The Road Not Taken

2008-03-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it." (Jeremiah 6:16)

Life is a road that God builds infront of you one brick at a time. You take a step of faith and the road extends before you. Sometimes God will mark the road with hints of where He is going to take you but ultimately, it's His road and He will choose the destination. To walk on this road means that you allow God to be Himself. He is wild and unpredictable and to trust Him means to let Him be wild and untamed in your life.

Few take the road of total trust and abandon to God and that is where my experience with YWAM had led me. Most of us are out there building our own roads to our own destinations. The reason we do so is because there is far more risk in letting God lead us down a road where we don't know the destination, where we're not in control.

During my last week at Perth, I walked into our old familiar classroom and written on one of the whiteboards was this statement: "Don't be afraid to trust the unknown to an all knowing God." I thought that statement really summed up my experiences in trusting God with coming to Perth. Before I came I didn't have a clue about what I could do for a career. I had thoughts about doing something outside of ministry but I didn't feel God's peace about these choices.

Through my experience during DTS and Outreach I believe God is leading me into a career as a Missions Pastor. It seems really to fit me and my strenghts that I discovered on Outreach, such as the ability to teach others. During my Outreach I was able to preach six times and through affirmations of other people on my team I realized that teaching is a really important part to what I need to do. Also, I realized that God has made really flexible and he uses me as an example to others. People saw me as a leader and affirmed it a number of times during DTS and Outreach. I also realized that my heart is for mobilizing the church to do missions. It's not accident I ended up on the Missions Mobilization Team of Saddleback Church where I worked for Rick Warren for five and a half years. It's not accident that God led me to YWAM and to gain the teaching of the DTS. The more I think about it, the more it seems that God has chained these experiences in my life to shape me into a missions pastor. Sure, I could do something else. But everytime I take a job outside of ministry, I feel like a fish out of water.

One of the biggest lessons that I learned from trusting God is learning how to feed from God's hand. What I mean by this is that we position ourselves in such a way that we look to God for our needs or when there is a desire in our heart for something. You see God wants to give the desire of our hearts and take care of us. In my case it would be a house and a steady income to provide for a family. But rather than seeking to achieve these things on our own God wants us to turn to Him so that He can tie these things back into a relationship of dependency with Himself. When we seek things by our own plans and schemes we cut God out of that part of our life and once that is done it's easy to let these things like having a home and security become idols. That is why I had to surrender my finances and my comforts to Him so that I could allow Him to give me things in His own way.

I realize that my calling as a Missions Pastor is partly an act of faith. It came to me one day after one of my quiet times in Ethiopia that I could really be a missions pastor. I think God did something in me during DTS and Outreach that enabled me to go on to the next step which would be to move into this calling. It's an act of faith because in some ways I feel incalpable of doing this. I don't have 100% confidence that I could do all the things that a Missions Pastor requires. But, just like when I sensed God was leading me to do a six-month mission, I sense that God is leading me into this. I feel peace about this decision and see how it really fits me, who I am, and my past experiences. Reagardless of any doubts or even insecurities or whether I could perform this role, I must acknowledge my calling. A calling I couldn't have recognized without YWAM.

I left home, six-months ago, to go seek God and to find Him. I come home doing the same. I have come to seek Him and find Him again and again and again as long as I will live and to learn to completely trust and abandon myself to Him. That is the Road Not Taken.

Much thanks goes to all of those of you who read my story of my journey. I appreciate all your support and prayers.

Full Circle

2008-03-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

We returned to Perth about a week ago. I only had about 4 hours of sleep on the plane before we landed. Before I came to Perth I caught a bug in Indonesia. I had a mild fever for a couple of days which turned into this cough that I've had until now. I think that coming back from such a different climate has made my throat and lungs worse and a quarter of our school seems to have caught the same thing.

