Thank God for puke green

Dublin is highly competitive for my favorite city on this whole trip. I've come to discover that New Zealand is like a surfer version of Ireland. The dreads, the sweet fashion, the buzz words, accent, pubs and excessive friendliness (especially refreshing after Paris :) are filling me with deja vu. I LOVE IT HERE!!
Yesterday I went with some hostel mates from California to delve into the life of a Viking at this amazing museum and scope out Christchurch cathedral then enjoy a plate piled high of authentic Irish pub food. This was after the first night in Dublin hosted by more Guinness than I ever wanted in my life, much less one night (ha-just kidding mom and dad, just two pints :) and some HEARTY Irish music by a highly respected local banjo player and fiddle and guitar -nevermind that it was mostly American tourists-it was still authentic!
Last night I had to walk like halfway across town alone, but have no fear!! All you really need to be safe on a night in Dublin with streets full of finely dressed club-hoppers is a big, fat I'M A TOURIST PUKE GREEN poncho baby yeah!! I'm pretty sure I had a protective bubble about 10 ft around as I made my way home. But God be with all the scantically clad girls...ah sometimes I'm ashamed of the intelligence level of my own species.
So now I'm heading out to the Gaelic-speaking countryside...yeah!!! I love this, what better place to piece the last couple years of your life together and see what it's all working towards and ponder how you have changed than on a train through the green alternating mist and blue skies Irish countryside. I cannot explain why this life has my name on it...let's just say God's for real about wanting us to dream big and then fulfilling those dreams.
Hmmm, I love that I'm listening to Michael Jackson right now in this internet cafe. Just in case anyone cares, I'm guessing escaping American pop culture is an art even the most experienced travellers have yet to master!

Don't ask for Directions

Ok, I'm finally learning the valuable lesson of not believing all the directions you get. Riding the tram all over Caen, France at 9:00 at night already 2 hours late from the end of check in time at the hostel was probably the straw that broke the camel's back for this lesson. Directed to the exact opposite end of town, then returning I laughed as I just did all I knew to do full of disbelief that I would ever find this supposed hostel. I seriously pondered just throwing down the bag behind some well concealed bushes in a really nice part of town, but decided to go on the navigation adventure just for the heck of it. Studying the map and my phoenetically spelled French directions, I found the tram stop and just walked along the road at night in norther france wondering if anyone was praying for me as I followed the foreign streets. I rounded the corner and don't think I've ever found the International Hosteling trademark sign more beautiful. I walked up to the locked door at the same time as someone with a key by chance, and they grudgingly checked me in as it was way passed the correct time. Sometimes I just find this all so funny. And I also found the name of the tram line I was on chuckle-worthy: 'Grace de Dieu' God has got to be the funniest travel partner ever.

Time for an English speaking country yo!

AHH, I can't believe it! Heading to a country that speaks English for the first time since May 12. Ah, pure ecstasy. And what better place than the other end of the rainbow...going back to some of the Hillmann heritage...IRELAND!!

