I've moved my blog to:
Come visit and read about my adventures in Barcelona, Spain!
miércoles, 1 de agosto de 2012
viernes, 4 de septiembre de 2009
Reykjavik--> Barcelona
August-September 2009
KKI Iceland Spain’s international King’s Kids tour bringing “hope and genuine joy” to Iceland has lamentably come to an end, but a tour as such that was filled with so many wonderful experiences and evangelistic performances will not be forgotten--neither by the Spaniards nor the Icelanders.
Our first stop in Iceland was an annual Christian conference in Kot-mot where we performed for thousands of Icelanders. We performed for the children’s and adults’ seminars and were able to help promote the DTS Bible School for the brand new YWAM base. We made such a commotion that they even interviewed us on the Christian radio and included us in the official event video.
The next stop was at the Vestmann Islands. We arrived the day after a week-long festival, and immediately had our first street performance with the aftermath of hungover Icelanders waiting at the port for the last ferry home. The Holy Spirit was moving that evening through our performances, post-discussions and prayers which helped connect and reconnect Icelanders to Jesus. Our famous Spanish guitar player, Miguel Vega, was able to give a pick to a fallen Christian to encourage him to play a new type of song for the Lord, and our medical student from Southern Spain was able to pray for a man who had been healed 2 years prior and needing encouragement. I prayed for healing and forgiveness for a man who had grown up with an abusive stepfather--and I know that God will be faithful. God also touched the heart of a 12 yr. old skater who our young Spanish participants brought to a Church service. On our last day of being on the Island, we climbed up to the top of the volcano that had erupted 25 years ago and roasted our sandwiches, lit paper on fire, and collected crimson volcanic rocks (photo: top-center).
After the Islands we stayed the remainder of our time in Reykjavik. With up to three performances a day, there were ample opportunities for God to work miracles for us. One of which happened when we needed someone to translate our Max Lucado drama into Icelandic for the children at our performance. We prayed for God to provide us with a translator and proceeded making preparations in faith that God would provide--and, at the last minute, we ran into a translator that we had met at the Christian conference who had coincidentally been at the same place that day. I’m still amazed by God’s faithfulness in that case. During a different street performance we helped two girls come to accept Christ and three Spanish youth from our team prayed with them as they made this life-changing commitment. Aside from our performances, we also helped a novice group of believers (with an ex-convict pastor for all of you CBCers) put up the walls for a building that will soon be the place of congregation for their brand new Church.
Iceland Reflections Our team of Spaniards grew in their faith and developed in their leadership skills. It was a joy to see how God challenged all of them individually and used this tour to sharpen their knowledge of Him and develop their spiritual gifts. What’s beautiful about this ministry is the philosophy that challenging youth just above their capabilities leads them to habitually depend on God and continually grow in their faith.
Project Barcelona I am now back in Spain and I am thoroughly enjoying getting settled back into the country. I have been debriefed in the philosophy and the administrative aspect of the after school program Club Lokal and, as the program director, I am now organizing the next trimester. Classes are scheduled to begin in October which means that I have a lot of work to do! Additionally, the Lanzadera (Leadership) training for Church leaders begins in early September. I feel incredibly blessed to be here under the leadership of the Clewetts--it is a much appreciated privilege.
Prayer Requests
1) Please pray for God to continue developing my vision for Spain and KKI as I begin the Lanzadera school of leadership this September. Please pray for the outreach(es) of 2010.
2) Please pray for Club Lokal--we need teachers and students for the upcoming trimester in October.
3) Please pray for Pastor Curtis Clewett because his gout has seriously worsened in his leg.
4) Please pray for YWAM Iceland and the upcoming Discipleship Training School (DTS) that they are hosting in 2010.
