California Tidbits

Hi guys!
I feel like I have no contact with the outside world! Somehow I got stuck in intern land and can’t seem to get out (Yes I’m still cell phone-less) =) But I do like it here. Anyway, some juicy tidbits for other bloggers…
Normally I don’t really share these stories but they’re just so fun I thought that maybe if any of you are suffering and sick, you can take these as your own and see God ‘bust a move’ in your life.
So I’m hanging out outside church one Tuesday night, I’m suppose to be a “welcomer” (not my favorite job) but I make the most of it. Suddenly a man walks by assisted by a cane. I stop him and as we’re talking I find out he has a spinal infection and is in extreme agony. I start telling him testimonies of times I’ve seen Jesus heal people and ask him if I can pray for him. He sort of shrugs his shoulders in agreement and I put my hands on back asking God to come and take his pain away. Afterward I asked him what he was feeling. “I feel warmth all inside and my back... my back doesn’t hurt anymore!” Jesus healed him right on the spot!!! Isn’t God AMAZING!!!
Another story. So I’m walking with the other interns down the street and there’s a park on one side of the street. I look and there are about ten homeless men lying on the grass trying to get some shut eye. My heart literally felt like it was being ripped out of me and I knew I couldn’t just walk by. Turning on the tips of my toes I made eye contact with one of the guys lying down. I go over, sit down beside him and introduce myself. We start talking and he’s obviously very uncomfortable and confesses he has arthritis in his hips and can barely walk. He’s been in severe pain for over a year. I explain that Jesus LOVES healing people and HATES sickness and ask if I can pray for him. He was quite open and at the end when I asked him how he felt he got very quiet then looked up at me and said “I feel God”. I thought that was a good start and made him stand up to do the healing dance (lol when you make them move and do whatever they couldn’t do before) So he climbs to his feet and his jaw drops, “My hips, my hips are healed!!” I started jumping up and down laughing hysterically as once again God radically showed up and changed some guys’ life. After my leader came up to us and we started explaining the story. She agreed that our relationship shouldn’t end there and we decided on dinner and are still friends today. lol
And just one more healing that I want to write. Ok. So this time I was in a team of about four, walking the streets seeing what Jesus wanted to do when we stumbled across a little “event” at a park with a bunch of people hanging out eating, watching some singer or something. When suddenly…(lol) my friend Bryan sees a lady in a wheelchair. He gives me the eye and asks if I want to go pray for her. I give the smile back and we walk over to her ( the “eye” and “smile” is having part of your brain know that God is big enough to heal her and wrestling with the other part that knows she’s pretty comfortable in that wheelchair) So we start talking to her and go right into testimonies of God healing people, before we could even finish telling stories she looks up at us and says “Well can you pray for me?” She had bad problems in her feet so we crouched down on the grass and cupped her heels in our hands. We asked Jesus to show up and bring his Kingdom and then turned to the lady, “How do they feel?” “Well I have to test them out!” So we carefully helped her out of her wheelchair and she starts hobbling around. She then stopped, looked at us and said “They don’t hurt” as the realization hits, her eyes like bulged out of her head “They don’t hurt!!!” She started walking faster and jumping and we all started celebrating. (After being confined to a wheelchair for two years she was pretty pumped) Bryan then asks if anything else is wrong with her. Well turns out she was pretty much deaf in her right ear. So we pray for her and she wasn’t completely restored but due to a series of tests (covering one ear and whispering in the other) she said she could hear better then she has heard since she was seven (now in her 60s ish)!!! Isn’t that amazing!!! We then told her that God could use her and she ran up to someone with a walker to pray for them (turns out the man didn’t speak English and was a little annoyed that she was talking to him but still!) She was so cute cause even as we were walking away we turned around and saw her dancing around doing this little booty dance, she just kept saying “This made my year!”
So God is good and I love seeing him ooze out on the streets.
Gotta run tho, will update more another time!

So it feels like I’ve been here about 2 years but turns out it’s only been like a month.
Oh My!
Life is going good. Very busy. Every day we have class from 8:30-3. The classes range in topics from like Jesus stuff to parenting orphans stuff, and weekends are spent doing conferences. (Secret eye roll)
You know when there is so much to say that you just draw a blank?
Well, last Tuesday the director of Exp58 got asked to go have a meeting about God stuff with some people from Disney Studios, (Apparently it’s the norm. for him) But he was aloud to bring some “associates” and I was one that got picked. My friends and I giggled as we sang “A whole new world…” (very quietly) up and down the halls, we were amused.
Last week we also started some training for working with trafficked children and women. We pretty much just bawled the entire day. There’s one more official training day this week and then we start out on the streets the week after. We’ll be hooked up with a ministry that’s actually affiliated with the FBI. What will we be doing exactly? Well I think it varies week to week. A huge part of it is basically just asking Jesus were the trafficking action is taking place, he gives them clues and they stumble across massive scenes that caught the police’s attention. So yes, that’s that.
Sorry I don’t have much time, there’s a big Salsa Party tonight that I’m helping set up for but I just wanted to do a quick blog to let you all know a bit of what’s going on and I’ll try and email in the next while as well. All my love! (sorry, yes i see a common pattern)

Ok, bad news. Internet is costing me $10 and cell phone would be $1.60 a minute. SO I don't know if i'll have any contact for the next three months. Now this may seem like a joke...lol but...it's not.
Cali is going great. Life seems like it's flying by, it feels like I haven't had contact with the outside world in FOREVER (even though it's only been like a week). Camping was an adventure. I froze! Who would have thought.
School is going great, Ralph and DOnna Bromely come next week to do the complete lo-down on children at risk.
Church is amazing, still in this guy Shawn's house but might be moving to a real building in the next few weeks.
Other interns? Love 'em. Turns out when you live, eat and breathe the same people for forever and day you become very close. very quickly.
And me, well I still secretly think we should be driving on the left side but am adjusting to the American lifestyle (fast food, no exercise, and starbucks every 10 minutes) (just kidding Americans, i love you!) I am also trying my best to learn spanish. I have daily classes with another intern from Ecuador, it's great.
WELL tons of love, hope you're all well!
Hopefully i'll write again within the next month or so?
add-on
CAITLIN, yes your family has vanished from the country but if worse comes to worse, corduroy does indeed make a lovely substitute.

