Update from Alli Corriveau
5/17/09
Namaste!
Hello everyone! Greetings from the very very warm city of Delhi, India! I am very excited to finally be in contact with you all again! It is hard for me to believe that my 8 weeks here are coming to a close. This outreach has flown by, but every minute has added up to make one amazing experience! Yes, dealing with 120 degree heat, what seems to be constant "stomach issues", and certain cultural practices has been challenging at times, but I have seen some incredible things that I will never forget. God truly is at work here-even in a city filled with the darkness of Hindu temples on every corner, poverty, and death-His love and the absolute truth of who He is surpasses all these things and continues to draw on the hearts of the people here and restore life to this nation. The fact that God brought me - small-town girl from New Hampshire who previously had no desire to travel or see the world- to India to see this in person still blows my mind. My life will never be the same and I CANNOT wait to get home and share all of these stories with you all!
Our team will be flying out of Delhi this Thursday night and landing in New Jersey. From there, half of us will be going on a road trip to visit those of our hometowns that are in the north. So, I am excited to say that 15 of us will be in NH on Thursday, May 28th and Friday, May 29th! We are all going to be anxious to share our pictures and stories, so I hope to get to see you all! I will send out another email when I know the details of what we will be doing during our time there. We will be returning to Orlando for graduation on June 5th and then I will be returning to home sweet home! So, we do have a bit of a whirlwind ahead of us, so your prayers for safe travel, rest and quick adjustment would be GREATLY appreciated.
Love and miss you all! Can't wait to see you soon!
Blessings,
Alli
Update from Alli Corriveau
3/26/09
Dear friends and family,
Wow, it is almost impossible to believe that the end of my three months here in Orlando is upon me. It has been such a whirlwind of laughs, tears, discoveries, and challenges. Now, as I'm preparing to leave for India in just 3 short days, I have a chance to look back on this training phase and share with you some of the milestones of this journey.
When I came to YWAM Orlando in January, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. A friend of mine describes this Discipleship Training School experience like this: "Coming to DTS is like willingly climbing onto the surgeon's table and allowing the deepest parts of yourself to be poked at, moved around, even sliced off, knowing that you will be more whole when the soul surgery is over." During my time here, God has been chipping away at the walls I've created that have kept me from understanding who He really is. He has convicted me, pointed out areas of my heart that I had not fully surrendered to Him, and He is helping me to have a heart for the world that He loves so much.
Another thing that I have learned is how to better hear God's voice. When I came here, my plan was to follow up this school with another six months of training. However, about a month ago, the leadership here at YWAM Orlando announced that they will no longer be running that school and will be replacing it with another. I took this to God and did not receive any peace about returning here in June and enrolling in this new school. After a great deal of prayer, I felt that God was leading me to return home for the summer ( at the very least) to share my experiences with all of you and to wait on further guidance from Him. I do feel confident that I am called to the mission field but, at this point, I am not sure in what direction the Lord wants to take me. So, I am excited to say that I will be seeing you all in June!
It has also been very exciting to see the work God has done amongst us as a team. The staff here often say that this is one of the most loving teams they have ever seen. That's not to say that we haven't had rough patches. We are a group of leader personalities, so it has been a challenge at times to work together. However, I love to tell the story of our adventure on the long 18 hour bus trip from a regional YWAM conference in Alabama. At the beginning of our journey, there was a huge rain storm and water began to pour in through the windows and emergency exits of the old school bus we were riding in. So, a group of us, with plastic bags and duck tape worked precariously inside the moving bus to create a canopy to keep the rain from soaking the passengers any more than it already had. It was a great moment of teamwork and unity and, as we like to say, "It was true missonary training!" I am so excited to see what God will accomplish through this amazing group of people that I have been blessed to learn and grow with.
We are thrilled to be the first team from YWAM Orlando to go to New Delhi for outreach! This means that we are still somewhat unsure of what our time will look like there, but we are learning to surrender all our expectations so that we are free to be guided by the Lord in what He wants us to do. We expect to be doing some slum ministry, working with children, teaching English, and doing evangelism on the university campus nearby.
Understanding the way of life in India will allow us so many more opportunities while we are there. We want to immerse ourselves into the culture while we are there so that means we will be wearing proper Indian clothing, eating the food, and observing all the rules regarding conduct. We will be guests in their country and want to show that we respect and honor the way they live. Eastern nations often have mislead expectations of what all Americans are like and we want to show them that not all Americans are celebrities who live in mansions with tons of money and who look down upon the rest of the world. This is a perfect opportunity for them to see Christ through our love!
We have also been learning a great deal about Hinduism as it is the primary religion in India and influences most of the culture. While Hindus do believe in "one supreme god", there are thousands of other gods they worship that represent different aspects of their one god. This means that Hinduism is fairly open to interpretation. Since they respect all things religious then, the people we meet will probably be just as willing to hear about our God as they will be to tell us about theirs. However, for us to tell them that Jesus Christ is the only way and the only salvation may be considered pride on our part, so we have to use wisdom on when and how we communicate that part of the Gospel.
While being a Christian is not technically illegal in India, it is still very dangerous for a Hindu to convert to Christianity. Therefore, we do have to take some precautions with our presence there. The YWAM base that we are staying at is functioning as a "travel agency" and our visas state that we are only a group of tourists coming in via this agency. Any link to YWAM or the fact that we are in the country for missions could jeopardize the ministry of the base which the government would quickly shut down entirely. Since we will already draw a little more curious attention than we would like because we are foreigners, we will have to be very careful about certain things such as what we bring into the country and our communication with home.
Unfortunately, this means that I will not likely have any contact with all of you while I'm there. However, without all of your faithful support, I would not be going to India at all and you will always be in my thoughts and prayers. A huge part of this trip, of course, will be having prayer warriors at home interceeding on our behalf. Some of the things that you can be lifting up are:
I cannot thank you all enough for all the encouragement and support I have received from you. It means the world to me knowing that there are so many people praying for me and following this path with me. In just two months I will have the opportunity to share with you in person the amazing things that God has accomplished through your faithfulness. I love and miss you all!
Till all have heard,
Alli
Update from Alli Corriveau
2/1/09
To my wonderful supporters,
I have been waiting all week for an opportunity to send you this exciting news! Last time I wrote, I asked for your prayer support as we, as a team, sought the Lord's guidance on where we should go for our outreach: India or Thailand. Since it is no longer possible for us to divide into two teams and to cover both of these destinations, we had to decide on one.
So, we spent all of Monday in prayer just asking the Lord for an answer and, when we came together at the end of the day, we all felt very clearly that He was impressing India on our hearts. Our team leader then did some research and found that there is a YWAM base in New Delhi, India that could possibly house all 27 of us! So, though the details are far from firm, we're trusting in God's provision and we're going to India!!!!! wohooo! In case you couldn't tell, I'm just a little bit excited!
Your prayers would be hugely appreciated this week as we wait anxiously to hear back from the New Delhi base as well as begin to work out the details of finances, visas, etc. Also, we have had many people struggling with sickness and injuries recently and please pray that, if this is Satan at work, that we will be able to stand up to that and cast him out. We do not want to be distracted or be hindered from achieving all that God has for us.
For those of you who are technologically savvy, I have also created a blog (yes, I know..a miracle for someone like me!) that I plan to keep updated as well. It will probably mostly the same information that I send out in my e-mails, but I also hope to somehow post some pictures and all that good stuff. If you would like to check it out, the website is: www.allicorriveau.blogspot.com.
I will write again soon!
Blessings,
Alli
Update from Alli Corriveau
1/18/09