The mission: to look Italian

The bare minimum requirements: big sunglasses, killer belt, Italian shoes, Gucci or Prada purse (can be purchased from African street vendors-no one can tell the diff) and optional additions include a sleek cell phone, MO-PED mafia membership card or a little finely groomed dog accompanying you while you shop :)
Ha, good times with my sista in Italy. A morning in Napoli, 3 nights in Roma and 1 night in Florence. Two of the nights in Rome were hosted by none other than 100% pure Roman Catholic nuns at a convent with a fabulous curfew of 22:00 sharp!! And then what could have been cooler than being picked up at the train station in Florence by a ghetto rigged golf cart with 4 passengers and a dreadhead driver and our two huge backpacks!! Not to mention the severely sinking bunk beds and one bathroom for like 15 people! ha, good times. It was cheap right? The sights were great minus the ferocious mosh pits outside the Vatican just to get in and see the basilica and then the 5 block long line to get into the Sistene Chapel...where I managed to sneak two pics of the Creation picture before getting talked to by the authoriities :) oops
On to pure luxury in Nice where we unintentionally booked ourselves into one of the top ten hostels in Europe. A 17 cereal variety breakfast with amazing bread, jam and juice, coffee, tea hot choc all included in the already inexpensive rate. It was here that we met a fabulous friend Simon from Australia with one brown eye and one blue eye with whom we got to discuss the ideas of the Himalayan guru he and his friends went to see a few months earlier :) We had to continue to watch our backs though as two hostel mates had their wallets stolen while in Nice...one by an old lady- young man diversion team. Horrible eh?!
And then the Eiffel tower bid Krissy farewell the night before her departure back to Colorado. It was lit up and sparkling with these new flashing lights-pretty sweet.
This eurail pass has become less and less of a luxury and more of a textbook for the craziest semester I have ever had. And successful navigation of the Paris metro felt like finding out I aced my english research paper junior year in high school. Krissy's departure inaugurated the last leg of this european epic adventure: soaring solo in northern europe. I feel like everything has been working towards this...so much preparation and training to be able to travel successfully-enjoyably and safely and according to what the man upstairs wants- alone. So here we go! All prayers are seriously appreciated, if not absolutely necessary...thank you!!!!

Ice ice baby

Hey y'all, now in Italy with my sis after a sizzlin swiss excursion in the alps. We made an icy ascent to the base camp of matterhorn where I'm pretty sure God just hangs and keeps it real...georgeous SO BLESSED! I'll write more soon, I have three minutes left at this internet cafe! much LOVE!!!!

Humdilala!!

Yeah, about that Arabic...definitely don't know more than yes, no, thank you and praise the Lord! (the above) But it's all good!
So this trip has been phenomenal to say the least. I am currently in the historical land of the Ammonites- Amman, Jordan. And my eyes actually gazed upon the dead sea scrolls only two hours ago AHHH crazy. As well as the temple of Hercules (wicked cool).
I realized that I have been in 7 countries in the last 5 months and 5 in the last 2 months. We successfully hopped from Hong Kong to Delhi, India to Oman to the United Arab Emirates to Bahrein to here! Some of the highlights include working at a ministry for heroine addicts in Hong Kong, seeing 11 drug addicts throw down their drugs and light them on fire after accepting Jesus as Lord of their lives in a park in Delhi, praying from the center of the Sultan's stadium in Muscat, Oman (the fact that it was empty is only a minor detail ;), a prayer trip through the whole of Oman- in over 120 degree weather!!!-, crying through my testimony in front of over 300 people at an All Nations Full Gospel Filipino church in Abu Dhabi as well as imploring people to make a decision about the cross in light of my friend Mark's recent death at the age of 20 from a climbing accident, helping lead worship and getting to pray with younger girls at a church in Bahrein, and now getting to help plan a sports camp for Bedoin children here in Jordan. And not to mention 3 am prayer calls right outside my window and getting brutal lessons in modesty from helpful Muslim women! Definitely an experience to remember!
There is much more, but I know if I was reading someone's website, my attention span would probably only last a few paragraphs so we'll go in stages eh? We were literally forbidden access to our websites in the last couple countries, so that is why it's been AGES. But I know whoever reads this is a true friend cuz I probably would have given up on a website updated as randomly and sporadically as this one! So you rock whoever is reading this ;) hehe
So two more weeks before the big reunion of all six world travelling teams. Then after two weeks of touring and lectures we will graduate! And Lord willing the world is my playground for the following nine months. I can't wait to see what life looks like on the other side of this paradigm-shattering experience.
I can't thank everyone who is praying for me and this team enough. You literally have no idea how much they have helped. God bless you all!!!

Gotta love that sweet taste of...

INDIA!! AHH! Ok so I can't write much, but I am safe in India and cannot wait to update what is going on. We fly to Oman on Friday. Please keep praying for us! Right now we are at the House of Prayer in India and it is SO SWEET! We get to pray all the time and give food to people and pray for sick people and see drug addicts give up their drugs, burn them right there on the spot and accept JESUS CHRIST! With a REAL fire in their eyes! Ah, life is so good, who needs toilets that flush or showers. And the rickshaws are a rockin good time as well...ok more coming soon God bless!!

