Paddymelon

It’s been far too long since I last wrote - I hope you survived! The good news as that I’m finally back at the YWAM base, which I’m surprisingly referring to as ‘home’ now, after an amazing and life-changing two weeks camping in the Australian bush where we experience rain and thunderstorms like never before, extreme sunshine, but most importantly we experience God.

The DTS travelled to an area known as ‘Hidden Valley’. The plot of land we were all camping on was at the foot of a huge hill, surrounded by a tall, green, picturesque forest. There was a creek just a couple of minutes away – this is probably where I spent most of my time; skimming stones, swimming, drawing, relaxing or sunbathing…or sometimes all of the above.

There was also a building we referred to as ‘the shed’, which was simply a decent-sized building with three walls, a concrete floor, and a roof. This was where pretty much everything happened, including the lectures, meals, worship, meetings and other activities. It proved a favourite spot on many occasions due to some of the unbelievable stormy weather conditions we endured during our stay.

Anyway I’ll stop talking about the place and fill you in on what I actually got up to! So (apart from spending hour upon hour at the creek), we did lots of stargazing as the clear skies in the Aussie Bush made it possible to see more stars than you could wave a didgeridoo at – it was breath-takingly beautiful each night. We took part in various walks around the area, through woods, alongside rivers and up rocky hills. We were lucky enough to have a huge bonfire every night, and with an unending supply of marshmallows and sticks…well, I’ll let you figure that out.

On Saturday the 13 ^th we all took a trip to ‘the gorge’. The route to our destination included a good twenty minutes worth of off-roading, and I’ll admit I haven’t had that much fun in a long time! When we finally got there, we had to make a quick five minute trek down the side of the gorge until we reached a clearing – revealing a gorgeous view of rocks, clear water, cliff-edges and rapids. Spending a few hours there was even more fun than the off-roading; and I feel I need to confess that I did get horribly burnt in the wonderful (but punishing) sunshine, and I’m only just finishing the peeling process a week later (yes mum I know, “I’ll never learn..”) but now it’s turning into a fantastic bronze tan so it’s not all bad news.

Obviously we came into contact with a lot of Australian wildlife, including all sorts of spiders and ants, moths and butterflies, kangaroos and emus, wild cows and bulls, dragonflies and fireflies, and last but not least: (but probably my favourite) paddymelons. I know. It sounds like some type of exotic fruit, but it’s actually a small rodent that can be best described as a cross between a rabbit (in size), a kangaroo (stands on back legs, posture and limbs of a kangaroo) and a rat (grey, furry, long tail). Or for a better idea – just Google it.

Finally, with regard to my camping trip, God has done and unbelievable amount of amazing, epic, pretty much life-changing (do I use that phrase too much?) stuff. From day one, His presence was really obvious, and it continued to be that way for the whole two weeks. As always, I’m just going to hit the tip of the iceberg, so if you’d like to know any more, just get in contact and we’ll talk some more!

Wow, where do I start? Our first week of lectures in the Bush were given to us by a great guy called Mark Parker, an eccentric, authoritative, kind, focused, spirit-lead New Zealander. He challenged us to think about the Lordship of Christ and what the meant for practical Christian living. He focused a lot on consistency – living for God and worshipping Him all the time, in every circumstance, no matter what’s going on or how we ‘feel’. We don’t make Jesus Lord, we believe He is Lord, and will always be worthy of worship.

The second week of lectures were taken by our school leaders, each one gave their testimony and spoke on a subject they felt passionate about. This was great as it helped us to get to know our leaders a whole lot more, and they’re all very wise and in-tune with the Spirit of God, which means we were able to learn a lot through them.

God did a lot outside of the lectures too. I’ll quickly tell you about a few of them. On the first Thursday we all took a trip to the top of the nearest hill, with the objective to hear God speak to us. I climbed to the top of a rock overlooking Hidden Valley, and just asked God to speak to me. I was totally blown away by what He said to me – without going into specifics, He freed me from a few things from my past and gave me a couple of new promises which filled me with hope then I felt pushed to make a symbolic commitment to what had happened, which felt amazing.

The following Friday was a day where Mark Parker lead us in a 13 hour ministry time. Yes, I did just say 13 hour. It was incredible to worship God, enjoy fellowship, minister to one another, and hear from God personally. It was during that ministry time I felt re-commissioned by God into my call to lead and speak. This was something God is still working in me, and I’m loving every moment of it.

One day, we baptised five members of the DTS in the local river (the way it should be!). It was such a testament to the power of God to transform lives, to turn people around from a life filled with rubbish and hopelessness, and give them a future and a purpose, something to live for – a destiny to potentially change the world. Man I love baptisms, if you couldn’t tell.

I could go on about all the different times God spoke to me and to the group, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

I really had an amazing time camping, I’ve never laughed as much, or heard from God as much as I did in those two weeks. As much as I would have loved to stay there for the rest of the DTS – I won’t lie, mattresses, air-conditioned rooms, a local McDonalds, internet, clean clothes, and buildings. It’s good to be back. Oh and thank God I didn’t get bitten by anything! Well, apart from my tent-mate Caleb, but that’s another story.

Prayer Requests

Recovery from a long two weeks of rough sleep and plenty of physical activity
Putting into practise what was learnt from lectures
Continuing to hear from God
Remembering the promises God gave me

Don’t forget, to view photos from my trip, visit my photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176717&id=579773523&l=970dcfe5fd