August Newsletter!

I sincerely apologize for not keeping my facebook & blog as updated I would like! (With the relevant information from lectures and stuff!) These past few weeks have been very full of excitement but very tiring at the same time.

It is a very eye-opening experience for me seeing this city with all of the glitz and glamour stripped away, and seeing broken people everywhere you go. You don’t have to go far; they are sitting behind a slot machine or whether they are drunk on the Las Vegas strip looking like they are having the time of their lives. They are all broken people trying to get away from their problems who in reality-just need God…

 Las Vegas is a city with many spiritual strongholds and people with hardened hearts resistant to ministry, but even so God is moving. The teaching I am getting is really challenging me so far, but in a lot of good ways.

I am meeting several amazing people here! There are about 10 staff and 13 students on base and this is the biggest school they have ever run! There have been a lot of really recognized YWAM speakers who sought out our DTS and wanted to be a part of it and speak here (so some of these names may sound familiar to all of my YWAMers back home!)

~ABOUT MY BASE~ The neighborhood my YWAM base is located in is one of the worst 3 mile radius in the entire city of Las Vegas, and out of America as a whole. Our base is called ‘the pier’ and is our vision is that by 2028 we will have ended poverty in this neighborhood by sharing the gospel and reaching out and helping the people in their need (food distribution programs, etc.)
 

A Pier is something that people go to in order to seek relief from their problems, and come back home refreshed from. That is our vision for our community with crime, where crack addictions are uneasily common and the prostitutes who frequently walk roam the day…

~MY FIRST FEW WEEKS HERE~

(August 8-12: Phil Gazely, Human Trafficking)

 This speaker will actually be coming back to our school a few times to teach us. It was an incredible to meet someone who is there and actually knows what is happening in the world. Contrary to popular belief, sex trafficking is NOT the most common and outraging in the world, it is actually labor trafficking and there are actually far more males trafficked than women.  Statistics aren’t reliable, they are estimates and they shouldn’t be quoted as fact/truth.

In human trafficking it is impossible to make sure you rescue every single person, but we’ve seen amazing solutions when the law takes a stand and has fair punishment. In Sweden, the Johns (the people who purchase prostitutes) are charged and it is actually a federal offense and they can face 10 years in prison. They got rid of the demand for sex because there is a very high punishment that people aren’t willing to pay, and human trafficking in that country was virtually eliminated.

This week we also share our testimonies with everyone as a group in 15 minutes or less… It took a little over 2 days for the group of over 20 of us students and staff and was very hard for some of us, but it really helped us to see where each of us were coming from and how God lead us to come to this school & also connect with each other as a group.

(August 15-19: Paul Childers, Hearing & Obeying the Voice of God)

Paul spoke about how to discern our thoughts and tell if our thoughts our coming from. He talked about the many ways that God speaks (through visions, dreams, sometimes an audible voice) but the most common ways is through OUR thoughts. If the enemy uses the exact same way to speak to us and spiritually attack us by putting those things into our head, why wouldn’t God himself use the same way to speak to us but to speak wisdom and truth?

(August 22-26: Jeff Pratt, The Father Heart of God)

This speaker was SO amazing I cannot even describe it. He mainly focused on how God sees us and how loved we are. He talked about how our seasons of captivity (trials and tribulations) are there for a specific purpose. We must embrace them and realize ‘God wants me here so that I can learn from this, and he will take me out of it in HIS timing.’ Something like ‘God sees me as HIS child, HIS wife, etc.’ is so simple… but it’s spoken too much and has lost its meaning. I am very slowly discovering and becoming aware of how much God loves me every single day, and it is a process.

Currently, I would currently like you to prayerfully consider financially supporting me. Before leaving on this DTS, the Lord came through and blessed me with enough finances to cover my flights, etc. and the majority of my lecture phase. However I still alot to go!

I am asking for all of my friends/family that I know to graciously donate $10.00 or to donate whatever amount is on your heart so that I will be able to go to Thailand on outreach!!  

Please send all money to: (make all checks out to YWAM Las Vegas and write 'Chelsea Buettner' in the memo slip blank)

Chelsea Buettner

C/O YWAM 

P.O. Box 36606 

Las Vegas, NV 89133 USA

                                           (photo above: me & some of the girls on my DTS!)

                           (photo above: on one of our free days we did a 'photography outing' on the
                              Strip since alot of us are into photography! it was alot of fun =] )

                       (photo above: some of my roomates & some of the guys on my
                           DTS on Freemont Street. We made a new friend with a very
                                 sweet man and had the opportunity to talk to him! )

please like the facebook page that i have to get more frequent updates here

more than just photos...

