Long time, no write....

Hello Everybody,

I hope you are all good and well now that all the holidays are done with. I pray God's blessings were prevailant during this past holiday season, in your life and the lives of others around you. So I have some news to share with everyone, that is sad for me to express. My plans in VZ changed and I came home New Year's Eve to the States. My time there in the country was good and God taught me many things, well maybe the more appropriate word would be numerous things. Many unexpected blessings came about while there, such as getting to also travel to Turkey for two weeks in between my time in VZ. So I do not regret anything. God had it all planned out. From now on, I will be residing in Fl permanantley to be close to my fiance Homer Rojas. We will be planning a wedding for August 2nd of 2008. So we have a lot of planning to get going on. It is in God's hands as to why my time was cut in VZ, but I still urge ALL OF YOU to keep VZ in your prayers. It is a country that is in some spiritual warfare and political turmoil. Do not take lightly our duty as the christian brothers and sisters of the people in VZ. We need to hold them up by being down on our knees asking God for Venezuela's favor and protection. And with this I close my last and final blog of this site regarding my time in Venezuela. I LOVE YOU VENEZUELA AND MY SPIRIT IS WITH YOU....

Sincerely,
Sarita L Morris

Last Week

Greetings my Fellow Family and Friends!

Last week I had the great opportunity and pleasure of teaching a soon to be missionary family English. They are a pastoral family here in VZ, that are preping to leave to Austrailla in July of this next coming summer. It was a great and stretching experience for me and for them! :) I decided in the end all the flashcards I bought and brought to VZ with me and some extra span./eng. dictionaries I would leave with the family. They took great joy in this and accepted them with much thankfulness. I am happy of this time I got to pour into this family so they can btter their communication skills for the mission field God has in store for them. PRAISE THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD! :) I hope everyone is doing well and I wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Blessings...

Luz de mi Vida

This one is in Spanish, the other one below was a special I sang so it was in English.

Pics and Video

I´m Still Alive

Hola y Dios Te Bendiga, (typical way all Christians here always greet each other)

Well, I have been in Merida going on 3 weeks here soon. I have attended Langauge School for a week on Level 1 then took a week off. While Fer and I had a Missions Convention to attend that gives the annual reports of anything pertaining to A/G with Missions. I had the pleasure of leading the group in worship on Sunday morning, and following Fer preached and then I was asked to come up again and lead some more songs for everyone. It was great!! I´m very happy the Lord is willing to use me, even in my imperfections. I have some video clips I will try to upload on here very soon. Thank GOD He provided me a guitar to use while I am here. It makes such a big difference in the effectiveness of everything I do here. I was asked to also led in some christmas songs in Spanish and English with Fer´s family during (Navidad). Which we are celebrating this Thursday (29th of November).

Her family owns many stores around the area and they are all very busy during the actual Christmas day, before and following, so we are celebrating early. Though we will still have some festivities on Christmas just not with the whole complete fam. This week I have also had the opportunity to attend Language School again and I skipped a Level. I am now on Level 3 and will start Level 4 next week. I am learning alot...sometimes too much..my brain only handels soo much! ha... There are 6 Levels toal so I am doing pretty good. It will take me a while to get the fluency but at least I am obtaining the concepts and then I just need to continue practicing.

When Fer and I go back to Barquisimeto for the months of Jan.-March I will be teaching English in our Office to the workers from 8am-9am every morning Mon.-Fri. Then I will also be taching English to a Pastoral family who is preparing to go on the mission field to Austraila soon in July of 2008. Along with that, I will be working with some youth from a local church in Barq. teaching them English also. So in general, I am going to be keeping myself busy and brushing up on my English skills BIG TIME. My most difficult subject is grammer, but I pray the Lord be with me!! :)

God Bless You All, and I hope your Thanksgivings were great!
Serving South America

A Sucessive Report

This report is starting from 3 weeks back-how time flies!!

