My week so far :)

Hello Everyone!

I am currently writing this on Microsoft word because it has been snowing like crazy all day today and the power decided to go out the second I brought down my computer to write to you all! No fair! While the snow is beautiful there is a powerful wind behind it…and me being the brilliant thinker that I am decided that it would be a good idea to walk into the village to get some money and some food from the Co-Operative since I have a few hours of free time before local outreach tonight. I will never do that again in this kind of weather haha! By the time I got back to the base my shoes, wool socks, cuddle duds, pants, jacket, scarf, and gloves were soaking wet! When I walked in Allison saw me and her eyes did something like…O.O lol! So bad plan on my part…although I did accomplish my mission in getting money and food 

Ok! So other than my adventures today here is what has been going on around here. Last Friday the October 2009 DTS arrived from their outreach in Istanbul, Turkey. They will be here for the next 2 ½ weeks, which will then mark the completion of their DTS…so Yay for them  That Friday some of the girls from my DTS and a group of their DTS went out to the Hydro where they were doing karaoke night. Some people sang and all of us danced like idiots while they were singing haha so that was a lot of fun! Last weekend was quite lazy for me, which was actually much needed! Our previous week of lectures was quite intense learning about the Holy Spirit and had left me with a somewhat burnt out feeling. I pretty much just hung out around the base and the village with some of the October DTS students which was a lot of fun. They have so many good stories and are just awesome people. Sunday night we actually had quite the extreme game of Uno…but played with Swedish rules which are far too confusing to even begin to explain (half the time I didn’t even know who’s turn it was lol).

Monday we started with a new guest lecturer named Ina from South Africa. She is here to talk to us about Sin and the Cross. I was very nervous going into this week because just the sound of it sounds intense! I am so happy to say that so far I have really enjoyed this week and have been learning a lot about God and about me  Tomorrow is our last day of lectures for the week because Friday is something called our “day away”. The staff is doing an excellent job about keeping what we are going to do that day a secret so after Friday I will let you all know what our “day away” consists of…although I do know it has something to do with taking us out and showing us more of Scotland.

Well that is pretty much everything as of now…if any of you want to know something about my experience here so far that I am not addressing please feel free to write me and ask  Although for the next 2 ½ weeks it will be a little bit hard for me to write much since the October DTS people number at around 17 not including staff so the computers are somewhat difficult to get to since they have been out of touch with their families for so long. I love and miss all of you so much…as per usual haha and I will let you know what is going on around here again as soon as I can. God bless!

-Kaitlyn

P.S. One of the DTS staff members, Vincent, is leaving for good tomorrow  He is going back home to Nigeria because there is something like a civil war going on in his home town of Jos and some of his family members and friends have been killed due to it. If you could, would you please pray for him and his family because apparently more of his family is in danger of being hurt or killed and Vincent is going to be walking right into it. Please pray for protection and wisdom for Vincent and his family while they are dealing with what is happening in Nigeria. Thanks.

My Mailing Address!!!

Ok here is my mailing address just in case some of you lovely people would like to mail me letters or anything really haha.

Kaitlyn Vaccaro

The Seamill Centre

9 Glenbryde Road

Seamill, West Kilbride

KA23 9NJ

SCOTLAND

It has been a long week and the other DTS is going to be arriving from Turkey sometime tonight so I will try to let you all know how that goes sometime this weekend...but seeing as we will be a much more packed house with more students trying to use the computers I can't guarantee it. Loving and missing you all! God Bless

-Kaitlyn

Just some stuff

Hello again everyone!
Alright so last weekend was super fun! Kari, Bre, and I went into Largs (little sea side village about 15 min from West Kilbride) and had a nice little shopping day. I struck gold in a charity shop (thrift store) and got The Hobbit, all 3 Lord of the Rings books, The Host, and Silence of the Lambs (the book), for £6!!! I love books...so this was wonderful! I am now half way through The Hobbit and after that I am actually going to attempt to read all the Lord of the Rings books so wish me luck lol! Sunday was more of a lazy day which was much needed! Kari and I went into the Glen and took lots and lots of pictures which I will be posting on facebook very soon so look out for those.

This week we have a teacher...Mariette...who is teaching us about the Holy Spirit. It has been a very interesting and exhausting week so far. Mariette is an extremely passionate teacher and she has us do more practical excersizes that actual lectures haha. Needless to say with all that pretty much all of us students are about ready to just fall over ;) Although on a brighter note I went for a walk today in the Glen and found an amazing little spot right next to a mini waterfall that seems to be a great place to just chill out and relax by! I was super excited when I found it so I think that shall be my space to go to when I just need to relax and mull over the things of the week or just spend some alone time with God :)

Today we had practical ministry again and my group did a prayer walk around Largs which was actually lovely and relaxing. Before we got back in the car to go back to the base I convinced Susan (our leader) for us to run into the gorcery where I got a case of Pepsi and some chocolate bars haha! Yay!!!

