Passage of the Day

FAITH

So God told me to go to the city today and sit so I could see the city square, so I did. I went and sat down with a drink and read some things from Psalms. We just hung out for a bit and then I started to pray for people that were walking past. Whatever popped into my head I prayed about.. for individuals, types of people, genders, ages, children, adults, a lady that was feeding sea gulls... etc. The last few days have been super rough for me and I'm learning to push and rely on God. While I was sitting in the city I was thinking to myself about where my faith had gone. I just wanted to believe in it all again and just know that it was going to okay. Then I read this:

Mark 11:12 > 26

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.

Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.' "
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, it will be done for you. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

I dunno. I guess I've read this a lot.. but for some reason this time it was just different.

Hope you're encouraged.

Peace and Love

Whoops

Okay, so the reason I haven't been blogging lately is because I'm a slacker so I want to say I'm sorry for those of you that are keeping posted via .. well this.
I'm doing really well right now. We only have about 2 weeks left of lecture phase before we start prepping for Summer of Service, the 3 week missions trip we lead during summer break with high schoolers. Cecily and I are going to Darwin (northern territory in Australia).
We're very excited, I'm a little wearing about the heat. It's gunna be pretty intense.. like 50s probably so who knows what that entails.
I'd like to continue to ask for your prayer support as the finances were due last Wednesay and commissoining is coming up this week. I still need about $5830.45 which means I only have $330.45 left of lecture phase and then $5500.00 for outreach. As you may or may not have known I started off needing over $2000 for lecture phase and it's come down so much so it's pretty awesome to see how faithful God is in finances. It's cool too that on both sides of the track, me going and those that are financially supporting and making it possible that God sees both people the same. Both individuals are being obedient and letting God use them .. it just looks different. So thank you for being in on it with me.
It's been a great 10 weeks - still can't believe it's been 10 weeks. I still have about 7 months to go which is shocking when I think about it. I started thinking about how by the time I get home next June I would have been in Canada for just over 2 months in a year and like 4 months. SO weird.
Anyways keep the prayers coming, they are very needed and they do make a difference.
Much love.

I'm Sorry, What?

I'm going to start this my saying God's faithful and trustworthy not just to state what to me is obvious head knowledge but as a reminder that it's heart knowledge as well that will be put to the test in the month.
This week our speaking is Maureen who is the director of something and something else and DTSs' all over the place. She's a pretty big deal in YWAM apparently. Now you know.. anyhow the topic is basically Leadership with the Holy Spirit so we are learning a lot about Him and just today I've gained a new understanding of not just the Holy Spirit but the trinity and differences between the Old and New Testament/Covenant. I think the biggest thing that I took away from class today was just that it's not just the Father and the Son that have thoughts, emotions, and wills and a desire for relationships and closeness but the Holy Spirit is in on all of that aswell, and just the fact that He is bound to our spirits and we have all of Him is so mind blowing. I don't know, I guess I'm just really looking forward to this week and what we'll be talking about.
After class, for the first time we discussed outreach. Which is divided into 3 parts this quarter. Part 1 - Summer of Service (SOS) where we lead teams of highschool students to Vanuatu, Cambodia or Darwin, Australia. Part 2 - 25th anniversary of YWAM Perth and 50th anniversary of Youth With a Mission as a whole. It's a pretty big deal and the founder is coming and it's gunna be great.. a week of awesome :). Part 3 - Mexico City from Feb 1 - March 14 (I think). So the bomb as officially been dropped and the cost will be between $5 500 - 6 500 AUS (Aussie dollar is sky rocketing right now unfortunately). I'm not going to lie, I wanted to vommit and scream and cry and do a whole bunch of other things when I saw the number, but the first thing I remembered was that God clearly said for me to do the YMT - which is all of the course, not just lectures, and to trust Him. So here I am.. trying my very hardest to not freak out but trust and give it to God.
Just thought I'd throw that out there and ask you guys to pray for the release of these finances not just for myself but for every student in YWAM Perth right now, and especially those that are in the same boat as me, who are not used to trusting God with time time frames and deadlines.
Thanks for everything guys.
Much love.

Youth Culture - Sarah McCutcheon

(just wanted to say quickly that I absolutely love this comic - laughed so hard.. yes kinda morbid but still funny.. it's okay it's just a comic)

So this week in class we were talking about Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures. It was incredible. I absolutely loved it. It was amazing to be studying my generation and realizing why I think the way I do. I was super stoked about some of the info that we talked about so I'm going to share some psychology and some Twilight facts with ya'll... yes that's right we spent like 2 hours discussing the infatuation with Twilight. I love YWAM.
Age 14 is one of if not the most vulnerable year where everything is very inconsistant. I can't remember where, but Sarah, our speaker, has this friend on the east coast I believe, who's in uni studying psychology or something along those lines. One of the things they watched or looked at was this brain scan/video thing of a teenage brain (14 or 15) and his father and they compared them. The result of the test was that there was no activity going on in the back of the teens brain (which is where logic and reason is thought through) where as in the adults brain, it's totally normal, firing like it should. Not only does this explain SO much when it comes to teenage boys and their complete lack of danger radar but it also explains the emotions. All of the weight that would normally be distributed between logic & reasoning and emotions all on emotions. HENSE THE EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWNS LIKE EVERY DAY. my mouth literally dropped when she told us this. Our brains at like 13 or 14 start to shut off 30 000 neurotransmitters in the back of our brain PER DAY. That is an obnoxious amount. So parents can't say, "what did you do that for? do you not have a brain!?" and guess why? because the teen literally can't think it through logically. Amazing right? anyways, moving on. We talked a lot about MTV and advertising and how we need to be very deliberate with what we do because businesses target young people because of the influence young people have on families. If they can draw them in (cell phones) they can draw in their parents and siblings etc.
Get this, over 1/2 of the world's total population are under 25 years old. 19/20 choose to follow Jesus BEFORE the age of 25. AFTER 25 the chance of those between ages 25 and 35 that chances of them turning to Jesus changes to 1 in 10 000, between 35 and 45 the chance drops to1 in 50 000 and shockingly after 45 years old the chances of that individual turning to Jesus is 1 in 200 000. So why youth? Why be deliberate? Because it's the best time for them to accept truth before they become "stuck" in their ways. They're still moldable and not desensitized. Everyone else wants them, MTV claims they have them, we need them back. MTV says their goal is to remove logic and hit their emotions and by doing so they've caught them.
Which is where TWILIGHT comes in :).
Why Twilight? ---- escapism: everyone wants a savior and no wants to fight or endure hard times.
---- extremes (emotionally): yp (young people) dont thing rationally or logically (brain scan thing I was talking about earlier.. putting more emphasis on emotions). They make permanent dicissions (like sex, drugs and alcohol which have permanent concequences) and dont see concequences clearly, family ties (Bella has a broken family, shes invited into Edward's strong family unit and protected).
Edward and Bella
----- Bella is "different" and wants to figure her out
----- Edward unconditionally loves Bella even though she doesn't deserve it
----- Bella is the one that doesn't necessarily fit in.
----- Edward makes her feel significat
Why is it popular? Reaches their needs. Emotionally of course.
Mindsets affecting Teens:
1. Changing Moral Foundation -- chaos and confusion. no stability.
2. Changing Family Structures -- look at all the step parents and then ex step parents - point made - no stabilitiy.
3. Media is their mentor -- parents are being friends to their kids and the media is "raising" them. They say the average person by 18 has watched 18 000 hours of TV.. many watch more.
4.Technologically Sophisticated -- information available at their finger tips.
5. Disillusioned and Skeptigcal -- being let down from #1-4
6. Instant Gratification -- no waiting.
We talked about how 12 year old girls are dressing far to "sexy" for their age and what that's doing yet some still think boys are "yucky." They don't actually understand the vibe they are giving off from what they are wearing and they wonder why they get all this attention.
Anyways this week has been oober fascinating and there is way more where all that came from so feel free to ask questions.

