Adventures allowed the Outtatowners to leave the cities for the lush and green countryside. “It’s a

Not that the Wellesley resident didn't have her choice of options. A top student, with a chocked-full extra-curricular resume to match, the 17-year-old could have entered vacation rentals hawaii pretty well any post-secondary program she wanted.
"But I just wasn't sure I was ready for university, vacation rentals hawaii let alone what program to go into or where" she recalls. "I also wanted to see a bit of the world and have some new experiences before getting back to the books in the fall."
A young woman with a need to give to her world, Rachel cast around for options. She came across vacation rentals hawaii the program "Outtatown Discipleship School." Based out of the Canadian vacation rentals hawaii Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg, "Outtatown" offers Canadian high school grads the opportunity to experience eight months of travel, learning, service to others and "once-in-a-lifetime adventure."
While Outtatown is affiliated with the Mennonite Church, applicants don't have to be Mennonite, nor even of the Christian faith to apply and be accepted. "It just seemed right for me,' Rachel recalls thinking when she learned about Outtatown. She joined 31 other students, and four leaders for the experience of a lifetime.
Rachel started her Outtatown sojourn in Winnipeg. For part of this stay, the group was based at Flatlanders Inn, a transitional housing community vacation rentals hawaii for Winnipeg residents at risk of homelessness, many of them aboriginal Canadians.
Andy and Beckie Wood are founding members of Flatlanders, and pastors at the sponsoring Winnipeg Centre vacation rentals hawaii Vineyard Church Community. Beckie, the former Beckie Peters, grew up in New Dundee and is a W-O grad and eldest daughter of Sylvia and the late Gerry Peters.
From the Flatlanders home base, the group took part in various vacation rentals hawaii Winnipeg "Urban Plunges" or inner-city service work. This saw them at soup kitchens, women's centres vacation rentals hawaii or shelters. The Outtatowners got their first look at Canadian homelessness too, a reality few had previously experienced.
For the next three months, the group hop-scotched west, stopping in various western Canadian communities, experiencing other Urban Plunges. The last stop-off was Vancouver. They interspersed work-time with learning time—attending lectures and hearing guest speakers on topics that ranged from pacifism, to aboriginal rights, to apartheid.
She particularly recalls handing out sandwiches to street dwellers in Vancouver and one man refusing to take one. "He said that there were others who needed the food more than him. Generosity like this brought tears to my eyes," she says.
The Outtatowners returned to their respective homes for Christmas and to prepare for the next step of the program. This would see them travel to South Africa for three months of more service work, more learning and more adventures.
As had been the pattern vacation rentals hawaii in Canada, they moved often, staying in various hostels, camps and with host families. Urban Plunges saw them working in orphanages, day care centres, vacation rentals hawaii called crèches, and AIDS clinics. AIDS remains rampant in Africa. The young people vacation rentals hawaii also took up hammers, saws and wheelbarrows, assisting to build a community centre.
On occasion they even did clean-up detail on garbage-littered streets. No jobs were too menial for the Outtatowners. Such work details allowed them to see the reality of South Africa, 18 years after apartheid was dismantled.
"By law, there is no apartheid, but it still exists in housing, in education and in jobs," says Rachel. Unemployment among blacks remains high, and many schools remain segregated on the basis of cost alone. "Most black students come from families that could never afford the tuition of the white schools," she observes.
Adventures allowed the Outtatowners to leave the cities for the lush and green countryside. "It's a stunningly vacation rentals hawaii beautiful country," says Rachel. Cliff and bungee jumping, cave exploring, mountain climbing, as well as diving with sharks were only a few of the Outtatowners' "play days."
Rachel returned to Canada vacation rentals hawaii in mid-April with a passion to do what she could to make her world a better vacation rentals hawaii place. vacation rentals hawaii Adjustment to middle-class life in her hometown of Wellesley was tough at first, and she admits to being glued to her email and Facebook to keep touch with her Outtatown peers.