An Overdue Update

Well, I am still alive and well in India. To be honest I don't even know where to begin. I often find myself thinking of how I could possibly describe India to those who haven't been, and still find myself at a loss for words. I think it's somewhere you just have to see yourself to really know. In brief...  my team spent the first 3 weeks down south in Arambol which is a huge tourist spot. From there we overnite bused it to Hampi where we've been a week. After a few nites here Kent actually ended up meeting a pastor who runs a cafe (though it's currently closed) and he is blessing us with accommodation. Crazy how God works eh? This wknd we got to experience the local train and headed to his hometown to attend church. It was a day and a half affair and his family warmly welcomed us into their home, feeding us an abundance of good food, borrowing and giving us clothing, and even doing our laundry for us! We attended 4 church services and are slowly but surely getting our singing act up to par. We also got to pray for a bunch of people, including praying for a few healings which was really cool. I'm really touched by how hospitable the people here are. Ok, this update does not do these last few weeks justice but it will have to do for now, I'm outta time and I have more of India awaits! I'll leave you with a quote I stumbled upon:


"Success is failure turned inside out."

India

Ive made it to India where speed limits and signals mean nothing and horns mean everything. FYI a 10 hr taxi ride is not smart for weak stomachs. Slowly adjusting to heat. Loving the pol here, locals and travelers alike. God definitely went ahead and prepared the way as we face open doors and meet pol really easily. A highlite for me wad blessing 2 indien children with Hacky sacs and planning with them. Merry Christmas all!

which hand?

So. In 5.5 hrs my team and I leave for India. Our first bit consists of a van ride, 3 flights, a long layover, most likely crashing in an airport, a 5ish hr train ride, and then who knows. I'm so so so excited to go bring the light that is Christ to these people and just pour out His love on them. I've been eating with my hand nearly all week in preparation, and just cuz it's so fun, and contemplating whether or not it's possible to go 8 weeks without toilet paper (some of you may be shocked to find out the left hand is quite useful for wiping in India. And even more shocked to know I'm so going to try it!) and cutlery. I shall find out shortly.. .more seriously though, my team has been having some sweet prayer times together. Some things we've been praying is that we're really spirit-led and that God gives us enormous hearts for India. I'm stoked to see what God has in store for these next 2 months and can't wait to hear everyone's stories when we get back to base in February. Next update coming at an unknown future time from another country!

But first, another bone: "I finally understood what true love meant…love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be."

Content and Contemplative

PRAISE REPORT : Dave's knee still isn't really bothering him, and he's really beginning to think there might be something to this prayer stuff. Please keep him in your prayers and really pray for friends and family to surround him and bless him this holiday season-he's definitely a lonely guy.

So I still fail at regularly updating my blog. Whatevs...MAJOR PRAISE REPORT: so 2 weeks ago there was still heaps (at least to the human mind-to God it's pennies) of moolah needed totally over $21,000 NZD ($15,900 CAD). With God as the Almighty Provider, as of today the needed money is in and everyone is able to go on outreach!

Alot of prayer went into this as well as some fasting. I was really stretched during my fast and am figuring out how to go about a lifestyle of fasting. I learnt that God meets you even if you decide to fast without His leading. I learnt that my body is stronger than I thought. Sleep is always important, but I really realized how important it is while fasting. I learnt getting a good friend whom you respect alot to keep tabs on you is key. I experienced God's grace and love alot. It was cool to just be real with God and just go to Him unsure and taking my weak faith and holding onto it with my everything, and saying, "Lord, help me."

I'm leaving for India in 6 days to spend 8 weeks there travelling and living life for God, reaching out to anyone and everyone we meet. My team's vision? "To submit ourselves fully to God with reckless abandonment, and to show His love in everything we do." I'm excited to really push myself as a leader and have a blast with my team. I'm also really excited as this week God confirmed that I will be making a second trip to India sometime in my life. I'm not sure when or how, but I'm so excited! I'm sure I'll love India. I hope and pray that I head-on embrace everything this experience entails. I have been practicing eating with my hand and after 2 days of it I'm ready to throw out my fork forever! I'm so excited for my first train ride, authentic Indian food, among other things. And how could I forget squattie potties! Yup, this trip is going to be an experience to say the least...

