november newsletter

Another month has flown by! November has been very busy but good! I also turned 19 which is exciting!
This month our base had 2 major events. On November 14^th we had “Fully Launching The Pier” event, The Pier being our community resource center at our YWAM base. It was a grand opening type event, although we’ve been open for about a year now. Around 150-200 people showed up. We had bounce castles, live DJ, free raffle draw with prizes, vendors, and tons of other things. It was great to have an event that attracted our community so we could tell them about what we do in the area to serve and help them!
Also, on November 22^nd we had an art day called “Art in Motion” (or AIM) which Brett headed up. It was an afternoon where we used art to reach out to the kids in our community and allow them to express themselves through art! It was a fun day with tons of creative art projects to do with the kids. It was a huge success with about 25 kids and tons of volunteers. We hope to do it on more of a regular basis.

*making art with the kids*
For Thanksgiving break I went to California for a week. One of my YWAM friends who I went to Turkey with, Peter, and his family opened their home to me for the week. They blessed me with a plane ticket to San Francisco; otherwise I would have had to stay in Las Vegas. It was a great week and a much needed break. It was also my first American Thanksgiving. Not much different than Canadian, but Americans go all out and it’s a bigger deal here. I also got to see one of my best friends Kristen who did the 5 month school with me in Las Vegas and Turkey. I missed being able to hang out with Peter and Kristen all the time. It was awesome to see them again as it had been 5 months since I’d seen them last.As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I am still waiting for my Visa to come in. Since it hasn’t come yet, I’m leaving the country for Christmas since my current Visa expires soon. I’ll be going to Calgary, Alberta on the 18^th to spend the holidays with my oldest sister Megan. I’m excited to see her again and I’m going to be an auntie! She’s due shortly after the New Year so I’m hoping she’ll have the baby before I have to go back to Las Vegas. Please continue to pray that my Visa will come in the near future so that I can return after my Christmas vacation.
Everything has been going well with Mission Adventures and recruiting teams for next year. As our 2010 schedule of teams starts to fill, I continue to get more excited about the students that will come and get excited about missions! We have a very busy year ahead of us!
Thank you for your continued support and prayers. My next newsletter will be in the New Year, so I hope you have a great Christmas surrounded by family, friends, eggnog and cookies. J

Prayer points:
-For my Visa!!!
-Safety as I travel during Christmas
-For our YWAM base as we face challenges

Praise points:
-I had a great and refreshing Thanksgiving break!
-Mission Adventures continues to have more teams interested for 2010
-I get to go to Calgary!

October Newsletter

Here's my most recent newsletter if you haven't already received it! :) (Sorry if the formatting is weird; it didn't transfer well).

Hello from Las Vegas! Time has flown by and I’ve been back in Vegas for a little over a month now. I ended up leaving for Vegas at the end of September, rather than the beginning like originally planned. There were some complications with me getting a Visa; which one to get, when to get it, etc. but everything has worked itself out (for now at least) and I’m here on a 3 month Visa. Since arriving, I have applied for my “Religious Worker Visa” which will allow me to stay in the states for 2 years. It’s still in the works of being processed, so please pray that I will be able to get the Visa before my other Visa runs out in December.

I live on base with 5 other people; four boys and one girl. This is Andrea (my roommate) and I.

It’s nice to be able to wake up and walk down the hall to your office to work (this comes in handy when you wake up minutes before your suppose to be there!)

I’ve been keeping myself busy with tons of things to do around the base to get the Mission Adventures (MA) program ready for next year. Currently, we are focusing on recruiting; trying to get more teams (youth groups) for next year. Recruiting for us means phone calls, mail outs, emails, and more phone calls. This is the first time that the MA program here in Vegas has had more than one staff member running the program, so we’re far ahead in recruiting compared to where they usually would be. I work alongside 2 other people who are also passionate about seeing youth equipped to go to the nations; Sam (who has been running the program for the past 2 years), and Brett (who also just joined staff). Recently, we prayed about how many students we should aim for next year and we felt like God wanted us to try and get 600 students. This past year, MA saw about 300 students come through. So with 2 extra staff, 600 is totally do-able!

In September, a few of us at the base took part in a child trafficking walk our friend Joe headed up. Aside from the fact we walked for over 45 minutes just to get to the meeting place for the walk because we got lost, it was great to be part of a movement here in Vegas.

As we walked, people held signs that said things like “Real men don’t buy sex”, “Our girls are not for sale”, and “Over 400 child sex slaves sold in Las Vegas in 1 month”. It’s scary to think that a thing like child trafficking happens right down the street (literally!).

