My support letter minus the pics...
Hello Everyone!!
It has been a long time since I have talked to a lot of you. God has been working so much in my life in the past 6 months, it is crazy! So I will give you all a brief summary of the past and bring you up to date with the future plans…
So it was a very early cloudy September morning that I stepped onto that plane that took me down to Argentina and brought me to where I am now. Little did I realize all that God had in mind for me and everything He wanted to do in my heart. I started my DTS, and began a process of deep change and transformation. My DTS consisted of 48 students of 16 different nations, ranging from ages 17-45. Over those three months of lecture phase, God stretched me and brought a lot of revelation in my heart about who I was and who He created me to be. He taught me a lot about learning to depend on Him for all my needs, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. But it was a hard process of learning to open my heart, the part that was deep down, full of hurts and emotions long buried, that had been so closed and hard for so long, and to let Him come in softly and clean out all the pain. God had to do a lot of breaking and for the first part- it was a fight. Picture a stubborn little girl stomping to bed because she knows she has too, but she’s determined to make sure you know she’s not happy about it. That was me. But the crazy amazing thing was that God looked down on me, with all my tantrums and complaining, and just said “Silly girl, I love you anyway. No matter how much you fight me.” And He never stopped, and He won’t ever stop, which is the amazing part.
In about November, we began to pray about where to go for outreach. And for me, I thought, without a doubt, that I would be off to Africa, to minister to orphans and the tribes you see in National Geographic. But God had different plans. I remember sitting upstairs, and saying, “God, take all of me and put me where you want me.” And that’s what He did. I began to see pictures of India, to think about India, to dream about INDIA! India, India, INDIA! I just couldn’t shake it off. And so I told my discipler that I thought God was telling me India, and kept praying. Sure enough, when they announced the teams, I was going to India. The one place I never thought I’d go. Lesson: Never say “never,” because God has a great sense of humor.
So on New Year’s Eve, I set off to India, with a team of 11 people from the US, England, Mexico, Bolivia, and Argentina- we were the craziest mix ever! We arrived in India and began our outreach. We arrived in Bombay and the next day travelled to the OTHER side of the nation, a little village called Chirala. In total, in the two months we were in India we went to 4 different locations and traveled a total of 6 days! We literally saw every part of India, including the Ganges River and the Taj Mahal!
Our first two weeks in Chirala were amazing. For me, this was the most impacting part of the outreach. Our home was a palm leaf hut, on mats on the floor. We worked with a very small church, and were able to minister openly in a few villages. We also had contact with an orphanage. The kids there became very close to me, and I will never forget them. This was where God began to speak to me about the dreams in my heart that He had created in me. He also continued to break me and expose my heart, as I was confronted with a completely different culture. Everywhere we went we were met with stares because many of the people had never seen a white person before. Especially a white girl with light hair and blue eyes! But it was an amazing time. My best memories are in the villages, teaching duck-duck-goose to a group of 20 loud hyper Indian kids. It was the best!
After Chirala, we travel to the north. We went to the city of Kanpur, the industrial center of all India. Kanpur was very hard for me. We left the peace and relative quiet of a village to the dirt, noise, and humanity of a city. The curious stares were replaced with either angry glares or degrading snickers. White girls were viewed as “easy,” and simply objects. But God used this to teach me who I was in a way that went deeper than it ever had before. After our first day in the city, I went back to the base, my heart shattered and angry. I crawled into my bed, and sobbed for an hour. I asked God why He brought me to such a horrible place where I was viewed as worthless when He’d spent the last months constantly telling me the opposite. And God told me the hardest thing I had heard up to that point. He said, “Sarah, you know the truth about who you are. I’ve told you over and over again. Now, you have to choose to walk in that, despite what the world is shouting at you.” So began the process of learning to live in what I believed to be true, despite everything around me. And it was not easy, but again, God was faithful all the time.
One of the projects we did that impacted me was working in a school the base had started for slum children. We had about 20 students, but there were three boys that captured my heart. Especially one. His name was Nazeer. Nazeer looked to be about 11 or 12. He was super smart and learned very quickly. And he always was smiling. One day he brought his baby brother to class and to see the way he cared and protected him was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. And everyday after class, we’d walk down the road, laughing and joking around to the door of his “home.” The door was a huge brick wall with a metal gate that offered a small distant view to what life was inside. It hid the harsh reality of Nazeer´s life. Inside, you could see the slum, houses of rags and cardboard. Trash everywhere, kids running around without clothes, much less simple thing like shoes. And everyday we had to leave him there. But he’d always turn to us with his huge smile and wave to us, before disappearing. He was so content with so little, and I realized how selfish I truly was.