As Christians we are the most capable of helping because we are the only ones with the actual answers even if youth may not think so, it's because they haven't experienced emotionally, therefore it cannot be real. They want it instantly and are not willing to work for it or change if they don't see the possibility for instant results.
"Those who are the most capable of helping, are most responsible to do so."

Friday Night Meeting - Christian Education

Last night was Friday Night Meeting (church) at the base, and our speaker was the same speaker that we had in classes this week. He was great, really challenged and made us think. He's very intelligent and is determined to change education and the worldviews that are being taught in school. It was actually shocking some of the things that are being taught in Christian schools but anyhow these are some note I took that I thought were really interesting. Hope you enjoy it!

*80% of all Christians are eduated in non-Christian universities
* between 30% - 50% lose their Faith while in university
Colossians 2:8-10 "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority."
*Christians need to understans where world view comes from before getting overwhelmed and devoured.
* UNI = to unify VERSITAS = truth
----- brought together for Christian purpses (first university was created in Italy)
----- all aspects of educations - law philospy, psych, sociology, history, maths, biology, economics, politics were all taught with God being the centre of it. God = all truth - was the basis of education in the first universities.
----- once they take God out of the centre it all becomes human opinions.. the professors opinion - which means they take out truth.
----- philophy used to be theology. now philosphy aims to prove there is no God.

4 OBJECTIVES OF BIBLICAL EDUCATION

#1 Promote Critical Thinking
----- teach importance of the mind & critical thinking.
----- recognize assumptions
----- all humans live by faith either in reason (human conclusions or in revelation (biblical propositions)

#2 Cultivate a Hunger For Truth
----- keep asking why? how do you know? what proof do you have?

#3 Demolish "Fortresses"
----- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
----- you can't grow to love Christ by being taught evolution and reading books of flat out lies, so focus on the truth .. focus on the Bible it is the book of truth and the worldview we have should be entirely focussed on reality - on the truth
-----scientism -- scientific language used to sound like truth (even though human opinion)
ie - the claim of genetic determinism (you're born gay) (the APA (American Psychological Association) in 1998 started the argument that your are born gay by saying they thought there was a link genetically but in 2009 they put out another article that completely detroyed it saying that there is no gene that will make you gay proving themselves wrong that you aren't born gay.. you're not born with a passion you learn about it.. and what scared some of us was that they are trying to say - you're born a murderer or a pedofile - so this has killed those ideas though some still live by it.)
----- if everything is genetic then we are robots/machines with no free will = no God.
- climate change is man made - lie? global warm isn't actually happening. polar icecaps have actually been growing and expanding in the summer season between i think its 2007 ad 2008.
----- medievel warm period then the "little ice age" and now we are warming up again. theres no connection between CO2 levels and warming its between the sun and the earth not the CO2 and the earth (we looked at graphs CO2 and temp .. weak AS correlation)
----- you throw out Genesis and you throw out Jesus Christ. If Genesis was a lie (like evolutionists may claim) then why in the world didn't Jesus say "oh btw guys the hebrews messed a while ago.. they were just really confused" .. becuase its true thats why.
----- more non christians are dropping the idea of evolution while christians are jumping into it.
Naturalism - changing definitions of marriage. everything has to change because everything evolves so we must make new laws to change our world. stupid.
Relativism (law) no absolutes except what they say.. also stupid.

#4 Teach comprehensive Biblical World View
----- need to learn to think so we can cancel out all the lies that create our world view.
----- God is SOVEREIGN over ALL life (Psalm 24:1)
----- God has PURPOSES in history - discipling natiomns (Matthew 28:28-20)

Outreach

Our outreach has 2 parts to it. the first part is SOS (summer of service) which we lead in either Vanuatu, Cambodia, or Darwin (N. Australia) then Mexico City for 8 weeks. Because we will be travelling so much they estimate the cost to be around $6000 which was a huge punch in my stomache, but since I now know what I'm facing, I would love you guys to be on board praying with me for this money because I don't know where or when this money will be seen.
Thanks for the prayers guys.

Character and Nature of God

This weeks topic was about the character and nature of God and Tom Hallas was our speaker. He's great. He is definitely not a traditional speaker and he caught us off guard many many times this week with very unexpected comments haha. Pretty interesting. He really challenged a lot of things that I believe. One of the things is God knowing everything and that He can be surprised which I'll comment on in a second.
Something that I thought that was really cool was that the trinity, out of perfect love and unity, created us and that if one of them decided they'd had enough the entire world would cease to exsist. In that Jesus was sent for different reasons and one thing we pulled out of that this week was that by Jesus becoming fully man, they (the trinity) showed us how precious human life is. That they would send God down to walk as one of us. And to now be seated in heaven as a human with God. I can't really explain it that well but just the thought of how highly the human race is thought of my God is mind boggling. And then how that love is transfered to us individually is just so much more intense I can't even imagine.
Anyhow .. so our speaker said this week that it is impossible to know everything in the past, future and present and still be in relationship with someone because it removes the surprise factor.. or grief or whatever. As a class we started to think about what He really meant that as and I guess we kinda came to a place where God can be surprised by us you know. In Isaiah? .. Jeremiah? dang it can't remember, anyhow it says somewhere something a long the lines of 'it never came to my mind that they could do such a thing.' So we tossed around the idea that because God is fully good and has no space for evil in or around him, we as humans have in a sense surprised God with evil. You know when he created us it was to be in relationship with Him, which means we needed to have complete freedom to chose and by doing that he put himself at risk to be hurt (by evil/sin/etc). Which in my mind is incredible.. for Him to have put Himself out there like a spiritual dart board you know? It's just so crazy to me that forever He will be taking hits from AND for us.
Something else that we talked about was that forgiveness was available before the cross, without any sacrifice. Different times in the old testiment God says he just wants someones heart and they didn't need to sacrifice.. in the New Testement Jesus forgives people - the man and the mat and the woman with the perfume and more. I always kind of thought in the back of my mind that sending Jesus was plan B.. Adam and Eve messed it up so God had to clean it up. But we talked about how Jesus was always plan A. Jesus was going to be coming either way. When Jesus died, in a way humanity died we all died with him and now we have the ability to live beyond ourselves in heaven. Plus Jesus came to bring a different level of relationship. So even if we had never sinned Jesus still would have come to bring that. There are other things in there as well that I'm still kinda trying to understand so a lot of this is unexplainable but they're things that are interesting to me and challenging to wrap my head around. I obviously haven't fully grasped any of this considering the lack of explanation I've given but ya, just a few floaters I guess.
Please keep praying for health and safety while we're hear. Just told today that this biker gang is coming to northbridge which is like a subburb over next week and I guess they causes mass chaos and fights on the east coast. Not a safe bunch of gentlemen to be around. So just a covering in that sense. Also I just found out today that I only need 1500 more for the covering costs of lecture phase so you if you could join my in continual prayer for not just the 1500 but and abundance outside of that for outreach and the internship and generosity to others that would be great. Thanks so much. Much Love

Prayer Requests

Hey guys, so I thought that I'd do a little shout out for those of us here that are sick.

Seriously I'm pretty sure that at least half the girls that live in my house (total of like 14 or 15 I believe) are sick or are getting sick or are getting over being sick. So I was just wondering if we could just nab a few quick prayers just for over all health. Waking up at 6 am everyday and dragging yourself through the day and slapping your sinus filled face in class to stay awake isn't fun and it can really start distracting us from what God has for us here. So if you could just, as your reading this just shout out for a quick covering on us that would be amazing.

The other thing is finances.. If you feel a nudge to give, chances are it's God calling you on generosity, but please please pray about it and get a solid word. There are lots of us YWAMers in need of lecture and outreach phase funds so we just want to ask, again, as your reading this, to just ask for gots provission on the matter of finances that He'll bless us abundantly so that we may be able to bless others generously aswell. Thanks so much for the prayers and what you've done already. God bless.

