Skimming stones

It's taken me long enough, but finally, here is my post-minor-outreach-blog...post.

For about two and a half weeks, me and my team went on outreach in the wonderful city of Cairns. This included staying for a week in a city central backpackers (or hostel), a few days in a local Baptist Church, and then to finish it off we travelled north to stay with the parents of one of the DTS course leaders. They had a lovely home up in the hills, we packed out all of their spare rooms, and me and my friend Tim stayed in the very reasonably sized caravan just outside the bungalow.

The purpose of the outreach was mainly two-fold: To evangelise in the city, and raise awareness of the YWAM Australia and Papua New Guinea Ship Tour amongst schools and the public. Both of these were highly successful, and I have many stories from each - but for the sake of time I'll just share a couple of examples later on.

For those of you who prefer the more concise, to-the-point, approach; I'll write a brief summary here and obviously concluding updates right at the end. You can then decide whether or not you want to read my selection of short stories that follow, yay.

My outreach was a real time of growth for me. I learnt a lot about evangelism and where I fit into it - I developed a passion for speaking to the local artists in various galleries, and I also seemed to minister effectively to the homeless. In going to the schools I made many great connections with the young people, providing them with hope, calling them to missions and raising awareness of the Ship Tour. Of course, I grabbed the opportunity to practise my public speaking and really benefited from it. Finally, I really developed my relationship with God. I was able to have consistent and powerful devotional times each day. Through that, and experiencing the power, faithfulness, provision and sovereignty of God as we walked by faith each day, my relationship with Him was greatly deepened. Not to mention, me and the team had an incredible amount of fun along the way!

Short Stories

David

One sunny afternoon, God lead me to sit opposite a homeless man on a park bench. He didn't look like the influential type, but little did I know the huge impact this guy would have on me. After finding out he hadn't eaten in a couple of days, I bought him a meal from McDonalds, and from there we had a really great conversation. By the end, we'd only spoken a little bit about God, but I wasn't concerned. I just wanted to show Dave, my new friend, compassion, genuine interest and friendship; and I had a funny conviction I would see him again in not too long.

It was just the day after, when I found myself once again in a conversation with Dave after God 'coincidentally' crossed our paths. Dave had a huge smile on his face, and joy seemed to ooze out of him. After I asked what the reason for his happiness was, he told me of how after the conversation we'd had the day before, he decided to start praying, and reading his old bible again. He prayed to God the previous night for some money to help him buy a train ticket which would enable him to visit the remaining family he has left in Brisbane. The day after, Dave was notified of an advanced payment on his pension - which was more than enough for his ticket; he was also able to buy some new clothes and some food. As if the clear answer to prayer wasn't enough, he decided to then bless me by paying me back for the meal i'd bought him the previous day. We talked a little more and it became obvious that God was doing something in his heart - how exciting!

Finally, it was one of our last nights in the city, and so I really wanted to see Dave before i left. Me and a friend prayed desperately for direction as to where we could find him, and God took us on an unbelievably specific route which finally lead us to him. Me and my friend Katie were able to spend a good hour or so ministering to Dave before saying our last goodbyes. Dave even encouraged us with a verse he'd learned from John 14.2, In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. What hope and faith from a man who calls a sleeping bag home! I could see a real change in Dave, and i still continue to pray for him that God would be with him, transforming him bit by bit. I was so thankful to God, He had showed me His guidance, faithfulness, goodness and so much more through this legendary friend of mine who I hope to never forget.

Any Questions

So, we spent a lot of time in local schools running programmes which gave information about the ship tour, and calling young people to missions. One of the funniest things that happened during our visits was the 'any questions' section at one of the primary school presentations. We quickly regretted opening the floor to the youngsters, as we were greeted with 'questions' including:

"My best friend is called Jimmie"

"We're going camping next week"

and my personal favourite..

"I live in a shed"

So maybe we won't do 'any questions' for the young'ens next time around.

Reconciliation

Our team leader Ania raised an issue with the group one afternoon during a group meeting. Well it wasn't so much an issue, but a sense, with which the group agreed. We agreed that there was an unsettling vibe of division in our team, and it needed to be fixed before we moved on. A few people decided a time of worship could help put is in the right frame of mind to deal with the situation - and they were definitely right. Me and Alorah had the honour of leading the group in a time of worship, which lead to some great ministry. I was so blessed to see God working in people, one by one, before leading us into a time of reconciliation. It was a really beautiful moment where we rediscovered our group's purpose and vision, we committed to standing by eachother and putting Christ at the centre of our mission. This is just one example of how God was sufficient for us, and always sustained those He called.