5) Please pray for the seeds that we planted in Extremadura and Iceland--pray that unbelievers come to know Jesus and seek Christian fellowship. Some people to focus on are: Salama (12, Muslim living in Navalmoral who came to a Church service with me), Vale (mid 30s Romanian living in Iceland interested in studying the Bible), Lena (14, foster child involved with heavy drugs and with burns on her body), Disa, Ragnhildur, Dani (teenagers, friends with Lena who received prayer), Hólmífídthur and Gudthrún (both 17, post-modern Icelandic girls received prayer to know more about Jesus), Vestmann man with abusive stepdad and skatepark boy who is interested in Church, and, Marcel and Michael (20s, German tourists ).
With much love,
Irene Lynette Treviño
FLICKR Pictures of Iceland, click HERE!
--
God asked, "who shall I send?" "Here I am,” replied Isaiah, “send Me!" (Isaiah 6:8)
Irene Trevino
Bank of America: "Project Spain Trevino" PO Box 1501, Atascadero CA 93422 USA
La Caixa nº (ES46) 2100-3313-31-2100691754 BIC: CAIXESBBXXX
jueves, 13 de agosto de 2009
What a wonderful summer! The pic to the right is from our way home after one of our last street performances in southern Spain and the picture directly below is of some of the crowd that gathered around a performance in Navalmoral de la Mata.
We've been training Spanish youth in theatre and dance and letting them loose in the streets to perform and open up windows to engage the public in conversations about God. So many wonderful things have happened, and we have personal accounts on the blogs that we've been keeping on the Spanish side of things...I've got links to the sloppy google English translations below:
I have been enjoying learning about the King's Kids national and international ministry through the Spain base. The Spain tour had a much younger group of campers than the international Iceland outreach. As such, the Spain tour had many more rules and a stricter schedule. On the other hand, the Iceland tour has been a lot more easy-going, but it has been just as fast-paced. For example, we had 4 street performances yesterday, rather than just 1 with the Spain tour.
Sending you love and some cold Viking, Spanish Kisses,
Irene
domingo, 2 de agosto de 2009
jueves, 14 de mayo de 2009
Preparing for Spain Outreach in July
Hello again friends and family,
I am blessed. And, I am thankful for God's faithfulness and for his provisions. In faith, I will be leaving California and arriving in Spain on July 5th--and I will immediately begin to work with the King's Kids' Spain outreach (www.la-lanzadera.com). King's Kids is an organization that organizes Christian summer camps for youth around the world. Once the King's Kids outreach is over, I will be looking for a job as a part-time English teacher and concurrently helping direct El Lokal's after school program (www.ellokal.com). I have made a 6 month commitment to work with El Lokal, and am looking forward to being back in Spain. Flights can be fairly inexpensive, so let me know if you'll want to come visit! I'd love to host you and I'd love to put you to work for the Church over in Spain (English and Spanish speakers alike are a wonderful blessing to us, especially during outreaches!).
Please pray that the Lord provides me with a part-time job in Spain and for the Lord to provide people interested in partnering with me in Spanish ministry.
With much love,
Irene Lynette
I am blessed. And, I am thankful for God's faithfulness and for his provisions. In faith, I will be leaving California and arriving in Spain on July 5th--and I will immediately begin to work with the King's Kids' Spain outreach (www.la-lanzadera.com). King's Kids is an organization that organizes Christian summer camps for youth around the world. Once the King's Kids outreach is over, I will be looking for a job as a part-time English teacher and concurrently helping direct El Lokal's after school program (www.ellokal.com). I have made a 6 month commitment to work with El Lokal, and am looking forward to being back in Spain. Flights can be fairly inexpensive, so let me know if you'll want to come visit! I'd love to host you and I'd love to put you to work for the Church over in Spain (English and Spanish speakers alike are a wonderful blessing to us, especially during outreaches!).
Please pray that the Lord provides me with a part-time job in Spain and for the Lord to provide people interested in partnering with me in Spanish ministry.
