Tech Girls Reunion 2010

Here is a video I made of our recent Texas Tech Girls reunion...it is amazing to know that through the years there will always be friends that are there for a season and then gone the next, but then there are those rare friendships that are created in a crucial point in your life and through each season of life, no matter where you are in the world, you know they aren't going anywhere...that is what these girls are to me! I love yall!

A Merry Christmas to everybody! A Happy New Year to the world!

"Good news of great joy that will be for all the people" -- Luke 2:10 
To My friends around the world!


Swiss/German/Pennsylvania Dutch friends - Froehliche Weihnachten
Danish Friends - Gladelig Jul
Finnish Friends - Hyvaa joulua
Brazilian Friends - Feliz Natal 
Korean Friends - Sung Tan Chuk Ha
South African Friends - Een Plesierige Kerfees
Venezuelan/Argentinean/Mexican/Spanish friends - Feliz Navidad
Chinese Friends - Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
French Friends - Joyeux Noel
American/Canadian/Australian Friends - MERRY CHRISTMAS!


I love yall and miss you!  I hope next year will be your best year ever! 

The Power of Your Name.

Surely children weren’t made for the streets
And fathers were not made to leave
Surely this isn’t how it should be, let Your Kingdom come

Surely nations were not made for war
Or the broken meant to be ignored
Surely this just can’t be what You saw
Let Your Kingdom come, here in my heart

And I will live to carry on compassion
To love a world that’s broken, to be Your hands and feet
And I will give with the life that I’ve been given and go beyond religion
To see the world be changed by the power of Your name

Surely life wasn’t made to regret
And the lost were not made to forget
Surely faith without action is dead
Let Your Kingdom come, Lord break this heart

Jesus Your name is a shelter for the hurting
Your name is a refuge for the weak
Only Your name can redeem the undeserving
Jesus Your name holds everything I need

Suicide PSA Choose Life

Hey everyone! Just wanted to write yall and let you know a bit of what we have been doing these last few weeks. We started on a group project and were told to choose from 4 different topics. Our group chose the topic of Suicide in Switzerland. We did a research paper the first week and looked deeper into the fact that Switzerland being extremely beautiful and rich is actually in the top 20 of most suicidal country and number 6 regarding men and suicide. The research was really difficult to study because of how dark the subject is, but what we found was really amazing. The research paper is long, so I won't post it, but if you are interested in reading it, let me know and I can send it to you. After we wrote the research paper, we had to do a flyer, poster, video and web design related to our topic. We chose to encourage those who are in pain, or those who are suffering with thoughts of suicide. Our name was "Choose Life" and our slogan was "The world is not the same without you." Above is our video made for the project. Spread it around and send it to whoever you know who might need to know that they are needed and wanted in this world. That they matter and without them, it is just not the same! Our group also made a web site www.wix.com/chooselifeicd/home. I wish I could show our flyer and poster, because we found this cool paper at a hardware store that is reflective and on the paper we have our saying "the world is not the same without you" and when you look at the paper it is a mirror and shows yourself. It was so cool! I wish someone would take this and make it an actual campaign!

So, it was great to finish our project and think wow, three months ago I would never have thought I could have created something like this and it was really cool how we learned how to create with God. We would constantly pray and listen to what God had to say about the subject and read in his word and hear his voice on where to go. I am so thankful for these last 3 months! I am also SOOO excited to go home for a month and be in Texas for Christmas. Then I will be going to England for 2 years and helping with the Olympics outreach in London 2012, but more on that as it gets closer :)!! Once again, I am so extremely blessed to have you around the world praying for me and supporting me! I think I have learned more about my passions in these 3 months than my entire life! It has been an exciting, frustrating, busy, sleepless, fun, crazy, adventurous time I will never forget! If any of you want some Swiss Chocolate, write me and I can bring it home! Thanks for everything!!

Thanksgiving 2010 YWAM

So this week was Thanksgiving week and it was really sad to be away from my family on Thanksgiving day. All my family gathered together in Stratford, Texas and I celebrated thousands of miles away. It was difficult being so far away, but we celebrated in our own way on the base! First, I made a Thanksgiving Video for our base, we learned adobe premiere and adobe after effects and it was really great for me to learn more about video editing...you can check it out here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYyIArG2ti8

