Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 5/6/2012
Location: A train heading South East towards the Capital city Bucharest.
Head out the window, staring off into the Romanian hilly countryside, the cool wind on my face, the sun setting behind me; this train just keeps rolling on. These trains take you to places where you want to go, and away from where you want to be. I constantly feel like my heart is in both drive and reverse. Each month isn’t just hello and goodbye, staying then leaving, it’s more than that. These past 4 months I have been leaving pieces of my heart, like clothing caught on branches in the woods, hoping I can find my way back to these places.
Location: A train heading West towards Debrecen, Hungary.
Jo Linda and I boarded the train to Debrecen because two years ago on a bus ride back from Ramallah, Palestine I met my friend Ahmad. He was home for the summer from med school in Hungary and my friend Morgan and I would spend the next 6 weeks building a relationship with him and sharing the love of Jesus. When I found out that Oradea was only a few short hours away from Debrecen by train, I knew that this as another opportunity to share the Gospel.
Praying the whole way that God would provide an opportunity to tell him about Jesus, we arrived in Debrecen just in time to make dinner at his house. He had invited his friend Sonia who was Pakistani over as well and we all talked and cooked together in the kitchen. Once we sat down to eat, to my surprise Sonia started asking me about Christianity and what we believe (I had told that we were on a missions trip for 11 months to 11 different countries), so for the whole dinner we discussed the differences between Christianity and Islam.
We could discuss religion all night, but that’s not what I came there to do. So I started sharing my testimony. I shared about the night I got saved, where I heard God audibly speak to me and tell me I needed to make a decision –that I could choose to live for the world, worshiping the creation instead of the creator, or I could choose to live for him..but if I chose to live for him, it was going to cost me my life..complete surrender. She was amazed at the fact that God spoke to me, and I told her that God speaks to me all the time, He speaks to everyone who is in a relationship with him. One main difference between Islam and Christianity, is that in Islam God doesn’t speak to his children. I went on to tell about when we were in El Salvador that God used my team and I to heal a woman’s back, and also my teammate prayed over a woman who could barely see and her eyesight was fully restored to her. I told stories about the power of God, the love of Jesus, and how the Holy Spirit showed up time and time again on the World Race. All the while Ahmad was quietly listening, and I knew that the wheels in his mind were turning.
We left the next morning fully encouraged that the work that God began with Ahmad, and now his friend Sonia, would one day be brought to completion. That it isn’t just coincidence or chance that our paths crossed two years ago on a bus, and then reconnected again in Europe two years later. God has a plan for Ahmad’s life, and I don’t know when he’ll come to know Jesus and I don’t know how, but I know that God is able.
In just a few short days I will be heading into month 5 of the World Race! Through YOU God has already provided so much and enough to get me this far, but my final deadline is quickly approaching. I still need $3,226 by July 1st to stay on the field. If you would like donate click the "Support me financially" tab below my picture. Thank you!
Mariah and I overlooking the city of Oradea, Romania
 Sonia and Ahmad
 Ahmad, Morgan, and I in Palestine 2 years ago (attempting to make cookies...failed)
Eating dinner at Ahmads house 2 years ago (outside of Jerusalem)
 Hanging out in Ramallah, Palestine 2 years ago.
Friends from a church in Oradea, Romania
Saying Goodbye at the Train Station (No tears --we'd already used them all up earlier!)
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 4/26/2012
Update from Oradea, Romania.
60ish hours and 4 planes later we arrived to Romania on a cold, drizzly night. Arriving in Romania was like arriving back into the modern world where everything looked clean, taxis don’t take more passengers than seatbelts, and hot showers and beds are normal things.
Contrasted to Central America where the ground is your trashcan, busses and taxis cram as many people as humanly possible - your nose often times ends up in someone’s armpit, and cold showers and sleeping on the ground are normal things.
We stayed in the capital city of Bucharest, Romania at a hostel that night and then left the next evening by an overnight train to our ministry location of Oradea, Romania. Oradea is in the northern part of Romania 7 miles from the border of Hungary. My first impression of Romania is that no one smiles here. Most people keep to themselves, but if you do something they don’t like –they will tell you.