Mexico Research

So today we, as the YMT, had a few hours of research / homework time dedicated to our main seminar project. When we go on outreach to Mexico City in February, we have to have made a 5 part seminar each one 45 minutes about youth culture in Mexico. It is a huge huge project all about research and statistics and stuff.
So today we started to do that, and my role for today was researching problems in the youth culture like suicide, alcoholism, abortion, drugs etc and collecting it all to then choose one topic and eventually we will, in depth, research it more and make a seminar on it.
That being said, if any of you have any knowledge on Mexican youth culture I would be more than over joyed to hear what you have to say.
Thanks so much.

YMT - Never A Dull Moment

(this is what Natasha slid down - could be bad if she had gone down far enough :S)

So today was our team / school hang out day. Started off great. We met at the base at 11.. which meant I could totally sleep in.. not that I did but the potential was nice haha. Anyways, so we went to the national park in the hills. It was beautiful. We BBQ'd lunch (sausages/hotdogs) and took lots of pictures. We also had an orange peal boat race down the stream haha. We all made our little boats out of orange peals and made sales and stuff out of sticks and leaves. Jules' (Joe's wife) totally dominated .. mine took the path less travelled and literally didn't move. I think I'll stick to working with people and not so much orange peals .. and engineering. Miriam was trying to make a lagit little boat out of leaves and stuff and so she went to pull a twig off a branch I guess and she got bit and she freaked out and was in a lot of pain so when Joe and James looked to see what it was there was a spider hidden in one of the broken branches and so after like 10 minutes of trying to get a good picture of it, Joe took Miriam to the park ranger and James eventaully got the spider into a water bottle to take up and find out if it was serious - necessary considering where we were haha. So they didn't think it was serious and they didn't recognize the spider which is good so we moved on and hiked over to the falls. If there was a species of ants called antious mammothose.. I saw it. It was HUGE and it was so far off the ground because of how long its creepy legs were and Joe was like "ya that thing would make you swell up really bad" and I was like great.. so I left haha and then I saw a centimede the size of leg and then I left again. Eventually we did reach the falls which were stunning. They were so beautiful. oh my stars. Anyhow, because the YMT cannot do anything without something unexpected happening, Natasha slips and falls and goes on a little trip down the falls and gets all dirty and slimy. yum :)
When we got back to the rec. are, cecily and I were behind them all, and so when we caught up they were all gathered by the railing and so we went over and there were like at least 8 kangaroos just chilling and hopping around. and a few of them had babies in their pouch. They were SO close it was insane. Like literally feet away from us and they didn't care. It was awesome. Anyhow, good day. I'll be posting pictures on facebook later probs.
Peace outttttt.

Evidence of Truth in the Bible

So we covered a lot today and one of things we talked about is why the Bible is accurate and therefore, it should be an absolute truth in our life.
I guess there are something like 15 manuscripts of ancient texts that researchers use to compare accuracy of other ancient text ie the Bible. Here are some facts (its kinda confusing.. sorry):

Julius Ceasar - Gallic Wars - written in 100 BC - earliest document found in 900 AD (1000 year gap between the time it was written and the time it was found)
Plato - (in general) 400 BC - earliest found 900 AD (around 1300 Years and 7 different manuscripts)
Homer - The Illiad - written 800 BC - earliest found 400 BC, 643 copies

Those texts, apparently, are considered completely accurate. Now the New Testament.

New Testament - written around 50 - 100 AD and the earliest copy found was written 114 - 325 AD. Meaning that because the date it was written and the date it was copied are so close the accuracy has to be much closer - consider the gaps in the dates of the other texts - much more spread out. Also there were 5366 copies that were the same found in that time and 2500 had different translations.

So I dont know if any of that made sense it's kinda hard to understand if it's not explained right. But basically the Bible is accurate and experts can't even argue it. The process for copying the Bible was intense aswell. They didn't copy it word for word, it was letter for letter so that not even punctuation could be missed. Before the wrote out the word "God" the scribe would bathe and get changed. After every line the copy got checked and when completed the Bible was stamped and the old copy was burned. It's said that you could burn every bible in the world and still be able to put it back together because of all the times its been quoted in other texts.

"There is more evidence that Jesus was real than there is for Julius Ceasar"
there are 60+ prophecies in the old testament, that forsee the coming of Christ. These are 6 of those that were unable to be influenced by Jesus himself - he had no control over the following.
1. place of birth - Bethlehem
2. Time of birth
3. manner of birth - by a virgin
4. His betrayal
5. manner of death - cross
6. Pierced - hands and feet
Yet all came to be, right? Right .. all these were written about 250 years BEFORE the coming of christ and every one of them came to be. Some very dedicated person worked out the chances of Jesus accidentally fulfilling every prophecy and it turned out to be 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 ... that's beyond a slim chance.

Anyways I just foud these things to be really really interesting and totally give me a new way of thinking.. it changes how you think about telling Christ to people...

Chris said something today that I found entertaining, ".. (to an atheist) find 100 people that have been transformed by atheism. (he can't) And I'll find 100 people that have been transformed by the Bible" - speaks for itself huh.
I love learning :)
hope you found this interesting.

5 Keys For Dealing With This Generations Self Idolatry

These are just a few of the notes from class this morning that I thought were interesting:

1. Lordship - reliquishing our rights to God
*we talked about how even the smallest form of matter.. like atoms or whatever.. all make a vibration that creates some sort of sound. And then talked about how the universe is made by, for, of and through Jesus Christ and His words speak life .. and so it's kinda like all those sounds are Jesus' you know? Like everything in this universe is just borrowed from Jesus.
*lordship is what will set this generations free
*rebellion is directly allowing Satan access into our lives
2. Holiness - being seperated from all known sin. We are accountable for everything we know and understand.
*God's interest is removing sin from our lives, not our comfort, he wants to remove sin and in the process it may hurt but it's necessary.
*need to seek purity as a leader because those following you will see right through you and disqualify any influence you could hold.
*deal with sin by hating it - this generation acts on emotion - therefore if you don't like it, you won't do it.
*fear of the Lord - is caring more about what God thinks and feels than anyone else our yourself
*fear of the Lord keeps us in relationship with Him
3. Dealing with Dualism - compartmentalizing your life
*God only sees one person - you can't only have sin on one side of your life - affects all of you.
*integrity makes you influencial & trustworthy
4. Dealing with Passivity - always taking the easy road
*we aren't motivated to do great things because the world is telling us that we are machines, with no meaning, only created by chance
*self control counter acts passivity
*passivity will kill any and all relationships .. need diligence
5. Be An Example - If you're living the life God intended people will want to follow you, you won't have to try and convince them.

Didn't See That Coming..

Yesterday afternoon I had my first one-on-one which was actually a two-on-one because 2 of my staff where there with me haha. But anyways we got together to start talking and we talked about how it was being home and what I did and where I was at and just got to know eachother a little bit. I was with James and Miriam and I know James from last time so that was cool having him around. But one of the things they asked me was "What are your expectations for this school?" and I didn't really know apart from learning about this generations youth and being a good leader and everything that kinda comes from that but ultimately I was kinda expectation-less and pretty open to whatever. So James and Miriam just encouraged me to really seek and ask God what expectations and goals I should have for this next 9 months and really fight for it. I was like.. okay.. I don't really see how this will change anything but I'll give it a shot. So Last I came home and got on my bed and started talking to God and asked Him what I was to be in expectation for.. and just randomly out of know where He says "I love you" and I was like.. "ya, I know I love you, too" and He responded, "No really, I want you to understand what I would do for you." And I was like.. "um I don't know what to say to that what do you mean that's not what I asked ... what are you talking about? that means nothing to me right now." (little did I know I had it coming) Eventually I fell asleep and then class rolled around this morning and literally the first thing the speaker, Chris, talked about what how far God would go for us. He supported it with the story of the prodical son and how the lost son just didn't understand why he was welcomed back, much like the pharasees didn't understand why Jesus only hung out with sinners.. and then Chris said that this generation just doesn't get it. And I was like omg.. I get it .. but at the same time I don't get it. And I was literally in shock that God had said that to me just the night before and then thrown it in my face the next morning lol.. Moral of the story - I'm expecting to discover how far God will go for me.. how far He'll go for my generation.

