Christmas!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

To describe to you this week is almost impossible. So much has happened. But I will do my best, thousugh you are missing lots... (Doesn't that make you curious? Hehehe that is my plan. ;) )

On Monday we helped out at this place called Kidstop. It is run by Youth for Christ and is put on by this AMAZING  woman called Aunt Betty. It is a place for kids to go to keep them off the streets. We help by entertaining the kids and putting on a program for them. It is a lot of fun. :)

Tuesday we went to this place called Options in the morning and in the afternoon we went to Golden Valley. Options is a place of counselling for teens who get pregnant and are not sure what to do. It is really cool place. It is run by a Lady from Minnesota, Chanhassin (I can't spell by my Aunt Cheryl lives by there). We went there and we weeded the place for them, as well as did other odd jobs that they don't get to that often. Golden Valley is a very poor district. Also called the Blanco district. We went and played with the kids there.

Wednesday was the day we went to the drug rehab center. We were there all day. And also weeded their garden. This garden was a lot more work though. That evening we did a service for them. I was the one who spoke. Which was very nerve wrecking. But it taught me to relay on God and he really did get me though it and it turned out really good.

The morning of Thursday we went to the Hospital. Some people dressed as clowns, others facepainted, and the rest went where we were needed. We prayed with a lot of people. It was cool. That afternoon we went and did a street connect. Which means they dropped us off at one end of the street and we would go so far and pray with whoever we met. It was really cool.  My group ended up spending most of our two hours with this Lady (Esther) and her son, Praise. Esther, we learned had already has a relationship with Jesus. What we ended up doing was filling each other's love bucket. I spent most of the time playing with her son. We had a great time. He is a sweet little boy. He was fascinated with my camera. Didn't really get that you could take pictures with it, just liked seeing things though it. My two teammates prayed for Esther and the back-pain that she has had constantly for the last four years was gone. It was amazing.

On Friday we went back to Kidstop. If you would like to know more see Monday.

We had a flu bug that past around our team. It was awful. It made stuff come out both ends, if you know what I mean. I got it Friday evening. But it looks like it is over now. We are all better and no one else is getting sick. Praise God!

Sat was our day off. I spent most of the day in bed recovering. But stuff was staying in.

Sunday (or today) we went to church. Then went to the Blanco district and handed out packages to the kids. little Christmas gifts. It was cool. After we went to Kidstop and helped give them a Christmas lunch and read them the Christmas story. Than we came back to where we are staying and had a very AMAZING Christmas dinner. It was fabulous. Afterwords we opened secret angels gifts. (everyone picked a name and secretly bought them a gift) Than we had a big surprise. Our School Leader Deb, had secretly contacted our families and they sent a gift with us. We all knew that today was Christmas, but it didn't really have that Christmas feel. No snow, family, family gifts or cold. It was head knowledge, getting a gift from my family made it heart knowledge  It really made Christmas, Christmas. (If my ma isn't crying by now than something is not normal with her) Thank you everyone who sent a letter to me. Words cannot say how much I  love getting them. It really made it feel like Christmas. Thanks Ma for the bright idea to send people's letters to me. It made my day. (Now I am guessing the tears are even bigger) I love you Ma! Thank you so much everyone! I really felt the love.

To my CMA buddies. I met someone here who is thinking of joining CMA. It is AWESOME. I am halfway around the world and still found a biker buddy. ;)

I miss you all. MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Love,
Haleigh

Finaly South Africa!

Dear Family and Friends,
We have made here. :) It was a long journey and it is good to be here and alive. :) It is so beautiful here. And it is nice and warm.
This afternoon we have been preparing kid skits. We have yet to start minstriary(sp). Tomorrow we start. :) We are sharring testamonies at church and will also be doing a drama. The drama is really cool. It is called the dolls skit. Lots of fun.
On Monday we are helping out with a program called kid's stop. It is a street kids minstriary.
They keep us busy here.
I love you all. Thanks so much for supporting me.
Love,
Haleigh

Africa this Monday

Dear Friends & Family,

This Monday I head off for South Africa. I am so excited. I am looking forward to God changing me and to experience missions at a deeper level than I have before. Also to getting to know my team better.

