I'll start from the first week of traveling. We spent our first week doing a mission's simulation. We were with our whole school, but we were divided up into our outreach teams. We were on Stradbroke Island. We played lots of team building games and even some extremely stretching games for me...We had one night of "mission impossible" where in the middle of the night we had to go through a swamp and do team challenges. That was incredibly challenging and made me realize how to fully rely on God in walking out daily against anxiety and worry about lots of things. It also was good team building with the people I'll be spending 6 weeks with in Vanuatu.
The next week we went to Byron Bay. I loved it there. Byron Bay is really hippie and everyone is very "spiritual." It also has a ton of backpackers. It is really interesting to be around people who are so open-minded and willing to talk about spiritual things. It is a great place to tell people about Jesus there because people from all over the world come to Byron Bay, so if they get to know Jesus then they can take Him back to all their home countries. It was fun just introducing ourselves to new people and having significant conversations. We also got to hang out with the YWAM Byron Bay people and their school leader is from San Angelo. I was so excited! It was great to be around someone who knew about home. While we were there we had lectures with their school over relationships. It was really good to hear more information about Godly design for relationships. I also got to try surfing for the first time...definitely something I want to try again and get better at! It was a great week!
Our third week was in Chinchilla. Chinchilla reminded me of Texas. It was amazing! It is a town that is more inland Australia. Its a bush town and it was so great! I was able to see flat land and red dirt it reminded me of somewhat home. It was a country town, so it was small and friendly. We had lectures over Spiritual Warfare. We also talked a lot about walking in the opposite spirit, which for example if there is a negative attitude somewhere do something that is purposefully positive in that area. That is a simple thing, but really it goes against the bad and helps build up the good. It was really cool because we walked in the opposite spirit for the town...to help build unity and focus in the town we did things as a group that made us had to focus. We talked about praying for areas that we know we are weak in so that devil cannot have a hold in those things and also praying for authorities, nations, families, and communities so we can pray against anything that the devil could and does use and praying for Godly things in those areas. We were able to help the church and youth group out by doing things in the community, as well. It was fun!
Last week we came to Airlie Beach. We did evangelism in the community here. It is a backpacker/traveler community. It was really challenging to go out into the town and try to just start conversations with people. We went out one day just walking around and then sat down not knowing what to do, but then people actually came up and talked to us. It was really cool. I'm learning lots on how to be bold and start relationships with people in everyday life in order that they could have a relationship with God. It's been good! At the end of the week some of us went out to the islands and to snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef area. It was so beautiful and really shows God's artistry, the water, the land, the fish, the coral - the colors were all amazing!!! We are here for one more week. This week we have lectures over the Holy Spirit. It is good being here where it is warm and so beautiful. I'm hoping to learn even more this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment