Ok, so this week has been very busy, but really, really great! Here's the roundup...
The theme this week was "The Nature and Character of God". This is something I have struggled with a lot recently, and the opportunity to hear lots of intelligent, understandable information on it was very helpful to me. This has led to some great prayer times and generally just feeling more secure in God - in trusting that He really is good. I have had to let go of some places where I was still holding God at arms' length in my heart, and I know there are still more areas to work on, but right now I'm just loving that God's brought me a little further on that journey in my relationship with Him, and there's still much, much more to come! Our lecturer was David Cole, a man from New Zealand, who works with YWAM in New Zealand. He was one of those people who just shone love & the light of God. It was great to be taught by him!
Camping
Tommorrow, I head off for a two-week camping trip. (so no updates until late February/early March I'm afraid) This is part of the school and we will still be having lectures etc, just in a camp site. I'm really looking forward to going camping (I must admit, it was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Townsville for my DTS!) However, the rain is absolutely awful at the moment, so prayers that we don't get flooded in would be great! The campsite is not too far from here (maybe 1/2 hour drive) and has got showers & stuff. There's plenty of space there & lots of trees, so I'm really hoping that the weather clears up and we get pretty stars & can sit round a campfire in the evenings. I have bought wellies. I have packed my wellies. They call them gum boots here. I am prepared.
Work Duty
I love my work duty! I'm on kitchen clean up and honestly think I got the BEST deal. Dinner clean up is a group effort, usually done to music and chatting, generally taking about an hour straight after dinner (obviously). Most work duties are 3-5pm, so are longer and mean not having the afternoon free. Also, we get to make the kitchen sparkle. yay.
Valentine's Day
Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and obviously I didn't think much of it at all. I'm not one to get upset about not having a boyfriend, not 'celebrating' the holiday etc., I just kinda go with it. But the people here are lovely... one of the girls made a paper heart for each person with a little Valentine's message and a mini bar of CADBURY'S chocolate (yum yum!). Then in the evening, the guys from our course came round with ice cream (and toppings) and a Valentine's card for each girl, signed by all the guys. I was surprised by how touched I was - it made me want to cry (happy crying, but I didn't cry anyway).
The Group
We all seem to be getting on well as a group, although I certainly know some people here way better than others. The previous DTS has just come back from outreach and there are almost 40 of them (compared to 20 of us). I'm really pleased that our group is a bit smaller - I'm struggling to get to know everyone well as it is, nevermind if there were twice as many people!
My Parents
This is a shout out to my parents - THANK YOU MUM & DAD FOR BEING SUCH WONDERFUL PARENTS & EXAMPLES TO ME! YOU ARE FAB!!!!!!! I've just been struck again this week by how blessed I am to have the parents I've got; we've been discussing God's character this week and have talked about God as our Father. There was more than one person in the group who mentioned a bad relationship with at least one of their parents and this makes me so sad. My parents have always been good to me and looked after me so well that I didn't even realise it....I just took it for granted that that's what parents did! I mean, I'd realised that I'd got good parents, but the more people I meet, the more I understand just how great my mum and dad really are.
Flights & Visa
I have sent off the rest of my visa application, so, God-willing, that should be coming through while I'm camping. After a minor problem with the airline, I have rebooked my flight home for June. So yeah, praise God for the rebooking & praying that the visa will come through without any problems.
Prayer Requests etc...
Continued good relationships & building of relationships within the DTS group
A safe & fun camping trip, and that we won't get flooded or ruin all our stuff. So yeah - protection and enjoyment!
For families back home who won't hear from us for 2 weeks
For the planning process for the 2 outreach teams - the Islands team are hoping to go to Vanuatu and pioneer some youth work there, while the Outback team (my team) will soon be starting to finalise the route - probably some variation on going to Mt. Isa and back again, doing youth & schools' work along the way.