Why Do You Do That?

Today was our first official day of class and Chris Adams, who's in his late 20's, was our speaker. He's a great guy. He leads another school and is one of the worship leaders on base here. His topic for us was the history of this generation and holiness. I learned so much today oh my goodness. It's crazy to see him stand up and then speak out what we think to our faces and be so bang on and then go back to 1200s and start explaining why we act and think the way we do.
One of the biggest things that I had never really thought of was the whole idea of science and how it got twisted and started kicking God out of the picture. What I got out of it was that science was never meant to influence the spiritual side of things. The Bible doesn't tell us everything about the universe - but because God is a rational God, we are rational and therefore can begin to research and understand how things work - ie our bodies, stars, planets, growth, molecules etc. And that was all intended to make us obviously stand in awe of who God is that He could do that so quickly - which for many of us it does. But before this type of science came into the picture I guess Greek philosophy started getting integrated into religion when the Romans took over and that's a whole other story - but anyways - basically humanism is thought up. Where we think that we are so much greater than God because we discovered something.. it's like wow I just found a new fish.. and now I'm smarter than God - fools anyways. So humanism starts affecting science and therefore this conclusion is made: since we now understand that the world revolved around the sun, we don't need God there anymore. (which doesn't at all make sense but basically that happened to everything I guess and we totally "killed God") I had never thought of it that way before. How science was meant to find what God never told us in the Bible you know.. and then somehow we twisted it to eliminate Him. Anyways.. we also talked about the strengths and weakness of our generation and where they all come from which I find incredibly fascinating because I like to know things haha. But basically we concluded to that the sole issue with todays youth in this generation is self idoletry. Which comes from us being told so many lies about having no purpose and since we have no purpse we can do whatever we want because it doesn't matter. And since nothing matters who's to tell us what we can and cannot do. Anyways I'm gunna stop there but I'm getting so excited to keep going - if I've learned this much in 1 day I can't wait to see where God's going to have taken my by next June. Sorry this was kinda boring... but I'm excited because I also learned that I like to learn! haha

Back In Australia

On the last leg of the flight I was sitting beside a French girl named Amandine who barely spoke English. I helped her out with finding her bags and getting through customs which made getting otu of that airport take a little long but it didn't matter she was a sweet heart. Once I got through, the first person I saw was James! He's so great. He's one of the staff of my school so it was great to see him. I live about 5 minutes from the base in a house. In my room there are 3 other girls .. I'm on the top bunk :). The rooms like bright yellow craziness and the light has no shade on it so I'm kinda being blinded hah. Anyways, it's great being back - a little weird but it feels farely normal. Still seeing people from being and getting lots of hugs. I didn't realize how much I missed some people from before until I saw them so being around them is great!
Almost completely settled in now .. definitely miss home more than last time but that's normal. I can't wait to get school started and get busy!
Anyways I haven't eaten yet and I'm starved so I'm out.
Keep praying .. love, Becca

And So It Has Begun

I guess these are the last moments before actually hitting up Australia and taking their youth by storm. I'm so excited. Still not really sure what I've gotten myself into, by stoked none-the-less. How about some tales of the journey thus far.
Toronot - my bags totally made the weight limit :) thank you Jesus.
Air Canada - no food on the flight and I didn't eat breakfast - rough start for the stomache that doesn't like planes anyways.
Sanfrancisco - Got the headache of a lifetime and backpain that cancelled any attempt at being comfortable at all during the flight. Singapore Airlines are awesome. Holy mother if you ever wanna fly first class for reals - hit them up: plasmas.. There is so much room in their seating areas that there are like 8 seats in the first class section. Pretty redonc if you ask me but good for those that can fly first class.. I however will forever be the one stuck by the window beside a sleeping couple that can never get out to use to the bathroom because she feels too guilty to wake them during their airplane slumber to do so. I sat by the window with an Indian couple beside me. The wife was in the middle and when she fell asleep she literally toppled onto my shoulder - over and over.. and over. food was pretty good until my stomache decided it didn't feel the same way as my taste buds.
Seoul/Incheon Korea - So the flight from Sanfrancisco to Seoul Korea was 12.5 hours and then we stopped and got off and then reloaded 45 minutes later onto the same plane. Once we loaded - and to my excitement I was again seated beside the toppling sleeper - we were about to head out for the run way. However the power lines felt differently and they split shutting off all electricity in the aircraft. Panic started to rise as I realized that that so could have happened in the air during the last flight or doing the coming one. So for about an hour they hooked the lines back up and then it failed again probably a solid like 5 or 6 times before they got the engineer to replace it. Once replaced the pilot, who's english I couldn't understand 1. because I was so darn tired and 2 the system was fuzzy, he told us that it was safe to continue. My nervous did not feel the same way. I sleep a few hours on that flight though so that was nice. The section of the flight after reloading in Seoul was 5.5 hours. MEANING from Sanfrancisco to Singapore not only was I sitting for 18 + hours (because of the electricty problem) but I only got to the bathroom once. Good times.
This may sound like a lot of complaining.. however it's all in good spirits because once landing in Singapore the following happened: free internet, there are actually people at the information booths, there are information booths within walking distance of gate, free foot & caf massage, free blankets and beds, free lounge area with lots of awesomely comfy chairs, walking escalators and stair escalotors everywhere (love those things), my headphone work and I'm watching She's the Man and best of all I can get up whenever I want to and go to the bathroom 500 times if I want even if I don't actually have to go.. I can just walk in and walk out for the sake of it. Can life honestly get any better. And I still have like 3 and half hours to take advantage of this. Life is good isn't it? Unfortunate events really do make you appreciate that good times. Thank you Singapore for being awesome!
I think it's time to go explore what else I can do for free.
Keep praying for God to work through this school and use us to make a difference. I'm excited to see what we'll be doing.
Have a good one.

1 Week Till Take Off

I still can't believe this is happening. Whenever I think about leaving I have a mild panic attack with everything I have to do. Things were so much more rushed than last time so by brain goes off ever 5 seconds to something else and stresses me out.
I'm so excited though I can't believe it's so soon. I'm totally gunna miss it here though. I think I've built a new appreciation for good old St. Thomas since I left last time haha.
Prayer Request:
- Safe travels
- No problems moving through customs
- God's covering over every aspect
- continual financial support.

I love God

I love God. Every day when I've had a break down or some complication or doubts about going back to YWAM Perth God has had someone encourage me soon after/during it.
I was talking to the leader of the school I'm doing - Joe, and he was so great. He gave me a bunch of adive and I'm so stoked now knowing how many people are praying for me. If you're one of them I just want to say thank you because I don't know where my life would've taken me without your prayers. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I've had so many chats with God about youth and if that's really where He wants me to be right now or if that's where Im suppose to be headed. Some people find it hard to believe a solid "yes" and I have to admit that at times I've been like, "God I can't live with just that, what if it's just me, I need confirmation." Through the converstaions I've had, the people I've worked with in and outside of YWAM and on outreaches I've really come to the point where I can't see myself not working with youth. I can't see myself not being a part of the change that is so desperately needed here. People have asked me why Australia, why do you have to go back there. I'm going back to do the Youth Ministries Training school because God asked me to and even though I have no idea how it's going to work out whether 20 people give 200 dollars or 40 give 100 or God miraculously just puts it in my bank account like I know He can, I do know one thing - He called me to do this school. To learn about this generation. To start to see where my future might be headed and the type of people I could be working with.
While in Australia I said a couple weeks longer after the DTS ended and staffed a camp. It was incredible. The converstaions and relationships that were built during those 5 short days have really been the motivator behind me really wanting to make a difference. Being able to build trusting relationship with youth where I can have the priviledge of being used by God whether just through a friendship or helping someone through a hard time, I'm just glad God chose me.
I'm so excited and so much looking forward to going back and experiencing and learning new things. Thank you for supporting me .. thank you for the time you've spent pouring into my life. I guess now it's time for me to do the same to others.

