Trevor Perla - Seeking The Father

The World Needs Prayer

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It's been an interesting week. To start it off, a guard at our base, the one I was closest to, fell back into his addiction to alcohol. He got drunk and started fighting with some guys on the street and got fired. That night, two missionary friends of ours got jumped by about seven guys on their way back home from our base just two blocks from their house. A few days later our dorms got robbed while we were eating dinner and a couple good friends of ours were the main suspects. Then a guy who I have been pouring into for a while and who I thought was doing so well tells me he is seeing this girl who has a boyfriend and he's having sex with her. Last night for a grand finale (or at least I hope it was a grand finale) we were on our way back from a concert and about a block from our house we walk right into the middle of a gang fight. Rocks were flying everywhere, people were running, guys were bashing other guys heads in with rocks on the road, launching their homemade mortars at each other, blood all over their faces. It was the most awful thing I have ever seen. We had to run into someone's house and wait for the police to come to scatter the gangs.

The next morning was Sunday and everyone was over for church at El Puente. It seemed like everyone thought it was one big joke. "Oh haha! I bet you didn't get any sleep last night with the mortars going off! Haha! Yea they were all up and down our street too! Our neighbor got a metal pipe thrown in her window haha! Man they were just goin crazy last night, ya know?! Haha!" Really? A joke? How could we make that into a joke? Satan is ruling over these gangsters and people are dying in slavery to him and we make it a joke?

I was talking to my friend Carlos today while he was playing his guitar and I asked him what he thought was the reason for last night. He said it use to be like that all the time. Guys would slaughter other guys with machetes and people would get stabbed all the time. But then El Puente was planted and bit by bit the violence went away and the peace of God replaced it. I asked him why he thought it was starting up again. He stopped playing his guitar and looked me in the eye and said, "We've stopped praying, Trevor."

I didn't write this blog to worry you, to get any comments about being careful or anything like that. I wrote it because these people need prayer. I need prayer. The gangsters need prayer. The victims need prayer. The people who make jokes about it need prayer. The addicts need prayer. Nicaragua needs prayer. The nations need prayer. Pray, pray, pray and don't ever stop. The world needs it.

A Coward No More

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Wednesday. 7pm. I'm waiting by the street for a drink I ordered from the small business at the house next door. As usual, a group of street kids comes up begging for money. In my broken Spanish I explain to them why I won't give them money. I learn their names and start playing a little game with them making them laugh by talking in strange high pitched voices. We're friends. No more than a minute later an older boy, maybe 14 years old, comes by and clearly displays his ownership of the kids. He hits them, shoves them around and demands his money for the day and then walks on by. I sit there. I do nothing but stare. I cower.

Thursday. 11:30 am. I'm in La Jungle, the busiest drug trafficking spot in Granada, sitting in front of a crack house. I talk with the people I've been building relationships with for the past month. The pastor gives a message and we hand out crackers and drinks. We are about to leave when a man walks up, early 20's, maybe 110lbs. He grabs one of the girls who I assume is a prostitute, throws her out in the street and starts yelling at her. He picks her up and grabs her by the neck and walks her down the street yelling in her face and nearly cripples her to the ground. I hold a package of crackers in my hand and let it pass. I cower.

October. A.D. 29. Jesus is teaching in the temple early in the morning when "the scribes and Pharisees bring to Him a woman caught in adultery. And as they set her in the midst they say to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the Law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?" As though he does not hear, Jesus stoops down and writes on the ground with His finger. So when they continue asking Him, He raises himself up and says to them, "He who is without sin among you let him throw the first stone at her." Again he stoops down and writes on the ground. Then those who hear it being convicted by their conscience go out one by one beginning with the oldest down to the last one. And Jesus is left alone with the woman standing in the midst." A Savior.

"Father, I'm tired of cowering. Change me."

I am a coward no more.

Seek Him

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

      ... for it is time to seek the LORD,
       until he comes
       and showers righteousness on you.

If I had to choose just one verse from the bible to preach on every time this would be it. Too many times I ask God questions like "How do I glorify you? How do I raise dead people? How do I heal the sick? How do I cast out demons? How do I become sinless? How do I minister to your people? How do I become righteous?" Finally I have found the answer to thousands of questions people ask every day. "Seek the Lord until he comes and showers righteousness on you."

And it is not just this verse that point to this answer. Look it up. If you don't find anything you aren't even trying because it's plastered all over the book. Forget TV, forget your job, your friends, sleep, ministry, food... everything until you have sought out the Lord and he has showered righteousness on you. I guarantee you will receive gifts from the Lord you never knew could exist.

Chrismas Nica Style

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For Christmas here in Nicaragua they do things a little bit differently than in the states. There's no waiting for Santa, snuggling up by the fire to keep warm, listening to chrismas music and no eating Christmas cookies. Here in Nica they celebrate by partying all night long, dancing to Bachata, setting off fireworks, beating Pinatas and sleeping all Christmas day. My team and I went to a Nica party Christmas Eve, went to a friends house and watched movies and ate food all Christmas day and on the 26th we went to a place called Laguna De Apoyo (a lake inside of a volcano crater) for a 3 day vacation. I'm having some trouble uploading the videos I took but here are a few pics from the vacation and walking around the town I live in.

Our team at the base on Christmas morning

Walking down the street Christmas day

The main cathedral in Granada

A cloudy morning on Laguna De Apoyo

View from the beach

A lookout point

If you would like to see more pictures of the adventure just go to my facebook!

My Dream

Wed, 9 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The past two months I spent in Mexico were probably the most amazing two months of my life. God taught me more than I would have thought possible especially about the teachings of Jesus and how he taught us how to live. One of the things that stuck with me the most is living communally which is found throughout the life of Jesus and within the first few chapters of Acts. This passage from Acts 2:44-47 does a great job at summing up what the early church looked like.

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

They lived together, they sold everything and gave to the poor, they shared everything, they made disciples. The more I learned about this the more I began to examine my life and the church of today. Sadly, the church of the 21^st century looks almost nothing like the early church and God has said that he wants me to do something about it. He has given me visions daily on how to do this and each day I get more and more excited about it.

Right now I am in the beginning stages of helping out with the building of a worldwide community that has a goal of being like the church of the first few centuries. A few committed people and I have decided to sell just about everything we own and start a new life of making disciples and living communally. We are planning on starting out in Atlanta and growing to the rest of the world. Each community will have people of all ages and everyone will live together. Some will have jobs, some will live on support but all will share everything and all will be committed to introducing people to the Savior. Once one community grows large enough, we will split up and start another one where ever in the world God leads us.