All of us have come back to the Base. We've spent our last remaining days hanging out, going to places we've never been before here in Perth, and reporting back to the Base and the current schools of what God did while we were away. Everyday now friends of ours are leaving. It's sad to watch everyone slowly leave and head out on in a van for the airport and go home. I, myself, am leaving in a couple of days. It hits everyone different. I feel the lost but I'm not inclined to get really emotional. But some people, mainly the girls, cry as their friends leave them one by one. Today I had to say Goodbye to Paul, Mariana, and Laura. Yesterday Melissa left. By the time I leave in a couple of days most of my team will have left.

It seems odd that only in a few day I'll be coming back home. It only seems like yesterday that I was sitting next to my friend Jay, drinking Frappachinos, the day I left on my trip. Yet, when I think about my classes here in Perth only three months ago, it seems like it happened an eternity ago.

I know is that I'm ready to go back home. Six-months has been a long time being away. I've missed most of the major holidays and many birthdays being gone and as I sat in our last class on Thursday, I wrote down the things I'll be looking forward to when I come back: good food, my own bed, being close to my family, working out, line dancing, and just having more time to myself. I don't know what it'll be like waking up and not living with fifteen or for that matter fifty people anymore. I suppose it will be easier but at the same time, I won't hear those same familiar voices anymore. I won't go shopping in the city anymore with Stefan. I won't be playing board games with Paul. And I won't be having long chats with Campy anymore.

For those of who have been keeping up with my blogs, I have one more to write to sum up what this experience has been for me.

Leaving Indonesia and Saying Goodbye

2008-03-13T03:11:00.000-07:00

This is our last week in City-J. We had to say goodbye to all the prison inmates who are part of our English classes today. It was actually a bit sad for us. Normally during our lesson we break into smaller groups of 4-6 men to practice what we learned. In that time you stay with the same group of guys and get to know them. I was actually able to speak through a translator with some of the guys that I help with and ask them questions like, what are your plans when you get out and do you have any families or children? They asked me similar questions like what I'll be doing when I get home.

I've been thinking of that question more and more. I know I'll probably take a temp-job soon after I get back to California. There's also a girl that I was getting to know before I came to Perth Australia and we've talked about seeing each other more when I come back. I'll be reconnecting with friends and family. In terms of a career there has been something on my mind lately. I want to think and pray about it more before I announce it to anybody but I feel excited about it.

This Saturday we'll be having a party for all of those people who worked with us during our stay here. It is a very diverse group of people that include pastors, church staff workers, translators, and non-Christian contacts like our friend from the prison that we work with. We'll be using this Sunday to pack and tonight we're all actually going to a burger joint to celebrate another team mate's birthday. The best thing about this restaraunt is kareoke! Some of us took the night of our freeday to go to this place and sang an hour and a half worth of songs.

This will be my last entry from Indonesia. Next stop Australia!

Catching Up

2008-03-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Well after a month or so of silence I've finally been able to come back and update my blog. Below are three entries that I've written in the last few days, two of them about my trip to Ethiopia. Thanks everyone for keeping up with me and continue praying for me. Three more weeks until I come back!

Back Here in City-J

2008-03-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

We've been back in City-J for now about two and a half weeks. Things have begun to wind down as we only have less than two weeks left here and one more week of debriefing in Perth. We're all relieved to be back, for the most part. I think that a few of my team mates are dealing with the difficulty of our setting: the culture, the environment, and the food.

I, myself, am happy to be back here. Every Monday we have our free day which normally we use to go to one of the large local malls. You can't imagine how we look forward to our free days. The guys usually get together and eat all the junk food we can get: A&W, crepe-ice cream cones, donuts, nachos and candy at the movie theaters. Our day usually looks like this: get lunch and ice cream, shop, spend an hour or so in the local arcade, see a movie (these theaters are nice and cheap. only $2 a ticket), get dinner and relax back at home for the rest of the evening.

We also have our new house to look forward to. As some of you may have read we were first living in an apartment inside a auto repair shop. Since we came back from Ethiopia, we now live in a two-story house in a gated community (and when I say gated I mean that there's just a large gate that locks in front of our neighborhood). The house is fairly nice and big compared to the tiny apartment we were first in. So, it's been a huge blessing to us. The only problem is that the taxi drivers have been having a hard time finding it and we've run into a couple of times where we've spent the better part of an hour trying to get to our new home.