Saturday evening my ministry companion (fernanda) and I prepared for a Sunday morning service we had at a local church in Barq. A praise report from this weekend is that I was finally able to get a guitar to use for our ministry services planned. As sunday morning came around and I was practicing the songs I was going to be singing at the church, what do ya know?? A string on my guitar snapped! That was very fustrating because it took over a month to finally get a guitar to use, and then this happens. "Lord, what are you trying to tell me??" :) Before that I was forced to do everything acappella when we went somewhere. Was it going to be back to that or not??

Before we got to church the Pastor called Fernanda, so we took the chance to tell him about what happened. When we got thereI found out he had a boy from the church bring his new guitar for me to use. I was excited about this, then found out it was a Classical. Still not quite what I am used to or comfortable playing. But well- I did anyways! Everyonw was expecting me to sing. It was funny though, I went into a back room to practice on the Classical and about 5-7 youth all followed me. I had no idea why?? haha.. They were so enthused by me being American. They all gathered around me real close wanting to chit chat and watch every move I made. It was akward and all very funny at the same time! ha...Then continuing to stay in the akward momentI had to sit on a stool to play the guitar, but with a skirt on. It wouldn´t be so bad with pants or a long skirt, but with a knee length skirt you have to be really cautious about keeping your legs shut! ha... Plus they has mics all around me to amplify the guitar.

I didn´t feel so good or comfortable about things, but according to them the Lord still used me even in my own insecurities and discomfort. They loved it! So that´s great! GOD IS GOOD!! :) Fernanda had to hold my music also. The people were blessed by both Fernanda and I´s ministry. No matter how great or insignificant we are, God always finds a way to use you and allow you to be worthy even if only for a moment. And most importantly He finds a way to be GLORIFIED!

After church the Pastor took us to a nice restuarant and paid for our meal. He also dropped us by to purchase new strings for my guitar. Leaving to drop us off the car was very pact full of people so Fernanda had to sit on my lap! That´s the 2nd time now...the 1st was in Turkey! That same evening Fernanda had to conduct the School of Missions service for the opening week. By then I fixed my guitar and was FINALLY ablle to play some music semi-comfortably (according to me). Again, the Lord blessed the folks. PRAISE GOD! All week long Fernanda and I have been working on doing some translation work for a big week of teachings in the week ahead. On monday night was the opening service of the Bible School. Me and one of the School of Missions students planned and prepared the music for that nite. We both sang and I mostly accompanied her on the guitar. It was funny because the girl with me was introducing me and talking about what a sweet, gentle, and beautiful girl I am and I had no clue! Of coarse because I do not know Spanish completely yet! I was fideling around with my guitar the whole time. ha....(how embarassing!!!) :)

More Pics of Turkey

The old theater in Pergamum...still doing somewhat well for how old it is!



Praying for a Turkish Pastor, for prtection over his life and his family. He had a POWERFUL testimony!



Marcos Barrientos- a known praise and worship leader in the Christian Latino music realm, who made himself a part of the conference and touring, along with leading us in some songs a few times.



Me and the VZ crew...this was taken sometime in the middle of the night on our travels through bus and boat, from Instanbul to Kusadasi.




more to come soon....

Video of Me Playing Guitar at Bible School

Please, I encourage everyone to click this link and watch a short video of me playing the guitar at the opening service for the Bible School here. I am sorry it is a little shaky, but what can I say... :) I was also singing but you cannot hear me too well at all. This is to encourage you all that God is moving in other places then our own.

God Bless!

I NEED PRAYER

Greetings Everyone,

I am sad to inform everyone that my finances are very low. Right now I am recieving money on loan via my host family here in VZ. I need to pay them back eventually and also need to maintain enough to stay here in VZ without becoming into too much debt with my host family. Please keep me in your prayers. This is never the favorite topic a missionary has to approach however, when the need is there, it is there It doe not go away, therefore I need to seek support in whatever ways I can. Through prayer (which is always most important) and reality and necessity of money.God is in the midst of doing many things with me right now, I do not want to have to stop now. I am just getting started. I am attending langauage school, and finally starting to practice everything I am learning. Also people are testifying to the blessing they are recieving through how God uses me in the music ministry. I am aslo starting to be asked to preach. I have many ministry appointments for this coming year of January and whatnot. I can´t wait to see what God does through it all! Please pray...please...

