Character and Nature of God

So this week our lectures were on the character and nature of God. It was a good week, but for the most part I felt like I already knew what he was talking about. It was definately good to be reminded just how much God actually loves us though. He is passionately in pursuit in each and every single one of us. God is just, holy, merciful, love, forgiving, compassionate, gracious, powerful, slow to anger... etc. A lot of people have a scewed vision of who God really is but as we went through the bible He declares and shows himself to be all of these great things!

This week also reminded me of the power of prayer. We looked at several scriptures with Moses and King Hezekaiah where God spoke, they pleaded with God and He changed his mind. For example, God said that he was going to destroy the Isrealites after they made the golden calf once they had been delivered from Egypt. Moses pleaded with God and explained why he shouldn't do that. God listened and did not destroy them. It is important to remember that our prayers do make a difference! I have also realized the importance of praying for your nation. I never really considered it that important before, but we should be interceding on the behalf of our nation regularily, especially when there is so much disunity in the church. The church should be the concience of the nation and I don't necessarily think that this is the case most of the time. The church should stand up for those why can't do it themselves and it should stand up for the moral issues, even though it isn't polically correct. So... long story short there, prayer is important :)

As far as outreach in concerned, there still isn't a definitive plan on what we are doing. Please pray for you leaders and the contacts that the are communicating with. I think that they are having a hard time communicating with Destiny Rescue as they haven't heard anything back yet. We did sort out our roles in the group this week. Me and another girl, Annikke, will be in charge of teaching english. I am excited about this, but nervous as I have never done this before. Any resources would be greatly apprecited!

The Fear of the Lord

This week we just finished learning about the Fear of the Lord. It was the fourth week of lectures and I have to say that I can't beleive that it has already been a month! I am amazed at how fast time has gone by.. the next thing I know I will be heading to Africa! But back to lectures. This was a topic that I have heard about beofre but I never really knew how to answer... why should we fear the Lord? We looked at lots and lots of scriptures and I think that I have a better understanding now. The speaker, Glen, drew a picture of a double edged sword with grace on one side and the law on the other side. We talk about grace so often in church that the law side of the sword is often forgotten. That creates lawless grace which is almost like a license to sin...which is not at all what God wants for us! If you swing too far to the law side then you have graceless law which is not good either because no one could actually completely fulfill the law as we all have sinned. So the key is to have balance between these two things. We also talked a lot about fear...obviously! Fear is not cowardise, which is actually a sin. Fear is having respect and honour for God with the realization that is truly is an Awesome (fearsome) God. In Proverbs it says that the Fear of the Lord is the begining of wisdom. To be honest, this week was extremly intense and it was a lot to take in and process, but it was absolutely amazing. The speaker had so much wisdom to share and had a lot of hands on experience in the missions field. There was a lot of talk about spiritual gifts as well and I have really been spending a lot of time asking God about mine. I still don't have an answer, but i know that if I keep seeking, I will find the answer.

As for Africa I still don't know too much more about outreach except that we have booked the plane tickets. We are flying from Brisbane to Sydney and then to Johansberg in South Africa..not sure where we are connecting from in between. Anyways we might spend a week or two there in Jberg before we bus it to Mozambique. We will still need to pay for a flight to and from Madagasscar so we are hoping that isn't too expensive. The staff are still waiting to hear back from differnt people and organizations so nothing is set yet, but it would be great if you could pray for that process.

Just a note on my personal growth... this DTS has been challenging but extremely rewarding. God has taught me a lot about myself and it has forced me to do a lot of soul searching. I have had to push myself and question what exactly I believe in and search out the bible for answers. So basically...it has been good!

Hearing God's Voice

So last week we finished the lectures on Hearing God's Voice and I have to say that it was a pretty awesome week. I was definately a bit intimidated because I was unsure of myself but at the same time I was very eager to learn more about hearing God. The speaker, Jason, was awesome and he had a lot of great stuff to say on hearing God and some great stories too! My favorite part of the week though was the practical things that he made us do in class. The first time we just had a 30 min encouraging time where you tried to encourage as many people as you could. It was great, but a little nerve racking as well because the pressure was on :) Then the next day we were told that we were going to do the same thing except this time were had to spend time praying about what God wanted us to tell people. It wasn't important how many people you talked to just that you tried to hear God's voice. So I prayed and initially 2 people came into my mind along with some pictures and phrases for each of them. I was a bit sceptical as to whether it was God or just myself making things up but I decided to go for it anyways. The first one went well and she seemed encouraged and that was all that I could ask for. The second time, I actually started crying...go figure, but the girl that I talked to means a lot to me already. I talked to her after and she told me about the 4 different people that came to talk to her and how what we all said was similar and that we came in the perfect order and it was what she needed to hear. I was pretty amazed that God actually did speak through me! I talked to one other person afterwards... it was hard to go up to them, but I am glad that I went for it anyways. One of my biggest challenges here is learning how to conquer my fears. I am learning that there is far more freedom is speaking out than holding thing back when you are attacked by doubts. Anyways that next day we did more practice. This time you were supposed to talk with just one person and pray about what you were supposed to say to them. The kicker was that you didn't know who you were praying for....you had to write it down and then pull a name out of hat and go and share what you got with that person. So anyways I was a bit nervous but I did it and basically got a picture in my head of a growing flower. I won't go into that much detail. but I was skeptical. So then I picked out the name and went to that person. When I started to share with her what I saw she got really excited. I guess her mom had a similar picture when she was pregnant with my friend and always reminded her of it growing up. So it really meant something to her which was really cool. I was a bit blown away by the things that I experienced as well as what other people in the DTS experienced as well.

