May 2010 Newsletter

Hello again! April seemed to have flown by and May seems to be following suit. Since my last newsletter, we had two more weeks of teams at the beginning of April where we trained 50 more students, bringing our spring student count to 150 in six weeks!! It was a great last two weeks of teams and God did amazing things in all of the students. Months later students are still talking about their week in Las Vegas with us and how God is continuing to do a work in them. Needless to say, we were all ready for a break once the last team left.
In April I finally got to go to Calgary, Alberta to visit my sister Megan, my niece and some of my relatives. It was a much needed break and it was great to get out of Las Vegas. I also visited my Oma (grandmother), Aunt and Uncle. I hadn’t seen them in about two years, so it was great seeing them again!

Mya is such a cute and well behaved baby. She loves to suck her thumb (just like Megan & I did) and she rolled over for the first time while I was there. I was sad to have to leave everyone but two weeks was the perfect amount of time.
After I arrived home from Calgary, I had one week of work in the office before I was to leave again. Last week was spent in San Francisco meeting with other Mission Adventures (MA) staff from YWAM bases in Canada, USA, Mexico and Russia. It was a great time to meet with other people who understand the stresses and joys of MA. It was a tiring week with early mornings and late nights (which I’m starting to adjust to with all our MA teams coming through), but I enjoyed it. I love San Francisco; it’s such a different city than Las Vegas. The conference ended on a Friday but I decided to stay for a couple extra days to hang out with some of my YWAM friends that live in the bay area. I got to see my friend Peter Tews (who I hadn’t seen in a year), Kristen (my best friend) and Peter Trudelle which is always fun and much needed!

Things are getting busy for us here at the base … in fact it hasn’t stopped being busy! We have three weeks until our summer staff arrives, who will be helping us with MA for June and July. The first week and a half of June we’ll be doing staff training, teaching them the insides and outs of MA before our first team arrives on the 12^th. Our summer is starting to get full, but we still need a lot more students. On top of that, we don’t have a cook for the summer which is an added stress. Before our summer staff arrives, we plan on being on the road for about a week, visiting a couple of teams that we had this spring from Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona and Southern California. It’s scary to look at our calendar and see how much there is to do in such a short amount of time. At the same time I can’t help but get excited for everything that God is going to do this summer through us and the students we’ll be training.

Prayer Points:
-For our summer staff that will be arriving soon; team unity, energy, health, etc.
-MORE students for the summer and a cook!!!

Praise Points:
-I finally got to go to Calgary and I made it back into USA with little problems at the border
-For seeing old friends in San Francisco

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. Thanks for being a part of what God is doing in Las Vegas!

2 Corinthians 5:17
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are made new.”

March Newsletter

This is my March newsletter written a couple of weeks ago. Sorry for the delay in posting it on my blog. Enjoy!

The past month and a half has been very busy, hence the delay in a newsletter, sorry! Amongst all the business, I’ve been doing great. So far, we’ve had 4 weeks of Mission Adventures teams where we’ve trained 105 students to be world changers. Starting next week we have 2 more weeks of teams coming where we’ll be training about 50 more students. We’ve had a mixture of teams come through from Arizona, Nevada, Ohio and Kansas from Christian schools and college groups.

With all the fun and training of the students, comes long days. We usually start around 7:30am where we meet as staff before breakfast starts. Our days usually end around 11:30pm after the students are all in their rooms for bed. Doing this for 3 weeks straight starts to take a toll on you in every way; physically, spiritually and emotionally.

Having no team this week has been a nice time to recuperate and just reconnect with God. I’m excited about all that God has been doing in our students, and how He’s been using them to change the city of Las Vegas. It’s always encouraging to hear from our students after they’ve been home for a couple of weeks, and hear how they’re applying the things they learned with us in their own cities! God’s even been using me to reach His people in Las Vegas.

Recently during one of our outreaches at a mall on the strip, I got to pray with 2 salesmen at a kiosk that sells Shammys. When I asked them what they wanted prayer for, they both asked me to pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit! It was humbling that they didn’t ask for more customers, money, or earthly things. They just wanted to encounter God in a new way! My focus right now is to develop relationships with the people that work at the places that we do outreaches at. Since I am here long term, I’m able to continue to meet with the same people again and pray for them and watch them grow.

After all the busyness of the teams dies down in mid April, I will hopefully be going to Alberta to visit my sister Megan and meet my niece Mya. It’ll be a nice break from everything going on here, and I can’t wait to see them. Please pray that it all works out so I can visit them soon! May will be a month of planning and travelling for us Mission Adventures staff. We’ll be busy getting things ready for the summer as we have 5 weeks of teams and summer staff arriving June 1st that we have to train. Also in May we’ll be going to San Francisco for a conference with other Mission Adventures staff across North America for a few days.

Praise Points
-We’ve trained 105 students to change the world
-The city of Las Vegas is being reached
-God has provided for me thus far!

