Angels & Mortals and thensome...

Our DTS class is playing this game called Angels & Mortals – talk about an awesome game that I definitely recommend! Everyone in the class draws a name and you bless that person for a few days (we are doing it from Tuesday evening until Friday afternoon). You aren’t supposed to spend much money (around $5) and your angel is supposed to be a secret. My angel left me a sweet and encouraging note and yesterday morning I received a big fruit basket (with chocolate dip!) at the beginning of class. Then, around 3:00pm, I got two notes labeled 1 & 2. The number one note said to “get all dolled up for a date and be ready at 4:50.” At that point, I could read the second one. Let me pause for a moment to add that it was obviously a girl’s handwriting so, don’t worry Jason, I wasn’t about to go get ready for a date with a guy. My second note said to go to the hall. Around 4:45 someone announces over the loudspeaker that I can’t come to the hall until dinner is announced. When I finally went up there, I was greeted at the door by Stacey, dressed as a maître d' She took my arm and escorted me to the production office where Chelsea (also dressed as a waiter) handed me a beautiful flower. They took me into the office which was filled with flowers, candles and a table set for one. On the table was a letter. This is what it said:

Jenna…
I know you are here expecting to be on a date tonight…but your Prince Charming is on the other side of the world. So, I, your Heavenly Father, wanted to have a special dinner date with you…my precious daughter.
You are so beautiful. Jenna, I have watched you grow up into a beautiful young woman. I was there with you on your first day of school; you were so tiny, so nervous, so precious. I watched you expand your mind learning how to read and write, maximizing the gifts I had given you… you always excelled.
I cheered you on from the side lines as you played soccer…I never missed a game, I still remember the day you scored your first goal.
Jenna…I want you to know at this moment just how much I love you. Thank you for the moments that you spend with me during the day… those early mornings…talking to me. I love hearing your sweet voice.
I want you to know that I’ve always been there Jenna, and I will never Leave you. Every time you cried I was there weeping with you…the moments you felt alone or abandoned I was there.
Jenna… when you walk down the isle, when you have your first child, when you buy your first house…I will be there with you, rejoicing with you and so very proud of you.
So tonight, while you are far from family and friends…May you find yourself at home in my arms…the arms of your Father.
I love you Jenna…My precious little girl…
Dad

How incredibly sweet is that?! I cried for about 20 minutes and then proceeded to have a date with Jesus. It was an awesome date (best I’ve had in about five weeks) and I felt like He was saying that I should go to India for outreach. I was really excited because the past five weeks have pretty much been turmoil as far as my outreach decision goes and today was the D day.

This morning in class, I started second guessing my decision thinking that it was just my will pulling me toward India and that maybe I should go to Micronesia. I felt like I was trying to justify my decision to go to India and that, if it was really of the Lord, I shouldn’t have to justify it. We had a time of ministry where we were supposed to write anything that was keeping us from the fear of the Lord (that has been our topic for the past few days) and take it to the cross at the front of the room. When I went up there, among other things, I pretty much surrendered my desire to go to India. Right after that, the person leading our class said to pray and ask God for a specific word for someone else in the room. Chelsea, my staff small group leader, came directly to me and said that God had just spoken to her and said that He has a specific place that He wants me to go on outreach and that He has been trying to tell me for a while through other people and such and that I had been resistant to it for a while. He said that I was being sent to touch a group of women and one particular woman’s life. The place was India. Talk about confirmation! God is so good! It was just like Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22). I now feel a total peace about it all and there will be no more second guessing.

"I Hate My Life!"

“God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12.10-11

Encountering spiders in the shower, roaches in the kitchen and ants in our pants has made “I hate my life” a commonly used phrase (jokingly, of course) among the students on our DTS. I have been in Australia for over a month now and the past couple of days I have been more than a little bitter about my living conditions. I thought that when I left Charleston – Jason, my friends, family, church, income and the comfort and security of the United States – I was giving it all up for Christ. Tonight, I realized that I hadn't. Mark 15:26 says “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.” I realized that I hadn’t died to myself – my selfish desires for air conditioning, high speed internet, proper extermination and the like. Jesus doesn’t literally want us to hate our families or our selves. We should, however, “hate” them compared to the way we love Jesus. There should be a difference in the way and amount that we love Jesus and prioritize our lives. Tonight I left my selfish desires at the cross and realized that it is a good thing to hate my life. John 12:25 says “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” So, every time I want to complain, I will just stop and remind myself that I hate my life in the best way possible.

