'This place is wall to wall with ex addicts and none of us even smoke or swear! That could only be God!'

The above quote is something that my second house leader said which made me smile yesterday and something that I think somehow sums up the place I'm living in

Sunday afternoons are when I'm able to have my laptop and some time alone so that's when I'll be updating this thing

SO I've been here about 24 hours now. I got off to a flying start after arriving at the wrong place yesterday (yep, I know, only me, right?!) we ended up at the men's house rather than the women's safe house. Oops. It took a kindly Betel worker to come and hint at the fact that there were a lot of men around to realize that we were probably not in the right place, fortunately we were then directed to the correct address and then things ran a lot smoother.

Now I'm here, I would like to just say that I feel so, so scandalously blessed to be here. To be somewhere where there are such immense living testimonies of God's power and grace walking around everywhere! I'm starting to hear a few stories of how people got here and man! It's incredible! These women have been through all kinds of things; addiction, homelessness, prostitution, imprisonment, violence, gangs, and more.Yet if you were to look at most of these women now, you would never know, all you can see is the joy of the Lord shining through their faces. Every single one who I have asked 'how did you come to Betel?' whether they have been here a couple of months or a couple of decades have all simply smiled and said 'God' before telling me their astounding testimonies.

This morning we all piled in the mini bus and went to church where we joined the guys from the men's house and others who had been through Betel. This was an immense experience, it was so amazing to see such genuine worship. Most of the people I've spoken to were heroin and crack addicts so the scars of that life are still visible on their arms; seeing so many tattooed, scarred arms raised in worship to God was something I could describe in no other way than this - a beautiful picture of redemption. That's the transforming power of the gospel right there.



If you are the praying type please pray for me

• That I'll continue to form really great relationships with the girls here and with my supervisor
• For the new girl who's still going through detox
• That I will learn quickly
• That I will point people to Jesus
• That I will be content and hard working at whatever job is put before me

God is good all the time
God is good and that is His nature

Thank you gorgeous people!
God bless you
Caris x