Posted in Eastern Europe by Beverly Rhoades on 6/22/2009
I wanted to update everyone on my support status. Currently I have a balance of $704.50 in my AIM account that still needs to come in. Granted a chunk of this is monthly supporters that I have, however if I end up with more money than needed come the end of the Race I can get reimbursed for various things like immunizations, travel insurance, and airplane tickets. If you feel led to donate you can do so by clicking on the "Support Me!" link on the left of this page! There are several other people on my squad still in need of raising the last little bit of support so please be in prayer and ask the Lord if there is any way you can help! Thanks!
Posted in Eastern Europe by Beverly Rhoades on 6/18/2009
Canada. That is what I call her. She is also known as Brenda and she needs your help. Brenda Wilchowy needs your help! With only about 2 months left on the Race Brenda is still in need of raising around 1300 dollars. As a former teammate, Brenda aka "Canada" is near and dear to my heart. I have seen her grow in so many ways in the time spent with her on The Race. Brenda really loves the Lord and has a huge heart for His people. I have walked beside her in China as we took the Gospel to unchartered territories. I sat beside her in the bush in Africa as she held a sick baby with Malaria. I have laughed with her, cried with her, drank many a cup of coffee with her, ministered right beside her day and night for months. In the first 4 months of the Race Brenda taught me so many life lessons: she taught me how to serve with a willing heart, she taught me how to persevere, and most of all she showed me how to love. Please help her out if you can! You can donate online by clicking here: Brenda Wilchowy
Posted in Eastern Europe by Beverly Rhoades on 6/13/2009
Radical Obedience. That is what happens when someone is SO passionately in love with Jesus that they can't help but share Him with EVERYONE. That is what Team Fuse did the other day. (Marisa Banas, Janina Laier,Emily Rhea,Abby Barnett, Elizabeth Adcock, Ian Schumann, and Jacob Hoyer) Jesus said that he did not come to save the righteous but sinners and that a doctor is for the sick not the healthy. So, what would you do if God told you to go minister to a Marilyn Manson concert? Would you go? They did. Radical Obedience that I firmly believe saved a life. Please read the blog below from Marisa Banas on what happened that day. I promise-it's worth your time!
"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?' Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, 'Take off his filthy clothes.' Then he said to Joshua, 'See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.' Then I said, 'Put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by." Zechariah 3:1-5
All seven of us were waiting for our bus to come. Unfortunately we
had just missed it so I decided to rest my back on a nearby post.
Others followed me and as we chatted Elizabeth noticed that I was
leaning against a very scary looking man with one weird eye ball. The
man was Marilyn Manson and I was leaning on his concert poster. He
became the topic of our conversation and when we realized that the
concert was the next day I exclaimed, "Hey, lets go there!"
We pondered in prayer for a good while before we came to a unanimous
decision. It was a go. As we each shared our hearts about what we felt
God prompting us to do it was clear that we were to plant seeds of
reconciliation. When Manson was young he was shunned by the church due
to his awkwardness, likewise his followers often have fallen victim to
the same treatment. His platform is publicly founded on satanism and
easily draws outcasts. In one of his latest interviews he told his fans
that if they feel like committing suicide, to just do it.
We prepared ourselves spiritually the best way we knew how. I
decided to dress myself in black leggings with a black skirt and shirt
to match; then I covered my eyes in the color of death. My goal was not
to mock, but to accept.
On the bus on the way there Emily, Elizabeth, Ian and I were looked
up and down. These "children of the light" had a taste of the judgment
that some of these people get every time they go out in public. It
didn't feel good. We got to the concert, decided to split two by two
and dive right in. Liz and Em made there way to a girl standing by
herself and Ian and I went for a walk to build up more courage and try
to find the person we were supposed to talk to. We finally found a
crowded area where we sat and people watched as we prayed about who to
approach. We had a tough time because every time we picked somebody out
and made the approach they would slowly turn on their heels and start
walking away. The freaky thing about this is that it happened SEVERAL
times and they all turned in a very distinct way. We didn't really know
what to do so we decided to go for another walk. As we did we passed
the girls ministering to a girl with big sunglasses on. Her name was
Lucy, a beautiful girl with painted pink stripes in her hair and a
large gap between her teeth. Our team concurs that she is the reason
why God sent us there.
