My time in India is coming to a close and as the month comes to an end I want to share the things God has shared with me. In this past week I have experienced God's grace and his care for me. This last week has been a crazy one filled with lots of highs and lows but in all the lows I have seen God the most and from lows he has given me the highs. On Wednesday my team had one of the craziest days and most rewarding days all in one the morning started off with everything being crazy the traffic was horrendous the auto rickshaw drivers ripped us off and kicked us out before our stop the roads where  impossible to cross. But our team continued to pray as we traveled to our ministry and it was a powerful day we got to meet and talk with a young boy  that has intestinal problems and severe infections in his feet that is crippling him. The time we spent with him was wonderful and we shared more about Jesus with him and we talked about how through praying for him Jesus said that he wants him to have a greater understanding of him before he would be healed.  We prayed over him and asked for a greater revelation of Jesus in his life and it was a really good time and we could feel God moving and softening his heart. We left our ministry feeling wonderful and excited by all that God was doing but soon we where hit with the craziness of the city. It was the hardest and worst commute home the bus we where on was so crowded we couldn't get off and almost lost our leader and had to chase the bus and beat on the side yelling until it stopped and people got off to let her off our rickshaw ride was ridiculous and was playing the crudest songs ever and we almost go hit by a car and men where trying to pinch some of the girls butts and as we walked home we almost got hit crossing the road by a tram and a car. We arrived home completely burned out but thankful for the protection of God because the whole time he saved us from complete disasters and bad situations all around us even though the enemy tried to destroy us God has his hand around us and we praised him for it. In that day I began to realize how what we do in the spiritual effects us in the physical and how when we begin to fight and bring light in the darkness the enemy fights back and before this day I had never felt spiritual warfare so strong. But in circumstances like that God's grace is so over powering you keep fighting even when its hard. The next day we prayed again for protection and grace and as we prayed one of my teammates heard God whisper to here that today was a day of rest and a day of grace. As we headed out that day the streets where calm and the travel was easy and quick and we had zero problems. That day had a certain peace I have never felt in this city and God really cared for us that day especially for me.  I experienced God's healing for something as simple as a headache. I literally asked God and he answered me instantly and brought relief. That day our whole team felt the grace and compassion God has for his children.
              The week still wasn't easy as lots of people have been getting sick and even one of our team members is in the hospital and their has been an out break of bed bugs and head lice in the room I stay in.
              Also this week our ministry has been going well we have really bonded with the kids so much that they invited us to come to their homes. I got to go too three of the kids home and they introduced me to their families. It was crazy sitting in small little one room tin shack and these families where some of the kindest most generous people I have ever met and it was such a humbling experience. They has us sit in the only chairs they had and offered us food and drink and even through we refused they insisted. We talked just a little and we got to hear about what the families do for work and how they live and just saw a different

GOODBYE Thailand HELLO INDIA!!!!!!

I can’t believe I'm in Calcutta or Kolkata, India and wow this country blows my mind!!! When I was in Thailand I never really had a culture shock moment but when I came here the second I got out of the airport I was blown away. All the taxis looked like they were from the 60's and no one wore western clothes all I saw was saris on women and collared shirts and long pants on men. Then we got on a bus to go to the place we were staying and drove down the streets EVERYONE honks their horn and the streets are so loud that you almost have to yell to talk to the person next to you. While driving you see rickshaws, men taking baths in the street, women washing dishes in the street, cows just lounging around, and lots and lots of cars and people everywhere. 