I’m still in the search for a local church to get connected with. Currently I’ve been going to “Church of the Way” which is a smaller church with mainly younger people. Recently Sam and I went to hang out with some of them at a going away party for a friend. Afterwards, five of us went 4 wheeling in a jeep in the desert. As the sun was setting we got ‘stuck’ on the side of a mountain and decided it wasn’t safe to drive any further in fear of rolling. We ended up waiting for about 3 hours for someone to bring us tools to release the sway bar (what that is, I’m not sure but it worked). As we stood waiting, we began to share our testimonies. It was so encouraging to hear where everyone was coming from and the things that God had brought them through. Aside from the fact that I was wearing a dress, I was thankful for this time to grow and share God’s glory in our lives as we shivered and looked over the city of Las Vegas.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers! Hope to hear from you soon!

Prayer Points:
-For my Visa to come in on time!
-For continued finances as I live a "faith based lifestyle"
-For the MA program; unity as a staff, more teams, energy

Praise Points:
-I was blessed with a plane ticket to California in November for Thanksgiving with friends
-We've had a great start to the recruiting season with teams already interested for 2010

im back!

I made it back to Las Vegas after a long day of flying (halifax to toronto to denver to las vegas). It seams to be cheaper with the more stops you have, which i dont mind too much. i flew in on tuesday the 22nd in the evening, greeted by all the other YWAM staff that live on base with me. it was great to see their lovely faces again. i was grateful for not having any problems getting a 3 month visa while in immigration in to. suuuch an answer to prayer; ever since i missed my flight in january to las vegas, i always get extremely nervous and shaky when going through immigration.
on wednesday, most of my day was spent sitting in an empty bunk room with brett and sam (my co-staff for Mission Adventures) while sam talked .. and talked some more, about what we'll be doing the next while, and within the next 2 years .. expectations, the whole 9 yards. sam left on thursday for the weekend to go to LA for a youth specialities conference where theres a YWAM MA booth and tons of other ministries booths for youth pastors to look at for missions trips. hopefully he'll get to meet some youth pastors/leaders to come to vegas for a week. while sam was gone, myself and brett called, and called, and emailed and called youth pastors/leaders to tell them about the MA program, trying to get more teams. and reading as well .. im going to be the main registrar for teams so i have a lot of info to read up on, and just other general things for the MA program to read about.
this weekend is when the DTS students for the next DTS are arriving!!! it starts on monday .. the dts only has 3 students .. all girls! just waiting on one last one to arrive in a couple of hours. it'll be nice to have some other girls living at the base .. me and andrea are out numbered by the male staff that live on base .. 4 to 2.
OHHH. how could i forget to mention.
yesterday, andrea and I bought a new member to our YWAM family. his name is puddles and is a fat big gold fish .. with one funky black eye. because of his size, i think we need to buy him a new bowl. the one we bought him is a 3$ glass bowl for a kitchen, but seams to be a little bit to small for him. hopefully he doesnt die sooon .. im hoping that if he plans on dying soon, that he dies within the next 48 hours so that we can get a full refund at walmart.
other than that, not a whole lot else is new! got moved back into my room with andrea .. its nice to have such a large room, and only have to share it with one other person! the other day we also moved around one of the offices in order to put myself and brett by sams desk so its a bit easier to work that way. alllsssoo, recently ive been learning how to drive the 15 passenger vans, which is quite fun!! not as hard as i thought it was going to be .. i have yet to try parking, so i bet that'll be a treat in itself. it'll be great to be able to drive instead of having to depend on other people to drive me places when i need to get something, go somewhere, etc.. paying for gas for such a large boat sucks tho.
one last thing; yesterday afternoon/evening, 5 of us went to fremont street (usually about a 20 min walk) to join up with our friend who was leading a 'las vegas stop child trafficking now' walk. we thought that since it wasnt very far, we could walk to the walk. turns out, we got lost (understandably) and walked for 45 min .. to far. aventually we found the cross street (n. 8th) we were looking for, and as we walked up, they were all just leaving to start the walk. great 'protest' to be able to be a part of!!
i'll try my best to keep this thing updated .. maybe some pictures too !
:)
blessings !
beth!

update on my life .. whats next!