We also have added one member to our team, Clara from Germany. Clara and I were good friends during our school and I speak to her in German sometimes. She'll be staying with us until we leave.

Most of our ministry has been going to churches, preaching, giving testimonies and performing our drama. We've also had the opportunity to teach English at a local prison here. I explained months ago that this opportunity was totally provided by God. We're on such good terms with our contact who works in the prison that he just invited us to his wedding this Sunday.

Mountaintop Evangelism

2008-03-04T01:04:00.000-08:00

We were all shocked and surprised when they told us we would be staying in Ethiopia another week. The original plan had been that after spending three and a half weeks in Ethiopia our team would split. Both teams flying to the country of Djibouti and one of the teams continuing on to the country of Eritrea. I had been on the team that was to continue on to Eritrea; however, due to the continued violence occurring now in East Africa (Sudan, Chad, and Kenya) not to mention the Cold War that is now between Eritrea and Ethiopia the Base leaders made a decision that would change our plans completely. The other team would go on to Djibouti while we stayed in Ethiopia another week and a half.

My team was solemn and downcast that day. It was the night before all of were to leave for the airport and we had all packed our bags in preparation. I, myself, was indifferent to the change. I think the difference between me and the others was that I had no personal feelings or desire of wanting to go into Eritrea and there had always been uncertainty of whether or not we were even going to be allowed into the country considering the tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The change in plans was worth the experience that followed. We were to leave on a Monday and on the weekend when we should have been in Eritrea, the leader of the Base in Addis Abbaba took us to a small village outside the capital.

Two crucial events happened that Saturday as we drove to this mountain village. First, after driving an hour I was gazing out the back window of our van. The seven of us were piled into a van with our bags which made the ride very uncomfortable. But as I looked out the window I saw as we passed a bulldozer topple of the semi-truck that had brought out to the road we were now on. The bulldozer had actually fallen on the man driving inside of it and as we leapt from the van doors to help we could see that the top of the dozer had tore through the man's leg and simultaneously trapping him. Men scrambled to try to life the heavy dozer to no avail until one of our team members quickly ordered the men to use a nearby tree limb to use as leverage. Ten men grabbed their hands onto the branch which was thick enough to support the weight of the top of the dozer and allowed to other men to scoop the one whose leg was caught out. They carried the man to a nearby waiting truck and rushed him to the hospital. (We would later find out that the man, though had lost much blood, did not break his legs and would only need some patching up. It's a miracle this man kept both his legs which had not been crushed by the top of the bulldozer)

Finally, we reached our destination. A mountain several hours away from the capital city. The van drove us up a quarter mile off the road to a nearby house and there we met an evangelism team from a local church. There were seven of us and about twelve of them. We started our ascent up the mountain all along talking to the evangelists who were curious about our lives back home. When we reached the top we claimed the top of the mountain in prayer. This particular mountain is a place of witchcraft that the local villagers engage in. We then broke up into smaller groups and headed into the village homes. These homes were the traditionally-made mud huts. The top of them are rounded and pointed at the top made from hay and the walls and foundation are made of earth and clay.

I myself went with my team mate Josh to the actual place of witchcraft and we accompanied by three of the evangelists including the Base leader, Adesa. We met several families and they each invited us in to their homes. We did not enter the place of idol worship but we did enter into these families homes who worshiped the sun, trees, and rivers. We spoke to them about Jesus and we all had turns to share something. I personally shared my testimony with this family, speaking to them about how I knew how God answers prayers, through the testimony of my Chinese grandmother Nana and how she had told me that she had prayed everyday that my mother and father who previously were divorced, would reconcile and take me to church. Both of these things happened and helped me to believe that God not only existed but that he interacted with us.

These people who we spoke to had heard nothing about Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. We invited them to accept Jesus but they replied that they were interested in hearing more but would have to wait. Many in the village fear that the spirits whom their ancestors worshiped will come and destroy them if they turn away from their religion. Others claimed that if they received only a bible they would not only turn to Jesus Christ but teach about Him to others. This trip had been a great encouragement to the church who had sent the evangelism team. They had been considering disbanding the evangelism ministry but we think that this experience really encouraged them and they would continue sending others into these villages.