I was looking back today during my devotional time and decided to read back on my journal. I found something that happened the Thursday before I left (August 4, 2011-which was the day my YWAM Blackfalds base prayed & 'sent' me off)


I looked back on the scripture that I was givenby Andy.
1 Colassions 1:15-20.
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (16)  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (17)  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (18)  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (19)  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (20)  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.


There were a number of emotions going through my head that night, I was just happy that I was actually able to see all of my YWAM family before I left. (I wasn't sure if i would be able to or not because my time left in Blackfalds was slowly dwindling down, and people were busy) I had no idea that part of the reason it was planned was to have my 'Good-bye' thing.

When Andy first told me that verse, the very first thing I got out of it was 'I serve an invisible God...' I was going off pure adrenaline at that point and had no idea what to expect. I was very much afraid and felt like i was going on this DTS out of obligation and serving God and not so much passion anymore. I still very much wanted to go, but my fear and emotions almost completely over-ruled those feelings excitement to the point where I never even went to Vegas... [as you can see, I am here in Vegas today because i put my trust on he who is not visible and i dont run on my own emotions. I asked God to hold my hand and pick me off of the floor, and hge did.]


This was one of the only times (in awhile) i have ever seen a grown man (let alone Andy) cry. Andy and his wife have been involved in human trafficking ministries before in Costa Rica-so they knew exactly what I was getting myself into. Andy said to me as he spoke that verse into my life

'That verse says ''The image of the invisible God...''

you are a photographer, you take pictures. (in that verse 'the image' is talking about how Christ sacrificed his son for us) My prayer for you is that going on that you would catch EVERYTHING God has to offer, ALL his glory & goodness for the world to see through every single picture you take. That people can see the photos you take and not only see a greater awareness for human trafficking, but also  God..


Now that I am struggling with my photography and really debating whether I even want to do it anymore i am REMEMBERING that word that was spoken over my life. . I'm also rembering how back in February and a vision God gave me. God spoke to me and said 'this is a picture that you are going to take someday...' the description of the photo of itself was enough to make me ball.

I don't know when i will take this picture or where it will happen but i'm sick of fighting God. I have drawn a conclusion about myself. If i try to fight this gift God has given me... he will re-arrange all the plans of my world to make it happen because he WANTS it to. Otherwise why would he have told me these things?

As an artist I am struggling with how to use my images and my talent as NOT to be just another person who says 'Can i take your picture' with some fancy camera. But to be someone who stands out and who is DIFFERENT and shares the gospel, my personal stories with how God changed my life and then say to them after I have prayed for them 'Is it ok if i take your photo and share your story with other people so that it can make a difference?'

Lately I have been struggling with who I am as an artist/photography wise. I am sick of the same old 'ok pose/do this... *snap* you look awesome!' It's not a facade i was ever meant to play. I know a bunch of amazing genuine photographers who are amazing and genuine at what they do, but it is not me.
Please pray that God would restore a passion in me for giving a voice to the voiceless through photography and that i would be able to trust in him in absolutely everything.

On a sidenote.... Outreach Loactions have been decided and, I'm going to THAILAND! :)
please pray for protection for my team and that God would prepare our hearts for what we are all going to see [including the team going to India/Nepal!]

                                                     {Where we are Going!}

"Slavery is theft -- theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a slave might have borne. - Kevin Bales"

 My contact Info...
 email address: child.of.eden65@hotmail.com
information about the Abolitionist DTS
facebook page here

please e-mail me if you would like to financially support me in any way!
Your prayers are appreciated as i am on this journey and going by faith & trusting God's provision to come through!

Love & Blessings
-Chelsea

Spreadin some love like PB&J!! (Local Outreaches)

Hey Guys! Sorry for neglecting my blog!!

this past week we have been learning about 'The Father Heart of God' which has been a quite intense week and fiull week for alot of us students. In the past two weeks we have also done four local outreaches, two have been on the Las Vegas strip outside of the Bellagio hotel, the other two have been kind of different.

One of those outreaches was at a women's shelter where we did crafts with them and had the opportunity to talk with them. The second one was at the 'Walter Hoving Home' which was a Drug & Rehab centre for young women, and it a very biblical based center. All women are required to have a relationship with God in order to enter the program.After doing these two we pick one solid one that we will comit to to go to each week.

After doing both outreaches, i have found it very difficult to start conversation  and find things to talk about. Doing the strip outreach many people had hardened hearts and the overall response from people was ''actually i grew up in church! but religion and God just ISNT for me...' It was very discouraging at first, but when just one person said 'yes-i want prayer' and one person felt open to hearing God and hearing Truth [even though we never got to pray for them] it made up for the entire night. I felt like I wanted to go out and reach EVERYBODY and i wouldnt care if they said no or yes, unfortunately it was time to go back to the van... LOL

One very important thing i needed to realize for myself and that our leaders told us before was 'doing Evangelism is NOT about trying to impress God...' It's not about going out there with your bible and trying to shove Jesus down people's throats either. It's being genuine with people and showing them the truth of the gospel-which is LOVE, NOT 'rules' NOT 'i am holier than you because im a christian. i will not sit on the ground with you and talk to you because your homeless, etc.'

