My Small Group

Over here in Perth I have my own small group. It's led by Eric one of the staff leaders here on base. Along with myself there are three other guys: Paul, who has been around YWAM for a long time. His parents are actually YWAM missionaries. Moon, is from South Korea. And finally there is Josh from Canada.

So far we've had some great times. Our second meeting we actually went out fishing. Eric is a advid fisherman. He grew up in Minnesota and spent most of his free time fishing. He took us out to a little lake not far from the base. The area around the lake reminded me of the lake around Santa Margarita. There were expensive looking condos and apartments as well as a nice restaurant very close to where we were fishing. We settled down with our poles as Eric showed us how to hook the bait, which were raw shrimp prawns. While I was still trying to get my line out far enough, Moon got a tug on his line. He pulled it in as he did we were surprised that he caught a fish so soon. We all attributed it to beginners luck but by the time the night was over he had caught six fish. I caught three myself and we all had a good time just relaxing.

The next week was my favorite. Eric collected some money from us all and he went out to buy groceries for pancakes. These were probably the best pancakes I ever had. They were half an inch thick and incredibly delicious, especially when we're so used to the base's food. I who had boasted I could eat eight, only ended up eating four along with some bacon that Eric had bought. The night ended with two hours of intense Mario Cart playing. (It's a video game) I didn't win a single race. Some things never change.

Tonight, we headed to one of Perth's beaches. Incredibly beautiful, it amazed me to see that the beach was almost empty of people. In California, there would definitely be a number of people still enjoying a walk on the sand and enjoying the last rays of sunlight, but here in Australia Aussies don't really go to the beach until late November. As we cooked our Schnaggers (sausages in Australia) we met a group of women who were cooking their chicken at the same stove. I introduced myself and made some comments about how good their chicken looked. I got to talking to one of the young ladies who I could tell by her accent was definitely not from Austrailia. She introduced herself as Christiana, a German student who was getting her Phd in Chemistry along with the five other girls who were with her. She asked what we were doing at the beach. I explained to her we were at a school for missionaries. She seemed politely interested in what we were doing the objectives for our school so I explained a little bit of what we were about.

What insued was a short discussion about Christianity. I explained our mission in helping people know the Gospel. I then, unfortunately, attempted my last remaining bit of German I knew and tried reciting John 3:16 in German. I only ended up embarrasing myself and botching my German and forgeting half of the verse. So I attempted once again to explain simply using English. So much for the five years of German I took in High School and College.

She told us that she was an atheist who, from what I tried to gather through our conversation, believed in an inner power. The thought of a deity creating things at will just seemed incomprehendible to her. Realizing this woman was very intelligent I took the approach of explaining my belief that the world and nature seem to suggest that there is a Creator. The world has too much order for it to be just a result of random chance. We concluded our little chat. I wished her good luck with her studies and we parted ways. I knew that this was probably her first exposure to the Gospel. I wasn't expecting her to give her life to Christ but the important thing is that she has heard. Hopefully God will lead her to other people who can really live out the Gospel and who can really connect with her on an intellectual level.