Time Sensitive/Urgent

We NEED YOUR HELP!

We need to have all of our outreach fees in by next Wednesday (less then a week). Our school as a whole needs just shy of $21,000. That is a lot! I want to encourage you guys to pray and seek if God is calling you to donate ANY AMOUNT! Any little bit will help! If does need to be a credit payment because of the time constraint.

If you are going to do this:
#1 Thank you so much!
#2 Here is how:

-Under money details chose donation/gift
-Chose a student
-Chose Discipleship Training School-July
-Click someone else
-Type my name (It will end up in the whole school outreach account)

THANK YOU SO MUCH, AGAIN!

https://www.ywamperth.org.au/007/payonline.asp

Lordship Rocked My World

I originally thought that repentance and forgiveness was going to be my hardest week and for one reason I was right...I was reluctant and scared that week.  However, this past week was Lordship and that was difficult for a whole other group of reasons.  This week was really in your face and challenging, in the best way possible.  The part that really hit home was the fact that if we truly choose to follow Christ we have no rights because He is the Lord of our life.  These are the list of rights that we were challenged to submit.

1. The right to a certain career or future plan.
2. The right to a good reputation.
3. The right to possessions and money.
4. The right to family and friends.
5. The right to protection and safety.
6. The right to health.
7. The right to be right.
8. The right to time or your timing.
9.The right to be angry.
10. The right to my preferred lifestyle/world standards.
11. The right to your country, culture, and home.
12. The right to be in control.
13. The right to get married or not get married.
*the ones in bold are the ones I struggled with.

I felt very challenged by the letting go of these rights, but due to all the great things that have happened over the past 7 weeks, I was willing to lay them down at Christ's feet and trust Him.  Once I laid these rights down and tore up a marriage book to represent all of them, I felt so free and light.  It is really hard to explain this, but it was as is there had been a constant buzzing and weight on my shoulder that i had just gotten use to and then once I chose to give them over to God, I realized how I should have been feeling the whole time.  It was amazing and I am so thankful for not having to carry these around with me.  

Make a Joyful Noise

Every Thursday evening, our whole base does city wide evangelism.  We get into groups of 6-8 people and pray about where and what God would like us to do.  We meet at 4:30pm and we head back to base at around 7pm.  This is how I met Anthony and sang with him on the street.  I also was invited to join a group from a burger joint at their BBQ.  Two weeks ago, I went into a frame shop, an Asian grocer, and a book store.  I had two good conversations about religion in general and what I (an American) am doing in Australia.  Every time I was not the one to lead the conversation, my partner was, and I was really down on myself about this.  What am I afraid of? These people I will most likely never see them again, so why not be bold?  They don't know me, so what does it matter what they think of me? This week my group prayed and we felt called to go into the city and sing worship songs in front of a coffee shop (Gloria Jeans actually).  We had two guitar players in our group, a few great singers, some cheesy dance moves, and a joyous spirit.  As we were performing, I saw one guy sitting on the bench playing close attention to us.  I felt like I should go talk with him, but once again I got nervous.  My friend Arielle gave me a kick that I needed and just told me to go talk to him.  So I grabbed my buddy Walker and we went over and introduced ourselves.  His name is Fransisco and he is from Colombia.  This was at 5 something and we ended up talking with him until well after 7.  He was really drawn to us because of our guitars, he is looking for a teacher.  He also said that we had a joy about us that many of the other street performers did not have.  A girl from a second level school named Addie and I talked to him that whole time (Walker went to sing to other people on the street).  We got into a pretty deep conversation about world religions and why Addie and I chose to follow Christ.  He has chosen to have a view where he takes the best of all different religions and make them into what he believes.  It was also so clear that God is pursuing him.  He even said that anytime he is runs into difficulties, there are a group of Christians there to either help or pray for him. I asked him if he thought that that could be God reaching out to him.  He said God wouldn't do that.  I then got to share about how God wants to have a personal relationship with us through Christ and talk about my own faith.  There was never a moment where I did not feel a leading of what to do or what to say.  It was amazing.  I even used the tattoo on my wrist to talk about my dedication to the Lord, see Dad God has a plan for my tattoos :)  He exchanged numbers with a Music DTS student to get guitar lessons and he had a lot of questions.  Afterwards I was filled with energy and excitement.  It was great to be bold about my faith and ask him questions about why he believed what he believes.  It was really exciting.  I am really looking forward to next Thursday!

