TiffanyandCrossFire

Pics of West Africa

2009-09-28T12:50:00.002-04:00

End of Team

2009-08-10T09:24:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone,

This past Saturday marked the official ending of my year on team. However, I have decided to work one last week at camp. I have mixed feelings about team being over. Realistically, my life on team was basically over after we finished debriefing with our team in May because at camp, we we don't function as a a team; instead we are part of a larger team with the staff here at camp.

It was nice to see all of the other teams at homecoming. Homecoming was a nice ending to team. All nine of the Youth Encounter teams had a concert and sharing time. It was a fun day! I will really miss other teamers.

I think it will take a lifetime for me to fully reflect on my year on team. I am continually learning more about how God used me during the year.

Peace,

Tiffany

More from Camp

2009-07-16T10:27:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone,

I am sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. I have been kept pretty busy with camp. The week of June 21st, I went to Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp for a week on servant staff there. It was a fun week. I cleaned, lifeguarded, lead games, sold candy, and helped serve food. It was a big change for me to be working with 280 kids! It was crazy! I enjoyed the week, but I did miss Ox Lake and the quietness of it. I also missed the small community feel that happens with fewer campers. I really enjoyed the worships at Wapo. They have a light worship as well as a drama worship. They also have many fun activities including a comedy night, really fun games, and a beach party.

The week of June 28th, I returned back Ox Lake for a week of campers. I shared a cabin with Emily, another counselor here. We had seven girls. Most of the campers that week were refugees from Sudan (or there parents were). It was cool to see people of different races coming together by the end of the week. I had a camper that challenged me quite a bit because she really enjoyed complaining. In spite of her constant complaining, I think that she had a pretty good week. It was cool to see how the other girls encouraged her to try new things.

Last week, I had seven campers in my own cabin. Five of them were Ethiopian kids or had Ethiopian parents. Again it was awesome to see a cabin of mixed races come together. They were really close by the end of the week!

This week, I have been the counselor for horse camp. I have ten girls by myself. It has been quite a challenge. The girls are really talkative and often don't listen. They spend a good chunk of the week learning about horses and working with them. We have to get up early so they can saddle the horses before the other groups come to ride. The girls have been awesome during Bible study. They ask really good questions and I can see how they are growing in their faith.

Peace,

Tiffany

First Week of Campers

2009-06-20T20:16:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Two weeks ago, we did not have campers at Ox Lake international villages. We finished some planning and did some work projects. We also hosted the Seeds counselors, who are high schoolers that counsel little kids who come just for the weekends. We fed them and did some worships with them. We also did some stuff with Journey. Journey of the Cross is a high adventure program where the campers go rock climbing, horseback-riding, canoeing, and biking. They also do high ropes.

Last week, we had fourteen campers at our site. I was on servant staff with Adrienne and the program staff. We helped prepare meals and took care of a lot of little things that need to get done during the week. It was kind of a rough week for me, but the campers were great! I really enjoyed our camper that was autistic. He was very smart. Some of the kids were really nice to him, which was really encouraging to see. I got the chance to lifeguard several times. I had fun with the rest of the servant staff while we were busy cooking meals.

This week I will be at Wapo because there are only four campers at Ox.

Peace,

Tiffany

Busy, but Relaxed--a Lesson in Flexibility

2009-05-27T22:16:00.008-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Our time at Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp has been good. We have been training for camp. Feel free to visit http://www.campwapo.net/ to find out about the camps. We have been busy, but also it has been relaxed. Our schedule includes getting up early, cleaning at Ox Lake, learning games, planning Bible studies, worship, and whatever else our boss decides we need to do for the day. It is really fun because we actually don't know what we will be doing when we wake up every morning--it reminds me of Africa! I am already excited about the lax sense of time at Ox. We know what we need to get done and when it has to be done; we just do it in our own time. I have grown to love flexibility! I learned to be flexible in Africa. Often times in Africa, our schedule would change on a moment's notice. We also did a considerable amount of waiting in Africa. Before going to Africa, I probably would have been annoyed at the lax schedule of life at camp, but now I really enjoy it--however, occasionally, I find myself getting impatient (a curse of Western society).

What does life not by the clock mean? Well, it means taking time to be with the people around you without constantly wondering how much time you have spent together. It is a new sense of awareness. Often at camp, we find ourselves waiting for our Program Director, Dave Peet, to tell us what to do. While waiting, we enjoy spending time with each other. Sometimes we go canoeing or paddleboating, sometimes we just talk, other times we go on a walk.

If you haven't recently, spend a day without going by the clock. Just get done what you need to sometime during the day. Take time to just be.

Peace,

Tiffany

Just Waiting

2009-05-23T17:46:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Now, we are just at a waiting time. Last week, we weren't too busy. We were at Luther Dell with all of the teams. It was really nice to see all of the teams and their programs, but we weren't doing much there. We had a week of debriefing/camp preparation. As a team, we talked about our year and shared some stories. We created some closure since we won't function as much as a team at camp. It was a pretty boring week for us, but also very tiring because we had very long days. I enjoyed hearing stories from the other international teams.

It will be very different to be at camp. The six of us will be counselors with five others. It is a tough transition to be going from constantly traveling to living in one place, from being with your teammates all of the time to only sometimes, and from staying with host homes to having a cabin full of kids to look after. In addition to that we are still suffering from some jet lag and culture shock. I am sure we will make the adjustments we need to--with time.

So now, we are waiting. Waiting for camp to start. Waiting to see how life on team will be different at camp. Waiting to have time to really process how we have changed after being overseas. Waiting to figure out what we will do after team. Waiting.

Friday, we left Luther Dell and the electric teams for Wapogasset Bible Camp, where we will be until Tuesday. The electric teams have a week off before Vacation Bible School starts, which we are kind of annoyed with because we don't get this week off--but oh well! We will be doing some training at Wapo, then we will go to Ox Lake. Wapo is like a resort. Because of that, it doesn't really feel like camp to me. It is really nice! The Ox Lake staff call it Hotel Wapo. I have really enjoyed my time at Wapo. Friday night and Saturday, we didn't have to do anything. I enjoyed my time off by going paddle boating and canoeing. Unlike Wapo, Ox Lake is a rustic camp without running water and electricity. I am nervous and excited about this. We have two weeks of training for camp.

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you all have a wonderful summer! I will probably post occasionally from camp.

Peace,

Tiffany

Back in the States

2009-05-18T10:15:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Cross Fire is back in the United States! On Monday, us four girls were reunited with Prosper and Luke. They picked us up at the airport, where we traveled to the Wright's house, the host home that we stayed at before going to Africa. They are great! We are all staying with them. During the week, we met with the office staff, had some rehearsal, recorded our cross-cultural songs for the other teams, and share stories with the other international teams. It was so nice to see the office staff and the other teams! We met with our staff person, Liz Lord, to do some debriefing about our overseas tour. For the most part, we are still processing our thoughts and feelings about our experiences overseas.

Wednesday night, we went to the Alliance Church of the Valley to meet with the junior high youth. We played some games with them. Then had a half hour to share about our time in Africa. It was a really fun time! Sonja stayed back because she was still sick. We told the kids about how interactive the worship is in Africa. We were thrilled to get them jumping up and down!

Friday night, we went Captive Free Central Plains concert (another Youth Encounter team). Sunday night, their team came to stay at the Wright's house too! Sunday, we got to ride on a four-wheeler and moped. It was so much fun! We grilled and enjoyed some root beer floats with Central Plains. We had a bonfire and made some s'mores. It was a nice night and the sky was full of beautiful stars.

Today, Monday, all of the Youth Encounter teams are headed to Luther Dell. The electric teams will have Vacation Bible School training, while the two acoustic teams (us and New Dawn to Asia) will be getting ready for camp. I am excited to spend some time at Luther Dell. All of the teams will do their program for the other teams. Friday, we will go to Ox Lake/Wapo Bible Camps for two weeks of training for summer camp. Cross Fire will be working at Ox Lake International Villages for the summer. There is no running water or electricity at camp. We will pump our own water. There are horses, canoes, tubing down the Apple River, and a ropes course. We will be working with 4th through 9th graders.

Peace,

Tiffany

Culture Shock & Denmark

2009-05-10T21:26:00.008-04:00

Hello Everyone,

We left Prosper behind and flew away from Africa. Prosper left two days later for the States. The four girls had a surprise on our flight to Zurich. The flight attendant bumped us up to business class. We enjoyed the luxury of more leg room and more food options. It was nice, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have because I was sad and angry that we had to leave Prosper behind and my stomach wasn't feeling that great. I had trouble sleeping on the flight and I was very uncomfortable. We had a short layover in Zurich, then we flew to Frankfurt.

The four of us girls had a long layover in Frankfurt, while Luke flew to the States for the week off. We had to recheck our luggage for our flight to Billund, Denmark because that ticket was on a separate itinerary. We spent a few hours in the airport walking around. It was frustrating for me how many stores there were and how everyone wanted to shop. I expected this to happen. I have never really been a fan of shopping, but going to a place where materialism really exists has definitely extended my dislike for shopping. I enjoyed going to the bookstores, while others spent time at The Body Shop and Starbucks. I thought a lot that day about shopping. I realized that spending more of my money doesn't help people who have little. However, spending it proves that I agree with the systems that are behind making the products. Obviously, I will always need to buy something. I was annoyed at how expensive everything is in Europe. Compared to Europe and the States, things in Africa were really cheap.

The Cross Fire girls all flew to Denmark and Luke went home to Ohio. The girls went to stay with Sonja's family on the West Coast of Jutland, six kilometers from the North Sea. Our stay in Denmark was wonderful. We spent a lot of time with Sonja's family. Denmark is beautiful and green. There are many gorgeous flowers. They have a lot of wind power, so we frequently saw windmills. We went on a tractor ride! We went to the harbor.We took a trip to the beach to see the wild North Sea. We enjoyed tons of delicious food! Sonja's mom is amazing! Danish people eat 5 or 6 times a day. Most of the meals are bread and various toppings for it. Most of the break, we rested, which was great--and needed!

Monday, we fly back to the States! I have mixed feelings about this, but I am anxious to see the other teams.

Peace,

Tiffany

Last Few Days in Cameroon

2009-05-07T09:10:00.006-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Friday, May 1, wow it's May already? We didn't leave until 10 in the morning. We went to Pastor Adolf's house for brunch. Around 11, we took two taxis to a place where we got on a bus to Edéa. The area is known for aluminium processing. From Douala, it took us about one hour to get to Edéa. When we got there, we walked for 40 minutes until we got to the church. It was a very humid day! We were all dripping sweat. It was disgusting, but we kept our bandannas at hand. I think it was our sweatiest day yet, even though it was no where near the hottest day. It was only in the 80s. We ate lunch at a house near the church. It was a good meal of rice, spaghetti, couscous made of manioc, and a delicious sauce. Around 3, we went back to the church where we did almost all of our songs for the 40 people gathered there. Pastor Adolf kept asking us to do do more songs. He also led confession, absolution, and Communion. The liturgy was the same even though it was in French; I followed along pretty well--and even picked up on some of the French. After the program/service, we stayed and talked with the people from the congregation for awhile. Then we took motos to the bus station and then went back to Douala. Because of traffic, it took us an extra hour to get back to Douala.

Saturday, Sonja decided not to go with us because she wasn't feeling well. We all agreed that was a good decision. Without Sonja with us, I was the treasurer for the day. It really helped me appreciate what Sonja does for us. I was constantly paying for transportation things and I kept record everything. When the day started, I had no idea how much money I would be spending; I was quite disappointed by the end of the day. We all took a taxi to Limbé. Limbé used to be called Victoria, after Queen Victoria of England. The city is known for it's oil and fishing industries. We went to a house where there is a church inside. We hung out there for awhile and watched National Geographic in English. Then, the people there took us to a zoo! We saw gorillas, monkeys, baboons, mackerels, crocodiles, a tortoise, snakes, and deer. Most were endangered and were being protected from hunters. The fences between us and the animals was very thin, but they were electric. The area was very green and beautiful!! The flowers were gorgeous! Next, we drove to the beach. Limbé is a port city. In the past, it was a place where they traded slaves with the Portuguese. From the beach, we could see Mount Cameroon, which is 13,255 feet (4,040 meters) high; it is a volcano. It was awesome how it was blending in with the clouds. I was very happy to have this opportunity to see it because I had been hoping to, but didn't think it would happen. It was a nice surprise! After going to the beach, we went back to the church house. We ate an amazing meal there and then did four songs for the people gathered there. Luke and Adrienne talked for awhile. Then, Pastor Adolf began a worship service. It was a long service of songs from the choir, liturgy, Scripture, and Communion. We did a few more songs and headed back to Douala around 5.

At 6, we got stop at a checkpoint. Scattered throughout Cameroon there are numerous checkpoints where police officers check for identification. Mostly, they are worried about foreigners. We handed over our passports and didn't get them back for an hour and a half. The police in Cameroon are extremely corrupt. They pocket the money that they can get out of people on the roads. The have sticks with nails on them to pop people's tires if needed. Because we knew that within four hours we would be illegal, we were anticipating that we might have difficulties. Also, Lindsay accidentally left her passport at the procure--but that ended up not being a problem. Mostly, they just wanted our money. Legally speaking, we could have been arrested. However, instead, we gave them money. Pastor Adolf, Prosper, and Luke argued with them for an hour and a half. They didn't like that Pastor Adolf and Prosper were helping us because they didn't have any problems. They helped lower the price for us. They admitted that we didn't have the large amount of money that they wanted. Eventually, a total of about $200 was given to them. We left and drove back to Douala. Paul had gone back to the procure to get Lindsay's passport, which we didn't end up needing, but we paid for his transportation anyways. The driver asked us to give him $4 so that we could go through the next checkpoint without stopping; we did! We arrived safely back in Douala with hardly any money. It was a very rough day for all of us. I was having an especially hard time because I was the treasurer for the day and we had withdrawn money shortly before we had gotten stopped. If we hadn't withdrawn money, I think we might have come back out without our possessions (guitar, camera, watches, etc.) or we could have gone to prison. While we were waiting for things to be settled, we saw the police handcuff someone. There was a ton of yelling and the police were very intimidating. We were all very relieved to get out of their safely. We finally got back to the procure around 9. We explained everything to Sonja, ate dinner, and then went to bed. Because of this happening, we felt very ready to leave Cameroon--especially the corruptness of the country. In the midst of that struggle, we were very thankful that we had Pastor Adolf, Paul, Prosper, and our driver to help us. We needed them there. We reassured them that we did not think badly of Cameroonians, only the corrupt systems. Hopefully, the corrupt systems are not what will remain in our minds about Cameroon.

Sunday, we ate breakfast at Pastor Adolf's house, then walked to the church. We sang two songs with the kids there. Then, we sat through a four hour church service! Wow! That was long for us Westerners, especially since we were anxious for our flight in the evening. We sang a few songs for the service. Their numerous choirs also sang. I love the choirs at that church; they are beautiful and they got a new drum set to accompany them. It was a normal Lutheran liturgical service in French. There was a long time of announcements, two Baptisms, a Confirmation, and Communion. There were probably around 350 people there. After the service, the six of split up and went to six different host homes for lunch. I really enjoyed my time with my hosts. My host mom had been an English teacher. We watched CNN for awhile and she caught me up on the news that I had missed (since we rarely watched the news in Africa!). We ate a really delicious meal of gumbo with antelope, coucous made of corn, bananas, carrots, papiya, bread, and a Coke. I loved antelope! It was my first time trying it and it was very tender and tasted kind of like deer. My host mom was laughing at her daughters because they were eating coucous with silverware and I was eating it with my hands. She was ashamed to see that they weren't eating it with their hands, as most people in Africa do. Having been in Africa for several monthes, I knew that I should eat coucous with my hands. My host mom wanted to take a picture of us eating to show her mother in the village how unAfrican her granddaughters are. The girls joked and said that they were from South Dakota. The family also got some of the Disney Channel shows; I laughed really hard when I heard them singing a Hannah Montana song. It was fun to answer their questions about the US. They gave me a traditional African outfit.

Around 4, we went back to Pastor Adolf's house, where we met as a team, took some pictures, and then left for the airport. We check-in quickly with Paul's help. A member of the congregation, Joel, helped us get through the passport stop without any problems. We stopped for awhile to buy some last minute souvenirs from Africa. Then, we went through security and waited at the gate for a few hours. We watched an amazing sunset. We ate our last meal in Africa. About two hours before boarding began, they ordered us all out of the inclosed room where the gate was so that they could see our passports and look through our carry-ons. Sonja had gone for a walk, so I sat outside waiting for her since I had her bag. Luke, Lindsay, and Adrienne went through without any problem. Then, it was Prosper's turn. Sonja came back and joined me at the end of the line. We realized that Prosper was arguing with the people from Swiss Air and was having trouble. We learned that Swiss Air would not let him fly to two countries in Europe before going to the United States. Supposably, Cameroonians can only fly to one country in Europe before going to the United States--or they are breaking the law. So, they guided him away, back to the entrance of the airport; without any goodbyes from the team. Prosper asked me to wait for him to come back--and he really thought he would be coming back. Sonja went through security and I sat and waited. Through the glass room, I let the team know what had happened. When it got closer to boarding time, Luke came out and talked to the people from Swiss Air. He showed them Prosper's itenerary, but that didn't help. Luke told me to go to the gate, so I did. Luke went to Prosper to see if the information he had would be of any use. However, it didn't help. Prosper stayed behind and had to buy another ticket to the United States--one that only stopped in Europe once. It was very hard for us to leave without a teammate. We boarded the plane and finally left around 11.

Sadly, we were mostly glad to go. But, there is already so much that I miss about Cameroon.

