:Bangladesh:

Here are some of the objectives of which we will be doing on our journey to Bangladesh.

• ESL English lessons for surf club and community members
  
• Jr. lifeguard training program
  
• Swim lessons – teach the kids to swim so that they can learn to surf
  
• Empower women to learn to surf/Our girls will set the example
  
• Look for property
  
• Experience God in Bangladesh
  
• Learn the culture
  
• Serve the local community especially the street kids and poor villages
  
• Worship the Lord
  
• Premier Gum for My Boat
  
• Model for Bangladesh surf club the motto of “surfers giving back”
  
• Hold and mediate surf club meetings
  
• 5th annual Aloha Surf Classic
  
• Adventure, fun, Adventure, fun, Adventure, fun
  
• “Preach the Gospel always and when necessary use words” – Francis of Asisi
  
• LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

I am really getting more and more excited as the day approaches. Please keep these things in your prayers. Missions is something the body of Christ does together. It takes all of us. Prayer is huge. Thank you.

Wanna Support Surfing the Nations?

Jedidiah Is a clothing company who often sells their clothes in stores like Pacific Sunwear. They sell t- shirts and boardshorts to help benefit many different organizations. Here are some of the clothes and the website. http://jedidiahusa.com/

These are the clothes that directly benefit Surfing the Nations. They are $25 and $10 goes to Surfing the Nations.

Bangladesh :Realities:

These are some pictures of the everyday life the people in Bangladesh face.

Sri Lanka :Teaching Muslim School Kids:

I taught at schools for Muslim children many times while in Sri Lanka. Teaching english was such an adventure.

:Bangladesh:

Soon I will travel to Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh (September 17- October 15) with Surfing the Nations (STN), a Honolulu-based humanitarian organization that uses surfing to build relationships and serve communities within the 10/40 window, where the world’s neediest and most underprivileged countries lie. Along with Bangladesh, STN makes yearly trips to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China, Israel and Egypt. They live by the motto of “surfers giving back,” believing that surfing can be used as a powerful tool to enact change in this generation.
Continually rocked by natural disaster, government corruption and massive population growth, Bangladesh remains a devastated country. It is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world, with more than 150 million people - that’s about half the total population of the United States - living in an area slightly smaller than the state of Iowa and 82.2% surviving on less than US$2 a day.
Add to that children given brutal beatings by police and rickshaw drivers, 1.3 million homeless kids sleeping on the streets, gross deformities of beggars holding out shriveled hands for taka, and you’ve got a dejected community ripe for change.
The young Bengali surfers seem to have caught the STN vision. Where surfers have gained the reputation of being self-centered, counter-cultural punks who take from Mother Nature without giving anything in return, the Bengali surf boys are learning what it means to be unselfish and to have concern for the poor. These young surfers are becoming leaders, possessing all the potential to heal the wounds of their broken community.
“It’s cool to see how the motto “surfers giving back” plays out here,” says Kalama, who went on the trip last year. “Surfing the Nations is meeting both the immediate need—feeding kids who are hungry, loving and valuing kids who are neglected - as well as satisfying a long-term vision by trying to create a sustainable change and raise people up as leaders in the community.”
It’s a daunting task to help everyone in Bangladesh, to feed every street kid, to save every beggar - to fix Bangladesh - but Tom is not discouraged. He often tells the story of a man walking along the beach, where hundreds of starfish have become stranded by the tide. He notices a boy picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the water. He tells the boy, “There are thousands of starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy stoops down and picks up another. Throwing it back into the ocean he responds, “It sure made a difference to that one.”

Although change for all of Cox’s Bazaar may seem a futile effort, it begins with just one.

:Bangladesh:

Gum For My Boat: Surfing In Bangladesh Trailer from Russell Brownley on Vimeo.

This documentary by Russell Brownley was done during Surfing the Nations trip last year.

Sri Lanka Surf Contest

A buzz in the town of Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka was brewing. As the surf club hung the streamers and the hotels and tourists joined Surfing the Nations to clean the beach, it was finally the day for Surfing the Nations to hold their first surf contest ever held at Arugam Bay. An anxious group of surfers were overjoyed when at last they got to show to everyone in town their skills. Tourists and locals alike showed up to give their support for the event. In the late afternoon the contest had finally ended and prizes were distributed. All together this is more than your average surf contest. It was a block party bringing the community together in a new light rarely shed before.