Relationship and a weekend get away

This week's topic was relationships.  Our speaker was Ben McClure, who is from New York, but has been on staff at YWAM Perth for a long while.  He was really great at weaving scripture with stories with application.  It was wonderful to have him as our speaker.  He first talked about what our relationship with God needs to look like.  He really made us think about the qualities of a good friend and that those are the qualities that God already possesses and we need to work on our end of the friendship.  He then spoke a lot about what our unity and friendships in a body of believers needs to look like.  That was very convicting and I realized that I really need to work on my own end of friendships and as a believer in a fellowship.   I really felt conviction with what Ben had to say about being committed to leadership and a vision.  He said "If God has called us to a vision, it is the WHOLE vision".  Often in the past, I have been known to question the direction of a team, or the choices of the leader.  I realized that I need to either get on board, because God has appointed that leader, or pray about if that is the vision I am suppose to be committed to.  The last two days he spoke about guy/girl romantic relationships.  At the start of the DTS, another student had given me this sermon to listen to and think about:
http://www.gccweb.org/podcasts/episode-505/Swerver-Reloaded_Bill-Young-and-Steele-Croswhite.mp3/download

I thought it was good.  What Ben had to say was for the most part aligned with that.  However, Ben made the realize that it doesn't have to be so serious in our expectations...just because we are praying about dating someone does not mean we should assume that that person will be our spouse. God wants us to really get to know that person with healthy boundaries before we start praying about marriage.  It was good to hear...it also took a lot of pressure off from hearing from God about my future husband.

My weekend was a weekend with God...hence the getaway.  I spent from Friday night 10pm to Sunday 10am with God...alone.  He had called me to this last Friday and I spoke with my leaders and they approved.  I knew it had to be God asking me to do this because I would never want to spend so much time by myself without other people (if you really know me you know that this is true).  The weekend was really great.  God was so faithful in speaking to me and showing me why He called me away.  Here are somethings that I got out of the weekend:

There are a few other things but I am still processing through those.  Miss you guys.  Let me know what you think...aka leave comments.  

-God wants my full attention and wants to come first in how I spend my time

-Even if I am away from people I should not feel lonely because God is my comfort and wants to talk with me

-That being where God has called me to be (in His will) is what gives me peace about being here...not the people I am in fellowship with


That is all for right now...I am still prcessing through a couple of things that God spoke to me.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read this blog post.  Miss you guys.

Top 10 Reasons I Love Being Here

I thought I would mix it up with a totally random post about the fun/amazing things that I love about being here (not saying that I don't miss people or things about home).  Some of them are funny, some of them are spiritual, and some are very random.

10: BEACHES. Yes Dad I have been to the beaches, however, I have only gone in ankle deep, so safe from the sharks.  The beaches are beautiful and peaceful (might be because it is winter here).  I love the sand, the smell, and the waves. 

9: Random people I meet.  I have had so many opportunities to meet random people.  This is either through staff friends, evangelism night, and going out into the city.  They have been friendly and welcoming.  It has made me feel at home.

8: Wednesday night bake nights. Wednesday evenings are our free night or study night.  A few of us have turned it into a baking evening where there may be random dancing, singing Disney songs, and/or watching movies.  I have been so excited for these nights.  It is at the sport dts student and staff house and the boys have loved the cookies. 

7: Working in the Café.  I have been so blessed by getting the work duty of the café.  Yes I have to clean the bathrooms, but I am so lucky with the fact that I get to combine things that I love: coffee and people.  I LOVE making coffees and chatting with people as I make it.  Even on days that are totally crazy I still love it.

6: Finding out where outreach will be.  We found out on that we are going to East Timor and Philippines.  I had never heard of East Timor before, but from what I have heard and read, it will be an amazing country to visit and serve in.

5: My fellow 228ers and 228 itself.  So in the past I have thought that I would enjoy living communally.  Well I was right.  I love living with 47 other people.  We have about 23 guys and 24 girls in one house…camp style.  I have a top bunk that I really like and I enjoy always having someone to hang out with. 

4: My ‘brothers’.  Three guys have adopted me as their big sister.  They have been so amazing and have made me feel so loved and special in a totally brother/sister way.  It has been encouraging and brought me so much joy.

3: My team. I have an amazing team with great leaders and I feel so fortunate.  They are all so different and have been encouraged and blessed by many of them.  My leaders have been encouraging and challenging (in the sense that they want me to grow).

2: Eagle Creek Community Church.  That is the church I have been attending since I have gotten here.  It is mostly Aboriginal families, but there are also families from New Zealand and Papa New Guinea.  There are some students I have already connected with and I have been asked to help out there already.

1: Realizing that God is revealing Himself to me.  This one is a little strange and complicated, so if you want more details email me, but basically it was on Wednesday and way amazing.

I NEED BLOG POST IDEAS SO PLEASE POST SUGGESTIONS!

*Disclaimer...most of the list is not in actual order of like so do not be offended by the order*