July 2014- Winter Wonder

O LORD, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them. 
Isaiah 25:1

We've just finished our second week of the School Of Innovative Youth Ministry (SOIYM) and God is already moving, shifting, and growing all of us. I'm absolutely delighted to be leading these six students for these next five months! Currently we're heading into our third week, diving even deeper in understanding today's youth culture and youth globalisation. This is one of my favourite weeks- overall I'm looking forward to what we'll each get out of this season. One of my favourite things about training and developing people is to take a mental snapshot of the beginning stages, then when we come to the close of this so called "chapter" I can look back and reflect on what God has done- how each individual has changed, even me personally as a leader. What a privilege to journey with these different individuals in seeing them accomplish their goals and dreams!  

As a highlight of what God is doing already in and through I'd like to share a story from last Thursday night. As a school we've dedicated our Thursday and Friday nights to do ministry, either working with youth groups, other events, or whatever we hear from God to do. Last Thursday we gathered in the morning to pray and ask The Lord what we should do for ministry, we got a location- Newy Beach and an activity: Playing music. 
After dinner we gathered again to pray and ask God for anything else specific in that location, one of the things God spoke was that we would meet someone who would have a lot of questions about God, almost in a somewhat argumentative way but their questions wouldn't be out of anger, more so just wanting honest understanding. With that we bundled up, believe it or not Newcastle does get fairly cold in the winter months, and we made our way into town. We were filled with loads of questions, would there even be anyone there? Who goes to the beach on a Thursday night? Would we meet this person with questions?
Once arriving we got out of the van and as we looked around we didn't really see anyone... All those questions came back to mind- God did you really even speak to us, did we hear you properly?
Then all of a sudden there was a group of teenagers near us, they said they were just hanging out driving around and stopped at the beach. Two of my students Livia & Emily and myself began talking to the group. One of the guys in the group who was 16 was asking them about what they're doing here in Australia, Livia started sharing her journey of the past six months. She shared about coming here to Australia and YWAM, all the amazing things God has showed her and done in her life, she shared how God has transformed her! Within minutes of this conversation starting we realised this is the guy who God spoke to us about- he had so many questions and was really searching for truth. Emily & Livia proceeded to connect with this guy answering his questions and sharing their own personal journeys, by the end of our time there this young man had found hope through a relationship with Jesus! 
We have a few other amazing stories of other things God did that night but that was just one.


Please keep us in your prayers.
Below is a list of things you can be joining us in prayer for!
-Unity, as we grow and work together these next months. 
-Strength, God has big plans for us but we need to do this all in His strength not our own. 
-Provision, most of the students still need to see their lecture phase finances then we'll be heading on outreach, which we all need finances for. 

Stay tuned for more updates and how you can join us on this journey!