Finally, when praying for me, please don't forget to thank God for all the great things He's been doing in my life these past few weeks, and in my life before that. God has just been revealing so much of Himself to me and it's incredible, He's incredible. Thanks & praise are definately in order! (Thank You, God!)
Finally, thank you for reading, I pray that God will continue to bless and keep you all. Drop me an email sometime (Some of you do, I know, and I love it) and I'll make an effort to reply personally. Have a great two weeks everyone!
Friday 15 February 2008
Sunday 10 February 2008
DTS Week 4
We have officially completed 1/3 of our lecture phase. Insane.
Biblical studies week was really good. I think my favourite parts were reading whole sections/books of the Bible outloud together - it's incredible how much more I could connect with what I was reading when I read out loud. We also had the opportunity to practice Biblical meditation - just really prayerfully considering a few verses at a time, trying to understand what God was saying in them.
I'm really hoping to make reading the Bible outloud a regular part of my life. One of my prayers in coming here was to regain what I used to have in reading the Bible - where things would constantly 'jump' out at me and I'd feel like I was actually getting closer to God in reading the Word. I feel like I'm getting somewhere this week, so that's really great!
I am officially going on outreach to Outback Australia! We will be doing schools & youth work (and probably other bits and pieces) in various towns around Northern Queensland for 8 weeks. I am so so excited! Prayers for which towns we should go to, and continued team relationships would be really appreciated.
Next weekend we head off on our 2-week camping trip, so I obviously won't be posting during that time. A few of us went out this morning to look at camp grounds and we found one we really like. We're praying that it will be affordable and available for us to go there.
I also saw wallabies. That makes me happy.
Biblical studies week was really good. I think my favourite parts were reading whole sections/books of the Bible outloud together - it's incredible how much more I could connect with what I was reading when I read out loud. We also had the opportunity to practice Biblical meditation - just really prayerfully considering a few verses at a time, trying to understand what God was saying in them.
I'm really hoping to make reading the Bible outloud a regular part of my life. One of my prayers in coming here was to regain what I used to have in reading the Bible - where things would constantly 'jump' out at me and I'd feel like I was actually getting closer to God in reading the Word. I feel like I'm getting somewhere this week, so that's really great!
I am officially going on outreach to Outback Australia! We will be doing schools & youth work (and probably other bits and pieces) in various towns around Northern Queensland for 8 weeks. I am so so excited! Prayers for which towns we should go to, and continued team relationships would be really appreciated.
Next weekend we head off on our 2-week camping trip, so I obviously won't be posting during that time. A few of us went out this morning to look at camp grounds and we found one we really like. We're praying that it will be affordable and available for us to go there.
I also saw wallabies. That makes me happy.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
DTS Week 3
So, first off, sorry that this update is a little late. Things are getting busier here, and I had a lazy Sunday (first full day off in 2 weeks) so...yeah, that's the deal!
Last week we were discussing Identity in lectures. This was a lot about who God created us to be - recognising lies we believe about ourselves, that make us out to be less than we are, and understanding what the truth is of how we were designed and who we are in Him.
It was a pretty fun week overall, I felt.
Friday night was evangelism night again. Me and the two other girls I was with got into a long conversation about spiritual stuff with a woman who's into angelology, meditation, yoga and that kinda thing. It was interesting, though kind of scary to see how close she was to the truth in some ways, and yet so very, very far. We gave her a tract explaining the gospel message (because she doesn't know about Jesus) and invited her to the base BBQ this week. I hope she'll come, and if you want to pray for her, that God will bless her & reveal Himself to her, that would be great!
