Hello

We just had what was probably the only day of summer we are going to get this year in Herrnhut. Autumn is creeping slowly around the corner...

This week I start staff training with the Marriage of the Arts  team, we are a staff team of 12, for 120 students, and because it is an arts DTS we do a lot of teaching in various art tracks. We have a group of people from another base in Germany joining us for the week to learn how staff are trained here, which should be interesting.

I am still heavily involved in the Justice DTS and spoke Wednesday night on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation. It was a hard topic to speak about but the night was really powerful as students really got a heart for fighting this injustice and lifting people out of this horror and into a life of dignity and hope. I am still doing a lot of work with Pick a Pocket as the group prepares to send a team to Hamburg to serve long-term. At the moment a 'first-wave' of 7 or so people, is planning to leave in October. There they will invest into the community and develop a venue, of which I will have more details soon.

Personally, I am struggling as things continue to flex and shift again. I found it hard to say good-bye to some close friends over the last month as they move back home and out onto the field. It's also been a rough time of missing family and just wanting some time off and away from here. I need some supernatural energy at the moment.

Hope this finds you well. Lots of love,

Amy

Feed Somalia.

Art by Elizabeth Mannchen

Liz is a Pick a Pocket leader, and a talented and driven artist who, like many of us, is searching for ways to help alleviate the suffering of people affected by the drought across the Horn of Africa. We hear of children dying, and it can be difficult to know what to do. The only option is to do something-give what you have, do what you can.

Liz writes:

Somalia tugs at my heart as I watch from afar; people are starving and crying out for help.  When I first heard about this drought, and subsequent famine; I thought, as I am sure many others have, ‘Oh just another famine in Africa’. As I continued to watch the news, hear the stories and see the pictures, I was drawn in to the reality of the unfolding disaster.

One night I came across a picture of a starving Somali woman trying to breastfeed her baby. I realized, that even if she were to find food, she would not be nourished fast enough to be able to give life-saving milk to her malnourished child. I was deeply moved and I found myself wanting to go there, and help, in whatever way I could. But I couldn't. I felt hopeless and unusable. I am an artist, and I decided that if I could not physically get there to help, I would do what I could. I would use my art to be a voice for these women, children and men. 

Our world is overflowing with resources; there is enough for everyone. We have to make a choice- empathy or apathy, helplessness or action? Lets do something people!

http://ywam.org/News-Stories/news/YWAM-Acts-in-Somalia-Food-Crisis