Oh! My mom sent me a care package awhile back...and it finally got here!!! Hurray!!! I have to say...getting care packages is SO exciting around here :D So if anyone ya know wants to mail me stuff that would be ok ;) Haha I know the cost of shipping sucks but letters or anything are so much fun to get! I will post my address on here later just incase anyone wants to mail me a letter or candy....;) hahaha

Ok well I am on the student computer right now and a line is forming to use it so I must be off. I will try to right again soon :) Missing all of you and hope all is well!

-Kaitlyn

Outreach!!!

Ok everyone they have finally given us an answer to the 'where the heck are we going?!' question...Istanbul, Turkey! As far as dates when we are going that is still unclear...at least to me haha but we are all so happy that we finally have a place to go and to start learning and praying about :) So Hurray and I'm sure God will do amazing things while we are there!

We started local outreach on Wednesday and I am in a small team that goes into the town Largs to help out with the local youth in a youth cafe called the Helter Skelter. Unfortunately the owner of the cafe had to leave for America on very quick notice because his daughter had been involved in a car accident :( ...and also the people there have to look over some child protection stuff to make sure it's definitely OK that we volunteer there. So instead of that we went into Largs and handed out free bouquets of flowers to people for valentines day. When I gave mine away to a lady it took some convincing that I wasn't asking for money and I didn't have any hidden agenda rather than wanting to give her flowers haha. I thought it was kind of funny but in the end she seemed quite happy to receive them so that was nice.

Today has been a good day so far...we started class a bit later today so that was nice to be able to just sit for a moment, listen to music, and read my bible. We also started a group exercise thing that they call triplets (so we split up into groups of 3 in case you didn't catch on ;) ) and just hang out and talk together about anything really. I loved this exercise, not to mention it gave us a chance to get outside being that it is a beautiful sunny day here in Scotland!

In about an hour we have work duties and then a good chunk of our group will be leaving for the weekend to go and help out at a program called Fire Starters in Glasgow for the weekend. A few of us have decided to stay here, including me, to spend our weekend in other ways. Personally I just want to relax haha. Also, being that I have weekend work duties we cannot go too far so castle hunting will have to be postponed for another weekend. However, Kari and I are now thinking about going into Largs and hanging out there for a bit and searching the local book stores and any other stores this cute ocean side village holds :)

I hope all of you back in the home land are doing well. Missing all of you and I am loving the comments you are sending me!! :) God Bless

-Kaitlyn

Many New Things

Hello everyone! So lots of new things have started this week. Yesterday we started our home fellowship which is essentially families in the community taking us in for a night of fellowship and also an opportunity for us students to be in an actual home haha which is very nice (and as an added bonus the house I go to is heated!) It was very nice to meet the family who are actually quite involved in the Seamill base. Their names are Ula and Elena (and I am basically positive I am misspelling those names).

However, even with the fun of that we did have some sad news yesterday. Sam (one of the students in the DTS) decided to leave and go to a different school which he left for about an hour after lunch yesterday :( I am sad he is gone cause he was a great guy, but I am super proud of him for making the decision he felt was best for him :) It took a lot of courage to go somewhere he felt God wanted him and then after only a week realized God was calling him somewhere else and he obeys...so bravo Sam, even though we will miss him.

Tomorrow we start local outreach, although they haven't told us which groups we will be in yet. All of the options sounded like a lot of fun so I'll be happy wherever they decide to put me. Other than that we are basically just starting to feel what a normal week in YWAM is like. Thus far they have kept us very busy and I see no change in that pace any time soon but I suppose that has its good and bad traits. Luckily since we have weekends free I will use that as my time to unwind. Kari and I are thinking about going castle hunting this weekend so that would be fun. I'm up for anything that doesn't require any seriously deep thinking haha! Ok all I was going to write more, but I got caught up talking with the family and friends on skype and lost all train of thought because I am so sleepy! I will try to write more again soon! Loving and missing you all! Goodnight

-Kaitlyn

Free Day!

Ok everyone I have been asked to post some pictures so here are 2 pictures. The building is the YWAM Seamill Base where I am staying and the other is the beach that is a 5 minute walk from the base itself :) Pretty huh?!

I have uploaded a lot more on my facebook page so if you can find me there you will see lots more of the area and of my fellow students :)

So yesterday was the start of our first weekend here in Scotland and it couldn't have come at a better time. Most of us were pretty burnt out from combos of jet lag, extreme-make our brains hurt-lectures, work duties, and meeting many new people...so to put it in simple terms we needed a break! A big group of us took the train to Glasgow yesterday morning to do some exploring and shopping. We broke into 2 groups at first and then after 1 store in the big city Kari (an awesome girl I've gotten to know here) and I split off from the big group to explore Glasgow on our own...and we had FUN! Between the two of us we found some amazing local stores and while shopping we got to sight-see all the gorgeous architecture throughout Glasgow :) Throughout the city there are tons of street performers who were all very talented. We saw a guy juggling flaming batons and a bunch of musicians...some playing bagpipes with an accompaniment of drums (it was so awesome!).