With much love,
Irene Lynette
viernes, 22 de agosto de 2008
Back in the States
Namaste, Hola, Hello
Well, my time in India has come and gone, and now I am back in the US. I find myself looking back on the whirlwind of time that I had in Dharamsala, Delhi, Amritsar, Agra and Upper Mcleoud Ganj and it already seems like a lifetime ago and an insurmountable amount of galaxies away. I miss the views of the Himalayan mountains stretching up to the dark, open skies; I miss the colorful yellow and red Tibetan clothing and the Buddhist temple; I miss the vibrant women's Salwaar Kamis (flowy Princess Jasmine pants, long dresses that go over the pants, and the scarves that drape around from one shoulder to the next underneath the neck while hanging freely on the back); I miss the Indian Bollywood music that the taxi drivers and Rikshaw drivers would blast at painfully loud decibles as they drove us around the curvy roads of wildernessy, crowded, subject-to-no-law-or-regulation streets of India; I miss Lalit Baya and Viki Baya along with Monica Didi and Anju Didi who were our main staff workers that joked with us and worked so hard to keep us safe and happy during our stay in their country; I miss the bindis on the women's foreheads and the red dots of paint that were placed on Indian men's and women's foreheads when they went to the Hindu temples to pray; I miss the children and the grown adults who would walk everywhere and always be out and about on the streets--I miss their friendliness and their incessant requests to have their pictures taken; I miss the post office employees that knew me by name and gave me Chai and tried to arrange me to marry their sons when I was stuck in the post office during a heavy 2 hour monsoon downpour; and, I miss the people's faithfulness to their religous customs and traditional family values.
I came home with camel shoes for my Dad, Himalyan silver and gem necklaces for my sisters, Kashmir silk for my mother, and many Bollywood CDs for myself. I also came home with a bit more understanding of the Eastern way of life and my place within this International world that has torn down so many of the already diminishing international boarders--especially speaking of those between the Eastern and Western "worlds."
I was able to observe the treatment of women and the position of women within India and Pakistan; I was able to observe a grassroots social justice movement in a rural Indian district; I was able to corroborate with community members of India, with members of my collegiate community at UCSD, and with volunteers from the US and the UK; I was able to see relics and Holy Temples for religions other than my own and acquire an appreciation for others' spirituality alongside of growing in appreciation for my own spirituality; and, last but not least, I was able to bring my family and friends into this experience with me and raise awareness about another culture and existence.
Having gone to India with AB@UCSD has strengthened my confidence in my ability to be an effective civil servant in the International community. I will keep Indian social reform in my heart and continue to be actively involved in raising awareness from my home in San Diego. This project in India was the perfect way of ending my undergradute studies of International Human Development; and it has inspired me to continue developing myself spiritually and intellectually.
My pictures are on this website, please go have a look!: spanishirenelynette.shutterfly.com
Well, my time in India has come and gone, and now I am back in the US. I find myself looking back on the whirlwind of time that I had in Dharamsala, Delhi, Amritsar, Agra and Upper Mcleoud Ganj and it already seems like a lifetime ago and an insurmountable amount of galaxies away. I miss the views of the Himalayan mountains stretching up to the dark, open skies; I miss the colorful yellow and red Tibetan clothing and the Buddhist temple; I miss the vibrant women's Salwaar Kamis (flowy Princess Jasmine pants, long dresses that go over the pants, and the scarves that drape around from one shoulder to the next underneath the neck while hanging freely on the back); I miss the Indian Bollywood music that the taxi drivers and Rikshaw drivers would blast at painfully loud decibles as they drove us around the curvy roads of wildernessy, crowded, subject-to-no-law-or-regulation streets of India; I miss Lalit Baya and Viki Baya along with Monica Didi and Anju Didi who were our main staff workers that joked with us and worked so hard to keep us safe and happy during our stay in their country; I miss the bindis on the women's foreheads and the red dots of paint that were placed on Indian men's and women's foreheads when they went to the Hindu temples to pray; I miss the children and the grown adults who would walk everywhere and always be out and about on the streets--I miss their friendliness and their incessant requests to have their pictures taken; I miss the post office employees that knew me by name and gave me Chai and tried to arrange me to marry their sons when I was stuck in the post office during a heavy 2 hour monsoon downpour; and, I miss the people's faithfulness to their religous customs and traditional family values.
