Hello I'm back!!! Bit rubbish at keeping in touch so sorry if I have neglected any of u!
Well first thing to report is that I'm down with the Aussie lingo now so I can communicate with the locals!!!
It has been an epic couple of weeks - we have done three weeks of lectures now - the topics being church planting, the characteristics of God, and the Holy Spirit. The speakers have all been amazing - really down to earth and passionate about what they are speaking about, it's obvious they are living what they're preaching! Lectures are pretty laid back as we're encouraged to treat lecturers as equals and not put them on a pedestal so we can feel free to ask questions whenever and have a bit of a joke with them as well! The speakers generally stick around in the afternoons and sometimes evenings so we really have loads of opportunity to pick their brains and talk to them about anything we don't understand or just generally chat with them. Our speaker last week had the most amazing and inspiring testimony. He was on of the most feared gangsters in Cape Town, was really violent and thought nothing of killing people, on drugs, was an alcoholic and involved in Satanism. But then he had a powerful encounter with Jesus and he just broke down in tears in the middle if this park and gave his life to Jesus. He completely turned his life around, came off the drugs and started preaching, giving his testimony at events and church services. Loads of gangsters and other people he knew gave their lives to God through seeing the change in him. He's now involved in YWAM in Sydney and is one of the most funny, down to earth, gentle people I know so it's just amazing to think he had such a violent past. God can change the most hardened people!
Anyway, the last week in particular has been a big one in terms of what God is doing in our lives. We had a time of ministry on Fri morning and Paul Richards (the speaker for that week and one of the people involved with setting up YWAM Melbourne) prayed for each of us individually, and had prophesies for each of us about what God's calling for our lives were or things which God wanted to deal with, for example healing emotional stuff. What God said to me through Paul was spot on and blew me away! (not literally...)
Another thing to update you on is the fantastic relationships we've developed with the next door neighbours - there's a married couple who have two sons, one aged 15 and the other is 20. We've now got to the stage where we just wander in and out of each other's houses, they really are just like family. We've been round a couple of times now for a meal and they've been over to ours for dinner (or even just coming over for desert!). The mum is catholic but the rest of the family don't particularly have any beliefs but they are so interested in what we're doing and are always asking questions about what we're doing and what we believe - they've even sat through one of our lectures and been here during praise and worship sessions. Last week when we were round at their house we had an impromptu worship session and ended up praying for them! God is definitely doing something in their hearts as they just can't keep away!
On Sat we went to see the YWAM ship at Geelong which provides dental and medical services to the people of Papua New Guinea who have limited health services and struggle to get the treatment they need, causing unnecessary deaths. So we helped out with giving tours (the public and go aboard the ship while it's moored in the harbour and not on a mission trip!) and then spent the rest of the day on the beach, followed by a dance event (including hip-hop and tribal dance!)in the local skate park, promoting the work of the ship (anyone who's interested can find out more info at ywamships.org). Oh and by the way, the dancing was AMAZING! Made me wish I could dance like that! The hip hop dancing was incredible!
Right, I'm going to get myself a cup of tea now, typing is thirsty work...
Love to u all and keep updating me of your activities up in the Northern hemisphere - I enjoy hearing what you're up to!
Lorraine xxxx
PRAYER POINTS!!
- Direction on what to do after DTS.
- For spending money to last out - I have all the money for the school fees but not much left over to spend so pray God will provide what I need
- Spiritual protection as God is moving powerfully in a way I have never experienced before, which is exciting, but it does mean the enemy will not like it too much! So he will be trying his best to un-do what God has done. For example, I have felt very flat and discouraged this weekend. This is directly after I got prayed for on Fri and I don't think that's coincidence!
- Please pray for renewed faith and trust in God this week as I've been feeling a bit weak in that area this weekend :(
Lastly, please pray for the relationships we form with the people we meet that we can be a real encouragement to them and that God will bless them and they will have a real experience of God and get to know Him personally. Especially the family next door!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Ok so you were all promised a blog and here it is...finally! The first installment.
It's very difficult to know where to start as I've done sooo much even in the short time I've been in Melbounrne. First I went to stay with Jenny Divine for a few days, basically just relaxing and recovering from jet lag, so a lot of sleeping (at weird hours might I add) was involved. Activities include going to a drive in cinema which was a fun experience, going into the city, walking along the beach at St Kilda and eating ice-cream! Yummy!
Found out that we weren't actually satying on the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base at Surrey Hills after all but that we were going to be staying in a house (we're a pretty small team, only 6 of us). If I'm honest I was a bit disappointed when I first found out as I heard that Sunshine (the area in which we were going to be staying) is one of the roughest parts of Melbourne whereas Surrey Hills is one of the nicest!
Anyway, I arrived at the YWAM base on Monday 22nd Feb and met our leaders Fay and Willie Collins and also the girls on the team (Chloe, 17, Rach, 18, and Julie, 28). Two guys arrived the next day (both Korean, one of them is a pastor!). I found out the reason for our change of accommodation was that we were going to be doing most of our work in the Sunshine community so we had to really be situated there so we could develop relationships with the people we met - the base at Surrey Hills is about an hours drive away, so no way would we be able to do everything we're doing now if we had been staying there. The house we are in only came about last minute and was a bit of a last minute miracle from God.
