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!