Raining cats and...dingos?

Post Mortem: Cyclone Olga declassified for the last time. By Tim Shu January 30, 2010 18:36 "Olga struck the Queensland coast on the 24th at category 2, around 4pm EST before cutting though the peninsula. It was declassified for the first time and then hugged the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, gradually re-intensifying before re-entering the gulf near the town of Bing Bong early on the 29th. Olga then rapidly reformed into a category 1 cyclone later in the day. Today it crossed back inland before 10am and will not likely head back to sea, dumping tropical moisture deep in QLD before moving down into NSW. Olga was unique in that it followed a path that allowed it to maintain strength even while centered over land. This was most likely due by the presence of the monsoon trough, a system that kept drawing in large amounts of humid air, essential to give life to tropical cyclones." So, it rained quite a lot yesterday. Well actually that's a lie, i haven't ever seen a storm like that! The wind was so strong that palm tree branches were being blown off like dandelion seeds, the lightning was so intense that it cut out the electricity in most of the town, and the effects of the rain were many! Various DTSers went swimming in the floodwater and were later very ill as a result. I had to build a dam to prevent our room from being flooded. The drainage system completely backed up, preventing all water from working back at our house, and what's worse than that, some of the sewage was washed back into our laundry area - leaving small trails of faeces behind. Now that's just wrong. Thankfully, after a week of terrible weather - we are now predicted the hottest week of the year so far, starting today, so we're all slightly happier! Bring it on. The other good news is that all water and power has been restored, praise God. Anyway, this past week included lectures on the topic of Clear Conscience, with speaker (and Base Director) Ken Mulligan. He did a good job of explaining the importance of having a clear conscience 'before God and man'. Which basically means being transparent with God, and being accountable to the Christians around you. Everyone really benefited from this experience, and we would all agree that the group is now much closer because of it. Speaking of which i really feel like i've settled in to this DTS with a great group of friends. We've continued to support each other through difficult issues brought up during the lectures, we've made each other laugh an unhealthy amount, and we've carried each other when we've had no energy to make it ourselves! Also, fun fact of the day, did you know that apparently a friendship on a 6-month DTS is the equivalent to having a friend for 6-7 years back home? Interesting! In other news, we are still yet to hear back from the course leaders as far as our outreach destinations/groups are concerned. We're expecting to hear back some time during next week, so we look forward to that - and of course i'll put the results up here as soon as i find out! It was also really fun this week to finally get used to using skype - it's been amazing speaking to family and friends more often, it's really kept me going when i've sometimes felt incredibly homesick. So thank you so much to everyone who's been staying in touch - despite me failing miserably to get back every now and again. My final thought is this - there really is no concept of time here. I feel like i've been here for a whole year, and i also remember leaving for the airport the day before we left, in the heavy snow, as if it were yesterday! So who knows how quickly 5 and a half months will go by? Thanks again for reading, it's been a pleasure! Take care and do be in touch, God bless. Matt. Prayer Requests Townsville will recover quickly from the recent flood damage Everyone here on the DTS will use this weekend to relax, before another intense week of lectures I would learn to balance work time/socialising/work duties/communications/God time That the weather would be OK for camping next weekend

Identity

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this post looking back on a fantastic second week of my Discipleship Training School. Lectures were on the theme of ‘Identity’, and they were life changing. There were many trips to the local beach, a place quickly becoming my second-home, though this is closely contested by the local McDonalds (it has a ‘Five-Dollar-Feed’ option, which gives you a burger, chips, drink and sundae for $5, they had to put up speed bumps to stop me from running so quickly to go get it). And a great time was had by all at YouthStreet on Saturday when many young people came to the base to eat hotdogs, play all sorts of sports, rock out to live worship together, listen to a talk and some responded with a commitment which is amazing!

Lectures

Filling you in a little bit with what happened during lectures last week, our guest speaker was a wonderful woman called Joanne Blaik. She challenged us in many ways, the most significant of these was changing the way we thought. We looked at how we had been conditioned to think the way the world encourages us to think, and often the world shouts lies at us, and due to repeated exposure, we believe those lies instead of the truths God wants to tell us. Furthermore, we applied these God-truths to our lives to see specific changes in thought and action – for many, this change brought about freedom. For others, encouragement, and some, hope. The week had a huge impact on my life, my way of thinking, my perception of myself and others, and it gave me a fresh purpose and strength.

(If you’d like to know more about the lectures, what I learnt or what was said, just drop me an email!)

The Beach

Outside of lectures, there has been a lot of socialising going on, including many trips to the beach. On more than one occasion there was a bonfire, though unfortunately ‘Kumbiya’ is yet to make an appearance (don’t worry, it will happen).