The next thing we did was we had a huge thanksgiving feast and then hid about 600 paper turkeys around the entire building and had a race to see who could find the most turkeys in 5 minutes...It was a mad house around here and people were using some great basketball blocking out moves! It was crazy! Afterwards there was a down pour of snow, so we all went out and started what I will say is the greatest snowball fight I have ever been apart of! Each side had strategy and tactics and plans of attacks, so it was so much fun! Today we woke up and went to a print shop and communication museum in the capital of Switzerland. It was an awesome day and we ended with coffee at a small village that looked like a christmas north pole. It was the coolest town I have ever seen, covered with snow and had a castle. No words can describe how beautiful it was! Tomorrow we are going skiing to complete an amazing Thanksgiving week! I have not been out of the base these 3 months because we spend about 12 hours a day in the classroom designing and learning, so it will be nice to take a break before we start our final project. For our final project we will be researching and making a print project, web project, and video project over one current event subject in Switzerland. Our team is doing a project over suicide in Switzerland, because it has one of the highest rates in the world. It will be interesting to interview people on this issue and find out why one of the prettiest and richest places in the world feels so hopeless. I am excited about going deep, but it will be a crazy crazy 2 weeks, and then that means I am going to be home for Christmas!!

Something else, I have been officially accepted to Staff for Ywam Harpenden, England! I will be co-leader of the olympic sports outreach team. We are planning on having 10,000 people to direct and place and house around England for 2012. I am also helping with the design team and creating graphics, print projects and videos, so I'm excited about that! YAY! Well, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you guys all know how thankful I am for you and your support, it really means EVERYTHING to me!

Photoshop!

This week, we learned a crash course in Photoshop!  I probably spent around 10 hours a day in the classroom just playing around with the tools and experimenting with different blending tools.  It was cool starting with a black page and adding colors and paint brushes to achieve a look I wanted.  There is still so much to learn, but I love it and I can't wait to get better!  This week we are starting in webdesign, and the following week is VIDEO!! I'm so excited about the video week!  Also, this week, I am going to see two of the Swiss guys from my DTS, so it will be great to finally get out of this classroom and explore Switzerland a bit!

My First Design Project

This week, we have been learning about the importance of design and how every image, every color, and every word have meaning.  Something that looks cool with no content is worthless.  We started out with an art project and were each given a topical word.  From that topic, we had to create a design that represented that word.  My word was Success.  When I was thinking of the word success, I thought it really depends on whose perspective you are looking at when defining success.  Like a successful day for batman is different from a successful day of a stay at home mom, and a business man would think of success in different terms than a sports star.  As I was writing down these terms, I thought of how God would define success, and how sometimes the things we throw our energy into now, are really eternally insignificant.  So here is my representation of Success.  The roots on the dead tree are things that you can throw your life ambitions into and then the eternal effects is no fruits, but if you dig deep and define your measure of success through a biblical perspective, the fruits have a lasting eternal significant like the evergreen tree.  Good Stuff!  Next week is photoshop and we have already created a magazine in InDesign, but maybe I will post more on that next week! Tchau!

Our Glitter Story vs. God's Star Wars, Gladiator, Braveheart Story

              I have noticed recently that it seems all the great stories follow the same story line.  Things were once good, then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken.  At just the right moment, which just happens to be the very last possible moment, a hero comes and sets things right, and life is found again.  Braveheart, Titanic, Star Wars, Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, the Matrix all these epic movies follow the same story.  “All of these stories borrow from THE STORY! From Reality.  We hear echoes of it through our lives.  Some secret written on our heart.  A great battle to fight, and someone to fight for us.  An adventure, something that requires everything we have, something to be shared with those we love and need.”  To me, it is crazy that in this epic battle God is creating, he has chosen us to be bit players in the fight.  He has used story to create with us and used us to communicate about this hero that comes in the right moment to set everything right again.  When we set to making our story and God’s story the same, we get to join in the adventure.  It gets interesting when we try and separate the two stories, for examply we could have the greatest theology on Christ; the most dynamic mission statement; with the best kind of music; and the coolest graphics with the best media team in the world, but outside of a burning passion for the glory of Christ and the Kingdom of God, we will build our own kingdom, and it will die with us.  When we focus on communicating and creating with Christ it becomes a graphic, a movie, a speech that is outside ourselves and part of the epic story.  I was so intrigued by this idea of being able to communicate who God is and all His glory through our story, so I decided to do a little research and dig in deeper.  Why were we created to have a story to tell and what is our purpose in God’s story?

            When we are co-creating with God it is important to find out what our role is in the story that he is creating.  What does the bible say about what we were created to do?  Isaiah 43:7 says “Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made." In this verse it says that we are created for His glory, with the word glory in Hebrew actually meaning honor, splendor, and reputation.  So, with this, we were created to glorify Him, we were created to give him honor, to marvel in his splender, but in the midst of that command, He is inviting us to enjoy him. “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hands there are pleasures forever.” Psalms 16:11.   The word presence in the Hebrew actually means Face of God and the word fullness in it’s transliterated form is soba which means abundance and satisfying. It seems to me that our story and the purpose of our creation is to worship Him and in the midst of that worship is to experience deep abundance and satisfaction.  I can see that as being a universal truth.  Constantly we replace worshiping Him with someone or something else and that deep abundance and satisfaction does not exist.  When we make other things ultimate it robs us of being fully satisfied and begins to create in us a desire for something more.

