What I'm Doing Overseas

I'm so excited to talk about what I have going on, starting in just over a week! In just a matter of four months, I'll be traveling to Ireland,

Switzerland, Egypt, Israel, Turkey,Greece, Italy, Germany, France, and possibly a couple of other places as well. What will I be doing? Well, after a brief stop in Ireland, the majority of my time will be spent participating in a Bible Core Course through YWAM, based in Lausanne Switzerland. Essentially, it is a three month course in which I will be reading and studying the entirety of the Bible. During this, we will be traveling to the Biblical grounds (in Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.) What an awesome experience it will be; walking through the very lands where so many of the most important spiritual events have taken place, all the while revisiting these scriptures, analyzing them in a new light.

I'm so excited about this opportunity--I've worked really hard since August to get enough money for tuition and travel expenses. Knowledge and a deeper understanding of the scriptures is something that, in the past couple of years, has become really important to me. Growing up in a Christian home, reading the Bible, there were so many areas that I skipped over or just kind of ignored because I didn't understand them or because they challenged my ideas about the world or about God. Whenever questions arose in my mind or I felt like I disagreed with something, I just sort of shrugged and kept going. I don't ever want to do that again. Since my DTS in Australia, whenever I read the Bible and I have a question, of any kind, big or small, I don't keep reading until I feel that I have an adequate understanding of what I'm reading, acquired through prayer, research, and discussion.

I'm still trying to find more direction--what my life in missions will look like. I felt that, before I continue working towards that, I needed to have more of a foundation, mentally, as well as spiritually. I'm not saying that such is the case for everyone, but for me, personally, it is. I think that more understanding of the word is essential for spiritual growth and for whatever it is, precisely, that I will find myself doing in the years to come. When this opportunity came to my attention, pairing learning with traveling, another huge passion of mine, I had to take it!

This course will go until the end of June, after which I will be traveling, alone, through Germany, for a bit. I'll be spending some time in the Black Forest, just for kicks, and then a while in Nuremberg, at a YWAM base. They do a lot of art ministry there and I want to see how they go about doing so.

After Germany, I've applied to a two week long program in Paris, where I'll be working, primarily, in homeless ministry. After that, things are a little open-ended. There are a few possibilities.

I'm going to try and write about all of this, as I go. My blog entries may be quite brief, as I'll be extremely busy for most of it, but I want to be diligent in writing, so that anyone interested in my travels, as well as my studies, may read about them! Subscribe if you want to be notified as I write!

As always, thank you for reading! I'll be updating on Instagram as well: @elvishem, if you want more pictures and very summarized versions of everything!

--Emily Kathey

#travel #bible #word #spiritual #living