One trip to the beach included Thursday night, when we went for our weekly ‘Evangelism’ trip along the sea front. Now I’m sure some of you are wincing when you read the word ‘evangelism’, but just to clarify, we’re there to build relationships with the local people and then hopefully share Jesus with them. Rather than commit GBH with a bible-to-the-back-of-the-head to each person we walk past. There were lots of positive stories from the evening, including many people being invited to the open BBQ the YWAM base holds each Wednesday evening, I was able to build relationships with some of the local basketball-ers, many people entered into open discussions about Church, and some people were prayed for which is great!

Creature Comforts

Some of you may remember me talking about a gecko I met on my first day here. Well, it would appear that the rest of the Australian wildlife are determined to meet me! Particularly… the bats. Now please understand that these are no normal bats. They look a little more like kangaroo-pterodactyl-grizzly bear hybrids. Well whatever they are, there are too many of them and they fly far too close to me for my liking!

Olga

Being British by nature, I have to talk about the weather at some point. Looks like the rainy season has finally hit! We enjoyed a great few days with no rain at all, and then with the weekend came a close encounter with Cyclone Olga (sounds attractive I know). Thankfully, the cyclone ‘blew itself out’ and was reduced to a ‘category one’ cyclone, which hit the north east coast and has left us with an unbelievable amount of wind and rain – home has never felt so close!

Finally, this week we’re looking at ‘Clear Conscience’, with guest speaker Ken Mulligan (Base Director). I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes.

So, thank you once again for reading! My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

God bless, Matt.

Prayer Points

That God would seal up all the important truths we learnt last week.

Thanks for some amazing breakthroughs in various lives of those on DTS.
For the right people to be sent to the right places in terms of outreach, it’s not long till final groups/destinations are decided.

Choices

PRAYER UPDATE

We were recently informed of our outreach options for out time here on the DTS. I'd like to ask you to pray for me, as i have till monday morning to make my decision. I won't write down the options now, please just pray that God will speak to me with real clarity this weekend, so i can be confident in making this important decision by monday morning.

As soon as i know where it is i will be going for outreach, i will make sure to post an update to let you know!

Thank you so much for all your love and support,

God bless, Matt.

Like a Yo-Yo...

Hello!

Welcome to a post written after one rollercoaster ride of a day!

I woke up this morning at 5.45 in order to take part in the scheduled morning-exercise-slot that all of my DTS have to undertake. We get to chose what we do, so i grabbed a basketball and ran for the 30 minutes. Being completely honest, running that early, in that humidity, set me up to feel quite rough for the rest of the day.

An hour or so later, i made my way to pre-lecture worship which is normally a pleasure, but i wasn't feeling too great. I've recently been feeling quite negative about the amount of work our DTS has to do outside of lectures - there are book reports, journals, workbooks, group assignments, work duties... it was a prime opportunity for the devil to make me feel as negative as possible, and it worked!

Anyway during the time of worship, to cut a long story short, i was ministered to by lots of people around me, and God really met with me through it all. He completely renewed my strength and my focus. I also began to feel a lot more hopeful throughout the day - and here i am sitting down at my laptop, and i can genuinely say that it's been a beautiful day which contained some amazing and challenging lectures, a manageable work-load, a lot of fun, and a relaxing swim in our neighbours' swimming pool. God is good.

In other news, it looks like we'll be hearing about our different options for the first outreach phase of our DTS (for dates see photos uploaded in previous post) in the near future. It turns out that once the options are given to us, we only have about one to two days to prayerfully make our choice. So, as soon as i enter this decision making stage, i'll let you all know - because i'm going to want other people to be praying for it too, as i really want to go where God wants me to go, no compromise.

Well you have all waited patiently for the first photos from australia. I've finally got around to uploading some! If you are a part of the social networking website FACEBOOK, you can check them out on my profile. Similarly, click here to check out the first album.

One final thing before i go - i'd like to quickly tell you about YWAM's youth project YOUTHSTREET. Every Saturday afternoon, starting at 2pm, the local youth are invited out to an event happening during the day (anything from trips to the cinema, skating, bowling...), and then from 5 till 10pm they all come to the base and we get involved with just about every type of sport, we worship, listen to a talk, we socialise, and generally provide an amazing atmosphere for young people to enjoy themselves and be ministered to in a powerful and life-changing way. Around 100 young people attend each week, and its the most high-energy, exciting, powerful, fun and God-filled day. I was thrilled to be on team this week, and watching God work in these lives is so so encouraging. I'll see if i can get some pictures up on the blog for you to get a better look at it at some point.

Right, i think I'll call it a day there - thank you once again for reading, hope it wasn't too exhaustive! Take care and God bless,

Matt.