HELLO. Another post from Beth!! This is a long one, but there's some pictures to keep you entertained! Please take some time to read this important blog if you haven't already received this via letter/email. It's basically what I've been doing for the past year with some stories, and what I'm going to be up to for the next while! Love to hear what you think, so shoot me a email! :)

PAST(Jan.-April)
After graduating from high school a semester early, I left for Las Vegas to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). YWAM is an international interdenominational Christian organization that equips youth to share the gospel all over the world with the goal of “knowing God and making Him known”. For 3 months of my DTS myself, 6 other students and 3 leaders (from 5 different countries) stayed in Vegas for “lecture phase”. Lecture phase is the first half of DTS devoted to hearing from different speakers every week on various topics.

This was a great time for me to take a season of my life away to focus on God and learn more about the person that I am and becoming.

(April-June)
At the end of April we left for 2 months of “outreach” to Turkey where we traveled around from city to city. This was time for us to apply things that we had learned previously and experiencing life on the mission field. While in Turkey we ...
· Passed out Bibles (NT)
· Childcare at a YWAM conference
· Shared our testimonies with non-believers
· Taught English
· Helped during services at international churches
· Met English speaking students on university campuses and built relationships with them
· Building work for a small church
· Working with the fulltime missionaries
· & many other fun and exciting things!

*At Zeus’s Temple. We got to see tons of ruins and famous sites (Like the Blue Mosque, Ephesus, and Ayo Sophia)*

While in Turkey, God opened my eyes to another part of the world. Being in a country that is so influenced by Islamic ways (which we were reminded by every morning at 5am and four other times during the day) was something that we had to adjust to. At the beginning of the trip, I doubted the effectiveness that we could have because of our lack of Turkish. Throughout the trip I was reminded again and again that God is bigger than any language barrier, and He was still able to use us in unimaginable ways. I saw this through our campus ministries where God seemed to lead us directly towards English speaking students. Near the end of our trip, two of my team mates and I were able to share the gospel with a man who didn’t speak English. Using a Turkish Bible, we were able to show him verses and further explain the gospel. As the man’s eyes started to fill up with tears, I couldn’t help but be reminded of how BIG of a God we serve. These types of experiences get me excited about taking the gospel to new and unreached areas of the world.

(June)
We then returned to Vegas for one last week of debriefing. We had our graduation as we finished DTS.

I said goodbye to my DTS mates the same day I started another season in my life.

(June-August)
I then started a season of discipling youth. My summer consisted of staying in Vegas at our base on staff with Mission Adventures (MA). MA is a program that disciples and equips teenagers to do missions; within their city and around the world. Every week a team (usually a youth group) came in from all over North America. We fed and housed them at our base and taught them about evangelism and how to do it effectively. We took them out on the streets of Las Vegas to apply it all; to share Christ through different types of evangelism.
Last year I was an MA student in Las Vegas. It’s the program that got me into doing missions and a DTS. My goal for the summer was to do the same thing for other youth; getting them excited about missions.

*MA Summer Staff 2009*

FUTURE
Recently, God has put it on my heart to make a commitment to the Mission Adventures program. My heart is to show youth the calling on their lives; to teach them to do their part to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) and show them how to live it out.
What will I be doing as MA staff for the next 2 years?
· Hands on work; planning outreaches, lessons, preparing the base for teams, and discipling students to walk out evangelism and fulfill the Great Commission
· Mobile tours; travelling to churches in North America to promote MA and recruit future teams
· Helping plan and organize local outreaches for short term teams that will pass through our base

CURRENTLY
I’m home in Nova Scotia to visit family and friends and recuperate from the last 7 months. I’m also home to inform everyone about the next big step in my life, and invite people to get on board with what God’s doing in my life. In September, I’ll be returning to Las Vegas to start my commitment.

LASTLY
Thank you all for your support; through prayers and finances. I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do my DTS without all your help. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart!! If you’re interested in continuing to receive my newsletters once I return to Vegas, I’d be more than willing to send it to you either by mail or email.

Prayer Points
· Safety as I return to Las Vegas and live in “Sin City”
· For the Mission Adventures program to reach its full potential
· God’s guidance as I start support raising
· To use my talents and abilities to glorify God

Want to help? Well, here's how & why!

As I mentioned, I am making a 2 year commitment at YWAM Las Vegas to the Mission Adventures program. YWAM is a non-profit organization; all its full time workers are responsible for raising their own support/funds for living. We all live a faith based life style, which is only possible through people who partner with us. Everyone is called to reaching the world (Matt.28:19); “Go into all the world” is a command for all of us. However, some of us go physically, some go in prayer, and some also partner with those going physically with the gift of giving. In order for me to effectively join staff and complete my tasks as a Mission Adventures Staff member, I will need around $900 a month. (If you would like to see a copy of budget to see where these funds are going, feel free to contact me!)

