Team India T-Minus 19 days!

(From Left to right) Emily Thompson, Jessica Clark, Keaton Tyndall, Kristine Tran, Natalie Anna, Gaby Espejo, Me, Jessica De La Paz, and Lauren Belieff.

We have been praying and paying (God pays for everything, really) for this trip since September. It's been a roller coaster of a semester for all of us. As we enter into a time of rest during break, pray with us to remain focused on God's Word through prayer and fasting. And most importantly, that the people of India would receive the love and salvation through Christ; the only thing that we can share with them that will have an eternal effect. Please keep our team covered with prayers. Thank you! :)

Thank you Jesus for being the provider, once again. John 14:13-14.
God bless you all!

Bangalore, India

HERE WE GO!!
January 7th - 21st, 2011 marks our mission trip to Bangalore, India.
My best friend Kristine is going too! What a sweet God we serve! We're going with a team of 8 amazing girls from Biola University. Our goal is to minister God’s love to orphans, women, and those suffering under human trafficking. This is something that's been on mine and Kristine's hearts for the past two years. How faithful and wonderful is God! Seriously, I still can't believe we're going. So we will be working closely with the Dalit(broken) people through an org. called Dalit Freedom Network. The cost is $3,200 each person and $32,000 for our whole team. This is actually one of my favorite parts because I love seeing who God chooses to provide through. No sweat, His will = His bill!

Keep us in your prayers :)

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood" Isaiah 58:6-7.

SMU @ Biola University

Hello again!
Just wanted to give a little update in my life in terms of overseas missions. So this past Wednesday I started the Fall semester at Biola University. Let me say, I am very impressed and inspired by this college. Before hand, I had NO idea what to expect. I never had a desire to go to Bible college and that just so happens to be where God called me.

The only things I knew were...
1) I desperately want to know God more.
2) I want to serve Him through mission trips.
3) I'm going to be a (traveling) nurse.

On Thursday, the Lord revealed why I'm at Biola.

1) Biola is a Bible college. Every Biolan has to minor in Bible, which means every Biolan will be more educated in God's Word.
2)"The Student Missionary Union (SMU) is the largest student-led missions organization in the United States."
3) Biola has a really great nursing program.

Talk about endless mission opportunities! And all 3 points tie into each other..Thank You Jesus! Biola's mission trips go out every winter and summer break. They're all student-led and also, we get to pick the location. Pray that the Holy Spirit will place a specific country on my heart again. Thank you! :)

♫ Ba ba mbguini hakuna kama we we ♫

The song in my title is a catchy one that most of us learned. It translates: Father there is none like You.

Waking up and realizing I have to leave this place makes me want to cry.
Lindsey lost her passport this morning and we had to get out of the Crater from 9 AM. It was 8:10 AM and we saw her running out or it would more like flying out with her passport! hahaha we made it "by the skin of our teeth."

I spent a lot of time prepping for this trip; 2 months in fact. Jana mentioned in a devotion time that we need to prep ourselves to leave the trip. After spending time with God and making sure my heart is settled, I'm happy to announce my readiness to go back home. I have been abundantly blessed with a life changing adventure that many people don't get to experience. I have met passionate, Godly people from all over the world who have come to serve God with me. Each individual on this trip has impacted me in ways I can't even explain. I'm humbled and in awe of what I've seen. I have an extended family in Tanzania now. I'm coming back to California with a deeper love for people. My patience is stretched...only because of God! And although it's harder to tell people about Jesus here(mainly because almost everyone knows who He is), I'm seeking the same miracles that happened in Africa to happen here.

My prayer request before leaving was for me to have more of God's vision for people, like the Brandon Heath song, "Give me your eyes."

I've seen:
-miracles
-God's love for people
-the remarkably beautiful country of Tanzania
-extreme poverty
-the most affectionate and loving people
-HOPE

This journey has ended but I look forward to the many mission trips ahead of me. Thank you for reading, praying, and/or thinking of my team and Tanzania. Thanks especially to my family, best friend, church family, and friends who have supported me prayerfully, financially, or through precious words of encouragement. "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers" Ephesians 1:16. This trip has been one of the biggest highlights of my life. It's been a canopy of blessings.

You can find the rest of my pictures at http://www.facebook.com/lizzy.bui

Safari!

SAFARI TIME!!!!!!!!! I had the most jaw dropping time in the Ngorongoro Crater. Seriously, how detailed is God with His creation! Everywhere I looked was vastness of beauty..God's creations are stunning.

The Crater..that's where we headed!

