Tuesday 29 April 2008
An Auntie Again...
Welcome to the world Harrison Isaac!! I'm praying for you and so, so excited to meet you in 2 months' time.
Thursday 24 April 2008
Outreach Update 2
Hey everyone!
Things are busy here all over again, so I'll try to keep you up with all that's been happening...
Yeppoon
I had a lot of fun in Yeppoon but often felt that we weren't 'doing' as much as I'd've liked, and I think the change in the school rules had something to do with this. However, the big skate park event on Saturday went really well and I had the opportunity to chat and pray with one of the girls who was hanging out down there. The hard thing about this travelling youth work is that you can only do a tiny bit, and often, you can't even link the people you meet with local christians because you don't know who they are. However, I pray that God will give me wisdom in these situations & trust that he will look after what's going on.
Gladstone
We've been in Gladstone since Sunday and have spent 3 full days in the schools running the Auslife programme. This is a great programme where we take an entire year group for a full day (or very occasionally a half day) and run a seminar on either Relationships or Goals & Values including talking about christianity and challenging them to consider how God does or doesn't fit into their lives. The aim of the seminar isn't to 'convert' teenagers, but to encourage them in making positive choices in their lives (e.g. we have the kids discuss what they look for in a boyfriend or girlfriend in the Relationships seminar, and in the Goals & Values they write down 5 goals they have for the next 6 months) and to ask questions about God and faith.
The Auslife days are fairly tiring (I've been getting up at 5.15am!!) but I love it! I love the busyness, I love meeting the kids (we each have one small group that we take responsibility of) and I feel like I'm learning a lot about youth work from doing this!
Fun Stuff
I'm still waiting for my sister to have her baby...I'm very excited about this!
A friend I didn't have any contact info for added me on Facebook the other day, this made me happy.
We've got most of today off and one of the guys here in Gladstone is taking us out kneeboarding (apparantly this involves kneeling on a board & being pulled along by a boat...ooh :D )
I'd love to post something deep and meaningful too, but that's just not happening right now, so yeah, have a great day everybody & keep keeping in touch! Lots of love & God bless you!
Things are busy here all over again, so I'll try to keep you up with all that's been happening...
Yeppoon
I had a lot of fun in Yeppoon but often felt that we weren't 'doing' as much as I'd've liked, and I think the change in the school rules had something to do with this. However, the big skate park event on Saturday went really well and I had the opportunity to chat and pray with one of the girls who was hanging out down there. The hard thing about this travelling youth work is that you can only do a tiny bit, and often, you can't even link the people you meet with local christians because you don't know who they are. However, I pray that God will give me wisdom in these situations & trust that he will look after what's going on.
Gladstone
We've been in Gladstone since Sunday and have spent 3 full days in the schools running the Auslife programme. This is a great programme where we take an entire year group for a full day (or very occasionally a half day) and run a seminar on either Relationships or Goals & Values including talking about christianity and challenging them to consider how God does or doesn't fit into their lives. The aim of the seminar isn't to 'convert' teenagers, but to encourage them in making positive choices in their lives (e.g. we have the kids discuss what they look for in a boyfriend or girlfriend in the Relationships seminar, and in the Goals & Values they write down 5 goals they have for the next 6 months) and to ask questions about God and faith.
The Auslife days are fairly tiring (I've been getting up at 5.15am!!) but I love it! I love the busyness, I love meeting the kids (we each have one small group that we take responsibility of) and I feel like I'm learning a lot about youth work from doing this!
Fun Stuff
I'm still waiting for my sister to have her baby...I'm very excited about this!
A friend I didn't have any contact info for added me on Facebook the other day, this made me happy.
We've got most of today off and one of the guys here in Gladstone is taking us out kneeboarding (apparantly this involves kneeling on a board & being pulled along by a boat...ooh :D )
I'd love to post something deep and meaningful too, but that's just not happening right now, so yeah, have a great day everybody & keep keeping in touch! Lots of love & God bless you!
Wednesday 16 April 2008
Outreach Update 1
Welcome to the first update from outreach! We are now halfway through our second week and as ever time is going so fast! I'll try and give a quick overview of the stuff we've done so far...
Cairns
We left the base in Townsville on Saturday 5th April and drove up to Cairns. Most of us had had very little sleep as we'd been up at 5.30am to wave off the Vanuatu team as they left for the airport. After a long drive (it should only have been 4 hours but was more like 6 or 7) we arrived in Cairns and set up our camping mats in a church there (girls on one side of the room, guys on the other). On the Sunday evening we gave a couple of testimonies in the church service (their pastor preached) and were blessed to see 2 people give their lives to Christ! On the Monday and Tuesday evenings we went down to the beachfront and did a free BBQ and played sports with the people that we met down there. This was great fun and we had some good conversations about God with the people we met and blessed many others with fun & free sausages!!! The days were mainly spent planning for...