            Mark Driscoll says, “We were created to reflect, mirror, image God in creation, However, through sin, we have a proclivity to worship created things rather than our Creator God.”  By the story we tell with our lives, it communicates who and what we worship.  We could worship music.  We have a favorite band, we know all their songs lyrics, we buy what they are selling and this year, I went to a John Mayer concert and began to notice the way people were responding to the music was a giant worship event.  Sports is another thing we worship.  The crowds of a football game in America react and become emotionally involved in a game.  I have recently been convicted on this truth reflecting on my personal journey of worship.  I have realized that If 19-year-old boys are ruining my day because of what they do with a ball, that's a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. When I replace ultimate and true worship with temporary worship, that abundant and satisfying life seems to fade.  Because Texas Tech cannot win every game, eventually they will let me down. On TV, Michael Scott from “The Office” will leave the show and my weekly schedule of television will be thrown off, food is good, but I will always be hungry again, shopping has great perks and amazing sells, but the clothes I buy will get old, worshiping movies and books is a crazy idea because those movies and books will never love me back.  These are all areas that we try to fill into to replace this thing that we were created to do. 

This has been a big revelation to me that I want to focus on during this school.  Everything that I create and the actions and where I place my emphasis on, I pray that it reflects God’s glory.  I pray that through creating with God, I will be able to be apart of His story on making Himself worshiped among the nations.  John Piper says something so interesting, “Missions exist, because worship doesn’t.”  The reason we are given an opportunity through communication to be a mouthpiece to the world is so we will be able to be apart of creating worshipers.  I think  as communicators it is our job to be apart of pointing others to a creator. John 4:23-24 says "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshiper. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  True worshipers are those who are true not by name and semblance but by their real nature being a worshiper. The word used here for spirit is pneuma with the root word of pneō meaning to breath.  This is deep revelation to me that if we are to worship in spirit, it is to worship with our breath.  By breathing we are worshiping, and by the words we communicate we are worshiping.  The word “truth” here means loving the truth and speaking the truth. So to be a true worshiper in Spirit and Truth we have to worship through our speech and then speak it out. 

I think about the Swiss mountains around me and the fact that they are doing what they were created to do by standing and communicating to the world stories of their creator.  They were created to worship and cry out about God’ glory in the earth.  Have we been outdone by a rock? The revelation about living my story to communicate God’s glory has been a convicting revelation.  Have I been worshiping with every breath? Have I been worshiping in spirit and truth and pointing people towards a creator?  When applying this, I would like to take steps in being intentional in the story I am telling with my life. I realized, I have an option when it comes to communicating and creating with God.  I can create a movie on my own that has great graphics and cool special effect that I could make on my own strength and it would probably make the box office, but more than likely the numbers would come out in the form of the movie “Glitter” which was voted one of the worst movies of all times.  I could take on this role of doing things my way and living for myself and for my personal gain and my glory, which sounds almost romantic in the fact that I would have a name for myself.  But all that glory fails in comparison when I think of the other option.  In contrast, I could create and imagine and think and draw and write as a part of a bigger movement, a bigger film, a bigger production. I could be on God’s creative team that is producing a film that is bigger than Avatar, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, and Pirate of the Caribbean combined.  Being on this team is about something greater than myself, it is living with purpose and it seems more exciting to be involved in a movement that is lasting then in something that ends with me and my story.  To make this truth in my life, I want to focus on constantly looking to how I am communicating.  Are the words coming out of my mouth ultimately going to end up in a “Glitter” movie about myself, or will it be the role of an extra in the Grand Epic film God is telling?

 “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31.  If this can be our life song of worshiping God through all aspects of our life then our story will ultimately communicate to the world a story that is greater than ourselves. 

            It is amazing that God doesn’t need us to create this movie of all movies.  The mountains are able to cry out his glory, but instead he chooses to allow us to be apart of the creative process of making Him famous among the whole earth.  We don’t have to sit back and create our own movies that fail miserably in the box offices, but instead we can join him in his unbelievable story line that ends with Jesus coming down with a tattoo down his leg and a sword in his hand, and a new heaven and a new earth! We get to be on the winning side and apart of the battle where we already know that the lamb wins in the end.  Worship, draw, speak, create, and write, in the process of the dramatic ending that all will cry out and bring Him glory.

(This is my topical study for my communication and design school in YWAM.  We had to take an aspect of communication and study it further.  For my research I used blueletterbible.com, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler and John Eldredge.)