Vision

I really benefited from my friendship with a great guy called Tim. We pushed eachother in our walks with God, especially in the area of quiet times. One morning we got up at some unearthly hour and headed straight for the beach. Tim went for a swim, and I was about to join him - until I noticed a section of beach which turned rocky. Remembering my passion for skimming stones, I decided to head in that direction and spend some time talking with God whilst throwing rocks, nothing like some father-son bonding.

I'd recently been praying about my future, and all of a sudden I found what I was doing becoming strangley prophetic.

The stones I was throwing were people, they were different shapes, sizes and colours - representing the different backgrounds, personalities and skills of those i would be working with. And as God called Peter his 'rock' on whom he would build his church, these stones were people who would serve as a firm foundation on which God could work, and use for amazing effect.

I was passing on technique, giving the stones the ability to fly. I was discipling, leading.

Now you can throw a rock pretty far, but it just makes a violent, uncontrolled splash.

But I wasn't throwing, I was skimming.

Each stone touched several destinations, leaving ripple effects which spread widely, their influence can be seen for quite some time after.

The stones were thrown in all directions,

Leaving a ripple effect with every impact on the water, and they continued to ripple until the stone could travel no further.

God is calling me to skim stones.

~

So you might think that sounds a bit weird, or scary, but I'm very excited.

Anyway we've returned back from outreach safe and sound, to a base which has had a minor facelift including several structural changes. It sadly means that communication is more of a struggle than before with minimum internet access for a period, but hopefully that will change.

It's been great to be back, to catch up with every one by sharing stories and encouraging one another; and of course it's just fun to be able to hang out with all of my friends again. We've been back now for just over a week, and we've enjoyed some amazing lectures and other events which I'll fill you all in on in a week or so (famous last words).

Now it's all about getting as much as possible out of the final two weeks of lectures, before we head off to PNG for six weeks. It's gonna be good.

Thank you so much for reading, and for being patient in waiting for the updates! Hopefully not as long till next time. Thanks again for your continued love, prayer and support - God bless you.

All my love, Matt.

Prayer requests

Bringing closure to what we learned, and the experiences of an amazing couple of weeks on outreach

Homesickness

Keeping my relationship with God number one priority - not being swayed by the work or social side of DTS

Discernment, wisdom and perseverance in hearing God's voice and spending time with Him.

Everest

Welcome to another blog post everyone!

This will be my last post before I head to my first, 'minor outreach'; where we will be heading to Cairns for just short of three weeks. I'm not sure what my level of contact will be whilst I am over there, but we will have internet every now and again so I'll make sure to take advantage of that!

A couple of quick stories about my week that i want to share, before we move on. It's been really fun having my good friend James around. On Saturday we took the day off and took a 45-minute walk to our favourite beach, it was a beautiful day and the company was good, so it was a great walk. Once we'd reached the beach we made the most of the basketball court before shortly taking a dive into the deep blue, warm and refreshing water. Australia really is a cool place to be this time of year.

More recently, today we went to the local traveling clinic as an outreach team to get all of our immunisations. I'm not going to spend very long on this as it's quite upsetting. So, at the beginning of the day i though i was going to get one jab, costing me $22. To cut a long story short, i'm not sure what hurts more: my two arms after a total of four injections, or my bank account after it had $175 sucked out of it. Oh dear.

Anyway, it's been a really interesting week for everyone here at the Reef To Outback base. I'll start from the beginning, because I'm a good story teller, or something like that.

Recently we've been taking part in video lectures on the topic of Spiritual warfare, by a great guy called Dean Sherman, or the Shermanator, or D. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney (for those Finding Nemo fans out there). And they've been so good! He managed to present the topic in a new and relevant way, he gave new insight and significance to the importance of Spiritual Warfare, it's reality, our call to fight, the promise of victory and the practical application of living it out. I won't lie, 2-3 hours of watching video lectures was tough, but so, so worth it. Especially with outreach coming up - it's important for us to be aware of this, and confident in it too.

Understandably, this past week was all about outreach preparation. So we've been doing all sorts of job-delegation, schedule-organisation, team-building, and everyone's personal favourite...fund raising! As I said in the previous post, watching God bring in pretty much all of the required $30,000 was such a blessing - and a miracle! Another thing to praise God for is the real sense of unity all of the teams seem to have at the moment. It's definitely a miracle within my group; we're all so different, but God has really brought us together in our purpose and mission, and we can't wait to go to Cairns and serve as a group, supporting and loving each other every step of the way.