Each community will have one major ministry and many smaller ones. For example, a friend of mine wants to eventually start a community in India where his major ministry would be to rescue sex slaves and get them back up on their feet. They would have rescue teams, rehab centers, counseling, job training, discipleship and anything else necessary for getting the former slaves on their way to a "normal" life. But the community will not limit itself to that ministry. They will have feeding programs for the poor, care for the orphans and whatever opportunities God places in front of them. As a strong, unified community, they would work together in making disciples out of everyone they meet.

The plan so far looks about like this. I return home on May 15 and I will be there for about a month or so. From there I will move to Atlanta with the few who are already committed and whoever else wants to join this movement. I will start by moving in with my friend Myles and begin planting this community and a church. Starting in the fall I will most likely commit about two years to leading trips with AIM in order to learn more about starting community and to serve the participants on the trips. During the time that I am not on trips or back home with my family I will live in the community and continue building it. Eventually there will be communities all around the world connected to each other serving God.

I am not exactly sure of my part in all this but God gave me a vision of what my role will be after the two years of leading trips with AIM. Picture a body with AIM being the heart and the community in Atlanta being the lungs and all the other communities around the world being the different body parts. In this body I would be like the veins and arteries keeping AIM and all the individual communities connected as well as getting new communities planted around the world. My dream is to have AIM send missionaries to the communities to live there and do ministry along with the people who live in the communities. I would be the person getting those trips organized and maybe even leading them. Once again, I'm not completely sure if this will be my exact role in all this but I'm sure it will be pretty close to this.

So this is my invitation to you to pray about this. Pray for the community, pray for visions and pray for perseverance. But more than any of those things I want you to pray about your part in all this. Ask God if he wants you to live in this community. And when he speaks to you, do what he says. If you have any questions please ask them. I honestly cannot wait to answer them.

Hello Granada!

Fri, 4 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I'm finally here! We arrived at El Puente, the AIM base in Granada, on Monday around midnight. These past couple of days we have been just checking out the different ministries around town and getting acquainted with the city and the people. I don't really have much else to say right now other than I love this place and I can already see God doing some awesome stuff. Some of the ministries that I have found interesting and will probably be working with include working at a nursing home, helping start a bike shop and possibly a coffee shop to create jobs for Nicaraguans, working in a drug slum called La Jungla and doing some fishing ministry with the guys at Lake Nicaragua just a few blocks away. Here are some pics of the base.

The Front

The Dorms

Bathrooms

The House of Prayer

The Kitchen/Library/Office/Some Other Stuff haha

Guys Room

The Kitchen

Goodbye Mexico

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Before you read this know that my thoughts are a bit scrambled right now so if some things aren't very organized don't quite make sense be ok with it. This is just the best way for me to explain the thoughts running through my head and the feelings pumping through my heart.

There is almost nothing that I hate more than goodbyes so these past few days have been pretty rough. My Nicaragua team and I spent about a week doing ministry in a little town of about 30 families called Los Quiotes (I will post a blog on that later) and after that we only had two days left here in Mexico with the rest of the teams. The two days were packed with last minute things we had to do like processing the past two months, cleaning the base, packing and other things so there wasn't much time to say goodbye. I have built some pretty strong relationships with some of the people from the other teams. After living with them for all this time it was really hard to say goodbye when we dropped them off at the airport on Monday (my team will be here until next Monday just because of cheaper flight days). When we came back to the base I walked in my room that is usually filled with all the guys and it hit me pretty hard to find all but four of the beds completely empty. Today was a lot better than the past few days but keep praying for me and my team as we go through this transition from one chapter to the next.

We head off to Nicaragua in 5 days and I'm pumped. Seth Barnes Jr. will be our ministry contact/leader down there and I can't wait to see him again. He came up here to Mexico for about 2 weeks and we got to know him and he is one awesome man of God. He told us that he wants to take a lot of time to disciple us guys which is going to rock my world. There is a lady named Heather down there right now and she is planning on taking a good chunk of time to disciple the girls which makes me pretty excited for them. God has some awesome plans for this next six months in Nicaragua and I can't wait to get a glimpse of them.

This time in Mexico has changed my life. I have built the strongest friendships, lived in the most united community and learned the most about walking in the spirit of God. It's hard to turn the page but I'm at peace with the fact that God puts us in places and with people for seasons according to His timing. If we try to change the length of the seasons things go wrong and we walk away from His will. God, you are beautiful and I love you. Only you know how thankful I am for what you did these past two months. Excite me for the next six months and let the goodbye continue on smoothly. I want to be used by you.

Awesome things are coming folks and they are coming fast. By the end of this week I should have posted two more blogs, one on Los Quiotes and one on what I believe to be God's plans for the years following the trip to Nicaragua. If they aren't up by Monday, remind me and I will get them up as soon as possible. Enjoy a few of the goodbye pics. I love you guys.

The Reward of Sacrifice

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The following is a very vague and shortened version of what happened this week. It would take 100 pages to tell of all that happened but feel free to ask questions! I would love to tell more stories but for the sake of your time this is what I have for you right now.

Oh man. It has been almost a month since my last blog and I am so sorry! Things have been crazy around here especially in the past week. Adventures in Missions is an organization that is all about listening to the Holy Spirit and letting it lead all the time. Since we have been here, not a single day has followed the schedule because God has had a different plan. This past week we felt the Spirit doing some amazing things and we decided to dump the schedule all together.

On Tuesday morning I woke up to bright lights shining in my face and my leader, Blair, saying "It's 5 am and you have five minutes to get ready and get down stairs." To be honest with you, I was pretty upset that I only got about four and a half hours of sleep that night but it only made it worse when I found that the usual many choices of cereal for breakfast were replaced with a hardboiled egg and a piece of white bread. Within a very short time we were in the vans headed off to Matamoros.

As we pulled up to the town square I was reminded of the team talk we had the night before about feeling restless and wanting to do more ministry. I figured they would drop us off and tell us to ask the Lord what he wanted us to do for ministry and do it for a few hours and then head on home but instead they told us we had an hour to have a quiet time. Confused as to why we couldn't do that at the base and freezing cold I found a nice bench next to a shoe shine man, cracked open my journal and told God how I was feeling and that I wanted to hear from Him. He spoke so many things in that hour and told me about the life he wanted me to live and how it didn't line up with the one I was living.

A short while later we loaded up in the vans and drove to a slum buried in mud from the storm the night before. We were told we had until 5 pm to do ministry and oh boy did God do some awesome things. We repaired a family's roof, prayed over a bunch of people, talked and ate with a woman and her kids for a few hours and before we knew it, it was time to go. We ended up not going to bed until about 12 am that night because we really wanted to seek out God and figure out what he wanted the rest of the week to look like.

The rest of the week looked about the same as the first day. Wake up at five, drive into town, have a bit of a quiet time, do some kind of ministry and end up in bed at around midnight. It was tiring, hard work but God did amazing things through the sacrifices of food, sleep, rest and a schedule. Not only were lives changed in the city of Matamoros but everybody on my team had a life change as well. I have learned that in the kingdom of God earthly things are not necessary and sacrifices produce great rewards.

A Couple of Pics

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here are some pics of where I'm living and some of my teammates. I don't have any pics of ministry yet because we are trying to build relationships with the people before we start taking pictures with them. Otherwise they would feel like animals at the zoo.

My Nicaragua Team

The Meeting Building

The Dorm Building

My favorite place on the base

My beds!

The guys community bathroom

The cafeteria/meeting room

Mexico!

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

So we've been here one week and a TON has happened. It would be impossible for me to tell you every detail so I'll just give you a rough look at what has been going on.

Thursday- Saturday were days of complete solitude. We couldn't talk or even look at eachother for the whole time. It was basically a three day quiet time and it was awesome. For me, it was filled with mind blowing learning, worship, prayer and listening.

Sunday we had a little bit of teaching time and then we rested and did some laundry.

Monday we started ministry. The schedule basically looked like this:

7am-team exercise

8am- breakfast

9am-morning ministry/teaching time/team time

Noon- lunch

2pm-afternoon ministry/teaching time/team time

6pm- dinner

8pm-night secession

This is what our schedule will look like for the remaining 7 weeks here in Buenos Aires, Mexico. Each day will be a little bit different ministry wise but for the most part we will be ministering to our "adoptive" family. Saturday will be our free day where we can go into Matamoros, the US or just do whatever we want. Sunday might have teaching in the morning or evening but mostly just a day of rest.

Sorry I don't have pictures yet. I had some on my computer but I accidently shot them in RAW instead of JPEG and my computer can't read RAW. I'll try to get some pictures taken soon and I'll put a few up on here but mostly on facebook.

Please be praying for us! There are so many things I could ask you to pray for but instead of me telling you, just ask God to tell you what to pray for. I love you all and miss you already!

One Week

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Wow. It seems like just yesterday I was turning in my application for the trip and saying, "Just a year till I leave!" and now I'm down to one week. All the money is raised, I've gotten all the supplies I need for the trip, I quit my job and I even cleaned my room! Now all that is left is to say goodbye to just about everyone I know and pack everything I'll need for the next 8 months into one backpack. Hah, this will be interesting.

Though I am very sad about leaving and will probably cry my eyes out for hours when I say goodbye to my family, the excitement that God has given me completely overwhelms the sadness. I know that the second I step off that plane I will be surrounded by a new family of amazing people. Let me tell you guys, I couldn't have asked for a better team. If you imagine 30 of the most amazing people you have ever met in your life and put them all together my team would look just like that! I can't get over how much they love, encourage, serve and how crazy on fire they all are for God. It truly blows my mind. I can't wait to spend two months with them in Mexico and a whole six months with eight of them in Nicaragua. God has already done some awesome things with our team and I'm so pumped to see what plans he has for the next eight months.

Please pray for my team! Once we get on the field I'll post a blog on more specific prayer requests. I'm hoping to be able to update at least once a week but we will see. And by the way, if you haven't downloaded Skype, DO IT! I want to talk to you while I'm gone!

I love you all,

Trevor

Training Camp Pics!

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The tent where we sometimes ate and had sessions.

The toilets and showers

The AIM building where the offices are. We did sessions in here sometimes.

Inside the AIM building

The wall

Guys cabin

Girls cabins

Myles and Bryan

Dance party!

The Atlanta airport

For more pictures you can go to my facebook and check them out! Sorry I don't have a picture of all 33 of us together. Hopefully I will get one in Mexico. I'll post another blog later explaining what we did. Please be praying for my team!

Update Time!

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As many of you know, I reached my support goal a couple of months ago and you might be wondering, "Where is my thank you letter?" But don't worry, it is coming soon and will be packed full of information that I have been receiving and will be receiving in the coming weeks. Here is a list of some of the things you will get to hear about in the letter:

1. My final ministry location for the last six months of the trip

2. How we will be able to communicate and keep in touch while I'm gone

3. The going away party where we will say good bye :(

4. A more exact description of the ministry we will be involved in

The Countdown

Training Camp- 3 weeks, 4 days

Leave for Mexico- 2 months, 1 week, 4 days

Leave for final ministry location- 4 months, 2 weeks, 4 days

Come back home- 10 months, 3 days

Let me know how I can be praying for you!

The Cup That Never Empties

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

One Friday evening I was in worship and was dealing with some sin issues. I felt like I was just repeating my sin over and over again. I had in image in my head of what God's forgiveness looked like. Each time I asked Him to forgive me I imagined that His forgiveness would slowly dwindle and eventually I would use all my forgiveness up as if there were a limited supply of it. My pastor got up to the pulpit and start preaching on taking communion and the meaning of it. It is customary at my church to get up and receive communion whenever you feel God telling you to. He told us that as we take the bread we should examine our lives and test ourselves to see where we are in the faith. Then he said as we take the cup we should remember the sacrifice God made for us and the forgiveness of sins.

Soon after the preaching I went up to take communion and examined my life as I took the bread. Then I took the cup and remembered the cross and my forgiveness. I took a gulp out of the small cup and when there was no more juice I thought to myself, "The cup is empty." For a quick moment I thought it was symbolizing that my forgiveness was done with and that was the last time I could ever be forgiven. Then God told me to look inside the cup and when I did I noticed that there were still little drops of juice in the cup. Since God knows exactly the way my mind works He knew that by showing me the little drops that He could tell me that the cup is never empty and His forgiveness never runs out.

Graduation and Colorado Trip

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here are a few pictures from my graduation and my family trip to Colorado!

Financial Support Goal Met!!!!

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As I've sat down to write this post I have realized that I am nearly at a loss for words and have no idea where to start. When I looked at my support status this afternoon I came close to peeing my pants when I saw that my balance was up to $7,675. MY TRIP IS PAID FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I can't express to you how unbelievably excited and thankful I am. My original goal was $8,000 but after further research I found that the trip cost, $7,250, plus plane tickets and insurance would cost no more than $7,750 (mainly because I found some awesome deals on plane tickets! Woot!).

But right now I need to go to bed and get some sleep for an awesome day of school tomorrow. I just wanted to let yall know so that you don't send in any more money! <- never thought I'd say that haha! But soon you will be getting a letter from me and an invitation to the going away party/open house that I will be having in August!

Thank you so much.

Prayers of Thanks

Tue, 5 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The phone call was coming to an end and I was about to hang up when the almost forgotten, end of the phone call question was asked, "Is there anything I can be praying about for you?" Usually I rattle something off like, "Yea, can you pray for my self-discipline?" or, "My friend isn't doing too great and could use some prayer," but this time it was different. The prayer request that usually pops into my head was replaced by a silence of thoughts. "Just thank God," I said, somewhat in shock of the words coming out of my mouth that were certainly not my own but those of the Holy Spirit. "Just thank God for all of the things He has blessed me with." The conversation ended a few moments later but thoughts of it ran through my head for days. "How many times do our prayer requests deal with thanking God for something?"

I'm not saying that asking your friends to pray for your sister's surgery to go well is a bad thing; in fact, I'd say it's a pretty darn good thing. But I feel like we don't always thank God for our blessings as much as we should and we definitely don't ask others to thank Him for them too. So I'm going to ask a favor of you. When you finish reading this blog, take 10 seconds to comment and tell me how I can be thanking God for the blessings He has given you and if you want to, give me some more ways I can be praying for you. I'll even be the first to comment to show you how easy it is.

Support Update

Amount Raised: $6,675

Goal: $8,000

Amount Needed: $1,325

Deadline: November 18

Alli Mellon: Stories of a Fellow Missionary

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Support Update

Amount Raised: $6,275

Goal: $8,000

Amount Needed: $1,725

Deadline: November 18

This is a long one but if you take the time to read at least some of it, I think you might like it.

I remember my first impression of Alli Mellon. It was at the training camp for my trip to Peru, and at that time, she was in charge of all Ambassador Trips and leading training camp. We had just finished a training exercise and we knew we were supposed to be back at the big tent at noon. Us and most of the other teams didn't end up getting back to the tent till around 12:15 and that is a big no no for training camp (mainly because when you are on the mission field and are told to be back at a certain time and you aren't, they will go looking for you because you could have been kidnapped or hurt or anything). Right when everyone got back under the tent Alli began speaking very loudly to us (yelling) and explaining in detail how important it was to be on time and how disappointed she was in us. I have to admit, I was a bit afraid of her haha! You know that saying about how it takes 10 more encounters with a person to erase the first impression? Well, that wasn't the case with Alli Mellon. Within a few hours I couldn't get enough of this lady who had such a huge heart for God and was filled with nothing but love.

This past summer when I arrived at training camp for the Philippines, I stepped off the bus and she was the first person I saw. I said hi to her and she looked at me funny and said, "You were here last year weren't you? I remember you." I was quite surprised because I knew that she meets hundreds, if not thousands of people every year that she has been with AIM. Throughout the week, even though Alli was no longer fully in charge of Ambassador Trips, I tried to talk with Alli as much as I could. There was something about her that sucked me in.

Towards the end of the week I found out that Alli was leaving AIM to go work with another organization that sends missionaries to closed countries. I was sad to see her leave but I knew that she was doing God's will and made sure to tell her how much she meant to me one night after worship before she left. Since I have been home she has been sending me updates from Cambodia every couple of weeks and each one breaks my heart. Here are a few of the stories she has told and be sure to have some tissues ready because a couple of these are tear jerkers.

We continue to fight the battle in Svay Pak. The wildest thing happened last Friday when I was teaching, and it was a sharp reminder indeed that "we do not wage against flesh and blood"...I was speaking on spiritual warfare, and teaching the kids that Satan is bad. You may think that this is too heavy or scary of a concept to teach to 2-14 year olds, but believe me, these kids see demons every day. They see them in the faces of the men who rape them, and in the actions of their parents who get drunk and beat them, and they feel them in the cloak of fear that envelops their village. They are terribly afraid of ghosts, and because people are way into ancestoral worship here, they believe that their dead relatives come back to haunt them...they know there is truly an enemy, they just haven't known his name.

To set this up, as I've told you before, the former brothel we teach in is an echo chamber-it is always loud and echo-y, and we have had to project our voices hard to be heard against even the smallest noise. If five or six kids are talking, it sounds like one hundred. For the last month or so, it's been way better. The kids are learning! For kids who have never been in formal school, they have been so quiet and attentive, and it's been becoming easier and easier to get their attention and be heard. We developed a system of discipline, which mainly is writing their names on the white board behind us if they don't stop talking and listen. Three strikes, no snack. Four strikes, and they have to leave for the rest of the day but get to come back and try again the next time. These kids are very hungry, so after one strike they usually pull it together so they don't miss snack!

So I was up in front of all the children, acting out how Jesus gives us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the evil one. I was teaching them John 10:10-"The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that you might have life, and life in all it's fullness". I was excited and full of energy that day, because I believe so much in using the weapons God has given us! Things were going well, and then it started...it got louder, and louder, and louder...I found myself shouting just to be heard above the din. I looked out over the crowd, marker in hand, to see who was talking so I could write their names on the board...and NO ONE was talking. Every kid was sitting, looking at me and listening, with his or her lips pressed together. Only a couple of babies were babbling, no big deal...but there was a roar in the room, a roar of voices. I am not making this up, though I know it must sound strange to some of you. I believe that it was the voices of demons filling that place. I believe that Satan and all his forces came out in mass to stop us from speaking the TRUTH to these precious ones. The worst thing that could happen to the demons is Svay Pak is that God's kids learn to fight against them!!!

My translator brought up the same point later, "Alli, I looked out over the room to see who was talking and to write their names on the board, and no one was talking"...

I was losing my voice up there, and it was only God Himself who kept me from just giving up and sitting down. Somehow, I kept teaching (shouting), and finally got to the part where I taught the kids how to do what Jesus did and say, "GO!" Despite the distraction of all those voices, despite how hard the enemy was trying to stop us, about 65 children stood and at the top of their lungs began shouting, "GO, in Jesus' name!"

And I believe the demons went. What choice did they have against God's little army?

On Monday, it was Ruthie's turn to teach, and she started off doing a recap of what I taught on Friday. You guessed it-the exact same thing happened again! She started talking about Satan, and the same strange roar filled the room. Then, fifteen of the kids jumped up and ran out to see why some baby was crying at the door! She could hardly even get the words out, but my heart lit up when she asked them, "What do you do when you are scared? What do you do when you feel fear or evil?" and a precious ten-year-old jumped up and said, "GO!" I think Jesus understands that she meant GO in His name:)

In addition to our usual three days in Svay Pak, this week we also went on Saturday to see some guys from America's Power Team. They came to help open the gym in Svay Pak-an outreach to pimps and drug dealers in the community. They were about 300 lbs of solid muscle, and caused quite a stir in this crazy little dirt village! Most Cambodian guys weigh around 120 soaking wet! That day, Raksmey, one of our little girls, had trouble walking. She had trouble sitting. She had trouble standing. She was constantly readjusting her clothes, and had obvious problems in the vaginal area. This is one of the things we have been trained to look for. If a girl can't sit properly, then most likely she has just been sold. Raksmey is eleven.

