont be able to mention a lot of the cities/towns that we're in, or mention a lot of our contacts names, just to insure their safety and things like that. theres a couple of techniqual things that we have to be aware of going there; like not mentioning YWAM, or telling people that we're missionaries.

so please remember to keep us in your prayers and check my blog every once and a while for updates. feel free to send me emails, and i ll do my best to reply when we have chances to get on the internet! we're all super excited to see everything that God has planned for us these next 2 months, and im glad that we'll be able to share it with you all via email !!

and lastly; check out this video if you didnt already ! http://vimeo.com/4039845

beth!

lonngg time

sorry, i should have updated my blog last weekend and i told my self i would get around to it this week, but i never did.

last weekend we went to scottsdale arizona to visit the mission adventures team that we led at the beginning of march. we left saturday morning and got back sunday evening. it seamed like a long drive for such a short amount of time (about 11 hours of driving altogether), but it was worth it to see the kids, and relax on sunday. we went to one of the leaders houses and just hung out (just as the dts). it was really nice out, and we went swimming in his pool. a few of us came back with some lovely, yet painful sun burns. my whole front side was burnt, even though i did put sunscreen on. its slowly turning into a tan, and peeling. yumm.

this is a picture of me and one of the sca girls.



last week we also went to the rio buffet off the strip. its called the world buffet and has hunnndrreeedds of things to choose from. it was pretty much amazing to say the least. the whole time woo tried to keep stealing things and putting them in my purse to take back to the base, for food. he only ended up getting 3 packages of cream cheese .. which was good because we didnt have any at the base at the time. it was quite funny.

kristen loved the buffet; they had jelatooo!!

this week was our last week here at the base before we were to move to another building somewhere in vegas since theres going to be a mission adventures team here of 60 kids. there just isnt enough room for us, and we still have lectures and stuff that we need to go to. so today we spent the whole day packing our stuff, and moving bunk beds to help sam set up for MA. i never want to see, touch, lift, assemble, or take apart another bunk bed in my life. at the end, we were all so dead. we were supposed to leave this afternoon to our house for the week, but with a lot of complications we werent able to move to the house that a church was going to let us use. so now we're 'stuck' here at the base for another night. not that big of a deal, but all of our stuff is packed up and sitting in the vans. it'll be a fun night.

we still all cant believe that we leave for turkey in a little over a week. its going to be a busy week coming up, trying to get ready for turkey and things like that. last week i went and bought a backpacking backpack and things that i ll need for outreach. i love rei :) i keep saying that i have tons of things left to do, and not enough time .. but i keep finding myself with free time, and not doing anything 'productive'.

so thats what new with me here at the base. im not sure if i ll be able to update my blog before i leave, but i ll do my best to. one of the girls on my dts, her job is to send out a weekly update to everyone who wants to get it, saying what we're doing and things like that. if you want to recieve that email every week, you can send me your email address and i ll make sure you get put on the mailing list. my emails konrathbeth@gmail.com :)

also, heres a link to a video that aaron made of my baptism at the pool in february ! hopefully it works.

http://vimeo.com/4039845

another week is over, and we only have 3 weeks left here in vegas until we leave for turkey!!! i dont even know where to start, maybe some pictures will help.

heres some pictures from camping last weekend.

we lit sparklers. i think they were supposed to be for kristens birthday, but she didnt end up coming so we lit them anyways.

for speaker hang out this week, we went to the venichian (a hotel on the strip) to just walk around and hang out. it was also our cooks, lucy's last night with us. so kevin dressed up in his elvis costume, and we all wore these yellow hats that came in a donation that we got. it was fun night, that ended up us following kevin around while people wanted their picture taken with him.

this weekend, some of us went swimming at one of the hotels/casions on fremont street. unfortunately i didnt take any pictures while we were there. its a sweet pool tho; with a water slide that goes through a shark tank. i did find a link to a site with a picture of the pool !
http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/images/golden_nugget_pool_open.jpg

this week our speaker is our base director, on evangelism!! im excited for this week, because i love evangelism; doing things like free prayer, and whatnot. so it should be a good week.

this week we also met with a turkish couple that goes to UNLV here, and they taught us a little more about Turkey and answered any questions that we had. hopefully we'll be hanging out with them a little more before we leave.

