So We had a wonderful retreat in hamburg two weeks ago and I officially love Hamburg! It was so crazy to have all 35 of us in the same room! Yes I said 35. It's so crazy how much we've grown and looking back to see all the things that have happened in the past year. It's so cool to see what god has done! It's even crazier to think of all the things that are to come this year!
Liz said something very true towards the end of the 4 day retreat "Enjoy this moment, all of us in the same room, it's probably not going to happen again until our next retreat!" Lots of new and exciting things sprung up during the time. For example we will be working on publishing a Pick A Pocket magazine soon, of course the Not for Sale conference in November, we will Continue to work on the existing projects in India and Ethiopia, and most immediately the Marriage Of The Arts School! There are now 125 students who will be arriving within the next two weeks!!
During the retreat we spent a lot of time in prayer asking God where he wants to lead us for this next year as a team, we also spent time with each other, going to coffee shops, Exploring the city, and just talking and coming up with new ideas. It was so good just to start dreaming again, to look back and see all the dreams that we had last year that were fulfilled this year and now being able to dream again and keep looking forward! We were also able to welcome in 9 awesome new members who came with new ideas and inspiration for the team!
I am especially excited about more people committing to working with the projects in Ethiopia, like the boys and girls of garbage city, and the Rahab Cafe! It is a team of 4 people(so far), Myself, Ulla, Corey, and Anna (who isn't technically a part of Pick a Pocket, but has the biggest heart for the girls and guys of garbage city and has been fighting for them since the beginning! She is amazing!)
I am planning to go to ethiopia in November and live there for 6 months and I am so looking forward to this time! The last time I was in ethiopia I was really challenged to do something more long term in the projects and I really have the desire invest so much more into the relationships that I have there! I don't know yet exactly what this time will look like but I hope to spend some time in Addis, working with the Garbage City girls and guys, Solomon, and also some in the south to work on restarting the Rahab Cafe because at the moment there are no girls to work at the cafe as they have all four moved on to other things! So I know that it will be an awesome time!
So I am super inspired and excited for this year!!
In other news-
Fall is coming! and I'm still missing the sun, heat, and even humidity of summer.
Herrnhut is beautiful right now though despite the rain and I am excited for the leaves to change colors. My birthday is also in two weeks I'm not sure how I feel about turning 20 yet. Ew, even typing it looks so strange. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet! It's something to look forward too though because my parents are coming!! It will be a great birthday!!
The first Marriage of the Arts students have just started arriving and we are still making a lot of preparations. Just a lot of work! But I am so stoked to meet all of the students and for the school to start because I think it will be a time!
Yea! you might have noticed I added a new feature to by blog, over there in the side bar -->
You can now sign up for my newsletter mailing list so if you want to receive my updates and more in your email! Because if you're like me you always forget to check blogs even though you really want to! hah! Problem solved, See? I will probably just be sending out newsletters every few weeks or months. Just news and exciting happenings. yea! that's it!
oh and for a fun picture of us at the retreat and a Tour higlights video! check out
Steph's blog!
She is also going to Ethiopia in a week or so to make a documentary about the Girl's home in ethiopia! I love her!
cool! yea that's all I've got for now! thanks for reading!!
-melody
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
emerging from the abyss.
I realize that my communication over the past months has been equivalent to that of a black hole...
For that I would like to apologize, I just get so distracted, traveling and being on tour was pretty busy and somewhat because there are just so many exciting things to do outside in summer that don't involve the computer! But I'm back now. Yay!
So I'll try to give a brief as possible recap on the past two months! I realize that lots of the people who will see this were actually with me this summer! and I'd just like to say I had some great times with the folks in PA and in NC! It was amazing to see everyone and just be back in Bangor again. Especially at the beginning of the tour and the shows we had in PA were some of the best shows of all tour!!
I've found that Bangor is actually a really nice town to visit! and i genuinely enjoyed being home and chillaxin with you guys!
I would have to say the tour went most excellently I think we made some awesome connections and i had so much fun making new friends and encouraging and inspiring people to join the movement to END EXTREME POVERTY!, wooooO! I know we were all super blessed by the hospitality we received and the encouragement and fun times and just being able to encourage people that if God can use us crazy kids to do something to help end extreme poverty he wants to use them too!!
Being in Nashville was so inspiring. I never knew there could be so many insanely talented people in one city. And cornerstone was one of the monumental experiences of my life. I think I wish I could just live at cornerstone always. awesome music. amazing people. great conversations. new favorite bands. yea. I'm stoked for next year!
Personally I know I've learned and grown a lot in these past two months. and I also see that the team has become closer together and even though tour is really hard sometimes God's there and he's working on us and we're becoming better and better.
