Hi All,
I'm sorry this blog will have to be very short but Christmas at Perth was wonderful. We had three amazing days of presents, buffets, and Christmas parties. When we woke up on CHristmas morning we had stockings with presents from each other. Then, we had a huge meal with really great food for all 300+ of us. We also had a huge gift-exchange with all of us in it. I got a frisbee that I won't be able to use.
I'll be flying out to Jakarta today. Pray for us as we are traveling. We'll be flying out 8:00pm Perth time.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
People I Will Miss...
As we prepare to leave this week for Jakarta, we all have been excited about seeing the impact God will make through us in that city. One thing we haven't been looking forward to is being apart. I've made many friends here. Some of them closer than others and its strange that I will not see them for three months.
Our whole school will be divided into different teams and be sent to different areas of Jakarta. We will all see each other at one or maybe two events but for the most part we will be totally separated. We'll only have a week after our trip to be together once again and to tell everyone about all that happened. I wanted to take time to write about the people I will miss.
First of all I will miss all the guys in my dorm room. There is fourteen of us in a small classroom sized room with seven bunk beds. Our dorm is the best because of all the different personalities in it. We talk sometimes up to 12:00am, our conversation, as you can guess, is guy talk mixed in with a lot of locker room humor. Most of us all have nick-names, mine is "Grandpa". I got my nick-name because not only am I the oldest in our room but I tend to go to bed early. 10:30 may not seem early for some, but to a bunch of wild eighteen to twenty year olds it is pretty early. Out of all the guys in our dorm, there are two guys that I'm going to really miss.
Blake is the maturest 19-year old I've ever met. Since he was sixteen he's had to take care of his mom and younger brother and be basically the man of the house. He's had jobs working construction where he actually manages men who are probably twice his age. He's one of the most intelligent and most talented people I know but his intellect is well balanced with his personality and charisma. What I'm going to miss about Blake is his friendliness and his ability to talk to almost anybody on any subject. This is the guy who spends some nights climbing and jumping from nearby buildings because its fun. He's also one of the funniest guys I've met. Almost everything he says makes you laugh.
One of the surprising things that about YWAM is how close I've become to some of those from Europe. Stefan is one of my best friends here on base. He's a 22-year old Dutch school teacher. We have a couple of nick names for him, none of them are really appropriate for this blog, but surmise it to say he's a character. What I love about Stefan is how seriously he takes God. He leads worship for his church in Holland is very talented at playing the guitar. His passion is obvious when he plays and sings worship music and he's a real quality guy.
When I met Clara I thought she was one of the most soft-spoken people I had met on the base, but when I got to know this girl from Germany, I realized that she had a lot to say and it wasn't so much because she was shy but because English is her second langauge and she is very self-conscious of how she sounds. I'll often practice my German with her. I think this has made her feel better because I'm trying to speak to her in her own language and I'm not very good at German. We have a lot of fun talking and getting to know how our cultures work. Generally when we talk we like to talk about the deep things in life but we've had a lot of laughs along the way. Usually it's Blake who is making us laugh or it's us picking on one another trying to get the other one to laugh.
Marieka and Mariana are both from Holland, like Stefan. In the beginning I hung out with these two girls a lot. We talked about Dutch culture how frugal they are and how different America is from Holland. Both girls are a lot of fun to hang out with.
Chris is another amazing German. He's very funny, almost like a Marx brother or a Charlie Chaplin, most of the time making people laugh through a facial expression or just clowning around. But one thing you can sense about him is that he is a true friend. He loves on people so much and there's a warmness to him that just makes you want to hang out with him.
Brady is from Kansas City. He's one of the most recognizable and most popular people on the base, not because he tries to be popular but it's because of his real ability to connect with people wherever they're at. One of the things that makes Brady stand out is his collection of bandanas which he wears around his head to keep his long blonde hair from falling into his face. Brady doesn't just accept something because he's been told it, he always questions what you give to him and will often take Devil's Advocate for something, not because he wants to argue with you but more often it's just him trying to see things from a different perspective. I'm going to miss some of the deep talks that he and I've had. He's always ready to talk about theological or philosophical things with me.
Our whole school will be divided into different teams and be sent to different areas of Jakarta. We will all see each other at one or maybe two events but for the most part we will be totally separated. We'll only have a week after our trip to be together once again and to tell everyone about all that happened. I wanted to take time to write about the people I will miss.