After 12 hours of barely sleeping on the train, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we walked into the ministry house that we’d be staying at. Tables, Couches, beds, hot showers, a huge kitchen –these were things we’d gone without for 3 months. The ministry house is on a dairy farm outside the city, so we are surrounded by cows and beautiful farm land.
Our contact began to tell us a little about the ministry. Caminul Felix started 20 years ago and they began building houses in a little community and filling them with a husband and a wife and 12-15 orphans of all ages. Their desire was to move away from building huge orphanages and instead implementing a family style home for the orphans. They have two villages here with 10-15 houses in each one. Our ministry this month would be construction. We’d be working on a new home just down the hill from our house.
I have to admit, when I first heard that we’d be working in construction and not with people, I was a little disappointed. I’m a very relational person; I love meeting and developing relationships with people. And from the looks of it, this month would be a little isolated.
But that wasn’t the case at all, after the first week we were invited by some of the older formally orphans to go their church for a youth/college service. The church is full of young people around our age and the worship team reminded me of a mini Romanian Hillsong cover band. I met a girl my age named Mariah who lives in one of the Caminul Felix houses and we instantly became friends. They invited us that week to attend their youth conference where 500 youth/college aged people from all over Romania come.
So during the day we would work construction down at the house and during the evenings we went to the conference. The conference was mainly in English because 2 of the main speakers flew in from Atlanta and Chicago. I remember looking around the conference one night during worship and seeing 500 hundred Romanian youth worshiping God with all their hearts and God spoke to me that these youth were going to change their nation. No one left that conference the same.
Romania hasn't been at all what I expected...it's better!
I'm currently working on another blog with a little more details, so you'll be hearing again from me soon!
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far, as of now I only need $3,251 until I am fully funded! My next deadline is July 1st, if you would like to donate just click the support me tab below my profile picture. Thank you again!
 
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 4/2/2012
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” Luke 19:10
He's just a kid. I thought to myself.
"He's just a kid," I said. "Are you sure that's where he went?"
This was the second time that week that Mario went off with his friends to go get high. The first time it happened my stomach sank when we were told the news that the reason why he wasn’t coming with us that day was because he had left to go get high. He’s 14 years old, he’s just a kid, what does he know about that stuff?
I don’t think Mario was a kid for very long, he told me that 5 years ago his mother left and took his younger brother leaving him and his older sister with their dad. He hasn’t heard from her since. I asked about his father he told me drives a bus and is usually gone –he doesn’t talk much about him. Left alone with no one to raise him he started hanging out with the kids down the street. The kids that ride bikes and get high, these kids are also older than him.
“I saw him leave with his friends and go down the street that way.” 12 year old Fernando informed me.
“I’m going after him.” I told him.
“No, no –it’s dangerous, there are gangs.” He warned.
“I’m going after him.” I decided.
I told Tony (the man who started Zion’s gate ministry)that I knew the direction he had gone in, and he told me that if I felt like I needed to go get him to go. And so I did –I took my teammate Wes and Sammie Jo with me and for 2 hours we searched the communities from him asking anyone and everyone if they had seen Mario on his bike heading this way. One person led us to the next and we ended up in a community where I recognized some of his friends from the soccer field. We asked them where Mario was and with a smirk on their faces they said, “No sey,” (I don’t know). We searched for him until it began to get dark and we knew that it wasn’t safe to be out on the streets at night –Honduras is especially dangerous at night. Feeling defeated I turned around and caught a taxi back to the house. We didn’t find him that night, but I was reminded of the parables in the Bible, the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son –the emphasis contextually is not on what was lost but on the person whom the things lost belonged –the woman, the shepherd, and the father. In a book by G. Cambell he writes that the parable of the prodigal son should better be called the parable of the Father’s heart, for in this parable we see the broken heart of God revealed. This father was actively watching, waiting, and yearning to be reunited with his lost child. That is exactly the way God feels about every one of his children who are lost and separatedfrom him.