Hope You Get a Laugh Out of This...

I was told that I need to stop “preaching” and blog about more fun things that are going on so here goes. Try to imagine that you are me in these stories – it will make it that much more fun.

Maggots from the Nut Shack
Just like at home, during small group we usually sit around snacking and talking (always about important Bible stuff, of course). Tuesday, I was munching on some mixed nuts and dried fruit that I had purchased from the Nut Shack at the hyperdome (a.k.a mall). When there was a pause in the conversation, I looked down into my nut sack and was terrified to see a little white maggot squirming around. I screamed. Everyone started asking what was wrong and all I could do was whimper. They soon discovered what was wrong. Tonight I am going to tell the nut shack man that there are maggots in his mixed nuts!

Spider Madness
If you know me, you know that I can not stand spiders. They may be God’s creatures, but they have eight legs, are ugly, scary and just really freak me out. Today, my groups work duty was to clean all of the spider webs off of the lights, ceiling and fans in the main hall because there is a wedding scheduled here this weekend. I know that I wouldn’t want spider webs on the ceiling during my wedding so I went into this task with a pretty good attitude. After the first light cleaning, spiders are just raining down. I was just a little bit petrified that my worst nightmare was coming true, but, under the circumstances, I dealt with it rather well. We were almost finished when a girl came up to me with a very scared look on her face, pointing at my shirt. I immediately jumped back and screamed (also, if you know me, you know that I have a very piercing “spider scream”) and yelled “That’s it – I am done. I am not doing this anymore!” Please recall that the large majority of the insects and reptiles in Australia are poisonous so, don’t laugh - you would have done the same thing.

More Scary Spiders…
Last night, Aisling, one of the girls in our class, jumped out of the top bunk of her bed close to hyper-ventilation. Laura, the girl below her asked what was wrong. She replied “I hate my life! They’re everywhere!” “What Aisling? What’s everywhere?” Laura asked. “Spiders, they’re as big as my fists – two of them, right in my face!” By this time, everyone in the room is awake wondering what is going on. Laura says that it is okay, she is just dreaming, but I wasn’t convinced. Someone had come over with a flashlight looking for these huge spiders, but I wasn’t satisfied and made them turn on the light. My bunk is right next to hers and there was no way that I was going back to sleep if there was an inkling of a spider in the room. After about five minutes of hunting for these spiders, Aisling had pretty much convinced herself and everyone else that it was just a dream, but it still kept me awake for quite a while. When I finally fell asleep, I had a dream about two huge spiders. In retrospect, it is pretty funny, but the fact is that those spiders could have very well been real.

Learning about the Bible

BIBLE – Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth

The Bible tells us where we come from, why we are here and where we are going. There are 66 books in the Bible – 39 in the Old Testament (originally Hebrew) and 27 in the New Testament (originally Greek). In every book of the Bible, God is calling us into relationship with Him.

We learned about Bible translators that risked their lives and some that were persecuted to the point of death to make the Bible available to us today. Wycliffe an Oxford Theologian that first translated the Bible to English (1382 AD) said “All matters of life should be submitted to the truth of the scriptures that even common people should have access to it.” He strongly challenged the practices of the church and was hated so badly that he was killed and later persecutors dug up his bones and burnt them. That is some intense hatred! Today, Bible translators have two major obstacles – historical/cultural barriers and linguistic/language barriers. Bible versions range from the Literal Hebrew/Greek (NKJ) to Equivalency (NRSV) to Paraphrased (MSG, NLT). The Western world is so blessed to have such vast access to Bible. There are still parts of the world that have to actually share single pages of the Bible. Think about that next time you put off reading. J

Old Testament breakdown:
~Genesis to Deuteronomy – Pentateuch/Law
~Joshua to Esther – Historical Books
~Job to Song of Songs – Wisdom/Poetical books
~Isaiah to Daniel – Major Prophets
~Hosea to Malachi – Minor Prophets
New Testament breakdown:
~Matthew to John – Gospels
~Acts – History Book
~Romans to Philemon – Paul’s Letters/Epistles
~Hebrews – Sinkrisis (compilation of sermons)
~James to Jude – General Epistles
~Revelation – Apocalyptic Literatures

Father Heart of God

Last week I came to a deeper understanding of the Father's Love for us. We read the Father's Love Letter (visit http://www.fathersloveletter.com to read this awesome letter) and talked about verses that specifically spoke to our hearts. I would recommend doing this for anyone who is unsure of God's love.

