Outreach

Hey Everybody, sorry its been awhile since I have posted. It has been super busy the last month, God has been teaching me so much. I had a mini-outreach to Jelenia Gora, Poland. We where there for one week, we stayed at a church all 7 days, we worked very closely with the church in their ministries. The church sits right in downtown Jelenia Gora, so we were able to go out on prayer walks and do really practical street ministry with the people. We have been covering a broad range of topics the last few weeks in training. We have covered relationships, where we had a number of speakers to touch on marrige relationships, and friendships, family relationships and ministry relationships. We had a week on Living a life of sacrifice, the main topic summery was "Welcome to the tribe of death" it talked about how we need to live everyday giving our lives to God, laying down everyday at a time and seeking God's face. We spoke on things in our lives that hinder us an hold us back. We had a time of giving where we all prayed about specific things that we may have had a certain attatchment too, then we prayed about who God wanted us to give it to.

We talked about worship and the fear of God for a week, it was really intense, but I really feel that many of the students are learning more then they ever dreamed while they are here. We had another week called "Plumbline" we had a pretty extensive teaching about God's plan for how we focus our lives and what we have placed or allowed in our lives to change that. We had Extensive prayer times for the things that God brought up in our lives through out the week. Some people are totally new creations.

I am prepairing for outreach, I have been fundraising, and will still be sending out support letters for our trip. We are headed to the continant of Africa, I can't go into huge details about what we will be doing on here, but please feel free to email me any questions. I will leave for Africa January 4th, and be back in Germany on March 15th. I hope to be able to stay here in Germany until the end of April working on photoprojects for the team after outreach.

My team will also have a photo exabition in Berlin, Germany from April 22-October sometime featuring our work from the Photo DTS and our outreach project.

We are working towards a goal of using the arts to bring awareness to extreme poverty. There is no need for the suffering that goes on.

Thank You so much for keeping me in your prayers and I hope to update again soon.

Missions Outreach/Plan

Thank you all for supporting me and continuing to follow my progress. Over the last few weeks God has confirmed in me what direction I am headed. I am going to return here to Germany providing that everything works out. I want to work with a ministry here called Pick-a-pocket. I cannot explain in detail what they do, but their mission is to eliminate extreme poverty using photography and the arts. I do not know quite what all this will look like on a time scale. I will be back in Colorado for a season after finishing my DTS and outreach. I know that there is so much that God is leading me towards, I could not have reached this point without your prayers and support. I am putting together more information that will be given at a later date. I wanted to Post a few photos of the base to give you an idea of where I have been.

The Leading...

God has been showing me a lot of new things here, about myself and about the world around me. I have already learned many facts about missions and the need in the world outside of the "civilized bubble," but there is a concept that has become very real to me.

Head Knowledge:
When we learn valuable facts, and new information we take notes and go back over them and we can be very aware of whats going on.

Heart Knowledge:
When we have an epic or driving first hand experience where somehow that knowledge is driven home. When we truly feel what we have learned.

God has been working in me, in and on these things. In times of community worship and prayer, God has been preparing me and teaching me what it means to be a leader. I have lived with a self conscience nature for many years, always wondering what people think about me. I have walked with a lot of pain and miss understanding.

All these things, God has freed me from, I spent about an hour on my face weeping as God worked in me. As the staff prayed for me I continued to feel God's leading. A quote from one of the one of the staff is, "You stood up looking like a new man, a completely different person."

I am happy to report that I made a puddle of snot and tears that was over 3 ft wide, it took 5 min to clean up. When God works in your lives and moves in our hearts we change, and He can continue to shape us. I call these times, "Holy Puddles"

When we spend time, surrendered in the presence of God. Truly abandoned, we find that our heart issues are very small in compare to the power of a loving and almighty God.

I have known these things for years, walking with God, but distanced due to my own attempt at controlling my future.

God still has a lot to show me, I know that I am called to missions. I have an opportunity to work with an organization on base here called Pick-a-pocket. The have been given the mission of eliminating extreme poverty through Art.

On my missions outreaches I would go out to places of extreme poverty and begin to document with photography the depravity that exists there.

I truly feel that this is the next step that God has called me to. I will still continue to prayerfully consider this for the rest of the DTS. I ask that you would keep me in your prayers. Please pray that God will continue to give me direction and wise council as I move forward in this vision for the future.

I appreciate all the love and support I have from you, I can feel the covering of your prayers.

I encourage you, in your own quite times, to seek God on what He wants to move from head knowledge to heart knowledge in you. Be blessed.