But now that I have been her for 10 days it seems less shocking and I'm starting to see past the noise and the busyness and see the people. Where I live there is a family who lives outside on the sidewalk with three young boys and every time we walk by they try to grab our bags or cling on to us asking for money. The first time it happened I was completely shocked because this crying screaming 2 year old grabbed my leg and was begging for food and wouldn't let go. I was heartbroken and realized that this would just be my first experience with absolute poverty in this city. But even though I see cry’s of children for food, families lying in the dirt asking for money, crippled people. I see the hurt in their eyes and pain and it hurts me and it breaks me in a way I have never felt before. But I know there is hope although I feel overwhelmed and can’t see the end of this present poverty I know that I am not alone. The pain and the heart break it causes God must be so unbearable for him. I can’t even imagine how his heart breaks for his lost sons and daughters that are forgotten and unloved by their fellow family. Kolkata is a hurting city a city in need of a wave of love to sweep over the streets. And this wave starts with pray because when we pray GOD moves. It’s not us who can change this city it’s people from Oregon City or from Germany, Africa anywhere in the world taking time to intercede on behalf of this city taking on just a small part of this blanket of pray that needs to be spread out over the city.

            So please Pray for this city a few things that I have felt lead to pray for on some of my prayer walks is for hurting people: Street children- safety, education, food

                                                        -Beggars- healing over their bodies and safety from the heat   

                                                            And lack of clean water

-For the wonderful ministry’s that my YWAM team has been involved in. Some of the names are light of hope, life connection, Howrah Train station, BMS street School, Campus evangelism and others whose names I don’t know.

So in the last 10 days I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some wonderful people and organizations. I have been privileged to get be involved in a ministry called light of hope which is a school for the children in a very rural community outside the city. There are usually around 20 kids that attend every day and they range in age from 1 to about 6. This school is in the middle of nowhere dirt roads and about 1hr and 45 minutes away by bus and 2 auto rickshaw rides; it’s quite the journey. But once we get there it’s wonderful the first day was interesting because we didn’t know what was happening or what to expect. The first time we walked in we scared a few of the kids because they had never seen white people before (I had only heard of such a think but never experienced nor did I think I ever would) and they cried for about 25 min but soon where fine and warmed up to us. The room that was the school was attached onto the small little tin house that has three little rooms. The classroom has chalks boards, books, puzzles, a few broken toys and a tarp on the ground. We get to teach ABC’s, colors, sing songs, color, feed them lunch. After school has ended for the day around noon we get to have lunch with the couple who run the school and pray with them and sing worship songs, and prayer walk through the community. These kids crave love they just want someone to lay a hand on their back or to hug them or pick them up and carry them around. Because so often they seem to be a parent to their siblings; I see the five year olds picking up 2 years and putting them on their hip to comfort them and walk around the room with them. These children just want love and to be treated as a child and not a parent.

Another ministry I get to work with once a week is Mother Teresa house and I get to work in the home for disable women and children. I had a rough start with the mother Teresa home I struggled a little with all that was going on around me there was just so many women and children and not enough staff to take care of all of them and they were all crammed into such a tiny place. But the main thing I struggled with was how rough some of the staff where with the women they pushed and yelled. I spent my morning in the physiotherapy room helping to massage the girls (which scared me I was afraid of hurting them) at first it was hard and once the therapist realized I didn’t know what I was doing they just let me help them. I really enjoyed the room because I got to help hold and support the girls who couldn’t walk and help them take a few steps and lie back down and try again.  

But Please along with praying for this city please pray for me personally as I am having a hard time with adjusting to the food with my stomach and am taking antibiotics and also this is a really heavy city that is spiritually hard to cope with. It’s hard to explain but there is quite a heaviness that I feel and constantly have to pray through. And the last request is for safety for me and my whole team please this city is full of crazy cars and also for safety and wisdom when we are out in public and the men in the city.  