Coming to you live from Sydney, Australia!!

AHH! HA! I am writing this from a FREE internet access in the Sydney Airport! Oh my goodness, this is insane. God is alive everywhere!! I just learned more about him through watching a man from some country I don't know watch his daughter run around and play with another little boy from a country she probably didn't know. He watched her so lovingly and proudly, guarded her from the roped off areas and held her on his shoulders to see the beautiful Sydney view! Wow wow wow. I just want to jump in the fun of what God is doing all around me...everywhere. YEAH BABY!!! I feel like a little kid going with their dad to walstreet to watch Him work his magic as he masterfully maneuvers in the mass and chaos around Him. Amazed doesn't begin to describe...

"We're taking over the world, cuz we're the alien youth." -Skillet

AHHHHH!!! We leave in 4 hours and 45 minutes! I AM BURSTING WITH EXCITEMENT!!!! Songs of praise, explosive laughter, GOBS of love, beautiful accents... God is so beyond amazing. I feel like we are all forming this GIANT cobweb of love over the globe as all these peole that I love SO MUCH and am so united with-the same blood flowing in all our veins!-literally cover the map with 3 teams going through Asia, one in the Middle East, one in Africa and one in South America. And one explosive reunion in Jerusalem to look fwd to in 3 months! God's love is SERIOUSLY everywhere around here!! We just can't even help but blurt out prayers for everything. I feel like a whirlwind is breaking out all around us, in our midst, through us. God is unloading some serious amounts of His true character all over this place. I feel like the foundations of the Earth are being shaken. AHH THIS IS CRAZY!! We always talk about "reaching the nations" or going out in the world or making a difference or whatever the heck...and EVERY DAY we are doing just that if we accept the life to the full that we have through fellowship with Jesus (through His people). But this is some crazy unreal above and beyond anything I could ask or imagine tangible manifestation of going out into all the world! HOW BLESSED AM I?!!! PRAISE GOD!! Each prayer that goes towards this trip adds such immense sparks to the flame of what God is up to. It is seriously sweet. I love you ALL SO MUCH!! Anyone who reads this, even if I haven't met you face to face- I love you! And seriously special thanks to my family (I LOVE YOU GUYS!!), John D, Julee, Heidi...you guys are more than I could have ever asked for. Pray that God's love just explodes to a seriously hurting world through us. God bless you all. "I pray that out of his glorious riches you may grasp how wide and high and long and deep is hte love of Christ, to know this love that surpasses knowledge..." Wish me luck as I try and keep it real in the Kong! (Hong Kong here we come!) WHEWWW!!

"It's the end of the world as we know it."