^This is a picture of all the contest participants^

:Kids Games International:

Children flooded a dirt field full of cow pies and stickers not knowing what to think about this Hawaiian team. Truly a family gathering, mothers, fathers, brother and sisters gathered to watch the excitement. People from all around where coming out of their homes to see what was going on. Arms intertwined we sat side by side;”Duck, Duck, Goose!” And one jumped up after the other with a smile as wide as the difference between our cultures. As their bare feet chased after one another girls who rarely leave their houses join in an unusual freedom & joy. Hearts were affected by the time we so willingly spent so much of with them. Hands held, a high five, smiles exchanged. Moments that in eternity have lasting effects. May they’ve gotten a sense of the Jesus who desires so greatly to hold their hand.

Only a few more hours left

Shortly I will be leaving for Sri Lanka and Indonesia for the next two months. Please keep the Sri Lanka/ Indonesia teams, and native people in your prayers! Thank you so much to anyone who has supported me on the adventure that the Lord is sending me and through me you as well on. I have lists of prayer needs on previous blogs. I love you all so much thank you thank you thank in advance for all of your prayers =]

SurfersGivingBack.com

We have a bunch of awesome pictures from our Freedom surf contest on this site (( surfersgivingback.com ))

Waianae Surf Outreach Pictures

These are some of the pictures from the Waianae Outreach we have been doing for the past three weeks. We were teaching kids living in a homeless shelter there to swim and surf. It was amazing to see what the love of Christ can do. The last day of the outreach each kids coach gave them a lei and words of encouragement telling them how they had done the previous weeks. Those kids left on a spiritual high. They started out the first days being very difficult and by the end you could see how the love of Christ communicated through us had changed them. Each of them so desired the hugs and encouragement and love they had been deprived of. It was an awesome testament of transformation through love.

Prayers for Sri Lanka and Indonesia

Prayer List Sri Lanka

· I (Whitney) would to be used by God in Sri Lanka.
· For the team as a whole.
· For team safety.
· For lives to be changed in Sri Lanka.
· People to come to know the love of Jesus.
· Finances for all team members who may not already be fully funded.
· Housing.
· The war-torn countryside. Sri Lanka has been in Civil War for over 25 years and countless lives have been taken without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
· The different ethnic groups Tamil and Singalese.
· Wisdom for the Leadership.
· The Sri Lankan government.
· The friends STN has made in the past.
· That God would open old and new doors.
· The Sri Lankan Christians.
· Missionaries who are stationed in Sri Lanka.
· The opposition to the anti-conversion laws making conversion illegal and punishable
· Trip planning and logistics.

Prayer Lists Indonesia

Prayer List



· I (Whitney) would be used by God in Indonesia.
· For the team as a whole.
· For team safety.
· For lives to be changed in Indonesia.
· People to come to know the love of Jesus.
· Finances for all team members who may not already be fully funded.
· Housing.
· The 7 day Boat trip.
· The different islands of Indonesia.
· Wisdom for the Leadership.
· The Indonesian government.
· The friends STN has made in the past.
· That God would open old and new doors.
· The Indonesian Christians.
· Missionaries who are stationed in Indonesia.
· Trip planning and logistics.
· An understanding of the culture and religious background to be able to minister.
· That one person who God wants you to impact and have as a friend for life.

There are so many individual prayers each of these countries I can't fit them all of my prayer list to the side here. So please keep these on your mind. It is always encouraging and awesome to know you have people faithfully praying for what's going on. Thank you all for all of your support and love.