Peace,

Tiffany

Back in Douala--Eventually

2009-05-06T09:53:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Before we left Cameroon the first time, we had gone to the U.S. Embassy to ask them if we needed a visa when we came back in to the country for four days at the end of our overseas tour, and they said no. However, when we arrived at the airport in Douala on Wednesday night, they would not let us in the country without a visa. They looked at our passports and told us our visas were expired, which we had just told them. They said we would be illegal if we went into the country without a visa. We were happy to see Paul, our amazing helper, coming to greet us. He instantly realized that we were having issues. Paul is the person who does everything for us when are in Douala; he arranges taxis for us and negotiates prices for us. He has been a great help! He argued with the airport people for awhile, then they took us to a separate room, which was right by the jail. We were all very annoyed and nervous. Thankfully, Luke, our team leader, dealt with the conflict pretty well. Luke and Paul talked to the airport people for a long time. They showed them our itinerary and plans for leaving the country in four days. Ironically, there was a sign on the guy's office that said "transit visas are free," but we quickly learned that transit visa are what you get if you stay in the airport. Luke called Heather (our YE boss) and told her what was up. Later, he called Pastor Adolf, who soon came to help us out. Luke also called Prosper, who was still in Yaounde. We were happy to hear that Prosper successfully got his visa to the States. Pastor Adolf spent a lot of time figuring out how much we would have to pay for visas. Us four girls sang "Lean On Me" until we got yelled at. We prayed together. Surprisingly, we were all pretty calm, just anxious to eat and go to bed. Eventually, it was settled that we would pay 105,000 CFA, which is $210. That was quite a lot for us to pay considering it was an unexpected expense. We felt that we were being taken advantage of, but didn't know for sure. After three and a half hours in the airport, we finally got to leave--with our passports that had been stamped with a three day visa. However, there is a slight problem with that--we were in the country for four days. At the airport, they could only give us a visa for three days; therefore, our last day in Cameroon, the five of us were their illegally. A member of the congregation named Joel was also at the airport and Pastor Adolf said that he worked at the airport and would make sure we got of the country without any problems. We were all extremely happy to get out of the airport. Thank God everything end up fine!! We stayed at the Catholic procure again.

When we arrived in Douala, it was about 77 degrees, which was way cooler than we were used to. However, during our three and a half hours in the airport it had warmed up to 88. We were happy to crawl into our comfortable beds at the Catholic procure. There is air conditioning there, which we normally only experience in banks. We all slept extremely well that night because we were so exhausted from our long day. We slept into 9 or 10.

Thursday, we all enjoyed a much needed day off. Thankfully, Prosper had told Pastor Adolf that we would be tired when we arrived, so he had arranged for us to have a day off. We went over to Pastor Adolf's house for lunch. We enjoyed watching some news in English, that was the first we had heard about the swine flu. Pastor Adolf's wife cooked us an amazing meal of fish, fried plantains, a delicious vegetable sauce, and mangoes. We figured out our schedule for the next few days and the went back to the procure. We were all impatiently waiting for Prosper to come because he said he would come between noon and three, but he didn't get there until 7. We had already went out to eat by then. We decided to spoil ourselves and have a treat your team meal. I enjoyed a cheeseburger, french fries, cold D'jino (a delicious pop), and ice cream! We got to sit in the V.I.P. room. When we got back to the procure, Prosper was there waiting for us. We sat and talked to him for several hours. We were all laughing so hard as we shared stories of our past ten days. It was a fun time!

Peace,

Tiffany

Ouagadougou and A Long Bus Ride to Cotonou

2009-05-06T08:54:00.005-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Saturday, April 25, we got to the capital of Burkina Faso around 1:00. The capital city is Ouagadougou-- pronounced Waga-doo-goo. We got to the bus stations then paid for two taxis to go out to a village where Pastor Rufus thought we were staying. However, instead of staying there, we just met some people from the congregation and then paid for two taxis to go back to Ouaga, where we ended up staying. I was especially tired because of my sickness and the travelling. Lindsay and I stayed with Victorine and Bridget. I rested until dinner and then spent part of the evening getting to know our hosts.

Sunday, we went back to the church in the village we had gone to on Saturday. The village is called Tingandogo. We did five songs for the worship service. Pastor Rufus talked a little to the congregation about our ministry. There were about 30 people there. Sonja went with Victorine back to Ouaga to buy bus tickets for our long trip to Cotonou, Benin. While they were gone, the rest of us played with the kids in the church. Mostly, we played five rocks, which is a game like jacks. It was a fun time. Sonja and Victorine had left on a moto, but they came back in a large van/bus thing. Apparently, Victorine had arranged for that to be our transportation for the day. However, because Victorine had been speaking a tribal language, Sonja had no idea about the negotiated price. Pastor Rufus had told us he wanted to do a program in another village. We said that would be fine. However, the driver wanted 40,000 CFA, about $80, for it. We said we would be unable to go. After a lot of arguing, we got the price down to 20,000 CFA. Then, we agreed and went to the village after eating lunch; most of the congregation piled into the bus with us. We didn't go to the part of the village where Pastor Rufus wanted us to go; instead, the driver dropped us off where he wanted. We said goodbye to Pastor Rufus, who went back to Fada. We did an hour long program, which is how long the driver said he would stop for. The pastor from the congregation in Tinandogo handed out The Small Catechism in French. Everyone was grabbing it and very excited to get a copy; hopefully, they are that excited after they read it. When we were ready to go, the driver had picked up a few women, then drove off without a few of the women in the congregation because he said they weren't paying customers. Eventually, someone convinced the driver to stop and the women from the congregation got on the bus, while the other women got kicked off and left. We were all very annoyed and confused.

From that village, we drove back to Ouaga. Victorine gathered about 20 people together and asked if we would sing for them, so we did. We sang for about 45 minutes and then they asked us some questions. Some of the questions were very difficult to answer. They asked, "what is your church doing to help orphans in Africa," "will you come back to Africa," and "what will you tell people about Burkina Faso, and how will that help us." Some of the questions were very pressing and unexpected. I appreciated their bluntness, but it was often hard to hear. It was obvious to us that they were in need, but we had little to offer them but our care and presence. Unlike the other countries we've been to in Africa; in Burkina Faso, many people don't mind asking for your money our possessions. In other countries, it was usually Muslims or only after they saw a certain possession that we owned. It is hard to be asked for money or possession when we cling to them so much. It is hard to explain that we are struggling as well; we don't have much money because of all of the economic problems in States and most of the world, but we still have way more than them. They assume that because we are white, we have money; however, the fact that we are volunteering for a year should tell them otherwise. In times like those, it was really tough to show that we cared if we didn't give them something. The next morning, Adrienne left her brother's old guitar with Victorine because one of the guys had specifically asked for instruments for their church. We closed our time with the group in prayer.

On Monday, we woke up really early in the morning because a taxi came and picked us up at 4:30a.m.!! Unfortunately, the taxi driver didn't know where the bus station was, but after calling the number on our tickets, we got there. We had heard that the bus was leaving at 5, but of course, it didn't. The driver was trying to tell us that we had to pay extra for our bags, but we didn't. The bus was small and crowded, but not as bad as it could have been. We were on the bus for 19 hours!! We did have a few stops. While on the bus, I slept, read, ate, listened to my I-pod, and talked. Lindsay took out Adrienne's braids with purple extensions and Sonja took out Lindsay's braids and extensions. They reasoned that it took almost as long to take them out as it did to put them in. Their host in Fada had put them in. We got to Cotonou around 1:00 a.m. the next day!!

Tuesday morning, we asked the bus driver to drop us off near our old apartment in Cotonou because that is where Pastor Gregoire said he would meet us. We were excited to see that there was a new ice cream shop by our old apartment, so we went in and bought some ice cream! Then, we tried to charge our phone so we could call Pastor Gregoire since he wasn't there, but we didn't have any minutes left. So, instead, we decided to walk to Pastor Gregoire's house. We knocked loud on his large metal door and gate, but no one woke up and answered the door. We stayed their for almost an hour knocking. Then, we borrowed someone's phone and tried calling Pastor Gregoire, but there was no answer because his phone turns off after 11 p.m. While we had thought Pastor Gregoire had planned on a place for us to stay, we stayed in the church instead. It is a newly constructed building with bricks and a roof, but no doors. Thankfully, we were safe and slept through the night until about 7.

Later Tuesday morning, we went to Pastor Gregoire's and picked up the things we had left with him, which was mostly drums. We carried all of our stuff--which is a lot with all our djembes-- and took it to our apartment, where Pastor Gregoire had arranged for us to stay at for one night for free. We rested there for the morning and I continued to rest while the rest of the team went into the city back to the artisans' market where we had bought our drums. I had already bought the souvenirs I wanted from Benin, and I wasn't feeling well after the long bus ride, so I stayed back. I was very glad that I did because they had a very stressful time with taxi drivers. We enjoyed a fun evening together and packed are things for our flight back to Cameroon.

Wednesday, we went to the airport early even though our flight wasn't until 5 in the afternoon. We enjoyed hanging out in the airport, but were anxious to get to Douala, Cameroon.

Peace,

Tiffany

My Sickness in Fada

2009-05-05T10:08:00.007-04:00

Hello Everyone,

The rest of my time in Fada, well in Africa, I was sick. Monday, April 20, it rained! It is only the third time we have seen rain in Africa. We rejoiced! Sonja and I went out and danced in the rain. Pastor Rufus came over to check on me since I was sick, which was nice , but frustrating because he wanted to cancel our programming because I was sick. Thankfully, Luke, our team leader, explained that if we didn't go when one of us was sick then we would hardly go at all.

Tuesday morning, the five of us (no Prosper) went to a Muslim high school to do a program. There were about 90 kids there. Most of the kids were in jeans; however, some of the girls followed the stricter Muslim practices by wearing scarves over their heads. We did an hour long program for them. They really appreciated our message of unity. Luke gave a neat message saying that he believes everyone is searching for the truth and that he believes that if people keep searching for the truth, they will find Jesus. Olivier translated what needed to be translated since Prosper wasn't there. Around 5, we went over to Pastor Rufus and walked from there to a nearby part of the city where there were about 10 people gathered. We did a program for some prostitutes. Their husbands were there too. It ended up being a group of 20. We did our whole program in English!! The people were there were from Ghana and Nigeria, so they spoke English. It was really fun to sing all of our songs in English, but it felt really weird. I actually missed singing in French. By the time we started, the sun was going down; therefore, it wasn't a very long program.

Wednesday, we met as a team to figure out what gifts to get for our host homes. We made also made some guitar string crosses for people. Late in the day, we had rehearsal for the concert. It was tough because the instruments weren't in tune with each other, but we got through it. We were tired and exhausted by the end of the day. We were surprised to learn that they needed us to go to a radio station at 7 in the morning. That was the first we had heard about that. I was happy to talk to my mom for awhile when I got back.

Thursday, they planned to pick us and go to a radio station, but they didn't have a car for us to ride in. So, they never picked Sonja and I up. They picked up the other three motos and they did the radio station alone. Then, again I wasn't feeling well. I had terrible diarrhoea; so, yet again, I didn't go. The other four went back to the village of Tanwalbougou. There wasn't any programming for them; they just went around and said goodbye to the people we met there. They also gave some money to the people that provided meals for us when we stayed out there. Sonja got some special gifts from Narcisse, her special admirer. Narcisse gave her two bracelets, a basket, and a hat for her dad. He really liked her. It gave Sonja mixed feelings. They all had a great time in Tanwalbougou, while I tried to feel better. Carine (from France) and Mark (from England) came over with Pastor Rufus to talk to me. Carine and Mark take care of SIM, so we got to know them there. Pastor Rufus asked them to come visit me so that he could understand the confusion that had happened between us because we are from very different cultures. The whole conversation was very odd, but it was nice to see Carine and Mark again.

Friday morning, I rested, then in the afternoon, we were very busy going to radio stations. We went to two radio stations and sang a few songs on the radio to advertise for our concert in the evening. We had a short break, then did one more radio station. Then, we went to the concert competition thing that was before the concert. The contestants drew a song out of a hat and had to sing that song and dance to it. It got annoying soon because there were only two songs to choose between. The dancing was funny though. It lasted for about an hour and a half. Then, us girls went off to eat, while Luke stayed and watched Israel, Pastor Rufus' son who had been left with us. We came back and set up then waited for them to tell us when our program would start. There were two people that also sang for the concert; okay, one sang, the other lip synced. We did two songs, then each of them did two songs; and this happened three times. It was almost 10 when the concert started; we were told it was at 8. We were sooo tired, but we got through it. It was a very interesting concert for us because we had two mics and our guitar was plugged in. However, nothing was balanced, so it didn't sound that great (to us at least) and we sounded way different than we are used to sounding. It was a very long night. We said goodbye to some of the people we gotten to know. We finally got back to our host homes at midnight!!

We thought that we would be meeting at 10 in the morning to go to Ouaga on Saturday, but instead, Pastor Rufus called us at 6:45 a.m. and told us to meet at the bus station at 8:00. Pastor Rufus called the girls hosts, but he never called Luke. Thankfully, Sonja went to get Luke. We all got to the bus station, earlier than needed. We were sad to leave our hosts, but also felt it was time to go because we had been in Fada for a long time. We left Fada for Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, at 9:30.

More coming soon!

Peace,

Tiffany

Back in Fada

2009-04-20T06:30:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone,

When we arrived back in Fada on Wednesday, we all went to our host homes. Luke and Pastor Rufus had a heated discussions about money and our ministry. Pastor Rufus said he would meet with us all tomorrow to share his frustrations with us. Luke called us all and told us, which made us sad and devalued our ministry. Thankfully, Pastor Elisha was there for the talk between Luke and Pastor Rufus; he was able to calm them down some--and would later be very helpful.

Thursday was our day off, but it didn't seem like it, as usual. We took a team picture to advertise for an upcoming concert we have. We discussed as a team how we would handle ourselves during the meeting with Pastor Rufus. In the evening, we were all happy to see Pastor Rufus in the happy mood that he was in. Pastor Elisha had talked to him and encouraged him to focus on the things that unite us. Pastor Rufus apologized for all of the misunderstandings that had happened between him and the team. He said that the Devil had caused a lot of separation between us, but that God was strunger than that. He asked for our forgiveness. It was a really easy going meeting, thanks to Pastor Elisha explaining what our ministry is about. Side note, Pastor Elisha is applying to be on a Youth Encounter team!!

Friday morning, I woke up feeling very sick. I had an upset stomach and diarrhoea. Since Friday, I have been sick. My body doesn't want me to eat anything!! Friday, my skin was really hot. Also, part of the day, there wasn't electricity, so I had to suffer without fans (there's no air conditioning here in homes). The high temp is usually around 110, but it cools down to 95 at night. I think my sickness started because of stress. We all got ourselves really worked up about what Pastor Rufus said--thankfully, we didn't have to hear it from him at the meeting. I think my body has been unable heal because of the heat. I have no energy the sun is extremely draining and my body just won't let me eat. Hopefully soon I will discover something that my body actually wants me to eat. From Friday to Sunday, I rested at my host home. The rest of the team practiced with another group for an upcoming concert and went to a church service. Otherwise, I haven't missed a whole lot. Luke and Sonja have all been sick with similar stuff, but it isn't lasting as long. Please pray for my health and for the health of the Cross Fire team!!

When I have been able to eat food, it has been very good! I really like Burkina Faso food! We have had rice, toe (pounded corn or yams), boiled potatoes, boiled yams, french fries, chicken, millet, beans, gumbo, wild cat (we found out afterwards), fish, rice porridge, bread, tea, and hot chocolate. Our hosts and people in the village have fed us amazing meals.

Prosper left us on Sunday. He had to go to Cameroon a week early so that he can get his visa to the States renewed. We already miss him, and especially miss his translating. Please pray that his visa stuff works out.

As far as our upcoming schedule, Monday, we will go to a hospital. Tuesday, we will go to a Muslim Junior High and we will visit a group of prostitutes. Thursday, we will go back to the village of Tanwalbougou to do a workshop with women and children there. Friday, we will have a concert with several other groups, and kids will compete to see who can sound most like the bands-- we are all very excited about this! Saturday, we leave for Ouaga. Monday, we will take the long bus ride to Cotonou. On Wednesday, we will fly to Douala, Cameroon, where we will be for several days before our week long break.

Peace,

Tiffany

Life in Tanwalbougou

2009-04-20T05:36:00.010-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Easter Sunday, we left eraly to go to Tanwlabougou, a village where we stayed until Wednesday. This time, we got to ride inf a more comfortable truck. We got to the village at 8:30. We shoke many peoples' hands. Pastor Rufus gaves a speech that was really disheartening to us. He was disappointed that we arrived to the village tired--which is because he has kept us quite busy. The liturgy for the Easter service was all in Gourmachen, which I have learned a few words in!! It is very fun in the villages where many of the people do not speak French. We sang somes joyful songs with alleluias for them and they sang and danced for us as well. There are three main guys that helped us out in the village (besides Pastor Rufus)--Olivier, Muyumba, and Narcisse. Olivier gave a sermon in Gourmachen, which was translated into French, and then into English by Prosper. Pastor Elisha, from Ghana, gave a brief message in English. The serivce was two hours long. It felt very different from Easter at home, but it was good. There were about 100 people at the church. I really missed being with my family, but I really enjoyed the sense of community in the village.

Village life is very relaxed. The afternoon of Easter, we rested and played card games with the many kids that were there. I mostly rested because I had a really runny nose because of the dust at the school with 1000 kids. In the villlage, we stayed at the pastor's house, which is surrounded by a cement like wall that is three feet wall. There was a long drop toilet, no running water, and no electricity. We slept outside bcause there was no air movement under the straw/grass shelter. Easter was a very hot day and we were all very sweaty. Around sunset, we went to a family who had just been baptiwed into the Catolic church. We rejoiced with them and encouraged them with a song. An old man there wanted to take Luke's watch and then wanted Sonja to stay and be his wife. Adrienne lied and said she was engaged to a Canadian! Us girls are frequently asked why we are not married and we are often told we should remain in the country so we can marry someone here. Most often, this happens to Sonja, we assume this is because she has blonde hair. When we got back to the house, the sky looked really cool. There was sky looked relly cool. There was heat lightening--lightening without thunder, rain, or storm clouds. On the horiwon, there was heat lightening, but stright up the sky was covered with stars; it was beautiful. The thirty or so kids that were alway around had started playing durms and dancing. Luke joined them in drumming. Prosper and I followed along in ther traditional African dancing. Luke joined them in drumming. Prosper and I followed along in their traditional African dancing, which was really fun, even though dancing isn't really my thing. The kids were really happy to see me, a white girl, join in with their traditional dancing. I even got several kids to join in. The kids smiled so brightly at me. Every morning and evening in the village, there was a devo. I really like that because it helped everyone maintain their focus on God and their community of faith. We all enjoyed sleeping outsdie under the stars; okay, except for the part when the rooster woke us up at 3 a.m. We got up at 5 or 5:30, with the sun, every day in the village; which normally I would complain about for hours, but I didn't, even though I was often tired. However, it helped that we often went to bed between 9 and 10 because we just had lanterns and flashlights for light. Life without electriticity can be amazing! You should try it sometime! No, really you should, where it is camping or whatever.

