it's official!

I'm going to Sri Lanka and Indonesia!

outreach destinations!

So we we're finally given our outreach options! The locations are decided but the prices and type of work aren't for certain yet. The numbers in parenthesis are the danger warnings for each country. It's a scale from 1-5, 5 being the most dangerous. There are three different teams to choose from, here's the breakdown:

1. Sri Lanka (4) - 6 weeks
Jakarta, Indonesia (4) - 5 weeks
$4000 AUS

In Sri Lanka we'll most likely be working with the Assemblies of God church movement doing evangelistic work. Right now there are many evangelistic movements going on and many orphans as well. The dominant religions are hindu and buddhist. Currently the country is in a civil war so there is potential danger.

Jakarta has very open doors right now and an established ywam base. Ywam Perth has targeted Jakarta for an entire year now and has sent many teams already. The main focus is to work with churches to promote evangelism. There are also many slums there that we'd be working with. There is antagonism towards westerners and christians (and chinese!) from the high percentage of muslims.

2. Cambodia (2) - 5 weeks
New Zealand (1) - 6 weeks
$4500 AUS

This team will spend a week in Australia working with youth groups to prepare them for a 2 week mission trip to Cambodia. Afterwards they will take them with to Cambodia to lead their missions trip. Then the team will spend another 2 weeks serving there on our own. There is a ywam base already established and they'll be working with them.

After Cambodia they'll travel to the New Zealand which used to be one of the biggest missionary sending countries. They'll travel across the country promoting missions and encouraging youth to take up missions.

3. Ethiopia (4) - 6-7 weeks
Australia (1) - 5-6 weeks
$5000 AUS

In Ethiopia there will be lots of public proclamation and evangelistic campaigns. Possibly offering some relief to the people starving there. There are many Islamic extremists and the border reigions are extremely volatile (but the team won't be going there). There is an established ywam base as well.

Afterwards the team will head to northwestern Australia. The direction isn't very clear yet but it seems like the natives will be a target.

I'll need to make a decision by Thursday morning, which is Wednesday night for everyone back home. Please be praying for me! I'll be spending time asking God where He wants me to go and hopefully make the right decision. We've been waiting for this moment as a school for a while now and it's definitely an exciting time. We've been learning a lot on how much God loves the nations and now we finally get to set our hearts on nations once the rosters have been set. So please pray for me to hear clearly from God and soon! I'll let you all know once I find out where I'm going!

Bless you heaps,
Andrew

worship and intercession

It has been an exciting week of teaching. I'm just going to start it off with some cool things we've been taught this week.

• We want to hear from God because we want a relationship with Him!
• It should be normal to hear God speak.
• God's ability to speak to us is far greater than our ability to hear from Him.
• Every time we try to hear the voice of God it is a step of faith.
• Spiritual battle is real and we all have our own part to play!
• We have authority through Jesus while we are acting according to His will.
• We are living sacrifices, even if you're tired worship God with all you got!
• If you're distracted by other people during worship, stand in the front.
• Give your best years to God.
  

So those are just some great points that we went over during class. One thing I'd like to mention is hearing God's voice. In learning to hear God's voice we start off as infants and it's really hard for us to discern His voice. It's like when a stranger calls you on the phone, you can't tell who it is by their voice but as a friendship develops you start to recognize that person's voice. It works that way with hearing God's voice as well. That's why it can be so difficult to start recognizing His voice from the very beginning. We've been taught that God wants to speak to us and that it should be normal so we should be expectant to hear from Him. The application of this is that anytime we have any sort of inkling no matter how small we should go for it in faith (and humility) that it might be from God (assuming it follows His word of course). If we keep doing this we'll be able to strengthen our 'faith' muscles and learn to discern His voice. How exciting is that? God speaks to us concerning the big things and the little things in our lives. The speaker this week used a lot of stories and anecdotes to really get his points across. One of the examples he used was from the movie Wall-E. He compared the people to our ability to hear from God saying that it's normal for us to walk but since the muscles of the humans were so weak they could barely stand anymore. Makes sense to me. I'm going to work on those faith muscles and not be afraid to be a fool for God!

So last weekend we went camping! I volunteered for the camping committee and it was more work than I thought! Camping in Australia is much different than camping at Cabrillo Beach. The biggest different was bringing and cooking food for 50 people each meal. It was good fun though spending time out in the woods. We spent some time canoeing, cooking and cleaning, toasting marshmallows, playing some group games including capture the flag in the dark which was quite intense! The only part I didn't enjoy was the enormous amount of flies! I must have ate a couple that weekend that got mixed up into the food. We labeled the really big ones 'Goliath' and they actually pack a punch when they bite! Overall it was a good time to bond and spend some time outdoors. I'll put up some pictures at another time.

As usual, praying for all of you at home. Especially the youth group! I always think of the Philippians 1:3-5 whenever I think about you guys. Keep pressing on and deepening your relationship with him because He is so worthy of everything. Don't waste this precious time you have and set your eyes on Him! Love you guys so much. That goes for everyone, I miss all of you!

Blessings,
Andrew