My goal is to have:
· two supporters at $100 monthly
· two supporters at $75 monthly
· three supporters at $50 monthly
· eight supporters at $35 monthly
· five supporters at $25 monthly

(for a total of $905/month)

Would you please pray about partnering with me through prayer, partnering with taking on part of the financial burden monthly, or just a onetime gift? I am new at this and at the moment without any supporters, but I trust that God will put it on people’s heart to agree with what I’m doing and want to get on board!

If you are interested in helping me out in ANY way, PLEASE contact me! (tax deductible receipts are available for all donations). Anything is greatly appreciated and needed. Thanks again! :)

email: konrathbeth@gmail.com

homeeeee.

after a long day of travelling from las vegas, to houston, to new jersey, and then halifax (13 hours) .. i made it home. i left vegas on one hour of sleep from the night before. when i got into hfx at 12am .. i went to bed at 2am and woke up 14 hours later at 4pm. what a shock. im still on a messed up sleeping schedule; didnt sleep much the last few days in vegas, and jet leg doesnt help the situation much.

this past weekend was our last weekend together as a staff. on saturday we had a free day where we just sleep in, hung out .. went around vegas and did stuff. and sunday we had a "love feast" for dinner .. put candels and nice lights out and whatnot. dresses up all pretty and ate steak! and other yummy things. it was also sams 21st birthday on the 2nd so after the love feast all the legal aged staff went out to get drinks. while some of the staff were gone, me and 2 other girls took advantage of the situation and decided to do some birthday pranking. for 2 hours we sat in sams room and filled it with balloons. while andrea and sadie blew them up, i sat and drew on the balloons. (blowing up 75 balloons hurts your lungs and face!) so that was a fun night.

on monday we had "debrief" where we talked about 're entry' and everything that went on in the summer. basically a repeat of everything i heard at the end of DTS.

its good to be home; weird. havent done a whole lot yet .. or seen anyone. just taking the first couple of days easy . trying to get used to the fact that im home for a month. im excited to get to see everyone, but im also geting over whelmed with everything to do this upcoming month. megan and emily are both coming home (emilys coming home from germany, and megans coming home for a week from alberta). its the first time in 2 and a half years that we've all been together, so thats exciting. also, in the midst of seeing everyone and catching up on life, i have all this to do in mearly a month.

if you havent heard already, im going back to Las Vegas at the beginning of September. Im joining on staff for 2 years, working with the Mission Adventures program. more info on all that later. so i'll be trying to focus on support raising while im home too .. and getting on my feet that way before i jump back into missions.

contact me to hang out with me while im only home for a month !! i'll try and keep you updated on how everythings going!

coming home! .. only for a visit.

august 4th .. leaving las vegas for nova scotia ! long flight with 2 stop overs so i wont be in NS until the 5th. tons of stuff to do, as i will only be home for a short time (5-6 weeks). keep checking my blog for updates on what i'll be doing in september !! :)

my summer with mission adventures in vegas (with ywam still) has been great. crazy. we were supposed to have 5 weeks of teams, but only have 3 because of teams dropping out. but on the weeks where we didnt have students, as staff we did a lot of community outreaches meeting our neighbors which was sweet !! and we also did a lot of intercession (praying) for different things in las vegas which was great.

i cant believe im coming home soon; for the first time since january. its been weird not having/seeing family and friends for such a long time. ive made tons of friends here in vegas that will be hard, and have been hard to leave. its weird saying goodbye to people (my dts mates, who left in june) after youve spent every day with them .. about 12 hours, for 5 long months. i miss them dearly !! hopefully going to meet up with some of them later on in the year.

im excited about my plans for september .. but youll have to wait for the big news !! hehe. :) miss you all, and hope you see you when i come home!!

yay

dts is over .. we had our graduation.
theyre all gone.
and now im moving on .. but staying .. a new season is beginning.

its weird and hard being away from the people that ive been around 24/7 for the past 5 months .. many of them became like family to me. but its easier on me than for them i think since im staying in ywam and am still going to be living in community, which im thankful of !

this week is our first week of Mission Adventures students. theres only about 25 of them which is nice, and makes the first week much less stressful. ive been taking the mornings off, and will be for the next week, to just sleep in/rest, and do some reflecting on the past 5 months which is completly needed and im so very thankful that Sam is allowing .. insisting that i do so.

thats about all thats new with me; i had a cold which sucks, but i ll hopefully get over it soon.

comment and send me emails. id love to hear from you all.

beth!