Thursday, June 30, 2011

Hello! I am alive!

   So I really think it's about time I update this blog of mine. I haven't had much time, being sick and all, plus lectures, work duties,and afternoon meetings / activities so there hasn't been much time but at last, I FOUND TIME! Although the circumstance could have been better. It all started last Saturday I started getting a head cold, nothing too extreme. Sunday I got a sore throat but also, not too extreme. Monday we were scheduled to get a yellow fever shot so I went but asked the doctor if it would be alright.....she said I was fine.....hmm okay so I got it. The next day( yesterday), I started off my day with a 103 degree temperature. I didn't go to class or do anything except lay in bed. Irate being lazy. I always feel like I should be moving or doing something. So with my much prayers from my classmates and others my temperature dropped to normal. I started feeling a bit better and this morning I still felt the same but my fever was gone so I went to class anyways and did my work duties etc etc and now my fevers back. :( Keep praying. God wants to see me healed just as much as I do and I believe with everyone's prayers I can conquer this bug in me and get better esp with outreach starting next weekend.  I really need/want to get better. Pray, pray, pray! 
   Anyways, on a better note! I leave for Ethiopia next weekend. Ill be there for 2 months and I'll be back on the 5th of September. I know God is going to blow mine and my teams minds while were away, for sure, so I'm set, I have everything of importance to go...my team, me and God! Let's rock this country and bring it back to life. No doubt Gods going to rock this place and stir up some spiritual warfare because we have the authority since the Lord already won the battle, we just have to enforce it! 

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Koshe Project! :)

The link below is a YouTube video and is showing the project that I will be involved with while I am in Ethiopia. I feel so privileged to be able to work with these girls and can't wait for what God has planned for me over there.
So the trip is pretty expensive with everything that is needed to be over there for 2 months aka places to stay, food, money to start new projects, helping the girls families, etc so much is needed to make this trip a success but I have faith God will provide exactly what I need. WHERE IT'S GODS WILL, IT'S GODS BILL!
So to the right is a donate button and if you feel led to help that would be much appreciated!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ExApBvVE9A&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Did you experience God today??

Did you see God today?  Did you hear Him?  Did you take time to even notice, or did the business of life distract you, and you went about your day without even seeing God?  He is there, everywhere.  Look.  Look outside.  Do you see Him?  Look again.  Look in the faces of your loved ones.  Do you see Him?  Listen.  No, really listen.  Shut off the noise, and listen.  Do you hear Him in the sound of birds singing, the wind blowing, laughter of your loved ones?  God is everywhere, He surrounds us in real, tangible ways, if we take the time to look, to be still and know He is God.  All creation points us to God.  He made it that way, if we choose to take time to notice.  No, we aren't to worship creation, we are to worship God.  He shows us who He is through His creation.  



They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  Romans 1:19-20

I took time to see, to experience God today.  How about you? He is there.  Do you see Him?

Spain and Big Outreach :)

 So a lot happened since I last wrote, over a month ago. Well we got our mini outreach choices: Romania, Italy, Spain and Dresden. I ended up going to Spain. I just got back this last saturday and I was there for a week. Our plan for when we got there was to walk the Camino de Santiago, talk to people along the way and evangelize. The trail is 800km but we only walked the last 100km to Santiago where it ends. Its a pilgrimage trail that has beenarounf forever. Lots of people walk it as a way to punish themselves for the sins they have commited, or to find religion. The walk has such a spiritual background which is why it draws so many people to it. I didnt evangelize much, mainly because the main languages spoken were German, French, and Spanish..not much English :( So I saw it as a time to draw closer to God. I have never prayed for so long in one sitting before, way more then a couple hours each day, in a row. :)
  As for the school, I am having a blast here. I have made life long friends and the lectures are amazing and im learning lots! I can hear Gods speak and thats really exciting. I found out I hear Him best through nature. I really enjoy being outside and being around animals, bugs and plants. Its the place I feel closest to Him. I just love, love, love going on walks every night and having my quiet time with God, that relaxes me from the crazy day.
  So I found out my big outreach location options a couple weeks ago. I either am going to: Serbia/Albania, Ethiopia, or Tunisia. We got to put down our top two choices and I picked 1) Ethiopia and 2) Tunisia. Ill find out by the end of the week where ill be going. :) So to be honest, none of these places were on my lists of places to go but while I was praying about where to go I really felt God placed the calling for me to go to Ethiopia so since im pretty sure God wants me to be there, I am am now really excited to find out if I will be going there. :) But whether I go there or to one of the other countries, I know God will use me wherever I go. Ill update you guys when I found out for sure though.