The Revolutionary Communicator

So, I am here in Switzerland!  I arrived at the end of September and I have been attending a school with YWAM titled "introduction to communication and design."  Coming into this I had expected it to be learning how I can communicate with people through different mediums like photoshop, video editing, and illustrator.  Until this point, I had thought a good communicator was someone who got good responses like many people responding to an alter call or had a large following and were known as a good communicator.  From these first 2 weeks my expectations have been blown away.  We started the school looking into how Jesus communicated verses the way the media says we should communicate.  Jesus was attentive to his audience, his focus was on them because he cared about their hearts first.  He also sought to be on their turf and in their terms.   The bible says that Jesus dwelt among us...the word dwelt actually means "to pitch a tent."  The thought of him having a pitched tent as he connected with people is so intriguing. Learning to communicate in these terms has been revolutionary to me, because the attentiveness Jesus portrayed is crucial to being a good communicator.   With this aspect of being available to listen is invaluable because of the pure oxygen of sincere attentiveness gives.   Jesus was the ultimate example of communicating because he never traveled more than 100 miles from his home, worked as a tradesman, yet was still able to set in motion a movement that would continue and effect every nation, every culture and every language.  My new thought of a good communicator is not someone who got good responses, because Jesus was subversive to the culture, he didn't seek good responses and he didn't desire large followings because he frequently said things that sent the crowds away.  A good communicator is someone who serves and seeks to know others deeply.  Jesus was the ultimate server and I desire for my heart to burn for people the way he did and communicate with people on their terms.

As part of our assignment with the school we have to do a weekly journal of what we have learned this week, but there has to be a media aspect to it, so I have chosen to do the weekly journal on my blog.  I will be updating this every week!  Stay tuned for more projects and posting.  Talk to yall soon!

Home Sweet Home!

So, I'm now back in the big USA for a month!  I stepped off the plane after 48 hours of traveling, and was greeted with a whole crew of Texans!  So great to have people surrounding me that understand the value of American football and the beauty of country music!  We went straight for Mexican food and I had a good ole' fashion burrito with a large Dr. Pepper.  Who knew how amazing Dr. Pepper could taste after months of seperation. I guess the statement is true...absense makes the heart grow fonder.  I have really enjoyed being home these last couple of days, just catching up with friends and sleeping in my own room with my own bed.  What a luxury!  So, what's next for the vagabond?  Well, I'm heading to Switzerland for a school called communications and design.  I will be at this school for 3 months and here I will be learning all about the ends and outs of photoshop, video editing, and graphic design, and they will be teaching us ways to effectively communicate the gospel throught the media.  After this training, I plan on joining the Olympic outreach team in London starting in January.  The goal of this team is to travel around Europe and get people excited about missions and hopefully get the churches to send a team to do outreach during the Olympics in 2012.  I will be in the communications and public relations aspect of the team as well as the sports outreach aspect.  We will be making contacts around London and setting up sport ministry opportunities for the teams to join us during the month that the Olympics will be in London. I'm so excited about this opportunity because during the Olympics there will be people from all areas of the world!  So many tribe, tongues and nations will be represented and gathered together in one country!  What an amazing chance for God to show up and show off!!  If anyone is interested in supporting me during this time, either finanically or prayerfully, you can contact me at dondi_carter@hotmail.com.  I would greatly appreciate anything! I love you all, thanks for everything!

South Africa Dream Team 2010

Hey all, Here is a video I made of my trip to South Africa! I hope you enjoy! Thanks for all your love and support! You really are amazing and I could not have gotten to come on this trip without you!

You are the God of this CITY!

Hey All!

I hope you have been following the excitement of the World Cup!!  It is really exciting around here.  Every game is unpredictable and it reminds me a lot of the NCAA Bowl season or March Madness in Basketball, except with billions of people watching!  My ears are probably permanently damaged from the noice of the vuvuezelas, but I love it.  I think Texas Tech games should adopt this deafening instrament!  AYOBA!  The Bafana Bafana (South Africa's Team) is out of the World Cup, so the locals are pretty bummed, but at least the Bafana jersey's are now half price, so if yall want one...let me know :)!

So ministry during this time has been so crazy.  This is the first time I have actually had time to sit down and process what I have seen.  Last week, we ran a school program for kids ages 5-17, this was a great time of ministry, but the reality of their situation was shocking.  Many of these kids live in shacks with 20-30 other people.  Most of the children are being sexually abused by the men in their family and neighbors, and a lot of them are living with AIDS.   The boys in this area usually start taking drugs around the age 12 or 13 and join in gangs during this time as well.  The relationships we built were amazing during this week.  Some of the stories I have heard from these children that should still have their innocence was heartbreaking.  One mother even opened up to me saying how hard she has tried to protect her daughter, but the area is so dangerous.  Her daughter was recently gang raped by 8 men, and the pain from a situation like this I could never understand and pray I never will. It has been really great to speak truth into these kid’s lives who have never heard that they are loved or that they are fearlessly and wonderfully made and not a mistake or unwanted! 