Prayer Points

To practise what I learn in lectures this week (on 'Identity in Christ') / Physical energy / Spiritual protection for everyone here, in what's looking to be a vulnerable time for everyone.

Information Download

Hi everyone, this is just a quick update in which i'm including two photos, one is of my 5 1/2 months schedule, including intended dates for outreach and camping. I'm also uploading a photo of my weekly timetable, so you have a rough idea of what i'll be doing day-to-day when I'm at the base.

I hope you find this helpful! And i hope i can get another update to you soon.

Much love and God bless,

Matt x

On Your Marks, Get Set...

Hi again,

Welcome to another blog update - i've managed to steal a friends laptop for a few minutes in order to make a post, so here it goes!

So, I'm writing at the end of 'day 2', as far as the official week is concerned. This means we've done 2 days following a timetable, and we're pretty much into routine now which is good news. Recently the group have been given all sorts of talks, basically going through all of the paper work and legal stuff, which to be honest, was pretty boring in parts, but similarly it was incredibly interesting learning about how YWAM and Reef to Outback started out etc. Furthermore, our leaders have gone over our course in full detail. That, mixed with various lecture-style talks, have wet our appetite for the real lectures which will start on monday. All in all, everything has gone well so far - and the future is filled with optimism, with all of the students and staff eagerly looking forward to the months to come!

I'd also like to take the time to quickly share something that happened on monday morning, which i hope will encourage you all! By sunday, i had developed a slight feeling of being overwhelmed by the whole experience of being here. At the same time, i was feeling quite frustrated by how long it was taking for the course to start. Including the jetlag and being in new surroundings far from home (not to mention the Devil taking every opportunity to bring us down) resulted in me feeling quite stressed out and having a pretty rough night's sleep!

On Monday morning i decided to make the effort to do a decent quiet time, and God really spoke through his word as i read it, and this really encouraged me! (I might write what i learnt in a separate post, but for now i'll move on...) This encouraging quiet time helped to improve my mood but hadn't quite fixed it altogether. Later that morning, everyone on the YWAM base met together for worship and intercession in the large auditorium; and what happened was amazing. I took some time out to thank God for speaking to me during my quiet time, and just as i finished, a course leader who didn't really know me, felt driven by God to share a word given to him, for me. He told me that God knew how i felt, and wanted to remind me of what Paul wrote to the Philippians (the first chapter of the letter), about how God will bring to completion the good work that he started in me. God has brought me to this place, for this time, for a purpose. God was telling me to chill out and relax, because He had designated this time to take place, and i needed to trust in his sovereignty, and his grace, to fulfill his promises to me and transform me through this DTS - all this would happen in God's time, not mine.

If you know me well you know my story-telling habbits, sorry about the length. Anyway, it was awesome to see God at work on the opening days of my DTS, and i was hugely encouraged and blessed by how He had spoken to me when i really needed it!

Anyway it's time for me to go. One final thing i wanted to say was this: i've recently found out that, due to the full-on timetable we have here during the lecture phase, i wont be able to keep in touch as much as i was first hoping. Obviously i will have afternoons where i can fit in skype calls and various messages; however keeping in touch with you all personally is something i cannot do (and i really wanted to, believe me!). So yeah, I'm gonna try my hardest to stay in touch as best i can, but don't expect too much. Keep checking this blog for my most regular updates.

I'm constantly thinking and praying about all of my family and friends, I'm missing you all quite a lot (just to reassure some of you that i haven't completely forgotten about you!) Anyway, it's been a pleasure having your attention and thank you for reading my blog - take care of yourselves, and God bless you.

Much love and blessings, Matt.

Pray for: adjusting back to a timetable-based school life / commitment to quiet times / determination to hear from God

Settling In

Who would've thought let that you could be rained on four times in one day, and still have a fantastic time? only in australia!

The past couple of days have been nothing short of amazing, and the course hasn't even started yet. The purpose of the previous two days was to let everyone settle in to everything at their own pace . We've had trips to the beach, ice creams, laughing fits, worship, socialising, hot chocolate, youthwork, happy birthdays, facebook updates, shopping trips, messing around, late nights, brownies, sunburns, bug bites, and of course, plenty of accent jokes.

It's been really fun getting to know everyone on my DTS. there are about thirty of us in total, 10 boys and 20 girls, from all over the world. All the other people here at the base (incuding staff and people from other DTS's) are incredibly friendly too. What's been really exciting is seeing how through everything, we all share this same passion - to know God and make Him known. and even if we're not doing anything 'religious' (i know its not a religion dont worry...) it's still driven by God, and it has such an impact on what we do.

