It's time for me to leave now. Before I leave I want to declare God's goodness no matter what happens on outreach. He is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. So, Sri Lanka and Jakarta here I come!
I'll be having a friend update this blog since I won't be able to check it due to security reasons. If you have comments, questions, or encouragement feel free to email me. Please make sure to use 'code' when you email me substituting words like prayer, christians, and muslims with talking to dad, brothers, and people who aren't in our family. I'm sure all of you can think of better ideas so be creative! Some people decided to use star wars terms, maybe I'll try that out. :)
I'll miss all of you so much. I can't to go out to the nations, but I also can't wait to come home and see all of you again. I'll do my best to keep everyone posted. God bless you all!
Much love,
Andrew
Friday, December 26, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Outreach is near!
The lecture phase is coming to an end and outreach is drawing near! We're leaving on Dec. 26th for Sri Lanka and then we'll head to Indonesia on Feb. 14th (estimate). I think we're planning to be back on Mar. 14th, spend a week in Perth and then head back home.
We received a contact in Sri Lanka and now have a tentative schedule! We'll be working with an orphanage, providing relief to where the tsunami hit 3 years ago, and working in a nursery home. I'm really excited to go to the coast where the tsunami and spread the love of God there. All the details are pretty slim as of now and I'll let you all know more when I find out. As far as Indonesia goes we'll be in the city of Jakarta but we're still working out what we'll be doing and what contact we'll be working with. I've heard that for Jakarta we have to be careful with any media so I won't be able to check the blog during that time. I'll find the most convenient way to update everyone and let you know later.
Anyways, this is going to be a quick update. This week our topic is Lordship and it has been awesome. Our speaker is Dave Gustafson from LA! he is the director at YWAM LA. Great man of God, hilarious speaker. One of my favorite things he's said was "God I'm bored, blow my mind!" I've been learning a lot about giving things. Imagine making a very, very tight fist as if it's something you're holding onto in life wheter it be your dreams, goals, desires, whatever. Once you try letting go you realize that it hurts because you've been making a fist for so long! But only until you open up your hand can God put His gifts in your life. Once that happens we tend to hold onto that again and God has to teach us to let go all over again. We not only have to trust God with everything but have a heart after His own so our desires are in line with His!
Some prayer requests:
Blessings,
Andrew
We received a contact in Sri Lanka and now have a tentative schedule! We'll be working with an orphanage, providing relief to where the tsunami hit 3 years ago, and working in a nursery home. I'm really excited to go to the coast where the tsunami and spread the love of God there. All the details are pretty slim as of now and I'll let you all know more when I find out. As far as Indonesia goes we'll be in the city of Jakarta but we're still working out what we'll be doing and what contact we'll be working with. I've heard that for Jakarta we have to be careful with any media so I won't be able to check the blog during that time. I'll find the most convenient way to update everyone and let you know later.
Anyways, this is going to be a quick update. This week our topic is Lordship and it has been awesome. Our speaker is Dave Gustafson from LA! he is the director at YWAM LA. Great man of God, hilarious speaker. One of my favorite things he's said was "God I'm bored, blow my mind!" I've been learning a lot about giving things. Imagine making a very, very tight fist as if it's something you're holding onto in life wheter it be your dreams, goals, desires, whatever. Once you try letting go you realize that it hurts because you've been making a fist for so long! But only until you open up your hand can God put His gifts in your life. Once that happens we tend to hold onto that again and God has to teach us to let go all over again. We not only have to trust God with everything but have a heart after His own so our desires are in line with His!
Some prayer requests:
- Healing for Emily and Petra. Emily has a inner ear imbalance problem which has made her miss a lot of class for 2 months now. Petra is our team leader who is still recovering from Dengue fever when she was in Jakarta during her last outreach.
- Health and safety for our entire team. We need God's protection beginning now from physical and spiritual attacks. Sri Lanka is still in a cival war and we also need to be careful in Jakarta. Spiritual warfare has been a big lesson to us. When we're doing big things for God the enemy is going to try to attack so we have been constantly wearing our battle armour.
- In Sri Lanka we're getting visas upon arrival so be praying on the day we arrive (the 27th) that everyone is able to get into the country without any problems.
- Last but definitely not least, that God will TAKE THESE NATIONS! God has given all of us a heart for these countries and we are desperately pressing in to see God work. We want these nations to be woken up and revived for the glory and kingdom of God, woohoooo!
Blessings,
Andrew
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Movember!
I have to start off by apologizing for not updating so long. Much has been happening here at YWAM Perth and things have been getting busier and busier as out outreach phase is almost here. First off with some outreach updates!
