A big upcoming week

So this we there is a youth program going on, and it is called Mission Adventures. It runs for 10 days and it gives youth (ages between 12-17) an opportunity to gain a better understand of God and the relationship he desires to have with us, and also gives them a taste of missions - pretty incredible. The Kids will have 4 days of lectures where they will learn more of who God is, the life that he brings us, and what it means to live for him. Also during these four days they will be preparing to go on a short missions trip, one group is going to Palm Island and the other group is going to PNG. It is such a great chance for young people to grow in Christ!

So why am I talking about this? Well, I have actually been give the opportunity to be the guest speaking for the four days of lectures. I will have five different sessions to share in, and I will cover different topics such as, Jesus (thats always an important one), Passion, Purity, Purpose, and Proclamation. It's not just about talking about God but opening a door for them to have an intimate relationship with the Lord. I am so excited about what this week is going to hold and have the chance to share the truth of who God is and the love he has for us.

It is a pretty big week and would love your support! I will update you all soon with pictures and stories of how the week went :)

Cheers!

Bible Core Course over all!

I don't know how to fully describe the last 6 months but it has been amazing!

God has moved in ways that I never saw coming, and I love that I can now say that I know Him just a little bit better then I did before!

Studying the bible is my new life long passion, I will give it the rest of my life because I discovering day by day that I will never fully understand God - but that's okay! It's a relationship, so when I look at the relationship that I have with my sisters (whom I love and miss so much) I am still finding out bits and pieces of who they are because it takes a life time to know everything about someone. With God it's just the same, he just wants us to discover who he is by being in a relationship with him, and the bible is the most important beautiful tool to help us get there. It's never about the amount you know but its about how it changes your life.

What I love about the studying the bible is how close it makes me feel to God, and that when I start to understand bits of it I am able to share it with others and then they can also feel closer to him - so cool!

Anyways I love God and I love the bible! Here is a short video of the BCC 2011 I hope you enjoy it :)

Thank you for all your love and support - you are making this dream possible!

Part three of outreach – Port Moresby

The last two weeks of outreach we travelled to Port Moresby to a village called Vabukori. Now as the only team leader I was a little nervous about what our time would look like and what chances we would have to teach. Honestly I am learning that it is okay if you don't have everything planned out because serving God he usually has his own plans in mind anyways.

God showed up in such a huge way during our time in Port Moresby, with programs, teaching, and just simply fellowship. Sometimes I think that because we are outreach we need to be preaching every second of everyday, but God showed me that just by building relationships and spending time with people you are “preaching” because you are showing Gods love. That has been powerful. We were able to do so much more then we ever thought, as we put on different programs people started coming up to us after and asking "okay so then how do you study your bible". Without even trying we got to put on another bible seminar for a whole VILLAGE about 150-200 people showed up - Family, kids, and the youth - amazing! God is God sometimes we just have to let him do his thing!

Also the family that we had the chance to stay with was out of this world – amazing!! It is a large family, three brothers and a sister and they have all had their kids and live in walking distance from each other. They call themselves the Moses family because that is the fathers’ last names and they truly are one huge amazing loving family! Their passion for the Lord is shown through worship, and I tell you I have not heard worship like this before, it is so powerful and full of the spirit. It doesn't even matter if you understand the words Gods presence is there when they worship. They taught us a few songs in their language, which was SO much fun to be able to sing with them! I don't even know what to say to explain how amazing this family is, they are true followers and lovers of the Lord and making a huge impact in their village, and it was a privilege to serve with them. We have been able to speak at many youth programs, churches, women’s fellowships, and other small gatherings! It has been so much fun to be able to share not only bible teachings but also our testimonies of whom God has been in our lives and where he has taken us!