So now for this week...we have just started the Kingdom of Heaven week and so far it is off to a roaring start. So many hard questions have come up and I think it is important for us to think about them. Is just saying a prayer to God enough to get salvation? What does it take to be a true disciple of Jesus? Questions like these make you search out the truth in the bible and that is awesome. So far I think that I have come to the understanding that the most important thing isn't necessarily getting to heaven, it is making Jesus the lord of your life. The speaker Dan made an interesting comment. Most people read the gospels and relate themselves to the disciples. Instead we should try read them and relate ourselves to the Pharisees. Ask yourself: Are you falling into the same traps that they did? They were all work but no deed. Our faith needs to be followed with action! Too many people say that they follow Jesus, but don't act on that and I for one have been guilty of that in the past. Jesus has a heart for the world and so must we. "By doing unto the least of these you have done unto me." God wants to revolutionize the world through our action, not by our just sitting in church on Sunday or going about our daily lives minding our own business. Making Jesus the lord of your life means that you have to be willing to risk everything and that is something that I want to be better at. So...that is basically a bit of what I have been learning about this week.

Prayer Request:

I am getting sick AGAIN so please pray for healing!
That fear will not hold me back...especially when we do evangelism
That I will be open to God's voice and to what He is trying to teach me

New Outreach!

So...things have pretty crazy here at YWAM the last few days. Lectures have been amazing, this week we are learning about Hearing God's Voice. I have learned so much and it is incredible. Then I feel like I was put to the test yesterday. One girl from my outreach team decided that she was supposed to be on the team to India. Then another one of the girls has decided to go home and that she did not want to be at YWAM right now. This left our team with two girls and our leader. Needless to say I was freaking out because I didn't know what that meant for the team. So last night at dinner me and Rebecca talked to the school leader and we were at a bit of a loss. Then my outreach leader and some other people thought that if she joined the Africa team as a leader that would allow me and Rebecca to join that team if we wanted. The other option was that we could join the Darwin/Indonesia team. So I had to do a lot of praying about where I was supposed to go and my mind was like a mess! I was very stressed out about it because I did not want to make the wrong decision. So when it came down to it, I knew where my heart was... it was with Africa. So I went to that outreach meeting this morning and it is official.. I am going to Madagascar and Mozambique! Of course I now know that nothing is certain but at this point I beleive that is where I am going :) I am excited to go, although I know I would have loved Cambodia too. The plan for what we will be doing is pretty vague at this point, but I will fill you all in when I get more information. Hopefully we should be doing some work with Destiny Rescue while we are in Mozambique which works girls that were in the sex trade. Anyways, I will keep you updated..but I have to say that this whole experience is like a roller coaster. It is scary, but it is also the ride of a lifetime!!!!

YWAM Week 1

So I have officially been at YWAM for one week now and I have to say that it has been absolutely amazing! I absolutely love the people that i have met and we have already bonded. It is wierd..somtimes I can't beleive that I am actually here and other times I feel like I have been here for a long time because we have gotten so close already. We haven't even really begun the lectures yet because this was the orientation week, but I have already learned a lot. I love how everyone here has a passion and desire to know God. I think that God is going to do some amazing things while I am here! This week we spent one night and most of the next morning sharing testimonies and it was awesome. It was great to hear everyone's stories and why they came to YWAM. I think it helped us all feel closer and comfortable sharing with each other because there is no fear of judgement.

Today we spent the day at Noosa (well more like 3 hours) and it was nice, but it was basically spent on the beach... It was hot and sunny which was great (I guess I am trying to rub it in!) I did some swimming here at Alex beach as well today and went out for some delicious thai food tonight with a few people from the DTS.

So now for some information about outreach!!! We were presented with 4 outreach options: 1. Africa (mozambic and madagasscar) 2. India/Bangladesh 3. Cambodia 4. Darwin/Indonesia. We then had 15 minutes to pray about it and then put them in order or preference. This would not guarantee which place you visited. I put my first choice as Cambodia and my second as Africa. I would love to go to all of the locations but since that was not an option I had to pick :) We actually found out the next morning which team we were in and I am heading to Cambodia in December!!! It is an all girl team and there will be 5 of us in total. My leader CJ has been there before and is planning some amazing stuff for us to do which we are there. We will work with kids a lot I think and do some slum ministry. I won't go into too much detail about what we will do yet, until things are more certain. But i can tell you that I am super excited!!! I feel like i already have a heart for the people living there, especially the kids and I think that my enthusiasm will just continue to grow before we leave.

