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