Our outreach fees have gone up, up, up! The original estimate was $4000 and now it is at $5200! Our staff has told us that it is the most expensive time to fly and airfare has gone up a lot. Thankfully to all of you who have supported me I have just enough now for all of my expenses (and a little extra which I've given to other students in need). The amount for the other two teams have gone up as well and it was really a test of our faith to trust that God would provide. Last week we still needed around 90k to cover our outreach expenses. Thankfully our God is faithful and he has provided all of that and MORE. We're now 3k over our need and waiting to see how God calls us to use the money. Praise God for his faithfulness and his ultimate provision! We we're doing what we could to bring in funds and God was faithful to bring in the rest. Every weekend we were washing cars for 5 hours praying that people would be gracious in their donations. One of the days we received 400 dollars from only 5 cars, needless to say we came across some generous people. We also went on a 16km (10 mi) walk last week to raise support. It was a long walk, but we saw a lot of money come in and it was great times all around. We were praying for God to release the money every morning and sure enough He did, on the day everything was due. There were so many stories of how other students got support it was amazing.
One day during lecture we were told to ask God if there was anything we felt we should give to one another. Things we valued the most or just something we knew someone else wanted to support and encourage each other. One student felt God was telling her to promise a large amount of money to someone else even though she didn't even have it. Sure enough the next day she received two emails of promised support that was over the amount she needed. We're not just talking about hundreds of dollars here, we're talking thousands. God is good.
To leave you off with a picture, I must explain this one first. Here at YWAM Perth November is also known as Movember, where a select group of guys grow mustaches for absolutely no reason other than to look awesome. So I had to represent the Asian brothers since the rest of us don't grow much facial hair and I've been blessed with that talent. So here's a picture after a month of not shaving, thank goodness it's over!
This one made it to the front page of www.ywamperth.org!
and now a close-up for your viewing pleasure :)
Our outreach fees have gone up, up, up! The original estimate was $4000 and now it is at $5200! Our staff has told us that it is the most expensive time to fly and airfare has gone up a lot. Thankfully to all of you who have supported me I have just enough now for all of my expenses (and a little extra which I've given to other students in need). The amount for the other two teams have gone up as well and it was really a test of our faith to trust that God would provide. Last week we still needed around 90k to cover our outreach expenses. Thankfully our God is faithful and he has provided all of that and MORE. We're now 3k over our need and waiting to see how God calls us to use the money. Praise God for his faithfulness and his ultimate provision! We we're doing what we could to bring in funds and God was faithful to bring in the rest. Every weekend we were washing cars for 5 hours praying that people would be gracious in their donations. One of the days we received 400 dollars from only 5 cars, needless to say we came across some generous people. We also went on a 16km (10 mi) walk last week to raise support. It was a long walk, but we saw a lot of money come in and it was great times all around. We were praying for God to release the money every morning and sure enough He did, on the day everything was due. There were so many stories of how other students got support it was amazing.
One day during lecture we were told to ask God if there was anything we felt we should give to one another. Things we valued the most or just something we knew someone else wanted to support and encourage each other. One student felt God was telling her to promise a large amount of money to someone else even though she didn't even have it. Sure enough the next day she received two emails of promised support that was over the amount she needed. We're not just talking about hundreds of dollars here, we're talking thousands. God is good.
To leave you off with a picture, I must explain this one first. Here at YWAM Perth November is also known as Movember, where a select group of guys grow mustaches for absolutely no reason other than to look awesome. So I had to represent the Asian brothers since the rest of us don't grow much facial hair and I've been blessed with that talent. So here's a picture after a month of not shaving, thank goodness it's over!
This one made it to the front page of www.ywamperth.org!
and now a close-up for your viewing pleasure :)Thank you for your continued support and prayers. Please be praying for our outreach team. If you have been keeping up with the news you'd know that safety is a large concern. We trust that everything is in God's hands but need to keep fighting for health and safety. One of the girls on our team has had an inner ear imbalance condition for weeks now. Her name is Emily, please be praying for her. Also for all the people in Sri Lanka and Indonesia that God would soften their hearts because we want to see salvations! Nothing would bring us more joy than to see more people fall in love with Jesus.
Miss you all dearly. Sorry if I haven't got back to some emails, things have been so busy here as the outreach date gets closer. We leave early in the morning on Dec. 27. I'll work on returning all your emails and letting you know more about what's going on with me. Bless all of you!
With His Love,
Andrew
Miss you all dearly. Sorry if I haven't got back to some emails, things have been so busy here as the outreach date gets closer. We leave early in the morning on Dec. 27. I'll work on returning all your emails and letting you know more about what's going on with me. Bless all of you!
With His Love,
Andrew
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