Besides the school program, we have done outreach into the public viewing areas and around the city,  I have met so many interesting people this week and loved getting to just share life with people from all over the world.   Soccer really is a universal language and it has opened up so many conversations.  I am amazed at how open people are regarding their life and need for Jesus.   God’s timing has been perfect and has placed a lot of us in situations at the exact moment they have needed his touch.  It is so humbling to know that God is using me to make His name known among the nations.  Sometimes I really think, why me?  Why do I get to be apart of this?  I don’t deserve it, but I’m so thankful!  This week, we have soccer clinics all week, Girls detention center, Prison ministry, Township and village outreach, and going to AIDS orphanages and holding babies.  These babies are probably going to die, so they aren’t ever held to save time for the care workers to spend time on the other children.   So much darkness in this city, but God’s light is shining through, and his truth is being made known here.  

Dondi

Bafana Bafana!

Hey HEY HEY!






Where do I even begin! I feel like I need to have a daily update to actually communicate accurately all of God's goodness! It's hard to even know where to start...How about by telling you how extremely pumped I am that the World Cup is in 2 days! Everyday at noon everyone in all of South Africa goes outside and blows their airhorn for at least 30 minutes. It is madness here! I was actually on the South African News yesterday! We matched around Cape Town as apart of a prayer walk and the news came and filmed us as I was jumping up and down with excitement! Then I was interviewed about what we were doing here and was on the South African radio for at least 10 minutes...everyone thinks I sound like Miley Cyrus, so maybe South Africans everywhere think Hannah Montana came into town for the World Cup, either way, it was amazing that the interview was broadcasted around the country and I was able to share the gospel through the radio waves! Don't worry I will sign autographs later :)!







In other news, ministry is really starting to pick up. Starting Monday, we will be doing soccer clinics in the morning, public viewing areas in the afternoon where we will be serving free coffee and talking with all the fans, and then prostitution/human trafficking ministry in the evening to late evening. Human Trafficking is such a huge issue, because just for the world cup they are bringing in 40,000 women and children as human sex slaves. Many of them have come here with promises of modeling jobs or a chance to star in a movie, only to be brought into hostels and drugged or beat into submission. We went through training on how to respond to this, but the worst thing on all this is 75% of those captive in human trafficking are from the ages 5-15. We have been trained to know what to look for and have even been working with the non-corrupt Cape Town police! I have developed a relationship with a girl who was raped repeatedly and almost sold, but was rescued in the last moments through a miracle. She has since become a Christian, and I have been visiting her everyday and helping her through the discipleship process and she is even going to do a Discipleship Training School with YWAM! We brought her the application yesterday!





Also, we have been able to talk with AIDs Victims, prisoners, gangsters, drug dealers, widows, children, youth, single parents, orphans and everyone in between about the gospel. We have seen guys be completely drunk and as we prayed for them they completely sobered up, and we have seen men with heart disease and polio healed! We have talked with witch doctors and done muslim ministry around town! We even have talked to a few crazy people which was very entertaining, one guy was convinced that Jesus was his mother and everything he said was a line from a movie, but he loved his bible we gave him and treasured it like he had never been given anything so great before. I wish so much that you all could come along with me and see what an amazing God we serve!





Just a few prayer points:

1. Safety. Soccer fans are more passionate than American football fans, so just pray for God's protection over our team and over the nation. We have had a few close calls with some of our team members, and nothing major happened, so I know that that had something to do with you prayer warriors out there.

2. World Cup team fans. It is amazing that nations are coming to South Africa! Can you believe that the world's biggest persecutor of Christians is North Korea, and their fans are coming to South Africa! We will get to share the gospel openly to the most closed country in the world! Just pray for opportunity to open up among these nations and they can be transformed here and take it back to their countries and transform their nations

3. Human Trafficking. That we will be able to have eyes to see and wisdom to fight against this as well as safety as we minister into the late hours of the night.

4. USA to not get completely smoked by England this Saturday, because we have some serious England fans around here and I will never hear the end of it if we lose! We did beat Australia in a friendly match on Saturday 3-1, so I enjoyed that OOOO SO MUCH! Also, If you are watching the quarter final and semi final games on TV, look for me behind the goals on the 9th row, because that is where my seats will be!! I will be painted from head to toe and if Brazil is playing, I have a jersey, a scarf, a hat, some brazilian flag sunglasses and some brazil jewlery, so hopefully they get a close up! My luck on getting on national tv has been pretty good, but I think I am ready for the international stage :)!





Well, that's all for now, I can't wait to see what God is going to do in the next few weeks and what type of stories I will have to share next update! We serve an AWESOME GOD! I love yall and I miss you! send updates on life in your world, I hope to send pictures soon :P





Bafana, Bafana!!!!