Em and Liz were upfront when Lucy asked why they were at the
concert. Liz confidently said, "Well, we feel like God told us to come,
and then He told us to come over here and tell you that He loves you."
Lucy giggled in surprise. Had anyone every told her this before, it
seemed not. Interested in what they were saying, their conversation
continued. Once finding out that they were Christian missionaries she
apologetically informed them that they were at the wrong concert.
"Marilyn Manson is against everything that you believe." The girls told
her that it was okay and that it didn't matter. Lucy upside down cross
that she wore on her neck sparked a conversation about her beliefs and
she told them that she was an Athiest. The girls asked her about her
church experience and she told them that she had only gone to a church
a few times when she was younger, but it was too rigid and there were
too many rules.
As they talked Liz felt prompted to tell Lucy that God thought she
was beautiful, and when she did Lucy burst out into more childlike
giggles. It was as if the word beautiful was foreign to her. She boldly
asked why they thought this and Liz sincerely gave her the truth. She
spoke of natural things and shared Psalm 139 with her. And for the
first time in Lucy's life, someone bothered to paint a whole new
picture of God for her. She was introduced to a God who accepts,
befriends, delights in, who is in the habit of giving too much mercy,
and too much grace. A God who can look at a girl who has rejected him
because she was rejected and send four Americans across the world to go
find her.
Liz asked Lucy to take her sunglasses off of her face. As she did so
her amber-colored eyes radiated through the black painted circles
surrounding them. The girl's reaction was only priceless because it was
real. They flamboyantly doted over how stunningly gorgeous they were.
In fact, days later when the girls talked about her unveiling her eyes
their sincere reaction still gave me goosebumps. I don't think that
Lucy was ever given such a response in her life. Shortly after this the
girls said their goodbyes and Lucy went into the concert hall.
When we all gathered back together I felt God's delight resting on me like two love birds on their 50th
wedding anniversary. As the girls shared their story I remembered the
first time that I was told that God loved me, and the several years
after when that precious seed took root and I finally understood how
magnificent that statement was.
Before going to the concert I sent out a prayer request to over 100
people. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I knew we needed
support. As I look at the whole picture of what happened I am in awe of
the height and depth of His love. Do me a favor and try to wrap your
mind around this:
For one girl, who had blatantly denied him, blasphemed him, and worshiped his enemy...
He made us late for our bus.
He made me lean against a scary poster.
He gave us the courage to go.
He enlisted over 100 people all around the world to pray to him.
He called many to fast from eating food for an entire day
Then he took his fingers and smushed us together--all so that she
could hear these words, "I love you." And because he is patient,
because his love endures, he will watch over the seed that he planted
and will see to it that it comes into fruition. All this trouble for
one girl who hates him.
In the last 9 months I have seen many things. I have pitched my tent beside and among some of the world's poorest people. I have seen poverty and desperation in forms I never dreamed possible. I have held the sick, the dying, the hungry and the forgotten in my arms. I have also seen God in so many people in so many ways. I have seen love, hope, and joy rise from the darkest corners of oppression and desperation the world has to offer. I have had my breath taken away countless times by the beauty of God's creation all over the world.
I have prayed for random strangers I encountered on the street or in the market place. I have laid hands on the sick and begged the Lord for healing. I have witnessed nations crying out to Jesus. I have been invited into many a humble home for tea spending hours interacting with someone that doesn't speak the same language as I do. I have been humbled time and again by the pure generosity of someone literally giving me all that they have to offer. I have lived, laughed, and cried with many of God's chosen: His church all over the world.