not a whole lot else is new .. the weathers getting nicer, and ive been working on my tan. but its been realllly windy these past couple of days. i have yet to miss the snow !!

hope to hear from some of you soon before i leave!

week 8

another week is past. our speaker for the week was jodi austin; our first female speaker ! we were all really excited!! it was a great week; she was teaching on the holy spirit and the gifts of the holy spirit. it was a great week of learning, and a lot of new things to take in. for speaker hang out we went to red rock to watch the sun set, but we couldnt really see it because the sun was behind the mountains. it was still fun though! and then after we went out and bought stuff to have an ice cream sunday party!

on friday night, the boys had a little surprise for us. they helped make, set up, and serve us supper. although they did start a hour late, it was really cute, and tasted good. they had us all get dressed up, and their way of dressing up was putting a tie on themselves. i havent uploaded my pictures from the week yet, but i will later.

on saturday it was kristen's 21st birthday, so on sunday night we all went to applebee's for 1/2 off appetizers !

in order to get the 1/2 off ap's, you had to be in the bar. but not all of us are 21, so we couldnt all sit in the bar. so we had to have the other table order all our stuff for us, and then pass it to us. it was kinda confusing for the waiter, but in the end we all got really cheap food, and had fun!

this is me and zianna after apple bees. we've lately been going through a phase of listening to and singing spice girls, and some s club 7 .. how i missed those bands.

on saturday morning, 7 of us went camping for the night. we went to valley of fire to go camping. we did some 'sight seeing' there, hiking and some rock climbing. it was a bit windy and chilly at night, and where we were sleeping was in sand so not a great combonation .. especially when you arent in a tent. but it ended up being fun, and it was great to get away from the base and hang out. i dont have any pictures uploaded from then yet, but i will later! :)

it ended up being a great week of learning, and relationship building with everyone here. this week woo and heather also decided that they are going to go ahead and book their tickets to come with us to turkey !! we are all really excited because they both we planing on not going because of lack of finances. i cant believe we leave in 4 weeks !!! we're starting to get really excited, and we cant wait to see all that God has planned for us while in Turkey.

thats about all thats new here in vegas. i ll try and upload some newer pictures soon. in the mean time SEND ME A LETTER. you dont know how excited i get when i hear i have mail (and its not very often). ive only gotten letters from 2 people in canada; my parents, and gabrielle (THANK YOU GABBB!!). i promise i will write you back if you send me a freakin letter!

beth konrath
p o box 36606
las vegas nv
81933-6606
USA

please :) pretty please

yay

another update. (im still wondering if people are reading my blog or not, im not getting any comments)

this past week our speaker was marty meyer. he spoke on the father heart of God. it was a great week. on tuesday we climbed to the top of red rock and had our lectures there for the day. once we got up there it was kinda windy and uncomfortable to sit on the rocks, but i loved it! it was great to get out of the base and have lectures in a new fun place! and i loved climbing up there!

the other night for local outreach we went to the street where most of the homeless people sleep. we went around 8 and everyone was already lined up on the side walks with their tents or their sleeping bags ready for the night. we took garbage bags and picked up all the garbage (the street was covered), and just made simple conversation with the people. i think that a lot of them are just waiting for someone to actually care about them, and have a sincere conversation with them. i always find it intersting when you ask the person how they ended up on the streets of las vegas. a lot of them are there because they gambled their way to the streets. but a lot of them are just out of jobs. many of them are great workers, with university degrees and everything. the economy just sucks for a lot of them, and many of them came to vegas thinking that they could find work. its also interesting to talk to the people; a lot of them are content with the position that they are in .. which is really great to hear; and that they try and see the more positive things of it. like these 2 guys me and kristen were talking to; they think that as homeless people they have it better as some of their other homeless people. they were thankful that they have clothes and other things in storage, unlike a lot of the others. they also just saw it as a temporary thing. it also breaks my heart when i try and talk to people that are so cracked out and so messed up. it boggles my mind as to how they got that far .. what could i possibly do to help them? im not even sure if they understand what i say to them when they talk, and if they even know what theyre saying to me.