Countdowns Begun

Hello hello.. so I'm starting to realize how close I am to leaving .. :S pretty nerve racking, I'm not gunna lie. Everythings still being taken care of though because of last minute confusions. IE Visa application and flight confirmations. I hate flying to Australia not only does it waste of few days of my life haha, but it sets me back at least 2000 dollars .. anyways. If anyone knows any cheap flights sent an email my way.
Anyways I just thought I'd let those of you who are keeping up with this how things are going. Right now I'm trying to gracefull get through the panic of finances stage. I know God will provide but it's the ridiculous human side of my that won't stop worrying.
Anways I know it'll all work out and I'll be there in like 17 days! woot.
Please keep praying for finances for school. I'm still in need of at least 6000 to start the school.
Thanks so much.
Mucho Amore

It's official

As of today, Tuesday, September 8, 2009, I am officially accepted into YWAM Perth to do the Youth Ministries Training school. God is so good.
I'd appreciate prayers for finances. Thank you so much.
love

YWAM Round 2

When I left for Australia last December I didn't know what would come next. I only hoped and prayed that I would somehow have an idea of what was to come next. I wait 6 long weeks after my DTS ended to find out.
There's a school inside YWAM (second level school) called the Youth Ministries Training (YMT) school and it's all about reaching .. well youth. During my DTS outreach in Northern Australia we joined with the YMT that was currently running at that time. Together the two of our teams ran seminars in highschools, youth nights, coached sports practices and honestly just hung out with young people and had a good time. The YMT taught me so much just from being around them and I told myself that if I was to do another school I wouldn't do it right away. I'd wait a year.
When I got home, after 2 weeks my 6 week wait was over and I really felt like God was saying to go back to YWAM Perth and do the YMT. I'm terrified out of my skin to try and make this happen. The hardest part for me is obviously the money. I hate that money is such a huge part of life. I have no job but I have this dream hanging over my head of going to Perth in October for the YMT and I have no idea whats going to happen or where I'm going to get the money to go. God's really telling me to trust Him, especially now, but for some reason right now it's harder than ever.
That being said, God's never let me down, nor will He ever and so here I stand... or sit saying that, God providing, next on my plate is YMT October 2009.
I would really appreciate prayer on this one. Just little quick ones would mean the world.

home sweet home

.. home now.

Travellers Yet Again

So travelling worked out pretty nicely because Deborah (outreach team mate) and I are travelling together for the first leg and a half of the trip. From Perth to Singapore (where I am now) we've been together and then we split when I leave at 9:45 tonight. It's a blessing to be able to talk to someone becuase pretty soon i'll be alone for a total of 28 + hours (flights and layovers) .. it's gunna be interesting to say the least.
It's been hard to just get to this airport. I was dying last night not knowing for sure if I was meant to come home and then struggling to find the people I needed to say goodbye too.. it was rough. Plus on the way to the airport to make matters worse, we passed by an accident where I guess a person on a motorcycle/moped had been hit and they were doing chest compressions on him on the left lane and we drove right by it.. all they had was a sheet covering it but oncoming traffic can totally see the whole thing it was aweful. I was smacked with a brick of shock as soon as I saw this lady pumping on this persons chest.
We did end up making it here and I watched a movie and a half .. one of which was 17 Again.. I found it rather comical myself haha and then I had TV issues so that kinda cut in my time but whatever. Anyways. I'm gunna deak and let Deb-Deb facebook it.
PEACE

It Wouldn't be YWAM If...

... Something unexpected didn't happen.
This week, while staffing with Nex Wave, Landon (nex wave staff) and I have been working together to organize all the food and all that jazz for winter camp for 100 + people. We've gone grocery shopping like 4 times now. I'm going to document what our days have looked like.
Tuesday was my first day in the office and we had to go pick up stuff for camp at this place called Food Bank which is a cheap cheap bulk wholesale place thing and we ended up getting lost and it took us forever to actually get there because we went to the wrong place originally. Then Wednesday we went shopping with 2 students doing work experience week and it was fairly simple .. kind of a pain to walk back and forth to the city and parking garage but whatever simple enough afternoon was pretty chill too. Then Thursday happens... today. Landon tells me last night at dinner that were planning on leaving at 8:30 AM right after morning chores to leave to get at the good stuff at the cheap Food Bank place. So we leave probs around 9 because we're never truely on time in YWAM really.. and then as we get half way there the hiace starts twitching and then dies at the worst place possible in the right lane (which is bad cuz we drive on the left side here) so we slowly drive across the lanes as the haice slows down meanwhile someone honks violently at us.. clearly he was short on patients today. So the Hiace breaks down over and over and over as we try to get to a decent stopping point and Landon's on the phone trying to figure out what to do .. whats wrong while talking to Mark, vehicle maitenance man. Im useless.. all I did was find out the street name and hold the seats up so Landon could look at the engine stuff. Eventually Joe and Q came and picked us up in the Nex Wave Hiace (which was what saved us when the bus broke down on outreach.. it was like a deja vu I swear) and we all went shopping. After lunch Landon and I left around 2 - 2:30 to get more groveries for meals.. we got there and were there litterally till 6 by the time we checked out with 1700 + dollars worth of food - omg right? - so then I take all the food outside and expect Landon to be waiting with the actual food van. I look over and he's walking across the parking lot with his arms out and drops them to his side and basically says, "why us!" with his arms. He left the lights on all afternoon and the battery died. So I sat for like 15 minutes waiting with the food mostly because they couldnt find the battery cuz these vans are all weird. Anyways.. moral of the story.. Landon and I will always come across some type of issue while trying to make this camp happen. I wonder what will go wrong tomorrow when we try to go grocery shopping for the 5th time.. yay life. PEACE & LOVE

ps the cool part of sitting and waiting for the van to get boosted was that I think I saw a bandicoot! Well i know I saw something I just dont know if it was a bandicoot but it was sweet as man..

Staffing Days 1 & 2

My YWAM Perth staffing career has officially begun. Yesterday was cleaning day and the first day of volunteer staffing for me. We started cleaning at 10:30 AM ish after morning worship - which by the way was awesome.. it sounded like a southern black baptist church it was wonderful! Anyhow so then I cleaned 228 (a massive dorm-style housing building where many students live.. it was loaded with garbage - you should have seen the garbage pile - insanity!) After carrying like 7 layered mattresses back to the base (approx 3 minute walk) and having our hands not only ice cold but also cramping from clinging to the mattress for dear life we were finished for lunch. Then after lunch some went back to 228 and then I stayed and cleaned the classrooms. I had probs one of the most tedious jobs.. scrubbing walls with Jiff. But now I must say that classroom 7 6 5 4 and 1 have the cleanest walls and 1 - 7 have ridiculously clean doors. Kudos to Cazikstan and I for a job well done lol. anyways so that day ended. And after I hung out and Karl and Pandas house with Christian, Sean, and Laura while Panda packed for her Mexico City outreach that she leave on tonight :( sucks. Came home and went to bed. mmm sleep. YAY to the exciting part. I actually did stuff today! After intercession I wondered like a lost kitten with her eyes till shut and legs walbly.. well maybe not that part, but very lost, until I found Landon. He told me that we were going to go shopping for winter camp so I was totally down. After driving around and going to the wrong places and then to more wrong places we finally got to our destination and bought lots of snacks (at discount prices - yay YWAM card) and then headed back and unpacked. After lunch Landon and I planned out how much of every ingredient we would need for 5 days of food with 110 teens and staff. It took us like 4 hours. So imagine pancakes, morning tea, sandwiches, salads, afternoon tea, lasagna, dessert, and snacks and then having to break it down to exactly what you need. so for sandwhiches not just how much bread but how many slices and then how much meat per sandwhich how much lettuce cheese, tomatoe etc..and then convert it all into kgs... "not that easy, not that easy," Anyways we finally finished it and now I'm at home watching How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days which I dont really need advice on since clearly I'm doing a great job at being single. Uhhhh huh! Anyways thats a day in the life... Peace out home skillets.

