God is good...all the time!

Sorry about the lack of posts, but what an awesome two weeks I have had! We spent a week at a conference/lecture with Jim Stier learning about evangelism and God’s heart for missions. Stier told some incredible, faith building stories. My favorite was about a 15 year old boy that was on a mission trip in Hade. He was going door to door asking people if they needed prayer. He came to a house and the woman told him that her neighbor could probably use some prayer because she looked horrible (“like she was about to die”) earlier that week. So the boy went to the neighbors home and found the front gate and front door wide open. He clapped (instead of knocking) and saw that there was someone sleeping on the bed just inside the house. So he, quite boldly, went in and just started praying that God would touch the woman. The next thing he knew there was a man standing behind him. The boy asked who he was and the man replied that he was the owner of the house and that it was his wife lying on the bed. The man asked what the boy was doing in the house and he said that he was just praying for his wife and that she was healed. The man told the boy that she hadn’t healed. The boy argued that yes, she had because she was stirring right there on the bed. The man said again “You didn’t heal her because she died last night, you raised her from the dead!” The man had just been at the coroner and funeral home making arrangements for her burial. When he came inside and saw the boy praying there was another man there as well. The other man touched his wife when the boy asked God to touch her. True story. The point was that we should expect miracles and pray with faith when we pray.

The conference was great preparation for the following week that we spent in Byron Bay doing outreach. Byron Bay is like the Daytona Beach of Australia. All of the students that just graduated (yes, they graduate in November here – weird, huh?) go there for what they call “Schoolies,” a time to pretty much just let loose and party like crazy. It is a beautiful area, but very full of all kinds of very innovative spiritual concepts (witchcraft, Buddhism, worshiping the dim star of the southern cross, etc.). All of these people are just searching for the true Lord, Jesus Christ and because it is such a “spiritual” place, it is very common for “God conversations” to start. It was an amazing week! Our group of about 40 students from different YWAM bases did sports outreach on the beach during the day (for me, it just doesn’t get any better than talking to people about God, playing soccer on the beach and getting a tan all at the same time!), had free cookouts (sausage on the barbie, anyone?) and worshipped in the parks at night. People were really drawn to our worship and we always ended up with a big crowd around us. Countless seeds were planted and several names were added to the book of life – glory to God! I was asked many difficult questions, but God totally spoke wonderful answers through me. I had many moments when I was actually surprised at the words coming out of my mouth! I talked and prayed with a girl named Jenna (crazy, huh?) who accepted Christ into her heart. It was such an incredible experience.

I am now back at the base for three more weeks of lectures. We have the former President of YWAM speaking this week and I am really looking forward to some inspiring insight from him. The countdown has begun (okay, okay, I started a couple of weeks ago) for when Jason arrives - 18 days to go! Then it's off to India on December 26th. As always, prayers are greatly needed and appreciated.