Jesus would have done that, so why shouldnt we to spread his love? Evangelism is just spreading Gods love in everything we do, its living out the Gospel in our everyday lives. Dont judge whether youve had a succesful night whether you get a person saved or pray for somebody.... its not impressing God! you just being genuinely nice to that person might have made their ENTIRE day!

so there you have it~
the first local outreach we did at the strip, many of the night people had hardened hearts but we had breakthrough towards the end!

please pray for me to make a solid decision of where to commit to going each week for my local outreaches, these outreaches will take place with half of our group will go to the womens shleter (The Shade Tree), this outreach is more focused on sharing the gospel through building relationships with the women there. The Walter Hoving Home is more focused on people who already know God, but don't have a relationship with him. We will be growing in relationships with them as well as discipling them.

Please pray for spiritual guidance and that I make the right decision on which outreach to commit to.
I also need to pray and decide which international outreach I am going to, either Thailand or India.

I appreciate all of your prayers & support!
here are some photos from our local outreach at the strip!



                                 (below photo: Marissa, Meredith & Sadie before we went on Outreach!
                                                 at the top of the Bellagio Hotel parking Lot)

                      (below photo(s): where we did outreach, the Bellagio Fountains/Las Vegas Strip)

prayer request!

Hey guys, here is just a quick short blog about a prayer request on my heart...

Tonight me and my school are doing are first local outreach on the strip! This is very exciting and nerve wracking for us as a team. As many of you know, and like i blogged about earlier, Las Vegas is a city of alot of spiritual warfare... If you are thinking of me & my base tonight-please pray for the following


-That God would begin to prepare & soften hearts for the people we will be speaking to
-safety and protection for our team
-God would give us the words to say and literally break our hearts for these people.
-That we could be completely transparent and raw with them.
-That God would be able to work completely through us tonight.

                                    [a photo of the Las Vegas Strip, where we will be doing outreach!]

                                     [a photo of my team: the Abolitionist DTS staff & students!]


Thank you all so much for your prayers tonight, I will give you all an update tomorrow on how our outreach went!

a city of need/first week of Vegas

I am loving Las Vegas and I love this city and all God is doing here through YWAM. Las Vegas is a city of incredible need. Today all the DTS students and I went on an unplanned day without any classes to end of our orientation week. We went to the 'strip' section/main touristy area of Las Vegas and it really opened my eyes.I cant help but as a christian but see that everywhere you go see everywhere you go see incredibly broken people trying to mask there pain and be happy. In Las Vegas you can have open alcohol everywhere and drink anywhere (even on the streets), and in your vehicles as long as the main driver is not driving [VERY different from in canada!]

There are no such thing as liquor stores, you can just buy alcohol openly in grocery stores. Slot machines are absolutely everywhere, they have no clocks absolutely anywhere in Vegas to tell you what time it is. Many of the time you have to walk through the casino/slot machine part of the hotel in order to get to your rooms. In  the strip and freemont street, since drinking is allowed people walk openly very drunk all the time.

Vegas is a spot where its very hard to do ministry and where other ministries have tried with very willing hearts and unfortunately failed, (evven YWAM itself had another base almost 5 other years and quit before Rich our base director now felt called and started our base we have now which has lasted almost 16 years)

It is difficult but I believe even though that sometimes ministering to these people can be really difficult, we are called to outpour MASSIVE quantities of love on them as christians; we are not called to hate traffickers like the world would. As christians we are called to defend those who are oppressed and i have to reminds myself that even traffickers fall under that category too... not ALL of them make the choice to violate and sell these girls and some of them are being forced into it. They came into the country with the promise of a good job, and went from being trafficked into forced labour to being working under a pimp in the sex trade and selling girls. Just like prostitutes, if they say no-they are beaten until they comply.




From Monday to Tuesday we had speaker a speaker called 'Phil Gazley' here with us. Phil will be here alot during the course of our school and he is the founder of an organization called YWAM City Initiatives. This organization trains YWAMer's/missionaries and people who have done a DTS who want to work more with human trafficking ministries and get further involved but don't really know how, the tools necessary to do so.

