Short Hello

Hey guys. I'm doing great. Two weeks left in Indonesia and though I'm ready to get back to NZ to be reunited with the rest of the DTS and get out of the heat I also look forward to the last days of our stay here. We will be doing our normal ministry this next week and the following week will be involved in a water project and teaching computer classes.

A highlight from the last couple of weeks was visiting a group of families who were extremely poor. It was awesome to be able to chat with them, sing and share with them and just generally encourage each other. Though we brought them clothes and will also bring them a meal next week, in some ways I feel much more blessed by visiting them then we probably are blessing them. Their joy, especially as we both talked about our faiths, was contagious and I, as I often have been in the past, was amazed at how those who have so little have so much more joy than many who have so much. When the families' kids returned from school I was also really touched when one of the little boys came straight up to me and gave me the biggest hug!

Also, just to say, not only are the streets filled with animals and critters, but so is the YWAM base we live in. Yesterday I opened the door and watched 5, yes 5 rats run past the steps that lead down to the kitchen. I couldn't quite believe my eyes! It seems that the kitchen is the favorite hang out of hordes of both rats and mice! Funnily enough our balinese friends who we live with don't seem at all bothered!

Thank you for your prayers. So many have been answered and God has been so good. Lately have been encouraged by the verse:

'love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.'

Good stuff. Love to you all.

Life in Bali!! A Brief Update

Where to start?!

What a constant adventure life is here. Every day is a battle against sweat and mosquitoes (while sitting here on pillows on the floor at an internet cafe have already been bitten twice) . Though the food is amazingly decent here, one's stomach is never quite right. Thankfully I have not suffered from any serious stomach sickness like some of my team. Walking through the neighborhood where we live one passes rats scuttling across the road, one has to jump across holes in the pavement which look down into the sewage below, dodge the cars and scooters which congest the road, block one's nose passing by piles of rubbish or the incense filled hindu temples which pop up on every street corner. The cold showers here are an amazing blessing. Though we have a shower in our bathroom, most of the time I just have a bucket shower as the shower rarely functions. One team member was bitten aggressively by a monkey the other day. Thankfully just has a few ugly bruises now to show from her attack.

We have been to schools, prisons, orphanages, slums, hospitals, youth groups, churches, visited poor families and much more while we have been here. Mainly been encouraging, blessing and praying for people here. Most have been extremely appreciative and has been awesome to see hearts being touched. Also has been very cool as have seen two people been healed when we have prayed for them. A random highlight for me was singing songs to an old lady who had a tumor on her leg at a hospital we were visiting. I sat by her bed holding her hands and for a long while sang some hymns to her, watching her face relax feeling a deep peace come over her. Though was such a simple thing to do somehow to me it felt that it was of great significance.

There is nothing like being taken out of the comforts of the western world to experience God's faithfulness and love. It feels that the whole team is being brought closer to God in their own way. Though we have often felt very weak here, we have really known his presence and seen Him work in so many situations. He has been a great friend to me here as I have really had to depend on Him. Leading a team has certainly not been easy. However it has taught me a lot about wisdom and about God's wisdom. I think I am learning a lot about loving and serving and what that looks like.

Anyway if you would like to, please pray specifically that communication with the leadership at the YWAM base here would get better, that God would guide me as I decide the schedule for the team each week, and pray for strength for the team to love each other! Thank you!

Off to Bali, Indonesia

Tomorrow I will be hopping onto a plane in Auckland along with 7 other team mates, leading an outreach team to Bali for just under 2 months!!! We have an interesting mixture of Americans, Swiss, an Australian and Canadian on the team.

For those of you that don't know, this is where Bali, Indonesia is:

Most people think of Bali as a tourist location that looks something like this:

However, as we will be staying for the majority of our time in the capital, Denpasar, it may well look more like this:

In all honesty I'm not really sure that there is anyway of anticipating what my surroundings will be like in Bali, but it is amusing trying to guess.

I am very much looking forward to experiencing a new culture and for all the adventures that I'm sure that will be had, but a lot of me is unsure about what I am getting myself into, particularly as the team leader! I am ready to go though, as I am longing not just to talk and learn about things but to go and do them. It's not really worth me trying to explain and guess all that I will be involved in while I will be there. Better to wait and get a better understanding of what we will be doing once there and then will update you. Overall, I'm just pretty darn excited!!! =)

Anyway here are some short prayer requests (for those of you who are praying for me):

- Pray for team unity (an obvious prayer request, but much needed as we do have a rather random assortment of team members on our team and I have my worries about everyone getting along)

- Pray for break throughs, healings, god appointments, for God to do the unexpected, for God to do what He wants to do not what we want to do, just mostly that we can help people encounter God's love (again a not unexpected prayer request, but our team really do long to step out in boldness and not be afraid to ask to pray for people on the street etc, and I know that the prayers of you all around the world will be so important for us as we step out and pray that God will perform miracles)

- Pray for God to guide me in my leadership and give me heaps of wisdom

Good bye and Thank you!!!!

Thank you for your prayers and all your support and love. We will have a team blog that we will update and I may send around that address at some point but may get a chance to post on here every once in a while! Its been lovely hearing from a lot of you- do feel free to email or facebook me if you do get a chance for I will occasionally be able to go online. 