we have the weekends off, today it was sooo nice out. i went back to red rock with peter, sam and rich. it was so great. we went all out. heres some pictures of us climbing. since being here in vegas, ive fallen in love with climbing !! ahh, so awesome. i love the adventurous aspect of it, and the danger thrill !!

me samuel, and peter
me climbing ! if only you could see how far to the ground it is ...

heres a pic that should have been with the last post (i hadnt uploaded them by them). this is peter, me and sam with all the toys that we won at the circus circus last weekend.

and lastly; a picture of noemie (shes a volunteer here for 3 months; shes leaving at the end of march) jackie, me, zianna & kristen (dts mates). this is at the graduation that we had on friday for the dts that just got back from outreach in afghanistan. theyre all leaving this weekend (the 4 of them) and jackies one of them. we're all sad to see them done there dts, and for them to be leaving !

check again soon for another update!! :)

1/2 way

The end of last week marked the half way point of the lecture phase here in Vegas.
We had a group of 35 freshmen come last week, and we led them out in Mission Adventures. It was a great week, and super tiring. It was weird to go from about 15 of us YWAMers here at the base, to about 50 people. I haven't uploaded any pictures yet, but im sure theres tons of them on facebook that the kids already tagged me in. I was sad to see them go, but glad at the same time to have a long nap. I think we're going to go to Scottsdale AZ in a couple of weeks to check up on them, and hang out with them; which is super exciting!
After the kids left, it was nice to go out and not have any worries. Me and a couple of the guys went to the Circus Circus on the strip and just played games and won tons of stuffed animals !! it was great to get away from the base, and get away from huge groups of people. i needed that !
this week our speaker is marty meyer from the ywam base in idaho. yesterday we hiked to the top of red rock for lecture. it took us about a hour to get to the top. it was super nice out, but breezy. a lot of people got sun burns (dont worry mom, i wore sunscreen!!). it was a great work out, but now we're all sore! it was fun to not be in the classroom for lectures and just get to sit outside in God's creation! we also did quiet time and intercession while we were there.
right now im just sitting in the admin office waiting to let guests in for our wednesday community dinner. for the past couple of weeks we've had it at the park, but we're having it at the base tonight. its basically a dinner where anyone can show up, and we'll feed them !
last week we had a bbq at the park accross the street from us, and all the MA kids went out and invited tons of people. Once we unpacked all the stuff, we saw a swat crew with about 10 officers hanging off the side of the van, and some k9 units drive by. it pulled up to a house by the park and then all of a sudden there was 4 louuddd bangs with big puffs of smokes. so we told the kids to all go back to the base, while we all packed up. heather, kevin and i were the last people to leave the park in the van so we decided to drive by the house! we got to the street beside us and a cop stopped us and told us we had to turn around and go the other way because they have a search warrent and just blew up a house ..
Other than that, not a whole lot of exciting things are going on. We just booked our tickets to Turkey as well; leaving the middle of April and coming back to Vegas in the middle of June. We then stay here in Vegas for another week of debriefing, and then i think i ll be staying here to staff/volunteer with Mission Adventures for the summer. and then we'll see what else God has in store for the year.
im still waiting on getting mail !! i get sad every time when my dts mates get mail, and i dont :( :( (do you feel bad now?! :) )
hopefully i ll post some more pictures soon, and maybe a more indepth write up of the past week with the MA kids.
beth

two updates in 1 week?!?

i just uploaded some pictures from my camera to the computer, so i'll have to post some pictures for you. its easier for me to write updates when i have visuals. theyre all on facebook too, so check them out there aswell :)

a couple of weeks ago, me sam and rich made another hike up red rock! we went on the mountain beside red rock this time, and it was a faster hike than what we usually do. it was really nice, and great to get out

last weekend we also had a poker night, we went thrifting last saturday too. we all dressed up for poker night. the stakes were high! whoever won got 2 days off dishduty, and 2nd place was a morning off work duties !! unforunately, i didnt win. but i had fun! after a couple of us went to a 24 hour coffee shop and just hung out, and i worked on some journaling.

thrifting !!

i cant figure out how to rotate this picture, but kevin dressed up as .. i dont even know what for poker night, while the rest of us were all dressed up. we did a 7/11 run half way through, it was funnn !!

last night, some of us went back to the 24 hour coffee shop just to hang out and we didnt get home until like 2. and i forgot that in the morning a youth group was coming to paint out hallways, and i woke up at like 8 or 9 ish. im also starting to get sick with a cold/ bad cough, which isnt fun. but i had a 4 hour nap in the after noon today which was AWESOME ! haha

tomorrow mission adventures start !! im excited to be staffing it, but its going to be crazy busy with 40 extra people around the base. theres so many things left to do to get ready before they come !!

heres one last picture from wednesday; be sure to read the post before this if you havent already!

so long

sorry! long time no update. i havent had a lot of time to update because of lack of time, and the internet doesnt really work here.

not a whole lot is new. this week we had aaron (he lives here in vegas) come speak to us about making disciples, and simple church gatherings and stuff like that. it was reallly awesome. probably my favorite week so far.

we learned about baptism, and part of the great commission (matthew 28:19) is to preach the good news AND baptize people. i hadnt been baptized before because i never realy made it an important thing in my life. so when we were talking about it in lectures on wednesday i told aaron that i hadnt been baptized before, and that i wanted to! so right then and there we picked up, and packed into 2 cars (the vans were both out) and went to the public pool ! we learned that we dont need to have a pastor or a 'church person' in order to baptize someone, and that Jesus commanded us to baptize people ! i wanted my dts mates to be a part of it, so when aaron asked me who i wanted to baptize me, i said that i wanted everyone to!

so at the pool 7 of us got into the pool (aaron, 2 of my dts leaders (kevin and richard), 2 of my dts mates (zianna and kristen) and my friend/staff here at the base sam). we pretty much got kicked out of the pool for breaking every rule possible (video camera, camera, clothes in the pool just to name a few). but it was great ! it ment a lot to me to have my friends do it for me, and it was a great learning experience for them !!

not a whole lot else is new. we're busy this weekend gettting ready for mission adventures !! we're staffing it for the week, with sam who leads it out. mission adventures is what i did herealmost a year ago when i came with rock church. its going to be fun to be on the staffing end of it. also, im thinking about staying here after turkey to help staff it for the summer, but im going to see how this week goes before i make any big decisions!

i dont know what else to update you on. theres been tons of things going on here lately, and not enough time to update you on everything !! its crazy. im loving every minute of it, and wouldnt change anything for the world ! i cant believe ive only been here for a month .. 4 crazy months ahead of us !!

send me emails and i ll be sure to reply ! (konrathbeth@gmail.com). AND if you mail me i WILL reply. (i got a letter from gabrielle the other day, and i sent off a reply today!!! ) im still waiting for letters from the rest of you !! :D

hoping i ll be able to give you a better update soon. im going to be crazy busy this coming week so replys for emails might be slow.

loveeee beth

yay

update time !! :)

im going to try and update every week or so. its going to be hard though with everything going on.

since my last update ive done tons of fun stuff ! last last saturday i was supposed to go out and do some stuff with foster connect and my dts mates, but i forgot that i told my room mates that i would kill anyone that woke me up. so i woke up at around 1 and they were leaving in 2 minutes. i couldnt shower that fast, so i ended up staying here at the base. later that night we went out and did some shopping, and just walking around. and then we went bowling ! it was my first time playing with the big massive balls. it was a lot of fun!

that sunday after church me and 2 guys went out to go hiking again at red rock. i cant remember if i posted that in my last blog. for a weekend activity we went to red rock to do some intense hiking. so we went back to do it all again. i love it, hikings fun!! :) its a really great work out too.

this past week our speaker was egbert, from holland! its fun to have speakers that are from all over the world. this week we also prayed about where to go to outreach, and if we should go to turkey or not. soo we decided, that our outreach is to turkey !! its cool because egbert is living in turkey now so we were able to ask him some questions and stuff. im really excited to be going to turkey. he told us that theres about 70 million people living there, and only about 4000 people are Christians. so its a country in great need, and i cant wait to minister to the people there !!

we did another strip tour of a couple more hotels with our speaker. we just walked around the stores and stuff. we went mainly to the luxor, which is like a pyramid and has a bright light that shines on top to the sky. its insanely bright. in order to go onto any of the floors in that hotel where the people stay, you have to have a key card thing for the elevator. some of us really wanted to go on, so we got in and waited until some cleaning ladies came on, and we just rode up with them. it was fun !! lol.