Friday, May 6, 2011

I'm still alive everyone, don't worry. I just haven't had time to update this in a while...
    The schools going well and I'm learning a lot through lectures and our speaker (Jan Denharder) is awesome this week. It's going to be hard to top him. What I'm getting the most out of this week and from him is definitely that we can make mistakes. It was nice to hear cause sometimes I don't try things because I'm afraid of failure. I need to believe that it's okay to not succeed at everything. We also had a little lesson on relationships yesterday, which I was really excited about and for all my fellow single friends who are reading this...here are the 7 keys to a good relationship. It's really going to help me in the future so hopefully it helps you too :
1) observation
2) attraction 
3) courtship
4) interaction
5) covenant
6) intimacy
7) fruitfulness 
....and one of the most important keys I've learned about relationships from the talk is that you can NOT change someone, you can only change yourself! :) 
     Anyways, I've really been enjoying my time here. I really feel called to do something like this long term but we will see. We are starting our local local outreach soon. We had the option to work in a nursing home, work with the handicapped, help the homeless but I want to help the old lady who lives behind the castle whose house is falling apart so hopefully I get to do that. :) You really have no idea how excited I am to do this! 
     So on a more scary note, I've been having nightmares about demons almost every night now. Ive never experienced this before or ever dreamt such terrible things before so its pretty scary. Last night was the worst and I woke up so terrified. Any ideas why? 
      Today we were all prayed for by our speaker and when he prayed for me he said he saw me called to something having to do with art or music. Hmmm I never thought of myself as the artists type but we will see but I have always found photography very exciting and being here made me realize that more so I guess I'll have to pray about all that to confirm it.
       I've been spending most of my time in the afternoons going for walks and I love it cause I found out about a week ago of a farm down the street that has cows, sheep and horses! So guess whose been spend most of their time with the animals! Hehe I love it there! 
       Anyways, sorry for taking so long to update, I've been really busy but I'm still alive so don't worry. :) Bye bye for now..
      

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Hello everyone! :) 
 So my big outreach is coming up quickly and although I have most of the money, I do not have it all yet so if anyone would like to help that would be much appreciated. You can send the money to: 

Account number: 450-718-0-600
Bank name: volksbank Loubau-Zittau
Bank number (BLZ): 855-901-00
Swift code: GENODEF1INGS
IBAN: DE82 855901004507180600
Mention:  April DTS 2011 (723) Alycia Johnson

Account holder: YWAM Herrnhut 

Account holder address:
JMEM/DTS
Untere Dorfstr. 56
02747 Ruppersdorf
Germany

Monday, April 25, 2011


Gorlitz, Poland and Easter :)

 The other day a group of us went to Gorlitz, which is a town about 20 min away from where I'm staying and also...Poland! We were planning on going to Prague but moved it to next weekend. 3 countries in two weeks, not too bad.  I love traveling and seeing new places! It's such a privilege that I get to do that and I'm soooo grateful. :) Anyways, We left at about noon and took 3 cars. The town was bigger then I thought but anything is bigger then Hurrnhut haha :p When we got there we broke into smaller groups and shopped and went sightseeing. We took so many pictures. I'll try to upload them all later, I have a few up so far. 
 Yesterday was Easter! :) Hope your day was amazing, mine was. A group of us woke up at 5 and went to the cemetery and listened to a sermon. I love, love, love the cemetery here. It feels like the most alive place in the town. When you get to the top of it there is a huge field that's so beautiful. You can see Czech and Poland from there. 
Well this is just a quick update. Today's pretty quiet and relaxing, just got done with our lecture and lunch so I have the rest of the day off. :) Take care!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Boredom....not a beautiful thing..