A whirlwind of events

Hello Hello

All has been wonderful in Thailand and a lot has been happening on this side of the world. The last few days have been crazy ones. Saturday was our big fundraiser for our outreach and as a school we raised over 28,000 baht (around 1,000 usd) all from selling pancakes, baked goodies, and Shirley temples and of course having some amazing musicians from my DTS perform. The fundraising didn’t stop their then on Sunday five of us girls and one of the guys went out into the city for Bible reading and pushups. The girls goal was to read aloud as a group the whole book of Psalms and the boys goal was to do a thousand pushups. Reading Psalms was a powerful and long experience we started out adventure at 9:30 and finished at 9:00 that evening. During our reading we went to a restaurant and read their for about 3 hours then took a taxi, read in the taxi, went to the queens park and read for a while and then finished at the house. The powerful thing about this whole endeavor of reading Psalms is that God spoke to our group and told us a Psalms for each of the 30 people in my dts and Psalms that where meant for our group and ones for Thailand and India. The spirit lead us and we followed and it was a day of lots of reading, praying, and growing.

Then we had a giving day on Monday night where we prayed and worshipped and during 2 and ½ hours God brought in over $160,000 over 5,500 usd… WOWOWOWOWOW GOD IS SO GOOD.

Then tonight was commissioning night and we got to go and celebrate all we have learned in the last three months and to also get to share with fellow YWAMers in Thailand about what God has been doing in our lives and then we where prayed over and are now ready to GO out into all over the world. 

It is such a  humbling experience to be completely vulnerable before the Lord and crying out to Him to provide  and he does. Times like this make you realize that God is the ultimate Father and he truly does care for his children and does provide. So as a DTS we are still trusting God for almost 431,000 baht approximately 15,000 usd. So please if you can give and support our outreach we would all greatly appreciate anything amount if you are interested please email me at scholzb17@gmail.com Thank you so much and God Bless!!!!!!!!!

It has been way to long

Ok finally going to update my blog sorry for not doing it for a looooooong time. I have been really busy the last few weeks. But these last week have been really good. The theme two weeks ago was evangelism and we went to Pattaya in Thailand. The weeks lecture started off with children's evangelism by a women who works in the slums in Pattaya that we got to work with later in the week. After the first day of lectures we had a another speaker name John and he talked about new ways to evangelize and that could be anything from standing on a pop can to rapping. The teaching continued till Thursday and then that night we went into down town Pattaya to apply what we had learned that week. As a group we started off with worship in a prayer house in the middle of the red light district. (The city of Pattaya is only know for one thing and that is it's red light districts prostitution is everywhere and child trafficking.)From there we went out into the city. 

My team consisted of three people and the first people we talked to were two men who owned a tailor shop in the red light district. That night was powerful for me but also hard we talked to many people and some avoided us and other where confused. The main thing that night that stuck out to me was how God spoke to me. When we were talking to the men who owned the tailor shop an old woman came by with red rose and she had the saddest look in her eyes when we said no. As soon as she walked off I felt like I needed to buy a rose but I didn’t want to stop the conversation with the tailor guys. So when we finished our conversation about 5 minutes later we started on our search for the women with flowers and we found her. After I bought my rose we sat and prayed for about 15 mins. and asked God to give us directions for what is next and I got a picture of a women dancing on a platform in a black mini skirt and platform heels with a stripper pole behind her and pink and white flashing lights all around. I knew instantly I needed to find that women and talk with her so my team started to head back the red light district to find her and along the way we ran into one of the other teams and one of their members had almost the same picture so together we went in search of this lady. We walked up and down the street but didn’t find the women but along the way we did go into a bar a talk with some of the bar girls. I never did find the women but I interceded for her and prayed for her and I could feel God presence as I lifted her up in pray and I knew it was ok.The whole experience was such a powerful thing by the end of it I realized I had no fear of people. And I could look at any one no matter what they looked like or what they were doing and see that God love them and begin to see them how God sees them. 

Also my team is getting ready for outreach in Bangkok, Kolkata India, and the villages in Chang Mai. I am so excited for India we are getting to volunteer with the mother Teresa house specifically the home for disabled children and the destitute and dying. I am sooooo excited to see what God has in store for us and all the adventures I get to go on with him.  I hope to keep my blog more up to date but life keeps me really busy and I have very few spare minutes sorry