February News

Well, it’s been a while since I sent up an update.

So here’s a bit about what I’ve been up to for the last few months, and some of my plans for this year.

PCYM Wrap-up

When I last wrote, I was on my way to New Zealand. We had a great 3 weeks working with kids, mostly disadvantaged kids in Auckland. We also spent a weekend at the YWAM NZ National Gathering, where we ran the kids program for the weekend. The whole team was stretched in a lot of ways, and it was great to see the students step up and take leadership in a lot of areas – to the point where I mostly just had to supervise and advise them while they did most of the ministry.

Once we got back to Australia, we finished up with a few weeks of outreach in South Australia, including helping out at Schoolies. As usual it was a lot of fun to get to hang out with the newly graduated teenagers. This year as well as picking up rubbish, as we usually do, we also rode on the buses that were picking up Schoolies to help keep the peace, and helped with general crowd control.

In keeping with the PCYM tradition of making everything as fun as possible, graduation had a pirates & ninjas theme. Everyone enjoyed dressing up, and it was great to look back on the 6 months and celebrate finishing the school.

Personal Stuff

On our way back to Adelaide from NZ, Bec & I stopped off in New South Wales to spend a few days with family. We were there to celebrate our Grandad’s 80^th birthday, Dad’s 50^th, and our uncle’s 40^th.

It was great to spend time with family, but it was also a tough time as Grandad had been diagnosed with cancer, and by that stage was in palliative care.

Grandad passed away on November 30^th, and we’re going to miss him a lot. But it’s good to know that he isn’t in pain anymore.

Holidays

I had the whole month of December off – and it was amazing! The long holiday was just what I needed after a very hectic year. I got to spend time with family (including helping my parents move house), catch up with friends, and I enjoyed spending a large amount of time just reading or doing nothing. By the end of the year I was feeling refreshed and was looking forward to getting back to work.

Then I headed Sydney with some friends, where we spent a few days being tourists, including watching the New Years Eve fireworks from just near the Harbour Bridge.

Coming Up in 2011

This year I am taking on some new areas of responsibility on base. I am taking over all of the government accreditation for our courses. This mostly involves a lot of paperwork, and generally ensuring that we are always meeting the requirements set for us by the government. I’ve been starting to do this job for the past few weeks, and I am starting to realise just how much is involved in the role.

I am also going to be involved with running our staff training, and continuing to be responsible for helping our staff and students to get visas.

At the moment we are struggling a lot to get visas for people to come and work with us. We are going through a registration process with the government, and it is all moving very slowly. I would appreciate prayer for wisdom as I am dealing with this, and also for patience – both for me and those who are waiting on the visas.

It’s challenging at the moment to try and get my head around it all. But I know that God is calling me to higher levels of responsibility in this, and He’s going to teach me a lot. One of the main areas that He is already challenging me on is the area of integrity, and being sure that we are doing everything to the very best of our ability.

That’s about all I have room for in this newsletter. I hope you’ve found it informative J  

October Update

Hey Everyone,

I know it’s been a bit long since my last newsletter – I’ll try to fit everything in, without going too long =)

As I write this, I am sitting on a plane on my way to New Zealand – more about that later.

NIKO #1

At the start of September, we went down to Tasmania, where we ran a kids camp and a NIKO (outdoor leadership camp). I was part of the NIKO team. I have helped run 7 NIKOs before, but for the first time, I was actually responsible to lead the camp. There were 7 teenage boys, and 2 teenage girls on the NIKO. It was a stretching experience for me – and I definitely learnt a lot more about teenage boys. But it was a lot of fun too.

PCYM – Lecture Phase

After we got back from Tasmania, we finished up the lecture phase of PCYM with 2 final weeks of teaching. First we had Kevin & Chris Stitt from New Zealand talk to us about Kings Kids International values, and outreach team structures. Then we had Nigel & Jennifer Eades from Sydney. Nigel spoke about evangelism, and Jen about kids at risk.

NIKO #2

The major outreach for PCYM started with another NIKO, this one in South Australia. Most of the participants were students on the DTS which had started the previous week, as well as some local teenagers. Once again, I got to lead the NIKO, and again I was stretched in my leadership, but loved getting to spend some time with the new students and getting to know them better.

