i know this lacks all things relational but...

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If you would like to support my trip to Asia I would really really be grateful. We have a payment coming up at the end of November for a thousand dollars. If you would like me to send you a real letter just comment with your name and address.


Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know I recently got back from a two-month trip to Haiti. To no surprise God changed my life in a radical way using many of His people that I met along the way. Also while I was in Haiti I decided to re-direct my path to better fit my passions. I decided to leave Sarah Lawrence and pursue missions.

I am currently attending a one-year missions program at Vanguard College in Alberta, Canada. In the spring semester I will have the opportunity to travel to South East Asia with my fellow mission students at Vanguard. We will be going to China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Cambodia, and the Philippines. We will be gone the majority of March and April 2011. While there we will take part in teaching English, helping with humanitarian aid, after school activities, church services in Hong Kong, and we will have the opportunity to work with some orphanages.

To make this trip happen and be a success your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Two main ways you can help are through prayer and financial support. We will be in need of much prayer because China is a nation where it is dangerous to speak about God on the streets. I also ask for prayer over the safety of our team and for God to use us to truly as His hands and feet.

There are also many financial needs that the trip calls for. The fee for the whole trip is $3,500. That includes airfare, accommodations, meals, and ministry expenses. As a student this money does not come to me easily and assistance in both prayer and financial aid would be greatly appreciated and considered and huge blessing. If you choose to support me financially checks can be made out to Vanguard College and must have my name on the check memo.

I ask that you would take part in this next step in my life with prayer or financial aid. I know that God will provide the means for me to embark on this life-changing trip.

Thank you for partnering with me in this next step in my life. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at abby.barwick@yahoo.com. Thank you so much for you involvement in my life. You are greatly appreciated.

Abby Barwick-Snell
Vanguard College
12140-103 Street
Edmonton, AB T5G 2J9

God bless.

retreat.

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This weekend we went away. One of my classes had a retreat that consisted of driving way out into the country and just spending quality time with people.


I made a lot of new and good friends this weekend and had so much fun!!

There was a lot of down time and no curfew which was so nice.

We had several worship services. We had an unscheduled baptism fest where 13 people got baptized.

On Saturday night we overflowed the hot tub because practically everyone was in it. We all jumped in the pool and made a GIANT whirl pool, the biggest I have ever seen!! Then we tried going the other way and it was impossible. Crazy what people can do when they work together.

So now I am home. Sore. With a quiz tomorrow that I am not going to do well on because I have to know the names of all the Caribbean Islands which is impossible in my opinion.

Two weeks until I go home for Ava's wedding!

i think...

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the reason I keep forgetting to break out my Diana is the lack of beautiful architecture that this city has to offer. I find myself longing to photograph everyday life back in New York City or the iron crafted balconies of New Orleans. I guess I will have to make due, to find the beauty where it is hard to see. Maybe I can find it in the faces of people.


Meanwhile, I will day dream of tall buildings and the hussle and bussle of the city I left behind. I will live there again someday, I just know it.


god of this city.

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I was going to wait until tomorrow to post but I just cannot contain myself.

Today was such an awesome day. We did urban ministry in downtown Edmonton. I served and ate lunch at a homeless shelter called Hope Mission.

And then me and two others made our way throughout the streets experiencing life as the homeless know it.

Later we went and sorted clothes at a place called the Mustard Seed.

There were tons of homeless people lined up on the street to get into the Seed, such a great opportunity to just talk to people.

It is amazing what a simple conversation could do.

Later at the Seed I sat down to talk with an older man sitting all by himself. We talked for hours about everything, life, American Politics, and "religion." He told me that he had lost his job but everyday he took care of a disabled man for no pay. He lived in a boarding home and had no family. He was so interesting and so smart.

I asked him if he had ever known Jesus on a personal level. Long story short I led him to dedicate his life to the Lord. It was the best thing that I have done yet-- or better yet, that God has done through me.

I invited him to my church. I don't know if he will come. But I will be praying for him every single day.

Now he knows it is not about religion, it is about a relationship with God.

This man changed me. He showed me what God can do if I allow Him to use me. This man also made me realize how important it is to me for homeless or less fortunate people to be welcomed in my church. Here, in Edmonton, at City Center I know he would be. But at home, I am struggling... because I am not so sure.

As much as we say that we are accepting and Jesus called us to love the poor and needy, I know that if a homeless person walked through those doors of my home church people would wonder... they would look at him with judgement and they may even be scared.

Now I am not trying to generalize because some people there were the ones who taught me how to love and even what missions meant.. But the population as a whole.. I am just not so sure.

This is just causing me to think. And I don't want to offend anyone. But I just feel I need to be somewhere that if I were to invite my homeless friends to come, they would be welcomed.

Tonight-- even though I was forced to be up so late-- has changed my life. I feel God just placing urban missions on my heart. Maybe not forever... But before, I was so scared of people on the streets. I didn't admit it but I was. I no longer am. Because we are all the same. And I have learned that tonight. We are all the same.

So as you go to bed tonight, don't forget to pray for those who don't have beds or showers. And I am not asking you to be more thankful (although that would be nice) and I am not asking you to give money (but that would be nice too). I am asking you to give your time. All people need is for someone to listen to them, to their story.

There could be countless amounts of money being poured into a mission but it would be nothing without people being there, being relational.

After all. Isn't that why we are here on earth. It's about relationships.

Think about it.


explain.

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Now tell me why the same people who are instructed to be the bringers of hope to this world are the same people known for causing this pain.

Who gave you the right to point out sin in someone else's life. Look at the plank in your own eye.

Look to who Jesus is. Look at the life he lived.

We are instructed to love our neighbor as ourselves, to bring hope to this desperate world. Sometimes it just hurts to be placed in this group of people who call them selves "Christians" when we are not following Christ at all.

belonging.

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Do believe a place can call out your name?

Roots.

Having bon fires, roasting marsh mellows with him.

Spending endless days playing make believe in the creek out back, us youngsters with such vast imaginations.

The taste of bagels, cream cheese, and orange juice in the morning will always take me back there.

The clinking of dishes around the Thanksgiving table.

The rare privilege of watching cable. A basket of knitting beside the couch.

Taking baths, the smell of Dial soap—the yellow bar kind, the spray shower head that he told me never to touch… And when I was older, years and years older, old enough to use it—I still didn’t, I stood firm in his request.

Watching the Macy’s day parade while she cooked in the kitchen. Flipping back and forth channels to get different views of the parade.

The deep freeze and the frozen “nutty buddies.”

The yellow ash tray.

And that big magnolia.

I never really cried when you left, but I am crying now my love.

halloween.

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Last night we had such a great time at a costume party! I wore my Giraffe mask that I acquired at the Bronx Zoo. The people that I came with were all dressed up as Lakers players.

The night took a turn when someone started playing worship music and we started to change out of our costumes and had a time of prayer. It was way powerful. Our singing filled the neighborhood.

We had such a fun time and such a great time worshipping and praying.

It was a good Halloween.

chapel.

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On Thursday we had the best chapel yet.
It went an hour over time because we were having such a radical time full of prayer, worship, and testimonies.
A guy in my program who was partially blind was legitimately healed. He got up on stage and read from his bible, hands outstretched. It was so amazing.
I have never been apart of something like what happened in Chapel on Thursday.
The presence of God was so huge in that room, I will never forget it.

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