Monday morning, we were supposed to go to anothjer village, bu that didn't end up happening. We did team stuff. Around 11, a group of women came to greet us; We sang a song for them and they sang and they sang and danced for us. After lunch, we packed our instruments into two donkey carts. Prosper, Lindsay, and I rode in one donkey cart; Luke took a nap in the other one. Sonja and Adrienne walked. It took us about and hour and 45 minutes by donkey cart to travel the 6km (close to 4 miles). Thankfully, we had a nice cloudy, cool (under 95) day. Donkey cart is a common way of transportation, especially in the villages. It is simply a donkey pulling a large wheel-barrow like cart. When we go to the village of Kpencangou, we greeted the kin, who was the head of several of the surrounding villages. We did and hour long program for about 300 people. One of the ladies there id a really funny dance that looked like a chicken pecking. I amazed myself at my ability to mke kids with scowls on their faces smile at me simply because I had smiled at them. I enjoyed a relwxing ride back on the donkey cart and I walke for part of it. The other girls went to be early. Prosper, Luke, and I taught people some of our songs. It was really fun. The night felt very cool! It was 86 degrees!

Tuesday morning, we went to do a program at a school in Tanwalbougou. On our way there, we watched people getting kernels of of corn by hitting it hard with sticks. At the school, we greeted the teachers and waited for the 600 kids to gather. They were very packed in. The kids really enoyed the puppet show, and were later imitating Frank's ( one our puppets) voice. When we go back to the house, we wgreeted laides that were there. They are part of a women's village developent committee that does social work stuff for villages and helps at the hospitals. Around 3, we walked to the village of Tiango. We did an hour long program for about 1000 people there. I spent the evening looking at the sky, which was full of beautiful stars.

Wednesday morning, we thought we would be going to a hospital, but Pastor Rufus decided we wouldn't go becuse there was a chicken pox outbreak. So, we met as a team for ahile in the morning. Around 3:30, which was supposed to be 1 or 2, we left the village for Fada.

Overall, I really appreciated the slow pace of village life. People took time to be with the people around them. They don't need electricity, a TV, or a computuer to enterntain them; they have each other. They lean on each other for support. They play with you. They dance with you. They laugh with you--and at you! They smile! Take time to care for the people who are around you, even if that means you have to take a break from your normal conviences in order to do so. It is so rewarding to pay attention to what is going on around you! Take some time to slow down! Look at the stars, go for a walk, be in nature, talk to a stranger, be with people.

Peace,

Tiffany

Time in Fada

2009-04-16T10:27:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone,

We spent several more days in Fada before going to the village. On Wednesday, ten of us piled into a seven passenger car to visit the village of Tanwalbougou. The car was very uncomfotable and the ride took two hours, when it takes one hour with a good vehicle. Pastor Rufus took us to the house neqr the church where we will be staying. He wanted to show us what our accomodations would be. It is a cement walled area with several huts with straw/grass roofs and a long drop toilet. We have stayed at similar places before, but not quite like that. He kept apologizing for being poor, which annoyed us because we don't care and we prefer to live with people so we can understand their way of living. When we arrived, the church choir sang several songs for us. They were very excited to see us. We greeted all of them and then went to see the church. The church is also used a a school for people to learn how to write in their own language, Gourmanchen. We were led to several homes in the village to greet members of the church. Pastor Rufus talked to us about our schedule and he surprized us by saying that we will stay with host homes in Fada instead of saying at SIM.

Thursday, we went to a prison to do a program. The prisonners were very happy to see us. They really appreicated ou message of grace, love, unity, and forgiveness. Unlike most of our programs in Africa, they weren't dancing along, but they did clap. Our French was translated into two local languages. There were about 250 men there. Either there weren't women at that prison, or they were somewhere else. We saw some family members bringing food to a prisonner because the prison doesn't serve enough for them. I wish that I knew more about the justice system here.

After lunch on Thursday, we left SIM for our host homes. We spent some time with each of our host homes. Sonja and I are together. While we will miss having French, German, Australians, Canadians, and Americans to talk to; we were glad to finally have the opportunity to be in host homes again.

Thursday afternoon, we went to an orphanage in Fada. The kids sang us a welcoming song that included our names. The president of the orphanage told us a little about the orphanage. There were about 40 kids that are between 6 and 18 years old. There are 20 kids on the a waiting list. The kids don't actually stay at the orphanage, they stay with host homes. Various organizations and people give financial support to the orphanage, so they can give money to host homes for meals. The orphanage employees visit Fada families to see if they can support their children. They take some children who are orphans (often due to AIDS), who have only one parent (who they also call orphans), and children whose parents are unable to provide for them. They choose some of them to help out and support. The orphanage has activities for the kids. They observe the kids in school to see how they behave. When they are 18, the kids move and learn a trade or go to school. We taught them some songs and did a puppet show. They loved it!! The kids sang several songs for us that include our names. We felt very welcome there. We played with the kids for awhile.

For dinner, we ate with a Muslim family. We pasted the Catholic churh, where there were about 2000 people for a service, but we didn't get to go to a Maunday Thursday service. Instead, Sonja and I read about the Last Supper together.

Staying with host homes in Fada has been wonderful. I am slowly remembering the French I learned while staying with host homes in Cameroon. My hosts only speak a little English. All of our hosts have electricity, only some have running water. My host mom, Esther is the secretary general of Fada. Her husband, Emmanuel, works out of town. They have a young son named Joshua. Three of their nieces are there also cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Joshua. There names are Fadi, Caroline, and Kati. The girls don't know French, which limits our conversation a lot, but all of them are great hosts. They knew we were coming for two weeks and prayed they they would have the means to provide for us, and they do!

Good Friday, we went to a preschool for 3 to 5 year olds. There were probbly aroudn 300 of them-- for only four teachers. They were very cute and had matching pink uniforms. There was a playground. We did some sing alongs and our puppet show. They had short attention spans, but were glad we were there. They wer very cute. In the evening, we went to Pastor's house for a Good Friday service for us and a few others. We played a few songs and Olivia gave a message. Prosper read from Luke. It was all in French.

Saturday afternoon, we did a program for 1000 students at a school. It was crazy and very dusty. We were supposed to have mics the whole time, but we only had them at the beginning because they stopped working. It was hard to talk and sing loud enough, but at least some of the kids were glad we were there. They were really packed in. When we tried to do our puppet show, we told the kids they could come closer, bu then they were hit with sticks by a guy who want them to move back; so, we didn't do our puppet show. We were all overwhelmed, but got though the crazy program by smiling at each other. In the evening, I was sad to hear that I missed my mom's call Friday because we are staying at different host homes, but at least Prosper got to take to her.

Easter Sunday, we went to the village of Tanwalbougou. Life in the village is great and we had a great Easter!! There is much more to tell about, but that will come later when I have time to go to a cyber again.

Peace,

Tiffany

Safe in Burkina Faso

2009-04-07T12:56:00.006-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Thursday, we went to the village of Molbogues for our program. Lindsay stayed at the seminary for the day because she wasn't feeling well. We performed for about 350 people in Molbogues, then we went to Nano to play for about 500 people at a high school. During our program in Molbogue, a piglet ran through Luke's legs--it was quite hilarious. After the school program, there were some skits about AIDS. I learned that now is the time of year that the students learn about AIDS. This school wasn't nearly as crazy as the one we went to before.

Thursday, we woke up to a cool temp of 82 degrees. --Yes, that is cool for us!! We actually woke up chilly and used our sheets, which is very rare. It was such an amazing feeling to be cold. It is crazy how our bodies have adjusted to the temperature. Usually, the temp is the the high 90s or low 100s. It is very dry here.

Friday, we did a program for about 450 people in the village of Mandiaré. As usual, they did fun dances for us after our program.

Saturday, we went to the village of Mogou. Up to this day, the speaking during our program in the villages was translated into Mobah; in Mogou, it was translated into Gangam.

Palm Sunday, we endured a long, bumpy ride to the village of Bagré. We couldn't really tell that it was Palm Sunday. We didn't go to church. We rode in a van for two and a half hours before getting to Bagré, where we did an hour and 15 minute program. We did see some people waving palm branches in a village that we passed. Also, there are many donkeys in Northern Togo, and in Burkina Faso. We often see donkeys hauling a wheel barrow of stuff. We played for about 250 people in Bagré; it was translated into Gourma. Then, we ate dinner with Pastor Bigbi.

When we went to the villages in Togo, we were always fed lunch. It was interesting to try the local dishes. We often had rice, fufu, chicken, guinea fowl, and goat. They always served us a vinegary type drink; sometimes, it was beer, other times it was unfermented. We woud respectfully try it, but rarely enjoyed it. It was nice to have some meals provided for us.

During this past week, I have enjoyed reading more books! I read two of Rob Bell's books--Sex God and Velvet Elvis. I recommend that you read both. Sex God discusses how our relationships, sexuality, and faith in God our related and can't be separated. Velvet Elvis is some of Rob Bell's theological thoughts. He challenges many things about Christianity. Rob Bell is the maker of the Nouma videos, which I also recommend.

Monday, we had a long day of travelling. We finally left Dapaong at 9:40 a.m.; we hoped to leave at 8:30. We all piled in a five passenger car--6 of us and the driver-- and drove to the border. We reached the Togo/Burkina Faso border around 11. There was a group of 9 people waiting for us there. We breezed through customs. Lindsay and I discovered that our visa for Burkina Faso lasts for five years!! We don't think we'll be staying. Once we got into Burkina Faso, we met Pastor Rufus. He gave us our mail packet from the office!! We were all pretty happy to get some mail!! We stopped to eat a late--3:00-- lunch in Koupéla and finally arrived in Fada N'Gourma. We are staying at a SIM place; there are many foreigners there.

So far, Burkina Faso seems pretty good. It is the third poorest country in the world. Our ministry here will be very different because the Lutheran Church only started here in 2006. Pastor Rufus is the only "pastor" here, but he actually isn't a pastor, but people call him that. He is from Liberia and devoted his life to God's service after being sick for seven years, but surviving. There is one church in a village that we will be visiting. Otherwise, our ministry will be in Fada N'Gourma (Fada) and Ouagadougou (Ouaga), the capital. We will be going to a prison, an orphanage, a school, and we will be meeting with prostitutes. We are all excited and nervous for this different kind of ministry. We will be here in Fada until Saturday, when we will go to the village for five days. We think we will be sleeping on the church floor in the village. We have been warned about keeping track of our stuff because the Cross Fire team that was in the village three years ago was robbed. Hopefully, we will be okay. After five days in the village, we will be in Fada for 10 days before going to Ouaga. We will be there for two days before taking a LONG bus ride to Cotonou, Bénin, where we fly out of. We will fly to Douala, Cameroon and be there for a few days.

Then, the girls are going to Denmark to visit Sonja's family and the boys are going to the States for a one week break.

It will be strange to not celebrate Easter like I am used to; I'm not sure if we will celebrate it at all. Most Burkinians are Muslim or animists.

Sadly, Prosper will be leaving us a week early. He has to go to Cameroon early to get his visa to the States renewed. Hopefully, we will thrive even when we don't have our fluent French-speaker with us.

I hope that you all have a very wonderful Easter!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Ministry in Togo, Ghana, and Books to Read

2009-04-01T12:57:00.005-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Monday, we went to the village of Tambimnoug. We did an hour and a half program for about 150 people under two mango trees. The church choir there sang us some songs before and after our program. The chief of the village really appreciated our message of unity. We ate lunch at the church. After lunch, they gave us some mangoes and beans. We were one kilometer from Ghana, so we decided to go there for awhile. We went to the market in Ghana for about 25 minutes. At customs, they had no problem with us going as long as we didn't stay. In Ghana, the main language is English, but their accent is hard to understand. At first, we didn't even realize that it was English.

Tuesday, Valerie, a missionary here, took us to a high-school here. There are over 1000 students at the school, with classes sizes around 80. When we arrived the kids were rowdy and were watching a skit to teach them about AIDS. There are many billboards here in Togo encouraging abstinence. Over 100,000 of Togo's 5.1 million people have AIDS. There are many orphans due to AIDS. We did an hour and half program for the high-schoolers. Many of them were not paying attention during our program, some were making fun of us, others made fun of Prosper because Cameroon lost a soccer match against Togo. However, in the midst of this here were several kids that really connected with us. After singing, we had a question and answer time. They asked good questions like why are you on team, why are there so many Christian denominations, and why is there suffering. We all took turns answering. Some seemed really interested and we encouraged them to keep searching for answers to their questions. Valerie fed us a delicious lunch, then we went to the seminary and had some rehearsal. We took some time to discuss how programs have been going. We ironed out some problems have been having. I have become way more flexible with programming, but I still need some work.

I'm reading "The Shack" and "The Irresistible Revolution." They are both really good. "The Shack," by William P. Young, is based on a true story of a man who encounters God and has many of life's tough questions answered. "The Irresistible Revolution," by Shane Claiborne, is about being a Christian activist and a revolution towards being truly Christian by serving our broken world. I highly recommend that you read both.

Monday, we will be going to Burkina Faso!! Before then, we will be doing programs everyday in villages around Dapaong. In Burkina, we will be going to Fada N'Gourma and Ouagadougou.

I hope you all have a great Easter!! I will miss being home for Easter. We've heard that they don't celebrate here much.

Peace,

Tiffany

Hello from Dapaong

2009-03-29T15:08:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone,

From Kara, we travelled in a van to Dapaong; it was crowded, but not nearly as crowded as public transportation in Cameroon. We got here on Wednesday and enjoyed some time off until Friday. Again, we spent much of our time reading. The girls are staying at a house on the LCMS seminary, where the teacher of the LCMS missionary's kids lives; therefore, there are many books in English. I have been reading The Innocent Man by John Grishham, a great book based on a true story. On Friday and Saturday, we did two hour programs in villages near Dapaong. One of them was especially enjoyable because it was under a mango tree!! Four-hundred people fit under a huge mango tree--it was awesome!! We really enjoyed when they danced for us!! At the second village, we did a Bible study and had some time in prayer with forty church leaders here. Sunday, we did another program, but this time it wasn't two hours because we didn't have to translate into Moba or another local language. This afternoon, we have enjoyed spending some time with the American missionaries here. We talked a lot with them, especially about how once you've travelled, you can't stop--who knows where I'll end up next. We also enjoyed eating hamburgers, french fries, popcorn and cookies!!

Monday, we will be going to another village and on Tuesday we will be going to a high school. Wednesday, we have a day off. It has been hot (over 90) here and it is also dry, but we are getting more and more used to it; however, we always appreciate cold drinks and ice cream!!

That's all for now because I'm using an American keyboard--after having gotten used to the French-African one--it is challenging when I have stuff memorized instead of looking at the keys!! If you haven't used a foreign keyboard yet, travel to another country!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Hello from Kara

2009-03-23T14:29:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

We are still in Kara, unlike what we expected. We found out that we came to Kara a few days earlier than expected--because of a miscommunication that happened beforehand. However, it wasn't a problem. We are just staying here until Wednesday. Here in Kara, we have been partnering with a church here that just started in October. We have been staying at a house with the pastor, a university student, and an American missionary, who works on community development. It has been nice to stay with an American. We have enjoyed the chance this gives us to watch movies, the first time in quite awhile. The only issue is picking movies that we will all enjoy. Sometimes, I just read instead--that is the other thing it has been nice to have things to read in English!! Books and old Newsweeks! I am reading Pride and Prejudice and Forrest Gump. I have had several good, long conversations with Prosper. It is fun to compare our perspectives on the culture.

We have done two programs in Kara since we came early. We didn't have any program for the first two days. We played for church too. Wednesday, we will travel to Dapaong, which is north of here. The food we have had here is pretty good, but not enough meat and dairy. A lot of rice, spaghetti, and fruit; I really enjoy some of the sauces.

Today is our day off. Prosper and I visited the Congressional Palace here in Kara. It is where the Congress meets, but they are not in session now. We walked around insided then were guided through a small museum, where they had art and traditional artifacts from villages surrounding Kara. It was very interesting.

News is hard to come by here. I really miss knowing what is going on in the world.

Peace,

Tiffany

Greetings from Togo

2009-03-18T13:07:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone!

Sunday, we played four songs for church. After church, we learned from the pastor that two families that we had visited in Sémé are going to be baptized. We were happy to hear that our ministry is making a difference. Sunday afternoon, we went door to door in Zopah.

Monday, we got up early to come to Togo. We met with the pastor and gave him some things that we will be leaving in Cotonou until we fly out--our drums. Now, the team has a total of seven drums!! I bought myself a very nice djembé. We visited a very neat tourist area of Cotonou, where they sold many beautiful arts and crafts from Bénin, including drums. I also got some cloth with designs on it. After saying our good-byes to the pastor, we rode in turbo turtle to the border of Bénin and Togo.

On the way to Togo, we stopped in Ouidah, which was the only port in Bénin until 1908. Therefore, Ouidah was the port where slaves from Bénin were exported. We went to Ouidah's Museum of History, while the car was being fixed--again! The tour was very interesting. The building was a fort that was rebuild by the Portuguese. The Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, English, and French all came to Bénin to trade for slaves; they traded with the Dahomey kings. We saw a model of a fort, where they held slaves until they were shipped to Brasil and the Caribbean. The forts had cannons and churches in them. The French fort was surrounded by a moat full of crocodiles. If the slaves were bad, they were thrown into the moat. The museum held two copies of "At Last," a book used to guide the Portuguese to Africa. There were also many artifacts found by archeologists. There were pots, pipes, iron, porcelain, beads, shackles, bullets, and Venetian glass. There were two large pots that were used by Dahomey kings as drums to communicate. The Dahomey kings had anywhere from 40 to 40,000 wives, who would parade around him until he chose ten to come in his bedroom, and one for his bed. There was a quote in the museum that said, "The Dahomey kings didn't start the slave trade, but they benefitted from it." The ships took three months to get to Brasil. There was art showing work that slaves did and how packed the slaves were on the ships. Sadly, the women were held in a separate part of the ship, where they were raped. There were pictures of slaves in Cuba and Haiti. Also, there was art of slaves who came back to Bénin after slavery was abolished; it showed about how they brought Brazilian culture back with them--especially religion. There was a large Basilica built in Ouidah. However, Ouidah is also a large center for voodoo, which started in Bénin. The Basilica is near the python temple, where voodoo cermonies are held. Every year there is a large voodoo festival in Ouidah. Tslave traders were Catholic and forced the slaves to be do. There were several sticks that voodoo practicers use to heal or curse others. Also, some have wooden statues in front of their homes to ward of disease and evil spirits. We saw several neat quilts that had pictures that told stories.

After the museum, we travelled on to the border. Thankfully, it didn't take long for us to get through customs--we just didn't always know what we were supposed to be doing. We met Pastor Michael at the border. He picked us up in his nice air-conditioned Jeep. We drove from the border to Lomé, the capital of Togo. After eating a late lunch, we did a program for the first time in a long time. Pastor Michael is great! He speaks English and went to the LCMS seminary in St. Louis. We are staying in the extra buildings at the soceity where they translate the Bible into local languages. Tuesday, we shopped and exchanged money--which took a long time. In the evening, we did another program, but it was kid-focused with sing alongs and a puppet show. It was really fun! We have had the pleasure of eating several meals with families from the church, which helps YE save money. Today, I bought an outfit for myself.