My address in Bali (until the 23rd November) will be:

PO Box 3407

Jln.Dukuh Sari No.10 Sesetan
Denpasar
80034
Bali
INDONESIA

First Blog: An explanation of what I am doing here in NZ!!!

(picture of the view from where we live)

What am I doing this year?

The short answer is that I am staffing two Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) based in Tauranga, New Zealand.

(me with my two room mates and other DTS staff)

What is a DTS?

A DTS is a place for people from the age of 18-35 to come and spend 3 months to work on their relationship with God and to spend two months in another country/countries on outreach. It is amazing to see how students change on a DTS and how God impacts them while they are here. The first three months are composed mainly of the students receiving teaching on a different topic each week from a different guest speaker/s.  The teaching is absolutely awesome- the speakers do not just teach but share their lives with the students. Outreach is an awesome chance to share about God (share not force) and to pray for those who want prayer as we believe that his love and grace change lives, bring hope to the hopeless and redeem those who are broken and lonely. Often outreach can involve bringing humanitarian aid, working in orphanages and sharing the love of God in practical ways. For our outreach on this DTS we will be going to Indonesia, leaving on October 6th!! Marine Reach YWAM are the organisation who run the DTS and they have a special focus on bringing humanitarian aid and medical care using ships, so there is a possibility we will be joining in the work that they are doing on the second DTS I will be staffing. Outreach is an awesome part of the whole DTS and extremely eye opening.

(picture of some of the DTS who got up at 5.15am to watch sunrise)

What is my role?

I am part of the team of 12 staff who organises and runs everything. During the lecture phase as staff our main job is to love and support and the 33 students who are on our school. I mentor 4 of the students (one Dutch, two Swiss, and one American from Virginia) which is one of my favourite parts of being staff!! As staff we initiate a lot of activities for the students such as playing games, praying together, worshipping, playing ultimate frisbee (which we play at least twice a week after our session of organised physical exercise of some sort), building forts, going on fun adventures, (just generally  encouraging community and fun filled fellowship). We meet at least two times with our outreach teams and equip our teams for outreach in various ways. We also organise all that is going on at the YWAM base where we live to make everything run smoothly. I am in charge of hospitality and am also the kitchen liaison, which basically means I bake a lot for different events and for birthdays, make sure people are welcome, and make sure people are getting fed amongst other random jobs. Basically it’s pretty much really tricky to sum up what we do so sorry about that!

(playing ultimate frisbee)

(Our maori welcome to the land which the YWAM base is on- interesting kind of a welcome)

Why am I doing this?

Because I love being able to be a part of all that goes on a DTS- seeing people grow in intimacy with God, equipping young people for their future lives, getting to be a part of a community of people from all around the world, amongst other things. It is a bizarre situation to be in and so not like anything in the normal world, but I really think it is a beautiful time to step outside of normal life and realise what is important, really take time to dream big about ones future, learn heaps about life from living with a bunch of cool people and just to fall more in love with this wonderful guy called Jesus.

(a shot of the scenery around where we live)

How am I doing?

Just grand. I am in a beautiful location with really nice people. I have two wonderful roommates- one crazy Australian (we laugh a lot together especially when attempting to do a west country farmers accent) and an Iowan (who used to have dreadlocks and who I love to have long and thought provoking discussions with). Funnily enough my accent is usually this blend of British and American (though I did try hard not to go American there are too many Americans around), but it is often all over the place.

So I will be honest that I was worried about being stuck in a bit of YWAM Christian bubble, but I have found that people are so genuine here, there is no nonsense and there is just a whole lot of love. People just love each other (sorry it sounds a bit cheesy) here in really cool ways and it’s an awesome place to be (for example just the other day one of the students gave me a whole container of homemade chocolate fudge which his grandma had sent him all the way from America- boy oh boy was that a blessing). Was perhaps a bit silly of me as I have already been in the YWAM world before but I was worried that I would feel like I would be surrounded by Christians who were all a bit ‘brain washed’ or something and didn’t question what they were doing and why they were doing it and were always happy and always in a place of having a perfect relationship with God and I would be there questioning everything and uncomfortable with what was going on. Instead I have met a group of people who are just so real, who love to question and who tell God that they are angry at him if they are angry and who chat with him and laugh with him and I am learning so much from the people I am around and not feeling uncomfortable or inadequate as I was worried I might be. And for that I am so thankful to God.

Prayer Requests

If you were wondering what some specific things you could be praying for me if you were wanting to, I would love prayer as our team prepare for outreach in Indonesia. I don't want the 2 months that we are there to be just another missions trip. We would love to be a part of God's plan to pour out his love on this hurting world and want to be open to whatever way God wants to do that. So please pray BIG, if you want to pray! And wisdom in my leadership would also be much appreciated. =)

Awesome answer to prayer

I was asking God if He would help provide a cello for me while in New Zealand, though thinking it would be incredibly unlikely, and He has in an amazingly miraculous way. A lady who lives near the base and often helps out with the DTS has always wanted to learn the cello for many years now and just happened to finally decide to rent a cello for the year so she can start learning to play the cello. So when she found out that I played cello she has said I can come and play it whenever I want!!! I have been playing it quite a bit during worship. So thankful to God!

(...For those of you my dear friends who find what I am doing a bit odd because its not something you believe in yourself, I apologise for the things in my blog that may be odd to you. I know that you guys all accept what I believe in though, so I have been honest about my faith and what I have been up to this last month and a half, hoping that you may find it interesting.)