In China my team brought the power of Jesus and His Holy Spirit to people that may have never experienced something so powerful and truthful ever in their lives. In Africa I lived in the bush with the Turkana people and witnessed life...from goats to the constant battle with Malaria. In India I worked and loved on boys that society viewed as rejected, unloved, and forgotten. I saw how God was going to use THEM to change the nation of India. In the Ukraine I worked alongside missionaries that were giving all that they had to till the hard, rocky soil to bring truth, to plant seeds. I was able to stand beside them and encourage them in their work, even if no fruit was ever seen. In Romania I lived life with a community of people, the gypsies, who were considered to be 2nd class. I climbed the hills and picked lilacs with children, and then experienced the joy of being a kid again as we played in the grass together using our imaginations to make make-believe come alive. I experienced a Gypsy/Romanian church that was hungry for more of the Lord-so hungry that services lasted 4+ hours because they wanted all of the Word they could get there hands on. I picked wild flowers and sat with a woman that had a tumor on her stomach that gave her the appearance of being 9 months pregnant...just keeping her company. In Germany I am witnessing a generation that is searching for truth, searching and questioning what they really believe. I am bringing God to people who have everything they need..people that think they don't need HIM.
Yeah, I have seen and experienced a lot, but to be honest the biggest miracle is ME. I am not really the same person I was 9 months ago. In the last 9 months the Lord has put me through the fire and refined me. I have been set free from the chains of rejection, shame, and doubt. Gradually, God has peeled away layers of my heart and has touched some of the deepest, most painful areas bringing healing and restoration. I have learned where my TRUE identity lies- in Christ and in Him alone. I have lived life in a community of 48 other people-people that are now family who God has used as a mirror to reveal to me my own issues of pride and selfishness. God placed me in a family of 48 other people that I genuinely LOVE with all of my heart- a family that has taught me and continues to teach me how I will really and truly love my future husband someday. I have learned that there is NOTHING in this world that is too big or hard for the Lord to handle. I rest in the truth that no matter what comes my way, Jesus will be there to hold my hand and walk me through the fire to reach the other side.
The journey is far from over. This CHAPTER is coming to an end, yes, but the JOURNEY is just beginning. I know and understand that there is so much more God is going to take me through-hardships and persecutions that will teach me FAITH and TRUST in HIM. There will be mountains and valleys, tears of joy and tears of sadness. I eagerly look forward to the last 2 1/2 months left on The World Race as well as the places God intends to take me in the future. I am in His hands and there I find true contentment.
So, I had this dream that all of a sudden I was back home....home early. I dreamed I was back to life as I once knew it....a life where I was comfortable, a life where I had pretty much everything that would make me content (long hot showers, an endless supply of freshly brewed coffee at my fingertips, high speed wireless internet, and Wii), a life that really didn't require or need crazy spiritual encounters, and a life that only needed Jesus here and there....
Except, you see, the truth is this wasn't really a dream but reality. No, I'm NOT dreaming, and I am DEFINITELY not home early...but very much still on this adventure called The World Race. Here I find myself in month 9 of The Race not in America or some third world country...but in Cologne, Germany. Here I find myself thrown back into western culture as I once knew it in the blink of an eye. I went from using the bathroom in a wooden outhouse and not bathing for 2 weeks one day to a 3 bedroom/3 bathroom penthouse apartment complete with all the hot water you could ever want in the span of about 24 hours. For the last 8 months I actually got used to being the one that looked and acted DIFFERENT to looking much like everyone else and STRUGGLING to BE different.
The other day as I was journaling and spending time with the Lord, I was drawn to the screen saver that came on my computer. I began seeing images from The Philippines, where I held this little guy named Chris John in my arms one night in a hospital room, desperately praying that the LORD would heal him and watching in amazement as HEALING happened THAT NIGHT.
Then my mind went to other places I had been, people I had encountered, ways in which I had seen God show up. I remembered being in the bush in Kenya, Africa where the Lord brought my team to the site of an African funeral...village style to teach us compassion and to bring an entire village a few seconds of healing through a random song we had practiced earlier that day. I then remembered the joy of taking off my sandals, hiking up my skirt, and wading out into the middle of a dirty African river to witness God's chosen being baptized on Christmas Day. My mind continued to remember...China, Uganda, Tanzania, India...all these exotic places in which I was super pumped to be taking Christ and His love, places where I WITNESSED first hand God showing up and working in ways that I never dreamed of. So, I asked myself, "Why is Germany different?" Why am I not seeing God show up in crazy ways HERE? For the last 8 months I have expected and seen God show up and work in miraculous ways, so why was that expectation all of a sudden absent? Why all of a sudden, was I missing life in the 3rd world?
