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!! :)