Third update - woop woop!

Oi! G'day mates!

It's been a busy few weeks - things are speeding up and it's now only five weeks til out-reach - we're going to be going to Indonesia and Malaysia - think I mentioned it in the last blog, but in case I didn't - you all know now! We will be going to a place called Ponteniak (not sure if I spelt that right)which is in Indonesia and Sabah in East Malaysia. Out-reach is going to be pretty flexible as in we won't fully know what we're doing until we get there. It will be things like running kids programmes, helping out practically in the community, working with the local YWAMers and churches doing dramas, dancing, sharing our testimonies, sharing the gospel and also just building relationships with the locals etc etc.!

We have already had a bit of a practice run by doing a drama in a couple of churches in Melbourne and also with fundraising it has been hectic and not had much free time. Last weekend the other school which is running at the same time as ours (Sports dts) organised an Island night at the base which was amazing! There are a lot of people from the islands (Tonga,Samoa...) involved in YWAM or with connections so they performed island dancing (our school leader Fay is Maori so she did a dance). There were singing performances and a hip-hop dance group as well. We also had a big buffet style meal with Island-style food, including Hungi (again not sure if I spelt that correctly!) which is where they dig a big pit in the ground and roast a pig slowly under the ground - vegetarians, you're going to be disgusted with me but it tasted soooo good! Anyway so we raised a lot of money for outreach through that. Our school has various things planned including making jewelry/scarves etc and selling them, a movie night, busking...(among other things). Please pray these all go well and that we raise a decent amount of money from these.

Something else to mention was that we went to a place called Portland to help out with tours on the YWAM ship so it was great to be able to spend a week by the sea and be outdoors a bit more - had a couple of really nice swims i the sea although later got informed there are sharks around so glad I discovered that after and not before or during! We had a crazy evening where we went down to the beach at night and went for a swim, still wearing all our clothes as it was a spontaneous thing - got a bit of sea-weed tangled round my leg and freaked out a bit as thought it was a shark! Hehe! On the subject of wildlife, Chloe saw a Koala sitting in the middle of the road near where we were staying but UNFORTUNATELY I wasn't there at the time - gutted! I am dying to see one in the wild!

At the end of the week, there was a show in the town promoting the work of the YWAM ship and a couple of bands were performing, one called Seven Star Street and another called Saving Sparrows, they were both really good and Rachel,one of the girls on our team, bought the CD of Saving Sparrows. It's a female duo and they both play the keyboard and sing at the same time - the lead sounds like Vanessa Carlton - very talented! On the way back home, which was an 8 hour drive, we drove along the Great Ocean Road and got to see the sunset and the stars which were the brightest I've ever seen them and there were so many it was unbelievable! Absolutely stunning! Saw a reat big shooting star go right across the sky as well :)

Our afternoons at the moment mainly consist of going out into Sunshine and lately we have been going to this Vietnamese Cafe (there are tons of Vietnamese people in Sunshine!) as the team has made friends with three Vietnamese guys who are always there after work every afternoon. Our group is expanding as we are making contacts with more of the locals, so there are a group of Pakistani guys and even a Maori who are joining us most days. They have started coming back to ours for dinner and last night two of the Vietnamese guys came to a house church which runs on the Fri evening - we did a quick Bible study in groups of 3/4 but we did it differently so that, instead of the leader doing most of the talking, we read a passage of scripture and ask the other people in the group what their thoughts are on what they've just read. This means that we're letting God's word speak for itself and for God to speak directly into their lives, rather than telling them what to think, which means it gives God room to move in people's hearts. If what the other people in the group interpret from the Scripture is the opposite of what it's actually saying and they are getting the wrong idea about it, the leader can then challenge them on where they're getting that idea from and bring it back into line with what the rest of the Bible says by sharing other passages of scripture. Last night I was in the group with the Vietnamese visitors and we were going through John 3:14-17, which is about God giving his only son to save us, so we talked about what it means to believe in God and what it means when it says 'save', so the guys were able to think about its meaning for themselves and get a revelation from God about why he sent Jesus to die for us. Also, our next door neighbours who we have formed good relationships with came to our Thursday night meeting at the base and both the dad and his 15year old son are asking lots of questions about God so I believe God is doing something in their hearts.

Well, I'm going to go and stretch my legs now as I have been curled up on the couch trying to catch up on all my emails/blogging and am now feeling a bit stiff!

So goodbye for now and will update you soon (ish)!

PRAYER POINTS


- pray for good time-management as we are so busy all the time and don't have a lot of free time to get homework done or make contact with friends/family back home etc)

- please pray that I would get my criminal records check (for working with kids) sorted soon as still waiting on a letter to come through from the base to prove that I live at the address I've stated on my form.

- Finances for the other students in the school (e.g. pray for our fundraising) as some still don't have enough for their outreach fees

- One of the students in our school is struggling emotionally and having a tough few weeks so please pray for him