JJ & Amy’s Wedding

After finishing NIKO at 10pm on the Thursday night, I was on my way to the airport at 5:30am Friday morning. But it was more than worth the sleep deprivation, because I was on my way to see two of my best friends get married. JJ & Amy were both at YWAM Adelaide when I first joined, but have since moved to New South Wales. I have had the joy of seeing them grow closer to each other, and now get married. It was a beautiful day, and I also got to stay with my family for 2 nights, and catch up with heaps of people at the wedding that I hadn’t seen for a while.

PCYM Outreach

While I was busy socialising, half of the PCYM was at a camp called SAYCO (South Australian Youth Camp Out), a state-wide Uniting Church camp. I have been to SAYCO the last 2 years, and it’s a great opportunity to work with teenagers from across the state, and is a lot of fun. I rejoined the team at SAYCO on Sunday afternoon.

We returned from SAYCO on Monday night in time to farewell Michael, Jordan, Ray & Guanah as they left for their outreach in Papua New Guinea. Michael, Jordan & Ray will be there for 3 weeks. Guanah is going to stay in PNG (her home), and is preparing to get married in March next year. It’s sad to see Guanah go, but at the same time it is exciting to see the new season God is preparing her for.

After having a day off, the rest of the PCYM helped out at the Upside-down Circus, a kids and family outreach event in Northern Adelaide. It was held in Elizabeth, which is known as one of the more disadvantaged areas of Adelaide. The point of the outreach was just to bring awareness to people in the area of the gospel, and to tell them that Jesus came to turn our upside-down world the right way up. Most of the team dressed up as clowns, and helped to provide atmosphere to the event. I had the opportunity to help out with an activity where the kids were asked a few questions, and then told a Bible character that they were like. It was great to see kids getting excited to read the Bible to find out more about the people we were telling them about. What was really exciting for me was when one kid came back the second day to let us know that he had read the story of Gideon overnight, and had decided that he was brave like Gideon.

As I said before, at the moment I am on my way to New Zealand. I am leading a team of 5 (Bec, Taliah, Patrick, Marieta, and myself) in New Zealand for 3 weeks. We will be working with the Kings Kids (YWAM for under 18s) base in Auckland. I’m not sure yet exactly what we’ll be doing – I find all that out tomorrow – but I do know that we’ll be involved with a couple of kids clubs, and probably running a kids program at a YWAM NZ national gathering.

After New Zealand Bec & I are heading home for a few days to celebrate our Grandad’s 80th, Dad’s 50th, and uncle’s 40th birthdays. Then the team meets up with the PNG team and heads out to western SA to work with some churches out there. 

Base Stuff

A new DTS (Discipleship Training School) started on September 21st, with 8 students from Australia, South Africa, and the US. This school has a focus on creative arts, and how to apply use arts in missions. They will be heading to Byron Bay then Thailand early next year for their outreach. They are a really great bunch of students, and I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing about their journey through DTS

Things have been a bit up and down on base lately. From a new school starting, to Guanah leaving to go back to PNG, to a couple from Brazil getting visas to come join us at the end of the month, to Harry having to leave the country soon because he was unable to get a visa to stay. But through it all, we are praying that ultimately things will work out to bring God glory. We are still having major issues with getting visas for any overseas staff who are wanting to join us, but we are looking into options that from early next year will make the process a lot simpler.

Personal Stuff

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I have been struggling to find a balance between work and rest in my life while being involved with PCYM. Things haven’t really changed much with this, and leading an outreach team adds new dynamics to the balance, but the team is pretty awesome, and I’m looking forward to seeing what God is going to do in and through us, and also having a lot of fun in the process.

We’ve also had some bad health-related news in the family, so I’ve been processing that a bit. I would appreciate your prayers for me and my family as we work through the news and what it means for us.

I’m looking forward to taking holidays at the end of the year and having a rest before heading into next year. I’m going to be taking on some more responsibility on base next year, and getting involved with our staff training – but more about that next month, because this newsletter is already rather long =)