I'm really looking forward to these next months with a new school starting in September. It is bigger than any discipleship training school(DTS) we've had in Herrnhut, with 130 students so far, or something like that! yea. it's going to be crazy but i think God is moving and is going to do something big with this school! we're calling it the Marriage of The Arts school. We're inviting musicians, Photographers, Writers, Graphic Designers, Fine artists, Dancers and all kinds of artist to come and learn how to collectively use their talents for God and to battle injustice and extreme poverty!
So if you're reading this and are graduated from highschool and want to be a part of a movement this fall you should check out the website because it's not too late!!
In other news. Sometime this winter I am planning to go to ethiopia possibly for up to 6 months. This is something I've been thinking and praying a lot about the past months!
i don't exactly know how it will look but all i know is that God knows, so i just need to figure out what he knows.. and then I'll be good. So I'd appreciate any prays for that that you can spare. just for more direction! cool
Next week Pick a pocket will be going on a "retreat"(or a week long meeting) in Hamburg, Germany to reevaluate, discuss future plans and our vision as a team! I'm really excited for that! Please pray for finances for that as many of us including myself don't have the money for transportation or food and also have to pay of staff fees and rent! That's a big one right now!
Another thing you can pray for is that i really need a place to live by the end of this month! Right now i am still living out of a suit case and have moved around a bit since being back in Germany after tour! It's very difficult to find housing in Herrnhut. There's not that much available! yea i appreciate that!
yea cool that's all I've got for now! Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and financial support it means so much to me! and sorry again for the long silence!
For that I would like to apologize, I just get so distracted, traveling and being on tour was pretty busy and somewhat because there are just so many exciting things to do outside in summer that don't involve the computer! But I'm back now. Yay!
So I'll try to give a brief as possible recap on the past two months! I realize that lots of the people who will see this were actually with me this summer! and I'd just like to say I had some great times with the folks in PA and in NC! It was amazing to see everyone and just be back in Bangor again. Especially at the beginning of the tour and the shows we had in PA were some of the best shows of all tour!!
I've found that Bangor is actually a really nice town to visit! and i genuinely enjoyed being home and chillaxin with you guys!
I would have to say the tour went most excellently I think we made some awesome connections and i had so much fun making new friends and encouraging and inspiring people to join the movement to END EXTREME POVERTY!, wooooO! I know we were all super blessed by the hospitality we received and the encouragement and fun times and just being able to encourage people that if God can use us crazy kids to do something to help end extreme poverty he wants to use them too!!
Being in Nashville was so inspiring. I never knew there could be so many insanely talented people in one city. And cornerstone was one of the monumental experiences of my life. I think I wish I could just live at cornerstone always. awesome music. amazing people. great conversations. new favorite bands. yea. I'm stoked for next year!
Personally I know I've learned and grown a lot in these past two months. and I also see that the team has become closer together and even though tour is really hard sometimes God's there and he's working on us and we're becoming better and better.
I'm really looking forward to these next months with a new school starting in September. It is bigger than any discipleship training school(DTS) we've had in Herrnhut, with 130 students so far, or something like that! yea. it's going to be crazy but i think God is moving and is going to do something big with this school! we're calling it the Marriage of The Arts school. We're inviting musicians, Photographers, Writers, Graphic Designers, Fine artists, Dancers and all kinds of artist to come and learn how to collectively use their talents for God and to battle injustice and extreme poverty!
So if you're reading this and are graduated from highschool and want to be a part of a movement this fall you should check out the website because it's not too late!!
In other news. Sometime this winter I am planning to go to ethiopia possibly for up to 6 months. This is something I've been thinking and praying a lot about the past months!
i don't exactly know how it will look but all i know is that God knows, so i just need to figure out what he knows.. and then I'll be good. So I'd appreciate any prays for that that you can spare. just for more direction! cool
Next week Pick a pocket will be going on a "retreat"(or a week long meeting) in Hamburg, Germany to reevaluate, discuss future plans and our vision as a team! I'm really excited for that! Please pray for finances for that as many of us including myself don't have the money for transportation or food and also have to pay of staff fees and rent! That's a big one right now!
Another thing you can pray for is that i really need a place to live by the end of this month! Right now i am still living out of a suit case and have moved around a bit since being back in Germany after tour! It's very difficult to find housing in Herrnhut. There's not that much available! yea i appreciate that!
yea cool that's all I've got for now! Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and financial support it means so much to me! and sorry again for the long silence!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Ethiopia!!
Well I’m back from Ethiopia! It was a great time, of course not without challenges, but over all I can say it was awesome. The majority of the time was spent working with the 13 young girls from Garbage City who are now making t-shirts instead of working in the dump. It was cool to just spend time with people and just live life with them for a while!
