UPDATE!

Thanks SO MUCH to all who've contributed, the need is now down to $1,000 in the next four days! For the record, the money is not going to be used on extravagant Caribbean vacationing, unless living in a tent and eating beans and rice every day can count as such- the majority of the money will be used for building houses, buying the tents we'll be constructing for the Internationally Displaced People, help at the Medical Clinics, etc. Other things we'll be doing will include working in orphanages, registering people (150,000 people are still unaccounted for), working with food and clothing distribution, etc. We are not looking to help rebuild Haiti, but rather to partner with the community and build a new and stronger foundation, something made of much more than mud and clay.


If you would like to help, feel free to send any sort of donation through:

I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have in Haiti, so please forgive me if I am unable to respond to any communications, and please know I love and will miss you all!
<3Sara

Hands of Hope

As (hopefully) all of you know, on January 12th a massive earthquake rocked Haiti, killing 230,000, leaving an estimated 1,000,000 homeless, displacing even more and ultimately affecting at least 3 million people. I cannot even begin to imagine what life is like for people there, for the newly orphaned and the freshly widowed, for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere who had nothing and now has even less. So often when we hear about these things, the only response we seem capable of is helplessness.
As such, I am so thankful and humbled to say that I have been presented with a unique opportunity to actually go and work with one of the most structured relief efforts currently operating in Haiti right now.... Meaning that in four weeks, less than three months after this catastrophe, I will have the privilege of being with these people as well as their neighbors in the Dominican, partnering with the community and serving them in any way I'm able!
(I am able to do this as part of a DTS (Discipleship Training School) I'm currently doing with YWAM (Youth with A Mission) - an international missions training and sending organization with over 1,000 locations in 150 different countries, whose main purpose is to "Know God and make Him Known." As some of the most `known`characteristics of God are love and His passion for justice, basically YWAMers are all about learning and loving! The first three months are comprised of a lecture phase, which features different speakers from around the world who come in and teach in-depth on various topics, while dually allowing students to become pro-active in the community through volunteering, etc. [this could be anything from mentoring/tutoring at risk youth in a Bootcamp run by the LAPD to raising awareness for Human Trafficking.]. The final two months are spent on "outreach," where we split up into groups of about 10 and go overseas to do our best to administer those characteristics of God we've just learned so much about, such as love and justice, by whatever means most needed, whether building houses or working with victims of genocide or just spending time with the forgotten - loving the unlovable, listening to the voiceless.)


I am SO excited to see what God is doing in Haiti and to join in the efforts already in place.
In order for this to actually happen, though, aside from my own financial contribution, I need to raise some additional funds in the next 3 weeks to help cover both the two and a half months in Haiti/Dominican Republic and the three months in Los Angeles. It's a crazy amount, but God has already made it so clear that I'm supposed to be here and I'm excited for another opportunity to see the impossible become possible. So I would like to humbly request your partnership, either in prayer or through financial contributions. If financially, please feel free to either make out a check to either Youth With A Mission or Sara Owens and mail it to:

Sara Owens C/O YWAM - Winter DTS
11141 Osborne Street,
Lake View Terrace, CA
91342

or you just click the lovely PAYPAL button just down yonder! :)

So, yes! In closing, if you would like to know more or have any questions (or just want to say hey!), please feel free to e-mail me at: of.trees.and.seas@gmail.com. I would love to hear how you're doing and what you're up to, or even if I can help or pray for you in any way (Dear skeptics: I legitimately mean that for every single person who's reading this!)!

Lovelovelove, Your friend/relative/acquaintance/fellow human Sara Danae

For more information:
www.ywam.org
www.ywamla.org
http://www.ywamhaiti.org/

Isaiah 61

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me...
to preach good news to the poor.
..to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
...to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations...

Instead of their shame
my people will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
they will rejoice in their inheritance;
and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,
and everlasting joy will be theirs.

"For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and iniquity.
In my faithfulness I will reward them
and make an everlasting covenant with them."

The Videos... (UPDATED AUGUST 21st)

(newer)


The prison ministry that Philipson started.



Jasen Chung is the man. An update on some sweet Saint Marc happenings.



 (older)
I love the kids at New Life Orphanage soo much! And Sampson is probbbbably just about my bff... go visit him if you have some free time and feel like going to a Hispaniola!



Haha, and I love this video because it is a total fail in seriousness, due to Amy and me being oblivious in the background (probably only funny to my team, but...)




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This is unrelated to Haiti as a country, but this is the outreach video the Thailand team (the DTS had three outreach locations, Haiti, Thailand, and N. Africa) made and could give you a good taste of what "outreach" looks like if you are to ever to do a DTS... which, btw, I highly recommend for pretty much anyone under 30, and for everyone else, try Crossroads. Change the world, change yourself - ywam.org!