We will be officially leaving to journey around the world in 80 days in approximately 30 short hours! The plan is that next week at this time, we will be in 80 degree weather praying all night for Jackie Pullinger’s heroine addict ministry in downtown Hong Kong. AHHHH! A little different than sitting in front of this computer screen! But computer screens, little sheep-filled country towns and “life as we know it” are surprisingly irrelevant to God teaching us what He wants to teach us! Amidst all the packing and picture-taking, God is still working away. I feel very challenged to look only at God as there are a million other things spinning around my head right now--what to do after outreach? how are my friends and family? what are my passions? Do I pack for Europe? How to witness to a Muslim? What exactly constitutes a Christian? The best way to be bold and reach out to others? Who am I apart from my culture, family, friends, clothing style, past experiences, journals...skin and hair color? So I just choose to look at God and do what's in front of me. This is actually a really big op to become stronger in God and in my understanding of myself and the world and the gravity of the only 100% pure Truth and its implications in a world full of ideas based on 99.9% truth.
Tonight we all gathered together to send each other off, and I found it to be extremely devastating. The tears and snot start to flow, and the emotional floodgates are flung wide! But once again, THE point of it all is that we are sending each other out in Jesus' name. And that through fellowship with Him, we are all closer to one another than we are with some of the people that will be right in front of us. Same with me and all the people I already knew and loved before coming here. That whole kingdom of God thing really does kick butt!
And I love that right now I am sitting next to a pastor from Uganda named Timothy! How cool is life?!
So cool story--I could not decide if I should dye my hair dark for the middle east, so I decided to check out how feasible it would be when we were in Christchurch last week. I asked some girls for advice on a good salon, and they sent me to “accolades” and told me to ask for Nick. I walked my little blonde self down to the salon only to be greeted by none other than Nick himself! I made God a deal walking in that if it was less than 80 dollars to color my hair, I would do it. So Nick gave me the estimate of 95 dollars. Then a split second later offered me a twenty-dollar off coupon. He just so happened to have an opening that hour. So I am now back in black…or chocolate chestnut if you will! It’s definitely a new look, but it actually feels more me! And I definitely will not be standing out quite so much in the Middle East!
Ah, but the fun does not stop there. That night we went camping in the foothills above Oxford, and I found myself missing the one and only jenpody (my ipod) the next afternoon when we were back on base. Well it wasn’t until the next day after that that I got a chance to go back to the campsite and check things out. I looked all over the hill and laughed at myself thinking it would be next to impossible to find a little ipod on a big mountain hill by myself in any reasonable amount of time. Well I went to the last place I knew I had it, and did not find it. I then told God that it was completely up to Him now, if He wanted me to have it for this trip. I then walked twenty steps and randomly found it lying on the ground with the headphones all stretched out!!!! It was covered in rain droplets as it had been raining and cold all the night before. But what else but the jenpody was providing the dance music for the ghetto (our room with 14 girls) this marvellous Monday night! Crazy eh?
So who knows what the future of communication holds in store over the next three months. I hope to be able to check on what’s going on on the other side at least every couple weeks, but who knows! I want to post more, but the time for my preparation to depart from the ends of the earth is rapidly thinning. So for now I must go...parting is such sweet sorrow. "Shhh. Just go." (guess that quote! ;) So I at least wanted to make my departure date known and I would definitely appreciate lots of prayer! I also want to say THANK YOU to all the people that love and pray for me! Hopefully I will be able to write more later, but if not-don’t worry if you don’t hear from me for awhile, but trust God for me and know I’m trusting Him for you!
“I will go before you and level the mountains. I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, that summons you by name.” Isaiah 45:2-3
How brilliantly astounding to serve the one, true, LIVING God!!!!
“Take hold of the life that is truly life.” 1 Timothy 6:19