Hey ya'll! JK! I haven't turned that American yet.

I made it to Cali! Everything is going well, I had trouble getting into the country with customs and missed my flight but eventually I made it here. There are 11 interns in the program and we're actually at the directors mom's house right now on our way to a camping trip! (team bonding?)
The program keeps us busy with classes during the day and outreach at night. The most exciting outreach we'll be doing (most exciting in my mind) is called "Night life" that works with prostitutes and girls that are being trafficked in the scanky dens in LA.
Will share more about it later. Love you all, sorry it's so short. Might get a phone next wekk. loves!
Speak soon,
Cass

Hey guys,
Thank you so much for all your prayers and numerous emails, just want to say I am doing fabulous. Well, maybe not fabulous, tired is more like it BUT my emotions have stabilised. (ptl) After saying goodbye to laura while working nine consecutive days and then trying to sell this flat all I really wanted to do was see my mom, HOWEVER work is now finito, I kicked out the real estate agents and i'm half way through packing! i've also hit the 'goodbye groove' so all is well with the world. (Not to mention I got my eyebrows waxed which always makes life just that much better. (lol it's the little things)) The next time I write I will be on the other side of the ocean hopefully developing a brilliant looking tan. (suffering for the gospel yet again. life is so rough) hope you're all doing great, speak soon!

I always forget how much work big moves are. Just over a week ‘til I go and I’m overwhelmed at all that still needs to be done. Funny but if me moving isn’t enough Laura, my flat mate is also moving out of the flat when she returns from holidays (she went to visit some friends in America) So this past week was mixed with estate agents, and lots of packing. I had a few more days off (trying to make sure I take all my paid holidays) and I found myself running around switching currencies, picking up parcels and trying to close bank accounts. Which totally did not work. Somehow I managed to freeze my account three times. That’s right three. I kept, saying wrong codes and passwords and then you have to queue for ages to get the attendants to unlock and verify identification. Uh it was awful. I became great friends with all the cashiers though lol. But still.
It seems I’m not handling this move as fabulous as I handled the last one however. Either Laura or myself have been caught crying every night for the past week. I love life, I love moving and new adventures but sometimes the thought of more goodbyes, I just, I’ve never been a pro with them either. It seems that every time I turn around I’m telling someone new about me leaving. It sucks. And packing. This time I can’t ship things, I can’t leave things here and I can’t carry them all on my back. Any solutions? I think I’ll be purging half my life which I’m dreading but it’ll be great cause then if someone tried to steal my stuff I could just laugh and say “ha! I already gave half of it away, take that”. Deep sigh.
So yes, for those of you who know me and my heart, I’d love your prayers.
Should head out though, sorry for the repeat if you received my e-mail. Tons of love, will update again soon.

So long my fair England...

Whenever asked how long I’ll be in England, you’ve probably all heard me say “Oh I don’t know, maybe another week, maybe another year” Well it’s now official, one more month.
Back in May I was talking with God and asking him about what’s next after London. Hoping he was going to say “I’m glad you asked, we’re actually going to Sudan next to work with orphans and child soldiers!!” He totally shocked me and instead said we were going to America. A very specific move and I would be working with these certain people and their ministry that deals with child injustices in third world nations. It was sort of strange and totally out of my box at the time. As God and I are still chatting my friend comes over to me and starts saying that God just told her I was going to be moving on and it was a very specific move and goes off on one saying what we were just secretly speaking about.
That night I went to bed still pondering everything and Jesus says “Don’t tell anyone, don’t even speak out what I’ve just told you.” So a week goes by and nobody knows what’s transpired when one night while washing dishing he says “You can speak it out now, and start thanking me for it”. Later that evening Laura gets home, looks at me and says “God just told me He told you what’s next. What are you doing, where are you going?” So after some humming and hawing I confess that I think I’m going to America. She paused and then without blinking an eye says “Yeah, and he’s going to hook you up with Global Children’s Movement Etc. ” (the ministry that God had already said) SO this was June 1st. A month and a half goes by, I have no idea how it’s going to happen or what it’s going to look like when out of the blue God brings it up and I know it’s time to contact them. Not knowing much about what they’re up to or if they have any opportunities for strangers to work with them I look up some websites. Turns out they have a little internship program that starts in September and they are taking applicants. Two days later my 10 page application was in and just over a week later I was on the phone with them discussing when I should arrive. SO great story but what exactly am I talking about? Well, I’m leaving London and moving to LA, California to do an internship with a ministry called Expression58 (affiliated with Global Children’s Movement) The directors are Shawn Bolz and Jennifer and Jonatan Toledo, some great people that really love Jesus and kids work in third world countries. It starts September 15 and then in January I go with the Tolledos to Colombia and Ecuador. So that is life as I know it. I was a tad nervous at first as I wasn’t sure I wanted to move to LA (far cry from Sudan) but I’m excited now, ready for yet another international move.
Hope you’re all doing well! Speak soon!