Part two of outreach – Mount Hagen PNG

I would just like to start out by saying that this place was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too and I will go back in a heart beat... Breath taking

(YWAM Base where we stayed)

(Where we slept)

Our original plan for Mt. Hagen was to do three weeks of bible seminars teaching pastors and leaders how to better study their bible. It was a good plan but not one that worked out, first we couldn't get flights until late in the week which meant that one week of seminars would be out. Once in Mt. Hagen we meet with some of the pastors to see what time they would like to start on Monday, but they said that most of the pastors are busy this week so we would have to start the following week – another week out. Three weeks of seminars down to one, now you could see this as bad and annoying but honestly when on outreach you just have to trust that God will work something out for the best, and I think he did. By chance we got connected with an American family who have lived in PNG for about 20 years, and we were able to go up to their village (about 2 hours away) where we had the chance to speak to about 800 youth at a high school, then help organize there library (they had thousands of used books given to them). We also go to visit a hospital and were able to pray for around 50 patients, and put on a little skit for them! Yes, it sucked that the seminar week fell through but the amount we got to do and the contact that we made with this family (we are wanting to send more teams up to them in the future) I think made it a worth it – it was better then just being mad and annoyed that the original plan didn't work out. We came back to Mt. Hagen after spending two days with that family and we had two evening church services and one on Sunday morning. We were also able to squeeze more then 10 hours of bible reading into the week – we’re not here to waste time. We were able to finally start our bible seminar for the pastors on Tuesday evening and it went until Saturday night – it as powerful!

(our little trip up to Enga Province)

(helping organize a high schools library)

People in PNG are so hungry for the word and for truth, so it is amazing to be able to offer something to them. We went through the method of inductive study, which just means using these tools: observation, interpretation, application, and then proclamation. We help them see the bible in context, so taking in historical setting, who was it written too, who wrote it, and why was it written. Also teaching them how to look at the book in a whole and not just taking single verses out and making something out of it but showing them how to have a larger perspective to what these books have to offer when you look at it holistically. And man it was powerful! It is such an incredible feeling when you are able to give something to people when they are so hungry for it. We had to fight for this seminar but I really believe that we as a team broke through something and I think that all teams that follow after us will be able to do so much more. Something powerful has started, and a hungry for truth has been stirred – I cant wait to see what God does with this!

(teaching at the bible seminar)

(small groups with pastors and some other locals)

So over all our trip up to Mount Hagen didn't turn out the we had planned (far from it) but the had of God was over us and lead us to some amazing opportunities. It is a place that I now want to return and keep equipping the pastors, leaders, and anyone who is hungry for truth. It is just so powerful when you give control over to God, it pushes you in your trust in him, but man its worth it.

(our Mt. Hagen family)

Part one of outreach ~ Deeper Camp!

7 days, 16 teenagers, 7 staff, 1 powerful God!

Its is funny how we can plan and plan, think through all the details and try to makes sure all bases are covered when we set out on different adventures – but when God wants to be in control things usually change.

The first day of the camp went as planned (the only day that did) we drove 8 hours south, stayed with some lovely people from a church, had some fellowship and then rested before driving the rest of the 9 hours the next day. The next morning we wake up to rain and a flat tire, we get everything sorted and then leave couple hours late. The plan was to arrive in Toowoomba at around 4 and then go to the campsite, which was about an hour outside of the city, where we would be staying for three nights. We got into the city at around 6:30 only to find that one of the two vans had an engine problem. We just so happened to stop in front of a house that had a trailer parked in front (we needed the tools for our trailer) and the elderly couple were more then happy to help us. Since we had one working van we decided to drive some of the kids and leaders so that they could start setting up camp and then come back and get the rest and fix the van in the morning. The first van takes off, so some of the kids and I stayed at the elderly couples house until the van came back for us which should have only been an hour… three house later the van comes back but only because they couldn't find the campsite. Don't worry God stepped in, it just so happened that one of the leaders new an old YWAMer that lived a few blocks away with a backyard big enough for all of us to camp out! We are able to set up camp at around 12am in the rain (and its cold in the south of Australia). The next day we hang out at this house while some of the leaders try and get the van fixed, we had fun hanging out with the kids and just getting to know them better. The hand of God was still with us because when the van was taken in to the shop a guy looks at it and says “ I see what the problem was but nothing is wrong with it now – it’s totally fine.” The night before we all prayed that the van would be “healed” and it WAS! How cool is that?! And it worked 100% for the rest of the week with not a single problem.

Finally we arrive at a very sketchy campsite; never the less we set up camp and God started to move. Because this camp was apart of our outreach all the students had a night of teaching, we based our teaching around the book of Mark and who Jesus is and can be. The whole time we were at the camp God was just moving, in relationships, conversations, and even by what we were doing. We were able to help with some flood relief and clean up, which was cool because the book of Mark shows Jesus as a servant of man, so it was nice to be able to serve those in need around us. I don't even know how to describe how much God did, I mean he just spoke life and truth into these kids lives. He revealed his character and who he wanted to be in their lives, and the amazing part is that the kids were SO hungry for it – they wanted God is such a real and raw way! Man so cool! Anyways we just continued on and encouraged the kids as much as we could and talked about God left right and centre!

On Friday we packed up and made our way back into the city to attend a Christian music festival Easterfest! A heap of big Christian bands were there along with lots of smaller ones, so there was music all day long and different tents selling clothes, food, and also different organizations. Just to be able to hang out with the kids in this amazing Christian environment was a huge blessing – it was just SO fun!!!! We could go to different bands and worship God and jump around not caring what anyone might think – and even though I people thought I was 16 I still had the time of my life :) Saturday we got up earlier (so that we could take in as much as possible) the day started out great, bands, hanging out, and lots of laughs! After dinner we all made our way down to the main stage because Switchfoot was playing so we had to get the best spot! As we are dancing to the opening bands its starts to rain – not a huge deal… Until it started to downpour! Not wanting to give up hope that the rain would stop and the show would go on we held our ground soaking wet, along with the other few hundred people! Sad to say the rain didn't stop, with in half an hour the water was up to our ankles and it wasn't getting any lighter. So we went back to our tents only to find our tents flooded (not as bad as some people where there looked to be rivers running through and around some tents). Where the bands were playing the water was up to the middle of my shins, so needless to say most bands and people were packing up for the night – hoping for something better in the morning. Since most of the tents were flooded we also decided to pack to and head out, it was sad but I think the best choice. We were able to stay and one the leaders parents house for a night and then we made all the way back to Townsville safe and sound!

(EasterFest!)

I loved this camp! Seeing youth grab a hold of who God is and being so hungry for him brings me so much refreshment. God is good and he wants to show himself to us in ways that we don't plan.

Outreach 2010!!!!!

Alright, its that time of year again - OUTREACH TO PAUPA NEW GUENIA!

So here is the plan!

I am leading a team of 4 and Jonathan the school leader is leading a team of 3, our outreach is broken up into three parts;

1) (my team) We will spend a week with a youth camp and music festival, just serving and pouring into the youth of Australia. (Jonathan's team) They will be putting on a traditional passover meal for the ywam base and then flying off to PNG.

2) (both teams) we will fly and meet the other team in Mount Hogin, which is in the high lands of PNG, where both teams will be running two weeks of bible seminars to pretty much anyone who wants to come and learn how to better ready, understand, and study their bible. Jonathan has tough up there before so we are hoping to be able to reach all different age groups this time (ie. pastors, families, youth, kids!)

3) (my team) we will stay for one more week in Mount Hogin finishing of the bible seminars and then we will make our way to Port Mosby for two weeks were we are going to do different day teachings and programs (im not 100% sure what the two weeks will look like yet!) but it is going to be amazing!! (Jonathan's team) they will be joining the Medical ship for one of the outreaches serving with the medical team!

Thats about it - not too bad ;) I cant wait YWAM Townsville has been called to pour into and come along side of this nation and disciple it and we are starting to walk that out in a few different ways, one of the ways is the Medical ship (i was able to serve on it for 4 months last year) we are planing to have the ship up in PNG for about 6 months offering free health care and seeing what we able to do to help this nation develop to all it is meant to be. Also we have DTS teams going up and all around ministering to the people building relationships and just loving on them - showing them the true heart of God! And now we are going to send up a bible team (me and my team) to teach a foundational understand of the word, we believe that God is going to really raise this nation up and it is key that they have a foundation of truth! So that is going to be our focus. So needless to say its a pretty big job but we have much confidence in the call of God and are doing everything that we can to get this show on the road:) It is a very exciting time and i dont think i fully understand all that God is doing with us and PNG but i do know that it is huge!

Anyways that is just what I'm up too over here in the land of OZ! I miss Canada with my whole heart but i am in love with what God is doing down here!

Cheers!

Just over half way through!!

