High-Fives are Super Effective.

Another busy and amazing week here in hot, hot India.
All last week we were involved in a Vacation Bible School. It was a lot of fun but very tiring. The kids were so cute, usually were very difficult to understand, and also had endless amounts of energy. Me and another girl were involved in the bible deck, where we taught them basic bible stories. I got to act like an idiot and teach them sea facts. Acting like an idiot is fun. The culture was different, so there were a few things taught/done that I didn't agree with, but I'm learning to accept and fit in to other cultures so I think it was a healthy experience. At the end we performed some funny skits for the kids as a tasty cherry on top of the week. To conclude the week, I would say I learned one main thing. Indian kids love high fives. You high five them and smile at them, they are your best friend for life.
On sunday we went and helped out a church run their service. We performed the everything skit for them and then...

I spoke my very first sermon ever;

In a foreign country to people who don't speak my language, speaking about Lordship. It was really cool, I was so nervous beforehand, but as soon as I walked into the church instantly I was fine. Gods peace was all over me. I began, and had to be patient as everything I said was translated for them. My prepared message went about 30 mins, but I thought it was too short, so with a liberal helping of the Holy Spirit, I spoke 15 mins more.

It was amazing to speak to some of the indian youth afterwards (who are the most amazing, friendly people. They held my hand and laughed and claimed we were good friends already and India was "our country")
They said they were amazed I had never spoken before and I think my message really spoke to some of them. It made my faith soar, God was with me every step of the way and none of it was in my strength. Especially seeing as I was sick for it and the two days prior.
I have no idea what we're doing this week. In typical YWAM style we'll do it on the fly. But I'm not nervous because God is with us and we are doing what he asked us. And He will provide in abundance for those who obey Him. I'm excited for what's going to happen and the stories we will have.
Continue to pray that we will walk in obedience and the hearts of people will be open to what we're saying or doing.
Miss you all, look forward to seeing your fabulous faces soon!

Vanakam

Vanakam to all of you.
That means good day/greeting to you in Tamil, the language of Chennai, India. Which is where me and the rest of my outreach team are right now...
We arrived last monday after a solid amount of flying, which was helped greatly by our personal tv screens with movies and games. mmm, Singapore airlines. We spent most of the next few days resting, we did a few short trips (in rickshaws=fun) around the area to get acquainted, and to buy our local clothing for ministry. The stuff here is pretty cheap, especially snack items which I like a lot. Not that we don't eat well. The food is amazing, we have rice pretty much every meal with differing styles of sauce poured over the top, but it is so good.
On friday and saturday we began ministry, which consisted of prayer walks around different communities, including a fishing village. Our translator said prayer walks are so effective here, because the spiritual realm is so real. There are temples on almost every corner, and houses have masks, paintings and symbols drawn on them. This culture and religion has been here for 1000's of years and it has such a strong hold on the people. But the God we follow is even more powerful, timeless and he is everchanging. I can see that people cling to such old traditions, whereas the real God wants to refresh and renew and have a personal relationship. Empty temples to uncaring gods shall be pulled down to make way for the living temples of our bodies. Normally, prayer walks are average, but here i know my very presence is uncomfortable to the enemy, and every step I take and pray over his ground is powerful and is breaking down the enemies forts.

Tomorrow we start a 6 day long Vocational Bible School for kids aged 3-14. The church that has organised it has a congregation of 40,000 or so Tamil speaking people, and an english service of about 2000. I think they are planning to have about 250 kids. I'm looking forward to it.
Continue to pray for me and the team, because as I said, prayer really is powerful.

Preparation: The Act of Beginning.

This will be my last blog Australia-side for 8 weeks. My journey to India begins at 3:30am Sunday night/Monday morning. I don't if I'm ready, or if I ever could be completely ready. But I know that God is my strength when I am weak, and that I am doing what He has called me to do, so He will be with me. And that's more than a relief.