This week, my heart is about to burst for the kids in Svay Pak. We are getting dangerously close to them; it's dangerous, because our hearts get broken every day, the more we learn about their lives. Today I had tears running down my face at two different times, just thinking about what it will cost to continue to minister in Svay Pak. It will cost lots of money-we are up to about $200 per week with the incease in kids and snacks. We could cut out the food, but the children are so hungry...I can't bear to feed them God's word and ignore their growling stomachs...we could cut down the amount of time we spend there, but these kids will only get truly rescued if Christians increase their time there...It will cost many more tears as we see innocence being lost, as we see babies being forced to be adults, as we see the plans God has for them being distorted by evil men...It will cost a lot to see the children set free.

Last week in Svay Pak, I read a children's book to the kids called a A Terrible Thing. It was written for children in America who have gone through trauma and are suffering the effects of it, trauma such as witnessing a horrible car accident, seeing violence in their homes, surviving a tornado...It's all about a raccoon named Sherman who saw a terrible thing happen, and at first he tries to hide it and stuff it inside, and then is finally able to get it out through talking to a counselor and doing Art Therapy.

The kids really listened to the story, and afterwards we gave them a piece of paper, folded over for privacy, and told them to draw any terrible thing they had seen. I made a huge cross on the floor with strips of material, and told the kids that they could take their terrible thing to Jesus and He would comfort them. I told them that they could come to each one of us adults, and tell us about the terrible thing, and that we would pray for them. I wasn't sure how they would respond-this is the first time we have offered to pray for them one-on-one in the middle of our Kids' Club like that. They are not allowed, culturally, to cry or to show emotion. They are expected to be tough as nails, and the scars on their faces and bodies prove it. Coming up for prayer in this culture would definitely be considered a sign of weakness.

But they came, gobs of them! They came and waited for the chair next to one of us staff was empty, then they would push and shove to get the seat. These kids had seen terrible things indeed. Many of them had witnessed the same car accident, when there was a horrible crash on Highway 5 that runs right past Svay Pak and at least two people were dead in the road, and they drew pictures of it...some of them drew pictures of people with their fists coming towards them, pictures of someone beating them with sticks, pictures of ghosts that they see in their dreams or in their bedrooms at night...

The one that got to me the most was Srey Mai's picture.She drew the tiny wooden shack that lies a few streets over from Rahab's House. She drew it perfectly-high up from the ground on stilts, with it's only door padlocked tight, with it's tall, skinny ladder rising from the ground up to the window that people climb through to get into the shack...And then she drew a picture of a little girl, of herself, and of a man, inside the shack. We asked her what this was, and she said, "the brothel", with fear on her face...She was starting to tell us more about it when other kids shoved themselves into our conversation and Srey Mai shut down. So we just began to pray the protection of Jesus Christ over her small body, and the peace of His Holy Spirit over her heart...

Other kids drew the shack as well. It is a place of fear, even for the boys. I am certain that some of them are taken there as well.

Pray for Alli and the children she ministers to. If you would like more stories or would like to donate to her, let me know at missionary91@yahoo.com.

Big Trip Changes! Please Read!

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For those of you who don't have much time, here is a quick overview of the trip changes:

Original Plan:

September 8- Fly to Gainesville, GA for a week long training camp

September 15ish- Fly to Nicaragua for The Awakening- 4 months of half day training and half day ministry

December 19ish- Fly back home for Christmas

January 2ish- Fly back to Nicaragua for 5 month internship with ministry of my choice

May 23- Fly back to Atlanta, GA for debrief and fly home the next day

New Plan:

August 6- Fly to Gainesville, GA for a week long training camp

August 11- Fly back home for a month to finish support raising, say good bye and most importantly, let everything from training camp sink in and begin putting the things we learned into action

September 23- Meet up in Brownsville, TX and drive across the border to Matamoros, Mexico to AIM's base their. We will be doing intense ministry training and outreach.

December 1- We will have a choice of 20-40 differnt countries to go to around the world to live and work with the native missionaries. we will have no more than 5 teamates.

May 14- Fly to Houston, TX and meet with all the other groups for a one day debrief and then go home the next day!

So thats the new plan and I am pretty excited about it. When Tag, the guy in charge of the First Year Missionary program (oh and by the way, the trip has changed names from First Year Missionary to Real Life: Novas), told me about the trip changes he was apologetic about having to make the changes but I was so excited I couldn't figure out why he was apologizing! He said the main reason for the changes is lack of good leadership. Many of the FYM leaders are getting burned out leading large groups of people for 9 months becasue they haven't had enough training and there aren't very many leaders to spread the weight around.

One of the things I'm most excited about is the 8 weeks in Matamoros. We will spend a lot of time learning basic skills to support a famiy. For example, we will spend some time learning about agriculture and will plant a garden with the family so they can feed themselves. How exciting! And of course, I'm REALLY excited about the 20-40 differnt country choices! And both the Philippines and Peru are on the list! How fun would that be to spend 6 months with Sharon and Ruben(the missionaries in Cebu, Philippines)!? But I'm not really sure where God is going to put me but I have a feeling it will be in Latin America somewhere and Guatemala has been attracting me lately so we will see.

Some things I'm a bit sad about include not beign able to come back home for Christmas, the trip being shortened by a month and the big possiblitly that the teamates I've been getting to know won't be going to the same country as me. But the advantages to the new plan totally outweigh the disadvantages so its all good.

Well, I do believe I have told you everything I know about the changes so if you have any questions just let me know and if I dont know the answer I will for sure find it out for you. Thank you so much for suporting me and let me know how I can be prayin for you!

Oh and I'm sure there are tons of typos in here becasue I didn't type this up in Word because I haven't purchased it for my new computer yet! haha!

Spring Beak!

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Man, it has been a REALLY busy couple of weeks. On Wednesday the 11 I went on a field trip to the Houston Livestock Show and gave tours to elementary students. It was a lot of fun and my group was predominantly Spanish speaking so I got to practice a bit of Spanish I've been learning with Rosetta Stone. Around 1 pm my dad picked me up from there to go to the airport to catch my flight to Philadelphia to visit my friend, Ana, from my trip to Peru! We had SOOO much fun and we toured just about every city in the Northeast including NYC and D.C. I got back from there on Saturday and on Monday my dad and I left for Port Bolivar for a three day hurricane recovery mission trip. It was a good trip and we were able to do a lot of work on the chruch we were reparing. Although it was hard to see all the devistation from Hurricane Ike, it was overall an uplifting trip and reminded me of how much I love the mission field. It would be impossible to tell you all the stories from the last few weeks so I think I'll just put up a few pictures for you to look at and if you want any stories or details on the pics just let me know! And of course there are TONS more picutres on my facebook if you would like to check them out.