First thing the next morning Sammie Jo and I went up the hill to where his father lives. He knows the rule at Tony’s house: he’s not allowed to come back to the property when he’s high. And so he usually goes back to his dad’s house for the night and then returns to the property in morning. We found him there and just began asking him where he was yesterday. We told him that we searched for him for hours –asking everyone if they had seen him –we also told him he that apparently he was pretty well known in these communities because everyone knew who we were talking about –and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But for twenty minutes we stood outside his door and called him up to great things. We told him that he had a future, that God has made him for a specific purpose, that he’s better than this way of life. Sammie Jo shared a little bit about her past with him and told him that she’s a completely different person now that she is following God. We told him that if was ready to change that we’d bet waiting for him back at the house. 30 minutes later he walked in the door of our property.
Mario is one of the smartest kids here –one thing that he is dedicated to is his school work. He goes to special tutoring everyday for 2 hours because he’s never gone to school, and after his tutoring I always see him up at the house working on homework. He’s just a kid that needs attention, he needs love, he needs people to call him up into greatness –and that’s what he’s getting here at Tony’s house. Tony was recently telling us that the cost of Mario, Fernando, and Carlos special tutoring was $400 a month and that’s coming out his and his wife’s own pocket because they don’t have supporters back in the United States. He came to Honduras to start a ministry to help these street boys and for the past 5 years he’s been investing everything that he has, his time, his money, everything into them. If you’re interested at all in helping Tony’s ministry, or helping pay for Mario’s education you can e-mail Tony Deien at: tdeien@hotmail.com also this is the link to his facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tony.deien
One of the things we are doing this month for his ministry is building a website –so once that is finished a post a link to the website where you can find out more about this ministry.
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far, as of now I only need $3,326 until I am fully funded! My next deadline is July 1st. Thank you again!
Mario and me
Fernando, Herman, and Mario
Los Pinos
Los Pinos
Painting the house of the sister of the kid Ronald who stole a World Racers camera last month
This is Kenny. He's one of the boys from Los Pinos who Tony knows and helps.
(Credit for all above photos goes to my squad mate Rose Huber)
Christopher playing soccer with guys from the community down at the soccer field.
Just 6 months ago Herman was on the streets getting high on paint thinner and robbing people at gun point, and now he's following Jesus and is a great example of a leader for all the new kids living with Tony
Mario and Wes
(Above photo credit goes to my teammate Wesley Vickers)
The night we took Mario out for chinese food.
Sammie Jo and Mario
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 3/23/2012
Honduras is not what I was expecting. I’m learning that as each month of the world race comes and goes my heart expands more and more. El Salvador captured my heart with its beautiful scenery, its beautiful and smiling people, and its carefree culture. Honduras is very different, the Capital Tegulcigalpa isn’t the most beautiful city, the people here seem a little rougher around the edges, and the culture is tired from years and years of violence. But to me it’s beautiful, not because I can visibly see it, but because I know that deep within these people, underneath all their need, beyond all the violence, is a hope that one day this country will know peace and beauty will spring up from these ashes.
We are working with a ministry this month called Zion’s Gate and it is run by an American man who has a passion for street kids. Here in Honduras street kids range anywhere between 10-20 years of age and spend most of their time on the street getting high off of paint thinner and other drugs. They are known thieves in their communities and many have violently assaulted/killed people. They are a menace to their society and most of them go on to join gangs and die young.
There are 11 boys living here at the ministry site with us. Many of their stories I don’t even know, but I have been told that their stories are some of the most tragic tales. They haven’t been here for more than a few months but 2 things they all want: love and a better life. By simply looking at them and hanging out with them you would never guess that these boys (12-18) just a few months ago were getting high on paint thinner and spending their nights out on the streets with 200 other street kids. Most of them come from Los Pinos, which is somewhat a suburb of the Capital Tegulcigalpa and is known as one of the most dangerous and poorest neighborhoods in all of Honduras. Sector F is what is referred to by many politicians when they discuss the violence in their country.
During the week we go into Los Pinos and are doing various projects there. For example, last month another squad was at this ministry site and while 3 girls were walking in Los Pinos a young man, Ronald, ran by and stole one of the girls camera –but through a series of events and the community for the first time getting involved the camera was returned to our ministry contact Tony. Tony presented the Idea to his boys that maybe instead of getting angry and getting the police involved, what if instead we go in and pain the house of Ronald’s sister –who Ronald sometimes lives with unless she kicks him out. The boys at first said no way, but after thinking about it some more they all agreed that it would be a good idea –it was different, something they had never once thought before to do. So the other day we went and asked Ronald’s sister (who had heard about the camera incident) if we could paint her house. Surprised, she said yes and picked out the colors that she wanted. What Tony is doing in the community Los Pinos is revolutionary, it’s counter-culture, and its making a difference in the lives of the 11 street boys he has living with him and the hundreds more he knows by a first name basis still living in Los Pinos.
This is just a little introductory to this month’s ministry; there is so much more going on, and my next blog I hope to write about 1 of the boys living here specifically. His name is Mario, he’s 14 years old, and he’s become like a little brother to me. However, he still hasn’t fully given up his old life yet…
Mario, Carlos, y Fernando
Herman
Ronnie, Ariel, y Carlos
Daniel, Christopher, y Herman
I am just a little over $3,700 from being fully funded! My last deadline for the full amount is July 1st. Click the Support me Financially if you would like to help me reach this goal! Also, in just 2 weeks i'll be shifting continents and heading to Romania! Muchas Gracias por todo!
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 3/14/2012
"At this moment, there are 7 billion people in the world. Some are running scared.. some are coming home. Some tell lies to make it through the day.. others are just now facing the truth. Some are evil men at war with good, and some are good.. struggling with evil. 7 billion people in the world, 7 billion souls -- and sometimes...all you need is 1."
The first time I saw Mabil was at the Highschool where we had gone to perform dramas and share testimonies in the classrooms. My teammate Sammie Jo had shared her testimony in Mabil’s class and afterward Mabil approached her and showed her the cuts on her arm and told her that she related to Sammie Jo’s testimony. Sammie Jo and our contact Sarah were then able to pray and encourage her and invite her to church with us on Sunday. Sometimes all you need is someone who knows what you’re going through.
After the church service, I walked over to the curb she was sitting on and did my best to engage her in conversation. My Spanish at that point was very limited but I pulled out my notebook with my Spanish notes and we began to bond over teaching me Spanish. Later that night I pulled out my computer and we held a conversation using google translator. She told me all about her family, about past boyfriends who have hurt her deeply, and how she feels lonely a lot. Sometimes all you need is a friend.
The next day Sammie Jo and I walked to her house to hang out with her. We got ice cream, sat in the park, and then she led us on adventure through the countryside of El Salvador. We laughed so much that day –and laughter needs no translator. Even though neither of could fluently speak each other’s language, the more time we spent together the more Spanish I learned and the more we were able to understood each other. Sometimes all you need is someone to laugh with.
Throughout the month 3 or 4 days a week would be spent with Mabil –whether that be her coming to church with us, bringing her to the poor communities where we did ministry, taking her out to dinner or inviting her over to our house for dinner, stopping by her house in the afternoon to say hello, and simply just hanging out with her during the day. Our ministry contact Sarah, Sammie Jo, and I poured everything that we could into her. For her birthday we gave her a bible in which we wrote in Spanish words of encouragement. When we were together we talked to her about the boys she was hanging out with, we talked about where she was at with her relationship with Jesus, and we talked about her family situation. Sometimes I wasn’t sure how much of what we were saying to her was actually hitting her heart, but we still continued to speak truth into her life and fight for her. Sometimes all you need is someone to fight for you.
It was the day before we left for Honduras and I remember talking to God about Mabil and telling him that I feel like by leaving her that like I’m leaving unfinished work, she has a lot of problems to still work through and she needs someone to help her…I didn’t want to leave El Salvador at all! That night she came with us to the prayer meeting at church and for the most part seemed disengaged in the service. The pastor asked if all the missionaries could pray over people in the congregation and so we all got into groups. I looked over to my left and there she stood with a few other girls and they were praying. I returned my attention to the couple that I was praying over. I looked over again and she was face down on the floor crying. I stopped what I was doing and went over to her and fell to the floor beside her. Sammie Jo and I put our hands on her and began to pray, to weep, to intercede for her. Sometimes all you need is someone who will cry with you.