Tomorrow, we will be heading north to Kara, Togo. We will be there two nights, before spending two weeks in Dapaong. After that, we will go to Burkina Faso.

Peace,

Tiffany

Last Post from Cotonou

2009-03-14T11:29:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone,

This past week we have been going more door to door ministry; however, it has been somewhat different than last week. We frequently drove about 45 minutes north of our apartment to Domegbo. We picked up our guide and then went to surrounding villages. However, instead of going door to door, we sang out in the open more like street ministry. It was nice because our audiences were larger--anywhere from 30 to 80--and they were also more interactive. They really enjoyed sharing their prayer concerns with us. They often request that we pray for their health, business, and enough money to support their families. We also spent some time going door to door in Sémé and Zopah, two neighborhoods in Cotonou. That was sometimes tough because we don't speak Fon, and often our guides didn't speak French. Oh well, people enjoyed our singing--and at least we know two songs in Fon!! The team also went to a high-school and university to sing songs and answer questions, but I was feeling dizzy that day, so I didn't go. Thankfully, some rest helped me recover!!

It has been really hot and humid here! Our apartment gets especially hot when the power goes out and our fans don't work. There have been two storms that have cooled it down a little, but still no rain. On the hot days, we enjoy fan man ice cream!!

Monday, we are going to go to Togo; then we will have been in Benin!! Our driver will take us to the border, where we will take a bus to Lomé, the capital of Togo. We will stay there for several days before going north to Kara. After a few days there, we will spend about two weeks in Dapaong before going to Burkina Faso. We heard that we will not be staying with host homes in Togo, but they are still figuring out where we can stay for cheap. Hopefully, Togo won't be as expensive as been has been for Youth Encounter.

Peace,

Tiffany

More from Cotonou, Benin

2009-03-10T16:12:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Adrienne, Prosper, Sonja, and I enjoyed a much needed day off at the pool/beach the Monday after we got back to Cotonou. The sky was cloudy, which sometimes we frown upon, but it was nice to have a relief from the hot sun. Also, the sand on the beach didn't burn our feet like the time before. The beach was very relaxing. We also treated ourselves to ice cream and a crêpe. The waves were really strong, but I enjoyed wading in a bit in spite of that. We took motos back to our apartment and I have a huge bruise still--I think it is a combination of the waves and the extremely uncomfortable moto ride.

We have turbo turtle, our car and driver, from Tueday to Friday. During the week, we did door to door ministry. The president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Benin calls it "evangelizing," but the people we are visiting are already Christians. He just encourages them to be Lutheran, as the Lutheran Church is pretty new here. They are working on building several churches here in Cotonou, so he has been inviting people to them. We go to various neighborhoods and villages in and around Cotonou. We sing families a few songs, tell them about Youth Encounter, asks for prayer requests, pray for them, and encourage them in their faith. Most of the time, we have a guide who shows us where to go and translates into the local language, Fon.

On Saturday, we walked to a church to meet with the church choir. We were surprized to learn that it was a children's choir. We taught them some songs in English and some songs in French. They taught us some songs in Fon. It was a really fun time and the kids had a lot of energy. On Sunday, we walked to church, where we did a few songs and met with the choir for awhile again. It was nice to have Communion; it was our first time to have it in Benin--and only our second time having it in Africa. I appreciate the fact that I am beginning to understand more and more French during the church services, but that doesn't mean I can speak it. I realized that I understand a lot more of the sermon if I have a French Bible in front of me. However, since we haven't been interacting with people too much because we aren't with host homes, it has been tough for me to pick up much French.

This past week has been rather difficult for us at one time or another. After all, we are always worried about costing YE too much money, we never know our schedule (even though we have a schedule), over half of our programming is cancelled, we are constantly around each other, and we rarely get to contact our friends and family. Because of this, we have all been sick at one time or another. Mostly, just more of the diarrhoea/stomach issues. Also, we all struggle with the heat and humidity. When we went door to door, often two people would stay back so they could rest or be near the bathroom. Thankfully, the door to door wasn't too many songs, so it was easy to do it with fewer people.

At our apartment, we have enjoyed many delicious meals cooked by Adrienne. She does a great job, with a limited amount of food on a tight budget. We have at French toast, eggs, spaghetti, rice, potatoes, bread, and many pineapples. I will definitely miss her cooking!!

Sunday evening, we went out to eat!! It was Prosper's birthday!! I won't mention how old he is--but it is old! We celebrated by having a treat your team meal--a larger meal that YE pays for every once in awhile when people are craving more food. We were going to have Chinesse, but it was too expensive, so we at a place with Americanish food. I split a pizza, a double cheeseburger, and French fries with Adrienne. It was so delicious!! We all enjoyed being spoiled. We all got a 1/2 liter of ice cream. It tasted so good. When I got back to the apartment, my family called. Sadly, I only talked to them for a short time before the connection was lost. It is tough not being able to call people as I wish. It has really taught me to rely on my teammates.

This past Monday, we enjoyed another day off. This time we went on our team outing to Ganvié, a village on stilts. It was interesting to see how people lived in the stilt village. There are 27,000 people living in the village 2 meters above water. Read my last blog to see why they were built. We enjoyed seeing how they fish. It was disturbing to see people swimming in the same water that they go to the bathroom in. We travelled 8 km to Ganvié on a wooden boat with a motor. We stopped at three touristy places there. It was a two hour ride. It was very relaxing and the breeze was nice.

This week we will be doing more door to door ministry as well as a few programs. Next Monday, we will go to Togo!

Peace,

Tiffany

Facts about Bénin

2009-03-03T11:00:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,

Here are some facts about Bénin; I got most from my Lonely Planet book, but some from observations.

-Captial=Porto Novo
-Exchange Rate=480 CFA for 1 US Dollar
-Cost of Gas=350 to 375 CFA a liter
-Largest City=Cotonou
-Official Languages=French
-Most common other languages=Fon, Yoruba, Dendi, Bariba, and Ge
-Bénin is known for the Dahomey Kingdom
-Dahomeyan kings became rich by selling slaves to traders who took an average of 10,000 slave a year to Brazil and the Caribbean.
-They traded with people from Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands
-There are several villages on stilts 2 meters above water because Dahomey traders couldn't take people who were on water because of a religious custom.
-Bénin is the birthplace of voodoo
-50% of people practice traditional beliefs--voodoo or animism--, 30% are Christian, and 20% are Muslim
-There are quite a variety of denominations here, but the largest is Catholic. The Lutheran Church is very new here. There is not a Lutheran Seminary here. There are many Jehovah's Witnesses Churches.
-2 seasons=wet and dry
-the south is humid, the north is dry
-The French colonized the kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s
-Dahomey became independent in 1960
-in 1975, Kérékou took over and made the country Marxist. He changed the flag and renamed the country Bénin. They were allies with China, North Korea, and Russia for awhile. Bénin remained Marxist until 1989.
-Now, Bénin is a relatively stable democracy
-The economy here depends on subsistence farming
-Bénin's economy varies somewhat with Nigeria, where they get gas from
-Main Crops=yams, corn, and cassava
-Bénin exports a lot of cotton
-Average life expectancey=53
-AIDS rate=2%
-Most marriages are arranged by families
-Half of the population is 14 or under
-Women have an average of 5.9 children
-Benisese eat a lot of yams, cous cous, rice, pepper, fish, and chicken.
-Bénin is bordered by Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and the Gulf of Guinea--the Atlantic

Hope you enjoyed learning something!!!

We are in Cotonou doing some door to door ministry for the week. It is very humid here.

Peace,

Tiffany

Our days in Northern Benin and the villages

2009-03-01T14:36:00.010-05:00

Hello Everyone,

After 10 days in the north, we have finally returned to Cotonou. Here is a descriptive summary of our time up there.

On the afternoon of the 19th, we had a team meeting, which I thought needed to happen because many of us were in bad moods because we were keeping in our feelings. We talked about our frustrations with being in Benin and also talked out problems that we have with each other. Recently, we have been together all of the time. Since February 11, we have all been sleeping in the same place; whether it is our apartment, a hotel, or a hospital. Because we are constantly around each other, we deal with the struggles and joys that come with living in community. After our team meeting, we sang some praise and worship songs; that really reunited us. Then, we ate a delicious meal of spaghetti, cooked by Adrienne.

On Feb 20th, we met "the dude from the north"-- as Sonja has titled him. He is an evangelist from the village of Saah and he was responsible for our schedule in the north. After much discussion about scheduling, we finally left Cotonou for the north. The ride in turbo turtle was long and dusty. It was very hot and humid until we got to northern Benin, where it is dry. We stopped for lunch, then stayed for a long time because the car needed to be fixed. We were quite annoyed that our driver didn't get it fixed before when were in Cotonou. While we were waiting for turbo turtle to be fixedn we foud out some about what we would be douing in the north. At firest, we were told that we would be doing door to door evangelism in two groups, but without any music. We were quite surprized and overwhelmed by this. It reminded us of the Jehovah's Witnesses church near our apartment. As a team, we discussed how we weren't comfortable with evangelizing door to door. Also, we didn't feel it was our role to Christianize others by teaching. Instead, we like to follow YE's mission statement: to partner with Christian communities to strengthen their youth ministry. We do this primarily through music and relational ministry. Our team leader expalined this to the evangelist and he said we could just go door to door and sing a few songs while inviting them to our program. After turbo was fixed, we stopped so Luke could buy a djembé. Then, finally, we were on our way until there was a large semi that was jack-knifed in the middle of the road. Turbo turtle is a Peugeot and is not very comfortable. The heat radiates from underneath the seats. We didn't get to Parakou until 11 p.m. We were frusterated and tired!! We slept at the first hotel they found, which was 15,000 CFA a night per room--way more than what we should have spent. Thankfully, the hotel had air-conditioning, so we enjoyed a cooler night.

On Feb 21st, our driver was getting the tires oin turbo rotated when we wanted to leave, but we left for Kandi at 9:30. We got to Kandi at 2 p.m. When we arrived in Kandi, we were expecting to do door to door ministry, but instead we just ate and rested? The rest was very needed after two long drives on bumpy roads. We stayed at a cheaper hotel in Kandi for three nights. This time, there wa no air conditioning, but there was a fan, when there was electricity. All of the girls slept in one room to save money. I was surprized how comfortable Adrienne and I were on the floor with our matress pads. However, it was hot!! During our stay in Kandin we bought our breakfasts of bread, nutella-like stuff, jam, and oranges. For lunch and dinner, we would go to a restaurant where I usually had rice and chicken, but I also had goat and French fries once. It was tough to not get much variety in our food, but we enjoyed drinking cold pops.

On Feb 22nd, We travelled 45 minutes to the village of Saah. The roads were very bumpy and we had to walk part of the way to the church because turbo got stuck. This time, the church looked more cultural than usual. Instead of being a large, sturdy building; it was a small building with a thatched roof and thatched walls. I really appreciated seeing that instead of a large churh built by missionaries-- like the many huge, fancy, Catholic churches we saw on our drive up. I like seeing churches started by locals. The church has only been there since October. The evangelist leads the church, but has a year and a half before he will be a pastor. So, no one is baptized in the church and no one has communed, but there is worship there every Sunday. Some of the service was in French and some of it was in Macolé, the language that people spoke in that area. We sang three songs. The drummers at the church had really beautiful djembés, I hope to get one soon. After church, we were led to what we think was the nicest house in the village. We were followed by many children. We tried some cashew fruit. The kids enjoyed watching Luke pump water. Prosper was offered at 12 year old wife; thankfully, it was a joke, but he did jokingly accept. Adrienne played tic-tac-toe with some kids, but they never really learned how to play so she lost every game. Thekids were thrilled when they won; we clapped for them! Most of the people in the village speak Macolé, very few spoke French, and no one spoke English; therefore, it was tough for us to do ministry. We did a 45 minute program. We enjoyed singing for an audience full of dancers. I don't know how much people got of our message, considering the songs were mostly in French, with only one verse of a song in their language. On our drive back to Kandi that night, we got a flat tire. Surprizingly, we actually did have a spare.

On Feb 23rd, we went to a high-school in Kandi. We were told we would to an hour of programming in English--which was a huge change. I planned for that only to hear that school had been let out early. So, we went to meet the mayor of the city, but he was busy. Since we had no other programming for the day, we decided to do some street ministry. We sang songs at four different places in teh market. It was hot and very dusty, but also fun. It was really relaxed, we just picked songs as we went. We had pretty good audiences, most of them were kids. We all enjoyed a snack of sugar cane that evening.

On Feb 24th, we left Kandi for the village of Saah, but this time we had all of our bags with us. Upon our arrival in Saah, we went to an elementary school and found outthey wanted us to do two hours of programming, which is a lot for kids attention spans. We did two hours of sing-a-longs, a puppet show, songs in French, and a skit. The kids really enjoyed most of it, but got restless towards the end. They loved the songs with actions and silly noises. I actually felt like I gained some energy from the kids. There were probablyabout 400 kids. Children love having their picture taken, so we regularly take pictures of them after programs. After the school program, we went to the hospital, where we stayed for five nights for free. The rooms were empty and there was no running water. We all slept on the floor. Thankfully, people from the village brought us water and food, that we paid for. During our stay there, we ate cous cous, rice, chicken, goat, and beans. For the most part, the food wasn't bad, but it wasn't very healthy and our bodies were all lacking proper nutrients. It was a very hot day!! 116 degrees!!!!!!!!! At least there wasn't humidity. In the afternoon, we travelled 30 km to the village of Fouet. It took us about 2 hours. We met the chief of the village, but he only shoke the men's hands. We did an hour long program there. The evangelist translated Prosper's French into Macolé; that made the program feel a lot longer. The evangelist often spoke way longer than Prosper and we assume that was to further explain things to people that he understood the culture and beliefs of. Our programs in teh villages were much more evangelistic than normal, which took some getting used to. There are few Christians in the villages. Some our Muslims and some are animists. Tehre were probably about 250 people at that program. Thekids enjoyed dancing along when their parents would let them. We eventually learned that it was mardi gras, but we weren't really feeling it as we went to be pretty hungry.

On Feb 25, we woke up not knowing our schedule. Then, we travelled a short distance to the village of Bani Kani, where we did an hour and a half program. Lindsay wasn't feeling well, so she sat out most of the program. Our lunch didn't arrive until 3:40 p.m. We were told that we would have another program that afternoon, but we waited in vain. While waiting, we got pretty bored. I taught Adrienne some music theory. We didn't do anything for Ash Wednesday.

On Feb 26, I led a devo and decided to do the imposition of ashes, as we didn't do it the day before. We all talked abou Lent and our feelings about saying "alleluia" during Lent. We decided that we would keep it in our songs because we need to keep praising God in the midst of our struggles. Also, we feel like our year on team, especially our time in Africa, is a huge sacrifice. We rehearsed some songs and Lindsay and Sonja said they both weren't feeling well enough to do a program. They had some stomach and diarrhoea issues. I had some diarrhoea as well, but knew I would have to forget about that. The four of us who were left made necessary adjustments in our program to do a program with four instead of six. I played guitar on some extra songs and sang louder since I was the only high voice, without Sonja. It was tough for me and really hurt my voice, but we did an hour and a half program in the village of Foure. We were excited to see fruit in the village!! We bought some bananas and oranges. We thought we saw watermelon, but that was only a mirage of peppers. We went back to the hospital and ate in the dark. The generator was only on for part of two of the five nights that we were there. Thankfully, the evangelist brought us a lantern that shings brighter than our flashlights. Without lights inhibiting our view, we saw many stars. When I look t the stars here I am reminded of how far from home I actually am. Orion is in the center of the sky instead of low in the south. Also, the big dipper doesn't come out until 1 a.m. Luke and I slept outside on the back porch. I actually woke up cold several times, even though it was 83 degrees. It is funny how our bodies have adjusted to the heat. When afternoon temps are in the 100s, anything under 88 feels cool. My alarm clock tells temperature. We really appreciate cool breezes here.

On Feb 27th, we did another program in Saah. My voice hurt; so, I didn't sing for some of the program. Thankfully, we had all six of us again. We were hoping to go to the south since we didn't have any more programming in the north, but that didn't happen. We decided to take turbo turtle into Kandi, where we went out to eat. We all toasted our cold drinks and enjoyed more meat than we had had during all of our time in Saah. We walked around the market for awhile and bought our supper and breakfast. We enjoyed eating fruit and bread for dinner. A Muslim man came by with a chicken for us. But it was alive!! Luke graciously accepted it, as the rest of us tried to restrain our laughter. We all debated what we would do with the chicken. We thought about taking it with us to the south, but didn't know how we would transport it, but thought eggs would be nice to have. The evangelist came and said he would cook it for us to have the next day.

On Feb 28, I woke up early in the morning several times with an upset stomach and diarrhoea. I felt awful. Around 6 a.m., we left Saah for Bohicou. Most of the day, I couldn't keep down liquids, so I didn't bother eating food. It was a miserable day of travel for me. I wanted to stop when the team ate lunch, but we kept going until 10 p.m., when we got to the driver's house, where we stayed for the night. Thankfully, we stayed there for free.

On Mar 1st, we left Bohicou for Cotonou at 8:15 and we arrived in Cotonou at 10:30. I was glad it was a short day. So far, I am actually keeping down food. It is nice to be back in our apartment, except for the humidity.

Tomorrow, we have a day off, some of us our planning on going back to the pool we visited before.

Hope you are all doing well!! I miss you!!!

Peace,

Tiffany

In Benin

2009-02-19T05:34:00.004-05:00

Hello Everyone,

We have arrived in Benin. We spent some time in N'Gaoundéré rehearsing, which was somewhat frusterating because we can't all comfortably sing in the same key, so we have to pick keys that only work for some of us. We took the train to Yaoundé; this time it was 19 hours. We were hoping it would be shorter because we had heard that the train drivers wanted to get paid for more hours, but that those who pay them found out so they had been on time--12 hours-- for awhile, but not for us. We took the 3 hour bus ride to Douala. We stayed in the Catholic missionary house for one more night before flying out of Cameroon.

We arrived in Cotonou, Benin, on the evening of 16th. We are still in the same time zone--7 hours ahead of central. The president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Benin met us at the airport. We took taxis to a hotel, where he decided we would stay until we figured out other arrangements. We were annoyed because it meant spending money for our stay and meant we would have to move the next day.

On the 17, some of us waited while others searched for a place for us to stay and got money. Finally, we are able to exchange our traveller's checks. This is nice considering we weren't able to in Cameroon. Eventually, we found where will be staying for most of our time in Benin.