Anyway, so the first week was basically orientation and got the meet the people on the Sports DTS (discipleship training school) which is running at the same time as our church-planting DTS - love everyone on the team already - everyone is so down to earth and really fun to spend time with as well as passionate about God.
We started lectures this week, the schedule is pretty intense but really great as there's lots of space for worship, prayer, ministry, building relationships and sharing Jesus with people, in a genuine, relationship-based but non-Bible bashing way. Mornings usually consist of lectures and afternoons of going out into the community developing friendships with the people we meet and being open and honest about who we are as followers of Jesus, maybe even praying for the people we meet if they are up for it. Sometimes we exchange contact details so we can continue the friendship and be able to share more of what we believe, as well as getting to know them and discovering what they believe! Today we played basketball and spend time with the local teenagers.
There is way too much to report to put into this email, other than it has been very inspiring, yet challenging so far and have learnt so much already, even in just a week! So excited to see what God is going to do in my life over the next few months! One other point to note is that we are going to be going to Indonesia and Malaysia in May til we finish in Aug. One thing which has blown me away is the fact that God has provided all the finance I need to pay the school fees - money has just flooded in - I have to say I've always been a little bit of a doubter when it comes to things like that so this has really taught me that I can totally 100% trust God after all! Good stuff!
Right, that's about it for now as I'm hungry and would quite like to eat some dinner! :D
Hope all of you lovely people are well and enjoying life back home! Thinking of u all!
Will update you soon (ish!)
Lorraine xxx
For those of you who feel able to pray, here is a list of prayer points:
- God's protection as we are in a rough area
- Energy as am very busy most of the time and get tired very quickly (although going for some down-time at the beach on the weekend - woohoo! :)
- Please also pray that the team would continue to bond and get on well - hopefully this will continue - feel so blessed so far to have such a great team
It's very difficult to know where to start as I've done sooo much even in the short time I've been in Melbounrne. First I went to stay with Jenny Divine for a few days, basically just relaxing and recovering from jet lag, so a lot of sleeping (at weird hours might I add) was involved. Activities include going to a drive in cinema which was a fun experience, going into the city, walking along the beach at St Kilda and eating ice-cream! Yummy!
Found out that we weren't actually satying on the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base at Surrey Hills after all but that we were going to be staying in a house (we're a pretty small team, only 6 of us). If I'm honest I was a bit disappointed when I first found out as I heard that Sunshine (the area in which we were going to be staying) is one of the roughest parts of Melbourne whereas Surrey Hills is one of the nicest!
Anyway, I arrived at the YWAM base on Monday 22nd Feb and met our leaders Fay and Willie Collins and also the girls on the team (Chloe, 17, Rach, 18, and Julie, 28). Two guys arrived the next day (both Korean, one of them is a pastor!). I found out the reason for our change of accommodation was that we were going to be doing most of our work in the Sunshine community so we had to really be situated there so we could develop relationships with the people we met - the base at Surrey Hills is about an hours drive away, so no way would we be able to do everything we're doing now if we had been staying there. The house we are in only came about last minute and was a bit of a last minute miracle from God.
Anyway, so the first week was basically orientation and got the meet the people on the Sports DTS (discipleship training school) which is running at the same time as our church-planting DTS - love everyone on the team already - everyone is so down to earth and really fun to spend time with as well as passionate about God.
We started lectures this week, the schedule is pretty intense but really great as there's lots of space for worship, prayer, ministry, building relationships and sharing Jesus with people, in a genuine, relationship-based but non-Bible bashing way. Mornings usually consist of lectures and afternoons of going out into the community developing friendships with the people we meet and being open and honest about who we are as followers of Jesus, maybe even praying for the people we meet if they are up for it. Sometimes we exchange contact details so we can continue the friendship and be able to share more of what we believe, as well as getting to know them and discovering what they believe! Today we played basketball and spend time with the local teenagers.
There is way too much to report to put into this email, other than it has been very inspiring, yet challenging so far and have learnt so much already, even in just a week! So excited to see what God is going to do in my life over the next few months! One other point to note is that we are going to be going to Indonesia and Malaysia in May til we finish in Aug. One thing which has blown me away is the fact that God has provided all the finance I need to pay the school fees - money has just flooded in - I have to say I've always been a little bit of a doubter when it comes to things like that so this has really taught me that I can totally 100% trust God after all! Good stuff!
Right, that's about it for now as I'm hungry and would quite like to eat some dinner! :D
Hope all of you lovely people are well and enjoying life back home! Thinking of u all!
Will update you soon (ish!)
Lorraine xxx
For those of you who feel able to pray, here is a list of prayer points:
- God's protection as we are in a rough area
- Energy as am very busy most of the time and get tired very quickly (although going for some down-time at the beach on the weekend - woohoo! :)
- Please also pray that the team would continue to bond and get on well - hopefully this will continue - feel so blessed so far to have such a great team
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