Off Again

Phil here writing you from 30,000 feet on my way to Ensenada, Mexico. I arrived home from Costa Rica late Saturday evening, spent Sunday at church and hanging out with good friends and took off to the airport first thing this morning (thanks Zach) for Ensenada. I am going to be speaking on the Mission Adventures program down there until Thursday afternoon, when I fly back home to Seattle.

As I look back on my summer I am overwhelmed by what God has allowed my family and I to be apart of. We helped to start the Mission Adventures program in Heredia, Costa Rica. We were able to go to Costa Rica as a family. Amy and the girls were able to attend her Grandpa's birthday party and her brothers wedding reception. And I was asked to speak on the Mission Adventures program in Los Angeles and Ensenada, Mexico. I feel privileged to be doing what we get to do. I am grateful to Jesus for counting us worthy, and grateful to those of you who support us with prayer and finances, Thank you.

Please continue to pray with us and for us this week as we, our family, has been apart for almost one month. It has been very difficult for us to be apart, but I feel that it is a sacrifice that we have made for the Lord, one that I hope we never have to make again. Also, please pray for me as i speak and for the students as they have to sit and listen to me speak. Last week a girl in Los Angeles called me an amazing ADD speaker, I will take that as a compliment.

Thanks

Women Jailed For Testicle Attack

Below is an article I read in the BBC news a while ago, but it resurfaced today once again. It is a painful, but enjoyable read.

A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison.
Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

Monti admitted wounding and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

'Pulled hard'

Sentencing Monti, Judge Charles James said it was "a very serious injury" and that Monti was not acting in self defence.

The court heard that Mr Jones had ended his long-term but "open relationship" with Monti towards the end of May last year.

The pair remained on good terms and on 30 May she picked him up from a party in Crosby and went back for drinks with friends at Mr Jones's house.

An argument ensued and Mr Jones said there was a struggle between them.

In his statement, Mr Jones said she grabbed his genitals and "pulled hard".


I am in no way a violent person
Amanda Monti
He added: "That caused my underpants to come off and I found I was completely naked and in excruciating pain."

The court heard that a friend saw Monti put Mr Jones's testicle into her mouth and try to swallow it.

She choked and spat it back into her hand before the friend grabbed it and gave it back to Mr Jones. Doctors were unable to re-attach the organ.

In a letter to the court, Monti said she was sorry for what she had done.

She said: "It was never my intention to cause harm to Geoff and the fact that I have caused him injury will live with me forever. I am in no way a violent person."

The letter added: "I have challenged myself to explain what has happened but still I just cannot remember. This has caused much anguish to me and will do for the rest of my life."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/4253849.stm

Published: 2005/02/10 15:13:36 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Newsletter

We have a new newsletter out. Here she is below, enjoy the read. Feel free to print it out as it makes for some great bathroom reading.

This is LA

So I am in LA and so far so good. This week I have spent most of my time teaching 80+ students about Jesus, life and justice. I love doing this, it is an honor and shock most times that people actually let me stand up front and say stuff. Anyway, I have had some good responses from the students and the youth leaders, yea. 

It is so weird to be back in LA doing this. I worked in LA with Mission Adventures from 95-97 and coming back now it seems and looks the same in a lot of way's. Not that it is a bad thing, but it is just one of those moments where you feel like you were brought back in time, but you are older and people will listen to you now. I feel that I have learned some stuff in coming back and hopefully have given as well.

It has been over 2 weeks without my family now. It is hard and no fun. I really miss them. Yesterday Emma left a message on my phone asking for a trampoline. She could pretty much ask for anything at this point and get it. I will see them in two weeks, praise God.

I have also got to spend time with my sister and her husband James. We went to Santa Monica and Venice yesterday. It was hot and my face is burned off. It is good for them to be here. They are getting some much needed rest and seeing a different side of Jesus and ministry. James is off surfing for the first time today with my friend Paul, heres hopin he don't die out there. 

Anyway, that is all for now, just keeping you updated. I hope things are good with you, let me know.

Thanks

Rated G

Well, I didn't make it to Panama, I will explain later, so now I am sitting in the mall in Costa Rica waiting to see Transformers the movie. I will explain later about Panama, but first I thought I would share this blog rating system that I found on Dan Kimballs site about blog rating. Here is my rating:

I am shocked and saddened by this as to get an R you just need the words Missionary, Dead, Hell and Death. I will try harder. To get your own rating check it out here

12 hours round trip

Yesterday a van load of Mission Adventures students, Alvaro and I went to see a volcano and the water fall, It was a 4+ hour drive to get there. So, we didn't see the volcano as it was covered in clouds, but we did get to the waterfall. I have done some amazing things and seen some amazing things during my time with YWAM and this waterfall definitely is up there with them. It was a 10-15 min. hike down to the waterfall. At first I wasn't going to jump in, but after seeing it I had to. It was like an Indiana Jones movie, without the hat and whip. Anyway, it was an amazing day, even though I drove 8+ hours just to go swimming.

Tomorrow I go to Panama, just for the day and the stamp. It is a four hour ride on a bus and I already have the Van Halen song downloaded onto my i-pod ready to go. I will let you know how that adventure goes tomorrow or Sunday.

Later

Hunger

Today with the students we were talking about hunger in the world, specifically in Africa. The wealthiest fifth of the worlds people consume 86% of all goods and services, while the poorest fifth consume only 1%. I saw this picture and thought it fit well

Displace Me

On April 28, 2007 the guy's from Invisible Children put on an event where they gathered 80,000 people from 15 different states to go through a displacement camp simulation. It was a great time for young people to show the government that they care about the displaced in N. Uganda as a result of the 22 year war over there.

Tonight we are doing a presentation to the 31 youth who are here with us in Costa Rica on the displacement issues in Africa, specifically N. Uganda. The definition of a displaced person is a person who is taken from their homes and forced to live somewhere else in their own culture or country because of war or persecution. Here are some statistics on this:

11.8 million displaced people in Africa

Country breakdown:
Angola – 51,700
Burundi – 100,000
Central African Republic – 212,000
Chad – 140,000
Congo – 7,800
Côte d'Ivoire – 709,000
Democratic Republico of the Congo – 1,000,000
Eritrea – 43,000
Ethiopia – 190,000
Kenya – 431,000
Liberia – 20,500
Senegal – 64,000
Somalia - 400,000
Sudan – 5,355,000
Togo – 1,500
Uganda – 1,500,000
Zimbabwe – 570,000

I am excited to share about this issue and also to share that there is something that can be done to prevent it. Check out this video released last week from the Invisible Children guy's on there displace me event.

Displace Me

A new house.

Last week a Mission Adventures team from Marysville, Washington came down to Costa Rica and built a house for a family here. The team worked their hearts out for 8 day's and got the house almost fully done. The above picture is the house the mom and her family used to live in, and the picture below is the new house almost finished.

Below is a video of the mother getting the key to the house and her daughter thanking the team for the blessing. The encouraging thing that I heard tonight is that the mothers family came in to finish the work on the house. It should be fully done this week.