First of all I will miss all the guys in my dorm room. There is fourteen of us in a small classroom sized room with seven bunk beds. Our dorm is the best because of all the different personalities in it. We talk sometimes up to 12:00am, our conversation, as you can guess, is guy talk mixed in with a lot of locker room humor. Most of us all have nick-names, mine is "Grandpa". I got my nick-name because not only am I the oldest in our room but I tend to go to bed early. 10:30 may not seem early for some, but to a bunch of wild eighteen to twenty year olds it is pretty early. Out of all the guys in our dorm, there are two guys that I'm going to really miss.
Blake is the maturest 19-year old I've ever met. Since he was sixteen he's had to take care of his mom and younger brother and be basically the man of the house. He's had jobs working construction where he actually manages men who are probably twice his age. He's one of the most intelligent and most talented people I know but his intellect is well balanced with his personality and charisma. What I'm going to miss about Blake is his friendliness and his ability to talk to almost anybody on any subject. This is the guy who spends some nights climbing and jumping from nearby buildings because its fun. He's also one of the funniest guys I've met. Almost everything he says makes you laugh.
One of the surprising things that about YWAM is how close I've become to some of those from Europe. Stefan is one of my best friends here on base. He's a 22-year old Dutch school teacher. We have a couple of nick names for him, none of them are really appropriate for this blog, but surmise it to say he's a character. What I love about Stefan is how seriously he takes God. He leads worship for his church in Holland is very talented at playing the guitar. His passion is obvious when he plays and sings worship music and he's a real quality guy.
When I met Clara I thought she was one of the most soft-spoken people I had met on the base, but when I got to know this girl from Germany, I realized that she had a lot to say and it wasn't so much because she was shy but because English is her second langauge and she is very self-conscious of how she sounds. I'll often practice my German with her. I think this has made her feel better because I'm trying to speak to her in her own language and I'm not very good at German. We have a lot of fun talking and getting to know how our cultures work. Generally when we talk we like to talk about the deep things in life but we've had a lot of laughs along the way. Usually it's Blake who is making us laugh or it's us picking on one another trying to get the other one to laugh.
Marieka and Mariana are both from Holland, like Stefan. In the beginning I hung out with these two girls a lot. We talked about Dutch culture how frugal they are and how different America is from Holland. Both girls are a lot of fun to hang out with.
Chris is another amazing German. He's very funny, almost like a Marx brother or a Charlie Chaplin, most of the time making people laugh through a facial expression or just clowning around. But one thing you can sense about him is that he is a true friend. He loves on people so much and there's a warmness to him that just makes you want to hang out with him.
Brady is from Kansas City. He's one of the most recognizable and most popular people on the base, not because he tries to be popular but it's because of his real ability to connect with people wherever they're at. One of the things that makes Brady stand out is his collection of bandanas which he wears around his head to keep his long blonde hair from falling into his face. Brady doesn't just accept something because he's been told it, he always questions what you give to him and will often take Devil's Advocate for something, not because he wants to argue with you but more often it's just him trying to see things from a different perspective. I'm going to miss some of the deep talks that he and I've had. He's always ready to talk about theological or philosophical things with me.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Exciting Things Happening
Tuesday morning is our usual time for Base intercession. What this means usually is that we will congregate together for announcements around 8:30 and then break up into small groups of about 5-8 people and pray for things pertaining to the Base and any of its ministries. As you know we have been fighting in prayer for finances to come for our Outreach trips, the last 3-months of this great adventure we're on. What it came down to was we needed roughly around 40K still and we were two weeks from when we were supposed to be leaving.
Instead of having our usual intercession time we all came together and began to pray for breakthrough for all of the schools who needed money for their outreaches. Those in each of the schools who needed finance came to the center and we would all pray for them. We also had a time where anyone on the Base could give money as an offering to the people who were in need. In a matter of an hour, as we worshipped and gave thanks to God for what He had already done, more than 30K dollars were raised from people on the Base. We watched our debt go from about thirty thousand dollars to less than three-thousand. It was an amazing victory for us. We are all grateful for the people on the Base and those within our own School who gave out of their own pockets so that we could go to the nations!