Many Blessings To You All

If you want to give please contact my mother at: 330-416-5372 or

8344 Chatham Rd
Medina, OH 44256

She is handling my finances while I am gone. Thank you!!

Only 1 pic. for now

ANYTIME I POST PICS. ON MY BLOG YOU CAN CLICK ON THEM AND MAKE THEM BIGGER, THEN TO GO BACK TO MY BLOG JUST CLICK THE BACK BUTTON ON YOUR INTERNET TASK BAR.

I´m Back from Turkey, Falcon, and Caracas!! (FINALLY) ;)

WELL, IT´S BEEN A LONG PAST THREE WEEKS OF TRAVEL. :) After being in VZ only 2 1/2 wks. I was already off to Turkey for a Missions Conference and touring the 7 churches of Revelation for the next 2 wks. Then once I arrived back in VZ left the very next day to the state of Falcon for 3 days and then to the capital city, Caracas. Now I am finally "home!" Well, as close to home as I can be- my "home" in VZ. I will be here until Thursday (Nov. 8th) and then onto Merida to participate in language lessons for Spanish.

I have to say Turkey was such an awesome, great experience! Who would´ve thought I would be flying off to another country so quickly! :) haha... I enojoyed every bit of it, (except me having bad sinuses the WHOLE time). We stayed in a very nice hotel in Kusadasi, (right next to Ephesus). We learned a lot about the Turkish culture and the majority of their religion. Met lots of Latinos from all over South America and the Caribbean (the conference was for latino ministers/missionaries). It was so neat to walk the same places biblical people like Paul, Timothy, etc... walked. Stand in the same ampatheaters they stood in to preach. My two favorite places were Ephesus and Pergamum. They had the most ruins and you could almost feel like you were back in the day when they were. We learned a lot about these 7 locations around Turkey, and what it was like back then and how it is now. In a spiritual sense, not much has changed...They are still the same old, backslidden, God rejecting places. We were taught how the Nike sport symbol came about from an acient godess with the same name. And sooo much more. I have WAY TOO MANY pics. to upload on this blog, only a few sneak peaks. We experienced nice sunny days, to chilly ones, and a heavy down pour of rain!! What a day that was, getting all soaked. ;) We rode on a bus, that drove onto a boat to cross the Bosphorus canal-way. Got slapped in the face by the Hotel manager in Instanbul, who also tried to make me and my friend both his wife (oh not to mention he was probably older then my own grandpa AND married with lots of kids and grand kids)...Many, many experiences I know I will never forget. Well- I would like to forget that last one I mentioned! :) ha...

**To say say thank you in Turksish is pronounced like= tea sugar and a dream (real quickly). That´s your lesson for the day...try it! (And don´t forget to have fun while attempting).

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

(I WILL POST PICS. SOON I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO GO THROUGH THEM YET AND CHOOSE WHAT I WANT TO POST...BUT I WANTED AT LEAST GIVE AN UPDATE OF MYSELF.)

A Good Day Sunday

Yesterday Sunday October 14th, my sister in the Lord and I visited sister Miriam´s church, (a lady who works in the office here with us). From there we went on to visit her (Miriam´s) nephew at his house. Him and his wife cooked us a very nice meal and afterward we stayed and talked, sang sangs, and played the guitar. This was great ministry to this couple, for they are not currently with the Lord. I THANK THE LORD ALMIGHTY He was able to use me to bless this young family with the gifts the Lord has given me. We had a good time, and I was also granted the time to say a short word of encouragement to them. Today in the office sister Miriam said her nephew cannot stop talking about Fernanda and I´s visit. He wants us to come over again. He was touched TREMENDOUSLY! PRAIYZ GOD FOR THAT! For it was not by our might, or power, but by the Spirit that testified so great. Here are some pics from our visit:

schedule of what´s going down

I leave tomorrow morning (tues. Oct. 16th) at 5am to catch my flight, as I am leaving for Turkey. I will be there the next 2 wks. I will fly from Barquisimeto, VZ to Caracas, VZ, then onto Rome, and landing in my final destination of Instanbul, Turkey. Once I get back this is how the rest of my year of 2007 will look:

*Going to Falcon October 28th-30th (another state in VZ, the very next day I arrive back from Turkey)
*Then straight onto Caracas, VZ (the capital city, until friday November 2nd)
*Barquisimeto, VZ (my city of stay while here, until November 7th to do some translation work and also sing at a church on November 4th)
*Merida, VZ (November 8th-1st week in December)
*November 20th-23rd is a Missions Conference I will be participating in while in Merida
*Zulia, VZ to help in the School of Missions (December 7th-9th)
*Barquisimeto, VZ (December 10th-13th)
*Island Margarita for School of Missions (December 14th-16th)

And the rest is up in the air....! :) But that´s a good bit for now, don´t ya think???

RADIO TIME!!

Just a quick note: Today I will be speaking on a local radio station here in Barquisimeto (the town I am staying in). The pastor wants to interview Fernanda and I both, and to dicuss the topic of Missions. This is an EXCITING TIME, PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS!!!

A few pics from the office

Showing off pics of Homer (my fiance who makes me smile BIG) and my AWESOME Family to everyone at the office! Which they liked VERY much. :)



From left to right: Graciela (missionary and teacher from Argentina, Fernanda (my best friend and sister in the Lord, also a great minister of GOD!, Me (who am I???), Cook lady (forgot her name...my bad!), Miriam (a very sweet lady who will teach me Spanish), and lastly Eunice (pregnant chica who has a beautiful singing voice!)



A few extra christian ladies we met at the Salon (while I got therapy on my back= PRAISE THE LORD FOR THAT!)

Alo Folks!

On Thursday Fernanda and I left to travel to a different state to a small town called El Sombrero- The Hat. It took us 13 hours to finally arrive at our final destination, after having awakened at 5am that day. Being very exhausted and sweaty after taking 3 different buses to get there, Fernanda was asked to preach that night. In spite of how tired we were we could not refuse, so we hurried and got to our host home to shower and prepare for the service that evening. Showering in the bathroom was an experience I have felt and done before, but obviously not prefer. However, that’s the life of a missionary…never knowing what to expect and always be grateful no matter what! The house where we were at did not receive their water during the day, only at night. So at night they fill up a big plastic trash bucket of water, and then that’s all you have to use for the daytime.

So to take your shower you fill up small buckets of water, pour it all over yourself, and whatnot…sure you have gotten the point by now. The problem is that I have very long and thick hair. It would take the whole trash bucket just wet it!! So giving up on trying to wet it thoroughly I said eh, whatever- I just shampooed semi-dri/wet and rinsed as best as possible. Then to brush your teeth you use the same water from the trash bucket. I was kinda grossed out because when it got emptier you could see all kinds of dirt in the water when I would scoop it for my teeth. So what did I do?? Chewed a lot of gum that I bought before I left to come to VZ. Haha… Along with trying to use some of my mineral drinking water they bought me to do the job with my mouth.

Okay, so Fernanda preached that night at the church and the Pastor talked a little about me. Then the next night Fernanda gave her teachings on Missions to a packed church. Before starting with what she has planned she introduced me to everyone, and had me come up and say a short word of encouragement to the people using scripture. I also sang them a song on the guitar. This was interesting because all they had was an old out of tune classical guitar. The church was too big to play acoustically, so they could not hear me too well. Along with the fact I had to sit in a chair because I had no guitar strap to use. Then I had nowhere to place my music. So the setup was me sitting in a chair, with Fernanda holding my music in front of me, and the Pastor holding the mic in place. Heh..it was pretty awkward, but the people loved it anyways! The reason being-well a lot of things possibly, but for sure I know one reason is because I sang the song in Spanish. :)





