Week 6

So...here it is...it's been six weeks since I've moved to Australia. Crazy!!

What's even better is, now I have a phone!!! Booo ya! (thanks Mat) So I've been able to actually call some of my favorite people in the world and laugh, cry, you name it while talking to them from across the world. So. Good.

So many things have been happening so quickly that it's hard to really keep everyone updated. The past couple of weeks have been pretty intense..Loads of tears gushing out, plenty of challenging application days and incredible times with Jesus.

I've really just been coming to the reality that I have to be ALL IN for Jesus. To give absolutely everything to Jesus. To let Him be the one to sit on the throne of my life and to let Him take my broken heart, and give me a heart transplant. It's so amazing that He has so much grace to even want to do that. It's been quite the adventure to say the least.

I'm loving it here in Australia, and as the clothing stores are starting to set out their fall clothes, we finally found out that I'm going to Bangladesh!! At the end of March or early April, we'll be heading up there with a group of a bout 17 or 18 of us. Then we're splitting up to two different groups to go spread the gospel. Other teams are going to Nepal, the Philippines and Cambodia.

So many other things to say...in the end though, God is good. He's been challenging me like crazy and in the very best ways as He's drawing me closer and closer into His arms.

I love you all SO much and thank you for answering your phone calls :)

whit

Been so long

I haven't written on here in sooo long!!! AHH!! Sorry to all. The days have been getting more and more busy as we go on. So nice. Plus on most days we don't have internet, explaining why you don't hear from me very often...sorry!

So many things have been going on that I seriously couldn't even begin to catch up. Tonight however, we ended up getting the 52ish of us all together to watch Tangled. Then somehow we broke into a giant pillow fight. Minus the fact that there were many guys there with us, it was a pretty girly night.

Last Friday was our Forgiveness and Repentance day of application. We all gathered in our classroom, and took turns praying to God asking for forgivness and forgiving. We were sitting in the front of the classroom, with Quenton on our left and our one on one's to the right. After we prayed and said what needed to be said, they both prayed over us. Then the class would just encourage and give words of encouragement if felt, as we would go spend some time at the cross and nail our prayers on the cross. Incredibly, the day was fantastic and so freeing. Most of us I know came not feeling well, so sick, so sleepy, and hurting. By the end of our time of repentance/forgiving, we were all filled with energy and on fire. Such an incredible atmosphere. And so not judgemental at all. We were just all pouring it out.....everything out..being completely open with eachother. Now there's such a closeness and respect for eachother that wasn't there before but it just continues to blossom as we all are becoming more and more real with eachother and drawing nearer with God.

I have SO many things to say...and I know I keep saying that I'll fill in..I just don't have enough time!! Sorry!! But, if you don't hear from me before the weekend, we're all going to the outback to go camping!!! SO EXCITED...been looking forward to this for awhile now!

Alrighty,
till next time.

whit

Happy Australia Day!!

This week has been pretty crazy...loads of convictions, lots to process and encouragement. So many things have been happening that I don't feel like I could explain it all but all I can say is it's been so incredibly good.

This week we have been having lectures on Forgiveness and Repentance. The speaker was Shirly Brownhill which is the director of the whole YWAM base. An amazing woman with incredible encouragement and just an incredible heart for God.

I'll go into a deeper discription of what all has been going on and what she's been speaking on a little later. First though, I have to tell you about yesturday. I had an amazing quiet time and really felt like God was really speaking to me through the Word which was all very encouraging. After our morning chores we had worship. Incredible worship. Here we only have one worship leader just singing and playing a guitar. I think I'm actually really liking that simple form of worship more so than a full band.

Anywho, I asked one of my leaders, Christie for prayer...after she was praying for me I could just really feel God's presence in a new way and the worship really started feeling more real than ever before. It only took until the next song started playing, "love came down and rescued me, love came down and set me free, I am Yours, I am forever Yours" that I broke down and fell on my knees just in amazement of what Jesus has done for us all.

As I was setting there on the floor crying, my DTS leader, Quenton, came up to me and asked if he could pray for me...of course!! God was really speaking through him yesterday. It was so good. God was just speaking things into my life and really encouraging me with where I am and everything. Quenton eventually then gave me a scripture and really encouraged me in a certain area which was all pretty awesome. Maybe I can go into more detail later, but for now I'll just say that it was just the encouragement I needed. God gave me encouragement and strength, and made me so excited for what all He's going to continue to do.

ok...i'm really getting distracted...since it's Australia day, we're all going down to the river dressed up as "Aussies" as most do and we're going to go watch some fireworks!! Yahoo...

PRAYER REQUEST-- Tomorrow we're having a time of repentance as a whole yp...we're all pretty nervous..so just be praying for us all to have deep repentance and to be set free from all the forgiveness and sin issues.

Continue to be praying for the base as well as we might be starting to move in these next couple of weeks!!!

For me, pray for Boldness and Courage to come up within me....not to be afraid, but to be myself, the person God created me to be.

I love you all...so much. Hope you're doing great!!! Thinking of you always!!





                                         

friends

I wouldn't exactly say I'm homesick...but I do really miss the people back home right now. I miss our random adventures and juice runs, chilling at home on the couches with the folks, the 5 billion missed calls, and even the annoying voicemails a certain "someone" would keep leaving me throughout the day ;)

The tiniest things remind me of people back home. Apples are everywhere...reminding me of course, of my best friend/sister...Katie. And I don't even know what day it is, but I know It's time for Katie's Birthday to get a rollin.....shaved your head yet Katie?!?

I really miss our long drives and our conversations about God that would last forever....how you guys would totally challenge me every day....to the point where I was sooo frustrated at you at times, but I loved you that much more for bringing out the truth in me..challening me.