So that is basically it for the first week... at least all that I can think of at the moment. I will try and keep you all updated about what I am learning and about outreach. Please pray that I continue to learn and grow!

YWAM the begining...

So I know it has been a while since I have last posted a blog and a lot has happened since then, so I will try and get it all done. First I will start with the sailing trip that I did out of Airlie Beach. It was pretty amazing! It was a three night and two and half day trip that went out to the outer reef. It was a dive boat so there was the option of going scuba diving each day or just snorkeling. I went diving the first afternoon and it was fun...but a bit expensive to keep up so I stuck with snorkeling the rest of the trip. It was fun though and I saw a lot of cool fish and coral. You could often see turtles from the boat and we saw a sea snake too! The first night we went through a passage called the washing machine and I got a bit sick then, it was crazy! But after that I was fine and enjoyed sunbathing on the deck. So that is basically what the sailing was like ( and there was good food which was sweet!), the only bad thing was that me and Julie had to share a one person cubbie becuase they overbooked, but we managed.

After sailing we drove down to Hervey Bay and booked a trip to Fraser Island. The hostel we stayed in was really bad, but the trip was great. We did a guided tour of the island on the bus for two days and one night. It is a sand island so the beach is considered a highway and the roads are all sand and it is really easy to get stuck! It was a bit like being on a ride on a amusement park riding on the bus but it was a ton of fun! The lake were absolutely beautiful and it reminded me how much I miss swiming in fresh water. The ocean is great, but I am not a huge fan of the salt water. We went to a lookout and you could see whales, turtles and rays too which was neat. I will try and get some pictures up when I can.

After Fraser Island we spent a few days in Noosa which is a surf town just north of where I am now living. I really enjoyed my time there and on the last day me and Julie took a surf lesson which was awesome! I was able to stand up a few times and I can't wait to try again! We also experienced the dust storm while we were there which was crazy! It came on so fast and the sky just looked so wierd and dust was everywhere when it passed.

Anyways, now about the present....I am now at YWAM in Maroochydore and I am so excited. I arrived on Saturday morning and we did our first day of classes today. Yesterday we did a welcome bbq at the beach too. My roommates are awesome and I so far I have met a lot of really cool people. It was a bit nervous at first, but I am slowly starting to get comfortable. I have to say that I am really excited to see what God is going to do during my time here. It is pretty amazing to be here with a group of people who are committed to getting to know God more. I will let you know how it goes, but the lecture today was really good. Well that is all that I can think of for the moment. I have been sick the last week or so and would appreciate your prayers! I will try and keep this updated as best as I can, but the internet is really really slow. I miss you all back in Canada and you are always in my thoughts! Please keep in touch so I know what is going on with everyone back home!

First Week in Aus...

The first week here in Australia has been action packed and exciting. We spent the first 2 days in Brisbane and left on the third for the Gold Coast. We spent three nights in Surfer's Paradise and it was amazing. It was a last minute decision to go there but it was definately worth it! We spent the first night there wandering around a bit. The next day was our first real beach day and it was incredible. The beach was gorgeous and the waves were awesome to swim in! Me and Julie spent at least an hour just playing in the water:) Then later that night we went shopping for our Australian bikinis and I say "ours" because I talked her into getting one too! Needless to say they are awesome!

The next day, which was a Thursday we went hiking out the Springbrook National Park and went to the Natural Bridge as well as Purling Falls. I don't think words can describe how awesome it was! The Natural Bridge was pretty cool, but my favorite part was hiking to Purling Falls. There wasn't much water but it was still awesome. You could go and walk behind the falls and it was all rainforest with vines, cool birds and amazing trees. We even saw a Goanna up close and personal! The scenery was spectacular and I think it will definately be a hightlight of my trip.

The next day we drove to Maroochydore after spending some time at the Australia zoo. It was pretty cool and I got to pet a Koala and a Kangeroo! Maroochydore was good, but we got a bit lost and we just crashed by the time we got there so we didn't get to explore the beach at all. Then next day we made the 14 hour trip to Airlie beach which is where I am now. The drive made for some awesome scenery which I really enjoyed, unfortunately I also saw a lot of road kill. We saw over 50 dead Kangeroos on the side of the road in varying states of decompostion which was pretty gross! Apparently they don't clear road kill like we usually do in Canada. Anyways we saw an awesome sunset and a beautiful night sky full of stars. Now we are Airlie Beach and it is very nice here. The hostel we are in is great and the guy working there helped up book our sailing trip which me and Julie are leaving on tomorrow. We are pretty excited for the snorkeling and diving in the reef! So more information on that to follow! Overall the trip has been great so far and I have made some amazing memories!