After the service she told us why she had fallen to floor crying. She said that while she was praying she got this vision of her standing on the beach and there were footprints in the sand. She began to follow the footprints along the beach and when she looked up she saw that they led her straight to Jesus –in his presence she fell to the ground in front of him and began to weep. She began telling him all her problems, all her hurts, the deepest parts of her heart. And then she said that when Jesus walked over to her and put his hand on her heard she saw nothing, but she felt as if all her problems were gone –that Jesus had taken them all away. She told us she has never felt this way in her life, so free, so light, so happy. All you need is Jesus.
Thank you for everyone who has donated to my World Race account! I have met my April 1st deadline with $11,368! I'm so amazed at how God has just provided time after time at just the right time! I still need a little over $4,000 still to be fully funded by July 1st!
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 2/29/2012
I’m standing on the edge of me
I’m standing on the edge of everything
I’ve never been before
And I’ve been standing on the edge of me
Dear friend,
I wish you were here. I wish you could sit beside me in the back of the 40 year old blue work truck as we go bouncing down the mountain on the way to church or to evangelize in the poor communities. You would see the beautiful lush green valley and mountains that turn into rolling hills. I wish that you could walk beside me as we pass brightly painted houses in the little bustling towns –the colors are sure to make you as happy as they make me.
I wish you were with me that day when I felt God leading me and some members of my team down a country road seemingly leading nowhere until a house appeared out of nowhere with kids playing outside. We talked to those kids in broken Spanish and asked if there was anything we could pray for? They told us their mother was inside sick and invited us in to pray for her –so we did and discovered that the mother had severe back pain. So we prayed for her and declared healing over her and once we said amen she said that while we were praying she felt the pain lift off of her and that it was gone! You should have seen her face –actually you should have seen my face when I realized that God just answered our prayer and healed her!
Oh if only you could have been there the other day when we were evangelizing in a community and handing out food and praying for the people and inviting them to the church service that we were having that afternoon in the middle of the neighborhood. We happened upon a house where a man had just died an hour ago and his body lay there inside. We all went in and asked the mother who was distraught with grief if we could pray for her son –to pray that God would raise him from the dead! With all faith we prayed over him –even though God didn’t raise him, I began to realize that maybe God had a different plan that day. Because once some of the people from my team and another team started to filter out of the room, a few of us began to pray for the mother who was in such turmoil. As we were praying a peace settled over her and she began to pray thanking Jesus for her son, “Gracias Jesus por mi hijo….Thank you Jesus for my son.” I think God’s purpose that day for us was to comfort those who mourn, to sit with her and share in her sufferings. But also, one of our ministry contacts Sarah was with us, and as she saw us praying for the dead man she heard God speak to her, “Sarah, don’t limit your faith. Believe that I can do great things, impossible things.” By seeing a group of young people who dared to believe God when He says in Matthew 10 –“heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons –”, she was challenged to not put a limit on her faith and what God can do!
Guess what? I’ve been learning worship songs in Spanish and for the past few church services I’ve been leading worship with Juan Carlos (the main worship leader) in all Spanish! God has definitely been increasing my ability to learn languages because the other day –not ever having taken a Spanish class before, I understood a conversation between our contact Sarah and another man that she was evangelizing to as if they were having a conversation in English –I was then able to pray specifically for him and for her as she was sharing biblical truths with him!
God is doing so much here in El Salvador! Continue to follow my journey and pray for me, pray for my team, and pray for the ministry here!
You are loved,
Hosanna
P.S. The next deadline for my support account is in just one short month. Currently I have $9,604 in my account but will need $11,000 by April 1st. Would you pray about donating?
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 2/18/2012
Than he asked me,
what does that mean
What’s another word for desperate…
Patted down and searched and led down a dimly lit hall way we made our way through the maximum security Guatemalan prison.