And God used that boy to plant a dream and a burden in my heart that I can’t deny. On day on the way to class, I was sitting in the ricksaw and saw Nazeer by the side of the road. He was bent over, a plastic bag in his hand. He was scooping up handfuls of sand, probably to sell, I don’t know. But when he saw us, he shouted something in Hindi and gave us that huge smile that I will remember all my life. But I realized something that day. Here was a beautiful, talented boy who had no hope. He had no hope of improving his life, no hope of rising up out of his situation. He had only a small hope of finding Jesus. And I realized that God had created me for something, that He had given me so much for a reason.
So in India, I discovered my passion and my vision. I have a heart to see street children and children with seemingly hopeless circumstances saved, so they can in turn go to their nations and save their nations. As a foreigner, I won’t be able to transform India, but if you can save it’s children, they’re the ones who will be able to transform India. And that’s what I want to do with my life. Because it’s what God did for me, and how can I do anything less? .
At this point, I will be here til next September, working with the YWAM base down here. I will be getting involved with a ministry in the base that works with street children, giving them clothes and food. I am also going to work in the Children’s home that is run by the base. I will probably be living in the home, not the actual base. God has told me that this next phase of 6 months is to prepare myself and gain more experience so I can learn what things I need to fulfil my dream, such as college or further studies. It will also be a chance to let God continue to work on my heart and taking that little girl and changing her into a “grown-up.” One thing you can pray about is supporting me, in prayer and financially. I can’t do this on my own, and up to this point God has blessed me and I know He will continue to bless me with your love and support. If you do feel led to give financially to me, send all gifts to Fred Stevens, 4823 66th Avenue West, University Place, WA, 98467. If you feel led to give on a monthly basis, just attach a note saying your name and the amount. If you want to receive e-mail updates, send me an email, and I will keep you posted!
So that is what I am doing now. In many ways, that’s why God took me to India- to grow up. There are so many more things I can talk about and so many more things that impacted me, but I don’t think everyone wants to read a book at this moment. All I can say to sum up the past 5 months is that God truly is faithful and never gets tired of proving it to us; even we close our eyes to it all. He will always be there telling us how much He loves us, even when we fight and run away. Not matter how far we run, we will always end up running back into His arms. And that’s where we find out who we really are in light of who He is.
I love you all, and pray God will wrap His arms all around you and I know He will never let you go!
Sincerely,
Sarah
sarahstevensdts@hotmail.com
It has been a long time since I have talked to a lot of you. God has been working so much in my life in the past 6 months, it is crazy! So I will give you all a brief summary of the past and bring you up to date with the future plans…
So it was a very early cloudy September morning that I stepped onto that plane that took me down to Argentina and brought me to where I am now. Little did I realize all that God had in mind for me and everything He wanted to do in my heart. I started my DTS, and began a process of deep change and transformation. My DTS consisted of 48 students of 16 different nations, ranging from ages 17-45. Over those three months of lecture phase, God stretched me and brought a lot of revelation in my heart about who I was and who He created me to be. He taught me a lot about learning to depend on Him for all my needs, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. But it was a hard process of learning to open my heart, the part that was deep down, full of hurts and emotions long buried, that had been so closed and hard for so long, and to let Him come in softly and clean out all the pain. God had to do a lot of breaking and for the first part- it was a fight. Picture a stubborn little girl stomping to bed because she knows she has too, but she’s determined to make sure you know she’s not happy about it. That was me. But the crazy amazing thing was that God looked down on me, with all my tantrums and complaining, and just said “Silly girl, I love you anyway. No matter how much you fight me.” And He never stopped, and He won’t ever stop, which is the amazing part.
In about November, we began to pray about where to go for outreach. And for me, I thought, without a doubt, that I would be off to Africa, to minister to orphans and the tribes you see in National Geographic. But God had different plans. I remember sitting upstairs, and saying, “God, take all of me and put me where you want me.” And that’s what He did. I began to see pictures of India, to think about India, to dream about INDIA! India, India, INDIA! I just couldn’t shake it off. And so I told my discipler that I thought God was telling me India, and kept praying. Sure enough, when they announced the teams, I was going to India. The one place I never thought I’d go. Lesson: Never say “never,” because God has a great sense of humor.
So on New Year’s Eve, I set off to India, with a team of 11 people from the US, England, Mexico, Bolivia, and Argentina- we were the craziest mix ever! We arrived in India and began our outreach. We arrived in Bombay and the next day travelled to the OTHER side of the nation, a little village called Chirala. In total, in the two months we were in India we went to 4 different locations and traveled a total of 6 days! We literally saw every part of India, including the Ganges River and the Taj Mahal!