So in the we are going into the eight week of the school and we are going to be studying 1 & 2 Kings - So good :) So far we have gone through the following books; Acts, Titus, Philemon, 1 Peter, Genesis, Romans, Revelation, Hebrews and now kings. Not bad for 8 weeks ;)

It is a bit funny to me because God made it very clear to me to stay in Townsville at work with the Bible Core Course for at least two school, but I am finding myself wanting to be a student again! With each week I am given more clarity but left with more questions and a longing for more - I'm a little in love with the bible.

Honestly I can't believe that my soul responsibility is to study the bible - who gets to do that! I have actually found staffing the bible core course harder then being a student... not with the work load but with wanting to be in their place (the students)!! The more I study the bible the more i realize that its all I want to do with my life, not in the typical bible teacher but I want the bible and the truth that lies in to take over my life and impact everything I do - I want to be my life. God showed me this last weekend, when the whole base went up camping, that because I laid down so many of my desires last year and pretty much gave up my life to follow him, I am able to have such freedom in the relationship that I have with him now. Its kind of hard to explain over 'blog' but I guess simply God was just saying...

you don't have to give up your world because I am your world

With that I believe that God is trying take me on the path of having freedom to just 'be' where ever I am because he is with me (pretty basic) but will definitely impact my heart with severing him - even when I'm so far from home.

So the school is going good, and God is amazing. I don't know where life is taking me but I believe in the one who is leading me.

Cyclone Yasi

As you all know a category 5 tropical Cyclone hit north east Queensland wednesday this week. The eye of the Cyclone missed townsville but about a 3 hour drive, we still got a lot of destructive winds which ripped up trees and damaged many homes. I am very thankful to say that no one has been killed and the majority of Townsville is doing okay, besides the lack of power and a very big clean up job ahead we are doing good.

But that is not the case in other areas just north of me. As of right now there are still no reports of death but in some of the smaller costal towns they have been flattened with not a single home that is still livable, people have truly lost everything. So needless to say I slash we do not take our safety lightly, it is kind of hard to fully wrap my head around everything that has happened. As of right now I am trying to focus on really how lucky I am and truly how much worse it could have been.

So really what I am trying to get at is that yes it was crazy being in the biggest storm Australia has ever seen, but we all survived and now we will all work together to try and get life back to normal. So here are a few pictures of just around the block where I live just so you can see a bit of the mark Yasi made on us.

One of the YWAM houses

Just down the street from us.

A normal site around town...

This is right out side my house! So lucky that it didn't fall onto my house.

and this is right behind my house!

Life so far,

I have been here for a month already and have gone through staff training (which is just learning more about the standards of Aussie education and so forth) and am now going into the third week of the Bible Core Course (BCC) – what a month! Everything is going so good, it was a very hard transition if I am being honest, I just loved home too much I think :) It was very overwhelming getting ready to staff the school (BCC) definitely didn't feel good enough to be doing what God was calling me to do. But one day I was talking about this with my roommate and realized that I am walking into exactly what God has called me too, so of course I would face some opposition! That really helped me see things a bit more clear and remind me that God really does know what he is doing and that everything is going to be okay.

I already really feel God showing up in a big way, my relationship with him is getting deeper and my heart for Australia (living here) is growing. God made it clear to me that I am only going to stay in Australia for two schools which means coming home for good in August 2012. Yes, that is a long time but like I said before when I see the big picture and everything that I am going to take away from here it brings me a lot of peace.

The School is going so good, we have gone through Acts, Philemon, and Titus! We are getting ready to learn about small group bible study and then 1 Peter (which I am teaching!) It is all pretty exciting!

I’m loving that I get to spend the next 5 months studying the bible – who gets to do that? BAH so fun!

Our classroom before all the students arrived!

This is where I sit :)

Just doing our bible reading! By the end of the school we will have read through the whole bible cover to cover.

A new year...

I have SUCH hope for this year! Now I know that last year sounded really bad... well it kind of was, yes I got so much out of it and now I am starting to see more and more why I had to go through it. You don't know what you got until its gone - right? Well its pretty great when you start getting some of it back.

When I did my DTS we were in Cambodia for new years and a bunch of us got together and made "God goals" - please note that these are different to "resolutions" these are areas or challenges that we were going to seek after with and for God. What did we want with God this year? Now it was 2009 when I did this and mine was all about growing in understanding of his word... stuck pretty close to that one! But as I got back to Australia on the 1st of January (missing the new year with my travels) God started moving right away. There are a few things that God has spoken about this year, three main goals 1) Connect to his presences 2) Find or make the joy in situations 3) Let go and have an open heart to learn. These three put together give me such excitement for the year, some of it scares me (letting go...) but I feel such a sense of freedom from it, such a beautiful thing.