Escorted Out of A University

2008-03-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

I looked up and suddenly I was surrounded by a large group of Ethiopians. A conversation of four to five people had quickly turned into a crowd of twenty five to thirty. Our team had visited this University before in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Abbaba. The past couple of times we had visited I had only had a chance to speak to no more than a handful of people together about their lives and what did they think of Jesus Christ but here I was surrounded on all sides by curious college students wanting to hear why I had visited their country.

I realized that this was my opportunity, when one of them asked me the nature of my visit and what I thought of his country. As I began speaking about our desire to help the poor and to help people understand what a relationship with Jesus Christ looked like, another one of them began to object. "We have many religions here," he began. "Protestant, Muslim, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox...everone has their own religion here. We do not need relgious teaching. We have plenty of that. If you would like to teach on maybe Economics and give us some technology to make our country better we will be willing to listen to you."

I had never been in this situation where I was publicly preaching like this so I took my time to answer. A number of questions and objections to my coming came up but I really felt that God was leading my answers. Many in the crowd who objected most were actually Eastern Orthodox. They knew I was a Protestant trying to infiltrate their country with my Protestant teaching. In Ethiopia, especially the capital, the Eastern Orthodox church has much of the power and influence. They see Protestantism as a threat and are very stubbornly opposed to anything we say, even though we were simply teaching on the basic principles of having a relationship with God. They continued to try to change the subject of our discussion to Economics but really having money. One of them made it quite clear. "Money is everything!," he objected, after my many attempts to convince them that money and finances were the issue for Africa and Ethiopia.

I spoke pretty boldly but I was careful not to be offensive. I looked around at all the faces that were staring and me and declared, "The Western nations had given billions of dollars to Africa and Africa is worse because of it! You have many religions it's true, but there are African countries right now like in Kenya where Christians are killing one another! It is not relgion that God wants it is relationship! Finances and technology will not help change the heart of Africa! You will only cause your country to become dependent on the more advanced nations like Europe and America. Even today everytime I leave my house here, people beg from me. The only English that some children in your country know is 'give me money!' Money is not going to change poverty here in your country. Poverty is not just an economic problem, it is a spiritual problem!"

Finally one of them looked at me. He had gentle eyes and genuinely wanted to understand more but he was Eastern Orthodox and he was trying to make sense with his beliefs and what I was trying to say. "If this is true then what do the people need?" I bent down. He was sitting on the steps of the school flag pole infront of me and I looked right into his eyes. "They need the love of Jesus." "But people know about that," he was quick to point out. "People know it," I pointed to my head, "but people don't know it," I then pointed to my heart.

Soon after my last conversation I walked away from the flag pole. There were still thirty or forty people standing there but I had been speaking for forty minutes and I was tired. As I spoke to an actual Christian believer who had come up beside me to encourage me to continue preaching a security guard of the University came up to us. He spoke in Amharic, the local language, "The foreigners must leave. They can not be preaching like this." We were all escorted out of the University but we left in triumph, knowing that we had made a couple individuals really think.

Evangelizing to Muslims

2008-01-16T05:57:00.001-08:00

Here's another update for y'all.

Well having fourteen people who are all very different live together for the past three weeks has had its challenges. Despite this though we've remained very unified together and we spent part of today resolving any issues we may have had. I'm surprised though how I have handled living so closely to my team mates. I normally need a lot of alone time to myself but I hardly have any here but I still feel totally refreshed especially after I have my quiet times and I tell God I just want live that day for Him with everything that I've got.

We've been evangelizing since we've been here and God has given us some pretty great opportunities. I'll give you a couple of examples. Every time I have prayed for opportunities to witness to people or to share my testimony God has been faithful even when it looks like it, God somehow works it out. You just have to be faithful and God will me you there.