Emotionally, it's been a roller coster ride over the past few days. On Friday, we had the October DTS Graduation. The service involved everyone dressing up, and we watched various members of the school share testimonies about their personal journeys with God, specific stories and testimonies, there were unending lists of 'thank you's, video diaries, one or two performances - and of course, the official graduation of the school. After the service we all got to pray for them and commission them, i loved being a part of that. Of course I have to mention that there was the most awesome cake at the end of it. What I wont mention is how many pieces I ate...I'll leave that to your creative imaginations.

The rest of the day took bit of a weird turn; seeing the October school graduate was a flash-forward to all of us, a picture of things to come. No one really wanted to think about finishing DTS, but at the same time no one could run away from the it! This became even more intense on the Saturday, when about one third of the Oct DTS left for the airport. There were lots of sad goodbyes, and we were all participating and watching. It was, again, something for all of us to think about. And just as we were getting over that, it was time for us to bid farewell to the first outreach team. This was really hard for me, as I had to say goodbye to my four closest friends as they all left together for outreach for three weeks. Obviously I have great friends here and I love my team so much - but not having those four friends around isn't easy.

God, being God, decided to jump at the opportunity to teach me a lesson (don't you love that?). That evening, after I'd spent the day trying to get my head around not only thinking about the end of DTS in a few months, but also saying goodbye to my best friends, God spoke to me in a really huge way.

It was halfway through YouthStreet, our weekly youth event. I was on the gate signing the young people in and out - listening to some music through one ear to pass the time - and aid me in my reflective state of being. It was there that God really clearly put it on my heart that there was something beautiful about the position I found myself in. It was almost as though He said to me, "Ok, now I've got you, and just you - I can't wait". There was a new sense of excitement about what the immediate future held for me, now that God has my full attention.

Now it's just me, and Him - and to be honest, that's the only way it should ever be.

Lord You are my salvation, I will not be shaken,

You are my Mighty Rock on whom I depend,
My Faithful Fortress, and my intimate friend,
A love so strong with no beginning or end,

You are my everest,
You are my everest,
And I will ever rest in You.

(Taken from the song 'Everest', by Aidan Jones - October DTS)

So goodbye from me for now - with all my love, and God bless,

Matt.

Prayer Requests:

Accomdation to be finalised for our team
That we could get into as many schools/youth groups/churches as possible

Effective, spirit-lead evangelism
Protection over our team
That we would be united in purpose and spirit as an outreach team

Wantok

Yu wantok bilong mi,
Mi wantok bilong yu,
Mi wantok bilong Jesus,
Jesus emi wantok tru.

Emi wantok tru,
Emi wantok tru,
Jesus givim liaf long me nau yu,
Long Calvary's Cross hem dai,
Hem givim yu mi liaf,
Pres Jesus, emi wantok tru.

This song is written in 'Pidgin', the local language spoken by those in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. We were taught it by Australia's own legend, the Country singer Steve Grace (www.stevegrace.com). He was gracious and humble enough to take a week out of his busy schedule to lead our lectures for week number 7 of the DTS, titled 'The character and nature of God'.

Before I move on, I guess I should translate! So here it is:

You are a friend of mine,
I am a friend of yours,
I am a friend of Jesus,
Jesus is the true friend.

The true friend,
The true friend,
Jesus gave His life for me and you,
On Calvary's Cross He died,
He's given you and me life,
Praise Jesus - the true friend.

What's beautiful about this song is the word 'Wantok'. When Steve went to New Guinea and quickly thought up some lyrics to an easy song for everyone to sing, he asked the locals for a word to describe a 'true, good friend'. They suggested the word Wantok. It is a deep and meaningful word with no straight forward translation. The best way to describe it is a friendship as tight as a brother's, kind of like a blood-relationship. It's ignorant of skin colour or location, it overcomes those differences and suggests the two people are on the same level, they are one person. It's a great little cheesy song, and I can't wait to sing it as a group to the people of New Guinea when we get there in a couple of months time!

It's been a great week since we arrived back from camping, and crazy at the same time - because there is so much preperation for outreach going on right now, trying to fit that in to a normal week of lectures is a funny thing! Our arrival back at base was celebrated by the whole DTS going out on the Saturday night to a restaurant on the Seafront. We all dressed up, and really enjoyed a fantastic night out in great company. After the meal we went to the local ice cream parlour and I took advantage of the situation (some thing will never change) and got an ice cream with Banana, Hazlenut, and Cookies & Cream scoops. I won't lie; it was undesputably the best ice cream i have ever eaten.

