Short Outreach Review!

Hello friends!  Long time, no chat!
My team got back from our 3 week mission trip safely!  We did AusLife seminars in Gladstone, Queensland, then part of the team went to Gold Coast, Queensland for a super fun youth trip, and the other part of our team took part in Mission Adventures which went to Palm Island!  Our team consists of 5 girls, 4 guys, and technically 4 leaders but 1 was not with us on this trip because his little baby Judah Booker was born!

AusLife are seminars that are presented in high schools all around the country.  The main focus is God and how He relates to youth issues such as relationships, self esteem, or goals & values. We spent a week in Gladstone, went to 3 high schools and presented to 5 different groups! Whew! At the end of each day, the students can anonymously ask questions about anything.  These questions ranged from "Is God real?' to "How can I believe in myself when the one person who is suppose to believe in me doesn't?".  Many students wanted to learn more about Jesus or asked to get in contact with an adult who could help them with other questions and concerns.  Exciting!  Here's a picture of our whole team!

Then 3 team members and I drove 10 hours back to Townsville to lead Mission Adventures!  This is a program for youth 15-17 yrs old.  The group that came was from Melbourne and there were 19 of them!  They spent 4 days on base having fun, learning about God, and how to share their stories.  Then we spent 6 days on Palm Island.  This island is an hour and 45 minute ferry ride northeast and the people are indigenous aboriginals!  During this time, we spoke in the church, played with kids, and served the community!

 Our whole team!

 I gave her a piggy back ride all the way out to where the water was... the tides were crazy!

 It was SO hot! We needed ice cream for our walk home!

 This is Mango! Well, her nickname at least... her name is Martha!  She is so sweet and loving!

Yup, imagine living by this everyday!  God is beautiful!

Now we have 2 weeks of lectures on base.  Then on to our 6-week outreach!  Thanks for all your prayers!



Things to pray for...

On Sunday the 11th, the team and I are headed out at 6 am to start a 3-week long outreach trip.  We will travel 10 hours to Gladstone and put on a week of seminars in local high schools... 3 different schools... 5 different days and age groups.  Yikes!  This seminar focuses on the students' goals and values in their lives and how God can fit into those.  I am a seminar presenter along with Matt, another Texan on my team! Next, the team is splitting up.  One team will lead a week-long camp going to an amusement park, water park, some shopping, learning to surf, and ending the nights with messages of Jesus.  The team that I'm on will participate in a program called Mission Adventures.  We will host students from a high school in Melbourne here on base.  They will spend 4 days in "lectures" learning about God and how to share God with other people.  Then for 6 days we are traveling to a neighboring island called Palm Island.  For this, I'm giving a message on how to share the gospel and I will be a group leader once on Palm Island.  Great responsibilities! 

Whew! Then 1-2 days of rest!  I'm thinking it will be MUCH needed!  Here are some things you can pray for:

• team unity
• swift conflict resolution between team members
• intimacy with God- that we will individually seek God even in the midst of the craziness!
• safe travel/health/physical and emotional rest
• Auslife-
• that Matt and I can memorize our scripts
• program goes off without a hitch
• the students are open and ask questions about God
• Mission Adventures-
• students are open to learn
• students are open to serve
• opportunities to invest in the students lives
• opportunities to learn from the natives on Palm Island
• wisdom, guidance, patience as I lead a group on the island
• we can share God with Palm Island
• safe travel, good health
• opportunities to talk with and serve the people who have opened their homes for us to lodge at

Thank you everyone!  Talk to you in 3 weeks!

"sooo worth it!"

Mark Parker was our guest speaker.  Great man from New Zealand!  He spoke on Lordship and God being King and Lord over our lives.  TONS of information!  This post won't be exhaustive on what he taught... please ask questions if you have any!  He focused on the Old Testament tabernacle and how now that we are New Testament Christians, WE are the tabernacle.  At the end of every week,  we have what's called "ministry time".  It's a time to respond to the topic of the week and take action with what we've learned.  Some weeks ministry time lasts until lunch, some dinner... this week we finished at 10:45pm!  A whole stinkin' day of loving and praising the Lord, offering our lives to Him, praying, encouraging each other, making commitments to full-time ministry, and seeking His truth!  Sooo worth it!  We started out asking ourselves what we wanted out of this day, then the Pacific DTS team performed an island dance for us.  We worshipped next, then everyone shared something they were thankful to God for.  More praising God! Afterwards we gave an offering to God... something we were giving to Him that meant a lot to us to show how much we are committed to Him.  Next was confessing any sins... leaving all shame and guilt at the cross.  Through all this, we are growing closer as a team which is great before our 9 weeks of outreach!  A lot of special bonds were formed on this camping trip!  I love it!  more worship, a time of prayer over each other, lots of encouraging words and pictures given over people.  Lastly, having communion as one huge happy family!

One thing I've been struggling with is hearing God's voice.  I didn't really know what that meant before I came to YWAM.  At the beginning, I didn't know if God was speaking to me or if I was only making things up in my head.  After this camping trip, I know for sure that God speaks to me.  Through visions during worship, dreams at night, or through words for individuals... I can hear Him!  God is awesome!!

More pictures! These are not all from camping.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 1 Corinthians 10:15

We held an auction to raise money for Sophie... these guys paid $60-something to throw a pie at her face!

This is Violet and I eating a delicious and fresh loaf of bread.  One of our friends on staff gets loads of bread delivered to their house for free every Friday! Yumm!

This is Hajeong (Ha-Jong)!  She is from South Korea!  This is us at the creek behind our campsite at Hidden Valley.

Breakfast time around the fire! 

Camping at Hidden Valley

We only had to travel 2 hours away from Townsville to reach our campsite out in the Australian outback.  The road up the mountain was insanely twisty and I got nauseous on the way up and the way down.  Here are some pictures!

This is only a teeny tiny fraction of stuff we brought with us.  We had 2 fridges, 1 freezer, 2 huge grills, a generator, enough food to last 30 people for 14 days, sound equipment, plus all our camping gear.  It took 3 trailors and a truck to bring all our stuff back... crazy!

Not such a great view out the van window.  I was too sick to look out the window so Johnny was my photographer.  Plus with the road being so twisty, you couldn't keep a great view for too long.

 The lecture/hang out area is on the left.  Kitchen is on the right behind the big blue tent.  The tent is for Levi and his toys... to meet Levi, scroll down to the next picture!

 This is Levi Booker!  He is the son of one of our leaders, Ryan.  His wife is the beautiful Adriel.  Levi is 18 months old and he loves spaghetti... so much so he saves it on his face for later!  Later in the week, Levi coordinated and led a sweet dance party for us!

 Picture of the campground from our cross that we put up.  Tents are on the right, Big shed on the left.

People have recorded previous flood heights (from hurricanes) on this door.  Cyclone Yasi hit Townsville in Feb. 2011.  It was massive and not many people actually thought it would come.  (Due to surrounding islands and the coral reef (they call it the Great BARRIER Reef for a reason), most hurricanes fade out before hitting land.)  The mark above the door is from this hurricane... about 7-8 feet above the ground.

Next post will be more in depth about what God spoke to me in these 10 days.  I didn't want to make a super long post and bore you guys!