this picture is us near the top looking down at the stores at the bottom of the luxor. pretty cool.

you can see the light in the back ground !

on thursday night, we had small groups. so while the guys were out, we baked some brownies and decorated for our surprise valentines day thing for the guys! we each picked a guy to be our valentine (we all pretend to have crushes on them, its quite hilarious). so when they got back we blind folded them all and took them into the dinning room where we had gifts set out for them all. they were all mainly gifts that we took from the storage room, or cheap things that we bought. it was a lot of fun !! we all couldnt stop laughing. i had woo (the 32 year old korean on my dts, SOO hilarious). we always joke about his age, and make fun of him so i got him a package of adult diapers. (i didnt buy them, i got them when we were doing stuff with foster connect). we got them lots of other fun stuff and wrote them cute notes. us girls dressed up all in valentine-y colors.

this is me and my dts mates/room mates. zianna, me, kristen, and sarah !

on saturday we all took a road trip to the grand canyon !! it was about a 4 or 5 hour drive there. in order to get to the part that we thought was cheap to get it, it was a lot further than just going to grand canyon west where i had gone last time. it was a really fun time, and there was SNOW!! it was kinda exciting ! we thought it would just be 25$ for a car load, but since we were in a 15 passenger van, the lady made us pay 120$ (12$ each) even though we only had 10 people !! not fair. but whatever. i havent uploaded my pictures from the grand canyon yet, i didnt really take that many anyways.

today kevin and ted are teaching us for a couple of days (kevins one my dts leaders, and ted is here for a couple of days from ywam denver). so tonight for speaker hang out we're going to the hot springs by hoover dam. its about a 2 mile hike in, but then we get to swim in the hot springs !! im really excited, it should be fun !

well thats all i want to tell you for now. no just kidding. this is getting too long. hope you enjoyed the pictures and the update! make sure to comment please !!
love beth !! :)

the latest

right now, im sitting in the dinning room, on a pool table. the internet doesnt work great all the time, but i seam to get good reception here. we had two lectures today. so i think in total it was 4 hours of lectures! woo. it was good though! i wore my pj's to all the lectures this week i think, and today i ate rice cakes and colored in a coloring book while he spoke! (i still payed attention!). tonight we're going out to do some evangelism (free prayer). this is my favorite !! i cant wait :D

last night we went to the top of vegas on one of the mountains that over looks vegas. you can see 2.4 million people i think. we went up there and played some music, and just worshiped and prayed over the city. it was great! 4 different cop cars came up to see what we were doing. apparently they check there like every hour to see if theres kids up there doing whatever.

(most of the dts) and some extras.

(if you dont like sad/gross stories, read no further!) some of you might have heard about our dog situation. on wednesday after we went to denny's, there was a shopping cart by one of the base doors, with a bag in it. we were too scared to open it, but it looked like there was a animal or something in it. we just left it there, and then we went back later and the cart was on the side of the road with the dog in it, by the boat (theres a random old junky boat outside our bedroom window, that someone put there like a week ago). i took zianna and woo outside to look in the bag and find out what it was, because we all really wanted to know. so they opened the bag a bit, and saw fur. we all screamed and ran back inside. the next day the cart was gone, and the bag was just on the ground. and then the other night i looked out the window and the bag was gone (we had called animal control and asked them to pick it up). but then i noticed the dog at the end of our drive way/ ally way. the other night the cops were at the base because someone was cutting our gate or something, and they picked the dog. so now i have nothing but a boat to look out at every morning when we wake up. maybe that was a bit too much info?? we named him lucky.

some of the girls. (kristen, heather, noemie, zianna, beth)

2 nights ago we did another strip tour of some different hotels with our speaker for the week. it was fun, it was all stores that you like cant touch anything in and have to pay like 150$ for a shirt or something crazy like that.

for small groups (guys group, and girls group) , we (the girls) went to starbucks, and then we went shopping at 'family dollar'. we're doing something cute for valentines day for the guys at the base. we got them some presents. we're supppper excited! its going to be fun!