I was sitting at a bus stop. We had just come from the mall and had finished eating. We looked around the mall and then walked across the street. Across the busy street we didn't find any obvious places where we could share with people. Finally we recognized a bus stop, about twenty people we there sitting down, waiting for a bus to arrive. I sat down and watched one of my team mates try to get into a discussion a Muslim woman. "Hi there," she began. "My name is Sarah Jane. Can I ask you some questions?" The woman shook her head. Sarah retreated to another seat and began another discussion with a different man. I however waited. I wasn't sure that this time we would get to share with anyone. I looked at the blank unfriendly faces of everyone at the bus station. I got out my camera. I thought, "This could get a conversation going..." And sure enough a man behind started looking at my pictures. I tried talking to him in English. "Tiger", I said pointing to the picture of an Indian Tiger, I took at Perth Zoo. He murmured the Indonesian word for Tiger. "Do you speak English?" I asked. "No," he laughed and shook his head. Soon he left but said good-bye to me and headed for his bus. There was a young guy with slicked back spikes for hair. He was taking a break and sat down next to me just as the other man was leaving. We started speaking in broken English. He was selling magazines and trying to get me to buy one but I began talking to him about his life, how long he's been working selling magazines, if he was Muslim. My translator was Harry. I tell you a bit about Harry later but through our conversation Val told me he had a girlfriend, that he had been working selling magazines for seven years, and yes that he was Muslim. Yet, as soon as I said I was a Christian he put his two index fingers together saying that Christians and Muslims were friends. "Yes," I said, "Yes. Muslims and Christians are good friends. Since you say that Christians and Muslims are good friends, I would like honor and respect you and pray for you and anything you need prayer for." It took awhile for Harry to translate this but Val looked incredibly grateful for this and nodded his head saying, "Yes! Yes!" I prayed for his life, his business, his desire to provide for his family, and his ability to give his sister an education. It was a tall order but he amen'd everything I prayed for and was so grateful he gave me and the two others I was with a box of donuts he had bought. We said thank you and got his number. We may hang out with him later.

Second example happened today. We were wondering by a nearby mall. Marianna and I were walking with our translator Harry as we browsed a video game arcade. As we passed by one of the games Harry began speaking to one of the guys who was playing. Marianna and I walked towards Harry. Yadi, was a man in his mid thirties. We found out through our conversation that this man was pretty smart. He owned ten stores that sold cell phones here in Jakarta. He majored in Engineering which he did for a job but he got so bored sometimes he would come to the Arcade just to relax. The game he was playing was one of those ticket-winning games you play by dropping a coin down a slot trying to make it into little buckets which spun around from the center with "10" "25" and "Jackpot" written on them. The buckets had a hole at the top which the coin was supposed to drop into. Each time in dropped into the bucket you would receive as many tickets as the bucket had written on. You could get 100 tickets by dropping the coin into the jackpot barrel. Yadi was dropping his coins into the Jackpot barrel 1 out of 2 times, which was amazing. This guy was racking up tickets like nobody's business. He had a system. He had figured out the timing and was winning big. Anyway this guy was pretty friendly as we spent an hour talking to him in the arcade. At the same time Marianna was talking to a couple of adorable Muslim girls who were looking at us from there hoods and smiling. I had the chance to pray for Yadi and Marianna prayed for the Muslim girls. Well after our conversation, Yadi invited both Marianna and I to dinner at KFC which was right across the arcade. Even when the two others who were with us, Josh and Paul, came Yadi invited them as well to dinner. So we all sat together and I spoke to Yadi even further. As I was about to eat my dinner, a bashful little Muslim girl came up to me. She asked me through Harry if I would pray for her too and I of course agreed but then when I asked her what she would like me to pray for she ran embarrassed back to her friend. They whispered and spoke to one another and finally she had the courage to come back to me and asked me to pray for her family and school. It was a great day. It's always difficult to see how God is going to work opportunities but you just go out and pray for them and they just come.

Now a word about Muslims. Most Muslims are wonderful. They are people who are very dedicated to their families. The things is that most Muslims see their religion as better than Christianity, so when you ask a Muslim to convert to Christianity you can see why they're totally offended.