Prayer Points:
-Energy during the MA weeks
-For God to use us to minister to the students
-Abundance of patience and grace with eachother as staff

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I’m excited to have you partner with me and be a part of what God is doing to change Las Vegas and reach the nations! ♥Beth

•Beth Konrath•Youth With A Mission Las Vegas•
•PO Box 36606•Las Vegas, NV•89133•USA•
•(702)658-5450•bethk@ywamlasvegas.org•

January 2010 Newsletter (2009 break down below)

Hello all! First newsletter of 2010, woo!
2009 ended with an unsuspected stay in Las Vegas. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I was planning on going to Calgary, Canada for Christmas with my sister Megan. The day before I was to leave, I found out from our attorney that I should not leave the country while I have a Visa pending. I won’t bore you with all the details, but if I was to leave the states I would have to start part of the Visa application over again, which would mean I would have to stay in Canada for upwards to 4 months. So my first Christmas away from home was spent in Las Vegas. It was a hard but a good two weeks off with lots of rest. Thankfully this will be the last time of me mentioning Visa issues because … I recently received my 2 & ½ year Visa!!!! I felt so relieved and excited when it came in the mail! Praise Jesus!Mya Christine Stevens
December 30^th, 2009 7 lbs. 6oz.
As excited as I was to hear that she was born, it was also difficult because I knew that I was supposed to be there for the birth. I’m now an auntie! Hopefully I’ll be able to go to Calgary sometime in the spring to meet her.

2010 is already off to a busy start. We have our first Mission Adventures team coming in mid February from a local high school. Sam, Brett and I are doing all that we can to get ready for what looks like the busiest year for MA at our base. There’s lots of preparation, program planning and praying to do in what seams like such a short time.

March is going to be a busy month with 3 out of the 4 weeks will be spent leading teams! Things are also starting to get busy at the base with the DTS having just started with 5 students and 2 short term staff. In a short time I went from living with 5 other people to now 14!!

Lately, as staff we’ve been doing various types of outreaches in the city. Recently we went to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter a couple streets away. We helped with the dinner feeding, where over 350 people were served!

It’s always fun to serve at the LVRM and get to know some of the residents there. One man asked me if I was always so cheery and began to tell me how he is the current president of the United States. It’s great to see so many people get fed who would have gone without food otherwise. We plan to do more work with the LVRM with our Mission Adventures teams as we have in the past year.
I still find it hard to believe that a year ago all this started; my journey with missions. 2009 was a great and busy year for me, with lots of ups and down, travelling, and transitions. For a breakdown of what 2009 looked like, check out my blog (bethkonrath.blogspot.com). This time last year I would have never guessed that I would be in full time missions, but God’s known to do the unexpected!
Thanks for reading!! Hope all is well with you! ♥Beth

Prayer Points
-For the MA teams that are coming this spring
-Energy during MA weeks
Praise Points
-My visa came!!
-Baby Mya is healthy
-2010 is off to a great start! :)

A look at 2009

2009 was one of the best years of my life (maybe because I wasn't in school??). Here's where God took me this past year!

January: (Nova Scotia, Las Vegas)

What a long month January felt like! The end of the month couldn’t have come any faster. The day after I had my last day of high school I got onto a plane to head to Las Vegas to join Youth With A Mission (YWAM) to do a 5 month school; Discipleship Training School (DTS).

February: (Las Vegas)

My first full month in Las Vegas! As most of my friends were back home in high school, I was studying missions and God, getting ready to leave for Turkey for 2 months. This month I really got to know my DTS mates and develop friendships that would go beyond the school.

March: (Las Vegas)

The beginning of March, my DTS helped lead a Mission Adventures week for Scottsdale Christian Academy. This was my first hands on experience with MA, aside from March 2008 when I was a MA student for a week. I would have never guessed that I would be on full time staff later with the MA program.

April: (Las Vegas, Turkey)

Half of April was spent in Las Vegas, gearing up for 2 months in Turkey. I still don’t think it really hit any of us that we were going to be in Turkey for 2 months until we landed in Istanbul. The Turkish culture was a shock to most of us, something that we were going to have to adapt to.

May: (Turkey)

A full month of being in Turkey. For most of the month, each week we travelled to different towns/cities. We got to see tons of different places, and God used us in amazing ways. I can't wait to go back to Turkey and explore even more!

June: (Turkey, Las Vegas)

The first half of the month was spent in Turkey, getting ready to head back to Las Vegas for our last week together as a DTS. I stayed in Las Vegas for the summer as short term staff for Mission Adventures. It was hard to see all my DTS mates leave; the people who I had spent the last 5 months growing and learning with were all of a sudden gone.

July: (Las Vegas)

A full month of being on Mission Adventures summer staff, leading teams. It was during this time that I realized that God wanted me to be in Las Vegas, full time, with the MA program. July was VERY hot out!!

August: (Las Vegas, Nova Scotia)

I arrived home for the first time since January. Most of the month was spent resting (a lot of this!) and catching up with family and friends. It was a great break from the business of the past 6-7 months; a much needed break!

September: (Nova Scotia, Las Vegas)

My last month at home. I spent more of the month working at my old job at the drug store, and getting things ready for going back to Las Vegas on full time staff. At the end of the month, I returned back to Las Vegas … later than I had planned (Visa issues … no surprise there).

October: (Las Vegas)

It was a good but difficult month. It was great to be back in Las Vegas and get things started for Mission Adventures. But also hard because most of our time was spent in promotion, making tons of phone calls to churches which tends to be discouraging.

November: (Las Vegas)

Birthday month, I turned 19! I got to spend Thanksgiving in San Francisco with my friend Peter and his family, who went to Turkey with me. It was a much needed break and it was great to see him and my DTS mate Kristen. Most of November was spent doing promotion, and some program planning.

December: (Las Vegas)

Things started to pick up with the Mission Adventures program. Teams began to start the application process, and as staff we started to look at the schedule and plan things out for the teams that are going to be coming to Las Vegas in 2010. The later half of the month, I was on vacation for 2 weeks. What a relaxing and great break it was. Although I was not in Calgary as planned, it was a much needed break ... again. And Mya was born, I'm an auntie! :)

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