Just Chillin

So this last week has definitely been one of those up and down weeks. It's definitely picked up though so that's encouraging. This past week was the week when everyone left pretty much. The final 2 are leaving today so that'll be interesting. Friday was my birthday and it was really weird for various reasons. For starters it's always been hot on my birthday except this year because its winter here so its like shoes and coats and gloves and warm things weather. Not used to wanting hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup while wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fire place on my birthday haha. It's weird, but anyways. So Friday morning I invited everyone over to my place and we all my breakfast - pancakes - tasted so good and then just kinda hung out. Eventually the group died down and i thought about just watching a movie or something for the afternoon and relaxing at home but then the guys that were left, Hyun, Quentin and Christian, said they wanted to watch a movie as well so we went next door to Christians house and watched Hancock and then headed to the base for lunch. Never actually ended up eating lunch but we went to the Harbour Town (basically an outlet mall with all sales always), Quentin, Hyun and John and I for the afternoon. pretty relaxed got a few shirts to keep me warmer for the next few weeks and then came back to base to have dinner at my birthday. 7 of my favs joined me and we had cake after dinner then heaaded to karla's house to hang out/little party/get together and had brownies and watched movies and stuff. Friday was a good day. The later part of this week has been really good. Went to the movies saw Transformers 2, hanging out with friends, going shopping, going to a highschool to do a seminar with Nex Wave (ministry I'll be joining this week that works with youth). It's been really good. I'm a little tired still but I'll be chilling most of today and then going to a bridal shower tonight so i'll be able to get all rested up before i start staffing tomorrow. Im excited, should be good.
Thats me in a nut shell right now. Peace out guys, enjoy the weather. :)

Life on Base.. Alone

Alrighty, so there are like 25 YP'ers left.. of those, many are leaving today. by Thursday there will be like 3 of us left. I'm feeling very alone haha. Especially since January Ive been surrounded by at least 90 people and then April on I have been surrounded by the same 8 - 13 people. Being all alone is a very difficult concept to grasp at this point. The big question is, "What do I do with myself?!" And the answer is yet to be found.
Today I move into a staff house I believe, hopefully close to base or at a house where I know the residence, like Karla and Panda's, but that house is like a 20 minute walk away and conidering the temperature outside and my lack of warm clothing - it'd be difficult to get up in the morning knowing my hair would freeze when I walk outside. But it's cool. If that's where God puts me then I know that thats where I'd be happiest - or that there is a reason for my being there - I'm excited though to live in a houes though, it's been a while so it'll be cool.
The plan right now is that I'm chilling out this week and then starting next Monday I'll be volunteer staffing for a week then staffing the winter camp.
Keep praying. I'm out
Peace!

Last Day of YP '09

So I'm oober bummed because today is the official last day of YP '09. Why in the world did it go so fast? Anyways today is our graduation and it's the first graduation they've ever done so thats exciting - we're starting something new.. again. Hopefully we have a dance party tonight .. I miss those. Anyways after Friday Night Meeting (base church basically) we're having a desert night in the kitchen and all like 90 of us will be in there making food and hanging out. It'll be wonderful.
At this point I'm doing amazing. Yesterday was incredible - YP pizza night.. mmm yes. Slammed some TIm Tams which will always be a good past time memory of YP lol. It was great. We sat around and talked and caught up for a couple hours and just had a good time. Class was wondeful yesterday we pretty much just walked around and encouraged our class on how we've seen them change and it was so cool. I loved that at that moment God would give me a name and when I looked at them I could hear God telling me what to say to them - or while I was talking words just kept coming out of my mouth and I had no idea where from .. until they were like, "oh my goodness.. God speaks through you" or "wow! when did you get so wise!? that was God!?" - I wasnt really really sure how to take that first part but yes it was God lol. It was amazing. I think its something God's really been working on in me and it's cool to practice that and see it get better.
loving life in Australia. miss you all.
Peace

Home Sweet Home ... Ish

Back home in Perth for the next few weeks. It's pretty crazy actually. The last few days have been really up and down. I really miss the YMT being around and always being with the team together. It's crazy how much you adjust to just having certain people and how that affects you when you're thrown into a crowd of people. Even though those 100 people are people I know, it's still so overwhelming. Sunday all the remaining teams got back (I got back Saturday afternoon) and as they were filing out of the buses I didn't know what to do with myself. As everyone was screaming and excited I suddenly just felt so lost and overwhelmed. It was ridiculous. And now that I'm getting used to having everyone back and having so much down time to think - I've started to think about saying goodbye, especially since I've already had to say goodbye to one of the YMT that we were with for the last month. It was so much harder than I thought it would be and now thinking about saying goodbye to people I've known for 6 months and have gone through so much with it just makes it that much harder to literally "embrace the last days."
It's also so weird because I'll be saying goodbye to everyone next week and then for 2 weeks there'll be like 2 of us YPers on base.
Right now the other stress I have is basically how I'm going to afford staying here for 3 weeks with the cost of the camp right now. Really trying to trust God with why He's sending me to this camp. It's hard because it's so close and I still don't know exactly what it entails but ya.. God's got it.. God's got it.
Prayer Requests:
- God will continue to speak about the future and confirm the direction I'm going in.
- wisdome about finances for the winter camp and staying on base

Thanks so much for everything. Keep praying please!
Peace

!FINI!

Today was officially our last day of ministry = our last day of outreach!! I can't believe it's over as of today. We have a BBQ tonight and then tomorrow morning at like 7 we leave for like a 15 + hour drive to Geraldton its gunna be crazy long omgosh. And then the next day we leave around 10 and arrive in Perth, on base, sometimes in the late afternoon ish.. Anyways it'll be fun because like 12 of my favourite people are gunna be packed into a 14 seater. That's right we have 1 empty seat and thats the seat in the very back that is an optional seat.. so every seat is taken.. (shaking head).
So its been great. Outreach has been incredible so many good things so many times God's ridiculously shown Himself over and over and that alone is amazing. So many new friendships that I pray last for the rest of my life. The people I'm with have aided in changing my life and I can't thank God more for putting me on this team and allowing me to work along side these amazing individuals.
Just one request that you pray for us as we start report back and for adjusting back into western society and for going home that the transition wouldn't be too shocking and for safety driving the next like 2 days straight.
thanks guys.. pics will be coming in the next 2 weeks or so for sure. :) I'm stoked. awwwwww yaaaaa PEACE

Internet day!

So today is our day off.. well afternoon evening off because we had church and lunch stuff and then a BBQ tonight.. which technically is pretty chill and not really ministry focussed.. although it is debatable considering the circumstances but anyhow. 

We've been doing a lot of youth ministry of course, because that's what my team is focussed on for this leg of outreach, and so we hang out at high schools during lunch and build relationships there, run youth events have hang out nights and just basically chill and make friends.. make the gospel available but ultimately live out life the way Jesus did with them at our sides I guess. We've also been able to just bless this city by simply being here apparently. We're told by the church that Karla, Quentin, Pablo, Andy and I went to, that they prayed for 9 years for YWAM to come to Port Hedland and last year was the first time they showed up so that was really really cool. 

I'm definitely still alive and still searching out for what the future holds and what God has in store but for now I'm staffing a winter youth camp in July, south of Perth, for 5 days then heading back home at the 13th most likely.. so is the plan at this point anyways.  

