Week 3 with YWAM

Hello again! Last week got off to a bit of a rocky start for me. Being in Australia I have been experiencing a lot of new and different ways of doing things. Some of these things had just really taken a toll on me and were building up frustration in me. The differences in the way some things are carried out was really distracting to me and I don’t know how else to put it but that I was just feeling far from the Lord and questioning whether or not my relationship with Him was genuine or if I was just making Him out to be the God I wanted Him to be. I talked a lot of this over with one of my leaders and she helped me to realize that the ways people go about doing things are different and that it is ok. God doesn’t just look for one special way or the best way to come before Him. Whether we are silently praying by ourselves or screaming your prayer while spinning in circles, I think God just wants us to come to Him. I realized I needed to be secure in my relationship with the Lord and not feel condemned that it wasn’t the same as some others.  

Our lecture topic was on “Fatherheart of God” which pretty much talked about how we relate to God as our father. And how when we relate to God as a Father, it opens up a whole new level of trust because we know He has our best interest in mind at all times. He will be our Comforter and Protector. Not to mention that He has an unimaginable unconditional love for His children! This definitely brought about several areas of my life that I have not fully been trusting God with. After 3 days of lectures we all finally figured out why they nicknamed that week “Openness and Brokenness”.  We all had a chance to go up before everyone in our class and share what we were/are struggling with. By the end of the afternoon I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room! It was the craziest thing. Bottom line: we all come from junk and our God is really BIG and Amazing! My heart broke for so many of my friends here. Being so open and vulnerable really brought us all so much closer. It is so wonderful to see how the Lord has worked and is working in all of their lives. As for me, I found much healing in that day. It was good.

On a side note, it rained for 4 days straight last week! And not just a light rain-it poured! Saturday was YouthStreet! One of the girls on our dance team comes from a family of native Australians and taught us what they call “aboriginal dancing”. It was really cool, but super hilarious. Part of it was dancing like animals native to Australia-picture dancing like a kangaroo or emu…it was quite comical! Then yesterday (Sunday) my friends Filippa, Marika, Danielle, and I took a trip to Sydney! It was a 2 and a half hour train ride and we left the station at about 6:45am. Once we got to Sydney we first went to Hillsong Church!! It was such a great experience. There were so many people there. It was really neat. Then we spent the day touring in Sydney which consisted of the Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, and Botanic Gardens. We had such a great day! I was exhausted by the end of it that is for sure!

Thank you all once again for the prayers, support, and encouragement! God is Good.

Fear of the Lord

Hey hey! Last week we began our actual schedule for being here. We started with 6am runs as a school, so that was interesting…but by the end of the week wasn’t too bad! The weather has seemed to be getting a little warmer...or else I am just getting used to it! We started in with our lecture series on Fearing the Lord. I think for the first time I understand, to an extent, what this means. It too often becomes easy to take hold of things as if we are equal with God and not stop to think about how big He actually is and how powerful He actually is. One of the best ways I heard it described this week is that fearing God actually releases us from fear of anything else. Fear of God is not an emotional fear, but one of respect and reverence-and realizing God is GOD! He is in complete control. He controls whether or not I live another day! When we recognize this, it can release us from the emotional fear of worldly things. Complete trust in God. If you would have asked me before last week, I would have probably said I understood all of this and I was totally trusting God, after all I am in Australia completely out of my comfort zone, but that is such a small portion! It only took until about Wednesday to realize I still had (and have) a lot to learn. Our speaker for the week, Matt Dawson, had us write down what God thinks about us and then the lies we believe He thinks about us. This started the water works in for just about everybody in the room. I definitely realized I have not been viewing God for all of who He is. But we all agree it is good to be broken down so we can be built back up correctly in the areas we have been misled.  

We also had our first night of evangelism last Thursday night, and that was interesting to say the least. We went to a local mall and were supposed to go up to people and tell them about Jesus! Talk about being out of your comfort zone and laying down your pride! It went alright I suppose, but it was awkward to say the least.

Saturday was YouthStreet again! I learned to break dance, well like 4 steps to break dancing-it was so fun once we could get past cracking up laughing at how silly we probably all looked! Our dance team gets to perform next month for the YouthStreet fundraiser, so that will be fun. The crew (kids) are all super excited about that! Then at Live we had a wonderful time or worship and message. The crew were given a chance to go up the leaders to get prayed over about anything going on in their lives. This was so cool to see how many of them wanted prayer. I noticed a girl from our dance team kind of just standing back so I went and asked if she had anything I could pray with her about, realizing the worst she could say would be no. Instead she opened up to me about some fears and sadness that she has been dealing with. It was so awesome to get to pray for a teen I had only met twice and that she comfortable enough to share with me! The lesson I learned from this was sometimes people won’t come right out and ask for help or for prayer. It is good to be willing and look for opportunities. If I wouldn’t have asked, I would have missed out on that wonderful opportunity!

This next week’s topic is “Fatherheart of God” or as other YWAMer’s tell us “week of openness and brokenness”....bring it on! I am nervous, but also very excited to see what this week has in store. I am ready for some changes! God is good!

