A Day in the Life....

of a Life Action team member at Staff Training camp. Particularly, band member.

You could get up (and should) at around 6:45, but in most cases, it's 8 o'clock. Most of the times you have to skip breakfast because you don't have enough time to get ready. You hurriedly wash your face and put on makeup (if you're a girl) and go to DNA at the Tab at 9 o'clock - this is a meeting of all the teams at the sanctuary building on the camp property. This meeting consists of announcements, devotionals, etc. Usually this lasts for about 30 or so minutes and then you go to practice. You learn new songs for about three hours, with about two breaks lasting for five minutes each. Then you go to lunch in this building, which is called the "Lodge".

 It looks like this inside, except this was a special dinner that the cooking crew made for us one night, so usually there are just bare tables and you grab your own plate and go through the food line.

You have about an hour and a half to two hours of rest time where you can hang out with friends....or you can take a nap, or have your Bible time that you didn't have in the morning. Or, you could practice your instrument or read a book. Or write your support or update letter. Or work on debriefing from your trip to China. If you went on a trip to China. Oh, you can also drink lots of coffee to keep you going. You'll need it.

After break, you go back to practice for another three hour period, with a few breaks in between. You can work on some of your favorite songs, or ones that you've been wanting to do your whole life like this one!

 You goof off with your team members when your worship leader and sound guy work out sound system issues. Or actually, the best thing is to be quiet while they're doing that so they can concentrate. So you can take quiet selfies instead, if you would like. Or you can sit around and wait and stare at eachother and wonder why you have to travel with eachother for a whole year.

Then you have dinner at 5:30 or 6 o'clock. And you wonder why you're eating again, cuz it seems like the only thing you do is practice and eat. And that is literally all you do.

Then you go back to practice at 7 o'clock for about two hours of practice, which is usually just vocal practice. This is the point of the day where you start getting super tired and get super goofy and crazy. After this practice, you can go back to the Lodge and hang out with your team members and play games like spoons, which is very dangerous. Bruises might be made, but memories will be as well so it's worth it. :) Or, you can play a tame game of Hand and Foot.

You aim to go to bed at around eleven o'clock but you never get to bed till 11:45 or 12 o'clock each night. Good ambitions though.

And that is the normal day in the life of a Life Action band member at Staff Training. Of course, things vary from day to day and every day is interesting!!
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Things have been going great here at Life Action camp as we prepare to go on the road in two weeks. We still have a lot of songs to learn, so please pray that God will give us energy to learn them and that we would just dive right in and get it done. :)

Last night, Blue Team (my team) went to a staff member's house and we were challenged to get a selfie with the whole team in it. And we had fifteen minutes to plan this and to get the picture. So we ended up deciding that Jonathan should get on the roof of the house and take a picture of us making a hashtag. For #selfie. Hahaha get it? Ok. So this was the outcome.

And then we got another one of our hosts and us. :D COVER YOUR EYES

This is my team this year. And what a great team they are. They are all incredible and I can't wait to travel with them this year! It is such a blessing to see the level of spiritual maturity in them; I am humbled by them and I pray that God would make me more mature and deep in my walk with Him as they are. I'm expecting God to do amazing things through this team this year in His church. :) 

Keep updated! If you would like to receive my update letter, please message me your email address on Facebook and I'll get that to you as soon as I can. :)

If you would like to join my financial support team, you can partner with me financially by going to https://www.lifeaction.org/donate/support-a-staff-member/ and click my name under “Staff Member” (it should be at the top since my name is at the beginning of the alphabet). Or you can send a care package to P.O. Box 31, Buchanan, MI, 49107. Those are always appreciated. :D

Thank you so much for keeping updated!! It means more than you know! You are in my prayers! God bless.

Bethany

I Had a Dream.

I had a dream.

One of faces. Those at roadside stands. Those ready to learn. Those curious about the Person the foreign strangers speak to before every meal. Those whose religion claims that they can earn the right to heaven. Those who were hospitable to foreigners to make a friend. Those who bartered at night markets. Those who smoked. Those who stared at the rare white faces
coming through their city. Those who had high ranking in the government and with whom the foreigners had banquets. The one who owned a laundromat, and who invited the foreigners to her house because they made the effort to befriend her. The one who stuck by them the whole time to help them with anything they needed. The one who taught Chinese to that one foreigner.The one at the roadside stand who sold the hats of her people. The one who was so excited to speak her little known English to an American who visited her shop quite often.  The one who owned a salon and made unspoken friends with these visitors. The one who had a 1 Corinthians 13 on a plaque in her house without even realizing it's origin.

One of traffic and lights. Defying death in adventurous taxi rides. Breezy and cool night drives in the city. Learning to balance while standing up in a public bus. Driving across a floating bridge across the yellow river.  A bus breaking down mid-route, dumping its passengers to find another one.

One of beauty. Of rugged mountains. Of remnants of one, the Great Wall. Of desert. Of chairlifts to a mountaintop on which hiking commenced. Of fields of corn. Of a valley stretching as far as the eye could see, with the magnificent yellow river winding its way into the mountains beyond. Of magnificent buildings that are replicas of those past.

One of spiritual depravity.  Searching for eternal life in all of the wrong things. Worthless prayers to a nonexistent god. Customs that are dearly held onto because there is an idea that they will be a way to heaven. Dryness of souls. A yearning for something more, but what?

But it was a dream of hope.  That girl is asking questions about the One who saves. Another girl believes in the Father and wants to start a church for her people. The bus driver has put his hope in the Son some time past and continues to grow. The young man and young girls who saw the difference in the foreigners lifestyle have begun to seek why. Most of all, the One who sees
every bit of this despite the sin and guilt and shame interwoven throughout it all, He looks down upon all of this with great love, longingly working in it, that it may come to Him and be a beacon for nations.

And then I realized it was not a dream. It was real, and it was China. And I long to return to this reality, but till that day, I know the One who provides the only possible hope is still there working in every heart, and he will bring the good work that He has started to completion. To him be praise, in China and the world forevermore. Amen.