Anyways I hope everyone's doing well.

peace out homes

What's that black smoke? The Engine Dying? Wonderful

Okay so we were suppose to leave for Port Hedland, 10 ish hours from Carnarvon on Saturday morning.. yes last Saturday. We arrived Thursday night. And now its story time.
So last Friday night we packed up and then the next morning we cleaned and took off. Carnarvon is litterally 6 hours from the nearest big city .. when I say that I mean still smaller than St. Thomas. So like 2-3 kms outside the city Karla (leader) turns around and it like.. crap whats that then the bus dies and we roll of the road. "Andy! get up here" Karla yells.. so obedient young Andy makes his way from the back of the bus to the front where Karla and I are. He lifts the latch the engine (he's all good with cars and stuff, hense the importance of him coming up) and the bus filled up with black smoke so we evacuated. So then for a while we're throwing a foot ball around int he middle of no where on the side of the road waiting for the verdict from mechanic / car doctor Andy... ding ding ding - cracked radiator.. wonderful. So we get picked up by the family that was helping us out during our stay and thats a long story so they took us back eventually. So lots of phone calls and stuff adn then we find out no chance of leaving for 4 days.. ya that wasnt fun. We already lost a few people because the went up early on a greyhound to work a church camp while the rest of us stayed back. so we were a smaller team now.. YMT and YP DTS joined then mingled and divided in a mix of both again. So we waited and packed up again Monday night .. cleaned up the church again tuesday morning adn then we get the phone call that there is something else wrong and its taking longer to fix the radiator than they thought because well the town of 7000 is limited in resources.. and people.. and then the next day we get confirmations that there is something wrong with the gasket head or something car like in the engine that cant get fixed for a few weeks. So we wait.. and we wait.. THEN FINALLY wednesday.. the base sends a bus up for us.. and we got to leave this morning.. thursday.. at 7:30 am ish.. to actually get to Port Hedland.. oh happy day.
Dont get me wrong.. the days we spent bus less and waiting in Carnarvon were amazing.. shark fishing, snorkeling, seeing the blow holes (missionary work is rough haha jk.. it actually is.. this was our day off) were incredible, playing soccer and teaching skills at the highschool, basketball practice at the school, hanging out and watching movies, chilling with the youth from the school it was amazing. Some of the best days.. and God really showed Himself faithful to get us here so it was really cool, long wait with very little knowledge actually passing through our heads each day but it was good. Lots of bonding and we're finally here.
Only a week and half left of outreach! Can't believe it.
Thanks everyone for everything
PEACE

Next Destination - Australia

Yay!!! I'm almost done my time in the Philippines which means my next place is.. dun dun dun AUSTRALIA. I can't wait. Apparently and it's going to be super chill and hanging out with high school students all week.. I'm stoked man. Anyways, I will catch you quickly.
Destination 1 - May 1st.. ish : Baguio >> amazing. We drove through the mountains of North Luzon - gorgeous omg.. incredible steep drops off the side of the road as well - not as comforting but that's cool. Streets of course are crrrrazy curvy but it's so much fun to drive there.. walking is unfortunate because of the ridiculous inclines - leg work out thats for sure. But it was great, we got to pray with city officials, evangelize in the park, kids programs in the park, marginalized women ministries 3 nights we were there, lots of team bonding. Baguio was amazing - I loved it. The topper was that we stayed in a house just our team it was awesome. oh y a, and we wore sweaters at night because it was .. get this.. COLD - well Philippines cold.. not Canada cold by any means.
Destination 2 - May 6th ish : Bontoc >> village with nothing. We did a lot of ministry for the base, blessing them. Running YWAM international prayer day on the first Thursday for them, hanging out with the American family - I guess its had when you never are around english speakers lol - evangelism of course. Bontoc is really pretty as well, surrounded by bigger mountains all around it it's stunning. There are rice terraces everywhere its beautiful. Then in our stay in Bontoc we went to another more villagey village called Can-eo. It has even more nothing. They survive off of their rices frields and weaving - which is incredible might I add. We only ended up staying 1 night becaues of the typhoon - causes land slides over the road which we ended up seeing.. would not have been a good time driving and getting hit by one of those - I'm just saying. Anyways so that was cool there we did a lot of praying for the village to break curses and ran a bible study for 2 families. It was cool - glad we got to do that.
Destination 3 - May.. i dunno what : Dagupan >> AMAZING time there we stayed on a base. it was so nice I loved it there this was back down on sea level right by the beach we were like a 2 minute walk from the waters edge. craziness man. anyways the base staff and directors were wonderful. We did open airs at a slum and then at a disabled peoples place that was really neat and muslim friendship ministry and stuff - it was great. they were amazing to us holy goodness. Food there was incredible they had different fun nights and we played games with them and they had a farwell for us and they danced and told testimonies and we did our skits and it was so much fun. We all laughed a lot. it was amazing.
Destination 4 - May 16 : Manila >> Im here now .. should actually be getting ready for the day. I have 10 minutes to get ready.. shoot. Anywways, so yesterday was our much needed day off so we took a trip to the SM mall of Asia - biggest mall in Asia apparently. INFACT - David Cook & Archiletta from American Idol were there on Saturday night lol.. true story. Anyways so ya that was really cool we had fun - they had a Bo's Coffee which made my day. Hadnt had a cookies and creme freeze in forever.. like 4 weeks lol anyways. so we start ministry today and then Wednesday we head our for Australia.
We'll be spending Wednesday night in the Brunei hotel again :) yay banana pancake! and then arriving in Perth Thursday night, then we have all Friday to get ready and then saturday morning we head off to Geralton or whatever its called and then after that we hit up 2 more cites farther north.. so it'llbe chillier but it'll be awesome. I'm so stoked. this is what I've been waiting like 2 months for.. youth ministry what!!!
Anyways I'm so going to be late, thanks for everything guys!
Peace

Bontok Here We Come

So tomorrow morning we wake up and go to this breakfast with city officials of Baguio at 7:30 and have a prayer meeting with them aswell. Freaking insane man.. who knew we'd be able to do that - God, that's who. Anyways, so after that we head off by bus .. with no AC for 5-6 hours to Bontok which is farther north and then we stay or 2 ish days in the appartment i guess and then from Friday.. or Thursday night .. I cant remember .. until Sunday we are living village style... We were told to bring our sleeping mats.. so Im not really sure what that means.. but I am expecting to not shower lol
anyways my time is running out on this here thing so I should deek. Peace out
Keep praying yo!

Baguio

Man, have we been doing some crazy amounts of travelling and now we're about to start again. I can't believe it. It's been so crazy.. so amazing. I know I keep saying this .. but I cant believe that I am in Baguio, Philippines sitting at an internet cafe on my afternoon off with 7 people that I never knew 4 months ago, who now probably know me better than anyone. I can't grasp that I don't think I'll ever be like "oh ya I did a DTS once" it's just too amazing. You should all do a DTS.
God's been showing me so much and doing so much in the Philippines. I still can't believe He chose me to be a part of His plan. How exciting is that.. pretty exciting.. Anyways, ya I'm learning a lot about people.. about myself.. about relating to people that you honestly probably have nothing to relate on like detanees at a youth detention centre in the mountians of N. Luzon or the prostitutes in the red light district. It's so crazy. I can't believe I'm pary of this.
We arrived in Baguio on Friday night after driving for 7 ish hours from Manila .. after an 1.5 hour flight Cebu. We have been so blessed. We're living in a house.. all to ourselves all 8 of us .. with nice beds.. hot showers.. a kitchen.. a TV! .. laundry mat aruond the corner, beautiful porches and amazing views of the mountain sides (considering that we live on one) .. it its been crazy. It almost doens't feel like I'm on outreach when I go back home lol. It's weird. Anyways. So Saturday morning we jumped right into the ministry and did a kids program at the park a few minutes away. the kids loved it and they wanted us to come back next week - too bad we wont be here - they were great. then we went home, had lunch and then in the afternoon we went to the youth detention centre and did an open air for them. George spoke.. he was incredible. I was hit with a dose of revelation and just shocked at how incredible it was. Holy spirit was there thats for sure. we did 2 skits.. diretor and lifehouse.. i hurt myself in lifehouse but whatever.. things happen. We played games with the guys (14 of them that ranged from 8 to 18.. I know riht 8? in a detention centre.. pick pocketing.. freaking ridiculous but moving on) ya so that was awesome.. I saw this guy we looked really straight angry.. and i was like.. hes in jail no wonder he's angry its just me.. and then i looked around at the other guys and didn't really feel anything so I felt God nudging me to go talk to him.. I challenged it for a while.. and lost - naturally. So I talked and prayed to/for him.. he wasnt very chatty but he was definiltely listening. After I left I looked back and he was like dead concentrated and thinking.. it was really cool. I just told him how much God's heart breaks to see him upset and then when he's hurting and betrayed by people God's totally holding his hand and so I shared some of my testimony with him.. it was really cool. Even if he got nothing out of it God showed me I can talk lol.
Anyways ya so then in the evening we went out to do some street evangelism with the marginalized women on Baguio. It was sweet... definitely a different environment .. we were just outside the redlight district and we had a few convos.. someone that Mel, Andy and a Philippino guide that was with us talked to actually rededicated her lief and was in shock that God would send someone to talk to her in a bar and that He wants her even though she was in a bar.. it was amazing the story Mel shared.. really cool stuff is happening here.
Anyways.. this is long.