Everyday after school the girls come to for two hours to work. They sew t-shirts, we listen to music and just have fun times together, and then sometimes have a short English lesson! On Saturdays they come earlier in the afternoon and take showers wash clothes and we just hang out play games and have lunch together! Then On Sundays we take some of the Girls to church. It was so fun to get to know them all over the time I spent there and they are all amazing! We were extremely limited in our communication with each other because they speak very little English and we speak very little Amharic! But it forced me to learn a lot more Amharic words than I knew before so we were able to communicate on a basic level, which was great! They are just like normal teenage girls so it was really fun to hang out with them. Most of the girls I had met before while they were still working in the dump and so it was amazing to see the transformation from then to now and it was a privilege be a part of that and to see that now they have to opportunities for a better life! They can have hope again and that’s awesome and inspiring! We plenty of brainstorming times and came up with new t-shirt designs and worked on improving the quality of the shirts being made! Yea I really really enjoyed the time there and I was really sad to have to leave! I can’t wait to go back again hopefully for a longer time than 1 ½ months although I’m not sure when exactly that will be!
Traveling back was quite the adventure and I still haven’t quite made it to Germany! With the volcano and everything all the airports in Germany were closed! So I got to Istanbul and then waited for 9 hours to get through the line for people waiting to rebook their flights! Had some Turkish delight samples and ate some left over French Fries in Burger King. Then I finally ended up catching a flight to Vienna, Austria. On the flight I met a couple from Australia who are currently living in Vienna they invited me to stay for a few nights at their place until I can get the train up to Germany on Saturday! So I’m very happy to have a good rest after traveling and thankful that I didn’t have to sleep in the train station! The city is absolutely beautiful so I feel super blessed. But I’m still a little sad and missing the girls and friends back in Ethiopia! And I could really go for some Injera and Shiro Wat (the cultural food that we ate almost everyday!).
I’m very excited an anxious to get back to Germany and see all my lovely friends again! And also to finally see the book printed and finished WOOHOO! Thanks to all the people who supported us! I’m so excited to finally have the book in hand! And also for tour! I’ll be coming to the states around the middle to end of may and then be there until the middle of July for tour and spending time with my family!
I post some more info on tour dates later but we will be coming to PA everyone in the area should come out and see it will be super fun yes! And yes more information will come for that in a few days. When I find out all the details!
Yes so that’s all I have for now I’m going to enjoy Austria!
Love
Melody.
Everyday after school the girls come to for two hours to work. They sew t-shirts, we listen to music and just have fun times together, and then sometimes have a short English lesson! On Saturdays they come earlier in the afternoon and take showers wash clothes and we just hang out play games and have lunch together! Then On Sundays we take some of the Girls to church. It was so fun to get to know them all over the time I spent there and they are all amazing! We were extremely limited in our communication with each other because they speak very little English and we speak very little Amharic! But it forced me to learn a lot more Amharic words than I knew before so we were able to communicate on a basic level, which was great! They are just like normal teenage girls so it was really fun to hang out with them. Most of the girls I had met before while they were still working in the dump and so it was amazing to see the transformation from then to now and it was a privilege be a part of that and to see that now they have to opportunities for a better life! They can have hope again and that’s awesome and inspiring! We plenty of brainstorming times and came up with new t-shirt designs and worked on improving the quality of the shirts being made! Yea I really really enjoyed the time there and I was really sad to have to leave! I can’t wait to go back again hopefully for a longer time than 1 ½ months although I’m not sure when exactly that will be!
Traveling back was quite the adventure and I still haven’t quite made it to Germany! With the volcano and everything all the airports in Germany were closed! So I got to Istanbul and then waited for 9 hours to get through the line for people waiting to rebook their flights! Had some Turkish delight samples and ate some left over French Fries in Burger King. Then I finally ended up catching a flight to Vienna, Austria. On the flight I met a couple from Australia who are currently living in Vienna they invited me to stay for a few nights at their place until I can get the train up to Germany on Saturday! So I’m very happy to have a good rest after traveling and thankful that I didn’t have to sleep in the train station! The city is absolutely beautiful so I feel super blessed. But I’m still a little sad and missing the girls and friends back in Ethiopia! And I could really go for some Injera and Shiro Wat (the cultural food that we ate almost everyday!).
I’m very excited an anxious to get back to Germany and see all my lovely friends again! And also to finally see the book printed and finished WOOHOO! Thanks to all the people who supported us! I’m so excited to finally have the book in hand! And also for tour! I’ll be coming to the states around the middle to end of may and then be there until the middle of July for tour and spending time with my family!
I post some more info on tour dates later but we will be coming to PA everyone in the area should come out and see it will be super fun yes! And yes more information will come for that in a few days. When I find out all the details!
Yes so that’s all I have for now I’m going to enjoy Austria!
Love
Melody.
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