He talked to us about the importance of helping refugees, people who are at risk, and runaways. Its important that we pour into young peoples lives and prevent them FROM going into the position of running away etc. rather than just helping them once the act of human trafficking itself has already happened. There is so much we can do besides being 'right there and in there' that can prevent and help stop human trafficking. Not everyone can necessarily go into those really dark spots and it's ok if we don't. Once a young person has ran away, within 30 days they will become trafficked. Phil also mentioned that it is important that we DON'T blindly throw out statistics of human trafficking, because none of them are accurate.

The first day we had 12 hours of teaching crammed in from Phil and it was awesome. We also had the opportunity to talk openly with Phil and ask him alot of questions during our free time, etc. and he had meals with us.

On Wednesday & Thursday we all shared our testimonies and our stories. For me, it was especially difficult to open up; the first few days were difficult and although i felt like i wasnt getting to truely know people. As some of you who really know me, i tend to ramble and not get my words out straight-Once it was all done and over with, it felt very reassuring and it felt like i knew people alot better. 

 On Wednesday and Thursday of this week we shared our testimonies. On Thursday night we had Commitment service (to those of you who arent YWAMer's, and havent yet done a DTS-i'm not gonna spoil it by telling you what it is!) And on Friday we went to the strip and had a hike at Mount Charleston.

It was a very good week and i cannot wait for what is what is next!
next week we have Paul Childers coming to speak on 'Hearing God's Voice.' Paul Childers [prounced Chill-ders not Child-ers] is one of the main founders of photogenX. I am very excited to meet him! Although he is not on the photography aspect of photogenX, he is still very knowledgeable and our school is VERY lucky to have him speak here.






PRAYER REQUESTS:
-finances.
please pray for finances, if you would like to sponsor me and would like to know what my needs are for the rest of this school, please e-mail me!

-that God would continue to prepare our hearts for all we're learning on this school

-that i would continue to grow in lifelong relationships.




please like my facebook page for more frequent updates here
please e-mail me here

i have ARRIVED! =]

Last night at 8:15ispm.... i arrived in LAS VEGAS!!!!

Thank God for those automatic TV's on your airplane! I watched the foodnetwork & 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' the whole time and it kept me ditracted. I managed to go the entire day without a single tear. There were moments walking through the airport by myself after going through customs when i thought 'wow... i am finally here, its too late to turn back!' it was so unbelievably weird that all those days i had counted SOOO long for had finally came. I had counted down for months for this day because i knew God would make it happen, even though there was no money in my banok account and there was not even a flight booked-but God made it happen.


After arriving here last night, we waited for 2 other girls flights (one had already arrived), played Apples to Apples and then left at about 10:30. Today we had normal classes, a normal day and an icebraker type day.

So far I am needing approximately $4,400.00 for the rest of my DTS, If you think of me please pray that this money comes (It must come by my outreach trip in November at the latest), If you feel led to financially support me in any way please contact me by my email

child.of.eden65@hotmail.com

here is more information about my DTS and what im going to be doing while i am here
i am excited to learn the tools i need to really give people who have no voice an impact, and show them that there is a God who loves them despite their brokenness [i know that this blog is really short, but i will post again in a few days. to make up for it i posted some photos of my first few days here!!]



PLEASE SEE!
i have made a facebook page to share my frequent updates and stuff, if you guys want to be more informed on what im doing then my occasional blog here and there please join the page here

 canadians first trip to target to get Shampoo & stuff (above photo)

5 days... =]

this DTS is coming up so crazily quickly it's a little bit scary to think about....

in 5 days and about 6 hours from now, i will be getting on a plane and there is no going back. It is so crazy to think of the many ways God has provided financially for me to do this DTS... just at the beginning of June i literally had nothing, not a single penney in order to do this DTS.

In these past few weeks, God has brought MORE than i needed 'just for my flights & just to get there' but enough to even cover some of my tuition...





Right now to be honest i feel SO overwhelmed and i don't know what to think. I am amazed at what God has done, but I am just so scared for what is in store. At the same time I am excited to meet so many people who are going to impact and change my life. When i leave for Vegas, the plan is to go for the DTS and then see what happens...

I would like to stay longer to become more involved with Human Trafficking ministry and YWAM Vegas and the work they do (i have no idea for how long, that in itself is up to God.) It is very bittersweet because when I go, i have no idea how long im going for or if i will ever get the opportunity financially to go back... I also love my YWAM \Blackfalds base and the work that my church is starting to do. Its just weird to think that im going to be missing out on all of it and missing out on so many things... But its all gonna be worth it right?


please pray for no problems at customs at the airport [since i dont have a visa-i am applying for in the states] and for Gods CONTINUED provision! i do not have all the money for this school still, but i trust the Lord to provide it.



my emotions are rampant and my to-do list is really big so i dont have time to write-but i will do a longer post when i have time before i leave and at the airport!


Much Love
-Chelsea