Here are the multitudes of animals we saw...it's a bit different without bars in front of them! Mama elephant + Baby elephant.

I think this is an Antelope...that's what my friend, Kim-erin @ http://livingeventfully.blogspot.com said!

THAT'S A STRAIGHT UP WILDABEAST!

Sweet shot of an ostrich. Would not want to race one.

Zebras are one of my absolute favorites. Look at unique they are!

Don't know what this thing is...kinda freaky looking.

GIRAFFE!!!!

CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!

Oh, Tanzania.

I took this picture and said, "THIS PICTURE DOESN'T DO IT JUSTICE!"

Kicking back from the Serena hotel with my worn out TOMS.

I can get pretty used to this.

AHHHH, a bed without a mosquito net?!?! This is the good life! God really treated us out after this mission trip. We got an amazing deal on the Safari trip and hotel room.

The tribe Maasai performing!

This little girl was all covered up next door and wouldn't come out. We all prayed for her. NOW look at her..she was playing carefree and her face improved tremendously.

LOVE!

Childlike Faith

We are winding down, folks!! Today was by far, the most enjoyable day. I mean I deeply enjoyed the other days but I love that we get to rest in the Lord today.

We gathered in a group and shared our God spotting stories with each other. Anything from a witch doctor accepting Jesus and giving up their dark spirits&trinkets, to a demon possessed person getting saved, to a blind boy getting healed, to thousands of people making a decision for Christ.
The team then split up into two; one group going home and another going on the Safari trip. I'll be honest, I was wanting to just hop in the bus and go straight home but I'm so glad I was able to stay longer. Because we went to Pastor Michael's church and it was CHILDREN CELEBRATION DAY! My oh my. This was one of the highlights on my trip. Seeing a group of thirty kids worship God and sing songs in Swahili...heart melt.

We gathered outside under this sweet little fortress. They decorated it with congas(skirt fabrics) and balloons!

Sunday School kids! :)

Worship leader - David. MUST.SQUEEZE.HIM!!!

...squeeze :)


Jared sharing with the kids.

The kids' gift to their Pastors. This silver slate is for the church's roof!

Lets play I spy...

AWWWWW, this hungry guy ate the BIGGEST bowl of food.

Pastor Michael and Christina with their beautiful family. We prayed on this land because it was miraculously given to them and they want to build a church here.

Church lasted for three hours. I will never complain of how long church is back home, especially when ours is really only an hour!! I cherished these three hours though. I love seeing children worship Jesus. There's nothing like it...I get inspired by God loving children. When you're a kid, you believe everything your parents say. It's just so much easier for kids to believe everything Jesus(as their spiritual father) says and can do. I seek for more of that radical stepping out in childlike faith everyday. That explains why I'm a Sunday School teacher back home! (btw, they got SO excited when I shared this to them). I adore my kids and sometimes I feel like I learn more from them than they do from me, baha! Anyways, as I shared I looked around at the kids' faces and said, "I love your beautiful faces worshipping our Lord. You all remind me of my Sunday School kids back home...you really are my kids now too! Thank you for loving us as we love you." We may live differently and worship differently but it's astonishing to know we worship the same God who loves us all. God is the same God in Africa as He is in America and the rest of the world. That was a Holy Spirit body slam!

Hut to Hut Evangelizing

This trip is coming to an end. And in two short days I will be on my way home. It's a very bittersweet feeling. My physical body is restless but my Spirit is high and upbeat. Going on a mission trip is NO vacation. This is all about discipline, stretching myself, and relying solely on God. It's fun and well worth it all though!

Today I went out to evangelize with Jared, Kelah, and our translators. It was quite the muddy journey from all the rain. My translator, Joseph did a fantastic job. We talked to around 15 people about Jesus and 5 came to accept Him, which is great! The others were all willing to hear but decided it wasn't the right time or they wanting to wait on it. And that was totally fine as well. Like I said in the earlier post, there's free will when it comes to Jesus. I just pray they will come to find and experience Jesus because life is much more blessed and enriched with Him in it. And of course, like anywhere you go, there's people who will discourage and insult you for believing in Jesus. There was a man who I shared the HIV Hope cube with. After wards he asked why I was here, why Americans watch movies with people killing each other as entertainment, and he basically said they have enough apostles here so we don't need you. I answered I'm here because I love Jesus and I want to tell others from the across the world about how magnificent He is and how He desires a personal relationship with everyone. America is far from perfect, even with all our resources...we need Jesus too. And to his last point, I said I'm not an apostle and prayed for him as I shook off the dust from my feet and left. At least he learned about HIV/AIDS!