Thanks for all of the prayers and support-please continue with the prayers. Specific things to be praying over: a lot of people in our house have been sick and living in community is a catalyst for germs spreading! Also for this week in general as I’m sure a lot of us will be dealing with “junk”. I am finally not feeling like “I just want to be back home” I definitely cannot wait until December 19!!!! But I think I have been able to accept the fact that until then I will be here, and I am not sad about it! I honestly can’t tell you all how much it means to know I have such a great support system back home! Have a great week J

“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakeable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29

Fear of the Lord

Hey hey! Last week we began our actual schedule for being here. We started with 6am runs as a school, so that was interesting…but by the end of the week wasn’t too bad! The weather has seemed to be getting a little warmer...or else I am just getting used to it! We started in with our lecture series on Fearing the Lord. I think for the first time I understand, to an extent, what this means. It too often becomes easy to take hold of things as if we are equal with God and not stop to think about how big He actually is and how powerful He actually is. One of the best ways I heard it described this week is that fearing God actually releases us from fear of anything else. Fear of God is not an emotional fear, but one of respect and reverence-and realizing God is GOD! He is in complete control. He controls whether or not I live another day! When we recognize this, it can release us from the emotional fear of worldly things. Complete trust in God. If you would have asked me before last week, I would have probably said I understood all of this and I was totally trusting God, after all I am in Australia completely out of my comfort zone, but that is such a small portion! It only took until about Wednesday to realize I still had (and have) a lot to learn. Our speaker for the week, Matt Dawson, had us write down what God thinks about us and then the lies we believe He thinks about us. This started the water works in for just about everybody in the room. I definitely realized I have not been viewing God for all of who He is. But we all agree it is good to be broken down so we can be built back up correctly in the areas we have been misled.  

We also had our first night of evangelism last Thursday night, and that was interesting to say the least. We went to a local mall and were supposed to go up to people and tell them about Jesus! Talk about being out of your comfort zone and laying down your pride! It went alright I suppose, but it was awkward to say the least.

Saturday was YouthStreet again! I learned to break dance, well like 4 steps to break dancing-it was so fun once we could get past cracking up laughing at how silly we probably all looked! Our dance team gets to perform next month for the YouthStreet fundraiser, so that will be fun. The crew (kids) are all super excited about that! Then at Live we had a wonderful time or worship and message. The crew were given a chance to go up the leaders to get prayed over about anything going on in their lives. This was so cool to see how many of them wanted prayer. I noticed a girl from our dance team kind of just standing back so I went and asked if she had anything I could pray with her about, realizing the worst she could say would be no. Instead she opened up to me about some fears and sadness that she has been dealing with. It was so awesome to get to pray for a teen I had only met twice and that she comfortable enough to share with me! The lesson I learned from this was sometimes people won’t come right out and ask for help or for prayer. It is good to be willing and look for opportunities. If I wouldn’t have asked, I would have missed out on that wonderful opportunity!

This next week’s topic is “Fatherheart of God” or as other YWAMer’s tell us “week of openness and brokenness”....bring it on! I am nervous, but also very excited to see what this week has in store. I am ready for some changes! God is good!

Thanks for all of the prayers and support-please continue with the prayers. Specific things to be praying over: a lot of people in our house have been sick and living in community is a catalyst for germs spreading! Also for this week in general as I’m sure a lot of us will be dealing with “junk”. I am finally not feeling like “I just want to be back home” I definitely cannot wait until December 19!!!! But I think I have been able to accept the fact that until then I will be here, and I am not sad about it! I honestly can’t tell you all how much it means to know I have such a great support system back home! Have a great week J

“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakeable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29