If you asked me if I felt fully prepared, I would say no. I don’t think one could ever be fully prepared and there are so many variables. But I believe that I am equipped enough to do what I need to do, and let God do the rest.

This is how Monday/entire travel to SA looks. At 9:30 we leave to go to the airport, our flight leaves at 12:30. We have a 3 hour or so, flight to Washington DC. A five hour layover there, then an 8 hour flight to Germany. A seven  layover in Germany, than a 11 hour plane ride to SA. After we get to SA, we have a 5 hour ride till we get to George. Then it looks like that evening we will be doing some kind of ministry. It will be a really long day/days. So prayer that we make it through, would be wonderful. :)

Praise Reports: Our whole team got the funds to go. It was really close, but God provided. :)

Prayer Requests: Health [I am getting sick :(], Travel, Spiritual Growth, Wisdom, and anything else you can think of.

A really BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me and prayed for me. It has meant a lot to me, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Me minus you equals very sad and deprived Haleigh. I have been so blessed by you. Words cannot describe.

I will try to Blog occasionally, but it may not happen. Due to the trouble of getting on line.

My love to all,

Haleigh Haaland

Dear Friends and Family,

For most of my posts I have focused on what the speaker has talked about the current week. This one I want to talk about our outreach and prayer requests for it.

We are going to South Africa; we will be in George, and Muizenberg. We will be working in orphanages, hospitals, townships, and also serving the local churches through dance, drama, and testimony. Pretty much anything we are called to do. They are going to give us an itinerary for our time and what we will be doing, but they have not gotten that to us yet. So I know just a little bit more than you do. Though they do tell us that we have to be flexible, because you never know what we may end up doing. So everything has a possibility of changing.

Some facts about South Africa:

·         Population – 44.8 million

·         Capital – Pretoria

·         11 official languages

·         Approximately 12% of the adult population is infected with HIV

·         The HIV epidemic has produced  large numbers of Aids orphans

Prayer requests (for me and everyone on my team):

Funds, I know I say this every week, but it is a big need. We have 5 days to get all the money we need. I think we still need at the very least $10,000 for all of us to go. It could be more, I am assuming it is more, I just don’t know how much. We just learned on Wednesday that we need $300 more per person than we thought; due to the cost of transportation in South Africa.

Vehicles, because we have 15 people we are having problems getting them, because we need at least two. And pray that someone would love to pay for gas money. That would be a great blessing to us.

Health, for obvious reasons. We have a family with a 1, 3, and 5 year old coming. Pray that we all stay healthy but especially them. And that nobody dies. We would all really like to come back alive. (Now I have just majorly worried my parents. Don’t worry, we should all be fine.)

That we will all sleep well. So of the people on my team have difficulties sleeping, and it is always harder when one is not well rested.

Team unity. That no matter what happens we stay together and support one another.

For the right words to say. We are going to be speaking in some of the townships there, and we want our message to impact them.

Safe travel, to there, while we are there, and for the way home.

That we all will be able to adapt to warm culture.

Peace, grace, and anything and everything else you can think of. We would be so grateful for your prayers.

I love and miss all of you greatly.

Haleigh

P.S. The speaker was still really good this week. I didn’t avoid him because he was bad, he was (as all the speakers are here) amazing.

Dear Friends and Family,

When people ask about what I miss about North Dakota, it is a very easy question to answer. Because what I really miss is the people I know and love there. I just want everyone to know I miss you but am glad to be here. God is really working in me and changing me for good.

This week our speaker was Lisa Ryan. Due to the fact we have a thanksgiving break, she only spoke two days and will speak this Monday as well. Lisa spoke on the Nature and Character of God. She is an amazing speaker! :)

She had us start with a non-based opinion and had us come up with things that if there is a creator, the creator would have to be. We had two lists, Nature and Character. So we came up with those things, and had to have a good argument for why the creator would have to be those things before we could put them on the board. Some things we came up with were: One, Superior, All-Knowing, Relational, Loving, Personal….. We put a good many words on the list but not all that we could because that would go on for a long time. Then we researched the top 13 religions. To find out what they believe about God. As went through them, one by one we saw that their view of God was wrong or lacking. The Two closest religions were Islam and Judaism.  They had all the Nature of God right. But they were lacking on the Character of God. The one religion whose view of God that was spot on, was Christianity. Both the Nature and the Character of God were what we deducted that God had to be.