Times Square

Times Square again

Rockefeller Plaza

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Grand Central Station

Statue of Liberty

Capital Building

Lincoln Memorial

White House

The Rocky Steps in Philly

The Liberty Bell

The church we worked at in Bolivar, Bay Vue UMC

MacDonalds sign

These were people's homes

Support Update

Amount Raised: $5,175

Amount Still Needed: $ 2,825

Deadline: February 24, 2010

More of the Philippines

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here is an article I wrote for Wrecked For The Ordinary, an online magazine edited by a guy named Jeff Goins. Hope you enjoy! And I don't have any pictures from the Philippines on my computer to entertain you while you read but I did find this really cool world map on Google!

This past summer God gave me the opportunity to go to an amazing city in the Philippines called Cebu. We were the first group sent by AIM to this particular location and with a team of only three high school students and two leaders, we knew we were going to have an interesting month. When we landed in Cebu we expected to have a nice day to rest after our 26 hours of flying but within an hour or two of stepping off the plane we were deep in the slums doing VBS and feeding over 200 children. Talk about some culture shock.

We did a wide variety of things on our trip from having a church service in a graveyard village to leading a True Love Waits seminar for a group of college students, but for the most part our trip we focused on two main ministries. The first two weeks we worked at a before and after school children's program called Loving My Neighbor. The 500 students who attended each week were sponsored by Europeans and Americans through an organization called Compassion International ; you may have heard of them. Each day the children would come in for a couple hours and get a meal and a good Bible lesson. For the second part of the trip we spent most of our time ministering to a largely un-churched village called Basak. The Cebuano name Basak literally translates to "mud hole" in English and that is exactly what Basak was. The village was almost right at sea level and every time it rained or the tide rose really high it would flood and turn into the biggest mess you have ever seen. Our initial goal was to start up a weekly adult Bible study, but even with the frequent flooding we managed to start a bible study for each age group and a church service by the end of our trip.

There is always something on every mission trip that God will use to teach us and completely rock our world. For me, it's usually something like a powerful verse that speaks to me or seeing a miracle happen but this time God decided to change my life with a homeless boy on the side of the road and my crazy friend with a huge heart. When the sun goes down in Cebu the sidewalks turn into something that looks more like a homeless shelter than a walk way. People collect whatever they can find for bedding and go to sleep while dozens of "rich" folks pass by as if the homeless don't even exist. Many times I would find myself doing the same thing the upper class Filipinos did. "Just keep walking and try not to look," I would tell myself as I tried to come up with some excuse for not stopping to offer a few pesos, a snack or even just a hug. One night on our way back home from ministry we passed by a young boy, no more than 10 years old, lying on the curb having reactions to some drug he had taken earlier that day. The moment I saw him my heart broke but of course I just walked on by. After taking about five steps past the boy my leader stopped and said, "I have to do something for that boy. I can't just leave him there." He went back and carried the passed out boy to a building nearby and laid him underneath the overhang so he wouldn't get stepped on or ran over by a car.

The rest of the evening I couldn't stop thinking about this event that lasted no more than ten seconds. "Why did I pass by the boy and not do anything? Why is my heart so numb to the people that are hurting? Where is my compassion?" I don't remember the things I prayed or the exact sequence of events that lead up to it, but somehow that night after God exposed my hard heart He came in with a revival and radically changed my life.

The next day as I walked down the streets I could tell God had done something crazy. I just wanted to hug and love on every person I saw; it was amazing. But sadly, hundreds if not thousands of Filipinos live the life of this boy every day. They spend their days begging for money and food, their evenings finding drugs to ease the pain and their nights sleeping on the streets. These people need someone with a heart of compassion to introduce them to a Savior who can pick them up off the street and put them in the safe place. Pray for them, go to them and love them in Jesus' name.

Guy and Donna

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Well it's been a busy few weeks, which explains why I haven't blogged in a while, but before I say anything I want to give you an update on support raising because God has done AMAZING things through you to raise this support! Remember, I have to raise $8,000 by my 24^th week in Nicaragua which is February 22, 2010. Last week I looked at my support status and there is already $5,025 in the account! This puts me way ahead of schedule and means that I have less than $3,000 to raise! God is truly working through yall in crazy awesome ways.

About a week ago I was on facebook talking to friends when I saw my friend, Emily Davis, said she was praying for a couple named Guy and Donna on her status. I asked her who they were and in what way I could pray for them and she replied with a story that I could never forget. Forgive me if I get a detail or two wrong as I tell the story. Guy and Dona are a homeless living in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas. They are very strong Christians and there whole life they have wanted a home to live in. Not too long ago Guy and Dona got an apartment but after they moved in Dona fell ill and was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer and it soon spread to her lungs. When Emily finished telling me this story I did all I could to hold back the tears. Four days later I got this news from one of Guy and Dona's friends.

"Donna died today.

She had been in the hospital since last Tuesday...and she wanted to go home.

Preparations were made with hospice and finally, after many delays, she made it home this morning.

It's what she had wanted for so long. The funny, lively, spunky little homeless lady just wanted...a home.

A place of her own, where she could be warm, and safe, and ...somebody. Where she would be treated with respect, because she had an address.

A place where she could live...and die...in dignity.

For three hours today, she looked around her small apartment, with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

Guy put on her favorite praise music...

talked about times past...

read Psalms 103.

He held her hand...
and prayed with her for the last time.

John 14:2-4 ""In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

To those of you who have asked and prayed and loved and supported...Thank you...
"Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. " Acts 10:4

Please continue to pray for Guy..."

For more information and the full story of Dona's last months just click here.

Like I always say, be sure to send me an email or comment and let me know how you are or how I can be praying for you! And here is a nice song by Phil Wickham I hope you will enjoy.

They Call it Opeation Jollibee

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The missionaries we ministered along side of in the Philippines have a blog site called Multiply, you may have heard of it. Today I was reading one of their blogs and it broke my heart... well more like broke my heart again. In the near 6 months that I've been back home in my sheltered American life I have almost forgotten about the poverty I saw. The memories of street children on drugs and people living in places we wouldn't even let our dogs stay slowly fade away. Even after seeing it firsthand it's still hard to believe that that some people in this world have never been to a fast food restaurant and would do anything just to step inside one. Here is a story that broke my heart all over again for the children of Basak (a poor community in Cebu, Philippines) and definitely reminded me of the poverty that millions of people face every day.