Pentland
Wednesday was spent travelling to Pentland. Here we ran a 2 day kids camp in a (very) small town of about 400 people. We had 9 children one day and 13 the next, played various games and shared with them about God. On Friday evening we showed The Bee Movie (strange film, by the way) and a bunch of kids came along to that.
Yeppoon
We had a very long day of travelling down the coast to Yeppoon on Saturday, made longer by locking the keys in the kitchen before we left (2 of the guys finally managed to fish them out through a hole in the wall using the magnet from a speaker) and a blown tyre.
On Sunday morning we took the majority of the church service, and I was one of the people speaking. I shared briefly on how communion reminds us of how we are dependent on God like we are dependent on food. I was nervous to speak, but I know that with practice this will get better.
Monday was a day off, which we just spent hanging out as a team. However, we weren't getting picked up until 10am. This suited Karly and I very well...we are staying in people's homes here in Yeppoon and we have been placed together a half hour out of town on a ranch! And our hosts (knowing how much Karly loves horses) took us for a trail ride before we got picked up. It was incredible! We spent about 2 hours on horseback in the Australian bush, going up and then back down a hill. From the top of the hill you could even see the ocean.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was spent mainly in planning for the school lunchtime programme that we ran today and in running a programme at a retirement village. I felt that the programme went very well indeed, with various people sharing different testimonies and Brandon and I played some songs and hymns. We also had about a half hour to chat with the residents.
I don't really have time to write any more just now, so I appologise for my breivity!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and in prayer. Please continue to pray for us! Prayer for this week's school work is appreciated as rules have literally just changed and now prevent us from sharing our faith. Also, prayer for relationships within the team and that we won't be missing anything that God has for us.
God bless you all! xx
Cairns
We left the base in Townsville on Saturday 5th April and drove up to Cairns. Most of us had had very little sleep as we'd been up at 5.30am to wave off the Vanuatu team as they left for the airport. After a long drive (it should only have been 4 hours but was more like 6 or 7) we arrived in Cairns and set up our camping mats in a church there (girls on one side of the room, guys on the other). On the Sunday evening we gave a couple of testimonies in the church service (their pastor preached) and were blessed to see 2 people give their lives to Christ! On the Monday and Tuesday evenings we went down to the beachfront and did a free BBQ and played sports with the people that we met down there. This was great fun and we had some good conversations about God with the people we met and blessed many others with fun & free sausages!!! The days were mainly spent planning for...
Pentland
Wednesday was spent travelling to Pentland. Here we ran a 2 day kids camp in a (very) small town of about 400 people. We had 9 children one day and 13 the next, played various games and shared with them about God. On Friday evening we showed The Bee Movie (strange film, by the way) and a bunch of kids came along to that.
Yeppoon
We had a very long day of travelling down the coast to Yeppoon on Saturday, made longer by locking the keys in the kitchen before we left (2 of the guys finally managed to fish them out through a hole in the wall using the magnet from a speaker) and a blown tyre.
On Sunday morning we took the majority of the church service, and I was one of the people speaking. I shared briefly on how communion reminds us of how we are dependent on God like we are dependent on food. I was nervous to speak, but I know that with practice this will get better.
Monday was a day off, which we just spent hanging out as a team. However, we weren't getting picked up until 10am. This suited Karly and I very well...we are staying in people's homes here in Yeppoon and we have been placed together a half hour out of town on a ranch! And our hosts (knowing how much Karly loves horses) took us for a trail ride before we got picked up. It was incredible! We spent about 2 hours on horseback in the Australian bush, going up and then back down a hill. From the top of the hill you could even see the ocean.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was spent mainly in planning for the school lunchtime programme that we ran today and in running a programme at a retirement village. I felt that the programme went very well indeed, with various people sharing different testimonies and Brandon and I played some songs and hymns. We also had about a half hour to chat with the residents.
I don't really have time to write any more just now, so I appologise for my breivity!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and in prayer. Please continue to pray for us! Prayer for this week's school work is appreciated as rules have literally just changed and now prevent us from sharing our faith. Also, prayer for relationships within the team and that we won't be missing anything that God has for us.
God bless you all! xx
Thursday 3 April 2008
DTS Week 11 & 12 - Leaving for Outreach
Hey everyone!
I'm really sorry for the double-post. Things have been so busy this week and since it's Thursday evening, I figured I'd do the two weeks together.
Last week started with Monday off for the public holiday. In the afternoon we all went down to the park/public swimming pool and had a BBQ dinner. It was a really chilled and fun afternoon. I spent a bit of time laying in the sun to dry and listening to Philippa Hanna on my CD player. Good times, good times.