*the kid next to me speaks really good english.. sounds N. American. It's kinda strange.. not used to obnoxious Philippinos yelling "DOES THIS THING HAVE ANY EAR PHONES OR SOUND OR SOMETHING!" in my ear.. first time for everything I guess.
PEACE

Going Going Gone

Friday we leave for North Luzon (still in the Philippines) for our second have our the Philippines outreach. I can't believe it's been a month. We've experienced so much - healings, salvations gallor, amazing conversations, spiritual growth not just in ourselves but others, teaming up with Philippino students, making a lot of new friends and just really experiencing the real God. It's been really cool. It's weird even thinking about going home and not doing this anymore - but the time will come ;).
I don't so much enjoy washing my clothes by hand at 10 pm and getting eaten by misquitos. They are evil I swear. There is nothing good about them. They're ugly and they make you itch like there's no tomorrow.
Anyways ya it's been really great - sorry about the lack of communication it's really hard to find time to sit down and write on someone else's computer - lines ups like no other haha.
Anyways I hope everyones doing well! peace

Wow I Haven't Written in Forever.. My Bad

Well for starters... sorry for those of you who want to know what I'm doing. But i'll quickly run through what's been going on because I only get the computer like maybe once ish a week for like 1/2 an hour.. to communcate with everyone.. and this is a good way to talk to many so here goes..
This week was VBS for slum kids.. it was great a few salvations which were awesome. Kids were crazy.. so many runners and we actually had to catch them unlike in Jamaica which made it a little harder haha. We do a lot of evangelism at night.. usually in the night markets, one of the malls in Cebu or where ever God sends us really. It's been so good .. lots of new people joining God's kingdom so its been awesome. We've been doing open airs a lot as well. Last week we had one in the garbage dump.. actually when we were walking around the village on the dump it was really smokey because they were burning it and so when we got over there we could still smell it but then when we walked away and looked back the smoke was gone then litereally like 10 seconds later we look again and teh smoke was back - thank you Jesus for looking out for our lungs. I dunno if someone prayed but either way God's looking out whether or not we ask for it :) I love God.. He makes me laugh. Anyways.. So ya its been really good. I'm definitely ready too keep going around the Philippines and travelling some more.. really looking forward to some.. well not rice. but thats not going to happen, naw its good .. the food is amazing here like AWWW mazing.. they are so good to us. soooo good. the base is normallying like 40 or less people and now thers like 100 plus people here because all 38 australia team members are here haha. its funny. ive really enjoyed getting to know the DTS students and laughing with them - they are easy to make laugh so it always winds up being a good time.
Anyways I gotta give the lap top back to Karls so I'll talk to you all later.
Keep praying that our team has healthy... bodies haha.. we're in a different environment .. i'll leave your imagination to it. Just for the record I'm totally good its just some of the others are not so good. Stomaches arent so strong I guess.
PEACE AND LOVE
Jesus loves you. :)

Made It!

Wow, so was it ever a long trip getting here. We don't actually live in Cebu City, we're in Talisay - Carman Village to be more excact -45 min away from Cebu I believe.
It's been really cool though. We've had like 3 salvations already and a lot of really cool conversation with people. We've been doing a lot of evangelism and street work so it's hot and we smell and we're sticky with humidity but God is so worth it.
I've love being here and God is definitely giving me a heart for the youth here especially. The people are so great. God really showed me yesterday how much it hurts Him when we don't think we're good enough. I met this amazing girl, 13, the other day at the beach who almost cried when I asked her to say "I am beautiful" before I left. It broke my heart to see how desperate she was to look American. She impacted me so much.. I was talked to Deborah and we decided to go back hopefully tonight with a camera.. take some pictures of her and then go to SM mall and print them off and write notes on the back and give them to her to hang onto so she can see how beautiful she is. Unless you see this girl you dont understand how stunning she is. I cant believe how blessed she is.. perfect face. Anyways.. thats one story ..
We've been spending a lot of time as a team together and a bit of time mingling with others from our school. really though God's amazing. It stinks that I dont have internet more often. But to tell you think the truth I dont miss it. haha, ya I wish I could communicate with home more easiely but God put me in this place for the people not to act like I'm at home.. so keeping that in mind it helps me focus on what I'm doing now and on the people that need Him.
Thanks again for everything - Again, I couldn't do it without you guys.

Good - bye Australia

I leave in approximately 4 hours for the airport.. so stoked! yay!
See you all in a few more months!

Tears

Said goodbye to a majority of my best friends here today. Started at 3 am and went until 9 am.. I can't wait to go on Tuesday.
This has been the slowest day of my entire life. There is no one here.. and you can hear a pin drop.. when you're standing outside. It's so sad. Tonight will be good though. My outreach team is getting together and hanging out and then I think a bunch of us are going to get some icecream at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) for 50 cents! 1 last soft serve cone for memories :)
I love you all - and I'll be backing away my lap top tonight so I won't be on too much for a while .. depends on internet availability in the Philippines and Australia. But ya, I'll talk to you all laterrrrrrr. PEACE

Good-byes

Our good-byes started this morning. First Philippines team left at 5 am this morning. Emma's on that team so we said our goodbyes. I was really happy though that the first 2 teams that left were Philippines teams because I'll be joining them in 3 days. the hard part starts tomorrow morning at 3 Am when the Fiji Mexico team leaves :(.. I started getting teary this afternoon when the second Philippines team left and so tomorrow is going to be rough considering that my best friends are pretty much all leaving tomorrow .. I hate this. :(

Shop 'Till You Drop

So I went out today and got the rest of the straggly things that I needed for outreach - you know like the always necessary deoderant :) and all that. Plus I'm also in charge of the hospitality aspect of our team so I bought the little treats and stuff for the people that are hosting us. I guess one of the bases that we are staying at have less people that all 4 teams (39 in total) collectively going to stay there lol I have no idea how we are going to live so that'll be interesting. Anyways, so I'm ready to get going .. just waiting for my plane to take off now!

(I'm definitely looking forwards to the days and days we'll be driving lol. pray for me to survive the large amounts of counry music that will no doubt be playing in the vehicles we'll be driving in. Tears are already welling up in my eyes thinking about it.)

Commissioning Night

All YP (my school on stage singing Human by the Killers as our intro type thing)

Time to eat food .. cheesecake, cracker and dip, these crisp things and yummy juice.

My outreach team!

Christian (staff) and I

Most of the guys I believe

Me and Ibz... or Iben as most know her by.

Yay - dance party!

Nick being full of awesome - not that he isn't normall just at this moment he was especially full of awesome.

Wednesday night was our commissioning night. All the DTSs that are running at the time and headed for outreach are all brought up on stage individually, a few students give testimonies of lecture phase and what they learned and got out of it and so on. And then at the end all the schools go up and all the base leaders and any audience members that want to go up and pray for our teams. It was amazing - the Holy Spirit was definitly present!

It was a lot of fun a lot of pictures and a lot of facebook albums have been created because of it :) lol. And of coures after all good YWAM events there was a dance party after.