Our first two weeks in Chirala were amazing. For me, this was the most impacting part of the outreach. Our home was a palm leaf hut, on mats on the floor. We worked with a very small church, and were able to minister openly in a few villages. We also had contact with an orphanage. The kids there became very close to me, and I will never forget them. This was where God began to speak to me about the dreams in my heart that He had created in me. He also continued to break me and expose my heart, as I was confronted with a completely different culture. Everywhere we went we were met with stares because many of the people had never seen a white person before. Especially a white girl with light hair and blue eyes! But it was an amazing time. My best memories are in the villages, teaching duck-duck-goose to a group of 20 loud hyper Indian kids. It was the best!
After Chirala, we travel to the north. We went to the city of Kanpur, the industrial center of all India. Kanpur was very hard for me. We left the peace and relative quiet of a village to the dirt, noise, and humanity of a city. The curious stares were replaced with either angry glares or degrading snickers. White girls were viewed as “easy,” and simply objects. But God used this to teach me who I was in a way that went deeper than it ever had before. After our first day in the city, I went back to the base, my heart shattered and angry. I crawled into my bed, and sobbed for an hour. I asked God why He brought me to such a horrible place where I was viewed as worthless when He’d spent the last months constantly telling me the opposite. And God told me the hardest thing I had heard up to that point. He said, “Sarah, you know the truth about who you are. I’ve told you over and over again. Now, you have to choose to walk in that, despite what the world is shouting at you.” So began the process of learning to live in what I believed to be true, despite everything around me. And it was not easy, but again, God was faithful all the time.
One of the projects we did that impacted me was working in a school the base had started for slum children. We had about 20 students, but there were three boys that captured my heart. Especially one. His name was Nazeer. Nazeer looked to be about 11 or 12. He was super smart and learned very quickly. And he always was smiling. One day he brought his baby brother to class and to see the way he cared and protected him was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. And everyday after class, we’d walk down the road, laughing and joking around to the door of his “home.” The door was a huge brick wall with a metal gate that offered a small distant view to what life was inside. It hid the harsh reality of Nazeer´s life. Inside, you could see the slum, houses of rags and cardboard. Trash everywhere, kids running around without clothes, much less simple thing like shoes. And everyday we had to leave him there. But he’d always turn to us with his huge smile and wave to us, before disappearing. He was so content with so little, and I realized how selfish I truly was.
And God used that boy to plant a dream and a burden in my heart that I can’t deny. On day on the way to class, I was sitting in the ricksaw and saw Nazeer by the side of the road. He was bent over, a plastic bag in his hand. He was scooping up handfuls of sand, probably to sell, I don’t know. But when he saw us, he shouted something in Hindi and gave us that huge smile that I will remember all my life. But I realized something that day. Here was a beautiful, talented boy who had no hope. He had no hope of improving his life, no hope of rising up out of his situation. He had only a small hope of finding Jesus. And I realized that God had created me for something, that He had given me so much for a reason.
So in India, I discovered my passion and my vision. I have a heart to see street children and children with seemingly hopeless circumstances saved, so they can in turn go to their nations and save their nations. As a foreigner, I won’t be able to transform India, but if you can save it’s children, they’re the ones who will be able to transform India. And that’s what I want to do with my life. Because it’s what God did for me, and how can I do anything less? .
At this point, I will be here til next September, working with the YWAM base down here. I will be getting involved with a ministry in the base that works with street children, giving them clothes and food. I am also going to work in the Children’s home that is run by the base. I will probably be living in the home, not the actual base. God has told me that this next phase of 6 months is to prepare myself and gain more experience so I can learn what things I need to fulfil my dream, such as college or further studies. It will also be a chance to let God continue to work on my heart and taking that little girl and changing her into a “grown-up.” One thing you can pray about is supporting me, in prayer and financially. I can’t do this on my own, and up to this point God has blessed me and I know He will continue to bless me with your love and support. If you do feel led to give financially to me, send all gifts to Fred Stevens, 4823 66th Avenue West, University Place, WA, 98467. If you feel led to give on a monthly basis, just attach a note saying your name and the amount. If you want to receive e-mail updates, send me an email, and I will keep you posted!
So that is what I am doing now. In many ways, that’s why God took me to India- to grow up. There are so many more things I can talk about and so many more things that impacted me, but I don’t think everyone wants to read a book at this moment. All I can say to sum up the past 5 months is that God truly is faithful and never gets tired of proving it to us; even we close our eyes to it all. He will always be there telling us how much He loves us, even when we fight and run away. Not matter how far we run, we will always end up running back into His arms. And that’s where we find out who we really are in light of who He is.
I love you all, and pray God will wrap His arms all around you and I know He will never let you go!
Sincerely,
Sarah
sarahstevensdts@hotmail.com