This is the home church in the neighborhood we were in. It's made of mud, sticks, hay, and the door is wooden. We had to duck to get in.

This is the inside of the church. There were three wooden benches total.

In this area, We shared with these kids and the oldest brother rededicated his life back to Jesus, PTL! He said he went astray for awhile but wants to come back. This little girl is now sporting the Kid's Camp 09' sweatshirt!

Cows are treasured pets to them. It's their source of daily milk and eventually food. You can see the house with sticks protruding out. Each time they slab on more mud and it dries; this creates another layer. Eventually the sticks will be covered like the picture up there of the church.

They use this to dry their clothes and/or give their small cattle a shelter.

Francis and Paulina's family. Saved on May 29, 2010! Salvation is here and He lives in us.

Lunch was a little out of the norm. That's a FRESH chicken.

Today we ended early and came back to Reedbuck Hotel for the closing ceremony with our entire team and the nationals. It was a time of worship and soaking in what the Lord has done for everyone on the trip. And it was also picture time!

Vincent - a true man of God and testimony of how gracious God is. Not to mention, he is hilarious and silly!

Kelah, me, Lindsey. She started the whole peace sign...

Sorry, this picture is scary and I should've warned you. One of the translators gifted us with these t-shirts and so we wanted to model them off. Suz's face is PRICELESS! Nurses are fun :)

HAPPY 3 YEARS JESUS!

WHOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! Today is my 3rd birthday in Jesus. Accepting Him into my life was the best decision I've ever made. Living for Him means living for love, people, and righteousness. I chose this lifestyle and I thank Him for giving us all free will. He is not forceful whatsoever. He is gentle and loving in calling His creation back to Him. A big factor in why I turned away from Buddhism(back in middle school) was the fact that I was forced into everything. I was forced to go to temple every Sunday(for 5ish years), kneel and chant for hours, and rituals were imposed on me. I don't mean to bash Buddhism but this is simply what I experienced. I was raised with those beliefs but as I grew up, I realized I have to live for my beliefs and not my family's. There is vast freedom in God. I'm not forced to do anything; going to church, reading the Bible, talking to other Christians, loving people, etc. I choose to do these things out of overwhelming love for Him. Christ's love compels me to love and learn. I love that the Lord loves me unconditionally and desires a relationship with me and really anyone&everyone. This is much more than a religion. It's walking with Jesus through every aspect of life, through the joyous of times to the gloomiest. He is my best friend, Savior, Redeemer, Provider, HEALER, Father, Shelter, and much more. This makes up a chunk of my testimony. It's pretty neat to see how amazed some of my team mates were about me formerly being a Buddhist.

It's also my best friend's salvation date as well. That would explain why we're so close! We were saved on the same day(May 28, 2007), baptized on the same day(May 28, 2008), but separated today?! :( It's okay though, it's radical to see our best friend connection work overseas. God spoke the same thing to both of us even in different countries, 23 hours away from each other. She is my best friend, my biggest supporter, my source of laughter, and my sister in Christ. She is also the epitome of a true follower of Jesus. Check out her inspiring daily blogs at: http://kristinetran.tumblr.com/

Well, today was the usual medical clinic from 10 AM - 4 PM. I had a wee bit of an embarrassing moment. But thank you Jesus for covering us with Your blood!! Anyways, assisting 150 patients yesterday was rigorous and today was just as long. Nurse Jana intervened and took over halfway through though...what a sweetheart! She was in the eyeglass clinic for an entire week before this. Her patience is astonishing.

Here I am with Afred and Sabrina. We're sharing the ecube and you can't really see it but I'm explaining how Jesus died on the cross for our sins, for us to be reconciled with us, for us to be with God forever in heaven. The necklace I'm wearing is made of paper!

Sabrina and her family after waiting for hours to be seen.

Joshua, Sabrina, and I. They're both so precious. Joshua was pouting because he found out he didn't need glasses but wanted them soooo bad. I explained to him why it's a good thing not to have glasses then I whipped out the bubbles and he was thrilled! I think he was more thrilled on the bubbles than the encouragement...oh well!

Libby - my BFF on the trip. She's from a small Baptist church in Tennessee! She has a crazy story about a lady who was demon possessed but through prayer, the demons were casted out. I'm told that demon possession is a normal thing in Africa just because some people worship dark spirits. Yah, this is real! The same Jesus in the Bible who heals the blind and casts out demons is alive and active today.
I know it can be an unbelievable and heavy topic but my teammates and I experienced Jesus' miracles and we testify for His sake.

