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.