 So it's been a week since I've watched any type of television or movies. That's pretty crazy but I didn't really notice until now. It's relaxing being here, maybe almost a little too relaxing. Today I got my first case of extreme boredom. I knew this day would come sooner or later haha it's the staffs day off so the castle was super quiet. The people in my class kept to themselves a lot today. I read a lot, slept and went on a couple walks.           We get a new group of students in a couple days so this place will be packed with people. I guess I shouldn't complain about the tranquility of this place because it won't be like this forever. Im just excited for more people but not that the bathroom will be taken over by mass amounts of girls in the morning haha
 Tonight we did something I've never done with a group of people before. It was very nice and uplifting. 8 of us girls sat around and told what we liked about each other. They said the nicest stuff about me, I was so touched. I love this group of girls! 
 So our mini outreach is in a couple weeks. Its where we go out and apply what we've been learning in our lectures. Its way smaller then our big outreach we will be going on in a couple months but it gives us a preview of whats to come. I know last time during the school they went to Hamburg, Germany. So I'm excited to find out where we will go.
  Anyways, I miss everyone. Thank you so much for all the fb messages and emails. Keep them coming!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Life's great!

Today has been the best day here by far! I really feel like I've reached a new level with the girls and I absolutely  love it. :) So basically, I love, love, love it here! I'm having the time of my life and I can't get enough of everything Germany has to offer! Miss you all but I'm not ready to come home anytime soon :p

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Guten tag! :)

I've been at the school for a couple days now but we haven't officially started until today. Today we all got up really early for breakfast then had a time of worship with all the school and most of the staff then it was lecture. The lecture was one of the best I've ever heard and got me thinking a lot of my future and what I want. After that was lunch, then we learned the rules of the school, had dinner, then we all walked to the store which is about a 20min walk to town but the scenery is amazing so I can't complain. Overall, I love the people, the culture, the school etc. I love it here!  The end! 
So my school has a very wide variety of student/staff from all over the world. Everyone from the US, New Zealand, Germany, England...and so on, and I LOVE hearing about other cultures. Today during work duties I had a conversation with a guy from Australia, probably one of the most interesting conversation I've ever had, as with any person I talked to from somewhere else. :) I just can't get enough of learning about other cultures. Oh so this is pretty cool......I'm heading to Prague. That's in the Czech republic, this weekend with some of the other students.:) I'm pretty stoked! Life is great right now. I couldn't ask for anything more. Also, thank you for all your support and positive comments/messages Facebook and email. I'm still trying to read them all but it's taking some time so bare with me if I don't respond quickly. I've been very busy but I'll get to all of them as soon as I can.   

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Guten tag!

April 15- So this day has been on of the craziest of my life. I feel like I've traveled the world in 2 days with as many planes as Ive taken and I'm still not to my destination but I'm sooo close! One more plane ride...and a train then I'm done. Oh also, I  realized that I love traveling alone. I feel so free and I've not gotten motion sick once (aren't you proud of me Connie) hehe


April 16- Today was my first full day here and Im already in love with this place. It's still surreal to me. I live in Germany ahhhhh! I have the best roommates and although I haven't known them for very long I can already tell that we will be close. :) 


April 17- Today was a pretty relaxing day. We got ready, ate breakfast, went to a German church, had a scavenger hunt and now I am laying in bed with my roommates all around just eating, playing on the computer and relaxing until dinner at 6. So the German church we went to was WAY different from my church back home. It was German speaking with English translation, which I must say, was very hard to understand in itself. 
So this is just a quick update. I'll update more later.
-Ali

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Less then 24 hoursssss! Ahhhhh!

So I am officially less then 24hrs away from heading to Germany and I've never been so nervous in my life plus I somehow managed to get a sore throat because I am just that lucky..
So this morning was really hectic. I was up really early running last minute errands and then came home and got some catch up sleep in, now I'm off to pack the last of my stuff. Oh man, packing for 5 months is pretty epic and has been taking me about 3 days to do haha...don't wanna forget anything.
For those of you who don't know, yesterday was my last day of work and I was super sad about that :) For all my customers reading this: I am going to miss you so much! Work was awesome because of you guys.
Also!! I finally got skype for all those who have been wondering when I was going to. :)....Ali_Johnson7 so add me and we'll chat!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Too many emotions bottled up right now..

So its official, I am losing sleep over my upcoming trip. I average about 4 hours a night and these dark circles under my eyes can't be very attractive. On a better note, I have started packing today and it's better then I thought and am going at a reasonable pace and could finish today. Yay!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Random thoughts...