After a long day of shopping we decided that although we are in a different country and should probably explore the different food options, we really wanted some greasy delicious American food haha! We actually found a TGI Fridays!!! It was soooooo good lol! After that it was time to return "home" for lack of a better term. It was a great day and felt nice to get out for a bit.

Today is another free day before starting up again tomorrow. I have spent most of the day kicking back and reading Sarah's book, which I am almost done with :) Kari and I walked into the village a bit earlier to go to the Co-Op(grocery store) to pick up some juice and snacks. Missing all of you and I will write again as soon as I can...or when something profoundly interesting happens ;) Keep commenting please I love it!

-Kaitlyn

First week=Complete!

Hello Everyone!

Week 1 is officially complete! Yay!!!!!!! I tell ya...with all the lectures and work duties it seems like I have been here for a month : We have already had quite a few guest lecturers in this short time. It has been a lot of fun getting to see all of their different approaches and personalities when it comes to teaching. I can tell I am going to enjoy the lecture phase.

If I had to give this week one word it would be overwhelming! Everyone here is so amazing and so loving...however their approach at church is much more charismatic than I am used to. God has definitely called me to go to a base that will push me out of my comfort zone haha! It is refreshing to see such a body, or community as they call it here, so on fire and hungry for God. To my family and close friends, you all know how I make a very big deal out of personal space...so it has been slightly awkward for me when I am bombarded with people wanting to lay hands on me and pray for me all at once haha! I do appreciate the support but it has been interesting to say the least trying to get used to that lol!

A bunch of us students are going to head into Glasgow tomorrow because we are all in much need of some fresh air and different scenery! A couple of the staff members are coming along which is good so us tourists won't get hopelessly lost in the big city :) I am hoping to get some shopping done for snack foods and a watch! My cell phone is dumb and will not even tell me the time over here...and asking everyone else for the time is getting slightly obnoxious.

We have been told that hopefully next week we will find out where our main outreach location will be...so Yay!!!!!!!! Lee has said that Turkey and Cambodia are good possibilities so we shall know very soon I hope!!!

Alright my friends I am absolutely exhausted and we have a long day of exploring tomorrow on our first weekend here in YWAM! I will write again once I find out where our outreach location is! I miss you all and thank you for commenting and writing me...it makes my day when I get emails :D

P.S.
Here are some new words I have started to adopt since being here..
-Petrol=Gasoline
-Car Park=Parking Lot
-Corridor=Hallway
-Hoovering=Vacuuming
-Beak=Bill(on a hat)
-Boot=Trunk(on a car)
-Wellies=Rain Boots

I made it!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it has taken me so long to let you all know how I am doing. The staff at the base had to check our computers to make sure they were up to date on anti virus software, and they didn't do that until earlier today sooooo this is the first time I have gotten to turn on my computer.

So I left LAX on Friday the 29th and after a lovely 17 hours of traveling I arrived in Glasgow, Scotland! My first thought when I was walking to grab my luggage and looking out the window was...Wow, this place looks exactly like Fresno. It was slightly unnerving actually haha. Thankfully I got on the bus to take me to the Central Rail Line and actually managed to figure out the right change in pounds on the first try! Yay me...the bus driver seemed proud of me haha. On the way I discovered that Glasgow is actually gorgeous with all of its amazing architecture! Once you get into the city itself it is amazing. When I got to the tracks I met up with a girl named Allison who is also a student in this DTS and we took the train together to West Kilbride, which is the sweet little town I am staying in. When we arrived some of the YWAM Seamill staff met us and brought us to the YWAM Seamill center which honestly looks like a castle...and is as drafty as you would expect a castle to be ;) I'll be posting pictures soon of the base and the people in it.

Over these last couple days we have taken a couple walks into the village, the beach, and a famous Scottish Castle which I cannot even begin to remember the name of lol. This place is so beautiful! These last few days have been sunny and people have been slightly confused about it. However, around 3 pm today the rain finally came and it only helped the beauty of this charming sea side community :)

Today we started class which was more of a orientation than anything but still fun none the less. We had about an hour and a half of worship this morning which was one of the most powerful experiences of my life thus far. God was in the room and there was no denying it! Being around so many people so hungry for God is such a beautiful thing to see. It is definitely encouraging to us students that we have such wonderful and passionate staff members to watch over us and teach us about our Lord :)

Well that is all for now I will update again as soon as I can...but right now I have to go back down to the classroom before bed for a response meeting. I am already missing you all so much. Please write to me! My email is Ldnhappy22@hotmail.com. God bless you all!