Instead of having our usual intercession time we all came together and began to pray for breakthrough for all of the schools who needed money for their outreaches. Those in each of the schools who needed finance came to the center and we would all pray for them. We also had a time where anyone on the Base could give money as an offering to the people who were in need. In a matter of an hour, as we worshipped and gave thanks to God for what He had already done, more than 30K dollars were raised from people on the Base. We watched our debt go from about thirty thousand dollars to less than three-thousand. It was an amazing victory for us. We are all grateful for the people on the Base and those within our own School who gave out of their own pockets so that we could go to the nations!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Day that I wrestled Pete Brownhill
The past week has been intensely busy for us. Our outreach groups are now in the process of praying for finances to be released for our trips. We believe that God will provide everything for us and we have basically the rest of the week to raise it.
Today we heard from the founder of YWAM Perth, Pete Brownhill. Pete is fairly athletic for being in his mid-50's. In his younger days he played all kinds of sports before God spoke to Him one day in the shower and told him to go to Perth and start a YWAM base there. Pete was obedient and almost thirty years later the Perth base stands at 300 students and staff with multiple ministries here in Perth City and in Asia. Pete speaks from his years of experience teaching and leading YWAM Training Schools.
Spiritual warfare is one of the main topics that we have touched on here in Perth. It's not just a matter of knowing the armor in Ephesians 6. YWAM teaches practical application when it comes with confronting Satan.
"We have here something in Australia that we call squatters," Pete begins. "Does everyone here know what a squatter is?" He looks to the students, having in mind that English is not everyone's first language. "A squatter is a person who stays and lives on a piece of property, pretending it's their's." Pete pauses for a moment and then explains, "Satan is like a squatter. He pretends that the world is his until someone with the right authority and power comes and kicks him out. Let me have a couple of you guys come up here."
"You," he points to Campy, an eighteen year-old with long curly brown hair. "And you," he points to me. Both Campy and I look at each other and smile and get up to the front of the class. "Now let's say I have a piece of land that I'm going to retire on. It's a little house in mountains, right by a lake with a barbie outside where we have barbequed wallaby. Now let's say that one day I come to my little house I see these blokes here staying on my land," Pete points to us, "using my house and barbie and I come to them and say you can't be here this is my property. And they say, 'no we're not leaving.' I then go and leave and come back with a certificate of ownership of the land and tell them, 'see here this says that I own the land now you have to leave.' And what do they do," Pete asks. "They take my little certificate and rip it up and throw it on the barbeque. Well then what do I do next?" Pete asks. "Let's have you Caleb and you Addam come up here." Caleb and Addam both come up.
Campy and I are on oneside of the class. Pete, Caleb, and Addam are on the other side. I have a feeling of what's coming next so I square off with Caleb. Campy and Addam are both younger and are roughly the same size. Caleb and I are both the same age and size as well I figure Campy will have a better time with Addam.
"So I have a couple of buddies here," Pete continues, "...and they're here with me. And we come back to these blokes again and we say get off our land. And what do they do? They're stubborn." Pete draws closer to the center between the two groups of men. "And they tell us 'no' again. So we have to forcibly remove them..." In a flash Pete grabs me in some kind of rugby hold. Adam and Caleb take after Campy. I throw myself at the wall hoping to break Pete's hold on me but the guy is strong and I can't move my arms. The class cheers as Campy and I try resist all three men. I can't see much as Pete and I struggle against one another but I can see Campy, who is a half a foot shorter than me, picking up Caleb. Adam joins Pete but I get my hand out from Pete and put Addam in a head hold. All five us wrestle the others until finally Adam, Caleb, and Pete force us off the front of the class.
The point Pete was making was as Children of God we're given the right or authority to tell Satan to leave. We face Satan in various places such as our own personal life when we struggle with something in which Satan is behind, or in physical places like the countries that we're going to on our Outreach. The Enemy has strongholds in these places and he won't leave until someone who has the authority tell him to leave. But we also need something else. Pete explained that we need power and the Holy Spirit can provide this. Just as in the situation where Campy and I were acting as squatters that needed to be physcially forcibly removed, Satan must be forcibly removed by the power that the Holy Spirit gives us.
Pete made a really great analogy to how our authority as Children of God work. Caleb is Pete's eldest son. He's twenty-eight. If Pete were to leave the country he could legally give Caleb authority over of all his possessions and responsibilities. Pete is basicaly giving Caleb the authority to act on his behalf. The same thing has happened with us and Christ. Christ has given the authority to act on His behalf. He is empowering us to do the things He would be doing if He was here.
