It's Summertime

VBS, Youth Camp, Kitchen Leading and a GoFest Conference in Singapore

The past 2 months have been some of our busiest (and hottest) but best months since I arrived.  Our base leaders were in the city doing a Leadership Development Course for 6 weeks, which left the rest of us base staff running the base.  I think it was a good time for all of us to step up and take on more leadership!

In that time I was leading the kitchen.  My mind was always full of menus and ingredients and shopping lists and trying to remember to take out the meat on time to defrost.  It was a stretch for me but I enjoyed adding in some American and Mexican meals!  I never imagined that it'd be so much work but I do love making people happy with my food!

It is summertime here, so everyone is off of school.  We took advantage of this to run VBSes in our different communities and  even a week in Bogo!  We had 4 separate weeks of VBSes in different locations and the last week we ran 3 different VBSes in different communities, including one at the base joining 4 of our smallest communities together!  I was in charge of the 7-9 yr. old kids in each location. and I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know my kids more.  There were days when they drove me crazy, but then there were days where I felt like the luckiest "mother" in the world.  I was filled with pride when I'd see them helping each other, volunteering to pray for the class, memorizing their verses and recalling the stories and lessons from previous days.  My favorite times were when the kids would arrive and all run to me to give me the biggest hug and tell me how much they missed me.  I missed them too!

After we finished our last VBS, we ran a 3 day camp at the base for the youth that were involved in our VBSes.  We had 54 people come.  We also had 2 teams here at that time: a team from Denver of 14 people continuing with our kids ministry, and a team from a college group in California of 23 who were leading our youth camp.  We were bursting at the seams!  As the kitchen manager, I spent most of my days in the kitchen cooking for over 100 people, but I loved our night sessions where I got to sit in on the worship and teaching and hear back from the kids about how amazing their time had been!

The night that our youth camp ended, I packed my bags and headed to Singapore for 10 days.  A group of us went to attend a YWAM conference there called the GoFest, but I went 5 days earlier than the rest of the group for visa reasons.  It was such a time of refreshing for me.  After running hard for the past 2 months, I was so blessed to have an air conditioned room, hot real showers (not bucket showers), and the ability to flush my TP and drink tap water!  LOL!  I was able to speak in a church youth group a couple times, invest in their youth leaders on a one day retreat, meet many new friends and catch up with some old ones as well.  The conference was AMAZING as well!  Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, was our speaker the first day and he talked about the importance of saying "YES" to God no matter what.  The theme of the conference was to "Take Jesus Out" - into Singapore, our communities and the nations.  It really refueled my passion for the nations and desire to take Jesus into many more countries and cultures in the future!

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this past season of my life - through prayer, support, encouragement, or whatever else.  I am so blessed by all of you!!

Blessings,
Cassandra

Top Left: Saying goodbye to friends at the airport
Top Right: Running the Youth Group Sunday School class on Sunday
Bottom: Sightseeing with some friends from a team that came to the base earlier this year

VBS Graduation Day

What's Next...

Now that we're all back in Cebu, we are really focusing on our upcoming Sports DTS.  We have one week to go until it starts and still so much to do!  We only have 5 accepted students at the moment but there are at least 3 or 4 being processed still.  We ideally need at least 10 students.  Last week we had an overnight prayer and worship time of really seeking God's heart for this school.  The more we hear from God, the more excited I get to be involved in a DTS again.  Can you believe it's been 1 1/2 years since my last DTS ended?  I miss getting to invest in students' lives and see God transform, heal and restore them.  However, I am also a bit nervous about staffing a DTS here.  There is so much I still don't know about how we run schools here as I am the only one who didn't do their DTS at the base, but I know that God has called me to this school for a reason and I trust that He will use me in mighty ways to touch these students' lives!  The next 6 months will be an experience like no other, of that I am sure!
 
Prayer Requests

* for more students for the DTS
* for strength and energy and direction as we prepare for the school to start
* for our students as they prepare to come - that God would provide the finances they need and that they'd be blessed and released by their parents and pastors
* for direction as to where we should go on outreach
VBS Graduation Feast
My VBS Class!!!
Loren Cunningham speaking at the GoFest in Singapore
Email:  gsprincess88@yahoo.com
Website: www.mcii.org/ywam