"Love God, and do what you want." --St. Augustine

So many life realizations, so little time! What a wild world we live in. I feel like I am in some sick real life version of Ground Hog Day. I am on the same base with the same people doing basically the same activities EVERY day! It’s so beautifully ironic and profoundly simple. All the things that normally consume our attention have been removed so that a day is judged by the conversations you have, and whatever you learn from the lectures, in the Word and in times with God, and maybe by how well the mass-prepared meat happens to be cooked for dinner that night. J This entire time I have been feeling so incomplete, and I finally realized why today.
For so long I looked at coming to YWAM as my big jumping off point—where life would really begin. And since coming here I have felt as though I have been temporarily suspended in a time-capsule outside my life and existence. Simply removed into this other dimension from which I got to safely examine the world, Life, God, myself, REALITY, purpose…break it down to its raw components of nature, people, food, the Bible, learning and studying God. I have felt like somewhat of a specimen for a philosophical/psychological experiment.
Well, I have since realized that “my life” is what has been going on from 1985 until now. Every experience, every person, every pursuit, hobby, character trait and decision. All of these combine to form Jen Hillmann. I know who I am, where I have come from, that I have built my life on relationships that will last into eternity. That the components of my life are not chaff and hay that will burn away, but precious stones that will last. No matter where I am, what I am doing, who I am with, the things that are important to me will always remain important to me. I have discovered the reality that is impressed indelibly upon my mind. That wherever I am on the globe, nothing changes. My parents and sister, Heidi, Julee, Megan, John, Trav, Andrew, Stefan, my roots in Colorado Springs, my room, my dog, snowboarding, WHOLE FOODS!, all of these things are part of my life and on my mind and a part of who I am. I do not have to redefine myself in every new context. I get to just let the components of that new context simply contribute to who I already am.
This realization frees me up to live fully where I am, knowing that my friends and family are still my friends and family even if I don’t talk to them for a long time. They are stored safely in my heart and mind. This realization also frees me up to travel anywhere on the globe, meet new people, just live the life God desires me to live. So much of the lectures this week have been about storing your treasures in Heaven. Well Jesus says that “the Kingdom of God does not come with careful observation, so that we can say ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” So I am storing all the treasures of my life in a place that is already within me! This fits into my whole epiphany that people are like ipods :)
It is also amazing to realize that eternity starts today. I realized that those crazy street evangelists that scream at people that if they don’t know Jesus they are going to hell are way off! I say if you don’t know Jesus, you are in hell! Jesus says that ETERNAL LIFE is KNOWING the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And we can KNOW God right now!
I love that I get to just live the life that God has shown and is showing me to be the most fulfilling and spill the kingdom into everyone I talk to simply because it lives inside me. How amazing these realizations are!!! It’s cool that I am on a DTS, and about to go to 7 or whatever countries and share the gospel with people who have maybe never heard it before…but I am still me before and after this trip-it’s just a really REALLY cool opportunity! Seeing who I am apart from what I’m doing is quite possibly the most liberating realization ever. The whole world and all of time belong to God, so even if I was a complete idiot, God’s purposes will still be accomplished in the world. If you have the kingdom within you rock on and if you don’t, ask for it b/c it’s freaking the only way to live!! I am also SO EXCITED to see that my two life goals totally come out of this new kingdom of God paradigm: 1) that I would simply increase the amount of God’s Spirit on the earth by giving it a place to reside in me and 2) that after having conversations with people, they will walk away having had a conversation with Jesus.
Lately we have been learning so much about the world! How many completely “unreached” people there are, the heinous evils of underage (and regular) prostitution, unbelievable poverty, drug addiction in Hong Kong, sweat shops, weapons in the wrong hands, religious oppression, the broken lives of many pop stars…yeah I definitely prayed for Eminem for a crazy long time last Thursday, then the Sultan of Oman and people on their Haaj to Mecca the next Tuesday. My vision and perspective of the world as well as how to effectively intercede for it are just exploding.
There are so many things to fight for in the world, I am just excited to see which one(s) God has uniquely prepared me to fight for! Coming here has not been an end in itself. It is simply where God showed me would contribute the most to living life to the full for this period of time. It has been great for many reasons, and I have taken so much out of it, but it really is just a magnifying glass for the rest of my life. Because Jesus is my life. People are my life. Doing what He’s set before me is my life. And I am just excited to LIVE! WHEREVER I am!!
I have also been examining the fact that I believe a literal man, Jesus, who actually walked among us, ate, slept…all the bodily functions…died, then came back to life. I hate to admit I have never quite processed that one completely. Well today that reality became mine. I have always loved Jesus because He was pure, living, active, breathing, speaking, bleeding Truth. That has been the single greatest attraction from me to Him. Well it only makes sense with that impression of Him, that of course even death could not keep its hold on Him. The Truth is the Truth and it will live! I am still figuring out more of course, so stay tuned! But wow does it feel good to know and be grounded in THE TRUTH! It is the life of our souls!
And for anyone who is wondering, we as a base are planning to take over the world and ruthlessly reign as the dominating community from the unsuspecting little country town of Oxford from the land down under by the year 2008. Join us or prepare to be dominated.
Hmmm, as for the real exciting stuff- I got stung by a hornet twice the other day! While pulling weeds on the prayer track! Feel free to concoct and post whatever spiritual warfare jokes you can think of.