I believe if Jesus was here he would want to love Muslims by showing them honor and respect and that is what I have found effective in building friendships with them. I ask if I can pray for them and their families and all of a sudden I've done something that probably no Christian has never done for them before. First of all, Muslims think that Christians are gossiping and talking bad about them when they go to their daily prayers. Muslims as you may know pray five times a day. Not all Muslims do this but many do. For some reason they have developed this stereotype of Christians that we don't like them and they we are plotting against them even as they pray. Sound familiar doesn't?

But the Muslims that I have spoken to want to love peacefully with Christians, just like the boy in the bus station did when he said Christians and Muslims are friends. Anyway, the US is seen as a Christian nation. Just as you see Indonesia or Iran or Malaysia as Muslim nations so is the US seen as a Christian nation. But you see the problem is when they watch American movies with sex-scenes and sexual content they associate that with Christianity. They think Christians are like this even though its just in the movies and the people who makes the movies are not even Christian. And they believe that Westerners are very loose and that they think of sex all the time because that is what is in the movies. Well praying for them and blessing them and not getting in their face and trying to convict them to betray everything they know about themselves is a much better way to witness the Gospel to them. They're very receptive if you're truly genuine. But here we are, breaking the stereotypes and sowing seeds that hopefully will bear fruit.

My Team

2008-01-10T05:59:00.000-08:00

I'm sure some of you have been wondering who are the people that I have been traveling these past two weeks. So down below I have introduced all of my team mates with a short little blurb about them so you can understand a little bit of the dynamics of our team. I would just like to say that all of us are very different. We have bonded really close in the last few weeks but our personalities are unique.

We all call Michael "Campy". His last name is Campinelly or something like that so that's how he got his nickname. But he's one of my favorite guys that I've met. He's an outgoing, funny, spunky nineteen year-old that makes me laugh all the time.

Paul and I shared the same dorm room during DTS and we were also in the same small group. Paul grew up in YWAM. His dad is the regional director of North America. Anyway Paul's a great guy who has a lot of wisdom from growing up in YWAM. He's both an introvert and an extrovert. He can get crazy at times and he and I share an addiction now to the board game Settlers- Cities and Knights.

Johnny has also got to be one of my favorite guys that I've met. He's a Kiwi, meaning he's from New Zealand. He and I are both the introverted guys on the team. He's likes to not say a whole lot but when he does say something it's usally either something really profound or something really funny.

When I first met Josh I said to myself, "that's got to be one of the loudest guys I have ever met..." And it's true. Josh is loud, boisterous, but also servant hearted. I went into my room this week and found that Josh had made my bed and folded up my blankets. Josh grew up in YWAM too and has a lot of experience growing up in ministry.

Eric was my small group leader. Now he is one of the leaders of my team. The two things that stand out about Eric is his passion for fishing and his passion for also evangelism.

Alicia is the second leader of my trip. She's really the rock of our team. She's been an excellent leader. She's the oldest of our group being 30 and having done her DTS and joined YWAM only several years ago. Anyway, Alicia handles herself well under pressure. The Airforce seems to have given her that ability as well as her leadership skills.

Melissa I've called my favorite Canadian because she and I have had a lot of fun line dancing. She's really good at everything that I teach so I think she wants to start line dancing when she gets back home to Canada. Anyway, she and I are both contemplative people that like to talk about the deep stuff of life and I joke around with her a lot. She was one of my first friends during DTS.

Laura is a Hair-Stylist from Las Vegas, Nevada. I would say one of the things I admire best about Laura is her ability to converse and talk to anybody. She has no problem making friends here with the nationals and is my favorite person to evangelize with. She and I went to a hairsalon a couple days ago just to make friends with some of the people working there and ended up getting head-massages and getting to know people.

Sarah from Germany is one of the funniest girls I know. She and I are always laughing together. I practice my German with her a little bit and we have our own private jokes in German sometimes. Anyway, I love Sarah's jolly laugh and her sweet personality.

Mariana is one of the first people from Holland that I met. When I first came to Australia I met three people from Holland and she is one of them. I think my being really friendly early on with the Dutch have made us good friends. She's very intelligent and one of the oldest people here on our team next to Alicia. She often gets looks from the local men here being a beautfiul European blonde and they like to greet her in English.