The best part about the week, however, was the last couple of days where we had sort of a Cleansing Stream retreat for our class. If you haven't done Cleansing Stream, I would recommend that as well (http://cleansingstream.org). Having been through Cleansing Stream just the weekend before coming to Australia I thought that I knew what was in store, but, as usual, God did more than I could have asked or imagined. At one point, I was on my knees praying for a girl that had been deeply wounded as a young child. There was some major spiritual warfare going on and the presence of the Holy Spirit was so prominent. The Lord gave me this amazing revalation that it was for this very reason He sent Christ to die on the cross - to take away her pain, heal her heart and set her free. He did the same thing for you too. You just have to claim it in Jesus' mighty and powerful name. Galatians 5:1 says "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:7-9 says "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) All fo these verses totally came to life for me last week. Praise God! We have to let the Holy Spirit search our hearts so that we may become free vessels for Him to use for His glory!

This week is going to be intense as we are studying the Bible. Please keep our class in your prayers. Because of all of last weeks breakthroughs Satan is definitely on the prowl... and the last thing he wants is for us to dig into the Word. Thanks!

Top 10 Things that are Different (but, not necessarily bad) about YWAM Island Breeze:
10. You only get napkins at restaurants and at special occasions.
9. Does anyone remember clothes lines?
8. We actually drink rainwater that sometimes has living organisms in it (you think I’m kidding). Isn’t there supposed to be a big hole in the ozone layer over Australia?
7. “Ants in your pants” isn’t just a funny saying anymore. They are huge and they bite like wasps sting.
6. Power Point is the place where you plug things into the wall.
5. Killer birds… and everything else.
4. You hold your breath and pray every time you plug something in because it is quite possible that it could blow up.
3. The mosquitoes actually bite through your clothing.
2. Mullets are “in”.
1. The saying “Good night, don’t let the bed bugs bite!” has taken on an entirely different meaning.

This Week’s Highlights
This week encompassed so much that I can’t even begin to tell you about everything so here are some of the best (not always new, but in a new light) thoughts that I picked up:
~an egg that stays in it’s shell is no use to anyone – it must be broken (Josh, you can add this to your analogy about an egg holding the cake together)
~God may hurt us, but He will never harm us; He may cause us pain so that we can become free of it – for example, when someone has a tumor, possibly cancer, the surgeon will cut it out to save the patient further pain
~there are four main sources from which we receive communication: God, the world, our own flesh and the devil - instead of listening to ourselves, we should communicate with God and others
~B.C.G. (Blaming, Criticizing & Complaining and Gossip & Grumbling) is an infectious disease in the Church; the cure is B.C.G. (Being Continually Grateful) and D.P.T. (Daily Praise & Thanksgiving)
~Because He wants us to become more like Him, God speaks to everyone, all the time
~He speaks specific plans, love, comfort, truth, warnings, correction & rebuke and guidance
~Philippians 3:10 is an awesome verse…meditate on that
~just like playing darts, you can hit the bulls’ eye - God’s perfect will, anywhere else on the board - his permissive will or you can totally miss the board – sin
~intercession: praying for others by knowing God’s heart; pleading with God for mercy on behalf of a sinner; standing in the gap
~petition: praying for ourselves
~spiritual warfare: standing against/between Satan and another person
~God speaks through nature (Romans 1:20), written word, rhema word, living word – Jesus speaks, dreams, visions, angelic visitations, family, friends, enemies, pastors, speakers, music, media, inner voice, closed doors, open doors, deep inner knowing, financial provision, audible voice, conscience, circumstances
~He usually confirms what He is speaking through two or three sources – peace, scriptures, Godly advice
~God never contradicts His own Word in the Scriptures (in context)
~God never violates His own principles
~God never tells you to do anything selfish, untrue, immoral, unkind or unloving
~In ministry, human sympathy will not take you far, but divine passion will.

Last night we went on our first official outreach in the somewhat sketchy, near the train station, downtown area of Logan City. In a word, it was AWESOME! We had a prayer power hour and then went out in groups of four to evangelize to whoever we came across and invite them to come have coffee and pastries at our makeshift "coffee shop." Many people were open to hearing the gospel. I had the biggest Holy Spirit buzz when we finally left around 1:30am. Praise the Lord!

Today, we went to downtown Brisbane and hung out around Southbank, a man-made beach in the middle of the city. It was much more beautiful than I had imagined and we had a great day, full of sun, sand and shopping.

Next week, we will be studying the Father Heart of God - stay tuned for updates.