tomorrow some of us are going to help out with a meeting with foster connect. im not really sure what we're doing, but i think just watching some kids during a meeting. it should be fun; im excited!! me and kristen got to go and help out on wednesday during work duties. we helped ray and clare with unloading things like diapers and shampoo that companies like wal mart give to organizations (things that are like broken, or have a cracked lid. things that they cant sell). and so we unloaded about 3 pallets of stuff into their garage that they have for the stuff. ive never seen sooo much diapers in my life !! i seriously think there was like 500 packages of them and stuff. we got to take some stuff like shampoo and things like that which was nice.

next saturday i think we're planning on going to the grand canyon. its about a 6 hour drive there, which is brutallll!! but i think i'll go just for the fun; ive already been there.

thats about all thats new for now. check back again soon. i have tons of pictures on facebook now of vegas so far, and my dts mates pictures are there too!! check back soon !! :)

also!! if you want to send me a letter in the mail, here's my info! i ll be sure to mail you back if you mail me!!!

YWAM Las Vegas

c/o Beth Konrath

P.O. Box 36606

Las Vegas, NV

89133-6606

USA

DENNYS!!

this morning we woke up at 5 45 am to go to Denny's to get FREE breakfast--the grand slam! (eggs, pancakes, sausages, and bacon!) There were some news crews and stuff there interviewing people, so me and my DTS mate sarah decided to get in on the action, and be interviewed!! So we'll be on Fox News 5 Las Vegas..i doubt i'll ever see it, but its cool!
we were all really excited (well, mostly me!) and we were yelling and stuff. so our waitress got us to cheer 'grand slam woo!' , and one of the important people they work for them (i dont know what he is) told me to take a video and send it to him! so he gave me his busines card, and i ensured him that i would email him the videos! here it is for you to watch !

its still early in the morning here, so i thought id take the chance to update the blog, ANNND i uploaded pictures to facebook ! so if you have facebook, you ll have to check them out. maybe i ll post some pictures soon! :) i must get back to watching harry potter with sarah and sam !! (i cant believe we're watching HP this early in the morning ...)

one week down .. 11 to go in vegas!!!

its the weekend!! on the weekends we dont really have any scheduled classes, or duties. today we're going to red rock to do some hiking/climbing which should be tons of fun! im excited. im wearing shorts today too! and tomorrow we're having a super bowl party at andrews place. apparently theres tons of big screen tv's and a hot tub! im excited, and i dont even like football! haha.
i didnt do a 'full detail' update on what we've been doing and stuff. every day in the morning we have work duties for like 30/60 minutes. my work duty for the month is mopping the kitchen floor. the good thing is that i have to do it at night, so i get to sleep in every morning !!! i was mad at first when i heard out of all the work duties, i got mopping! but now im glad that i have the mornings off, and it doesnt take to long to do it at night.
yesterday we went around our neighbourhood and passed out flyers for 'the pier' (which is the building that we're living in). we're providing services to our neighbourhood like needles for kids so that they can go to school, after school programs, food assistance and thing like that. it was really nice out too! we went in groups of four. we met this one guy, 'mike' that said he needed food assistance because he's waiting on a check to come in the mail, but it wasnt going to come until the 3rd. so we prepared a box of some food for him and he came later and picked it up. it was fun giving out the flyers to the people in our neighbourhood. some of us were kinda scared because it is a rough neighbourhood, and almost every person has a scary dog. but i think we're going to be doing tons of fun stuff for this neighbourhood, and getting to know them better!
on monday we're having our first speaker which is exciting! and we're going to be more in a routine.
i cant think of anything else that we did that was suppper exciting, and worth writing about.
im still waiting for them to put our computer in the lounge, so that i can stop bumming off other peoples computers. ill probably be able to post some pictures once we get that computer set up. until then, facebook pictures will have to do !!

vegas so far!

well , hello again. sorry for the lack of updates. we've been pretty busy here at the base with orientation week, and getting settled in. on my dts there are 7 students, and 3 leaders.. -- 4 canadians, 3 americans, 1 korean, 1 swiss, and 1 english. so its cool to have 5 different countries in our dts. (5 girls, 5 boys)
we've started to move away from the 'rules/guidelines' and more into a bit of teaching. we also got our first book report thats due sometime in feb. for the book called 'is that really you God?' by loren cunnigham (the founder of ywam). but i like just read the book a month ago, so its pretty pointless for me to read it again and do a book report on it. so one of my dts leaders are going to pick another book for me.