It is our special ministry where we bring children, youth, & adult who have never been to Jollibee (McDonald in the Phils.) in their whole life. The first child we brought to Jollibee was Charlene (inset) with her elder sister Ariene. While we were riding on the Jeepney going to Jollibee the two sisters are talking to each other with excitement. The older sister told her younger sister "Hala Ling, natuman na gyud ang atong Wish ko lang" ("Our dream is now a reality") When we arrived at Jollibee, after Charlene entered the door, she dropped on the floor and kissed it. Then she rub her hand on the floor and on the door and smell it and raise her hand to her sister asking her to smell it too. We bought them Spaghetti, chicken, burger, & ice cream. It was an overwhelming sight to us watching a kid so really happy that her wish has become a reality.
We brought another group of 4 young people and 4 children.

One of the children was Junior.This kid has been abandoned by his mother and he has been stereotyped as a black sheep or stubborn kid. He doesn't like to take a bath but when we ask him to take a bath because we are going to bring him to Jollibee, he took a bath twice a day until the time we went to Jollibee.These children we brought to Jollibee belongs to our Children's Ministry every week.We teach them Bible stories and good values.

We brought another group of 24 youth last week as rewards to them for helping us cooking the food every week in our children ministry. Most of them are first time to Jollibee. Some of them shared to us their feelings that they are so grateful for the opportunity we have given to them to eat the food that they are craving for & to be in the place that they dreaming to go since their childhood and now it become a reality to them because someone cares for them.We are looking forward to bring more than a hundred poor children this year who have never been to Jollibee.
You can be a part of this cause and make a difference to this deprive children by sponsoring one or two of them to eat their dream food and a dream place to be.

Please pray for Sharon, Ruben and Joy, the missionaries, there wonderful ministry, and everyone they share the love of Jesus Christ with.

On a mission to please Him

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12:1

Well it's been an exciting week. As you may know, I've been dieting and exercising everyday since January 5 and I've lost 13 pounds! Woohoo! My goal is to lose 50 pounds so that means I only have 37 more to go! Usually when I try to lose weight, my diet lasts about 2 or 3 days but this time I've gone at it with a different mindset than the times before. I'm doing it to worship God and glorify Him with a healthy body not to get the hottest bod in Texas haha!

Work has been going good too. Every day from 3:30 to 5:30 I work at the daycare which is a ton of fun. I work with the 3^rd graders and I look forward to spending time with them every day. Since the day care is at a church it's ok to talk about God so it's a great opportunity to minister to them and plant some seeds, or in some cases, water them. Starbucks has been going good too. It's been pretty slow lately with Christmas being over and the poor economy scaring everyone away. Yesterday I was pulling into the mall parking lot (the Starbucks I work at is in a mall) a few minutes behind schedule and was trying to find a spot close to the entrance. The first spot I saw I pulled into not paying a bit of attention to how small the spot was or how enormous my truck is. As I wiggled my way in, my front bumper hit the side of the car next to me leaving a nice sized scratch and dent. I immediately looked around and there was no one insight. There were some big time temptations to leave and not say a thing but I could feel God looking down on me saying "Oh, no you don't!" I got a pen and paper and wrote down my name and phone number and the lady called me back a few hours later and left a not too pleasant message. I called her back this morning and she explained that she was having a pretty tough day and coming out of the mall to see her car dented and scratched just put the icing on the cake. Please pray that the repair doesn't cost too much and that this isn't a big inconvenience for her.

Tomorrow starts a new semester for me. My whole schedule is getting changed around which will be a nice change of scenery. There are only about 7 months before I leave for Nicaragua which is crazy exciting. It's going to be a good few months. I know God still has a lot of things to teach me before I leave and I can't wait to see all the things He has planned for the times ahead! Like I usually say, leave a comment or send an email or something! I want to hear about what's been going on!

Support Update:

Total Raised: $1150 (14%)

Total Needed: $6850

Support Deadline: February 22, 2010 (24 weeks on the field)

Rescued

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

To be completely honest with you, the few weeks surrounding Christmas were spiritually awful for me. I don't remember a time when I felt so far away from God. But He decided to change all that when he lead me to Community of Faith, a church not to far from my house, last Sunday. I've been to quite a few services at COF and usually Pastor Mark Shook preaches but this time it was a different guy named Lance Price. He started out with reading the story of Solomon. For those of you who don't know, Solomon was a very godly king of Israel and God loved him very much, so much that God told him he could basically have anything he wanted. So Solomon asked for knowledge and God gave it to him and pretty much made the guy one of the wisest men on earth. Solomon had it made... well that is until he gave in to his one flaw. He had a love for foreign women who he was forbidden to marry because they worshiped other gods such as the fertility god and so on. So he fell in love with these women and ended up with 700 wives and 300 concubines and they led him astray. Solomon's love for foreign women completely ruined his near perfect relationship with God. Sad, but it can happen easier than we think. If we are not fully devoted to God, our one little sin habit can completely tare us away from Him.

Lance preached on this for quite sometime and I knew God was speaking directly to me. He added a few other points in there that really hit me hard like "Walking into a garage doesn't make you a car and going to church doesn't make you a Christian." I had been wondering why my relationship with God was going down and I finally realized it was caused by a small sin habit I wasn't getting rid of. With out delay, I confessed my sin and begged for forgiveness and soon it was granted and now I'm on my way back up thank God!

So anyway, here's a little update on how things are going:

- I'm reading an awesome book called The Barbarian Way and definitely recommend it

- I've been on a diet and exercise plan for about a week and lost 7 lbs.

- I'm going to the Philly, New York, D.C., and Delaware area March 11 through the 14 to visit some friends from past mission trips

- And you all have donated almost $1000! Praise God! That means I only have about $7000 more to raise. It sounds like a lot but I know God can do it. Plus I don't have to have all the money in until December! For those of you who have donated thank you very much. And if you haven't donated, would like to send in more, or would like to make a monthly contribution you can do it on like with your credit card now! Just click on the support me tab on the left.

Please, please, please let me know what is going on in your life and how I can be praying for you! Just leave a comment or send me an email at missionary91@yahoo.com. Seriously, do it.

End of the Year Trip

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

On Sunday I left on a trip to visit my friend Lauren Tatum from the Peru trip in Maypearl, Texas and my friend Emily Davis in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was good to see them and we got to do some fun things. I was supposed to return home tomorrow but my pig is now sick with a joint issue and I had to come back a day early. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Lauren Tatum and me sitting on the couch getting licked by a wiener dog!

A giant tree at her Grandpa's ranch

In the bamboo forest

Beautiful sunrise in Maypearl, Texas

Look! A coyote running across the field!

Yes, the natural state

Me in front of Little Rock Central High School, home of the Little Rock Nine

Gotta have a Starbucks

Yummm... iced chai.

It was a god little four day trip. Nice to have a break from work and the same old stuff. I start school on Monday the fifth and I don't think I'm lookin forward to it too much haha! But it will be good. Please pray for my pigs health and for trip preparataions and let me know how I can be praying for you! Next week I'l have a support update for ya but until then have a powerful new year and I'll be praying that God does mind blowing things in you and through you!