The lecture topic for the week was missions. Three days we had Justin Claypool, a staff member here at Reef To Outback speaking and one day Danny Lehmann, father of David Lehmann (one of our course staff) and one of the well known names in YWAM today. Sadly Danny Lehmann couldn't be with us in person, so we had a video link with him from his base in Hawaii. That was pretty cool!
In lectures it was good to get some idea about the number of people who haven't got access to the gospel. It made me think about how we can reach these people groups without necessarily moving ourselves to India or wherever. I realised that there are plenty of ways including prayer, financial support, short-term mission trips and reaching out to foreign students in our home communities. Obviously, some people will be called to serve on the front line too, but in today's world of travel and communication, there's no need to leave all the fun up to them!!! We also had the opportunity to pray a little and 'dream with God'. It's amazing the wealth of different ideas that came out in the group - ways that different people want to impact this world with the Good News. Now we just all need to figure out how to go from dreaming with God to working with God...welcome to the rest of our lives!
Over the weekend I was very busy because my parents & younger brother came to visit! It was wonderful to spend time with them, having not seen them for 3 months! We went for gelato by the Strand (the sea front in Townsville), drove 2 hours to see a waterfall but couldn't see anything because of the low cloud. We went for a less than successful greek meal and a great steak (not that I had steak, but my dad did and said it was good). We went over to Magnetic Island, hired a Moke (google it) and drove around. It was great to be behind the wheel again, although those aren't the smoothest vehicles to drive! We also took photos, a couple of which I've printed and added to my photo album to take on outreach. My little brother is really growing up. It's scary. I'm not sure I'd be surprised if he's taller than me by the time I get home!
This week has been outreach prep, so the two outreach teams have been split up, preparing for their seperate projects. The other team is going to Vanuatu to start up Youth Street in Port Vila, so they've been preparing programmes and learning more about Island culture. Our team has been planning some of the events we'll be running in the first few weeks, training for the schools programmes and practicing games and dramas. I can hardly believe that we leave in just two days time!
Having said that, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online to make updates, so I'll certainly try to make an update in every town that I have web access. I don't have many people's addresses so please email me your address to yednickteck@hotmail.com if you would like a postcard & I will do my best to send one!
I'm really sorry for the double-post. Things have been so busy this week and since it's Thursday evening, I figured I'd do the two weeks together.
Last week started with Monday off for the public holiday. In the afternoon we all went down to the park/public swimming pool and had a BBQ dinner. It was a really chilled and fun afternoon. I spent a bit of time laying in the sun to dry and listening to Philippa Hanna on my CD player. Good times, good times.
The lecture topic for the week was missions. Three days we had Justin Claypool, a staff member here at Reef To Outback speaking and one day Danny Lehmann, father of David Lehmann (one of our course staff) and one of the well known names in YWAM today. Sadly Danny Lehmann couldn't be with us in person, so we had a video link with him from his base in Hawaii. That was pretty cool!
In lectures it was good to get some idea about the number of people who haven't got access to the gospel. It made me think about how we can reach these people groups without necessarily moving ourselves to India or wherever. I realised that there are plenty of ways including prayer, financial support, short-term mission trips and reaching out to foreign students in our home communities. Obviously, some people will be called to serve on the front line too, but in today's world of travel and communication, there's no need to leave all the fun up to them!!! We also had the opportunity to pray a little and 'dream with God'. It's amazing the wealth of different ideas that came out in the group - ways that different people want to impact this world with the Good News. Now we just all need to figure out how to go from dreaming with God to working with God...welcome to the rest of our lives!
Over the weekend I was very busy because my parents & younger brother came to visit! It was wonderful to spend time with them, having not seen them for 3 months! We went for gelato by the Strand (the sea front in Townsville), drove 2 hours to see a waterfall but couldn't see anything because of the low cloud. We went for a less than successful greek meal and a great steak (not that I had steak, but my dad did and said it was good). We went over to Magnetic Island, hired a Moke (google it) and drove around. It was great to be behind the wheel again, although those aren't the smoothest vehicles to drive! We also took photos, a couple of which I've printed and added to my photo album to take on outreach. My little brother is really growing up. It's scary. I'm not sure I'd be surprised if he's taller than me by the time I get home!
This week has been outreach prep, so the two outreach teams have been split up, preparing for their seperate projects. The other team is going to Vanuatu to start up Youth Street in Port Vila, so they've been preparing programmes and learning more about Island culture. Our team has been planning some of the events we'll be running in the first few weeks, training for the schools programmes and practicing games and dramas. I can hardly believe that we leave in just two days time!
Having said that, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online to make updates, so I'll certainly try to make an update in every town that I have web access. I don't have many people's addresses so please email me your address to yednickteck@hotmail.com if you would like a postcard & I will do my best to send one!
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