Information about Sri Lanka/ Indonesia

On June 5th - July 1st, 2009 I will be going to Sri Lanka and on July 3rd - July 28, 2009 I will be going to Indonesia with a team from Surfing The Nations (STN) .While in Sri Lanka we will be traveling from the capital Colombo to the east coast of the island and a city called Arugam Bay. In Indonesia we will be traveling to these Indonesian islands Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Gili, and Nusa Lembongan. Our month long trip will focus on Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim cultures in this area of the world that is often referred to as the “10/40”

Surfing The Nations (STN):
Here is a little background information on who I am traveling with and what we will do. STN’s wish is to promote a positive image of the sport of surfing as a part of a healthy lifestyle and as a means of giving back to society. STN’s goal is to counteract the widespread perception that surfing is only about hedonism and individual fulfillment. We do this through:
o Feeding the Hungry Programs
o Weekly Surfers Leadership Training
o Island Youth Program/At-Risk Youth
o Surf Contests
o Surf Camps
o Local & International humanitarian/outreach trips
STN is a humanitarian/missions non-profit 501(c)(3) committed to impacting local and international communities through the sport of surfing by meeting needs and changing lives.

Goals:
Here are some goals to be accomplished while overseas.

Sri Lanka

-Tsunami Spiritual renewal/relief
-Evangelism
-Build relationships
-Surf/Serve
-Build additions to already existing surf centern

Indonesia

-Medical relief
-Evangelism
-Build relationships
-Surf

The combined cost for both of these trips including airfare, ground fees, and food is $3,486.

Waianae Surf Outreach

For the past three weeks I have been teaching swimming and surfing to underprivillaged kids. It has been amazing. These kids all live in a homeless shelter in Oahu . They are so in need of love and to just see people interact with one another in a relational sort of way. It has been really awesome making them more confident in the water. After only a day or so swimming with us they had already gotten word around the shelter that they word learning to surf. It gave them so much more confidence in themselves. Its awesome tro be able to work with them. A dream actually. These kids were off the wall. I'll try to get some pictures up of them soon.

Sri Lanka and Bali

Here is some more information about the outreaches I'll be going on this summer anddd I'll make sure to inform you all on what the territory is like over there asap! Love you all

Aprilll

With in the past seven months of working with Surfing the Nations in their internship/ discipleship school and then continuing on with them into staff God has been working mightily to transform my heart and mind.
So let me get you up to date on what has happened since graduating from Surfing the Nations internship. Shortly after graduating in January I decided that staffing with Surfing the Nations for the next year was where God was leading me. Surfing the Nations had recently moved to a town called Wahiawa and was going to be starting new youth program there. I was interested in the junior high aspect of the youth. With all of the neighborhood kids who would always come to hang out with us it was clear confirmation of what was to come next! So the junior high/ high school team merge together and over April have already begun to transform and get better since the beginning. Last week was hugely successful! Not only did we have a good size group of kids but it just felt like family already. I am so excited about the future of our youth program!
When I came to Surfing the Nations I wanted to get more involved in missions and a better taste of missionary work. God definitely has had a call on my life for missions. So I went to Israel, Egypt and Jordan at the end of November and through most of December. We got to go to many orphanages, hold the first surf contest ever in Egypt, and love on the Middle Eastern people. I am seeking more of what my call into missions could mean for me in the future. I am currently planning on going to international missions to Sri Lanka in June, Bali in July and Bangladesh in September. I will be telling you more about each individual outreaches in the coming months.
Let me just encourage you all that your prayers, finances and involvement is a huge part of what the Lord is doing here!

ps I am hoping on getting some pictures of the youth group up here soon!

This is a video of the mission I went to Israel, Egypt and Jordan. You get an awesome glimpse of what Surfing the Nations spirit is and a little of what we did there.

Whitney will blog.

Well its been way to long and you guys seriously need to know all the coolness going on in my life =] I am now staffing with Surfing the Nations and am committed into working with them until next January. Surfing the Nations does international outreaches in the 10\40 window through the sport of surfing and delfless acts of service. We also works with the local community in Oahu with homeless, working poor, needy, drug addicts, underprivillaged youth ect all to see lives changed. I came to Surfing the Nations to better explore the calling on my life into missions. I began further digging into it by going to Israel, Egypt, Jordan from the tail end of Nov to the middle of Dec. I definetly want to show you guys some pictures from that! I am trying to go to Sri Lanka, Bali, and Bangledesh this summer all to give God the greastest glory in serving him and to let God work in my heart and soften it towards a people I could possibly be with for the rest of my life. So I gonna commit to updating this blog two or more times a week so you guys can feel free to comment about the lack if their is a break in that. love you all will talk to you soon.