I really can see how God has blessed me with each one of you. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful for parents that taught me how to fear God, for best friends that aren't ever afraid of getting in my face to correct me, and for so much more. I guess I just want you to know that you are loved. Greatly. So skype me sometime :)

on other news, we as a school were praying all night for the new base on Friday night. From 12AM-9AM. I took the slot from 8-9. It was pretty amazing though because I just got to look back and see what all God has done....even though I wasn't here for the most of it, I was still able to see incredible things that God has done for this base. I recently found out that YWAM litterally has no income. I thought that some of my school fees or something would go towards the base, but none of it does. They make it as cheep as possible and have no income whatsoever. Amazingly though, God provided them with the funds to raise up an incredible new base worth millions.

During work duties one day, Salah, my boss, wanted me to go help on the new base. It ended up being absolutely incredible because I...for no reason at all...got to go carry a stick of all things up onto the second floor of the new base. Some of the staff haven't even gotten to see it yet!! But for whatever reason they had to get that stick up there, I got the job done. And the inside of the base is incredible! It's soo beautiful and huge. I couldn't believe it.

Anyways, I've been hearing bits and pieces to the story of how the base is coming together, and it's incredible to see how God has been providing seriously everything. But the base is still not done. So...here's where you come in....with some prayer!! Please be praying for the base, the workers, the leaders, for some energy and encouragement, for the relationships between YWAM and the companies they're working with and for YWAM Perth as a whole. Whenever ya can :) Thanks so much!! Miss you dearly..

Welcome to Perth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNhoDZxq1xo&noredirect=1

Character of God

Lectures this week were insane. So, so good. This week was all about the character and nature of God. Our speaker was Chris Adams which is a leader of the School of Worship. I want to explain everthing he said this week, but I have SO many notes and thoughts I just wouldn't even know where to begin.

There was one day however that he spoke on Jesus..how great He really is and what He truly did on the cross. I was seriously trying with everthing I had not to cry when he went through it all....after class I discovered that I aparently am a major softy beacause everyone else was just fine but I have never heard anyone teach about Jesus like that. Ever. I've hardly even been taught about Jesus at all. So, when I found out that this is what he was going to speak on, I was extemely excited to get things going.

We really broke down the scriptures that told us exactly who Jesus is and what He does. I don't know exactly how to explain it all through writings....in my journal it's mainly doodles that probaby only I can understand.

Col 1: 15-20

"the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everythin He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all  things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross"

CHRIST-  ALL THINGS- created by Him
                 ALL THINSG- created through Him
                 ALL THINGS- creaed For Him
He is the purpose of ALL creation! It was for HIM.
                 ALL THINGS hold together IN HIM
                 ALL THINGS are made right to God through Him

I learned that I have this kinda of "truth box" that I have built up throughout my lifetime. Things that I have placed in there that are hard for me to change my mind about...I don't waver back and forth...I know that I know that I know that the earth is round. Just beacuase I've grown up knowing that. But not everything in that box is true. Some of my beliefs about God have been so warped that even though I know what to say on the right situations, with my actions, with my heart, I don't necessarilly believe it. My actions don't show it. I have formed this warped view of God in a way. A way of mistrust towards Him. That has really been revealed to me this week. That I need to chose to trust Him with everything. I need to let go. To belive that He really is all that He says He is...that He looks at me with love and compassion, with love and mercy. How great is His love..

Another thing that really stuck out to me on this week was this:

what is the greatest consiquence of sin?

everyone that chooses against God will be gone in hell forever. God says He will wipe away our tears, but no one will ever be able to wipe away God's tears. The tears He cries over the children that He's lost forever..He pays forever. It costs even God. The ultimate price of sin is God carrying part of it for us....Him suffering for our loss. And no one can take that away from Him. He always pays the cost! What does the infinate grief feel like? God pays that cost forever.

I don't want to live in a way to cause God any more aditional pain.

I want to help lead others into a relationship with Him so that God won't have to suffer for them....so that He will get the joy of seeing all of their faces in heaven.

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, in the Name of the Son, in the Name of the Holy Spirit., and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Surely I will be with you always to the very end of age." Mathew 28:19-20

so much

Ok, I have no idea where to even begin. I haven't had internet the past several days, and they days here are just crazy long so a ton of things happen within the 24 hours we have.

First: I'll kinda explain what my days look like. I wake up a little before 6AM to go work out with the YP at 6. We do exercises, run or play a game. Then we have quiet time or a time where we can just take a shower and stuff. At 8 we're all assigned to a different place to get our morning chores done. I got to gladstone, at the guys house, and attempt to capture the atention of the leader as well as I possibly can to get the job I love....watering plants! I've kinda become "that crazy plant lady" of the campus...not sure how that happened haha. But seriously, if I'm going to have a job, I want it to have something to do with water, being outside, and greenery!! Yes please! After morning chores, we have worship. Sometimes it's as a whole base, sometimes It's just our school depending on the day. We start lectures a 10AM and then go til noon when we have an hour to eat and just chill. I do random things until 3:30 in the afternoon, then I go to work duties for about 2 hours. I'm with food distributing..I'm sure I'll tell more about that soon and what it is exactly that I do. After work duties, we go to our clusters. Since we haven't moved into the new base yet, we all go to different staff houses to eat with them and their families with a group of people from our YPDTS. Then it just kinda depends on the day what we do after dinner. We might meet one on one's, with our small groups, evangelism, free night, or who knows what else. So lot's of crazy things to do a lot of the time. But it's good. I like keeping busy.

Whew...so I know a lot of people have been wondering what my scheduale is like, so that's basically a highlightof my everydayness.

I was going to write more, but now I need to go to the streets of Perth...we're going to evangelize...a tid bit nervous I must admit.

I'll write more soon. Til then, if you don't hear from me for several days, no worries, I'm doing great!