So, a great way to start the week for sure. The positive vibe definitely continued as lectures for the week began. We all knew Steve Grace would be speaking to us, but no one was able to predict the amount of fun we had in lectures! Every story Steve told us had a song to go with it, so his voice, guitar, and harmonica (yes those are cool, or, they are now) made many appearances. Steve also blessed us with many great words of wisdom, here's one of my favourites:

"Never, ever let that which you do not understand, rob you of what you do understand."

On top of some great teaching, Steve really put a passion for songwriting into all of us which was awesome. Now, you need to understand something about me to grasp how much of a miracle this is. I'd probably consider myself to have the same lyrical ability as your average stick of bamboo. So, the fact that i managed to write a great song and put music to it is nothing short of a God-send.

The song is about the book of Joshua. It's a song for the church to sing, and it's testament to the greatness and power of the God that we serve, and our commitment to fight. I also love it because i now have a really solid reminder of some of the lessons God taught me when i went camping.

This week lectures are on the topic of 'Spiritual Warfare'. We are watching videos of YWAM legend Dean Sherman speaking on the subject, and they've been great so far - I'm all of a sudden rapidly running out of paper in my note books!

Last weekend the YWAM base was blessed by the presence of the returning October DTS. They were coming back from their 6 week outreach based around various cities along the coast of Australia. It was great to have them all back, to hear some great stories, and to see so many people on the base! Of course you can tell what my favourite part of all of this was - my good friend James Sandquest from Bristol back home, who is currently on the October DTS, came back! It was so great to see him again, he's a little reminder of home - which i love. Today we were able to pray for and encourage each other; and it blew my mind to think back to when we first met years ago at a youth camp in Bristol, to see how far we'd come! And more than that, to consider the faithfulness of God throughout all those years in between left me speechless. God is good.

Some of you will be aware that on the 10th March, my outreach team (see earlier post 'Papua New Guinea') will be beginning our 5 hour van drive to the wonderful city of Cairns, where we will be for 2 and a half weeks; returning on the 27th March. The programme is pretty mixed, and we're still waiting for a lot of it to be organised! What i do know is that for the three weeks we will be staying in various locations including hostels, church halls, houses of friends of YWAM and i'm sure there will be a couple of surprises along the way! As for what we will be doing, there are two main purposes: evangelism, and raising awareness of the YWAM Ship Tour (www.ywamships.org) amongst the youth. Activities will range from running church services and youth groups, to school assemblies and classes, to street evangelism, to busking, to talking with the other backpackers staying in our hostel - and anything that God tells us!

I'm incredibly excited about this outreach; i've recently had a lot spoken over me in terms of my ability to lead and speak, and my calling to be a young leader like that of Joshua and Timothy, now is a chance for me to set an example in 'speech, life, love, faith and purity', and really step into that role. The entire team cannot wait to get going, we're currently gelling pretty well which is always good news, and i'm just so thrilled to be working alongside this team of Godly men and women.

As always with outreach, and particularly YWAM outreaches, there are always emergency funds that need raising. About a week ago we made an estimated budget that our DTS needed roughly $30,000 (AUD) to come in in order for all of us to go. Since then, God has miraculously provided approximately $27,500! We're just waiting for that little bit more to come in and then we're all set!

There were two people on my team who were really in need of funding for this outreach - our team leader and one other team member. As a group, several of us were able to put money towards them and we were able to pay the remainders of both of their fees, which totalled to about $3,500? How incredible! I was really blessed because of the overwhelming genorousity of those supporting me back home - it meant i was able to contribute to my two other team members and ultimately get them on our outreach! Praise God. This also leads me to say another huge thank you to all of those back home who have, and still are, supporting me in means of finance and in love and in prayer - it's making pretty much all the difference on this side of the world. So thank you.

As for me and how I'm doing. Like i said, it's been a pretty draining time - with lots of hard work and a lot to be thinking about, with generally minimum time to hit the pause button on it all, which would be nice. So i'm quite tired, but God is giving me strength every day. More than that, God has really been blowing my mind on a regular basis and im so thankful for all the work he has been doing in me and those around me.

I'm reminded that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", nothing is impossible for my God. And with the energy I have, i am giving it to responding to my creator who is relentlessly pursuing me,

and I am loving every second of it.

All my love and God bless, Matt.

Prayer:

Strength and determination when it comes to video lectures, and getting ready for outreach
Greater unity within our outreach team

I would continue to hear from God clearly and regularly

I would step into what God has called me to, with authority and with confidence