I came home with camel shoes for my Dad, Himalyan silver and gem necklaces for my sisters, Kashmir silk for my mother, and many Bollywood CDs for myself. I also came home with a bit more understanding of the Eastern way of life and my place within this International world that has torn down so many of the already diminishing international boarders--especially speaking of those between the Eastern and Western "worlds."
I was able to observe the treatment of women and the position of women within India and Pakistan; I was able to observe a grassroots social justice movement in a rural Indian district; I was able to corroborate with community members of India, with members of my collegiate community at UCSD, and with volunteers from the US and the UK; I was able to see relics and Holy Temples for religions other than my own and acquire an appreciation for others' spirituality alongside of growing in appreciation for my own spirituality; and, last but not least, I was able to bring my family and friends into this experience with me and raise awareness about another culture and existence.
Having gone to India with AB@UCSD has strengthened my confidence in my ability to be an effective civil servant in the International community. I will keep Indian social reform in my heart and continue to be actively involved in raising awareness from my home in San Diego. This project in India was the perfect way of ending my undergradute studies of International Human Development; and it has inspired me to continue developing myself spiritually and intellectually.
My pictures are on this website, please go have a look!: spanishirenelynette.shutterfly.com
jueves, 24 de julio de 2008
Dharmsala Week Three
As mentioned earlier, the months of June, July, and August are India's monsoon season so, as such, every day has been riddled with bouts of rain followed by bouts of beautiful sunshine. The clouds roll in by the morning, rain their hearts out, and then the sun immediately follows by afternoon with clear skies and crisp views of the Himalayan mountains surrounding us. I am currently in an internet cafe on the third floor of a building along one of the streets that breaks off from the central market place and winds itself down the side of the mountain through a series of shops and specialty stores. It has been raining for the last half hour and I am hoping that the sun will magically come out when I finish writing this entry so that I can walk back up the mountain to my flat and pack my things up for the train I will be taking in a few hours to Delhi for the program debriefing.
These last two weeks have gone by faster than I could have ever imagined. I was sick and the end of the first week and the beginning of the second week ( I am blaming it on a mango that didn't sit well with my stomach) and everyone in my group from UCSD seemed to be sick at that time as well. There was a lot of stress and a lot of frustration with the differences in the health care available to us up here on the mountain. An Indian-born student in my group from UCSD actually had to leave Dharmsala to receive better medical attention at the beginning of our trip and we were ll in low spirits when she left our volunteer project after a years worth of planning to be here with us. However, we all know that the altitude and the steep hills were not conducive to her recovery and are grateful that she has recovered a lot already from her respiratory infection since she went to stay with her family here in India.
Volunteer Work with the NGO
I have been kept busy with the housewives in my women's group and have had a very rewarding experience working with them. Sabbu and Vindra composed wonderful stories and improved on their typing skills. Prakshi and Meena improved on their addition skills and are on their way to being able to regulate their expenditures in the market. They also gained a lot of knowledge about phonetics and sounding out words spelled with the Roman alphabet (for both Hindi, Punjabi, and English words). Vindra has been sick with a liver problem lately and unable to attend the group and Sabbu went to visit her family in a neighboring town for a few days so they could not attend our group this last week. Before Sabbu left, she has my co-worker Fernanda and I over to her house for Chai and appetizers. We were able to meet all of the women on her husband's side of the family (because she lives on her in-law's property with her husband and daughter Khanti.) Her family is Sikh, which was founded as a religion that borrows from both Hinduism and Islam and is very pacifist. The women carry daggers underneath their shirts which are tied to ropes that wrap around their necks and hang at their sides (I believe it symbolizes strength of character and is a non-violent tool). Sikh men can be spotted out of a crowed because they all wear turbans and never cut their hair. Meena and Prakashi were also busy with new jobs and tending to children who are on vacation from school so they were not able to make our meetings this past week either. However, one of the house maids for the CCS volunteer flats brought her granddaughter with her to work on the computer which perfectly overlapped with the days where none of the regular women in our group could attend. Shrivani has spent the last couple of days with the undivided, two-to-one attention from two well-educated tutors and it has also been very rewarding to have been able to have helped her with her typing skills and her cognitive skills through many games that we played that involved strategies. I don't think that 11 year old Indian girls get private tutors very often in this region, and I am glad that she was able to have not only ONE tutor but TWO tutors. Today I left Shrivani with Fernanda mid-way through the tutoring session and went to the newly opened Special School in lower Dharmsala. It has been up and running for a total of 2 weeks, we were actually here for the grand opening!!--except I was sick during the actual ceremony--and the community is making a lot of progress in addressing the needs of the handicapped community. Today there were 6 special needs children at the school, two teachers, one aide, and three CCS volunteers (including myself). There was also a visiting psychology student who is specializing in "education with the mentally retarded." Given my lifetime of experience with the special needs community, I fit right in to the classroom and felt very helpful and useful. It was a treat to be able to both observe the work that has been done in this community to rehabilitate and educate the often mistreated special needs Indian people.