Lisa did a great job speaking and I am excited to hear her speak this Monday. :)

It was thanksgiving break, so I was able to see my family. :) We had a blast, ate way too much food, laughed like crazy, and just enjoyed life. It was really good.

I lost my notebook with my last two weeks worth of notes. I was unable to find it, so right now I am praying that God puts it into the hands of the person who really needs it. This might not seem like a big thing to lose, but it felt like I lost part of me.

Prayer requests: Funds (this doesn’t just mean me, but everyone on my team and the Peru team.), Good Relations (on the team, and with everyone we meet), Authority (that all of us would know, believe, and use in our authority in God), Heath, and Safe Travels.

Love,

Haleigh

Week 9

Dear Friends and Family,

Time is really flying here. In the time that one day should pass, a whole week does. We leave in three weeks! It seems like we just got here yesterday. But I am excited for outreach! It will be really cool to see how God will grow me even more.

This week we learned about Spiritual Warfare. Jeff Herringshaw taught us again. He is a really good speaker.

When one thinks of spiritual warfare they usually think of driving out demons or like healing the sick. And while that is a part of spiritual warfare, it is not the main battle grounds. This week we learned that there are three major battle grounds. They are: Mind, Heart, and Tongue. A person’s thoughts come from three different places; Themself, God, and the devil. If one knows God, knows who they are in him, than they can know what thoughts to follow. The devil likes to control though fear and he likes to condemn you. Fear is the opposite of faith. God doesn’t condemn you, he will convict you though. Condemning thoughts have no hope. Convicting thoughts gives you a way out and hope. The battles fields of the heart are attitudes and emotions. One has control over their attitude and emotions. Something you can do is to be thankful. The battle ground of the tongue: words have power. The bible says that ‘Reckless words pierce like a sword’ Proverbs 12:18a. The power of words is spirit power plus heart power. Negative words will destroy. We need truth plus love in our words. All three of these things tie together. If you let the enemy come in a little way, it is a lot harder to drive the enemy out. Spiritual warfare doesn’t have a time frame. It happens all the time. Every time you speak, think, or feel.

If Satan can get you to believe that you are worthless, a failure, or without authority; then you will not be the person in God that you could be. Satan loves when that happens. Jesus fought back and has authority over the earth and he gave that to us, his followers. We need to stand in our Christ given authority.

It was a really good week. Jeff taught us lots.

One of the things we did this week that was really cool is that we had a time of music and intercession for our outreaches (Peru and South Africa). We filled a white board up with words of things that we didn’t want on our outreach. For example: Anger, Discouragement, Illness, Oppression….. The list was very big. And when we looked at it, it just felt ugly and awful; it brought the room down. Then we began to erase and replace the words with stuff that was the opposite and that we wanted on our outreaches. Like Peace, Health, Love, Trust… And we put more words on it than were on before. The change was amazing. When one looked at the board now, they were given so much hope and encouragement. It now gave light to the room.

My Grandfather’s funeral was last Monday. It was hard and cool. Hard because I am grieving him, cool because it was a celebration of his life and that he is now in heaven. I miss him, but I am happy for him.

Prayer requests: funds (It is biblical to ask for money), health, travel safety (for outreach and for thanksgiving break), deep friendships, and patience.

I am sending my love to all,
Haleigh

Dear Friends and Family,

This coming Monday means that it’s only four weeks tell we leave for South Africa!!!! I am so excited! It is hard to believe that it is so close. Soon I will be back and this DTS (Discipleship Training School) will be over. This time has gone by so fast and I have learned so much. It has truly been AMAZING! I would recommend YWAM to anyone. You learn so much and it really changes your heart.

This week our speaker was Doug Easterday. He talked about ‘The Father Heart of God’. He told us about how we often have a distorted image of God; due to our families, our father, education, media, and church. They don’t portray God correctly and therefore warp our image of God. And if we don’t see God correctly than we can’t connect with God the way we should. And how it is not a onetime process, knowing who God is takes a lifetime of searching and even more.

