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.