Traveling
Last weekend my friends and I traveled to Amritsar to see the Sikh Golden Temple and to attend the Pakistani/Indian border ceremony. Both of these were breath-taking, and I will always be grateful that I was able to go to both. We went to the temple on the evening when there was a full moon and on a morning where we were able to see the sunrise over the temple. I was able to enter it twice to see their devotional prayers and readings of Sikh religious texts. It is a site of pilgrimage to all of the Sikhs and and average of40,000 daily visit it. It is the holiest of places for the Sikh religion.
After the Sikh temple, we went to the Indian/Pakistani border ceremony. I walked up to 100 yards of Pakistan and sat down in a stadium where I watched the Indian military enact the ceremonial dances, chanting, marching, and interactions with the Pakistani military. Pakistan also had a stadium on their side of the border, but India's was filled with many more people and many more travelers. Females were separated from males and tourists were separated from the Indians. At the beginning of the ceremony the Indian women and children dance in the center of the stadium to nationalistic Indian music. Naturally, my UCSD friends and I went down and danced with them. The women were more than happy to teach us their dances and many people took pictures of us with their cell phones. We were quite the spectacle, but they were very appreciative of our openness to participate in their ceremonial dancing and all of the women thanked us for coming down from the bleachers to dance in front of the entire stadium. Even after the ceremony many elder Indian women grabbed me by the arm while I was walking to stop me, look in my eyes and tell me that I am a great dancer.
End Notes
I am now running out of time here at the internet cafe so I must end this update. I will be taking an 11 hour train ride back to Delhi in 5 hours and from there my UCSD friends and I will be going to the Taj Mahal and then separating to go our different ways before we return back to the States. Oh, and Anju, one of the CCS staff workers, designed the most beautifully, intricate henna pattern on my left arm yesterday. It starts a few inches down from my elbow and extends to my fingertips. It is such an honor to have it on my arm and I will pridefully carry it with me until it fades away.
These last two weeks have gone by faster than I could have ever imagined. I was sick and the end of the first week and the beginning of the second week ( I am blaming it on a mango that didn't sit well with my stomach) and everyone in my group from UCSD seemed to be sick at that time as well. There was a lot of stress and a lot of frustration with the differences in the health care available to us up here on the mountain. An Indian-born student in my group from UCSD actually had to leave Dharmsala to receive better medical attention at the beginning of our trip and we were ll in low spirits when she left our volunteer project after a years worth of planning to be here with us. However, we all know that the altitude and the steep hills were not conducive to her recovery and are grateful that she has recovered a lot already from her respiratory infection since she went to stay with her family here in India.
