DTS Week 10

Happy Easter!

He is risen! Hallelujah!

The Last 24 Hours

I'm pretty tired now as I only had about 3 hours sleep last night, which obviously means I've been having fun, so I'll do a quick recap of the last 24 hours or so...

9.30am Wake up, eat breakfast, go on the internet, play a little guitar, not do much to be honest until...
11.30am Quick team meeting about Youth Street then some Mi Goreng noodles for lunch.
1pm Main Youth Street meeting before the crew start to arrive and hanging out.
2.20pm We get the crew into groups of 3 or 4 and explained that we were having a Community Outreach day. My group, another leader and I went to 5 random houses near the base and gave them chocolate eggs along with a little note saying it was a gift from Youth Street, that we wanted to bless them and celebrate Jesus giving us new life at Easter, or words to that effect. It was interesting to see people's reactions. A few thought that we wanted money for the eggs and were a little suspicious. Others just said thanks. At one house we asked the kids playing outside if their parents were home, and they seemed pretty reluctant to go get them until they realised we wanted to give them chocolate. At another house the man ran inside to bring us some chocolate! All in all though, I think it went quite well and it was fun to hang out with the kids. Other groups went to various places including the Police & Fire Stations, the hospital and the mall.
4.15pm Hang out with the crew a little more and eat dinner while waiting for...
6.30pm Doors opened for the benefit concert. Hopefully I'll do another post on this, but it was raising funds and awareness for a centre in Thailand that works with prostitutes. The School of Music in Mission were playing along with a couple of local bands and it was a really great night!
9pm Concert ends, we spend more time hanging out with the crew till they all leave, then tear down & tidy up.
11pmGo to MacDonalds. I had a cheeseburger and fries. Yes I have read Fast Food Nation and seen Super Size Me but these things happen. It was tasty.
12.30am Get back from MacDonalds. A bunch of us stay outside on the grass chatting.
2.30am Fall into bed.
5am Nicole wakes me up for the sunrise service at the top of Castle Hill. Six of us from DTS made it along with a couple off staff.
5.30am Get out of the car part way up the hill then hike the last 25-30 minutes. Arrive for sunrise service very hot, tired and sweaty. It was a really short but nice service, run by the Salvos (Salvation Army) so pretty traditional but nice. We then wandered up to one of the vantage points and shared communion together.
7.30am Walk back down, chat with Toni for a little while at base.
8.30am Wander round the Sunday markets.
9am Get on the computer, check email & start writing this blog post.

Yeah, so I guess my last day has been pretty full but it's been good fun, and today is only just starting, much as I feel very tired!

Lectures
The lecture topic for this week was 'Spiritual Warfare' and I wasn't quite sure what to expect in this but it was actually a really good week. Our teacher, Bev Teddenham (I think I've got her surname right there!) has been in YWAM since the 1980s and one thing that never failed to amaze me was how much scripture/scripture references she has memorised! I really want to memorise more Bible verses, or at least know where to find things.

What I really got from the week was that the devil has so little power compared to God. Our God is awesome, He created the entire universe and holds it all together. Yes, we need to be aware of the dark powers in the spiritual realm, but God gives us power to defeat them, and they simply can't win. It's easy to give the enemy a lot more credit than he deserves and while we shouldn't be passive about spiritual warfare, it's important to remember that our side has infinitely more power and will win the victory!

Bananas
On Thursday there was an impromptu afternoon tea with cookies and banana milkshakes. I happened to be reading on the deck so I didn't miss out. That made me really happy.

Outreach
I'm a little nervous about outreach at the moment to be quite honest, we've settled into a nice routine here and we're about to leave that and a whole load of the new friends we've made. But I know God wants me to go, so I'm still here and I'm still doing it, scary as it may be!

There's still 4 people on my team needing finances this week for outreach. I'd really like to ask you to pray for the finances to be released. If you feel led, you can give to them online. If you would like to give please get in touch with me and I'll give you details on how you can do that.

Serenity
Shout out to my friend Aaron who has the film Serenity and watched it with me this week! It's so good to sit on the sofa and watch a favourite film every now and then. He also has Firefly. This makes me happy.

...
I think that's most of the news for this week. My parents & brother are coming next weekend, so I'm really excited to be spending time with them. We also have Monday off lectures because it's a public holiday here (the day after Easter). I've taken a bunch of photos this weekend, so hopefully will have some up in the next couple of days. So yeah, continued prayer for safety on my family's trip & outreach preparation would be fab!

As always, thanks for reading & God bless!