We--Cross Fire-- have our own apartment!! It has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living/dining room. It came unfurnished, but the pastor's wife brought us some mattresses, chairs, dishes, and a fridge. It is kinda nice. It costs us 25,000 CFA a night. 480 CFA= 1dollar. So far, we don't have air conditioning and it is really hot and humid. Temps here are between 85 and 95. We get to cook for ourselves. Adrienne has taken on the role of our main chef, which we are all really excited about. It will be really different not staying with host homes; I am sad that we won't be because we won't have as much time with relational ministry and I won't learn as much French. This is the first time that I have lived in an apartment and it is quite the experience.

So far, the food in Benin has been pretty good, but the sauces are a little bit too spicy for me. We have had fried and grilled chicken, lamb, rice, coo coos, beans, potatoes, and lots of fruit including papaya with lemon, pineapple, mango, and orange. Last night, I enjoyed the wonderful treat of mashed potatoes!! Thanks Adrienne!!!

We haven't had any programming in Benin yet. We are staying in Cotonou until Friday, then we will be travelling north. Cross Fire also has a new vehicle and driver. We will be using them for our 10 days of travel in Benin and for 4 our of 7 days a week when we return to Cotonou. When we come back to Cotonou, we will be there for 20 days and will live in our apartment. Unfortunately, we have been spending a lot of our team money here in Benin as we have been paying for our housing, food, and transportation.

Yesterday, we had the chance to cool off. We went swimming!! The current is to rough to swim in the ocean here, so we went to a hotel to go swimming. We really enjoyed it after sweat a lot in our apartment. We also bought some really delicious ice cream. We walked on the beach for awhile. We did some errands around the city. Cotonou has about 800,000 people. Today, we will be doing some team stuff--devos, rehearsal, and planning.

We don't know anything about our schedule or housing in the north. We do know that we are going to Parakou first. Hopefully it will be great! You may not hear from me until we are back in Cotonou.

Happy 60th birthday dad!!!!!!!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Francophone (French Speaking) Host Homes and Communication Beyond Words

2009-02-13T14:03:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Many people have been wondering how my French is because after all, I am in French-speaking West Africa. In Cameroon there are two officiall languages-- French and English, but everyone speaks French and few speak English. There are over 200 tribal languages also present, but the most prevalent are Fulfulde (spoken by mostly Muslims) and Gbaya.

So, how is my French? Well, not great, but it has definitely improved in the last week. I stayed at the same host home for six days and they didn't speak an English!! It was in Méiganga. I often surprized myself at my ability to speak French when I need to. I can get the basics of what time stuff is, where the toilet is, how to get where I need to go, some foods, and numbers. Otherwise, I try to piece together a few words from my phrase book. Thankfully, many English words come from French, so I can often understand some of the conversations even if I can't respond to it. While it was tough at first, it was a blessing to stay with a host home that didn't speak French. I learned so much from them. Also, I discovered how much communication can happen without words. I really enjoyed playing with my host kids. We made faces, sang some songs in French, and played with the toys I gave them. They loved having their pictures taken. They were so happy to receive toys from me; they were just old VBS toys the the YE office gave us. Also, I got to watch E.T. in French. I was glad that I had seen the movie before, but E.T. also demonstrates a lot of communication withouth words. I already miss this host homes. They had two puppies, 17 guinea pigs, and two parakeets. The families here are so generous even though they usually have little. Host homes are a great way to learn more about the culture. Not only to we get to eat the foods that they eat, but we get to see what their homes are like and we get to see how they spend their time. Hopefully, my French will continue to improve after staying in more host homes.

While I was really frustrated with myself for not speaking French and with my host for not speaking English, I eventually moved beyond that. At times, I even caught myself trying to translate stuff that I was saying to my teammates. Talking to the team in English can be a huge relief after staying with hosts that don't speak English, but I will always miss the communication that is beyond words.

Peace,

Tiffany

Last 2 Weeks in Cameroon

2009-02-13T12:34:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I haven't written for so long, but we have been in smaller cities without internet cafés. Since my last post we have been to Yaoundé, Bertoua, Garoua Boulai, Méiganga, and N'Gaoundéré. Our last day in Yaoundé, Sonja, Luke, and Prosper finally bought plane tickets for Benin. While we were waiting for our bus to leave for Bertoua, us girls had some issues with guys touching us all of the time. I felt somewhat violated; I often feel very devalued here because I am a woman.

Our bus ride to Bertoua was about five hours. While on the bus ride I learned from Luke -- who learned from his host-- that "Obama" means "eagle" in Gbaya, a tribal language that about one million people in Cameroon speak. Sonja and I stayed with a wonderful host in Bertoua; our host spoke a little English, but mostly communicated in German, which Sonja can usually understand. While we were in Bertoua, many of us made up stories about being married so that we can say we are married because people always ask. Sometimes it is guys on the street who want to marry us, other times it is our hosts just wondering why we are not married. However, we have been told that it doesn't always matter if we say that we are married because some people have multiple spouses here. We did a two hour program in Bertoua. It was a really awesome program considering we hadn't done a full program for awhile. The audience loved the puppet show. Afterwards we stood around for at least a half hour posing for pictures with most people in the church.

On Feb 4, we travelled on to Garoua Boulai, which is close to the eastern border. We were relieved when we got there because we found out that we wouldn't be staying with host homes. Host homes are wonderful, but it can be difficult when they don't speak English or when we don't know enough things about the culture to know how we are expected to interact with them. We stayed in the white camp for missionaries. It was right by my friend Etienne's house. Etienne and I worked together at Outlaw Ranch for a summer. It was good to see him again. Feb 5, we had three programs!!!! That was insane, but fun. We didn't have voices when we started, but we got through it fine by having people sit out some songs. Two of the programs were one hour and the other was two hours. They seemed especially long because everything that we said was translated into French and then translated again in to Gbaya.

On the 6th, we got up at 5 to take a bus to Méiganga. It was a five hour bus ride and it was really bumpy and dusty. We were very tired when we arrived. They wanted us to do a preview program and a program, but decided that a preview program would be fine. They asked us to do four songs as a preview program as a part of their evangelistic program near a school. There were 5 choirs who also sang. We were suprized to learn that they wanted 4 songs before the program started and 5 songs during. Our voices were dry, dusty, and tired; but we did it. Flexibility is becoming our middle name. The program was outside in the hot sun and there was lots of talking in Gbaya and Fulfulde, which made us more exhausted. It was long and overwhelming. On the 7th, we did four songs for another evangelizing program outside of a mosque. We were supposed to have a program that night, but didn't because the power was out and the generator didn't work. We did three songs for worship on Sunday. The first service was in Gbaya and there we 30 baptisms!! It was a two and a half hour service. The second service was in French. We went to someone's house to pray for her health and family. Then we did our program with a generator that worked!! The light went off during one of our songs, but we kept playing. Before the program, we enjoyed singing songs about how Christ is our light; we communicated that idea throughout our program. On the 9th, we went to the EELC seminary in Méiganga. We talked to some of the pastors and professors there about their programs. We had a day off of programming, but did some team work. There is a Peace Corp volunteer named Allison in Méiganga, so she met us and had us over for dinner. We were spoiled by her. We had mac and cheese, popcorn, and lettuce salad. At another time she gave us some yogurt. It was nice to talk to another American for awhile. I enjoyed hearing what she had to say about Cameroon since she has been here longer. The girls all got their hair braided by one of Luke's host sisters. Feb 10, we had a fun relaxing day. We did a program at the seminary in the evening. After the program, a Muslim came and talked to us about how he wanted to be a Christian. We had a good talk with him. It is awesome to see how our message of unity in Christ touches people. Feb 11, we went to Lindsay's host where we prayed for the family, which consisted of a mother who just lost her husband and kids that are mostly orphans because of aids. It was very humbling to see how happy they were that white people would come pray for them. Prosper and I went to the Day of Youth Parade, which was school clubs marching. It is a national holiday. Then, we took a bus to N'Gaoundéré.

Now we are back in N'Gaoundéré, which is nice because it is our 3rd time here. We did 45 minutes of music here at Prosper's church. Otherwise we have been doing errands--internet, phone calls, getting our matching clothes, and getting our train tickets.

We will be flying out of Cameroon on the 16th. We will be in Benin for three and a half weeks. I don't know when I'll be online again.

I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day!!! I miss you all!!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Travelling in Cameroon

2009-02-01T08:34:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well in the US. Travelling in Africa has been very interesting. After being in Maroua, we travelled back to N'Gaoundéré for one night. Prosper, Adrienne, and I stayed with Prosper's parents and the rest of the team stayed with his sister. Then, we travelled East to Touboro for an overnight stay. We did a program there for over 1000 people!! It was awesome--even though we couldn't project very well. We heard 6 choirs sing and the last one invited us to dance with them. It has been strange to hear from African choirs. They sing very different from me and their style is very different. In Touboro, we all stayed in host homes close to the church. It was nice to be able to walk place instead of taking motos or taxis. From Touboro, we went back to Prosper's house for a few days. We were supposed to go to Tibati, but 3 of the 6 of us were sick; so we decided to wait a day. Unfortunately, we didn't go to Tibati at all because the pastor didn't have a phone and didn't hear from our main contact in Cameroon soon enough; so, they were waiting most of the day for us to arrive. Our main contact decided we would not go to Tibati because of hard feelings of us not being there when they expected us. We felt bad, but also really needed rest. Thankfully, I have not gotten sick, but I sometimes have difficulty breathing because of all of the dust, exhaust, and smoke.

After doing resting and having a day of doing team jobs in N'Gaoundéré, we took a long, terrible bus ride Southwest to Banyo. The roads were the worst we have had so far. They were really bumpy and there were no windows on the bus. It was about a 10 bus ride. We were covered in dust when we arrived. Thankfully, we found out that we didn't have a program that night. Usually when we arrive somewhere people ask us if we want to wash before doing anything. We had a day of rehearsal and devos followed by an evening program. From Banyo, we took a bumpy bus ride South to Bafoussam, the main business city in Cameroon. We did a program in Bafoussam that was supposed to start at 5 and started at almost 8. We enjoyed "sleeping in" (loud noises always wake us up) the next morning. Then the pastor showed us a beautiful waterfall near the city. He also took us to the kings palace, but we barely got to see it because it was closing; however, the architecture was old and beautiful.

From Bafoussam, we took a large bus to Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. We waited on the bus for about three hours before it left. We are starting to get used to waiting. Now that we are in Southern Cameroon, it is quite humid again. I have actually grown to appreciate the humidity because it makes it easier for us to sing, but it definitely gets is hot when we are trying to sleep. Yesterday and today, we enjoyed wonderful thunderstorms with rain. Rain is hard to come by during the dry season--which we are in, but is happening some now because of global climate change. The rainy season is from April to October. While driving into Yaoundé, we saw the president's house on a hill in the distance. I was surprized to hear that President Biya has been president of Cameroon for 28 years because he change the constitution. We do not have a program in Yaoundé, but we sang a few songs for church this morning.

It has been challenging for our team treasurer, Sonja, to deal with money because we can't cash our traveller's checks because of the poor US economy. We go to the bank at least every other day when we are in big cities. Sonja has done a wonderful job at being frugal. Thankfully, I haven't been spending much money. Actually, most of it has gone to paying for internet, calling home, or buying a cool drink. It is an interesting feeling to be totally content with what you have and not need to buy more. However, I am anxious to receive our team outfits that are being sewn. The choirs here all have matching outfits, so we decided that we would buy some fabric and have outfits sewn for us.

I am starting to get used to the dust, the smells, and the sounds of Cameroon. They can often be very overwhelming: ranging from smoke to garbage smells or from screaming children to loud roosters (also known as alarm clocks at 4 or 5 am). The scenery has been great. I really enjoy the humid place because of the beautiful flowers and plants.

Tomorrow, we will travel East to Bertoua and Garoua Boulai (where I will get to see my friend Etienne that I work at camp with). It is hard to believe that we have been here for three weeks. In two weeks, we should be to Benin--if we are able to get flight tickets.

Peace,

Tiffany

Some stuff to get used to...

2009-01-26T09:09:00.006-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Here is just a random list of things that I have had to get used to here in Cameroon. I hope you enjoy.

Some stuff to get used to...
riding in crowded buses
bumpy roads
no running water
using a bucket of water to take shower
enjoying cold showers
sweating
going to the bathroom in a hole
taking malaria pills every day
using mosquito nets
eating bread when meals aren't provided
no milk or dairy
more pop than usual
not getting a day off
eating fish
eating plantains
hearing French
speaking French
communicating with guestures--it can work pretty well!!
hearing languages I don't know at all-- Fulani, Biya, etc.
watching TV in French
watching TV in English, with louder French
riding motorcycle taxis
being tired
using CFA--Cameroon's money
not being able to exchange our traveller's checks
--because of the US' poor economy
seeing garbage everywhere
seeing goats everywhere
being exhausted
hot weather
humid weather
dry weather
sun
dust
more dust
purifying water
doing laundry without a machine
feeling helpless because I'm a woman
seeing people throughout Cameroon who Prosper knows
drinking delicious juices
eating really good fruit
being dehydrated
cockroaches
mice
being woken up at 4 or 5 by roosters or other birds
kids staying up as late as their parents
usually having one or more people on the team who is sick
singing in different climates
performing in front of large (1000+) audiences
projecting my voice and guitar outside or for lots of people
singing in different languages
waiting for the translator to talk before continuing
hearing African choirs
slow computers at internet cafés
being flexible
being really flexible
feeling dizzy
having people in Cameroon who know South Dakota
--because it is a partnering synod in the ELCA
being asked about Obama
being in another country while the US got a new president
feeling bad for having a camera
feeling bad for having an I-pod
being stared at because I'm white
being called "white person" in French
waiting
waiting some more
missing my friends and family

Peace,

Tiffany

I'm in Africa

2009-01-22T14:43:00.004-05:00

Hello Everyone,

Finally, I have the chance to write on my blog. The internet here is really slow and the keyboard is different. So far, my time in Cameroon has been really good. We had a full day of travel to arrive in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. We really enjoyed our first program in Cameroon. The audiences here are very interactive, which makes it more fun for us. We stayed at the Catholic missionary house in Douala. We are partnering with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon--related to the ELCA. After several days of humidity in Douala, we took a bus to Yaounde, the captial of Cameroon. From there, we took a 18 hour train ride to N'Gaoundere, where my teammate Prosper is from. The trainride was way too long, but we made it. N'Gaoundere is where the bishop is, so we met him and stayed at the Norwegian missionary house. It was neat because Sonja translate some Norwegian for us. We took an 8 hour bus ride to Maroua--on an extremely packed bus with our luggage on top. It was hot-- in the 90s and we were all tired. We did 2 programs in Maroua, then travelled south again for 3 hours to Baroua. In Baroua, we got to stay with host homes for the first time. It was a very interesting experience as most of us don't speak much French, but we all did fine. Thankfully, my host dad spoke some English.

Overall, I have really enjoyed being in Cameroon. I am glad that I am missing the cold of the midwest. It has been hot 70s and up to 110 here, but most of it has been okay. I got to go on a safari!!! We went to Waza National Park north of Maroua for our day off; it was the day after Adrienne's birthday. We saw giraffes, ostriches, herons, warthogs, and many various antelope -like animals: We saw a lot of beautiful birds. Unfortunately, we didn't see any elephants or hippos that the park is known for because we were there in the dry season. It was a really neat experience to see animals in the wild; I just wish they would have been closer.

It has been very interesting being a white person in the midst of many black people. I have been a minority before and that doesn't bother me, but it is funny to hear people say "white person" in French every time I walk or drive by. Most of our transportation once we get in the cities has been motorcylce taxis, which are quite an adventure with our bags. The kids here seem to really like me in particular for some reason. One girl fell asleep on my lap on the long train ride. Another played with my hair and another jumped rope with me. It has been especially interesting to be an American in Cameroon during the Obama transitition and inauguration. People over here love Obama; they often ask us about Obama or if we voted for him. They also have a lot of hope in Obama. Talking about Obama has got us passed several passport checkpoints (they didn't look at our passports). Thankfully, I did get to watch most of the inauguration, some in French and some in English. It was strange to be here while the US got a new president.

Culture shock hasn't been to bad for me as I have been to place of poverty before. However, the constant travelling on buses is tough. For the most part, Cameroon has been what I expected.

The food here has been really good!! I have enjoyed rice, coocoos, fish, chicken, beef, fried plantains, fruit (mangos, pineapple, banana, etc;), and French fries. The sauces that they put on things are usually really good! I really like a drink that we often have that is similar to grape juice, but made with a fruit I don't know. Surprizingly, I don't mind the fish here (I don't like it at home). I think it makes a huge difference that I am closer to the ocean here.

Sorry it has been so long since I wrote on here, but internet it hard to come by. I don't know how long it will be until I write again. I miss you! I hope everything is going great for you in US!

Peace,

Tiffany

Off to Africa

2009-01-02T10:30:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone,

My Christmas break was fun and snow-filled. I really enjoyed being home, but the time went fast. After a week of preparations in Minnesota, the Cross Fire team will be headed to West Africa!! I am really excited about going to Africa. I am glad that I will get to miss most of winter. I am anxious to learn about their cultures and lifestyles. However, I am also nervous about many things: the food, my lack of French, my health, the heat, and the humidity. We start in Cameroon. We fly from Minneapolis to Chicago, to Frankfurt, to Zurich, to Douala.

I don't know how often I will be able to write blogs in Africa, but please check back when you can. Also, if you would like me to call you when I am overseas, please add me (tiffany.janssen) as a contact on Skype.

Please pray for our team as we travel overseas!

Peace,

Tiffany

The End of Our Fall Tour/ Training/ Christmas

2008-12-26T07:56:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Sorry that it has been so long since my last blog, but most of the free space was taken by my time at midwinter training, where we didn't have internet.

Friday, December 5, we traveled to a snowy country home near Fairchild, Wisconsin. We didn't have any programming there, but we enjoyed socializing with our teammates and our hosts. While on the drive there, Amber (the team ministries manager from the YE office) called and asked us what we wanted to do for our one week break after Africa because she was booking our flights and needed to know if we wanted an extended layover somewhere. After some deliberation, all of the girls on our team decided that we will go to Sonja's home in Denmark. We are all very excited to meet her family and see her home country! We will go there in May.

Saturday, we left Fairchild for Cottage Grove, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. Saturday night, we did our full worship service for a small crowd. For Sunday, the team did two songs for worship. Sadly, I wasn't feeling well at all on Sunday, so I didn't sing for worship that day. I came down with a stomach flu.