Week 1 in Newcastle

Well I've made it through the first week in Newcastle! I am feeling settled in my new home and forming a lot of really great friendships! Last Monday my roomies and I took a little tour of our area. I was successful in finding a guitar, which I had really been missing! Then some of us took the train down to the beach in Newcastle. It was absolutely beautiful! There were tons of rocks and the waves were huge. I will try and get some pictures uploaded at some point. There are these things called ocean baths where the waves crashes up over the rocks and forms a pool that people can swim in. They are really neat! Unfortunately it is way too cold to go swim! It is much colder here than I expected and very windy! I have been wearing layers of clothes each day and still am chilly! I’ve actually been sleeping in two long sleeve shirts and a sweatshirt, two pairs of pj pants, two pairs of socks and cover up with my sleeping bag! Since it is not cold that often in Australia, most houses don’t have heaters! Anyways, Tuesday we had our first day of class, which was mainly orientation. We spent a lot of time getting to know each other that day and introduced to what the next few months will look like. Then that night the girls all got together and had a girls night, which was of course a fun time! Wednesday we had what is called base day where the entire base gets together for worship and intercession, and a short message. Then that afternoon we had a barby at the beach-I tried kangaroo!! I may have liked it if I wouldn’t have known it was kangaroo, but needless to say I wouldn’t eat it again! The beach was beautiful, but the intense wind ended our fun a little early.  That night we had a meeting about YouthStreet. YouthStreet is the organization we work with each week that works with 11-17 year olds. They come and we all break into teams that include music, sports, skate, dance, skoot, and surf. Then we all have dinner together and then have what is called YouthStreet LIVE where we have an a really great time of worship. YouthStreet is meant to be a safe place for these kids to come and have a great time with some godly influence. It is church for the unchurched. During this meeting we looked at some popular secular song lyrics-it was disturbing to think that people, much less kids sing along to this stuff and think its cool. We were showed a quote from an MTV director about how” they don’t shoot to gain the attention of 14 year olds, they own the 14 year olds”. It honestly is sickening. So at YouthStreet, we get the chance to positively influence the kids and show them they don’t need all of that junk to have a good time. So that is what we do on Saturdays. I am on the dance team, so I spent Saturday afternoon making up dances-it was fun! YouthStreet Live was absolutely incredible! After all the kids left our house, we had a late night Mackas (McDonalds) trip and fun night of youtube videos. Then we got to my favorite day of the week: Sunday! I found a church I really love, it reminded me of True North. It is called Mayfield Baptist Church. I don’t think it is like the Baptist church from home though as this was more of a contemporary service. Everyone there was super welcoming and inviting.

Living here has been the strongest sense of community I have ever seen-it is really really  amazing. Nobody ever feels left out.  It has been so interesting to get to know people from other countries and here about their normals compared to our normals. For instance they think deer and squirrels are the coolest thing, but kangaroos are no big deal! The aussies think I have a very strong accent (I tell them they are the ones with the accent!). They think it is so “cute” and funny when I say “Holy cow!” about something. They can’t believe us Americans actually say that!  The days have been flying by! I am really liking it here, but I already am excited to come home. I miss my comfort and my normal. But being so far out of my comfort zone has definitely helped me to keep my focus on why I am here. Please continue all of the prayers-they are greatly appreciated!

First day in Newcastle

G'day mates! Well after about 25 hours of traveling I finally made it to Newcastle! Leaving was difficult, I was definitely challenged to keep my focus on why I was leaving instead of who. I had nervous butterflies the closer we got to Dayton. After Alee left was when it really hit me. I was officially on my own (physically anyways). Walking through security, the guy was kind of like "Hi how are yo--ohh been better I take it?" Then the traveling delays and issues started in and that at least took my mind off of leaving and set it on getting there and on time!  The Lord was definitely working on me surrendering the traveling details to him.My first two flights out of Dayton and Chicago were delayed, leaving me nearly convinced I would miss my main flight from San Francisco to Sydney. I was only given 20 mins to switch gates that were 28gates apart! The flight attendent in Chicago told me I was going to have to RUN! And if you could have seen what I was toteing around, you would understand that this was no easy task! Luckily, they made an announcement when we landed in San Francisco that 3 of us needed to catch a flight to Sydney and to let us off first. Then we started our run! I was like "I thought this only happened in the movies"-it doesn't! Needless to say I made my flight! It was long, but not unbearable. I didn't feel like I slept very well, but I did get some sleep. Landing in Sydney was beautiful! I had an incredible view of the coast-it was really neat!Making my through customs in Sydney took awhile, but I got through, got some of my money converted, and found my cab driver! Then began the 2 hour trip to Newcastle. I got here and right away met one of my new roomates, Marika! She is from Holland so it was cool to here about her home! I started getting everything unpacked, got a tour of the house, and had some coffee :) Then my second roomate Ali arrived. She is from Illinois and after talking to her I was very thankful that my trip here was so easy! Everyone here in our house, "Lewis House" is very nice. There is a real sense of community here. For the July Classic Discipleship Training School (DTS) there are only 6 of us, so we are joining classes with the Creative DTS that also has 6, so that will be neat! I went to sleep last night at about 8:00pm my time, 6:00am Ohio time! I slept for almost 12 hours and woke up feeling refreshed! I was relieved I was able to sleep so well on my first night. I have to keep saying to myself "You are in Australia!!" , it doesn't feel like it! I feel like I'm simply in another state! I'm so, so thankful for everyone who has supported me to make this trip possible. It was very AWEsome to trust in God to work through people and see Him provide. Being here is humbling, it is definitely no luxurious place I'm staying, but I do have more than I need. It helps me to refocus on why I am here. Romans 8:31 has been a verse I am clinging to "And what should we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, then who could ever be against us". That is how I feel knowing that it is only by His power that I am here. He is for me, so nothing can be against me. That is not to say it won't be difficult at times, but I can deal with difficult! It is still so crazy that this is actually happening!! We start our first class tomorrow, and I am really excited to see what that will be like. Thank you again for all of the prayers and encouragement. I have all the cards and notes that everyone wrote for me hangin around my bottom bunk and it is a great reminder of what a great support system I have back home. But I am off to enjoy my first full day in Newcastle! Chat with ya soon ;)