So once the service was coming to a close Fernanda had me come up again to sing another Spanish song, that is very Missions oriented. This time however, the piano player came up and I have to say- he was incredible! He could play any song by memory and ear. So I said forget the guitar! I’m going with the flow of him. So I told him what song and key and he played so well along with me as if we had practiced or something. It was great! So I took the mic and led without the guitar, which I don’t do too often. My guitar oftentimes is sort of my safe guard. I enjoyed it so much. The Pastor liked it so much he asked me to continue into another song! So I led the congregation some more. I know God helped it come so naturally and thanks to Him He helped me learn those Spanish songs I have been rehearsing and studying over. If I hadn’t prepared myself earlier while I was in the States that night would not have gone so successfully the way it did.



Besides that being a major highlight to my day, the other one would definitely have to be the fact that all the pastors we were connected with had motorcycles and when we went to the church and back we got rides on them. And that was awesome! I love excursions like that! Totally my style… :) We left the town of El Sombrero on another early morning of Saturday and got to another state and town called La Victoria- The Victory. The same happened as last time. We showered got ready and Fernanda gave her lesson. This time I did not participate in the service really. I gave a short word saying hi to everyone, but I was fairly exhausted. :( After that we went to the host home, stayed the night and left again in the morning to head back home to Barquisimeto. It’s funny I haven’t even been here too long yet, and already while we were out of town I was missing “home,” and the people in the office we work in everyday.

I´M GOING TO TURKEY!!!!

WOOOHOOO I´M GOING TO TURKEY OCTOBER 16TH-27TH, PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!! Their will be a team of about 20 that will be leaving out of Caracas, VZ to a conference in Turkey. This conference will share about how to win the Muslim Community to Christ around the world. This is very important for us to attend so that as we are teaching others on missionhood around the world and training people, we can share the very important concepts about the Muslims and how to break down walls. We will also be touring the 7 main churches that the Bible speaks about in the book of Revelation. Turkey is an very, very old country that is mentioned in Biblical times. It will be a great learning experience as well as a huge time of ministry there. We will also be participating in a prayer walk around the city of our stay called (Istanbul).

One important factor to make this trip complete is that we will be able to gather enough dollars to afford everything. The Turks do not accept Bolivars, which is the Venezuelan cash currency, so we have to take hard routes to try and get U.S. dollars. Turkey will accept dollars and euros. However, the Lord has provided greatly so far and we know He will continue to provide!! I can use my credit card over there for things I do not need physical cash for however. So if any one would like to contribute in any way you can send checks, money orders, or cash to my home address:

Morris Residence
8344 Chatham Rd.
Medina, OH 44256

And my mother will gladly deposit any offering into my bank account for me, to be exchanged.

Gracias y Dios Te Bendiga
(thank you and God bless you!)
Servant to the Nations

A Day Roaming Venezuelan Streets

Well, this morning was very interesting...Fernanda and I had to run some arons before entering the office today. Let me tell you- arons are not fun espcially when it is so HOT outside! I was dripping in sweat as we walked, walked fast, and ran down streets hopping in and out of buses and stores. Only trying to find what we needed to do. Fernanda is semi-new to the city we are staying in also so it was an adventure to both of us together. (not necessarily a fun adventure though) It is very fustrating how long it takes to get from one place to another. It is not like America where if you forgot something at the store you just go back hours or days later and have easy access to Wal-Mart or something. When you buy in Venezuela you want to be sure you purchase everything, because the process is just too tidious. Anyhow- that has been my morning and now I am getting things done in the office, assisting the missionaries.

Chao Baby! ;)

Moving into Action (Already)!

