Faith Week!

So here I am back at the base, looking back at the week and feeling very humbled and amazed at God's provision. Last saturday my team (Catherine and Joshua) and I were dropped off about 10 miles out of oxford with $60 dollars and only knowing we were going south. None of us had ever hitchhiked before and we had no idea where we were going to stay for the night or when our next meal would be. The whole idea of this week is to rely on God to provide for every need. We weren't supposed to use the money on ourselves but use it to bless others. So technically we had no money! I was worried about sleeping outside because it is getting close to winter here so it gets a little cold at night. God came through and we never had to sleep outside! It would take forever to tell you everything that happend but I will try to summarize the highlights. We hitched all the way down to bluff which is the southern most tip of NZ without taking a ferry to Stewart Island. The first night was in Rolleston, then 2 nights in Dunedin with a Korean pastor and his family, then down to invercargill, then to Queenstown were 21 of us stayed in the same house, then to Timaru for 2 nights, and back home! We covered a lot of ground, ate at least one or two good meals everyday and only spent $2.00 of our $60 on ourselves. God is good. I learned a lot about God's timing. The first night after we had asked the Church, supermarket and pub for a place to stay and we were exhausted, that is when He came through and miraculously provided a place to stay. I think God lets us get to our most desperate and that is when we know that it is Him rather than ourselves doing the work. Every time He provided it never came in the way we expected and it was always better than we thought. It was so cool to see God come through in the litttle things like giving us KFC when we were craving it and sending a ride even when we weren't hitching because we had a long way to walk. I had to let go of a lot of pride that I didn't know I had! I am so used to providing for my self and it was hard to depend on others for a place to sleep and food. I felt like I was being a burden. I finally realized this is an 0pportunity to see God as my provider and how He can bless us through others and we in turn bless them by serving them. It was cool. On friday my group had the opportunity to just serve and bless a family that we stayed with for 2 nights. They were former directors of a YWAM base in Auckland so we had some great talks about God and advice they had for us. They told us not to waste the time we have here and to really press into God to find out what all He has for us. I came back from faith week a little tired but with a different perspective on God. God is so good!

Mat 7:11 "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!"

My travel buddies Grace and Melanie

A bunch of us where Narnia was filmed

Narnia!

Walking up to Narnia

fun times!

left:Fire dancer in the square
Right: me climbing!!


lower left: grace's birthday dinner
lower right: lecture room
farlower left: my small group tree climbing!

Faith week!

Just a note to let you know that starting tomorrow (Saturday), my class will be splitting up into groups of 3 and sent out all over New Zealand with just $20 and whatever we can fit into a backpack. It is a time to put ourselves in a place to see God provide for us. Sometimes we think that it is us providing for ourselves when it is actually God. Next week we will be able to see God work in amazing ways. I will be with a group of 2 other girls and we are traveling north. We will hitchhike, work for food/lodging and talk with people. We want to try and get to Auckland so we will pray God provides the money. Please pray for us that the week will be filled with God's blessings and for protection while traveling. We all have to be back next saturday. Thanks!

Week 6!

Hello! Well this week I bit the bullet and paid my outreach fees! That is a load off my shoulders! Thank you so much to those that gave toward my support. I really couldn't do it without you. If you still feel lead to give, write a check and give it to my parents and I will make sure it goes towards another classmates' tuition. There are still a few of the students who need quite a bit more money to go on outreach. The nice thing is that when you give an amount in USD in is almost doubled in NZD! Please search your hearts and pray about it. Contact me if you have any questions.

In lectures this we are learning about the history of missions and what it is to be a missionary. My whole concept of what a missionary is has been shaken and expanded this week. It is a lifestyle rather than something you do. God was all about missions! Even though he made the Jews His chosen people, His plan was always to redeem ALL NATIONS back to Him. He wanted to bless Israel so they in turn could bless the nations but they didn't see that. Instead they only saw God blessing them because they were chosen. God wanted Israel to be the go between the nations and God. Israel was the only nation that could show the way to God! Instead they blundered it. They became ethnocentric. Once God realized that Israel wasn't getting it, He sent Jesus and now the church is the go between. Except like the Israelites we aren't doing such a good job! We need to be "world Christians" instead of just Christians. I learned about God's word, God's world and God's work. There are many passages in the Bible about telling every nation about Him. Matt 28:16 "Go and make disciples of all nations.." Isa 49:6 "I will make you a light to the nations.." ect. There are 2,200 verses in the bible about God's heart for the nations. That is obviously important to God so it should be important to me. In light of that I look at God's world. There is a area of the world called the 10/40 window between 10 and 40 degree latitude where 88% of unreached people live and where only 2.4% of missionaries go! How crazy is that! This area includes 1.3 million muslims, buddists, hindus and tribal peoples. Therefore, we have a responsibility to act. I went but there are other ways you can help. You can pray for countries, send and support others going, go yourselves, welcome those internationals in your own community and mobilize others to rise up and go to the nations. Who will join with me?

Video to watch!

Hello! In my last post I told you how we need to raise support for the whole school. Well here is a video that some people in our class made. The web address is www.vimeo.com/3933196. It tells a little bit about what YWAM is and what we are doing here. Please search your hearts about giving. I don't want anyone here not be able to go because of finances. Thanks!