May News

Hey Everyone,

I’ve written a slightly longer blog this time – so please bear with me to the end. The last few months have just been so full and amazing that I don’t want to leave anything out.

Adelaide

After my last newsletter, when we had just returned from Canberra, we spent another 3 weeks in lectures on Identity, Calling, & Dreams, Father Heart of God, and Lordship.

Early on February 16^th, we once again loaded into the van. For various reasons unfortunately 4 of team decided not to come with us on outreach. So that left us with one very full van of 11 people for the journey. After a long day of driving we once again spent the night on the Central Coast, on our way to Newcastle.

Newcastle & NIKO

The next day we drove up to Newcastle, and arrived just in time to see the MV Pacific Link (YWAM Australia’s new medical mission ship) arrive at the Newcastle foreshore. It was awesome to see the ship come in and to feel the excitement of the YWAM crowd (and get on the news for a brief second too J). 

After a few days of learning about the ship, and some training for going into schools, we headed inland a bit to run a NIKO – the outdoor adventure camp that we run fairly often. JJ, who used to be at YWAM Adelaide, had set-up a NIKO for us, so we took the DTS bush for a week. Everyone had a lot of fun, and learnt heaps.

We then returned to Newcastle for a few days, where we started actually working with the ship. Our job was to help the public relations team to give people tours of the ship. We helped with leading the tours, organising groups of people, and mostly just talking to people about YWAM, the ship, and what we were doing.

The Ship Tour

At the start of March we drove down to Sydney. It was amazing to see the ship sailing in to Darling Harbour and being docked right outside the IMAX theatre and the Sydney Convention Centre (and StarbucksJ). After a week in Sydney we travelled to Ulladulla (on the New South Wales south coast) for a week, then Geelong for a week. Then we returned to Adelaide where the ship was moored for 2 weeks. Throughout the tour we mainly helped out the PR team, but also visited schools and churches to share about the vision of the ship. It was such an amazing experience.

So many lives were impacted as we shared about the huge health needs in PNG, about the struggles that Australian youth have with things like depression and self-harm, and how we can make a difference in both of these areas. Through the ship we can take teams of young Aussies over to PNG where they can practically help the Papua New Guineans, which gets their eyes off themselves, and gives them purpose in their lives – which is what they are looking for. There were many people who are now interested in getting involved in missions, whether in PNG or with YWAM, or just missions in general. God was definitely at work through our team, and everyone working with the ship.

DTS

The DTS then split into two teams, and headed overseas for 2 weeks. One team went to Vanuatu, and the other to PNG. They had a great time and impacted the people they worked with, and experiencing the culture they had heard so much about throughout the ship tour. (Vanuatu has a very similar culture to PNG).

We had a very fun graduation with a tie-dye and fluro theme, and then – sadly – we started to say goodbye to people.

Personally

For me personally this last 6 months has been amazing. I have been stretched heaps though staffing the DTS. I didn’t think I would be up to leading an outreach – but I did it. And I did with barely any stress. I knew every day that God was with me giving me peace. But also the team was so awesome! They are a huge blessing and I’m going to miss having them around.

God has taught me a lot about trusting him each and every day to provide what I need – whether it was time to myself, or someone to talk to, or finances, or whatever, God was always so faithful in that. He has grown me so much in my confidence. Many times I would get up and share in front of a crowd, and it didn’t bother me. I was reminded of my DTS, when I was terrified of speaking in front of people, and completely freaked out at the idea of public speaking – but God has helped me to get over my fears of that.

Earlier this month I had nearly 2 weeks off, which was a nice break. It gave me a chance to relax and rest before getting into the busyness of the base again.

Base Stuff

On May 4^th, we had a government audit of the base. As we are a registered training organisation and we are able to get student visas for our courses, every few years the government likes to come and check that we are doing what we say we are doing and that we are doing everything right. There was a fair amount of preparations, just checking that everything was up to date, but in the end the audit went well.

We are currently in the process of renewing several of our visa options to bring staff into the country. At this point in time, we don’t have any visas that are current that we can use for new staff. We have several people who are wanting to join the base, but are being held up by immigration. Please pray that all the processes with be fast, and that we will have wisdom in the best way to go about all the applications, as well as patience for us, and those that are waiting to come.

PCYM

Continuing with the leadership theme, I have just started staffing a Principles of Child and Youth Ministry school (PCYM).  It is the same school that I did in 2008. It’s another 6 month school – including outreach. 

There will be lectures on topics including – child development, kids at risk, ministering to families, working in schools, etc. We will be doing outreach in Queensland, Canberra, Tasmania, New Zealand, PNG, Victoria, and a few places around South Australia.

I am going to be leading a team for most of the outreaches that we go on – so this is going to be a continuing opportunity for me to learn more about leadership.

Some of the DTS students have come back to do the PCYM – so it’s going to be great to continue their journey with them, and the rest of the PCYM students are staff on base in Adelaide. It already feels like a school of family, and I know that God is going to do great things in and through us.

Love,

Nat