Anyway, today at 4:00pm we start our induction process, and this will continue for the coming week. So this will involve getting to know the base, the people, and what we're doing a little more. I've taken a look at the weekly rota, and the 5-month programme, it all looks pretty exciting! i'll take photos of the bits of paper with all the info on them then post them up for you so you can be in the loop and know what im up to without me telling you.

Right then, time to go! thanks for reading. sadly, i dont think i'll be able to post quite as frequently over the next couple of weeks as we'll be entering into a pretty full-on timetable. but hey, im sure i can fit the odd update in for you all. So, take care and God bless everything you do in this cold, cold time of year (hee hee).

Love, Matt.

Prayer points: saftey (from sun, and mosqutio bites - i was mauled by them on my right foot, 6 bites in one evening!) / focus on God / willingness to be vulnerable and honest before God.

Touch Down

Good morning!

Well, you will be glad to know that, after much travelling, I'm here and all is well.

I arrived in Townsville a few hours ago (it was 8am local time) and since then have been given a tour of the local area, settled into my new house and been given a tour of the YWAM base. It was all a bit exciting, and at last I feel like I'm here and this is really happening - and i cannot wait.

Ok so now i'll try and answer the questions i imagine you'd be asking...

Flights

After the little episode at London Heathrow involving the snow, everything ran pretty smoothly! The planes were all on time, and navigating the airports and making my way to the transfers etc wasn't a problem. The food was probably the best i've ever seen on a plane - I'm definitely a fan of Emirates Cuisine.
Once i arrived in Brisbane, i met up with my friend Maddie (another YWAM DTS'er) and from there we caught a Taxi into the Brisbane Domestic airport to catch our final flight into Townsville.
The only problem with the flying concerned my ears! Doing four ascents and descents in less than a couple of days really played with the fluid in my ears, and even now i'm struggling to hear out of my left ear.. and im almost falling off my seat my balance is so bad! so yeah, a prayer point there.

Accommodation

Im sharing a house with about 10 other guys, some staff, some DTSers. I'm in a large room with 7 others, and the house has its own bathroom facilites/lounge/kitchen, the normal. We're a 5 minute walk from the base and i can't complain at all about it really! I'll admit i was thrown a little by the Gecko that greeted me on the bedroom wall..but I'm sure me and him will manage to work something out.

Weather

It's the rainy season, we're due a lot of rain over the next few months. But for example, today the sun is shining, its incredibly hot and the humidity is only just bearable. Love it.

The Base

The YWAM base is where everything happens. From eating, to relaxing, lectures, worship, organising, computing (yes, i have almost permenant web access here, which is great) and more. the facilities are great and i'm looking forward to using them!

The Area

Beautiful. Lots of beaches, hills, wide open roads, palm tress, basketball and volleyball courts.. i think i might just be able to have some fun here.

The People

I havent had the pleasure of meeting everyone yet - but those i have met so far have been very welcoming, encouraging and exciting. I was able to meet up with my good friend james who is currently here on a DTS which started in October. It was good to see him and it helped me relax a little!

Finally, how am i feeling about it all? well, its currently 11.30 am here - but my body clock is set to english time which is about 1.30 am. so im tired beyond belief and im also pretty tired emotionally. The newness of everything, mixed with missing friends and family (quite a lot) means that my emotions are quite mixed. However, the more i think about it, the more i know that as soon as i've had a good sleep and get into routine here - God is really gonna start blowing my mind and im going to have the time of my life. So bring it on.

Thank you again for your prayers and support, God bless,

Matt.


Prayer points:

Settling in/Recovery/Friendships/Homesickness/Closeness to God.

Soon to fly

Hi to everyone who may be reading, this is Ben, Matt's brother (yes, the one he left at home with the parents). He has asked me to update his blog for him, here are his exact words:

Hi everyone,
Welcome to my final post before I fly! It would appear that I'm going on an adventure before I even set foot on a plane...

Due to recent heavy snowfall, me and my Dad were forced to make the quick decision to travel to the airport on Tuesday night, to avoid any trouble in travelling on wednesday morning. Now being early isn't something I'm used to, so being at the airport more than 12 hours prior to my flight felt odd to say the least.

Nonetheless, I am here, in the airport, and the flight is looking good to go despite the snow - thank God.

With only a few hours left before my journey down-under begins, it's finally feeling real, and I'm immensely excited! There were many sad goodbyes, and it was pretty hard to leave home in the rushed fashion that I did - but in spite of this I continue to trust in God, and focus instead on the amazing time he has set up for me.

So this is farewell for now, and I'll try to be in touch as soon as i get settled in in Australia.

All the best and God bless - Matt.