In the middle was a courtyard where prisoners roamed freely. All men, most with their shirts off playing basketball, and others were standing around watching.
At first sight, it was a little intimidating –they weren’t in prison cells as I had imagined. We walked through the mass of them and into a room filled with 60-70 inmates sitting neatly in chairs waiting for the service to begin.
We sat in the back as we watched everyone stand up and begin to pray –to really pray…hands lifted high, voices crying out from the depths of their souls, tears streaming down their faces.
This is the face of desperation.
I don’t really have much experience leading worship. I play the guitar but I’ve never played on a worship team. I don’t have any experience leading worship in Spanish, and I’ve definitely never led worship in all Spanish in a prison. But somehow through my mispronounced Spanish words and my speeding up and slowing down tempo, God showed up and we worshiped in that prison.
After I was done singing, three prisoners came forward with their own classical guitars and with a blend that sounded like Johnny Cash meets Spanish folk, their souls cried out in worship.
This is the sound of desperation.
It wasn’t until after we had left that I heard the testimony of one of the men who regularly leads worship in the prison. He was the grandson of a pastor in Guatemala and was wrongly accused and sentenced a few years back. But rather then becoming bitter and resenting God, he chose to view his circumstances as where God placed him. His mission field is behind bars and he’s serving the Lord there with Joy.
This is an act of desperation.
It’s when we become desperate for Him, when we are lost without him, when we choose to do His will above all, to go wherever he leads us, when we want Him more than anything, that he can truly use us.
What if God called you to the hard places?
I am in Apastepeque, El Salvador at my new ministry this month! I will update very soon on everything that’s going on here!
Currently I have $9,604 of the $15,500 that I need raised by July 1st to be fully funded. My next deadline is April 1st and I need a total of $11,000 in my account. If you would like to support me click on the link to the left bellow my profile picture that says "Support me!" Muchas Gracias!
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 1/29/2012
Don’t you dare look out your window
Darling everything’s on fire
The war outside our door keeps raging on
I had the chance the other day to go out to the front lines where the battle was being fought. War always seems like a far off thing, something you hear about on the news, but for the most part, never really experience.
I remember one winter break waking up every morning to the sound of bombs exploding and artillery being fired. My little brother Tommy had an obsession with the military channel, and where I lay my head happened to be on the other side of that wall.
You may be wondering what kind of conflict is going on down here in Guatemala?
The other day I spent the afternoon in the trenches with the wounded and dying. The front lines in which I speak of is the red light district of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The wounded and dying are the girls who work in the brothels that line the street.
We had decided that morning that we were going to prayer walk down in the red light district and just follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. As we walked up and down the street passing the red curtain doors of brothels and hearing the music playing inside, we stopped outside of one that was seemingly quiet and just began praying. To our surprise from behind the iron barred window a face appeared.
She was deaf and couldn’t speak very well, but she had a beautiful smile. Her eyes carried a tremendous amount of sadness as she communicated in broken Spanish and broken sign language that her husband was killed in a car accident and she had 2 small children.
We asked to pray for her, she nodded yes. Emily and I both reached for her hands through the iron bars and prayed a prayer declaring destiny and freedom over her life.
And then more women came out of the door, and we prayed and fought for them as well.
That day a war was waged in the spirit over that street, a battle for those women’s souls, for their freedom, and for their destiny.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
 
Financial update:
Currently I have $9,435 of the $15,500 that I need raised by July 1st to be fully funded. My next deadline is April 1st and I need a total of $11,000 in my account. If you would like to support me click on the link to the left bellow my profile picture that says "Support me!" Muchas Gracias!
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Posted in General Posts by Hosanna Sheeley on 1/23/2012
Here's a video of our first week in Guatemala! Ministry with the kids, cutting down a field, painting at a clinic, and on our free day we went to Antigua and met up with the other teams from our squad! Enjoy!
Financial update:
Currently I have $9,400 of the $15,500 that I need raised by July 1st to be fully funded. My next deadline is April 1st and I need a total of $11,000 in my account. If you would like to support me click on the link to the left bellow my profile picture that says "Support me!" Muchas Gracias!
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