2 key verse he has brought up for the year... the main one being

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under Gods mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7

and

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" Proverbs 4:23

I'm staffing the Bible Core Course (which starts this sunday Jan. 16) which overwhelms me like none other, but I know that God has given me a passion for his word and he has called me to this time in Australia to be far from everything that I know and to dig into him more then I ever have done before in my whole life. I believe that is a time where God has taken me away to meet with me and have a chapter in my life that is devoted to "getting to know him better" it is about making a stronger foundation for our relationship. Who could ask for anything more?

I don't understand why God has called me to this or what I have to offer, but out of obedience I am walking forward anticipating what is to come.

Recap of 2010!

It is a little hard for me to believe that I have lived in Australia for a whole year - who does that?

Looking back on this last year it still blows my mind when I see on all that I was able to do, starting with a course of inductive bible study, then to a tour around Australia on a medical ship, and then up into Papua New Guinea for 2 months. What a year!

I want to go into a bit more detail about this last year but please keep in mind that I consider myself blessed with how much I have been given, I don't take it lightly... it has just been a very challenging year.

It has been exciting traveling all over Australia and learning more about the Creator of the world but in all honesty 2010 was probably one of the most challengingly hard years that I have faced (yes I know I'm only 20 but it was still tough) but let me explain why.

So on my DTS in Hawaii God was very "real" he spoke loudly, I felt him every where, and I like to say that he swept me off my feet - won over my heart. During my first few weeks in Australia for my BCC God showed me a very clear picture; a tree root that was very thick and healthy it was strong and deep, it had lots of little spouts coming off of it going into every direction. But then the picture shifted to another root (from the same tree) but it was small and weak... God explained that the big strong root was my emotional relationship with him and the small weak one was my understand his truth - his word. So as God showed me that he told me that we were going to be focusing on the small root, not discrediting our relationship but just focusing on knowledge.

So I guess this was a bit of a pre-warning that things were going to look a little different this year with my relationship with God... not so much about what I'm 'feeling' but what I 'know'. It's a great idea, I mean what christian doesn't want to be pushed in their faith and have a better understand of who God actually is. Well it's a lot easier thought about then lived out, I have never felt so out of my comfort zone and so far from the presences of God.

God moved a lot on my school, as I have shared in earlier blogs but after the school was over I thought that everything was going to go back to normal... didn't go as planned. Away that I would explain what God would challenge me with is this - "So everything around you sucks, you cant find any real comfort, you're tired and worn out... can you still say that I AM Lord and will you keep going?" I would reach a place when I didn't want to take one more step and I would go to God hoping that he would tell me that it's over and I could go home but instead time after time all he would say was "Keep going."

Needless to say that sucked! But a huge thing that I have learned through that was how to be honest with God, to not put on this face saying that everything was okay when I would tell everyone else how much I was hurting. It took me a long time to actually be able to do that, and now I am still learning what the balance is - because I cant be mad at him all the time, I mean he is still God! I feel like I have the chance to really understand what it means to die to self and pick up your cross. Within this last year God has challenged me to lay down my desires and the places I would rather be (like Canada - my home and native land!) I don't think I have missed a place so much before, I really do love my country!

God never said that traveling the path less traveled was going to be easy, and most of say that we want to follow Gods will for our lives, but what happens when that means you have to be the one to make the sacrifice? I faced that a lot last year and to top it all off God felt so distant, I have never felt so alone. But to be honest I have never had such a desperation for something before in my whole life, I started to see how much I actually need him and not in a "Your God I'm your servant" but more in the way that we are meant to be one and if you are gone I can barely hold myself together.

So yes 2010 was a very hard year of studying the bible, laying down my desire to go home and many other things, understanding that even if everything is taken away God is still God, and feeling very alone in all of it. But I cant understand now looking back that God has been teaching me such valuable lessons, obedience, stronger faith, why I need relationship and what love really means. We are created to be with our creator and sometimes it takes "giving up" a lot to see how much we actually need him. I'm ready to take what I have learned at apply it to the new year :)