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Part of how you can make a difference in Haiti is by supporting local Haitians who are trying to make a difference... The Haitian staff were some of the most amazing men (and women) I've ever met, all coming from crazy backgrounds, almost all of them changing their life after some sort of encounter from YWAMers... This is Jude, one of the most joyful people I've ever met, and a great representative of the fact that there are Haitians over there who are doing amazing things!

day 32, what is now normality

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los angeles, oh, you’re not so pretty. there’s nothing particularly charming about your grimy sidewalks, your wealthy or your poor, your odor or your crowd. Your weather is lovely, but now reminiscent of even my own city. Yet there is still something here, and it is you and I, it is those who make up the overcrowded streets, who create the stentch, who grime the sidewalks. We are here and we are beautiful, like the night sky dancing with search lights, the papaya tree in the backyard and the mockingbird who sings us to sleep. Like the children who wake us with their laughter and the siesta’s in the stuffy supermarkets, we are here, we are broken and we are beautiful, and tonight: we are los angeles.

Aside from not having S.A.Y. Yes!, today was still a fairly typical. I went to Venice beach and lazily draped myself amongst the sand until i had read the entirety of Night, a story of a jewish boy who survived auswitchz. the overcrowded bus ride back taking almost an hour and a half to get home because of all of the people, 3 fights breaking out in just that time. lunch-dinner back at the house, and andy and daniel are there sort of sleepily gazing at things. andy goes to the porch to eat his mango, and daniel interjects the silence every few minutes to call me over and ask me questions that i’m unsure of the significance behind.  “sara, what’s the name of the show that had a roadrunner and a coyote?” “sara, does the house ever shake?” i retreat to my room to clean up a little since nehemiah prospecters are going to be touring the house tomorrow, and am greeted by my roomate kat and her chello. Still hungry i walk a few blocks over to lucy’s, where joe attacks and walks my pupusa and me home, not saying much but listening to my awkward rambling about maybe he would die from eating his waterbottle, and maybe he shouldnt do that, because, it sounds silly, but really i just read about someone dying, and hey, actually, if you had a choice of how you would die, how would it be? i would want to die in my sleep, or maybe be trampled by elephants or something. painlessly. underwater. you know, so that it’s an interesting death. not really i guess, you’re still chewing on your water bottle, hey how was class today, anyway? 
daniel and andy are still at the house, now joined by patti, carissa, and jessica, who generously brought us all venti mocha’s. patti talks to luke on the phone and decides that they will love eachother forever, and afterwards luke texts me things like ‘you owe me $1000 dollars!’ i suppose in exchange for the unfortunately long stranger conversation i forced upon him. most of us then go to youth group, where the davids teach me the gang signs and everyone freaks out by my new found joy in demonstrating them in the streets (“SARA DO YOU WANT TO GET SHOT?!?!?), then the general program – i am still trying to master our streets rivals, the 18th street gang sign, when daniel asks me if i want to lead one of the discussion groups, and i can’t untangle my fingers before everyone’s had a chance to notice that i, as one of the leaders, am practicing gang signs rather than paying attention ahah. karissa and i end up co-leading one of the groups, and they are crazy and interesting and i am fascinated that i too was once of this age and this mindset. particularly by the 19 year olds, who’s ranks i have only just come from, yet none the less am no longer in! fears, convictions, revalations and reservations are all discussed an i can’t help but feel that these are the questions and conversations which make up who we are. after all the boys beat eachother up, it’s 10 and we wander in to the pre-storm (finally! signs of rain!) night, where adrian is doing the splits and hiding behind me as jessica attempts to retrieve the water-ball from his clutches, and i mistake a homeless man for just a blanket which i almost wrap around myself before noticing it’s quite occupied. the group makes its way towards a taco stand about 12 blocks away, everyone driving except adrian, joe, melanie, malana, daniel and myself. joe skateboards along, dedicating himself to protecting me from black widows while pseudo-nobly holding his umbrella over our rainless heads. the attempt is illy-appreciated, as i jack the umbrella and adrian and i run screaming, umbrella held high, through the sprinklers in a nearby yard. i order uno carne avadas taco from the stand which is run out of someones van, and sit down on the crates and boxes disguised as chairs, at the table which is just an overturned trashcan. anywhere else and i would have giggled in appreciation of its super ghetto-ness, but this is just life here, and it’s ghettocity offers few surprises. after capturing carissa’s keys, we turn the parking lot in to a dance party, until finally we head back to the house. everyone but john, carissa, daniel, jessica, and patti go home, the latter three going inside for a heart to heart on patti’s sporodic love life, while carissa, john and i stay on the porch talking about anything from marriage and convictions to secret chambers and descending from lizards until about 3am, a bi-nightly event.

right before coming inside, patty, although not the first to ask, poses the question, “do you want to stay here?”

Following your heart... even when it means (CREEPY) stranger's couches

While I was in England I got the irrevocable impression that I was supposed to go to L.A.
which made going home to saint louis feel pretty pointless
going to new york pretty pointless
going to toronto pretty pointless (but awesome)
and would have made returning to saint louis feel equally pointless, had it not been for the passing of almost three months since the initial revelation, allowing for the sense of urgency to slowly subside. Regardless, I still felt that for whatever reason I needed to go there, if for nothing else then to get it out of the way so that I didn’t have it eating at the back of my mind as I tried to resume what was once a normal (ish… sara-normal, anyway) lifestyle. 
And so it was that I found myself on a one way flight to a new city, with little idea of what I was going to be doing, let alone where I was going to be sleeping that night. 
In general, probably not the best of circumstances to put oneself in, but I felt like this was actually something God wanted me to do, and knew that as long as it was His plan and not mine, I’d be aiight. 