After worship on Sunday, we drove into the city and met Rachel, Luke's girlfriend. We went with her to a Swahili church service; Rachel was on the Cross Fire team to East Africa last year. It was an interesting service; we really appreciated having translators during the sermon. Next, we went to the YE office in St. Paul. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon helping teams park their vans in a parking lot across for the office that a business lent to us. We had to squish nine vans and trailers into a very small area because of a cranky man saying no one could park where they had (even though the parking lot was almost empty). It was probably about 10 below, so we weren't happy to be spending and hour or so out in the cold. After going out for supper, we went into the Upper Room to meet all of the teams for worship. We enjoyed a really neat Advent service. Then, went to our host churches to sleep. The girls had to drive way out to Stillwater for their host church.

Beginning on Monday, our time was full of different sessions led mostly by members of the YE office staff. The acoustic international teams had a session on malaria. All of the international teams listened to a few sessions on cross-cultural training, including a long session about how to deal with culture shock. Everyone spent some time do job training; therefore, I talked to Heather (the director of international teams) about how our programming was going. Wednesday, we recorded four of our songs. We had to travel on snow/ice covered roads to get to the house we were recording at. It was a neat studio. Look on the Youth Encounter website for our CDs (I don't know when they'll be coming out). Wednesday night, we enjoyed shared our van song with Dan and all of the other teams. We won the competition for the best van song! Read (or sing) the song below to see why.

'Twas the week before midwinter, and all through the van,
the Cross Fire team was writing this song for Dan.
'Tis spoken by puppets, but this much is true
All that you hear is from Cross Fire's van's view...

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Honk the horn, honk the horn,
I am Cross Fire's van.
They have hitched up Walter to me to drive across the land (Honk!)
Honk the horn, honk the horn,
Trofast is my name,
They will take good care of me for Dan 'cause he's the man.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of The First Noel)
The first time they drove me, I broke down three times
So they called to their rescue the vehicle crew guys
Christian Bane, Brandon Golden, & Dain Swanson
And leading them all was our hero, Big Dan.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of O Come, O Come Emmanuel)
I drove them safely to Ohio State
Where they worshipped, ate and stayed up late
Then early 'fore the sun arose
A homeless dude stole their laptop, soap, and clothes
Rejoice! Rejoice! The credit cards Jay found
By dumpster driving all around the grounds.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of Silent Night)
Who made that dent? Who made that dent?
Cross Fire is innocent.
Many ask, some don't believe,
Another team this dent did leave.
Dan, please fix my dent. Dan, please fix my dent.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of Sleigh Ride)
It's Monday morning and we're on the expressway.
We're headed to Virginia Beach for our fun-filled day.
Outside the sun is shining and look there's Johnny McCain
But from further commentary on that we must abstain.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of Baby, It's Cold Outside)
I should never back up,
But sometimes you have to dear.
I should never back up
'Cause I've got such a big rear.
I should never back up,
But if you do, we'll spot for you if you have to.
So, roll the windows down.
The windows are down.
And turn the radio off.
It's already off.
All the tolls have been paid.
Cross Fire, Bonne journée!

With that song, we won fudge, Christmas cookies and the game 20 questions.

Thursday, all of the teams traveled north to Luther Point Bible Camp near Grantsburg, Wisconsin (where the international teams were for part of their training in the fall). That evening, we did our family night program for all of the team. Strangely, it was our best program yet. It helped to have a bunch of other people to sing along with us. Throughout the rest of our time at camp, we heard all of the teams do their programs. They were all great! We also told stories about our fall tour and met with our team. Each team had a staff person who had helped them talk about tough issues. It was difficult, but helpful. We also enjoyed a time of solitude, during which we remained silent. I really enjoyed the time to just be and think. It was nice to slow down after a busy fall. We also had sometime to enjoy the frigid outdoors at the camp. Most of the days were below 10 degrees; one day, we enjoyed a heat wave of 25 degrees. It is really sad when 25 degrees is a heat wave, but it was amazing how warm it felt after the freezing temps. Much of the time at camp was spent reconnecting with the other teams. Before we knew it, Tuesday, we were headed back to the Cities. Tuesday afternoon/evening, we all went our separate directions. Luke, Lindsay, and Adrienne flew home. Sonja went to Brett's house, where she is with her sister; Brett is her sister's boyfriend. Prosper came home with me. My parents drove to the office to pick us up; this was not an easy task for them. It was snowing a bit and the roads were slick. The four drive took them seven hours because the extra three hours that it took them to drive in the traffic and poor weather of the Twin Cities. Because they arrived late, we decided to drive for a short time and then go to a hotel.

Wednesday, we finally got home. It feels really nice to be home, even though it is cold and there is a lot of snow on the ground. Prosper and I enjoyed playing in the snow for awhile. We cross-country skied, shoveled snow, made snow angels, used the snow blower, through snow at each other and my dog Shiloh, shoveled snow of the roof, and jumped into a snow bank from the roof. It was a good experience for Prosper, since he is from Cameroon, where it never gets below freezing. We have enjoyed a relaxing time at my house. We had Shanes over for Christmas. We had a great Christmas. My most interesting gift was a two string guitar from Africa; I got it from Prosper. Today, we are all going down to my grandparents in Syracuse, Nebraska.

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Happy New Year!

Peace,

Tiffany

In Indiana and Illinois

2008-12-04T22:30:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone,

Monday, I enjoyed spending my day off with my amazing college friend Elizabeth. She gave me a tour of Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne. We had a fun time catching up. Monday evening, the whole team met up with Ua, who was our on the road staff person and helped us during training. We met him at a Christian open mic night. It was really fun. Ua and Luke played some of Ua's songs together. We also got to watch others perform. Unfortunately, the roads were slick as we traveled back to our host homes, but we stayed safe.

Tuesday, we traveled to St. John, Indiana, where Adrienne's grandparents are. We stopped by her grandparents' house for awhile before having a family night program at their church. The program went really well even though we hadn't had one for awhile.

Wednesday, we drove to Tracy Methodist Church in Hamlet, Indiana. We met together as a team for awhile before being part of an amazing potluck. It was probably the best potluck I've been to--and it wasn't even Lutherans! We really enjoyed talking to people during the meal. Afterwards, we introduced ourselves and the audience asked us some questions about what we like about Christmas and what we do as a team. One audience member asked us to sing, so even though we weren't warmed up, we sang a song for them. In the midst of our songs, we heard bells ringing, so we stopped and began to sing "Jingle Bells" instead because Santa Clause was arriving. This was a really great Santa Clause! He was really entertaining for the adults and the kids loved him. Santa answered the kids questions using well known Christmas movies with Santa in them. We took a team photo with Santa and I got to sit on his lap. Maybe my Christmas wish will come true!!

Thursday, we spent some time talking about excellent communication and effective processes so we can improve our work and relationships as a team. It was somewhat challenging, but I think it helped to get some feelings out. After that, we drove past Chicago to Oak Park, Illinois. We got there early so we worked on writing our van song for midwinter training. Dan, the vehicle man, asks all of the teams to perform a song for everyone at midwinter training and the top few get a prize. We are very hopeful. After midwinter training is over, I will post the song on this blog.

Friday, we will go to Fairchild, Wisconsin. On Saturday, we will be in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Midwinter training begins on Sunday!! It is so hard to believe that our fall tour is almost over. It went really fast. I have mixed feelings about midwinter training. We will be with all of the teams, when I would prefer to be with just the international teams. During midwinter training, we will record four of our songs, do our program for all of the other teams, reconnect with other teams, and share stories about our fall tour. The first few days of it will take place in the Twin Cities, but we will go to Luther Point for most of it.

Peace,

Tiffany

PA & OH

2008-11-29T08:20:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Last Saturday, we traveled to Lehighton, Pennsylvania. We played pool, foosball, and cards with youth in the youth room at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church before and after a family night program. Sunday, we did an offering song and anthem for two worship service; but otherwise, we just enjoyed the services. Between the services, we did an hour of sing-alongs for Sunday school. There was quite an age variety for Sunday school, which made it very interesting for us, but we had a lot of fun.

During the second service, we had to leave to get to Dubois, Pennsylvania. At Christ Lutheran Church, we did a 30 minute music opening for a group of junior students before Catechism class. Then, we went to host homes.

Monday, for our day off, we came into town and stayed at the Pastor's house. Lindsay, Sonja, and I went to the movie Twilight and then we all went to the mall for a short time. Tuesday, we did a few songs with preschoolers. They were really fun and energetic.

Tuesday, we left Dubois for Massillon, OH, where the NFL Hall of Fame is. No, I didn't go there and we were told by the pastor that football isn't as big of deal as it used to be there because their team isn't very good. Massillon was a last minute booking for us, so we didn't have any programming. Instead, we got to hang out at their church. They fed us some pizza and talked to us for awhile before we had some one-on-ones and played ping pong, scrabble, and cornhole (like bean bag toss). Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast with a few people from the church.

Wednesday, we traveled on to Pickerington, Ohio, where Luke is from. We went to his parents, Tim and Linda. Once again, they have proved to be amazing hosts. We cooked them an amazing chicken or shrimp pesto/alfredo rice dish. It was really good, but I can't say I helped much with the meal as I was feeling rather sick. We shared the meal with Luke's family including his parents, twin sister Anna, brother John and his wife Val and baby Madeline. We all enjoyed taking our turn holding the baby; she is so cute!

Thursday, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at Luke's house. In the morning I watched Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Luke, Sonja, Prosper, Anna, and Tim all went for a four mile run--and they have medals and wine to prove it. Our meal was amazing! We all shared what we were thankful for. I was especially thankful for my home a way from home, since it was my first Thanksgiving away from home. In the afternoon, Luke and his family fell asleep watching football, while the rest of us went on walks, watched TV, and took naps. It was a relaxing afternoon. Some of Linda's family came over to eat dessert, which was pumpkin and apple pies and brownies. After they left I enjoyed watching Friends (which I've been deprived of so long) with Prosper in the basement.

Friday, the team all completed a survey to see how we thought team life was going. Soon, we will be discussing our results. Hopefully, it will help us become a more effective team. According to the survey, the main categories of an effective team are excellent communication, solid relationships, effective processes, accepted leadership, appropriate roles, and common purpose. Friday, afternoon, Linda took the girls to the movie The Secret Life of Bees, which is a great movie that I highly recommend--but I warn you may cry, even though I didn't (all the other women did).

Today, Saturday, we will be doing some team work before doing some songs for a worship service tonight. Sunday, we do some music at three worship services at Epiphany Lutheran Church, where Luke's dad is a pastor. Sunday after church, we head to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I will get to see my awesome college friend Elizabeth.

Thanks for keeping up with me.

Peace,

Tiffany

Finally, more pics!

2008-11-28T19:36:00.010-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Finally, here are some more pictures. Sorry it took me so long; but our computer has been slow lately. Most of these are around Halloween. The first two pictures are when Luke, Prosper, and I were helping with a Halloween Trick or Trunk event. I was behind the blanket putting candy on the clothespins, while kids were waiting to "catch a fish." Later, the Pastor came and helped and brought some stuffed animals for us to give away. Most of the time, we had trouble keeping the stuffed animals on the fishing line; so, we decided to opt for flying fish--meaning flying stuffed animals. It was really fun for us and the kids.

We were asked to go to a school to lead some songs and teach the kids some drums. Luke was great a leading drum sessions.

This is where we did are electric set-up program, complete with lights. We felt like rock stars. Don't worry, the feelings didn't stick.

This is one of our two puppet shows. I am the mouse "Grace" on the left.

This was our public school program, which was very interesting since we are used to private schools and preschools.

This was Halloween night. We did two sets of music. Afterwards, Prosper and I went Trick or Treating throughout the church.

Beautiful autumn leaves.

Adrienne had a wonderful friend at a nursing home; he made her a dog and lovebirds out of balloons.

Peace,

Tiffany

P.S. Look at the next few blogs to see pictures of birthday, DC, and NYC!

Pics of my birthday[s] (it seemed to last forever!)

2008-11-28T19:24:00.010-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Here are some pictures of my birthday celebrations. Being sung to at a school chapel, having two cookie cakes, and having a chocolate cake. I felt really blessed.

This is where we staying in Hurricane, WV on my birthday. It was a beautiful, but foggy, area.

Prosper gets rather competitive when he plays ping-pong. He left a dent in the wall! No worries, ours hosts were laughing and forgiving.

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of NYC!

2008-11-28T10:20:00.020-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Here are some more fun pictures of Cross Fire. I hope you enjoy the pics of NYC!

This is the New York City skyline.

This is the United Nations builiding.

We stopped at Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers were. The sign said "Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on" and "May we never forget."

Now, the Freedom Tower is under construction at the site.

It is nice to see that they are rebuilding, but strange to remember something when that is what is happening.

Below is NBC News in Rockefeller Center.

Below is pictures of the team in Rockefeller Center.

This is one of the ice skating rinks in Central Park.

This is Prosper in Time Square!

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of Mar-lou Ridge, DC, and New Jersey

2008-11-24T10:20:00.018-05:00

Hi Everyone,

The beautiful nature shots below were taken at Mar-lou Ridge, a camp in Maryland. What a view!!

On a day off, we went to Washington D.C. I was our tour guide. This is me at the Capitol, where they are getting ready for Obama's inauguration address.

Below is the White House. We saw the first dog in the distance!

Wow! Look how powerful Sonja is! She's holding Washington Monument down.

This is the WWII Memorial.

This is the Lincoln Memorial.

After our program at Lindsay's church in Verona, New Jersey; Lindsay was surprised with a check from her church.

Here is a picture of the whole team at Lindsay's house.

Thanks for looking at the pictures.

Peace,

Tiffany

VA, NJ, NY, and NYC

2008-11-22T08:17:00.007-05:00

Hello Everyone,

At Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Arlington, Virginia, we ate supper Tuesday night and then went to our host homes. Luke and I enjoyed some a game of UNO with the host kids--it was a long game (we played that you had to draw until you could play), but it was fun. Sadly, I lost, but only because Luke was helping the kid I was playing. On Wednesday morning, we did a chapel for elementary kids.

Wednesday, we drove past DC, to get to Verona, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. I learned that New Jersey is basically made up of suburbs of New York City and suburbs of Philadelphia. New Jersey is also the most densely packed state. In Verona, we went to Lindsay's church, Calvary Lutheran Church. We stopped at Lindsay's house for awhile and met her siblings. After setting up, we went out for Chinese with 15 or youth from the church. We had a family program which ended with the church presenting Lindsay with a $1000 check. She was very surprised and happy.

Thursday, we relaxed for awhile at our host home. We had an amazing host. Thursday afternoon, we drove past NYC to Yonkers, New York. We went to Sunrise Senior Living, a nursing home. We did a family night program in the nursing home chapel for members of the pastor's congregation. After our program, we worked on learning French. Our progress on French has been slow, but hopefully we will pick it up easily when we go to Africa. Eventually, we hope to do almost all of our program in French. Now, we are working on translating our songs and learning them in French.

Friday morning, we played for some residents at the nursing home that we are staying with. After that, the pastor led a small service of songs, Scripture, and Communion. Since that was our only programming for the day, we went to New York City for the day. It was my first time in NYC. The pastor drove us around for awhile before dropping us off. He took us by Yankee Stadium, many of the neat looking bridges, the UN, the Statue of Liberty (way off in the distance), Trump Tower, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Wall Street. We got out for awhile at Ground Zero--where the Twin Towers were. Now, there are a few signs and they are building the Freedom Tower. The signs said "Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on" and "May we never forget." They were with reliefs of fire fighters and police officers. There was a poster with pictures of all of the NYC firefighters that helped after the attacks. We got back in the pastor's van again before the pastor dropped us off near Grand Central Station. From there, we walked to Rockefeller Center. We saw the Christmas tree, the ice skating rink, and NBC headquarters. After that, we walked north to go to Central Park. We walked around the park for awhile. It was a pretty cold (30s) day; we were outside walking for most of it. From Central Park, we walked south to Time Square. We ate supper at an Irish Pub, where I had a really good shepherd's pie. Next, we went to Grand Central Station and took the subway up to the Bronx, where we got on a bus back to Yonkers. Overall, I really enjoyed our trip to NYC, but I wish I could have seen more and wish the weather would have been nicer.

Today, Saturday, we our heading to Lehighton, Pennsylvania.

Peace,

Tiffany

WV, MD, VA, and DC

2008-11-17T21:27:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone,

Thursday, we left North Carolina for West Virginia. It was a rainy day, and we had a long drive. When I we came to the van, I was met my team were showed me the birthday cake that they made for me. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me. When got to Hurricane, West Virginia, we were early; so, we went out for dessert. Lucky for me it was my birthday, so I got a free dessert and was sung to once again. When we got the church, we got our mail. I was overjoyed to see many cards for my birthday as well as some delicious cookies (thanks mom!!). Thursday evening, the pastor took us out to Pizza Hut.

Friday morning, we had the fun opportunity to help out at a food pantry. We helped arrange stuff on the shelves, helped pack carts people who came for food, and helped people put stuff in their cars. I really enjoyed being there; it was a nice change from our usual programming. Friday night, we had a family night program. It went okay, but it was tough to have a program after not having one for awhile. After the program, we got to enjoy a large cookie cake that they got me for my birthday.

Saturday, we left West Virginia for Mar Lou Ridge, a camp Maryland. We joined six confirmation kids and two adults. We played some songs for them and then enjoyed socializing with them through conversation and games.

Sunday morning, we led most of the Sunday service at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hagerstown, MD. The congregation was used to having two services, one traditional and one contemporary, but the pastor decided to have one service when we were there with the theme of unity--which fits well with our theme of one. Luke give a sermon about unity, which was much needed.

Sunday afternoon, we got to Alexandria, Virginia, which is a suburb of D.C. While in Alexandria, we stayed at St. John's Lutheran Church, where DJ (a person who was on a YE team last year) goes to church. It has been nice hanging out with DJ since he helped us at training.

Monday, we slept in and then went to Washington D.C. for our day off. It was a chilly and cloudy day, but I really enjoyed it. We did quite a bit of walking and saw the Capital, the White House, the First Dog!, Washington Monument, WW II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Jefferson Monument. Because it was my fourth time to D.C., I was the team's tour guide, which I really enjoyed!!

