Ready, Set, Go!

Wow, last few days have been a whirl wind of information, activities, growth, laughing, crying, exhaustion and all of the above. We have been being prepped to go to our mission site and the day to leave is finally here. Romania team is leaving in a few hours!
Before I forget, I want to capture what happened yesterday. The YIM staff, who are absolutely awesome by the way, decided to try something with us that they had never done before as part of a cross cultural experience. Each team was given a bus map, some money for bus fare and lunch and a list of local churches/worship centers here in El Paso, Texas. We were told that we had to map out our own bus route to a place we wanted to go to church. The point was to experience something that was very different than our own church services. We were also encouraged to interact with the church members and see what would happen. Romania, and a couple of other teams, decided to go to a Antioch Orthodox Church which was an incredible interesting expereince. It was a long, ornate, very ritualistic and symbolic. After a service like this, with long singsong prayers and chanting, and a bishop doing incensing, were weren't sure what to expect about the people! So we were very surprised when we were welcomed with opens arms afterwards. The Bishop got all of our names and welcomed us to the service individually during the service. When they learned that we were missionaries going to different countries the next day, they were incredibly supportive. They came up to us a gave us hugs and wished us well and said they were so happy about what we were doing. They invited us to have coffee and snacks after the service which ended being like a meal because the had coffee, other drinks, different middle eastern foods, fruit, and desert. It was awesome. We just stayed and talked with them and had a great time.
Last night, 11 pm, all the teams ended up sharing their different experiences. Some went to a Chinese church, a Islamic Temple, and many others. It was a lot of fun and a great preview of the different cultures we are going to experience all summer.
Training Camp has been awesome! The staff, team leaders and different people who made this all happen were incredible and funny and really showed interest in us as individuals as well as teams. The other students I have met here have been great. We all can't wait to see each other at the end of the summer and will probably make some life long friends!
So that pretty much brings you up to date. Like I said, today we fly out for our site. Please pray that everything goes smoothly on the flights, through customs, and everywhere along the way. Pray for physical health for all of us as some of my teammates are dealing with physical pains that might be made worse with the long flights.
I love you all and thank you for your support! Talk to you when I get there!

Another exhaustingly busy and fun day. Today we did more team building exercises, and spent time learning about strengths in ourselves and our teams. After a long day, our leader said that we had to do one more workshop at 9:00 at night. This "workshop" was titled stress management and consisted of a paper ball fight and then some major dancing! Much sweaty fun was had by all!! Must sleep and get ready for another round tomorrow.

By the way, friends and family, it is not too late to contribute to my mission fund. I still need support and I will have till August 1st till my bill is due. The best and easiest way to contribute at this point would be through my website:

http://web.nazarene.org/goto/Debi.Miller

I love you all and I need and appreciate any support I will and have already received!
Will post more soon!

Day Two

I probably won't be give a play-by-play of every day of my summer but so far, it seems like that's what I'm doing.:)
Today was very busy. Alot of activities, speakers, and schedules to follow. This evening the entire group, all 39 of us, went to a nearby look out point on one of the mountains here in El Paso. It was beautiful and we took team photos as well as a mass group photo.
Am very tired but having an awesome time meeting people and making new friends!

Day One

I have just arrived in El Paso, Texas today! YIM is hosting a training week here where we prepare for our ministry sites overseas. I have met some great people including my teammates for Romania, Kirsten, Rachel and Bailey. I telling you their names so that if I mention them again through out the summer, you'll know who I'm talking about. The next few days (Thursday-Sunday) are going to be full of workshops, events and activities that help us get to know each other and get us ready to go! We are camping out in bunk beds and dorms and so far, it's reminding me of summer camp when I was a kid. Fun!

Well, here goes! this is my first attempt at keeping a blog. As many of you know, and for those of you who don't, I am going on a mission trip this summer to Romania with Youth In Missions (YIM). I leave on May 31 and will be there for 6 1/2 weeks! I am going to try to give regular updates and pictures as I go through the next few weeks so all of my friends and family can stay informed and know how to pray for me. Hope you all enjoy!