You see, God showed up in all of those places, because I EXPECTED Him to. "Ask, and I will give the NATIONS to you", God says. So God, why not the nation of GERMANY? "You haven't asked me for it....ask ME, and I will give it to you too." So, God give us the nation of Germany! I'm EXPECTING God to show up here too. Our coaches always tell us that WE are it. We are the generation that brings change. God...they are it too! The students here in Germany that we are trying SO desperately to reach are it too...they are ALSO part of that generation!
No, I'm definitely NOT dreaming. I am living life FULLY ALIVE! I am living a life walking in the FAITH, HOPE, and TRUST in Jesus and the CHANGE that His love can bring. I am living, breathing, BELIEVING that maybe I DON'T need modern medicine to heal my eyes...just the healing power of Jesus...(and 6 teammates who have the crazy, radical, faith that make them want to pool their spit to spread on my eyes in Jesus name...), the life that tells me that my value is in JESUS and no one else, the life that opens my eyes to the girl sitting across from me on the Subway...my heart breaking for her as I look into her sad eyes. THIS is the life I have chosen, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else on earth!
Posted in Eastern Europe by Beverly Rhoades on 5/20/2009
I want to be hungry. I'm not talking about physical hunger, I'm talking about SPIRITUAL hunger. This last month in Romania I witnessed a spiritual hunger that I have never seen or experienced before in my life. One evening several of us went to preach at Sandu's church. The church was about a 30 minute drive from where we were in Viile Tecii but well worth it. We sang some songs and two of my teammates preached the Word, but then we were curious as to why the service went on for another 2 hours after we were done...the people kept talking in Romanian and we had no clue as to what was going on.
On our way home we asked Sandu why he kept preaching and wondered what all the people were asking him about. He told us that most of the people in that village could not read. They all come to church to hear the Word. He said, "they are very...how do you say...hungry". He went on to tell us that because they can not read, the only way they get fed is through his preaching. So...after we preached he retold our sermon to them in their gypsy language...but that wasn't enough, they were thirsty for more.
Im completely in awe. Never before have I witnessed such a desperate hunger for more of the Word. God is doing amazing things in this village and it is evident. These people are literally clawing and clinging to the bits and pieces of the Word they can grab ahold of....and it is a beautiful thing. Jesus, I pray that we can learn from them. I pray that we ALL would have a hunger for Your Word and a passion for YOU like that gypsy village did. Jesus...they get it. They understand that this life is all about you and they are desperate for more of You. Thank You, Jesus for showing me this valuable life lesson. Give me more, Jesus. I want to be so hungry for You I can't stand it. Jesus, I want to be HUNGRY. Amen.
Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful World Race Mom's out there! This video is courtesy of squadmate Stephanie Connors. So...Happy Mother's day from teams Remnant, Holy Banditz, Fuse, and Crux from Viile Tecii, Romania! Hope you all like this little video...it's long but good! Enjoy! :) We LOVE you MOM! :)
So my team has joined 3 other teams in a small village called Viile Tecii here in Romania. It is absolutely beautiful! Green rolling hills, blue sky, and a small country village with beautiful people make for a good place! The town is so small, it only takes a few seconds to drive "through it". Sometimes I feel as if Im in an Amish community because I see horse pulling wagons, and things done "the old fashioned way". I love it. There are a lot of children here so that is our main ministry in addition to teaching English and doing some "fixer uper" type things around our contacts house. We have about a week and a half left here before we all head to Bucarest for debrief. Keep us in your prayers! :)
Please be in prayer for us! Currently the location we are in is too expensive for us...so we are having to move to a different location. Things are still up in the air as to where we will go...so please be in prayer for us as well as Team Clay-we have been working together but will most likely be separated. I will post more information when I get it-if we have internet access. SO...God is closing the door on Targu Mures and obviously has something for us in another village close to here! Keep us in your prayers for clear direction and that the Lord would clearly open another door! Thanks!
