Hey Everyone,
How time flies. It seems like I just sent out my last newsletter, and I’m already late for my October one. Well, I’ll get right into what I’ve been doing:
SAYCO
On the first weekend in October, 11 of us from YWAM went to the South Australian Youth Camp Out (or SAYCO). It is a camp run by the Uniting Church for teenagers. We went along as chaplains, which meant that we were available to talk about any spiritual questions the teens might have. Mostly we just helped with practical things, like setting things up, and driving around in golf carts in the freezing cold in the middle of the night as security (actually lots of fun), and we got to hang out with the kids. We also got to pray with the teens and leaders at different times, and one of the guys on the team got to pray with one of the teens to become a Christian, which was awesome.
VMTC
Last week at the base we had a prayer ministry school called VMTC (Victorious Ministries Through Christ). It was a really good week. A bit of an emotional roller coaster as we talked about different things in our lives that we struggle with, or have been involved in, and had prayer over them.
God really challenged me in a few areas. One of these was the area of how I view myself. This has something that I have struggled with for a while, God has been showing me that how he sees me is so different to how I see myself. I know that this is something that is not going to happen overnight, but I know that God is calling me to accept what He says about me. To accept that I don’t need to strive to live up to His expectations, that He has amazing plans for me that I have no idea of, that He has given me extraordinary gifts and talents. And I know that if he is calling me to believe this, He will walk with me every step as I learn to accept it. It is all stuff that I ‘know,’ but I don’t really accept in my heart, and it isn’t reflected in the way I live.
Another thing that Go
d has been challenging me on, is being open with people, and being vulnerable with areas that I am struggling with. That’s part of why I want to share this with you. Also so that you can pray for me and keep me accountable, let me know if you see me slipping back into my old habits.
NLM
I seem to have more acronyms than usual in this newsletter. NLM is the National Leaders Meeting. It is a conference run twice a year in YWAM Australia. It is mainly aimed at people in leadership, however it is open to anyone who is interested in learning about leadership.
This week I’ve had the privilege of not only beingable to attend the NLM in Melbourne, but I was also part of the planning team. This meant I got to hang out with the national YWAM leaders, and help plan some of the night sessions. The theme of the conference was ‘The Kingdom,’ meaning God’s kingdom, but we decided to use the theme in the events we were planning. So we had a ‘Kingdom Quest’ (fun night) and a ‘Kingdom Banquet’ where we honoured some people who have been involved in YWAM, in various roles for many years (they had been in YWAM for over 100 years between 5 of them). The fun night was completely crazy. We had jousting, and people building castles using their team members, and all sorts of random things. To end the night we cream-pied the team leaders or ‘kings’ who were some of the national leaders.
The week as a whole was a lot of fun despite long days (first meeting of the day at 7.15), and coming off a really busy few weeks, I learnt quite a bit, both from the teaching sessions, and from being involved with the planning team.
It was also great to get to meet people from different YWAM bases around Australia, as well as catch up with some people like JJ, Amy, Sarah, and Kris who used to be with us in Adelaide.
While we were at NLM they had a commissioning time to pray for people who are taking on new positions of leadership. I was commissioned as the ‘Promotions and Communications Department Leader’ of YWAM Adelaide. This doesn’t actually change much in what I do. I just now have a title to go with the work I am doing in promotions and communications.
I could actually write more this month about different things that I’ve been doing, what I’m up to for the next little while, and include some more photos, but I’m out of room. If you want to find out more, you can always email me, or stay tuned for more updates, which I will hopefully write.
Love,
Nat