Tomorrow will be my 20th day in L.A., and I am soo-oo thankful I came! Maybe it’s the fact that I didn’t/don’t know exactly why I’m here that makes it seem so much, it gives everything meaning! Everything is an option! I just really truly feel like, whether for the benefit of myself or others or both, God is at work and I really am supposed to be here right now. It’s really encouraged me to really live by conviction, to not let a moment pass where I ignore a tugging of the heart , a “maybe i should go talk to them,” or “maybe i should see if i can help them somehow.” just little things, but it’s so rewarding not to have that heaviness of not ‘following your heart.’ The trouble is that my heart takes me pretty far out of my comfort zone, usually into danger areas where not only could i technically get physically hurt, but my heart itself is so much more vulnerable. But with every conquest, every conversation with a stranger completed or homeless person fed, my heart keeps taking it to the next level and coming up with some really crazy ideas! I don’t know if it’s beautiful or scary, bravery or stupidity, but slowly I feel like simply acting on what I feel I should do is molding me closer and closer to not only who God wants me to be but who I really was created to be, and that in and of itself is such a wonderful feeling. ITS SUCH A SIMPLE CONCEPT, living by conviction, why has it taken my so long to convert my thoughts to actions?

Love Revelation A.

Luke 6:33 "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same." 

I "love" the idea of loving people, loving everyone.
But I definitely don't ACTUALLY love everyone. Usually I don't even want to sit next to or even talk to everyone, sometimes anyone. That seems to rule out loving them.

I noticed this especially at S.A.Y. Yes!
In general, once I get to know kids/they get to know me - we're friends. I love them, or at least like them.
But going into a room of new kids, getting tentative smiles from a few, but mostly distance and awkward staring - I am not instantly going to be all 'ohh, i loovvvvve youuuu!' (That's probably a good thing) I'm going to approach the ones who seem amicable, and avoid the glarish-quiet ones in fear of getting rejected by a 10 year old.
I want to develop a friendship with them & I want to be able to love them, to show them that 'yes! you are important! yes, someone does love you!' ... but I want it to be mutual, I want them to love me, too. It's been very-very rare that I've even encountered that exclusive, non-mutual love - I'm barely even capable of it. ..Loving someone you know doesn't love you seems so unrewarding, so empty, so unlikely, even - why would you love someone who not only doesn't love you, but seems to even have contempt for your mere existence? 

YET SO SELFISH NOT TO. Love is portrayed as this amazing thing you get to experience, this phenomenal emotion, and how everyone should love, la-la-la... only that has nothing to do with actual love. That has to do with YOU, that has to do with leading a life that makes you feel good, that has to do with making YOURSELF feel fulfilled, making sure YOU feel love. Love, in it's purest form, is selfless - it is a gift to lavish upon others. Biblical love is this:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

What does patience have to do with selfishness? What does kindness? Envying, boastfulness, pride, rudeness, anger, being self-seeking, holding grudges - ah, there's the selfish aspect - wait, no, it says love is none of those things! The obvious conclusion is that the only part of love that pertains to self, is that we have the opportunity to give it to other people. And when you get rid of that self-focus, you aren't going to prefer giving that love to one person over another. It's not going to matter if they love you or not, if they're a cute little kid who comes bounding over to you everytime you enter the room, or if it's the smelly guy on the bus who wants to use your phone and then leaves ear-slime on the screen (*sigh* that would be yesterday...) - according to the criteria above, love is not reserved for one person any more than it is for the next, it is for everyone, whether they love you, too, or barely tolerate you. It is not an emotion, it is the way that every single person deserves to be treated, and it is a choice we make daily - to love someone, or not to.

..In a slightly different direction, this is also a reason i have a mild disdain for the "love" 2009 has to offer us. The selfishness is too easily recognized. Some people get really excited when person a. tells them that they love them. I do not. Unless it's coming from a kid, or just someone who is really genuine and shows me in word and action, the phrase itself does very little for me. I'm not so excited and happy ecause I am someone special, I am loved - no, someone loves the way i make THEM feel. That's not real love, and even I don't want to love someone (or be loved by someone) like that. This too, would seem to stem from selfishness - feeling that i - well, all of us - deserve a selfless love rather than a selfish one... but I think it's just from the fact that that is the love we were created to give and recieve from God, so it's the love we naturally desire. I think God is the only one who can love perfectly like that, everything else is goofy.
I wonder how much those hippies on Venice Beach really love me, like their flags & vans & shirts say. Enough to talk to me? Yeah.. Enough to share a meal with me? Probably. Enough to let me sleep over when I'm homeless? In their bed? For two months? Even if I snore and have bad living habits and I don't even treat them with respect? How conditional is there love? To them , what constitutes as loving a person? What's the limit? Are hippie strangers capable of selfless love? Am I? Is anyone capable of it without God?