Daily life

Hey guys, sorry its been a few days since my last post. I have been asked to share details about my daily life here. There are 5 guys out of 38 students, we have been close since the begining, I see God using us to help mold eachother. We have breakfast first thing, it is ussually very light coffee and bread. Then we have a school wide devotional time. Then we move right into classes, we have class until 1pm, then we have lunch.

We have afternoon work duties such as cleaning, yard work, and maintance. I am on maintance, I work on drains, or broken chairs and so on. Work duties go until 4 pm, then we have classed again. Dinner is at 6pm and most nights consist of some salad and some items for sandwiches. On the weekends we have hartier dinners. So I being a growing boy walk into the town of Herrnhut, about a mile. To go to the groccery store for meat, we ussually have atleast one meal a week with meat on base. It can be hard for the staff to maintain a food budget for such a large group and still keep costs low.

The guys are living in a side building off of the castle, it is pretty basic living. There is one toilet in the side building in a room called the WC (water closet) and then there is a seperate shower room with one shower. There are small coal stoves in the rooms but we haven't been able to fire them yet. The temperature is getting pretty chilly at night. There are quite a few students with colds. Please pray that they will get better, it is easy for sickness to spread in group working so close all the time.

After dinner in the evening, we have time to do laundry and some class work. Quit hours are at 8pm in all buildings and lights out by 10. So our days are pretty packed, the staff is very good. They are dedicated and driven. It is interesting at times because a lot of the staff is about 20 years old. The average age of the students is 19-20, the guys have formed an accountablity group that funtions to keep the guys focused and on the right path. We each have a 1-on-1 time every week with a dedicated staff member.

Money is a little shy at times, and life is a little more expensive here, but God has been providing. I still need to raise money for the outreach phase in the end of December. Please be praying that I will continue to grow in my faith and for my classes so that I can be a more effective witness in every arena.

I thank God for all your prayers and support. Thank you for loving me and sending me out as a missionary. I know that God is still doing increasingly large things within the body there. Until next time, God Bless.

The begining..

Its been a few days and classes have begun, I am pretty settled into what will be home for the next 4 months. I have great roommates and and quickly adapting to the German culture. I have been doing very will. I don't have any real big concerns or requests at this time. I do ask that you will continue to pray for me and that I will listen to the Lord and be submissive to His moving and authority. I love you all so much and would love to receive postal mail, it is very encouraging. If you have any direct questions you can send those to my email: gchartier.outside@gmail.com I will try to work your answers into my next post. Thank you again for all your support.

Arrivel in Herrnhut.

I have arrived in Herrnhut Germany! God's hand has been on all of my travels to get to this point. I thank you all so much for your prayers and donations. By the time I left over $3000 came in.

To recap for those of you who were not sure of my travel plans I flew out of DIA at 12:30 pm Wed September 3rd. I landed in Dulles International Airport and had 15 min to make it to my next flight. I ran to the next gate and caught my flight into London. I had a few hour layover, then I took a flight to Vienna, Austria. I was in the airport in Vienna 5 hours then got on a bombardier Q300 to Dresden International. I took a train to Lobou, Germany. I was then picked up by car and driven to Herrnhut to the base.
(The picture is the station in Lobou)

DTS Fund Raising

Praise God, I am happy to report that God has been faithful in continuing to supply for my needs. In the last weeks I have been continuing to seek God in prayer for the trip.

I am happy to report that a little over $2,000 has come in for financial support so far. I know I am well on my way to my goal of $2,800 that is needed for the lecture phase of my trip.

God has continued to be faithful, I know that He is always my very present help in times of need. I will continue to update as my departure date of Sept 3, comes right around the corner. I look forward to see what God will do in my last days here in the USA. Thank you again for all your support and prayers.

Preperation

Hello Friends,
Welcome to my new blog page, I will do my very best to use this blog to write to the body at SouthGate Church and to my friends.

I want to start out by thanking all of you for your support. You have been a great help in my preparation. I have much to do still, but I know that God will provide for my needs.

One of the very basic principles of faith is trusting in God with our lives.

It can be hard to trust God with the important things in our lives, sometimes its hard to let go and let God take control. I have come across this time and time again in preparing for my journey. I would like to encourage every reader that God has a very special plan lined out for you in His will. Be certain that you are taking time to spend with God everyday. His guidance can make the difference in all the situations and people we encounter.

I ask that you will continue to pray for me and with me, that God will guide me and give me wisdom in my continued preparation for this trip.

-Your Brother in Christ,

Gabriel Chartier