Last but not least a meaty bone to chew on..."The way to be hypocritical is to only do what you feel like doing! The believer does things because they’re right. In the world you do things because you feel like it. In the kingdom you do things because they’re right and then the feeling follows.” - Bill Johnston

by all means paint

"if you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." -Vincent Van Gogh
Wow, what an amazing quote. So glad I stumbled across it. I've been learning this week that as you "painting" gets easier and easier each time you do it.

Anyway...

PRAISE REPORT...remember Dave (the fish and chips dude whose knee I got to ask God to heal?). God is in process of healing it! I couldn't go in to the city yesteray so I asked my friend to check up on him on my behalf, and Dave said his knee wasn't bothering him too much, just a couple times that week. And he was beginning to think that maybe this prayer thing is working. God's totally got a hand on him, so keep praying! I'm so excited for the day his 5 years of arthritis is completely healed.

Learning, learning, learning...that's pretty much my life and I love it. I feel like I've learnt so much and there's still so much to learn! These last few weeks we've studied the father heart of God, spiritual warfare, and other things. One question our speaker asked this week was, "What things are you doing that aren't drawing you any closer to God?" What a question that totally needs to be asked on a regular basis, eh?

This weekend has been really relaxing and awesome. I've been a weekend warrior with 4 students which meant we got to clean, cook, and look after the base. It's been sweet to hang with these students and learn our way around the kitchen together. Yesterday we learnt that grilling tortillas directly on the elements here does not work. There may or may not have been a bit of smoke involved. I'm off to go prep lunch-wonder what I'll learn today...

outreach!!!!!

Alas the news is out! Come mid-December I will be heading to INDIA for 2 months along with my co-leader Kent and 4 students (Mary Lloyd, Wyatt, Phil, and Erik). I'm so excited and God's really given me a heart for this country. Don't you just love when what you want happens to be in tune with what God wants?!! I can hardly wait and will let you know more as I know more. In the meantime, prayer point for all you prayer warriors out there (you guys are wonderful, by the way!):

-please pray for unity and bonding among the the team as a whole
-pray that we are open to hearing where God wants us to go in India
-pray for good co-leadership between Kent and I

God Bless You!

Alas my friends! Another long overdue update! So...since my last post we have had a lovely woman down from the North Island to teach us about the Holy Spirit. There was lots to learn and lots of ministry time which was sweet. If I wrote you everything I'm learning/doing/God's doing here/crazy stories it would make a book, not a blog. Thus, I shall attempt to keep it short and sweet. A morsel of Holy Spirit week...
-I loved when our speaker talked about worship and the Spirit. Mostly because I love worship. She challenged us to have be sure to have personal worship time with the Lord each day. I think this is a great idea.
-She also showed a clip of trapeze artists doing there thing. Think of trapeze artists, the flyer and the catcher. The flyer must do nothing, the catcher does everything. The flyer must just let go and wait to be caught. We are like flyer’s, we need to let go and wait to be caught by God. This is scary to us. Nobody can let go for us, we must do it on our own.

This past week we had the dynamic Dalton Lifsey down from Tauranga House of Prayer up on the North Island. It was awesome to have him teach on Pursuit of the Knowledge of God. I love his teaching style and how he brings the Bible to life, got really inspired hearing him speak, and my life just continues to get even more wrecked for God which is awesome. A few highlights:
-talking to him one-on-one was awesome, God definitely has a hand on him and spoke thru him. One thing I said was how impossible it seemed to get to know God as there's so much to God. Dalton pointed out Matthew 5: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." When you feel like it’s impossible to completely know God and feel that ache, you are blessed! This is good news to me!
-The true knowledge of God is knowing that He is so great and you have no idea who He is. I think that's a solid-as summary.

I could easily keep going but like I said, this is a blog, not a book.

This past week for outreach prep we were challenged to really step up and out more, especially during Friday nite evangelism, but also in everyday lives...so I went up to this guy Dave who sells fish and chips in the square everyday and got to pray for healing for his knee. He has had arthritis for 5 years, but I have faith God can heal it. Please take a minute to pray for him. I can't wait to check back with him on Friday. My friend and I were also doing some open worship in the square and got the attention of many Asian tourists, who seemed to like the music and getting their picture taken with us. Please pray the songs we sung touched them.

Okay, this post is probably on the borderline of getting long. Henceforth, I leave you with a quote from one of my heroes, Mother Teresa: "I just want our work to be a work of love."