Cape Town!

I finally had time to write and update you all on all the happenings of Africa!  We have been here a little less than 2 weeks and I have already fallen in love with this place and these people.  We have done so much ministry already.  We have visited a couple of village/townships and served food and rice to the people in the area.  We have played a lot of soccer with the kids in these areas which has been awesome to connect with them first through sports and then after they have warmed up to us then we were able to go into their homes and talk with their families.  I connected really well with a girl named Caylin and after going into her home, we talked with her family for an hour.  There were around 20 people living in one small apartment room.  They were so excited to have us there and even when they had so little, they tried to offer what they did have for us!  It was really great to talk with the family and build the relationship with them.  It is really heart breaking in some of these community because of the hopelessness in some of the hearts of these people.  One girl was 10 years old and was talking about the only form of entertainment they can afford is to have sex, and she said if the statistics are correct then she will have AIDS by the time she is 15 and be dead by the time she is 20, and that is what she has to hope for in her life.  It is great to be able to go into these communities and offer the message of Hope and speak truth into their lives.  The people are so receptive to the gospel.  It has been great to watch as they hear that some one loves them unconditionally.  I talked with one girl in one of the youth groups we were helping with and she started crying as I was telling her that God is a father that loves her and created her and has a plan for her life, because her father was killed in a gang fight and her mother has different guys over and they have abused her.  Watching her cry over the gospel reminded me how powerful the Gospel actually is and what an amazing message we carry!  Besides working in townships and food shelters, we have worked with youth groups, done dramas and talks at local high schools, worked with orphans, and went to an AIDS hospital.  In the AIDS Hospital,  the people in these places are the people who have around 2 or 3 weeks left to live.  We were able to talk and pray for these people, but it is very hard to stomach some of there stories of children who are innocent and infected with AIDS or young girls who are raped and didn't do anything to deserve this situation.  I am still trying to process it all, but I know my life will never be the same after I leave this place.  I am excited about the ministry opportunities coming up, because we are going to be helping with Samaritan's feet and giving 30,000 new shoes away to children who don't even own one pair of shoes!! I am really excited about this and also, the world cup starts in 18 days!! The excitement in Cape Town is unbelievable!! The ministry opportunity is going to be crazy and I'm pumped! AHHHH USA for the win!! probably not USA, but FOR SURE BRAZIL! GOOOOOO BRAZIL!  I have already gotten my yellow jersey and face paint, so I'm ready!

Australian Update!

EasterFest!

Hey YALL!!

I just wanted to update you all with happenings around base these last couple of weeks!! Things have been so crazy in the land down under! We went to a town called Toowoomba for a week. First, it was great to be in the city because how much fun I had saying the word TooWOOMBA! I found reasons just to say the town name, because it is such a crazy name. Also, during this week was April Fools Day, so you know that I had fun with this day! We were in Toowoomba because we were in charge of the nations largest Christian Festival called "EasterFest." It is alot like "Rock the Desert" in Midland! We were in charge of setting up the festival and helping wherever we were needed. I had no idea what went into a concert like this! We woke up around 5:30 every morning and didn't go to bed before 2am. During the festival we did everything from Security (that's right, I was backstage during KJ-52, Superchick, and Newsboys!) We had a lot of fun with the Security aspect because we were checking wristbands as people were walking into the park. We would pull them to the side and make them feel like they were in trouble and then ask them with serious faces "have you eaten any fruit today?" or "could you please hop on your left foot?" then we would take the tongs from the kitchen and use it as a pretend security scanner. It is amazing

what people will do when you have a Security shirt on. Another cool thing we were able to do was walk through the camping areas at night and just hang out with the thousands of youth campers! Because I had an accent it was like an automatic open door into conversations! We had

great conversations with people and saw some real deliverance from sin and hard times they were going through. One thing I learned alot through out this week was just the joy of serving. I was in charge of changing the Rubbish bins (that's right they call it Rubbish bins...I have been made

fun of multiple times trying to call it Trash cans!) anyways, I had to change all the trash bins everyday. With a concert this big, I would say there were around 400 or 500 rubbish bins spread out over a kilometer (that's australian for Mile) The first day I had a lot of fun, because we walked around with the trash claw that picks up trash easily and also looks a lot like a gun or sword, so we made it a "special operation" and did ninja moves to each rubbish bin.