Tomorrow, we travel to the nearby city of Arlington, Virginia. On Wednesday, we head further north to New Jersey. Thursday, we head to Younkers, NY. We are hoping that we get to go to NYC, but we don't know for sure yet.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Peace,

Tiffany

More in the Carolinas

2008-11-12T20:28:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone,

On election day, we traveled to Salisbury, North Carolina to Christ United Methodist Church. We had wonderful hosts there. I really enjoyed talking to my hosts about where we had traveled. I stayed up to late Tuesday waiting for election results. Thankfully, we didn't start until 9:30 Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning, we went to a nursing home to perform before doing some team stuff. The nursing home was great; we especially enjoyed the man who made Adrienne some balloon love birds and a balloon dog. After some relaxing time,we did a family night program, which was different from our normal program because it was 45 minutes instead of 1 hour and 15 minutes. As the Program Coordinator, I was responsible for cutting our program down to 45 minutes like the church wanted; it was difficult, but I did it. The congregation was great and was really interested in what we were doing, so we stayed and talk to people for quite awhile there. We didn't find out where we were going Thursday until Wednesday night. Unfortunately, we weren't booked at a church; but instead, we got to go back to stay with Lindsay's aunt in Raleigh, NC.

After finally learning that where we would going, on Thursday, we traveled to Raleigh. Thursday, we just drove and then relaxed. We enjoyed watching movies, having 1x1s (meeting with teammates individually), learning French, being outside, sleeping in, and cooking. It was strange to not have any programming. Relaxing at Lindsay's aunt's house was a nice change of pace.

Saturday, we drove south again to South Carolina to Messiah Lutheran Church in Mauldin. We didn't having any programming Saturday night, but we enjoyed relational ministry with our host homes. Our host family was having a football party, so we were surprised with many people when we came. We enjoyed interacting with people, but it was a bit overwhelming because we were exhausted from the drive. Sunday morning, we did a few songs for worship. For the most part, we got to worship with their praise band leading.

Sunday afternoon, we ate lunch a nice park in Mauldin before going to Simpsonville, South Carolina, which is not far from Mauldin. We slept at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Simpsonville. We all had our own air mattresses. It was a change from being in host homes, but wasn't too bad. Monday morning, we woke up to the church alarm going off. Prosper had opened up the door because he heard somebody knocking, but unfortunately, the alarm mysteriously was turned on. Thankfully, the guys eventually got the alarm off (after shooing the girls away). Monday, wasn't as much of a day off as I might have hoped...the alarm was only the beginning. I got the bad news from my mom that my brother was in the hospital. Now, he is home again.

Tuesday, we did a preschool program at Immanuel before heading back north to St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Hickory, North Carolina. Once we got to Hickory, we did a sound check and then went to our host homes. It was a nice change to be able to spend an evening with our host homes. Usually, we have evening programs, so we don't get to spend much time with host homes. At my host home in Hickory, the kids were full of energy and fun to play with, but they were also very draining.

Wednesday, we did a chapel for a large (over 200) group of students from preschool to 8th grade at the school. They were a fun group of kids. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me and few kids. We hung out in their youth house for awhile and rehearsed in the afternoon. Wednesday, I came home to a wonderful meal! My host home decided to make me steak and baked potatoes for my birthday. We also had an amazing cookie cake with frosting to celebrate. It was really nice to have so many birthday thoughts about me before it was even my birthday!

Thursday, my birthday, we head to Hurricane, West Virginia.

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of Savannah!

2008-11-07T08:29:00.020-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Here are some pics of our day of in Savannah, GA. It was a beautiful and we enjoyed walking around in the historic district.

We saw Juliet Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts, birthplace. This is Prosper, Sonja, and I by a beautiful fountain there.

We took a pictures by a London phone booth...

...in Savannah.

Just swinging!

This is at the Cathedral of John the Baptist.

This is in the cemetery in Savannah. We enjoyed the large trees that were full of Spanish moss.

Nothing like meeting Obama in Savannah!!

This is Prosper on the riverwalk of Savannah.

Peace,

Tiffany

On Being Electric...

2008-11-04T07:55:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Last Monday, we enjoyed a wonderful day off in the Historic District of Savannah, GA. We saw many beautiful parks, Juliet Gordon Low's (the founder of Girl Scouts) first house, and the Riverwalk. We also enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Tuesday, we had the morning to do team stuff. That evening, we help with Trunk or Treat at a school. It was a really fun Halloween time where kids would come to the trunks of cars and say trick or treat. Our booth was a fishing pond, where the kids through the line over a blanket to "fish" for some candy or a stuffed animal. Often times, we could not get the stuffed animals to stay on the clothespins, so we decided to gently toss the "fish" over the blanket. Everyone was greatly entertained by this. It was a very fun, but slightly cold, evening.

Wednesday, we left Pooler for Dacula, GA; a suburb of Atlanta. At Bebron Baptist, we did a family night program. Cross Fire is an acoustic team, but recently we haven't been!!! Starting at Bebron Baptist, we have been electric. That means guitars were plugged in, mics were used, and big lights were shining on us. For the first time, I felt sort of like a rock star, even though I didn't sound like one. It was a very interesting experience. Most of us struggle with it a lot because it took forever to set-up, we had to worry about whether or not we could change positions because of mics, and we weren't used to being so loud. Before the program, we were very stressed. However, the program went pretty well and was very well we received. The program was mostly for high-schoolers, and after the program many of them came up to us saying they were really touched by the program or that they would like to join a YE team in the future.

After Dacula, we traveled to Charlotte, NC to St. Andrew's United Methodist Church. While were were there, we got to stay in the church instead of with host homes. Thursday night, we went out to eat and talked about programming. Friday afternoon, we had our first (and hopefully only) public school program. We had to take all religious language out of our program. Non-religious songs aren't in our repertoire!! Oh well, we successfully got through a program, with a silent skit, a puppet show, and a few cross-cultural songs. Friday night, we played two electric sets of music during a Halloween celebration. Between and after the sets, the kids went trick or treating around the church. Prosper and I were also invited to go trick or treating! There is a kids inside of all of us. It was fun to see the kids all dressed up.

Saturday, we drove back to Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, NC. That evening, we just set-up. After that, I went with my host home to the Cary Marching Band Competition. It was really fun, even though we didn't see many bands. Sunday, we led the majority of two worship services. Sunday was International Youth Encounter Day!! We also went around with some high-school musicians to all of the Sunday school rooms to help lead a song or two. It was interesting for us because we let the class pick which song (from the high-schoolers list) that we would play. So, after learning the key, I figured out how to play many songs without music, just lyrics. Sunday evening, we had a family night program. Once again, we were electric, but this time we only had about a half an hour to set-up and warm-up; we are supposed to be greeting a half an hour before, not setting up. It was stressful, but we got through it. On the last song, the sound system decided to join in with muffled sound, making an interesting ending to the program.

Monday, we finally enjoyed our much needed day off! For the part, I relaxed, slept, watched TV, and watched a movie. I was very tired after a week of being electric. I just stayed at my host home.

Tuesday (election day!!), we head to Salisbury, NC

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of fun!!

2008-11-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone,

Here are some more pics of Cross Fire's many moments of fun.

On one of our day's off, we got to go to Virginia Beach. We decided that we would bury Luke in the sand. He became King Luke the Merman!!

This is at Lindsay's aunt's house in Raleigh, NC. We really enjoyed relaxing there during hole in our booking schedule.

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to a farm Vollimer's Farm was an awesome place with pumpkins, corn mazes, a large (plastic) pumpkin to bounce on, and a sandbox full of corn to play in. It was a very enjoyable time!!

Luke got the chance to be buried in corn while we were at the farm. Sonja enjoyed swimming in the corn. If you have never played in corn before, I strongly recommend it!!

This when Prosper joined our team. Luke was very excited to finally have another guy on the team. We went out to Steak and Shake to celebrate Prosper's arrival.

This is one of our preschool programs.

Sonja had a bit of difficulty with her puppet, considering it wanted to eat her!!

Prosper admiring our John the Baptist puppet. John the Baptist is great at randomly saying "prepare ye the way of the Lord" during puppet shows. It hasn't happened yet, but were all very excited for it to happen.

I hope you enjoyed these pics!

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of my whole team!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-27T10:01:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Since Prosper joined us, we had to take a new promo picture for posters. So, finally, here is the whole Cross Fire team!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Adding a Teammate!

2008-10-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Since my last post, Cross Fire has been working on adding Prosper to our team. At Living Springs Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Carolina, we did a preschool program. It was good for Prosper see us do our preschool program so he was ready to join in on our next on. Since Heather and Prosper joined us on Monday night, we have spent a lot of time adjusting him to team (rehearsal, relationship building, job training, etc.). Thursday, we traveled on to Pooler, GA to Abundant Life Church. We are in the midst of a one week stay in Pooler, which is a rare length to stay in one place. It has been both fun and challenging to stay in one place for so long after being used to going to a new place every one, two, or three days.

Adding Prosper to our team has been easier than I expected. Prosper is a very fast learner. Prosper plays drums (djembe) and other percussive instruments including many kinds of shakers; he also plays a bit of guitar. The unique African sound that he brings to our group is really excited. It is awesome to have a drummer from Africa given that the djembe (see left) originated in West Africa. Thankfully, our rehearsals with Prosper have further encouraged others to learn new instruments. I am excited for my teammates to learn guitar so that I can learn the drums for a change in instrument. It was nice to have Heather here to help Prosper fit into our team and we really enjoyed her musical input.

While in Pooler, we also spent a fair amount of time talking about team stuff. We talked about our personalities, our spirituality types, and our conflict resolution styles. We also had a much needed discussion about how we thought things were going so far. Each of us got the chance to meet with Heather to talk about how things have been going. Sadly, Heather left us on Friday.

Here in Pooler, we have done a variety of things at Abundant Life; we have sat in on a Bible study, done a family night program, played at a nursing home, led a youth program, led Sunday worship for Reformation Sunday, and gone to a community wide Reformation service. Pastor Seth has been great; he led a really go devotion for our team.

Today is our day off! Since we are near Savannah, we will be going downtown on the river walk today. Hopefully, we will also have time to go to the beach. Today, we get to use our team outing money--money from Youth Encounter to go out and have fun together (once a month).
We are all very excited!!

Wednesday, we head to the Atlanta area for family night program.

I hope you are all doing well!

Peace,

Tiffany

North Carolina, an ordained sister, and a new teammate!

2008-10-21T07:46:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Our first destination in North Carolina was Christ the King in Cary (which is outside of Raleigh). Christ the King is a large church that has four services on a Sunday, with two going on at a time. We had some team time there before and after leading some songs with preschoolers on Wednesday and Thursday. It was a great church that we will be returning to in the beginning of November. Thursday and Friday night, we just had housing (no programming) because of last minute bookings. We all stayed with Lindsay's aunt in Raleigh. It was a fun relaxing time, but strange not to have to do much. At Lindsay's aunts, we enjoyed meals, video games, going out shopping, and rehearsing.

Saturday, we traveled to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Goldsboro, NC to do a family night program. This congregation really appreciated our program and were very generous at helping us with our needs list and financially. Also, our hosts were great!! Sunday, we led Sunday school by singing some songs and doing our puppet show. We got to enjoy worship outside! During worship, we did the children's sermon and sang a song for the offering. Afterwards, we enjoyed an amazing potluck meal.

On Sunday, my sister, Lara, was ordained! Sadly, I had to miss the service because of my work with Cross Fire. I am glad to here that the service and reception both went well. It was tough for me to not be there with her and my relatives. Lara is on her way out to Rialto, California where she will begin her first call. I am very excited for her!!

Monday, we relaxed for our day off. We slept in, did laundry, watched TV and movies, and talked to our host families. Monday night, we all went to the airport to pick up our new teammate and Heather. Finally, our new teammate, Prosper, has arrived!! Prosper is from N'Gaougdéré, Cameroon. It is interesting to hear that he has worked at Outlaw Ranch (a Bible camp in SD), where I worked for three summers. Heather is the international team director, who will be joining us until Friday for some on the road support to help Prosper adjust to team. We enjoyed a brief outing with them to steak and shake. We all look forward to getting to know Prosper better. Luke is very happy to finally have another guy on the team.

Today, we move on to Columbia, South Carolina and then will be going to Georgia. Thanks for keeping up with me!

Peace,

Tiffany

Kentucky, Virginia, and DC

2008-10-13T22:13:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Slowly, but surely, Cross Fire has recovered from the robbery. After staying at Luke's house, we travelled on to Sayersville, Kentucky. It was a beautiful drive! We saw many trees with leaves that were changing colors (see pics in last post) and the Appalachian Mountains. We stayed at the Christian Appalachia Project (CAP)--which is a non-profit organization that provides many service to people in need. Our team led a devo and a song for a group of volunteers who were there (CAP has many volunteers; they were building houses). We toured the CAP office and led songs with preschoolers. It was interesting to learn about the program and the many services that they provide to people in the Appalachia area. After performing our puppet show for the preschoolers (see pic in last post), we got to play with the kids! We enjoyed hearing the southern twang accents that many of the kids had (I hadn't really heard it before).

Following our time in Kentucky, we had another beautiful drive through West Virginia on our way to Blacksburg, Virginia. Unfortunately, we hardly got to see the city because we got there at about 4:00 p.m., did our program at United Methodist Church, and left at 6:00 the next morning. It was our first program in a week and a half; so, it was interesting, but it went pretty well. We left Blacksburg early so that we could get to Newport News, Virginia by noon (on the other side of the state!). We were all pretty exhausted by the time we drove into Trinity Lutheran Church in Newport News. After enjoying our lunch, we did a program for 5th-8th graders at the church/school. It was a difficult performance because our contact didn't communicate her expectations very well, but we did well in spite of the surprises. I think that was our largest audience so far. It was nice to be in front of all youth; many of them had a lot of energy that showed during the songs. After the songs, they enjoyed asking us questions about Africa and about what we will be doing. Because we had such a long day, we had the rest of the afternoon and evening off, except for a potluck dinner.

Saturday morning, Sonja, Adrienne, and I got up early again. Even earlier!!! We got up at 4:00 to be at the church by 5:00 to be in D.C. by 9:00. We were invited to join several adults from the church and the acolytes to D.C. We all went to the Washington Cathedral in D.C. for a huge acolyte festival. The cathedral was packed. The service lasted about two hours, including an hour of prosessional for acolytes from many different places to prosess. It was long, but very neat to see. We sat in the balcony, which gave us a great view of the nave (see pic in last post). I really enjoyed hearing the organ and looking at the art in the building during the service. However, for me, the worship made God seem distant, instead of relational. Even though it was not my preferred style of worship, I really appreciated it. After the service, we ate lunch in the gardens outside of the cathedral. Next, we were led on a phenomenal tour by a pastor from another church (not a Washington Cathedral tour guide!) and it was amazing! He was great at explaing the architecture and its Gothic style; I especially enjoyed it because he compared it to some large churches in Europe that I have been to. He took us up the tower to see the city. Sonja really wanted to see the White House, so we took a brief drive around the National Mall, which was difficult because of extra traffic. It was another long day and we didn't get back until 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, we didn't have too much to do for worship. Lindsay led the children's sermon and Luke preached a sermon. Their messages were both great! We led some songs for Sunday School and sang a song for offering. We were all still tired and overwhelmed by the miscommunication of things, so we were ready to move on. Thankfully, we didn't have far to travel Sunday afternoon, so we relax before going to Hampton, Virginia. To relax, we went to the beach in Newport News on the James River (which looks like a lake or bay to me!). We enjoyed swimming and playing together before moving on to the next church. Sunday, we just did housing ministry, meaning that we just stayed with our host families.

Today, Monday, we went to Virginia Beach for our day off. It was really fun to be on the beach of the ocean! Being from South Dakota, oceans are a rare sight. I especially enjoyed calling my sister (who is almost a Californian, but is currently in South Dakota) to tell her that I was on the beach. On our way to the beach, we saw McCain's motorcade going north--we assume he was in there because of the many cops around the bus; it was brief, but still neat.

Tomorrow, we head on to North Carolina--a new state!! Hope you are all doing well. Keep in touch!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of OH, KY, VA, & DC

2008-10-13T09:27:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Above is a picture of our team!
On the right is Adrienne and me in front of beautiful scenery.

We were robbed at Jacob's Porch, the Lutheran Center on the Ohio State University campus. Thankfully, Pastor Jay found some of our belongings in the dumpster.

I love nature!

Above is our puppet show, which we frequently do for kids. It is about how Christ breaks down walls between us.

I still love nature!

One of my host moms played the harp, so I got to try!
Sonja, Adrienne, and I went go to go to the Washington Cathedral in DC for an acolyte festival.

More details about the pics will come soon!

Peace,

Tiffany

The Robbery :( and the Support :)

2008-10-07T09:21:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

I wish this post could be as upbeat as the last, but it won't be! Sunday night, we slept on the comfortable couches at Jacob's Porch. Monday morning, we awoke to stolen stuff. First, Sonja noticed that her purse was missing (with her personal stuff and treasurer stuff). Us four girls were sleeping upstairs (on ground level) and Luke was sleeping downstairs. We looked for it for like 20 minutes and then finally woke up Luke, our team leader. He woke up and then helped us looked for a short time, then looked to see if their was more missing. He noticed that his laptop and cell phone were both gone. We all began to panic and looked to see if our stuff was there. All of my stuff was there, because I slept in the back of the room where it was darker (and where there was a comfortable couch!). Next, we told the two residents of the place what was missing. One of them called the pastor, who came shortly. Later, Lindsay noticed that her backpack was missing. We began making a list of all that was stolen, so we would be ready for the cops. Sonja's camera, i-pod, sunglasses, and money was stolen. Also, all of our money for Youth Encounter was stolen (about $500). In the midst of her activities, Sonja missed her hand lotion and pens, which made Adrienne check her toiletry bag for hand lotion--then she realize that her toiletry bag was gone (probably because it looked kind of like a purse). The cops came and we did an incident report. Unfortunately, the side door was left unlocked, which was left unlocked accidently as it is not usually a door that is open. We explained how the robber could have seen the labtop and cell phone from the sliding glass doors, which we understand how they stole those, but they kept going. Four of us were sleeping in the room and two of the items were right next to the girls' heads (Sonja's and Lindsay's). None of us woke up! We are trying to convince ourselves that there was a reason that none of us woke up (something worse could have happened). The robber had to meander through couches to find what he did. Also, he could have taken so much more.

Thankfully, that is not the end of the story. At first, we thought that all of Sonja's cards (id and credit cards) were missing as well as the team's credit cards. After talking to the cops, Luke checked the dumpsters near the building and found some of our stuff in there. He came in and told us and Jay (the pastor) jumped in the dumpster to help us. He was amazing. We recovered Sonja's purse, which had her personal cards and the YE credit cards. Unfortunately, there was no cash in there (~$500 was stolen). Also, some of Lindsay's clothes that were in her bag were in the dumpster. We really appreciated Jay and all that he did for us! Thankfully, Sonja didn't have to replace all of her Denmark id's. We were overjoyed at that, but still overwhelmed with everything that was missing.