the dts is going great so far..lots of fun stuff to do. today after supper, about 8 of us went to a near by childrens park and played some soccer which was fun. im going to try and get back in shape .. i dont know how well that will go, but its worth a try. and after me and my friend went for a mile or so run around the block, and it actually wasnt to bad! i didnt die! haha. i think im going to go again tomorrow morning.

we went to the strip to explore last night for the first time for most of the people on my dts. it was fun to see it all again, but i was dang tired of walking around !! im sure that soon we'll all be sick of it !! but we have some fun adventures that we're going to be doing soon. this weekend we're going to red rock and do some hiking, and then on sunday we're having a super bowl party at one of the guys' house that works here at the base. apparently its been sweet there, with like tons of big screen tv's and stuff.

well thats all for now! it might take me awhile to update often because the internet hasnt been working that great lately, and i dont have my own computer. some of my dts mates put some pictures of vegas here so far that you can check out on my facebook. leave some comments, talk again soon!! :)

im alive!!

ive made it to vegas !! i got in yesterday night at 1030pm .. so 230 am NS time. i was SUPPOSE to get into vegas 12 hours earlier, but i had some "diffficulties" at my stop over in toronto. i had to get a visa, so i had a request letter for one from my DTS leader. when i went to get my visa inbetween flights they were taking forever. at one point i went up to the guy and told him that my flight leaves in 20 min "and i kinda need to make it". after a lot of sitting and waiting, and them not understanding anything, they guy eventually gave me the visa (yet, its not the one that i requested, but it'll do). Conviently he gave it to me at about 935am .. the same time that my flight as leaving. he said that i'd still make my flight. so i RAN to my gate ( i felt like i was in some movie or something) and when i got to my gate, the plane had already left. and then i couldnt get out of the gate area and i was just calling people at the base (woke them up at like 4 or something) here balling my eyes out trying to figure out what to do. i eventually made it back to baggage check in and told the lady what happened. they gave me a ticket on the next flight out .. which was at 850pm ... it was like 10 am !!! they tried to charge me 45$, but i wasnt letting that happen. she "waved the fee, just this once!" because it wasnt my fault that i had missed my flight. so then they made me go and get my bags, and push them around with me until about 5pm. i was basically pushing my weight in bags. i now hate the toronto airport because 1)they wouldnt let me through 2)its soo huge and confusing, i got lost wayy to many times 3) the people suck at giving directions. half of them didnt speak english either. ohh, i forgot; the lady put me on stand by so i wasnt even guarenteed a spot on the flight. but thankfully she said there was lots of extra seats on and that i'd make it. i arrived at my gate about 3 hours early. there was NO way that plane was leaving without me on it!
so, my 3 dts leaders, one of their friends and my friend sam who works at the base picked me up at the airport. at that point it had been about 20+ hours of travelling, and i had only slept in the airport for maybe a hour, and for about a hour on the plane aswell. my friend took me out to drive down the strip, and re live all the memories from last year !! i really did miss vegas! im glad to be back
i'll have a computer for the next couple of days because sam's gone to oregon or something to speak at a retreat for the weekend. i have to work on a dance written assignment that i didnt quite get done before leaving. ohhh school !!! how im glad im done with you !!
so, that is that !! bottom line; i'm in vegas, safe and alive ! im the first of 7 DTSers, so i just get to chill and do whatever. theres also 2 girls here from ywam tyler (texas) and theyre here until this friday. theyre crashing in my room (or im in theres? it'll be mine after they go . which i think im sharing with 3 other girls. ekk!) today im going to help them work on the prayer room, and paint and stuff which should be fun. i didnt sleep much last night; i went to bed at like 2 .. and woke up at 730. i think im soo over tired, that im not tired .. or something like that?
check soon for more updates. when i get a chance to update, i will ! i dont know how often after this weekend i'll be able to use a computer, but i ll try my hardest ! :)
love beth

ps--my canadian phone doesnt work here because it costs money for me to text back to canada, and i have no balance left on my phone. so i think you can text me and i ll get them (i dont know where my phone is right now ..) but when i get my new phone hooked up, i'll give you the numberr :)