The Latest and Greatest

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Well, there's only eight months left and I can't wait. Since I started support raising about a month ago I have raised $725 which means I have $7,275 left to raise. Please pray that God will bring this money in and if you feel God leading you to donate more, and ONLY if you feel God leading you, just click here!

Quite a bit has been going on lately. I've been going to school, working at Starbucks on weekends, working at a daycare on weekdays, going to church, raising a pig and some how I fit in eating and sleeping! Haha! Sometimes I feel like I never stop moving. But God is good. He's been teaching me some stuff about prayer and listening to Him. These two things are crucial in our relationship with the Lord but it seems like I've been slacking off in this area.

He's also been teaching me a lot about depending on others and patience. He's teaching me dependence by making me find a ride to school every morning since I cant drive my truck to school till February, and patience by having me wait six months before I get out of school. I can't wait for this year to pass and I'm ready for it to be summer time but I know God is using this year to prepare me for the journey ahead. I have some major senioritis which I'm pretty sure I've had since the first grade but some how I'm managing to make all A's and B's in my classes, praise God.

My upcoming plans for the rest of my time here in US are pretty exciting... well at least they are for me haha! Christmas is in a few days and on the 28^th I'm heading out to visit my friend, Lauren Tatum, in Dallas, who I met on the Peru trip, and then on to Little Rock, Arkansas to visit Emily Davis who I met on the Philippines trip. I'll be returning sometime around the 1^st of January. The week before spring break I'm most likely taking a trip to the east coast to visit Anna Kepmner in Delaware, Luis in NYC and Doug in Philly, who are all from the Peru trip. Hopefully I get to see all of them and maybe even some more who might decide to come in the few days I'll be spending there. Over spring break I'd like to take a mission trip to either Mexico or Galveston but I'm still waiting on God's answer for that one. I graduate on June the seventh and after that is a pretty exciting summer. I'm not sure about God's plans for the summer but they could include a summer camp, a week long mission trip to Saltillo, Mexico, a family trip to Colorado, a beach retreat to South Padre, a mission trip to Colorado and maybe even leading a junior high mission trip somewhere close to home. Obviously I still have a lot of praying to do about next summer, but what ever God has planned for me, I'm excited about it. And who knows, I might just be working at Starbucks all summer. Haha!

Well, that's about all that's been going on lately and I hope you enjoyed reading. My goal is to blog every week and most blogs will hopefully be a little bit more than me just telling about my plans and stuff haha! Please let me know how I can be praying for you and be sure to ask me any questions you might have. You can leave a comment or send me an email at missionary91@yahoo.com, which ever is more convenient for you.

I love you and God bless you!

Trevor Perla

Get to Know One of My Team Members!

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Let me introduce you to one of my teammates, Valerie Long. Check out why she wants to go on this trip by clicking here and reading her article.

To get to know any of my teamates click on the links below!

Expectations of My Mission Trip

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We were asked to write a blog on how we felt before leaving on this mission trip. Here is what I'm expecting...

Of course I expect the usual. I expect to have enough food to keep me alive, a place to live, some form of clean water and an opportunity to share the gospel. But besides that, there are a few other things. They're not just from AIM or the trip, but from God as well.

First, I expect a strong team. No, not a perfect, flawless, always loving and happy team, but a strong team. I expect to be surrounded by "a great cloud of witnesses" who have a desire to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and won't let anything stand in there way. I expect a team that is supportive and encouraging and stays strong and united. And a team that desires to glorify God more than anything else in the world. This is probably my hardest expectation to be met but I do expect it. This is kind of an expectation of God and AIM since they are the ones putting the teams together and of my team members since they are the ones that form the team.

Secondly, I expect God to show up and do some amazing things. I guess I have this expectation because He's done some crazy things on every mission trip I've been on in the past. I've seen crippled people walk, gang members ask to start a Bible study and some crazy prophesies come to pass. I expect Him to do things like these and so much more in the nine months we'll be in Nicaragua and I'm ready to be blown away.

Most of all, I expect God to let Himself be glorified. I expect God to come through and let His "name be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun," as it says in Malachi 1:11. After all, this is the reason I'm going on this mission trip and I was commissioned to be a missionary for this purpose.

How I Was Called to the Mission Field

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story...

As some of you may have read in my support letter, I had planned to go to New Tribes Bible Institute right after high school, learn how to be a missionary and then go out to which ever country God called me to. But those obviously weren't God's plans. This story may sound a little bit crazy but I guess you would have to be me to understand it. God tends to speak to me in some unusual ways.

One day back in June I was at home alone for almost the whole day. I had no plans and nothing left on my "to do" list so I decided it would be a great idea to spend a whole day in prayer. I hadn't been praying for too long when God put a crazy thought in my head. He kept telling me, "You have a big decision to make" but I wasn't quite sure what this decision was. I prayed about it and asked God to reveal this decision to me and He replied with, "You need to figure out what you are going to do after high school." Of course I knew He really meant, "You need to figure out what I want you to do after high school." Haha! After hearing this I have to admit, I was a little bit unhappy since I thought I had everything nice and planed out. I sat and listened some more and decided to go out in my back yard because I kept getting distracted by things like the giant map on my wall and the computer. After no more than five minutes of listening I felt that I should look to the roof of my house. The first thing I saw was our satellite dish pointing to the southwest and immediately thought, Central America. Like I said this story is a bit weird and might sound a little crazy to people other than me but its how God spoke to me.

I continued listening and couldn't get my mind off of Central America. Eventually I went back inside and decided to look up some trips to Central America for about a year and what do you know, AIM offers a trip to Nicaragua for nine months! So of course I prayed about it and looked up some other trips but I never really got a definite answer. I asked God to reveal His plans to me before I got back from the Philippines because I needed to know whether I would be applying for college when I go back or if I was applying for a mission trip.

One day while at training camp for the Philippines trip, one of the serve crew members and leaders of my last year's trip to Peru told me he saw a vision of me standing in a field preaching the gospel with a hat on. For some reason when he said that I just automatically thought of Nicaragua. Once again, I know it completely sounds crazy but that's what happened. I continued praying about it and God kept giving me little tid-bits of conformation along the way. One morning, as I was having a quiet time on the balcony of our house in the Philippines, Nicaragua came on my heart once again. But this time it was different. I wasn't asking questions. For some reason I just had this peace and I just knew God was telling me at that moment to go. God used such a soft voice but it was so powerful. God had never given me peace like that before. It was strange but I decided it was best to obey. So I got home, signed up, sent out support letters and here I am, on my way to a crazy journey to Nicaragua for nine months. Pray for me.