Since my arrival here in VZ I have been busy already! This past weekend on Sat. 29th my missionary partner and friend Fernanda Vielma and I went to a meeting in a home far up into the mountains. I don´t think there were any other houses around them on that mountain because it was high up. ha... No there were some, but they were scattered and most of them a lot lower then where we were. On the drive up the mountain in an old beat down SUV just about stripped of everything but the seats and the steering wheel, the guy offered to me if I wanted to drive. Well- if most of you guys know me I am shy and hesitant about my self and the answers I give people a lot of times. However, if you also know me...I LOVE to DRIVE! :) So I declined at first and then he asked me a few minutes later and I said "aw...why not!" So we stopped on the mountain and exchanged seats. SARAH, ME, GOT TO DRIVE IN VENEZUELA UP A HUGE MOUNTAIN AND IT HAD BEEN ONLY ABOUT 48 HRS. I´VE BEEN IN VZ. I just thought that was awesome!



Everyone should be very proud of me. They drive crazy and the roads are so close to the edge of nothing! I still can´t believe how they trusted a young white chica like me to drive. Anyhow- Once at the home we met several people there who waiting to be taught by my partner Fernanda about missions development in their local churches. She taught two sessions and then we came back to our city of stay. Now mind you we left on this journey for the day at 5:30am in the morning and it took a few hours to get there. Then came back late that same day. While we where in the meeting Fernanda introduced me to the people and I got to say "hello" and give a short sermonette and word of encouragement. The people were greatly blessed, but that was not the end! After the last teaching Fernanda had me come back up and I sang some worship songs acapella in spanish and english. The people were brought to tears and stood up to lay hands on me seeking the Lord in prayer to use me continually while I am here the way He did that day. The people thanked me and wanted to take many pictures with me. It was a good time!

I Have Arrived Safe :)

Hola Greetings From Venezuela!

I have arrived safely into VZ and am now in my destination city re-cooping from my long travel. Things are good and I have GOD to THANK for that! My trip started out rough being kind of rushed to get to and thru the airport and it put me in a stressed circumstance. When I got to the airport they told me I could only take 2 bags and it didn´t matter if I offered to pay extra. When landing in Caracas, VZ it is their rule only 2 bags allowed per person. This came as a huge suprise and shock to me seeing that I had everything packed between 3 bags! And these were necessities, not just toys or anything else. So I had to make a very tuff decision to leave my guitar behind and take the third bag as my carr-on in addition to my already full and heavy backpack. This 2nd bag was approx. 40lbs. I was lugging that was unexpected. OHH...THE JOYS OF MISSIONHOOD! Well....ok I was not very joyful to take that bag as a carry-on nor the fact I had to leave my guitar behind. I was very sad and aggrivated in fact. Sorry to admitt...I do not always carry the perfect attitude shamefully. What added on to my already existing trouble is that when I went through security they confiscated a good amount of my stuff because there were alot of liquid based things in it. So gone away with my stuff it went! :( Then I had some other items in it which I was somehow able to talk the guy into letting me through with. IT WAS GOD´S GRACE FOR SURE! :) and for that I become grateful.

Long story trying to be shortened...when I arrived in VZ I did not see the Pastor who was suppossed to meet me there, and all kinds of airport workers kept bugging me until one of them let me use their cellphone to call my friend whom arranged this Pastor to pick me up. Well- in the long run he finally showed and with another missionary friend of his who has been minstering in India the past 4 years. It was awesome! God knows also my heart for India and he sends somebody to connect with on that subject. Ok- so I got picked up and taken to a house where I got to shower, SLEEP, and EAT! Some of my favorite things... ;) haha... I met wonderful missionaries and pastors and then I was taken back to the airport to catch my next flight to my final city. I was blessed as I was sent off AGAIN and arrived safely into Barquisimeto greeted by my dear sister and friend in the Lord and her aunts and uncles.

They hosted me to a nice meal for dinner and let me make a call to my family to let them know I was safe and had arrived. My night was then complete...Now it is today after having rested and unpacked somewhat and I am fixin to get myself into action!!!

Chao for now!!! :0)
y gracias por sus oraciones...(goodbye and thank you for your prayers)