Only cause I can't help it

In Liberia, this past time, I hardly took out my camera at all.  Really I'm just the worst at remembering to take pictures.  We had Amy on our team take pictures, and I just got them yesterday! Which is why I am especially excited today because I get to share a few more with you.  Amy and I sat at my kitchen table for quite a while yesterday filtering through them.  She had about 2,500 pictures, of which we narrowed down to 300 to put into a facebook album, and then I just randomly picked a few to put up on this blog because I couldn't possibly try to pick the top 10.  That'd be nearly impossible for me.

I'll try my best to explain them as we go along:

We met these little guys on a walk around the property where we were holding our leadership conference.

The Leadership Conference in action.  Hogan is going over Self-Leadership.

We gave all the participants a certificate  for completing each 3 day course.  If you look very carefully you can see that  I signed all the certificates.  Oh my goodness.

This girl on the left is singing her heart out at church on Sunday.

Pastor Robert (on the left) asked me to sing too.  I told him there was no way I could  sound as good as his choir, but  he had me do it anyways.  I sang Revelation Song.

The foliage in Liberia is AWESOME

The night before we watched, "The Gods must be Crazy", and the next day the ladies  made us cake...

Aaron, my buddy, gettin jiggie with it

My skirt got about a million prickery things in it, and these boys were helping a sister out.  They call the prickery  things homework... kinda funny

CHONCO Nicaragua

You'd think that after 4 years of trying to learn Spanish that I'd know something, but oh geez when I go to a place like Nicaragua I'm reminded of how much I suck at Spanish. I have to believe there is hope for me yet, but up until this point I haven't had much luck. I did have a real proud Spanish speaking moment though. I've been in Nicaragua this past week helping to lead our high school mission team, and we were out shopping on Friday, and a little lost. We were looking for a little shop called Rosanna's, so I stopped a guy to ask for directions. “Hola, Como estas? Donde esta Rosanna's?”

Now just encase you start to feel a little proud of me too for being so bold, please understand how completely pathetic that is. Why am I proud of that!? I learn that in Chapter 1 Spanish 1. I digress. Maybe there is no hope for me.... oh well. Next attempt: Arabic.

Out in the country-side of rural Nicaragua there are rows of green and sometimes smoky Volcanoes that make up the skyline. We spent the week in Chunco a little farming village putting on a day-camp field day kind of extravaganza called the CHONCO OLYMPICS. It was a marvelous success. Throughout, the week we played baseball, 100 meter race, a 1 mile race, that game where you see how far you can throw a big heavy rock, basketball, soccer, sumo wrestling and a few relays.

At the end of the week we shared the gospel with the kids and saw about 25 people total make a decision towards Christ. It was a very powerful moment. It's just amazing the way God uses all of us. Though normal days, and through out-of-the-ordinary experiences he has placed us directly in the midst of the people that he's chosen us to minister to. Sometimes I'm so caught up into my own mind that I lose track of God working right around me.

Volcano Smoke

In that moment with those Nicaraguan kids, it was certainly hard to ignore though.

Here are some pictures from the week:

Africa has a way with me.

Africa has a way with me. Driving past the perfect rows of tall rubber trees, it let's my soul take a deep breath. It's like an element of me becomes what it's suppose to be in Africa. I just returned last week from a 2 week trip to Liberia with the college-age team. Our goal was to do a leadership seminar, and build from it a team of leaders that could decide for themselves what ways their communities could change. Rain beating on the tin roof, we shouted at each other teaching the group about how to plan out a detailed project plan. They sat at tables together listening and taking notes about how to grow in leadership skill and capacity. Trying to catch every breeze possible through the open doors, we sat with groups of Pastors and Leaders and discussed the details of every principle.

In the morning our team drove through the city to witness Liberia waking up, and ladies going to the market in the foggy morning- their colorful fabrics wrapped around their waists. We drove past fields of corn, cassava, and sweet potato scattered in between the coconut trees. We got to the location of our leadership seminar on the first day, and there were 3 men on time... the 37 others surely just woke up late or got stuck in traffic... right? Oh well, not everyone in the world depends so much on a clock.