So I'm leaving in a little over a week for Germany and all I want to do is stay home and soak up the last tiny bit of time I have left with my family. I'm such a home body, I'm nervous when I get over there that all I will want to do is come back so I don't know if it's weird for me to say this but right now I don't want to hang out with my friends...all though I still love you guys bunchesssss!! It's just that when I go out and do something fun it makes me not want to leave....I know this is all crazy talk and I'm just rambling, I just had to get this off my chest.
Also!!! I'm just going to say that I'm going to miss my best friend Sasha soooo freakin much. I really don't know what I'm going to do without her for 5 months! She's gotten me through so much and I just can't imagine being away from her for so long. :( I love ya girly!
So anyways, on to a more positive note! :) This trip is going to be so good for me and it's just what I need in my life right now. I need to put myself out there and although I am very outgoing and confident, that's only because I'm around people who have known me for years. I want to break out of my comfort zone and be around a whole new group of people and hang out with people who are completely different from me and maybe some people who I thought I would never hang out with before.
Random though: Yesterday was such a relaxing day and exactly what I needed since I won't have maybe of those, I'm assuming, when Im gone. Anyways, I was watching animal planet and there was a show about the ASPCA and how they rescue injured and abandoned animals from homes with people who just don't care. I can't believe how emotional I get watching those shows. It got me thinking how awesome it must feel for the employees when they help or rescue an animals from a problem and how when I go off on my mission trip that I will make an impact in someone's life just like they do for the animals.
I'm so excited to impact others lives with my gifts and talents and I can't wait to be impacted in as many ways as possible. :)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

So what could be possibly the worst thing to happen 2 weeks before the start of my 5 month long trip....CAR ACCIDENT! Just my luck too! I've had an absolutely perfect driving record since I got my license at 16 so what is the possibility that this would happen now. Hmmm well now I'm ubber stressed about money for my trip....

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Never too early to start a life list...

Travel the world
Never Contribute to road kill
Speak another language fluently
Marry a Godly man
Change someone's life for the better
Live as a villager
Finish school
Go inside the great pyramids
Hold a tarantula
Stay up all night and watch the sunrise
Adopt an accent for an entire day
Fall in love and not have my heart broken
Think to myself that I'm living my dream
Volunteer more
Learn the family history
Take a long road trip
Trial and error: be open to new things
Go somewhere that makes people scratch their heads
Go skinny dipping
Learn not to say yes when you really mean no
Send a message in a bottle
Shower in a waterfall
Fall madly in love- hopelessly and unconditionally
Spend the night in a haunted house
Drive the autobahn
Learn to argue effectively and do it!
Attend a Mumford and sons concert
Overcome my fear of failure
Visit the Holy Land
Visit a concentration camp
Swim with a whale shark
Attend a music festival in another country
Get closure on all my hurt, grievances and unhappiness of my past
Go on a romantic getaway
Go to a soccer game in a country where it actually mattered
Give blood
Get a famous autograph
Snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef
Hike the Inca trails to Macchu Picchu
French kiss in Paris
Learn to change a tire
HeadBang at a concert
Stay up all night talking to someone
Rope swing into the water
Have a rooftop picnic
Start a fire without matches
Learn to drive stick shift
Swallow my pride
Catch fireflies on a summer night
Learn to really cook
Have a penpal
Be friends with an ex (real friends)
Have a completely platonic friend of the opposite sex
Get breakfast in bed
Have a food fight
Live in a foreign country

Mumford And Sons - Awake My Soul



Entertaining my ears at the moment!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

The beginning!

So this is the start of many posts I will be leaving on this page to document my time spent in Germany and other countries I will be privileged to go to. Many of you already know I am leaving for 5 months with a program called YWAM (youth with a mission). When I'm there, I will be developing a deeper relationship with God and finding my gifts He has given me to use to help others and make believers. I am so excited and nervous at the same time but I know this will be an adventure of a lifetime so when the opportunity presented itself to me (due to a bad incident :/ ) last November, I couldn't pass it up so I prayed long and hard about it and God told me to GO! I have many friends who have done this before but I should inform the people who have no clue exactly I'm doing in the countries I will be visiting. I will first start out in Germany, while I am there I will be put through an intensive,residential training course which begins with 8 to 12 weeks classroom phase followed by 8 to 12 weeks outreach phase in a third world country helping villages and teaching in schools...really just doing anything we can to help others and show Gods love.
well I leave on the 14th of April so I'm really hoping for some prayers while I prepare for my journey. Keep me in your thoughts friends. Love ya all! :) -Ali