The second day, the claws broke, and my army buddies were assigned to moshpit security, so I had to go around by myself. During this time, God really taught me an awesome lesson. This is what serving is all about. Sure, its fun to serve when God calls you to be the cool backstage Security hands and it's easy when he calls you to serve in the comforts of your life, but what about when he calls you to serve among the garbage and in the disgusting rubbish bins that when they are changed, your work goes unrecognized? I believe that when Jesus was here,

He was serving in the dumps and serving among the Trash. It's the Joy of serving. When I came here, I said, Lord, I will go anywhere, I want to be your hands and feet. It was as though God was saying "sure Dondi, you will serve me in the cool places like Africa and do cool things like

feeding the hungry or building house, but will you go among the rubbish and serve me with everything? Will you go to the discusting places by the world standards? And when you go there will you serve and see people through my eye? Will you love the unlovable, and will you still serve when your work goes un-noticed?" I came to realize, I am ready to serve where ever God can use me, even if that is in the depths of the rubbish. Here I am, Send me!

Update from Down-Under

Wow, were do I begin.... I told myself I would update this thing once a week, but when life gets going...It really gets going!  I don't even know how to describe what has happened in the last 6 weeks except to say that my life will never be the same.  I have seen God in a way that I have never experienced before.  We have studied his character and nature like God the father, the comforter, the provider, the king, the friend, the director, the master, the healer, and the warrior.  It was great diving into each of these areas, because their are so many aspects of God that I feel I have only seen the beginning.  We were at the beach all week last week, and I would get up early in the morning to watch the sunrise and see the waves come into the shore.  I just felt like this was symbolic to what I am learning here.  Right now, I feel I have only see the shore of his ocean.  If this is what the shore looks like then I want to be swimming deep into all that He has for me.  Each week as I process through lectures I think, ok, now I think I get it and then the next week starts and my mind is blown once again!  This week we are learning about God being Lord in our life.  That means surrendering our lives, the plans we have made for ourselves, the worry and doubt of what comes next and just completely following Jesus.  It is alot easier said then done, but I want that so much!  I can't wait to see what the next step is!

So, We are going to South Africa in May! I'm so excited because I'm pretty sure we got World Cup tickets!! I'm very slowly becoming a Soccer fan and since we play soccer almost every day around here I realize that I wasted my time playing basketball and volleyball all my life while the rest of the world is an expert at soccer!  I have also started playing some tennis, some of you may know my history with Tennis, but I am determind to rise above it and be an expert when I get out of here!  Anyways, in south africa the plan is to go and do whatever is needed of us.  Maybe that is playing with orphans, talking with the prostitutes, serving the widows, I am not sure what all that is going to look like, but we are praying now that God would move mountains and use us to do his will!  I'm pumped!!

Hopefully I will be able to get back into the whole once a week update thing!  We are going to an easter festival all week next week, so I will update after all that happens there!  g'day mates!

dondi

cRaZy WeEk

This was a video we made for our YWAM book report hahaha!

South Africa!!

Our group just found out that in the middle of May until the middle of July we will all be working in South Africa!  It is going to be during the World Cup which is really cool because people from every country, tribe, tongue and nation will be in this place for this event.  We will be working in the prison ministries, human trafficing, prostitution, drug rehab, and evangelism around Cape Town.  I am so excited and pumped to see how God is going to move in this place.

Week one: Character and Nature of God

This week has been a crazy week!  We started lectures and they have been amazing.  This weeks focus has been on the character and nature of God.  We have taken different aspects of who God is and looked deeper at these things.  With all the dimintions of God there is no way to put him in a box and label him.  I have really  enjoyed the lessons and can see that these next 6 months are going to be a crazy honeymoon time between me and the Father.  God is wooing me and romancing me and it is unlike anything I have experienced before.  It might hurt to dig up things from the past and deal with them, but I am ready to go deeper.  He is the potter and I want to be clay, and be completely open to what he has for me. 

Already this week, I have seen something unlike anything I have experienced before.  I broke my toe before I came to Australia and then broke it again while surfing.  We were all sitting around talking one night and 2 of the guys on my team asked if anyone had prayed for my toe yet, and I said no, kinda thinking that was a silly question, and laughed about it.  They then asked if they could pray over my foot and they started praying words with power and authority over the healing of my toe, and I got up and could move my toe!  Then we sat back down and continued to pray more, and this time I believed 100% that it was going to happen and suddenly I was able to run around and jump around!! We serve a BIG God!

More stories to come, I'm off to learn how to play Cricket!! FUN FUN FUN!!

If you want me to

The pathway is broken
And The signs are unclear
And I don't know the reason why You brought me here
But just because You love me the way that You do
I'm gonna walk through the valley
If You want me to
Cause I'm not who I was
When I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise You're not through with me yet
so if all of these trials bring me closer to you
Then I will walk through the fire
If You want me to

It may not be the way I would have chosen
When you lead me through a world that's not my home
But You never said it would be easy
You only said I'd never go alone

So When the whole world turns against me
And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear You answer my cries for help
I'll remember the suffering Your love put You through
And I will go through the valley If You want me to

Happy Birthday mom!

