Far Side of the World

DTS ended on March 1st.  I left Next Wave March 5. Spent a week in Morocco on my way home.  Morocco to Madrid: spent 2 nights at the YWAM base there.  Madrid Airport: one night sleeping on an airport conveyor belt (not while it was moving).  Fly Madrid to Paris = 1+ hours.  Fly Paris to San Francisco = 11 hours.  Spend night in chairs with armrests and loud announcements.  Fly San Francisco to Portland = 1+ hour.  Fly Portland to Seattle = 1 hour.  Spend night on bench with uncomfortable metal bars.  Fly Seattle to Victoria = 30 minutes!  Drive Victoria to Duncan = 1+ hour.   

Add it all up…. over 70 hours of travel since the Mardid Airport.  Really it should only take 10-11 hours….so I could have made this trip 6 or 7 times!  Phew! 

I’m in Seattle right now just waiting for my flight to be ready to leave.  I am very ready for a shower, a sleep and real food.  And to see my family again too. 

So it seems that this adventure is soon drawing to a close for me.  But it’s not the end of the book by no means.  What does my next chapter look like?  Well you can ask me about that when you see me!  =)  Thank you to all of you who very faithfully supported me and prayed for me.  I am so thankful to have had that prayer protection throughout the past… basically two years (exactly two years since I left for my DTS in 2008).  I honestly don’t know how this time would have turned out without your prayers.  They make a difference.  So thank you from the bottom of my heart.  =)  Thank you also to those of you who supported my financially: there is no way I could have done this without your help.  Thank you for making this mission on Next Wave possible. 

I am very privileged to know people as caring and supporting and thoughtful as you.  My time abroad wasn’t just “my mission”—it was ours.   Thank you for coming along with me.  It’s been my pleasure to be available for God, to watch people be changed and transformed by Him, to see people impacted and to also be impacted by Him. 

If you have any questions or like to hear a story or two or see a few pictures—I would be more than happy to oblige!  I look forward to visiting with you!

Love, Natasha 

Well we had our DTS graduation two nights ago.  I think that it was a good ending to a good school.  It was encouraging and fun to remember memories together.  That was the one final push of this school for me.  Running around helping get things ready for the evening.  And now I am quite happy to sit back, take a deep breath and stop. 

Most of the students and staff are flying out this evening. It´s sad to say good bye.  But when they last a few days it can make good byes painful.  And thats hard.  After they leave I will be left to my own packing and washing and getting ready to head home.  

After taking a week vacation I will be staying in England at the YWAM base there to relax and take  breather before heading home at the end of the month. 

I look forward to seeing everybody soon.  I can see the end now.  Its crazy.

Please keep praying for me. 

So we are back and so is the other outreach team (the team that went to Italy).  I am glad to be back.  Out reach was long and probably one of the toughest things I´ve ever done.  I often thought that the end would never come.  But here it is. 

I find it really difficult to be back though.  I have gone into a reflective state.  So much has happened over the past two years of living abroad.  It´s hard to sort through it all in my head.  So many thoughts and memories: both good ones and bad ones.  It´s funny to think back to the time when I first set foot aboard the Next Wave and now thinking that I will be stepping off it now.  I feel like a whole new person.  Or more like I feel like I have found out the person that I am.  It´s been quite the jounrey, that´s for sure. 

Yesterday I started sorting through the stuff on my bunk.  Folding my clothes, doing laundry, making my bunck more “homey”.  I have also starting throwing out stuff.  I am a pack rat when it comes to sentimental things.  And I just sorted through 13 months worth of letters from friends and families, brochers from places I´ve been, photographs and notes people have left on my bunk.  Phew.  Flash backs. 

I don´t really know how this works, but I really feel like this is going to be good bye.  The ship doesn´t feel like home any more, and it´s been the place that feels like home for the past one and a half years.  I can´t put my fingure on what has changed, because I´m not sure that anything has changed.  I think that it´s been me that´s been doing the changing.  So, it looks like this chapture is beginning to draw to a close and the next page is beginning to turn. 

Thank you all for your prayers and support.  I really apreciate it.  Please pray for me this coming week and a bit that I am on the ship.  It´s hard to be back.  It´s good, but it´s hard. 

I look forward to seeing you all when I come home.   God bless you.

Well, it´s been a long few months of outreach—that´s for sure.  We arrived on the ship a day ago and boy am I glad that traveling is over.  We finished out outreach in the port  city of Constanta, Romania almost a week ago.  Then as a team we went into central Romania (Translvania, where Dracula is supposed to be from) to wrap things up, spend some time together and debreif (talk about) our time abroad on outreach.  It went really well.  And it was nice to spend time with eachother without other people around.  Our last team bonding.  We were only there for two days before to caught an EARLY morning train to Bucaresti.  We almost missed the train, it was so stressful waiting for the rest of the team to arrive in the other taxi.  But after a hard run to the train we sat down, lungs burning and thanked God that we´d made it.  After that we needed a bus to the airport, so Matt went to find out how to get there.  He found the place and the number of bus, but not where to buy tickets.   We didn´t have a clue where to buy them, and we were running out of time for our plane, so we chanced it and went on the bus.  I was praying real hard that we wouldn´t get caught.  10 minutes before we arrived at our stop three undercover-ticket-checkers got on board.  they didn´t speak very good englash. ¨

“You have ticket?  You need ticket.  You pay fine.  300 lei.”

“We are not from here.  We didn´t know where to buy the ticket.  We need to catch our plain.  Please, we don´t have any money.” 

“Passports please.  No money, then we go to police.”

Gee, my heart was beating pretty fast. We didn´t have any money on us because we were leaving the country.  I had 30 euros and Cristia had 10 and I think we had 20 lei…..not even half the money they wanted.  They were trying to scare us so that we would pay….but we really didnt have the money. and they had our passports.  I was so worries that they would talk us to the police station, we would miss our bus, either go to jail or stay the night on the street and miss all our three connecting flights.  And being in charge of 4 other people….not a possition I want to be in.  thank God, they took what money we had, gave us our passports and we caught our plane.  Phew.

the flights went well.  We made all our connections.  after spending a night in the barcelona airport we were on our last flight.  we needed to meet the ship on an island in spain, but they had changed plans since we heard from them last and we sended up going to the wrong city, then we found the right one, but the ship was no where to be seen.  Matt and Ian went to go look for the ship, but ended up on an epic 2-hour journey.  they finally found it. then we had to pack all our luggage in to garbage bags, dinghy them to the ship in the middle of the harbour in rough water…. phew.  after 3 taxi rides, 1 train, 3 planes and a night in the airpot: 37 hours we were finally on Next Wave. 

I am so glad that´s over.  Thank you for all your prayers.