This week has been such a strange week. We have been doing outreach preparation all week, which meant practising our skits, as well as packing and cleaning up our rooms. On Thursday morning half of the team going to Mozambique left, which included my room-mate. It was a weird day, happy and yet sad. Happy because we are all going out into the world, all trained up and inspired to be the bringers of the gospel and the builders of Gods kingdom. But it was sad because I know I will not see most of these people again except for the week we have when we get back. These people I have laughed and cried with, feared and rejoiced with, grown and been stretched with. I feel so close to all these people, they really have become brothers and sisters in Christ and are like family. So, like family, I know it is time to let them go and see them take their own place in the world.
The world...India, Mozambique, Darwin, Newcastle, Papua New Guinea and South Africa. Prepare to be impacted, shaken and changed. Gods Son's and Daughter's are coming and they bring a fire that cannot be quenched.
I am excited, nervous, apprehensive, motivated and many others emotions that really mean the same things. I don't know what's in store, I'm certain it's going to be challenging, but I plan to go into it with my head down and feet running. Like a bull. A man-bull.

I am planning to be able to update this blog once a week, as well as updating the ywamnow site (which will probably say the same thing) So you can look forward to exciting tales from exotic India! Pray for me and my team as I go, and while I'm away, for safety and provision and also that we will be effective in what we do.
Love you in Christ!

Our Kingdom vs His

Time has flown. I haven't written a blog in nearly two weeks. So I have two weeks worth of lectures to cover in this blog. Lets get it oonnn.

Warfare of the Spiritual kind. This was the basis of our lessons a couple of weeks ago. Our Sensei for the week was Peter Warren, an Aussie who now leads the base in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. A couple of years ago they had a gunman come in and kill some staff members. It was a trying time for the base and Peter, and I think it gave him a good basis to speak on the nature of spiritual warfare and how it relates to the physical.
He had a few interesting theories on certain things, but it was really good to think about and stretch my brain which I think is a good thing. He spoke about the history of the world and universe (and evil) as well as whether all things that occur are Gods plan. If they are according to his plan, even the evil things, does that match his character of a loving God?, and if not, how can he be omnipotent and omniscient or does he limit himself? Woah, theology.
He also spoke on the weapons we have at our disposal, such as worship being a way to bring Gods presence into the darkness. So next time you're worried or feeling oppressed, just worship God and he will “inhabit your praises”
It was all really God to hear a few weeks before we go to India so we can remember what to do when we encounter the markedly different environment of India.

And then, this week we learnt about the Kingdom of God. It really brought everything we've learnt so far into perspective. We are all called to this earth as stewards, so we need to be careful and diligent in the earth and everything we are given to us. The reason we evangelise and do missions is to advance his Kingdom. The main point I got is that Gods kingdom is so different to this one. Even the greatest “christian” worldly kingdom is not going to be fulfilling the true call of God.

So now I have one week of outreach prep before India. This involves packing, cleaning our room and practising skits etc. before we leave. Nine freaking days till I go to India. Continue to pray for me and the team, as well as the other teams going to Mozambique and Papua New Guinea. Also, if you feel called, there are still a lot of people needing finances to go. I ask that if you can spare some money you partner with us to help get them where they need to go.

Love you all, I will try and update one more time before I go, and I don't know how often I'll get to update while I away, but I am in charge of website updates so I should get some chances..

You ARE The Boss of Me

It's funny how things come around in circles. I remember the first blog I wrote whilst here on my DTS and how I wrote about authority. I never really thought I had a problem with it as much as I did, but this week showed me the truth. This week showed me a lot of things.
Lordship week was the topic, and it was such an intense, but such a needed week.
Lordship is, in essence, understanding and then accepting the fact that Jesus not only loves us, but is also our King and Lord. Its such a difficult thing to put into practice in your life, because we are all prideful and think we know best and want to run our own lives. But the message of the Cross doesn't end at the salvation of our sins, there is another step that is so often forgotten, that step is submitting to Gods authority. Modern christianity is plagued by the problem of forgetting Gods Lordship in their message of love. Their needs to be an equal amount of love and authority conveyed to people. If its all love, people abuse that and we get lukewarm christians so prevalent today. If its all Lordship you get the “repent sinner” and fire and brimstone style preaching so popular years ago. Both of these aspects are in the gospel and are needed for a full relationship with God.
But there is a reason its so hard to come under God's Lordship, its because He is Big, Mighty, Powerful and we don't understand Him. And if we submit to him we have to do what he says, which means we have to be willing to go where He asks and say what He wants us to when he wants us to. And this could mean doing wild, crazy things that the world says is ridiculous. But if you trust enough in Him, and know Him well enough then it gets much easier.
So this week we got to know Him better. We gave up aspects of our lives to His care, got forgiveness for things holding us back and we worshipped him fully and lost so much fear of man and gained so much fear and understanding of God.
But now is the hard part. Doing it daily. Jesus told us to take up our cross daily, which means we need to lay down ourselves every day. And every day I am trying to, its hard, but I know this is the life I want to and am called to lead. Because only the best will do for me.