Jana, Suz, Lori, Katherine, and myself. The awesome ladies on the medical team!
Myth: Africa is a hot desert. Depends where you go but look at this view!!! Tanzania is green and beautiful.

A MIRACLE

God cares for our littlest needs. He has been the most faithful to me and the team. Before this trip, I was praying to witness a physical healing. Going into nursing, this is something that's really special to me. The same Jesus in the Bible who healed people from blindness, leprosy, demon possession can certainly do it now. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

This cute little boy's name is Alponce(definitely spelled his name wrong). Our eye glasses only go up to 4 or -4 degrees. His eyes were so bad that someone helped sit him in a chair. He was at a -15 degrees and if you've ever worn glasses, you would know that's straight up BLIND! The eye doctor, Sospeter lifted up his fingers from up close and asked Alponce if he can see them. He said no. Dr. Sospeter then says there's nothing we can do for him. And at that very moment, despair and helplessness flooded my mind. I felt sick. This is a little boy who's legally blind. He's only eight years old and he can't see?! I mentioned before that when I feel helpless, all I can do is pray. So we laid hands on his eyes and I prayed a simple prayer of healing. I.kid.you.not. Dr. Sospeter told me later that he lifted up his fingers again and this little boy could see his fingers clearly. There's seriously no other explanation on how this little boy can see now. Jesus heals.

This is an Albino lady who is as white as can be but she was born and raised in Tanzania. Very interesting!

WARNING: THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS MIGHT THE FOLLOWING IMAGES DISTURBING.

This little girl had an infection in her eye and sadly, we didn't have the right eye drops to give her. So Dr. Sospeter took out his (steralized) pen cap to break off some of the infection covering her eye. UHHH, CAN YOU SAY ONLY IN AFRICA!

Gnarly!!! Nurse Lori got a snap of this crazy growth.

Those pictures weren't too bad, right? Some people get all weird with pictures like that. Well, if you're reading this, you're a trooper! Anyways, I love the fact that we bring Jesus to these people and if they accept, we show them of a nearby church. The local pastors involved on this mission trip really are amazing. This is their mission field and the people who accept Jesus are their new church members. We have a good forty local pastors working with us. This mission trip would not be as effective if we weren't connected with these leaders.

I can get pretty used to this life!! Time here is infinite. We don't have any usage of phones, computers, tv's, or any advanced technology. Yikes, that means we actually have to do something productive! :)

Some rafikis(friends) I met at the eye clinic. They were practicing their English with me and giggling at my lack of Swahili.

Physical&Spiritual Needs

Thank you for all your prayers...I can feel God's protection!

Today is the first day in the medical clinic. Before I get into it, this mission trip is set up with 3 groups: medical, evangelism, and camping. Every group's purpose is to show who Jesus is but each group has a different route towards that goal. I'm with the medical group so we cater to people's physical needs and spiritual needs. The evangelism team splits up and goes house to house or hut to hut to specifically share the good news. The camping group is extreme, they are camping with the Maasai tribe, showing the Jesus film, and again sharing Jesus.

Our very own medical clinic...it's about twenty minutes away from Karatu.

Eye glass clinic. This is where I was at for two days. We supplied HUNDREDS of people with eyeglasses and eye drops.

Intake where the Registered Nurses stationed themselves.

Our pharmacy. Lots of drugs; malaria pills, de-worming meds, diarrhea pills, ibuprofen, etc.

My friend, Elizabeth(right) sharing the HIV Hope cube; raising awareness and then testing patients for HIV.

It was supposed to be a fast prick but because this was my first time, I did a sloooow prick and hurt the poor guy. haha look at his face :(

It's okay, he tested NEGATIVE! One line = negative, three lines = positive.

Justin and Katherine shadowing Dr. Moses. I'm kicking myself for not buying that blue elephant painting in the background.

Wide shot of the medical clinic. Hundreds of patients came through here and hundreds made Jesus their personal Savior. Hooray!

Overall, today was a big learning experience for me. However, I'm feeling the most homesick today. I really miss my best friend, Kristine. She's a sweet one. She wrote me a letter for every day I was gone...and secretly tried to hide it in my bag but I found it early.
I miss my home church too. I can't wait to go on a big international trip with them.

It's been extremely chaotic and the e3 organization is not to blame. Honestly, there's a lot of spiritual warfare. The simplest way to explain spiritual warfare is a war in the spiritual realm between the enemy and our souls. The devil really doesn't like what we're doing in the mission field so he tries to ruin everything. But I rejoice in the fact that God reigns and is victorious.