Volunteer Work with the NGO
I have been kept busy with the housewives in my women's group and have had a very rewarding experience working with them. Sabbu and Vindra composed wonderful stories and improved on their typing skills. Prakshi and Meena improved on their addition skills and are on their way to being able to regulate their expenditures in the market. They also gained a lot of knowledge about phonetics and sounding out words spelled with the Roman alphabet (for both Hindi, Punjabi, and English words). Vindra has been sick with a liver problem lately and unable to attend the group and Sabbu went to visit her family in a neighboring town for a few days so they could not attend our group this last week. Before Sabbu left, she has my co-worker Fernanda and I over to her house for Chai and appetizers. We were able to meet all of the women on her husband's side of the family (because she lives on her in-law's property with her husband and daughter Khanti.) Her family is Sikh, which was founded as a religion that borrows from both Hinduism and Islam and is very pacifist. The women carry daggers underneath their shirts which are tied to ropes that wrap around their necks and hang at their sides (I believe it symbolizes strength of character and is a non-violent tool). Sikh men can be spotted out of a crowed because they all wear turbans and never cut their hair. Meena and Prakashi were also busy with new jobs and tending to children who are on vacation from school so they were not able to make our meetings this past week either. However, one of the house maids for the CCS volunteer flats brought her granddaughter with her to work on the computer which perfectly overlapped with the days where none of the regular women in our group could attend. Shrivani has spent the last couple of days with the undivided, two-to-one attention from two well-educated tutors and it has also been very rewarding to have been able to have helped her with her typing skills and her cognitive skills through many games that we played that involved strategies. I don't think that 11 year old Indian girls get private tutors very often in this region, and I am glad that she was able to have not only ONE tutor but TWO tutors. Today I left Shrivani with Fernanda mid-way through the tutoring session and went to the newly opened Special School in lower Dharmsala. It has been up and running for a total of 2 weeks, we were actually here for the grand opening!!--except I was sick during the actual ceremony--and the community is making a lot of progress in addressing the needs of the handicapped community. Today there were 6 special needs children at the school, two teachers, one aide, and three CCS volunteers (including myself). There was also a visiting psychology student who is specializing in "education with the mentally retarded." Given my lifetime of experience with the special needs community, I fit right in to the classroom and felt very helpful and useful. It was a treat to be able to both observe the work that has been done in this community to rehabilitate and educate the often mistreated special needs Indian people.
Traveling
Last weekend my friends and I traveled to Amritsar to see the Sikh Golden Temple and to attend the Pakistani/Indian border ceremony. Both of these were breath-taking, and I will always be grateful that I was able to go to both. We went to the temple on the evening when there was a full moon and on a morning where we were able to see the sunrise over the temple. I was able to enter it twice to see their devotional prayers and readings of Sikh religious texts. It is a site of pilgrimage to all of the Sikhs and and average of40,000 daily visit it. It is the holiest of places for the Sikh religion.
After the Sikh temple, we went to the Indian/Pakistani border ceremony. I walked up to 100 yards of Pakistan and sat down in a stadium where I watched the Indian military enact the ceremonial dances, chanting, marching, and interactions with the Pakistani military. Pakistan also had a stadium on their side of the border, but India's was filled with many more people and many more travelers. Females were separated from males and tourists were separated from the Indians. At the beginning of the ceremony the Indian women and children dance in the center of the stadium to nationalistic Indian music. Naturally, my UCSD friends and I went down and danced with them. The women were more than happy to teach us their dances and many people took pictures of us with their cell phones. We were quite the spectacle, but they were very appreciative of our openness to participate in their ceremonial dancing and all of the women thanked us for coming down from the bleachers to dance in front of the entire stadium. Even after the ceremony many elder Indian women grabbed me by the arm while I was walking to stop me, look in my eyes and tell me that I am a great dancer.
End Notes
I am now running out of time here at the internet cafe so I must end this update. I will be taking an 11 hour train ride back to Delhi in 5 hours and from there my UCSD friends and I will be going to the Taj Mahal and then separating to go our different ways before we return back to the States. Oh, and Anju, one of the CCS staff workers, designed the most beautifully, intricate henna pattern on my left arm yesterday. It starts a few inches down from my elbow and extends to my fingertips. It is such an honor to have it on my arm and I will pridefully carry it with me until it fades away.
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