My Path or Yours?

Another week, more knowledge and truth imparted. Golly gosh.
This week seemed to go by the fastest yet, outreach is approaching ever faster, its only 4 weeks from today till I leave for India. I still don't think that's gotten into my head yet. India man...

We had the October DTS come home for their debrief week this week and one of their teams went to India so it was good to feed off them and get as much information on it as possible. Be prepared for some pooh stories to come.. as well as stories of loving on unlovable lepers, orphans and the rejected and stories of God performing amazing healings and miracles through us. Its going to happen.

This week our school leader Sanerieve Sanerieve Fuiava junior (usually known as Live, pronounced Lee-vay)spoke. He is an amazing man, and it was exciting to hear his testimony of change from a bratty kid to the man of vision he is today. It was cool how he spoke about the crazy dreams and things God told him he could do and how many he accomplished. It made me excited. I have so many things I want to do, and God has told me to do, and they are scary, exciting and most of all BIG. But if God asks you to do them, how can I say no? I'm still not certain exactly what God wants me to do, to come back here and staff, or to go into full time missions work in Saudi Arabia, or become a sailboat captain?(two of those are valid options) But no matter what, the main thing is that I follow him. He has the most exciting life possible in store for everyone, but he asks that we follow him, with our heart, soul and strength.
One other thing that impacted me was that God wants to build our character before we can step into things. Moses spent 40 years in Canaan building character before God released him to free the Jews. Evem Jesus spent 20 or so years “growing in wisdom and stature” before his ministry. God will not put us anywhere we can't handle, so he will put us in situations where we are forced to grow into the men and women we should be, and are meant to be. And that's exciting because it means the problems we go through today mean we will be more amazing tomorrow, because to quote a cliché that I've heard so often but am only beginning to realise the truth in, “Life is about the journey, not the destination”

Going and Sending

This week was yet another week of challenges for me. You'd almost think I was sick of it by now, but I'm not. Being challenged is good, being uncomfortable is good. It may not seem that way at the time, but if you're not being challenged then you're not growing and the opposite of growing is stagnation. So challenge yourself!

But that's not the point..or maybe it is...??!
This week we learnt about Missions with a good man called Bruce Skinner from the Wollongong base. He opened our eyes to the reality of missions, the countries and people that require our aid, the things that need to be done and the fact that it is everyone's personal responsibility to act.
He spoke about the great commission, the last thing Jesus spoke to us all that we need to go and make disciples of all the world. The first part of that is the word “Go.” To do this task we need to Go, get into the places of the world and not just wait for things to happen. It is active and purposeful.
Not all of us have been called to go however, but if we are not going to the world, then we certainly should be sending. This means we should be supporting those who are in missions, financially, physically and prayerfully. There are so many churches around the world who don't believe world missions is a need for them. Yes, the local community is important to reach, but chances are they have heard the Word before. There are at least 4000 completely unreached people groups with different languages. Who are we to deny the good news to them?
That last question is a hard one, because if we believe its true, then we must realise that we need to do something. And doing something is scary. God really challenged me on this during the week. If God called you to go to Saudi Arabia, a country where Christians are killed for their faith, do you trust him enough to go? That's a lot of trust and faith. It's lucky my God is a powerful God. I seriously don't know whether I could do it, but I think God is working on me with this issue of trust, because God wants the impossible to be done, and he is willing to use me. What an honour, what a fright, what an opportunity.
Lovingly yours!!