One of these men smiled and introduced himself to me, “James”. We ate oatmeal and cornbread together for breakfast, and he told me about his church, his family, and his farm. James- a farmer by trade, and a pastor by calling. After a while in conversation with him, I began to realize how brilliant he was. A humble farmer on the outskirts of Monrovia, he soaked up every bit of the leadership seminar taking pages and pages of notes with plans to reteach all of it to his church and the people in his community. He beamed with excitement and pride telling us how grateful he was, and what he was going to do with it. This is why we do this, for people just like him.

Liberia Video Blog

Now that we're home from Liberia I've had a chance to upload all the little videos I've taken over the past couple weeks. Several of them are completely pointless as you'll find out, but at least they're short so you'll only have to sit through the pointless ones for a few seconds to get to the other ones that have a little bit more purpose behind them. Either way, I hope you enjoy them. I'll put them in chronological order here:

Here is Amy Lyford, who has contributed to this blog quite a bit this go around.  Here is her reaction 17 seconds into the trip.




Here we are just taking a drive through town on our way to go do some planning for our upcoming seminars.  



On our first day of Leadership Training Dave Bearchell taught on the "Diamond Life" Personal Leadership Idea, and had Jonathan help him teach segments of it.  Here we see Jonathan's bundle of nerves on display, or his he kidding?



The evil smirk on my face is because I realize that Rodney never voluntarily jumps in front of the camera. We have to make him, just to prove that he came with us.  Rodney is the President of Service to Servants which is the organization that has brought to life every Liberia project that we've thought to do this far.  Otherwise this short video is one of the most pointless in the bunch.



Here we are Erica, Zac, and I on Friday afternoon looking for a place to get some gifts for people back home in downtown Monrovia. Just ignore the hot mess that is my hair.



Here we are: Miatta, Erica, Amy and I in the backseat coming back from Diana Davies Orphanage where we spent some of our free time.  A few years ago we went their to install a generator, and we at least wanted to touch base with them while we were in town.



The Friday that we were flying out to go back to Atlanta, Dave, Jonathan, Erica, and I stopped by THINK to visit the kids that I had met a few years ago.  Here's a short little hello from them to you.



Dave is so good with these kids it's ridiculous.  These kids at this organization are all rescued from abusive situations, many of them have been traumatized, but Dave bring a light to these kids that's unexplainable.  Here he is discussing their kickball game.



Crazy to think I taught these kids this song 2 1/2 years ago, and they still remember it.  We took a group picture, and then they started to sing.  I couldn't help but video it.



Here is the last video I got in Liberia. It's a goodbye song from the kids at THINK.

In getting ready to go to Liberia again next month, I can help but reminisce on what my first trip to Liberia was like.  I had just come home from my first trip out of the country ever, 3 months living in Swaziland, Africa, and I was a mess, and I asked God to connect me with some other people that cared about Africa.

I could do this

Only about a month until I go with a team to Liberia, and about a month and a half ago I was in Colombia.  I'm honestly beginning to think that I could really do this.  Nothing makes me feel so alive as when I'm serving people somewhere in the world.  There is just something about it, when I'm in the midst of all the chaos of international travel... I just know that there is nothing else that I'd rather be doing.

That trip to Colombia last month really did something in my heart.  It wasn't something that anyone said to me, but still I got back from that experience, and I realized that I was really serious about going anywhere in the world to serve God and part of me had been still holding back. I know it sounds simple, but I broke through another layer of surrendering that I didn't even know was there.

So here are a few more pictures from the Colombia trip that happened in March. I hope you enjoy them!

First Time Travelling with My Guitar.  I borrowed my Dad's guitar case,  and I will probably not do that  again since the case is so thin. 

We worked with the Community Mother's and the Kids she took care of everyday.

The Community Mother's PARROT!!

Add caption

 

Maria Camila! My new sister and translator. 

Maria and I singing in the church during some down time.

This was one of my favorite moments.  Maria and I had stopped to talk to this one lady.   She had been living with the father of all her children, but they had been living together so long when she accepted Christ that when her life started to transform the man who has been her "informal" husband for 10 years or so did not want to actually marry her, so she felt trapped in a life of sin... the church started to put pressure on her, but she felt trapped.... These kinds of situations, I know I'm not qualified to give her advice on, but I did pray for her.  But then while we had been sitting outside a group of twenty or so kids started to gather around, so we shared the gospel with them.  It really was an incredible moment because I can tell when a kid is engaged, and those kiddos were dialed in.  Ugh!! I love it!!   

