The Message / Psalms

Over the past year or so I've found myself occasionally looking up passages in The Message translation of the Bible, just to see how they're worded. Often I find it brings out a new aspect, or just makes the words appear more 'real' to me. I especially like reading the psalms in the message, it's so poetic. Take the psalm I read earlier for example, psalm 8:

Psalm 8

A David Psalm

God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.

Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?

Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.

The psalms are incredible. I think what I really love about reading the psalms is that the writers are so open about their emotions and feelings towards God. I guess humans haven't really changed since the psalms were written, and God certainly hasn't. I wonder, if David had written this psalm in english, today, which translation would be closest to his words? At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to me - I figure you use whichever translation God can best teach you through, beit old King James or the Word on The Street.

Back in Sheffield

Just a pre-post warning...this post is kinda random with a few different bits and pieces. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading it.

So after a door-to-door journey of some 43 hours, I am home. I am not jet lagged, although even after a good night's sleep I'm still tired. To be honest, I think the constant light is more confusing than the time difference. In Queensland we had pretty much 12 hour days, while sunrise/sunset times today in Sheffield are 0438/2134 - nearly a 17 hour day!

The journey home was long, but good. I spent a fair amount of time listening to podcasts, reading and that kinda thing, just relaxing and spending time with God before getting home. Also, the last flight (Dubai - Manchester, some 7.5 hours) was really empty and I had three seats to myself. I put myself in the corner by the window and enjoyed having space. I also had one of the same air stewards I'd had on the way over to Australia last December. How random is that?

On one flight I was able to have an amazing conversation about God with a young woman who was already considering becoming a Christian. We talked a bit about that and it seems that her main issue is that she wants to be really sure before she does it, although to hear her talk about God she's pretty certain! I told her that there's always going to be a gap - not of blind acceptance, but of faith - that she'll never come to a place where she's 'ready', but that she'll have to step out and let God make up the rest of the distance. We prayed together as well and I know she has christian friends praying for her too. It was such a blessing to share a little more of God with someone who is just so open and I believe that God put us next to each other on purpose and will continue to persue her. I'm believing that she will accept Jesus as her saviour, and that's always exciting!

It's cool to be home but I'm very aware that this is where the rubber really hits the road. I have had an incredible time in Australia and learnt so much about God and myself (a lot of which I'm sure I won't even realise until some later time). Now I have to make that choice again - am I going to live it out or not?

I read Psalm 1 this morning and was so moved by what it says, it talks of how those who delight in God's word rather than act like the wicked will be blessed. It describes this blessing as being a tree planted by streams of water. As I thought about that I realised that being planted by water says that this blessing is consistant and constant, that God will continue to provide and provide and provide for us, it's not just a one off deal. Then it talks of the tree yielding it's fruit in season. So not only will we be blessed but we will bear fruit and then yield, or surrender it, for God to distribute as He will. Kinda reminds me of a drama we did on outreach.

As for this week, I will be unpacking, seeing friends and family, tidying my room, doing laundry and all those kinds of things. I got a new phone today and I think I like it, though I can't figure out yet where the headphones go, which is an issue cos a major reason to choose it was for the mp3 player.

One thing I am particularly thankful for today - that I know that God is with me and has plans even for today, even for right now and that He is able and faithful to fulfil them.

Finally, thank you so much to everyone who prayed for me while I was away, we'll not know the full extent of the difference that undoubtedly made for a long time, but I know it was worth it! God bless you all!

Outreach Update 4

This is going to be a short update I'm afraid! But just to keep you updated slightly...

We're now in Mt. Isa in our last week of outreach. Reef To Outback is starting a new base out here, so it's been fun to see our friends from Townsville again and assist them in the work they're starting here. We even did Youth Street (Isa style) last weekend!

Longreach was amazing, it was the first time I truly felt like I was in the Outback. And we stayed in the sheep shearers quarters on a station. It was cool. The chaplain there is incredible and has a real heart for the kids, so Auslife there was fantastic (like Blackwater we had really small groups)

I get back to Townsville next weekend and will be heading back to England by June 19th. Crazyness!

Prayer Requests
Praise God for all He's done on this trip!
My friend Esther on the Vanuatu team who needs her new passport by Friday to get back to Australia
That both teams would finish well and put our all into the work still left to do
That debrief week would be effective
That we will hear God's guidance on the next step
For safety as we return to base

God bless x

Outreach Update 3

Hey Everyone!

Things have been busy here and I haven't had much web access so that explains the lack of updates, but here's a little of the last couple of weeks.

Gladstone
The last few days in Gladstone were really good again. We did some more Auslifes and had a fantastic time. The SOMM weren't there to play a set, so we did more of a panel time at the end of the day, which worked out pretty well. I was even on the panel one day and answered a couple of questions including "Why do you pray?". It's great to get the opportunity to just share your experiences with people like this!

Blackwater
We ended up staying an extra day in our next stop, the small town (pop. c. 6,000) because we loved it so much! We ran an Auslife there, but instead of the usual 150 or so kids we only had 33. This meant that we got to spend much more time with them and get to know them better. To be honest, these stories make the whole thing worth it...and encourage me to ask for more and work for more!

On the Saturday we did yard work at the church, helping out the pastors there. Since they're repioneering the church, it also shows that something's going on there, which will hopefully help get people in the town interested! On the Sunday morning I sang in the worship band (I miss singing in the worship band so much...I got through my rota for home the other day and I'm singing on July 27th...yay!) and helped out with Sunday school. It continually amazes me to hear the questions that people have!

Emerald
We are now in the Emerald city in the country of Oz! ha ha! (That one was for Buddy)

We've been doing RE lessons this week with various age groups and it's been great fun. On Thursday I was one of the people talking to a group of year 11s, encouraging them to be world changers and explaining about how having a relationship with Jesus brings a real continuity to my life, a constant goal and purpose and how the desire to make the world better and bless people is part of that.

Next we're off to Longreach, then an Aboriginal town called Dejarra, followed by Mt. Isa. God bless you guys and I'll update you again sometime! Thanks for reading!

Cool Story
One guy in mine and James' small group in one of the Auslifes seemed really interested and knowledgable about Christian stuff and like he was searching. We saw the chaplain from that school again last night and he told us that this young man had become a christian!

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.

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!

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