The Bible talks about how us, as humans are made in God’s image. (For the record, God is not a he or a she, as the English language would have us understand. But God is God. So both male and female can be in the image of God) If I have self-hatred towards my body or who I am, than how I view God is warped. I need to love who I am and how God made me, to be able to know God more completely.

He also talked about the need to forgive. How forgiveness is not an event or an act but something we need to continue to do all the time. If we don’t forgive, then we cannot connect to God the way we should. He also told about forgiving and blessing. Like when we are driving and a car does something that we don’t think they should do, to forgive and bless. He said that the cars around him have better driving, and that he also is blessed by blessing.

This week like all the others was truly great and it was a well of so much information.

My Grandpa Phil passed away this Tuesday. It is hard not having him around anymore, but I am so happy that he is in heaven. He had so much pain the last couple years of his life, yet not anymore. He is in the presence of God. I am so happy for him! Though I am sad for me because he is not here, I miss him. I am going through the grieving process right now and am holding on to the fact that I will see him again.

Because my grandpa past, I got to see my family. I haven’t seen them since I started DTS. Even though it was for a sad reason, it was really good to see them. I missed them so much.

We learned on Wednesday that one of our fellow student’s visa expired and was denied for its renewal. All of us are really going to miss Andi. We know that God has so much planned for him and will use him in great ways. And that God will make this situation work for his glory. We will hold Andi in our heart.

Homework Helpers went really well. I have so much fun with the kids. There were a lot of younger kids, fifteen of them. And only three 4^th and 5^th graders, we would like more older kids. So many younger kids are coming that we are changing up things so we will have more room for them

This Friday we had what is called the “Love Feast”.  Last week all of us, (the students) got an invitation to it. We weren’t told much about it, besides that it would be fancy. We all dressed up for it. Basically this is how our staff show their love of us and they honored us with this feast. The food was excellent! They gave us all roses and words that they received from God, for each particular student. It was really cool and a lot of fun. As much as us the students enjoy it, I think the staff enjoy it more.

 Prayer requests: Funds for outreach (This is really important; we only have three weeks to get all our money in. We really need prayer for this.), That more 4^th and 5^th graders would come to homework helpers and that they work hard on learning and getting their homework done, Team unity, For my family as we grieve for my Grandpa, That we will really practice forgiveness, Andi (That God will really use Andi and that He works good out of this), and forgive (and keep forgiving) whoever denied Andi his visa.

Thanks for all your prayers. Prayer is a really powerful tool. It makes such a difference. I miss all of you and cannot wait till I see you again. In the meantime I send a blessing from God to you. And a giant hug your way. Thanks for your support. I really couldn’t do it without you.

Love,

Haleigh

It's November!!!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s November already. We have past our half-way point in our training school. It is not long until outreach.

This week our topic was bible study. We had Mark Herringshaw as our teacher. He was really good. We learned some historical facts about Israel. Like geography, and other things. :) We spent the first four days learning, and on Friday we all had ten minutes to preach about a pericope (its means a story about Jesus or something like that). It was really awesome to tell a story and to hear everyone else’s story and how they interpret it. I learned lots on Friday, both telling my story and hearing others. I think it grew us closer as a school because everyone told their story from their heart and it was very personal and one could see how to apply it on our own life. :)

One thing he did that was cool was that he put honey on everyone’s bible and told them to lick it off. It is Jewish a custom that they did to their children on the scrolls to teach them that the bible is sweet. It comes from Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”. It was really cool, and something that I am not likely to ever forget.

He taught us not to dissect the bible, but to let it to dissect us. To go to the bible as learners and let it, teach us.

It was a really sweet week. More mental than emotional this week, which was nice.

Homework Helpers went really well this past week. The kids really want to be there. We have two girls who are coming 10min before we really start, just to hang out with us and get home work done. It is a blessing to be there and spend time with the kids.

 Prayer requests: funds for outreach, homework helpers (kids to come, that they pay attention and do their work, and that we have openings to talk to them about Christ), outreach preparation, health, and that share Jesus in the way we live and love each other.

I am sending my love towards all. I pray that you have a great week and that God works in your life and because of you works in the lives around you.

Love,

Haleigh