Anyway it was fun wrestling with the founder of YWAM Perth, even though I lost it taught me a great lesson.
Just a couple of more weeks before Christmas and our Outreach. For those of you who regularly read my blog please pray that our team would be able to receive all of our support.
Today we heard from the founder of YWAM Perth, Pete Brownhill. Pete is fairly athletic for being in his mid-50's. In his younger days he played all kinds of sports before God spoke to Him one day in the shower and told him to go to Perth and start a YWAM base there. Pete was obedient and almost thirty years later the Perth base stands at 300 students and staff with multiple ministries here in Perth City and in Asia. Pete speaks from his years of experience teaching and leading YWAM Training Schools.
Spiritual warfare is one of the main topics that we have touched on here in Perth. It's not just a matter of knowing the armor in Ephesians 6. YWAM teaches practical application when it comes with confronting Satan.
"We have here something in Australia that we call squatters," Pete begins. "Does everyone here know what a squatter is?" He looks to the students, having in mind that English is not everyone's first language. "A squatter is a person who stays and lives on a piece of property, pretending it's their's." Pete pauses for a moment and then explains, "Satan is like a squatter. He pretends that the world is his until someone with the right authority and power comes and kicks him out. Let me have a couple of you guys come up here."
"You," he points to Campy, an eighteen year-old with long curly brown hair. "And you," he points to me. Both Campy and I look at each other and smile and get up to the front of the class. "Now let's say I have a piece of land that I'm going to retire on. It's a little house in mountains, right by a lake with a barbie outside where we have barbequed wallaby. Now let's say that one day I come to my little house I see these blokes here staying on my land," Pete points to us, "using my house and barbie and I come to them and say you can't be here this is my property. And they say, 'no we're not leaving.' I then go and leave and come back with a certificate of ownership of the land and tell them, 'see here this says that I own the land now you have to leave.' And what do they do," Pete asks. "They take my little certificate and rip it up and throw it on the barbeque. Well then what do I do next?" Pete asks. "Let's have you Caleb and you Addam come up here." Caleb and Addam both come up.
Campy and I are on oneside of the class. Pete, Caleb, and Addam are on the other side. I have a feeling of what's coming next so I square off with Caleb. Campy and Addam are both younger and are roughly the same size. Caleb and I are both the same age and size as well I figure Campy will have a better time with Addam.
"So I have a couple of buddies here," Pete continues, "...and they're here with me. And we come back to these blokes again and we say get off our land. And what do they do? They're stubborn." Pete draws closer to the center between the two groups of men. "And they tell us 'no' again. So we have to forcibly remove them..." In a flash Pete grabs me in some kind of rugby hold. Adam and Caleb take after Campy. I throw myself at the wall hoping to break Pete's hold on me but the guy is strong and I can't move my arms. The class cheers as Campy and I try resist all three men. I can't see much as Pete and I struggle against one another but I can see Campy, who is a half a foot shorter than me, picking up Caleb. Adam joins Pete but I get my hand out from Pete and put Addam in a head hold. All five us wrestle the others until finally Adam, Caleb, and Pete force us off the front of the class.
The point Pete was making was as Children of God we're given the right or authority to tell Satan to leave. We face Satan in various places such as our own personal life when we struggle with something in which Satan is behind, or in physical places like the countries that we're going to on our Outreach. The Enemy has strongholds in these places and he won't leave until someone who has the authority tell him to leave. But we also need something else. Pete explained that we need power and the Holy Spirit can provide this. Just as in the situation where Campy and I were acting as squatters that needed to be physcially forcibly removed, Satan must be forcibly removed by the power that the Holy Spirit gives us.
Pete made a really great analogy to how our authority as Children of God work. Caleb is Pete's eldest son. He's twenty-eight. If Pete were to leave the country he could legally give Caleb authority over of all his possessions and responsibilities. Pete is basicaly giving Caleb the authority to act on his behalf. The same thing has happened with us and Christ. Christ has given the authority to act on His behalf. He is empowering us to do the things He would be doing if He was here.
Anyway it was fun wrestling with the founder of YWAM Perth, even though I lost it taught me a great lesson.
Just a couple of more weeks before Christmas and our Outreach. For those of you who regularly read my blog please pray that our team would be able to receive all of our support.
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