The Team!

Trash Man and William Hung

The person I'm writing about, I don't have a picture of, but these kids will do right?  Aren't they so cute!

I'm mulling over my experiences from my last escapade to Colombia... and I just can't get over this one thing that happened.  One of our main tasks in Colombia was to have conversations with people about faith.  Now you have to forgive me, almost my entire experience with strangers talking to me about Jesus has made me feel like they are straight up messed up the head, and I'm already a Christian.  You know what I'm talking about?  And because of those horrible experiences I have my own barriers when it comes to me being genuine about sharing my faith with others.

It's kinda like those people who try out for American Idol... you know, the people who are genuine about how good they think they are... and they're not good. (Ex: William Hung & Pants on the Ground Man) YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?! Thinking your ok/good in doing something is a dangerous place to be especially when your actually not good or ok.  In American Idol, I'm talking about talent.  In talking to others about Jesus, I'm talking about something altogether more intangible and creepy.  

ANYWAYS

that's where I'm coming from.

So in Colombia we were given all kinds of opportunities to share our faith with people, and now that you know some of my pre-conceived notions you can tell why I'd be a little nervous.  There's nothing worse in my mind then thinking that I'm wooing everyone with my beautiful voice when really they're just distracted at how self-deceived I am... It's be like thinking I'm sharing the most beautiful story in the world (the gospel), but somehow it's been misinterpreted to be something that people run away from.

All these thoughts were mulling through my mind when a man walked up to me as I was standing out in front of the church.  We were already in one of the poorest neighborhoods around.  The place resembled more of a slum then anything, and yet this man looked like he didn't belong there.  Dirty, Depressed, nearly Desolate ...carrying nothing but a little cart of trash.

The man looked at me and said,

"Are you an American?" .... "Yes"

"Are you a Christian?" .... "Yes"

"I just so desperate, I used to work with the drug cartels.  I could spend $500 in one weekend, but now I have nothing.  I have nothing, and don't know what to do..."  He went on about his sorrows in Spanish, and I didn't get it all.

His emotion, although washed-out through my translator, was still deep.  He was literally begging me to tell him about Christ.  My translator and I stood there on the porch explaining the gospel to him, we prayed with him there to accept Christ, and a new countenance of joy came over his face.  He walked away, and I walked into the church stunned.

"You are the Light of the World.  A town on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matt 5:14) 

And now I'm giving leadership advice? ...ok

This past weekend I was training with a group of young leaders going to Liberia to teach John Maxwell's 5 Levels of Leadership on an upcoming trip to Liberia in June.  We are really just a bunch of goofy kids.  I don't know how we got this opportunity.  Nonetheless, we're going for it.  I've been to Liberia a couple times before with teams, and it's obvious that whenever we open our mouths people are listening to what we say whether or not it's dumb.  So we're trying extra hard to not be dumb.

We may be at the turning point for us now in our preparation which is kind of nice.  I'm sure we have the trio of kind gentlemen of the older generation on our team to thank for that... and John Maxwell.

We're getting ready to get together some of our Liberian friends, business leaders, and pastors in Monrovia in June to go through the 5 Levels of Leadership. Should be pretty awesome.  It's some legit stuff.

Hungry

Last week I went with a team to Barranquilla, Colombia. Never have I ever had an experience like it, and I can share more about why later. Every morning I led a team in Mesolandia working with in-home day care systems, a program called "Community Mothers", and in the afternoon we walked around the neighborhood and visited and talked about Jesus with the mothers and family of the little kids.

Here's a little video. I wasn't sure if I should really put it up. I was kind of a mess, but whatever.


Hungry from Danielle Williams on Vimeo.


I cannot imagine a more worthy calling then to go to minister to people just like this little girl.  The long term plan that we've bought into for Mesolandia is to see that this community become completely transformed, and my prayers are that this little girl's mom and dad are included in that transformation so they can feed her.


"If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday." Isaiah 58:10

Mozambique Pics from July (Complements to Tiffany Forrester)

Cashew, Mango, and Orange Trees everywhere

World Hope's Cattle Project

At the Cattle Project

From Left to Right: Tiffany, Me, Danni, Todd, Dennis, Zac, and Allan

Bible Stories with Zac

The first drops

An Art Lesson in the Sand

Self- Portraits

The most generous lunch, chicken and rice