Monday, Jenny France (a previous contact at another Columbus church) took us out for lunch. She was very helpful and generous to us. Jay gave us some money from Jacob's porch to put us on our feet again. We were supposed to stay at Jacob's Porch again Monday night, but we went to Luke's parents instead. It was really comforting to stay with a teammates family. They cooked us an amazing meal and took us shopping (and paid for items for the people without money). They were will really great and I am anxious to be with them for Thanksgiving.

In the midst of all of this, Cross Fire has remained surprisingly calm. Yes, there were tears and moments of panic, but we held together pretty well. It will be interesting to continue on the road withouth any YE money, but I know that we will be okay because we have already received money from Jacob's Porch and will receive money from Jenny France's congregation (she's a youth pastor). While what happened was terrible, I know that we will be okay and I am thankful for all of the support we have had.

Next, we travel to Kentucky and Virginia. Hopefully, there will be pics in the next post.

Please keep Cross Fire in your prayers.

Peace,

Tiffany

More of Ohio!

2008-10-07T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

After going to Ashville, Ohio, we went to Cincinnati, where Luke grew up. We went to Trinity Lutheran Church and did a family night program there. Luke's dad used to be a pastor there, so it was good to have that connection. For worship, we did some songs and our puppet show for the second service. Sunday night, we went to Augsburg Lutheran Church in Cincinnati to do a family program. On the morning of our day off, I went with Sonja and my host family on a walk in a beautiful park.

Tuesday, we left Cincinnati for Augsburg Evangelical Lutheran Church in Toledo. We enjoyed playing background music for the farmer's market that was going on in their parking lot. It was very relaxing! It was a different pace then our normal program. We picked songs to play as we went, which was surprisingly fun! All of us slept on the floor or couches of the youth room for three nights. Our time in Toledo was pretty relaxing because we got to cook our own food in their kitchen and we didn't have a whole lot of programming. Tuesday night, we made an unbelievably delicious meal of spaghetti (with choices for sauce), corn, raspberry salad, green beans, and bread with dip--it was so good!!! Wednesday night, we helped with an after school program for elementary kids--it was basically like Sunday school (Bible stories, arts & crafts, and music). After that, we hung out with the high school youth group. The community that was formed between the youth was amazing (considering some of them had just met). We had a lot of fun playing games with them and talking. We had most of Thursday of and we spent it rehearsing and doing our jobs. That night, we went to Lutheran House of Mercy, a place for mentally and physically disabled. We shared some songs with them and enjoyed talking to them. We were all pretty stressed (because we forgot our puppets), but the residents perked us up. After our song "One Voice," one of the residents asked us to pray for her mom, and then before we knew it, most of the residents were asking for prayer; Luke led a prayer, which comforted them. I really enjoyed talking to the residents even though they weren't also able to talk back to me. It was nice just to be with them and I could tell that our presence made a difference to them.

Friday, we left Toledo for Willard. Willard was a last minute booking, so we stayed in a hotel!! It was nice to stay in a hotel after having slept on the floor. Friday afternoon, we sang some hymns with residents at Hillside Acres, a retirement community. They were really touched my our ministry. After singing a few of our program songs, we spent some time talking with the residents. They really appreciated us--primarily because they don't get many visitors. I had long conversations with several of them. It was difficult to see some of the health problems that I saw--especially Alzheimer's. Friday was our international day for food--we had Chinese for lunch and Mexican for supper.

Saturday, we had a beautiful drive to Cambridge, Ohio. We saw many beautiful trees that were changing colors and we also saw some Amish. We led a few worship songs for their Saturday night service and Sunday morning service. On Sunday, we also led some sing alongs with the kids. After Sunday worship, we enjoyed fellowship time with ice cream.

Sunday afternoon, we travelled back to Columbus to Jacob's Porch, which is the Lutheran Campus Ministry on the Ohio State University's campus (the largest campus in the country!!). That night we helped prepare the meal of tacos and then just got to relax for the worship service. The worship service was amazing. It was really relaxed. We sang worship songs and read some Scripture together. Then, we ate tacos together (during worship). Pastor Jay was great at encouraging us to be relational with others. After eating, we got into groups of 2 to 4 people and told others about our prayer concerns and then another person would pray for us. It was really neat to see that as a part of the worship service. Next, we communed each other--the pastor said the words of institution then we all went up one by one to a station and commune the person after us. That night, we slept on the couches of Jacob's porch. Sounds great right??? Read the next blog!

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of Ohio

2008-10-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Here are some pics of my last week in Ohio.

This is my team performing at a Farmer's Market at Augsburg Evangelical Lutheran Church in Toledo. We assisted teachers with an after school program similar to Sunday school. We also hung out with high schoolers. It was awesome to see the community that had formed between the high schoolers even though they haven't known each other for long.

Above is our first outdoor concert at First English Lutheran
Church in Ashville, OH. After Ashville, we went to Cincinnati. Sonja, my host family, and I went on a lovely nature walk there.

This was our fun meal with our

contact at Trinity in Columbus.

This was at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cincinnati, which is across from Capital University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, OH--which made me miss school. We did a program there and led songs for preschoolers. More pics will come soon!

Peace,
Tiffany

In Ohio

2008-09-27T07:34:00.000-04:00

Greetings from the Buckeye state (Ohio),

Tuesday we left Lafayette for Christ Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio. It is right across the street from Capital University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary. After enjoying some fellowship during dinner, we did a family program at Christ Lutheran. Tuesday and Wednesday night, we stayed at Luke's house in Pinkerington, OH. It was fun to meet his family, where we will be for Thanksgiving.

Wednesday was a pretty relaxing day. We led a few songs with two groups of preschoolers and showed them our puppet show. The kids loved it! It was really fun to see their smiling faces and enthusiasm. We enjoyed hearing how they thought we were only 10. The rest of Wednesday, we worked on team stuff. We each talked individually with Ua (our support staff for the week). We went to a local coffee shop to review our jobs and share how we will need help with our work.

After Jenny (our contact in Columbus) led devos for us Thursday morning, we rehearsed for that night. We rehearsed totally acoustically (without a bass and keys), which we weren't used to. We drove to Ashville, Ohio for our outdoor program. Thankfully, we were able to plug in the bass and keys. It was very different to have an outdoor program. We had to deal with wind and sunlight, but it went pretty well. It was good practice for Africa, where most of our programs will be outdoors.

Friday, we slept in a little, then met at the church. We did not have any programming, so we used the day to work on team stuff. Ua shared his thoughts about our program with us. It was good to hear a program evaluation, but a little intimidating for me--the program and culture coordinator. We have already made some changes in our program to make it even better. Pastor Chuck led a devotion before lunch. After most took a trip to Walgreen's, we rehearsed.

Today (Saturday) we are going to Cincinnati, OH. Tonight we have a program and Sunday we will do something for both worship services at Trinity Lutheran Church.

Hope you are all doing great!

Peace,

Tiffany

More Pics (Training and 1st Week)

2008-09-23T08:14:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

This is me at Luther
Point, where we had
international team training.

One of the nights of international training, we ate food from West Africa! It was actually pretty good! This is peanut soup (a soup of peanut butter, tomatoes, chicken, and vegetables. Fufu (boiled yams and plantains is on the right).

They eat oranges by cutting of the top and peeling the outer most layer and then squeezing the juice out (so they don't get their hands dirty). However, as far as I know, they still get their hands dirty, because they eat with them! So, we tried eating with our hands (soup, fufu, fish, etc.). Also, we could only eat with our right hands, which was tough for the left-handers like me (at least I've had some good practice because of my broken arm).

This is fish with cassava (like spinach). As you can see, it was a whole fish. It was surprisingly good (I don't usually like fish)!!

This was the sending service. We did two of our cross cultural songs. My parents, my sister, and Shanes came!

This is our amazing Team Director, Heather Swanson. She is great! She is really supports the international teams and helps them out when needed!

At our first church in Augusta, Wisconsin, we led some sing alongs with Sunday schoolers.

Here is my team!

On our first Monday off, we went to Madison, Wisconsin and visited the capital and State Street.

Sonja and Adrienne being cheese-heads in Wisconsin!

Here is our team leading worship at Grace Lutheran Church in Lafayette, Indiana.

On the right is Ua! He is our awesome on the road support guy for this week. During training, he helped lead rehearsals and sectionals. He has been on a few team before and is very helpful.

Above is my girls! (Adrienne, Lindsay, Sonja, and Me)
To the right is Sonja, Bethany and Adrienne

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Surprises in Lafeyette

2008-09-21T16:38:00.000-04:00

Bonjour (French for good day or hello),

Saturday, we left Bartlett for Lafayette, Indiana--Adrienne's hometown. We had an evening program (about an hour and a half of music, skits, prayers, a puppet shows, and Gospel messages) at Grace Lutheran Church. It went really well! We had a really small audience, but it was a touching program. We were all glad that we adjusted our program so it flows much better. We were expecting to do only three songs for the two Sunday services. At the end of our program Saturday night, the pastor told us that he liked the program so much that he wanted us to do it for both service on Sunday. SURPRISE!! We did!! Even though, we had only been through our adjusted program once, we did twice this morning. I really wasn't expecting that...especially since it was a LCMS congregation, but I enjoyed the surprise. Both programs were well received. We really enjoyed talking to people after the services about how they were touched by our program or how they wanted to support us.

After the two early morning services, we were exhausted!! After a wonderful lunch, we took naps. Now we are just relaxing. While in Lafayette, we are staying at Joshua's (a YE international music staff) parents. Joshua will be on the road with Cross Fire for one week; he will help us up out with any on the road training we need. Luke is really excited to have another guy with us.

Hopefully, we will soon be getting our other teammate, Prosper. On the 24th, he should be getting his visa and coming here shortly after. We'll find out soon for sure. We are all anxious for him to come!

I'll add pics to my next post! Thanks for keeping up with me!

Peace,

Tiffany

Roselle & Bartlett

2008-09-20T09:07:00.000-04:00

Greetings,

After Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, we drove to Roselle, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). At Trinity Lutheran Church in Roselle, we led some songs for over 100 confirmation kids. Sonja and I enjoyed staying at the same host home with a very nice lady who spoiled us.

On Thursday, we drove for about 25 minutes to Bartlett, Illinois. We went to Living Lord Lutheran Church. In the morning, we rehearsed and had devotions. That night, we sang some worship songs with junior and senior highers. We also told them about what we will be doing and answered some of their questions. It was a fun and relaxing time in their youth room with lots of couches. We had three high-schoolers who were interested in doing team in the future! All of us stayed at the Pastor's house who was on team before. It was nice to share stories with her.

Friday, we sang two songs with the preschoolers at the church and we did our puppet show. We went to a nearby senior center to sing some songs. We had them join us for two hymns, then we sang several of our program songs. They really enjoyed it! We shared a little bit of culture with them and told them what we would be doing. Afterwards, we talked to some of them for awhile; including a trip to the pond to watch the geese and swans. After lunch, we led another session with preschoolers. Then, we rehearsed our programs songs. We used that rehearsal to make our program flow better--it is so much better!

Friday night, we went to a host family for supper. Before and after the meal, we enjoyed playing lots of games with them; including football, ping-pong, pool, darts, and Wi. We also tried out their drum set. It was a relaxing evening full of playing!! Our team also enjoyed a fun trip out for ice cream!!

Stay tuned for more updates!!

Peace,

Tiffany

First Two Bookings

2008-09-16T23:35:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Training is over! It is nice to be done with training. The last few days of training were actually pretty interesting; we talked about poverty, other religions, and the countries we will be going to. We watched a really interesting documentary called "The Corporation"; it was about how companies mess up the world by the poor decisions they make that destroy human rights. Good movie, but it left us feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

One of the nights, Cross Fire ate food from the countries that we will be going to. We had peanut stew (a stew/sauce with peanut butter, tomato sauce, and chicken used to top things), cassava (like spinach--used on rice and fufu), fish, rice, fufu (boiled yams or plantains--tastes like bread dough/looks like play-dough, oranges, and Fanta. We ate with our hands. It was surprisingly good!! We ate with previous teamers who had gonna to West Africa; their insights into the culture were very interesting and helpful. After eating table from our food, we were able to try food from Denmark, Germany, and Southeast Asia. Next, we talked more with the teamers from previous Cross Fire teams. I really enjoyed all they had to tell us. So far, we will be going to Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon. We may also be going to Mali and Guinea.

Friday was our sending service. My parents, Lara, and Shanes (family friends) came for that. It was nice to see them and spend some time with them. Each team did a song for the sending service. There was a vast difference between the electric and acoustic teams--most of it was too loud for me!

On Saturday, we got on the road. Our first stop was a country church near Augusta, Wisconsin. We ate supper there, then Lindsay led some games with the youth. They were a lot of fun to play with. Sunday morning, we led sing-alongs for the Sunday School kids. We ended up leading longer than we expected, but it worked out fine. We also led worship. For the most part, it went really well. After worship, we headed off to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. At First Evangelical Lutheran, we had our first program on the road Sunday night. The program went well with some surprises, including getting mics half way through (we are an acoustic team!) and having a small audience. Monday we enjoyed our day off; we slept in! We also went to Madison, Wisconsin; where we walked on State Street and went to the capital. The time off was much needed and very enjoyable. In Beaver Dam, Adrienne and I stayed together at a host home. They were also hosting a couple from Israel--it was really interesting to hear their story about being Christians in Israel--not an easy thing to do!

After enjoying a slow paced morning on Wednesday (packing, reorganizing the van, and calling in to the YE office), we left for Roselle, Illinois, where we are now. Today, we will have time to work on team stuff (meetings, devos, learning French, rehearsals, etc.). Tonight, we will be helping with confirmation by leading songs and a skit.

I hope that you are all doing well. Thanks for keeping up with me!!

Peace,

Tiffany

More Pics of Training

2008-09-10T13:57:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

This is Christ the King Lutheran Church in the cities. The first week of training was spent there. After a week at Christ the King, we went to Luther Dell Bible Camp in Minnesota. We drove as teams. On the way there, my teams' van broke down--three times. The battery was dead and alternator had problems, but they have been fixed. It will be interesting travelling around the country in a 15 passenger van with a trailer. I'm glad I don't have drive and I'm thankful for my teammates that are driving the van.

Luther Dell was a beautiful place to enjoy nature. The lake and trees were awesome. During free time, I would go for a hike, canoe, or swim. I loved spending time outside. We spent one of the days at Luther Dell in silence, which was a really nice time to relax and enjoy the beauty around me. I miss that.

After Luther Dell, we had our practice booking in the cities, then came to Luther Point near Grantsburg, WI. We had our first night here off and it was Sonja's birthday, so we went out to celebrate and had ice cream. Below is a picture of Sonja and Mikey (someone on a Watermark team) enjoying ice cream.

More pics to come soon!

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of Training

2008-09-10T08:31:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Finally, here are some pics of my
amazing teammates. From left to right
they are: Lindsay, Luke, Adrienne, me, and Sonja.

This is Luke, Adrienne and me.

Below is our Danish teammate Sonja and me

More to come soon....

More about Training

2008-09-08T11:18:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends and Family,

How is everything going with all of you?

Training is going well. It has been really fun getting to know the other teams and my own! After a week full of practicing and learning about our jobs, Cross Fire had our practice booking at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Woodbury, MN. We had event with 7th through 12th graders with games, songs, and ice cream. On Sunday, we sang a French song for worship and helped out with Sunday school by performing a puppet show and sing on sing a-longs.

Each of the team members has two or three jobs. I am the Program & Culture Coordinator and Technology Manager. As Program & Culture Coordinator, I will lead our music rehearsals, lead discussions about programming, and inform my team about culture in other countries. As Technology Manager, I will set up our projector and laptop when we have programs with projected lyrics and I will take care our our team computer. I will also make the slideshow with MediaShout (kind of like Powerpoint).

Now, all the international team members are at Luther Point near Grantsburg, WI. We are here for culture training. Luther Point is another nice camp on a lake. Tomorrow night, we will be performing our first full program for the other teams and the YE staff. I am nervous, but really excited.

Yesterday was Sonja's birthday. We had the night off, so we went to Pine Valley, MN to celebrate. We had a lot of fun!!

For our sending service, Cross Fire will perform some cross-cultural songs and all of the teams will perform a song. Then we will be on the road!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Luther Dell

2008-08-27T13:23:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends and Family,

Now, I am at Luther Dell Bible Camp near Remer, MN. The camp is near a lake and is really beautiful. This past week, we have started working on music. I have been working mostly on guitar and vocals, but I hope we can bring a keyboard too. We also have been learning about how to build and enhance relationships. Training has been really unique because I have never been this intentional about relationships. We spent a long time learning about how to create a program and perform.

My team is wonderful! We get along really well.

I will be at Luther Dell until September 7th, when I will go to a church in the Twin Cities to have a program for Rally Day. Then, I will go with the international teams to a camp in Wisconsin for the last week for training. On September 12th, there will be a sending service for all of the teams.

Peace,

Tiffany

Training at Christ the King

2008-08-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

Hello!

This week I've been at training in the Twin Cities. We train at Christ the King Lutheran Church. So far, training has been great! My team is awesome! We are still waiting for our last team member to arrive (Resserne). He is in Cameroon waiting to get a visa. I have really enjoyed getting to know my teammates. It has been really fun meeting people on other teams and hearing about who they are and where they will be going.

During training we have been learning about Youth Encounter and their theology, about what we will be doing what type of personalities we have, about leading worship, about leading games, and about building a team. It is really exciting to see many different people excited about YE's ministry. We have spent a lot of time in devotions and meet by team getting to know our team members and talking about how we will work together. My favorite part our training has been the theology sessions with YE's President Larry Johnson.

For the next few weeks of training, I will be at Bible Camp; so, I will not have internet or cell phone reception, but I look forward to updating you more soon.

Peace,

Tiffany

Almost There

2008-08-15T17:52:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for checking my blog. Hard to believe that summer is over already. It went fast. Sunday, I begin training for Youth Encounter. Recently, I have been busy packing--it is hard to pack for a year! Oh well, I know I'll get better throughout the year. Beginning on August 17th, I will train with my team in New Brighton, MN. We will also train in Remer, MN and Grantsburg, WI. After four weeks of training, Cross Fire (my team) will be traveling mostly on the East Coast of the US until December. In January, we will go to West Africa!

In spite of my stressful summer, I have raised more money than I expected. Thanks again for all of you who support me.

I am really anxious to meet my teammates!! They are: Adrienne, Resserne, Sonja, Luke, and Lindsay. Please pray for us throughout the year.

Peace,

Tiffany :)

Getting ready for Youth Encounter

2008-07-11T11:18:00.000-04:00

Summer has been good, but busy as I have been getting ready for Youth Encounter. So far, fundraising has been going well. Thank you to all who have donated to me already! I look forward to starting in August!