Today is my mom's birthday!! If you're reading this mom...Thanks for being amazing, and I hope you have the best 20th birthday ever!!

So this weekend was awesome!  We went to a retreat center and saw a lot of kangaroos everywhere!  By the second day, it was completely normal to see those guys jumping around.  We then went to the beach, which the locals all said was the best beach in australia for surfing, so I took on the challenge and had my first lesson in surfing!  First lesson in surfing...FAIL, but I'm going to go for round 2 the next time we have a free weekend!  I also need to learn the proper use of sunscreen, because apparently the sun in australia is different and now my skin is burnt red....which means the beginning of a tan!

The retreat was awesome and through that time I realized everyone on my team is coming from completely different spots in life, but I know God is going to completely do work in each of us on different levels.  Classes start tomorrow, and our routine will begin.  Happy Valentines day for all!

Sunshine Coast!

I made it here safely!  It was a good flight, because for the first time in my life I was able to sleep the entire 13 hours, which made it go by so fast!!  I'm here on our base!  There are people from every country here!  Out of the 40 people here, about 5 are American.  We are getting ready to go on a retreat where we will share testimonies and get to know each other for 3 days.  On the 3rd day we are going to sunshine coast which is a popular surfers paradise, and one of the guys on our team is a surfing addict, so I'm hoping to finally learn to surf!  I will post pictures soon!

Put another shrimp on the Barbie!

Today, I'm going to the land down under! I'm so excited about the next 6 months.  I think life has been so busy these last few days that it hasn't hit me that I'm about to be traveling on a plane for the next 16 hours, but with the time change I'm actually never going to experience February 10th, 2010!  I just skip that day!  I wish that day was my birthday, so I could say that technically I'm not a year older because that day didn't exist!  Kinda like the leap year babies!  Anyways, the next time I update, I will be updating from the future because I will be 16 hours ahead of all the crazy americans!  If you want to send me some Dr. Pepper, or some girl scout cookies my new address is:

671 Samford Rd

Mitchelton

Queensland

4053

Australia Also, I now have a skype account, so make sure you find me and skype with me! I'll show you around Australia!  See yall on the other side :) pray for good travel!

Birthday Surprises!

I have the most amazing friends! I had a suprise birthday party and then this awesome video Daniel made!
Best version of Happy Birthday I have ever seen! This guy should be famous already!
22 was a good age, but I'm so excited about all that 23 will bring!

Be Near, Oh God.

I went to Haiti two years ago, and these are some pictures from my trip.  Haitian people are tough, strong , brave , and tenacious. Most of them have been suffering for decades and decades.  Been thinking alot about these kids and the people that I met there. Pray for Haiti.

Be Near, Oh God, You're Nearness is to us our good.

Give me your arms for the broken hearted. Ones that are far beyond my reach.

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten.  Give me your eyes so I can see

Pray for the trapped, pray for the hurt. Send your money to organizations sending medical help.

Set the World on Fire

I am small but You are big enough
I am weak but
You are strong enough to
Take my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
There`s nothing I can not do

I wanna feed the hungry children
And reach across the farthest land
And tell the broken there is healing
And mercy in the Father`s hands

My hands my feet
My everything
My life, my love
Lord, use me

Even the rocks cry out.

There is not one square inch of the entire creation where Christ does not cry out "This is Mine!, This belongs to Me!"

One More MONTH!

I can't believe that in one more month, my entire life is going to change.  I am expecting to be completely ruined for the ordinary.  The fear of the unknown is creeping up, but I am clinging onto the fact that perfect love cast out fear!  When I sit and think too long about how big God is my mind almost explodes.  For New Years Eve I couldn't help but think about where I was last year at this exact time.  I was just graduating from Texas Tech, moving to a new city, and starting my first real big grown up job.  Those where the only things I knew were the definites in my life.  I could have never predicted that I would meet a group of Brazilians and go to Brazil and through all that God would use to completely change me, or that I would have my spleen and gallbladder removed that would heal me of anemia and so many health problems I have had the last 22 years of my life.  Also, I could never have guessed the people that I would meet, like my friend Dee that is 30 years older and a billion years wiser than me who would teach me and disciple me and become one of my best friends, or that I would bond so much with a bunch of junior high and high school kids!  If God had laid out for me the things that I would see and do this year on New Years Eve last year, I still wouldn't have believed him.  It is just mind blowing to think about all the details that he has planned for this year.  I will be on a completely different continent this time next year and I'm excited to be able to look back and just laugh it up saying "Wow, God, only you could have planned a year like that."  I'm just along for the ride....we have a saying in the youth that use to bug the crap out of me but now I realize it's so true, "don't anticipate, just participate."  I'm ready to participate, and I'm ready to be ruined completely where my life song is to live it up in such a way that God gets every amount of fame and glory.  It's going to be a crazy year!