Also, before we went out we were all praying for God to guide us about who we should speak to, to tell us things to look for etc. I felt like God might be telling me to look for someone with hearts on their shirt (I saw a picture of a top with a design made up of a load of hearts), so all night I was looking out for this. After we finished talking to the woman who was into angels, it was time for us to head back and we hadn't seen anyone with hearts on their shirt, so I figured it had just been my imagination. Then, two girls came walking towards us wearing fluffy angel wings & each with an I [heart] ... t-shirt on. Ok, so it was only one heart on the shirit, but the wings clinched the deal for me. I stopped briefly, let them give me a stamp for a fundraiser they were advertising and passed the girl on the right a tract. I really pray that God will speak to her through it. Just then, two 'goth' girls walked past, and my friend was looking for a goth girl, so she handed them tracts quickly too.
At times I've wondered how much use tracts are, but as i start to realise just how little most people know about the gospel, I understand them more and more.
One revelation I had last week was that so many people think Christianity is about being good enough, doing good things and earning your way to Heaven. It's not. It's a free gift, a relationship with God that's available to anyone willing to admit their fault and receive the forgiveness Jesus died to secure and the life He was resurrected to bring. It's incredible, yet people don't even look at it because they're all too aware of being 'not enough' - what's that point of even looking at Jesus if you think you've got to be good enough for him? The enemy is rallying for this lie in our world and doing too well at it. So yes, the more people I can tell the truth to, whether they're ready to give their lives to God or not, the better, or so i think!
This week we are doing Biblical Studies. I have already read the book of Philemon 9 times and the book of Colossians once. I'm enjoying it though, it's interesting and different to the last few weeks because it's more academic, I guess.
Tonight we find out our outreach teams, so I'll be able to officially announce that in my next blog post!
Last week we were discussing Identity in lectures. This was a lot about who God created us to be - recognising lies we believe about ourselves, that make us out to be less than we are, and understanding what the truth is of how we were designed and who we are in Him.
It was a pretty fun week overall, I felt.
Friday night was evangelism night again. Me and the two other girls I was with got into a long conversation about spiritual stuff with a woman who's into angelology, meditation, yoga and that kinda thing. It was interesting, though kind of scary to see how close she was to the truth in some ways, and yet so very, very far. We gave her a tract explaining the gospel message (because she doesn't know about Jesus) and invited her to the base BBQ this week. I hope she'll come, and if you want to pray for her, that God will bless her & reveal Himself to her, that would be great!
Also, before we went out we were all praying for God to guide us about who we should speak to, to tell us things to look for etc. I felt like God might be telling me to look for someone with hearts on their shirt (I saw a picture of a top with a design made up of a load of hearts), so all night I was looking out for this. After we finished talking to the woman who was into angels, it was time for us to head back and we hadn't seen anyone with hearts on their shirt, so I figured it had just been my imagination. Then, two girls came walking towards us wearing fluffy angel wings & each with an I [heart] ... t-shirt on. Ok, so it was only one heart on the shirit, but the wings clinched the deal for me. I stopped briefly, let them give me a stamp for a fundraiser they were advertising and passed the girl on the right a tract. I really pray that God will speak to her through it. Just then, two 'goth' girls walked past, and my friend was looking for a goth girl, so she handed them tracts quickly too.
At times I've wondered how much use tracts are, but as i start to realise just how little most people know about the gospel, I understand them more and more.
One revelation I had last week was that so many people think Christianity is about being good enough, doing good things and earning your way to Heaven. It's not. It's a free gift, a relationship with God that's available to anyone willing to admit their fault and receive the forgiveness Jesus died to secure and the life He was resurrected to bring. It's incredible, yet people don't even look at it because they're all too aware of being 'not enough' - what's that point of even looking at Jesus if you think you've got to be good enough for him? The enemy is rallying for this lie in our world and doing too well at it. So yes, the more people I can tell the truth to, whether they're ready to give their lives to God or not, the better, or so i think!
This week we are doing Biblical Studies. I have already read the book of Philemon 9 times and the book of Colossians once. I'm enjoying it though, it's interesting and different to the last few weeks because it's more academic, I guess.
Tonight we find out our outreach teams, so I'll be able to officially announce that in my next blog post!
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