So I am definitely still in denial that it is December in only 2 days and that today was in fact the first Sunday of Advent. I tried listening to Christmas music last night as I was working on my journal, but it just felt wrong when I was in a T-shirt and shorts, yet still sweating away even though both the door and windows were all open! Pretty much I am getting to experience a never-ending spring/summer since I left Victoria just as summer was ending, arrived in Australia just as spring was coming in, and will be back in Victoria just as spring is starting to come in! It is crazy to think about, but I honestly did not have an autumn and will not have a winter this year! I think I am going to enjoy Christmas down under, but it does all feel very weird. Wednesday is the 2nd of December, but the whole base is heading to the beach for dinner and some fun in the sun and ocean . . . nothing says December like fun in the sun! It is good though; so far it hasn't been too hot, just hot enough, though by the time January arrives I may be singing a different tune!
But now it is time to get down to business! Hmm, what happened in Perth this week??? Well first of all our topic for the week was all about Missions. I kind of thought that every week was about missions at YWAM, but we also had a whole week devoted to teaching as well! Actually I should clarify . . . it was only half a week of teaching because we had teaching for the whole base on Thursday and Friday so our Missions week got cut short. Our Missions speaker was incredible though. His name is Paul Dangtoumbda and he is the director for all of YWAM Nigeria. He had absolutely crazy stories to tell us about what is going on in Nigeria! Currently they have been doing a lot of work with Muslim militants who have been trying to take over Nigeria and turn in into a Muslim state. He was telling us all about the amazing ways God is working in the lives of the militants and how they are coming to know Him by the hundreds! The government of Nigeria is turning to YWAM in the area to help "rehabilitate" because they are amazed at the changes they are seeing in these previously dangerous and violent men. They just began the first ever DTS in Nigeria filled entirely with militants and there were more than 100 men who were a part of it. It was really amazing to hear what is happening there and to gain more understanding and insight into Missions as well.
For the second half of the week we joined with the whole base to receive teaching from Jim Stier. He pioneered YWAM Brazil and has been on the leadership team of YWAM internation for many years. He also wrote a book about his adventures with pioneering YWAM Brazil which I happen to be reading for my third book report, and since I was loving his book I was very eager to hear teaching from him live! It was an incredible 2 days of teaching contrasting a life lived off of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the fruit of the tree of life. He also had amazing stories to tell us about different ways he has seen God work and the crazy things he has seen as a result of pursuing and following the call of God on his life. It was both a challenging and uplifting week, but we were very blessed to have input from 2 such amazing speakers.
This was also quite a busy week for us because we all had our major research projects due on Friday. We were divided into groups and each group had to research a major city in the world and an unreached people group within the city. It was quite an interesting project as we got to learn a lot about many different cities and projects, but it was also stressful as our groups were chosen for us and we are all from such different academic backgrounds that it took some time to get used to each other's working styles. In the end though it all worked out well and everyone completed the project on time without too many issues. We all definitely had a big weight lifted off our shoulders by the end of Friday though. It is such a relief to have only 1 book report, 4 journal entries, and 1 update to write before the end of lecture phase. It was also nice to have more free time this weekend to just hang out with friends and not have to worry about this big project. On Saturday morning a group of my friends and I made ourselves a big pancake/french toast brunch to celebrate our City Project being finished and to just enjoy one another again!
It is difficult to believe that December starts this week because that means lecture phase is coming to an end. December is our last month of lectures which means that we have only a month before we head off on outreach. We have been meeting with our outreach groups each morning to pray about outreach and specifically to lift up finances. As a school I think we need something like $60,000-$70,000 to come in order for everyone to be able to pay their outreach fees and leave for outreach on time. We would greatly appreciate you standing with us in prayer as we wait in faith for the money to come in and look for opportunities to fundraise. The deadline for paying outreach fees is December 9 which approaching very quickly, so we honestly don't know how the money will come in or where it will come from, but our leaders all say this is an average amount to still need at this time and that the money always comes in, but having never seen or experienced anything like this before, this is definitely stretching my faith because my logical mind does not see how it is possible, especially so quickly!
In terms of other prayer requests, please continue to pray for health for all of us. Illness continues to make its way through the school and base as a whole, and I'm told it will continue on into outreach as well. Also continue to be lifting up our outreach teams. Now that we know who our teams are we are needing prayer regarding unity. We still need to be bound together so we can work together in full unity once we set out to do what God has planned for us to do. Disunity within outreach teams is apparently one of the biggest stumbling blocks on outreach, so we are really praying into this issue of unity. Those are definitely the 3 big things to be praying into: finances, unity, and health. As always thank you for your prayers and for taking the time to check in and see how my Australian adventure is coming along.
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