Jessica is one of the youngest coming to YWAM just after she graduated High School. I've seen Jessica really transform during DTS becoming really passionate about God. She's very energetic and kind of sassy too but she's great fun.

Sarah Jane is another Canadian. A lot of Sarah's passions revolve the arts especially drama and acting. We put her in charge of leading the drama that we're performing for some of the churches here. Sarah has a lot of appreciation for my unique personality because of her own uniqueness.

Paulina is are second Dutch girl on our team. Paulina is probably the one person I don't know too much about. She's quiet about herself but outspoken on her opinion. She spent a year or so in the US during High School so she knows more about American culture than any of the other non-Americans.

Well that's my team. If it's possible I'll try to post pictures of all them sometime.

The Slum

2008-01-06T23:13:00.000-08:00

The cars and mopeds rush close by us as we try to manuever across the busy streets of City J. We weave back and forth, hestitantly, looking frantically left and right as we cross the street from our apartment. There are no traffic lights. Pedestrians must cross the treacherous street filled with busy cars, taxis, buses, and mopeds unprotected. The key to not being hit by a random scooter or car is by moving slowly. Slow movements give the drivers time to slow down for you and let you cross safely. But the streets are so crowded and there are no sidewalks here that even when you walk down the street, vehicles will come uncomfortably close to you. But that's all part of life here. Dodging traffic and jumping across huge puddles of water, caused by the daily rains, has become part of our everyday experience. Seldom, do we see the blue sky.

Our week has been filled with meetings with local church leaders and ministry workers. Mega-Cities has provided us with several contacts including several churches in our side of the city and a local slum ministry. We spent Friday morning at a local slum close to where we live. We were led by Max and his team. Max is a young Asian man, with a prominent acne problem. He looks almost comical, like an Asian hobbit. He stands a little more than five feet tall with a little poney-tail hodling his black hair at the very top of his head. His feet, which I noticed while we were resting at the end of the day, are thin, talon like nobs which look more like fingers than toes. Regardless of his funny appearance, Max leads well. He tells us what we are to do once we get into the slum and has confidence in what he does.

The day in the slum began with us making our way through some very narrow and dark passages in the East part of the city. The neighborhood itself is tucked in from City J's main streets. The homes here are very small and the walkways through this little residential area are cramped and filled with pieces of garbage and refuse that the neighbors leave. I have seen poorer communities like those families who live on the trash mounds of Tijuana Mexico but they are still obviously poor.

A local woman invited us into her house, the first thing we arrived. She took us into her tiny little room of a house where she tried to make all fourteen of us comfortable. We all sat closely to one another, legs folded, as we went over the agenda for the day. The people of the neighborhood, brought donuts or rather a pastry-type food that they called donuts and clean water for us to drink. Max tells us we're here to do three things. One, is to work with some of the children of the neighborhood, the second is to help with a Christian doctor who makes visits here to reguarly check up on the children in the area, and the third is to clean all the trash and refuse lying in the corridors between the houses.

I help clean the trash while simultaneously video-recording all of our progress as we follow Max's volunteers who show us where we should clean. I get in there right away, I take the trash with one barehand and throw it into my clear plastic bag, feeling the wet and sometimes slimy trash on my fingers. We did this for an hour or so, greeting the curious on-lookers and neighbors with Salamat Pagi! (Good morning!) They're very interested in us. They surround us to see who are these white people in the neighborhood. Everyone's friendly. The children play with us or shyly look at us from a distance. Everyone laughs as I come out from one of the houses and bump my head on a low ceiling, just above the door.

First Wave

2008-01-02T21:04:00.000-08:00

We all arived in City J several days ago. Our first task is to read the complete Bible as a team out loud here in the East part of the city. Speaking out the Word of God is a declaration of God's character of Who He is and we believe is the first part to seeing many come to know Christ. We have spent over the last 48 hours reading the Scriptures. We have three hour assignments in groups of three to four and then late night assignments in groups of two during the wee hours of the night.

The East side of City J reminds me much of Phnom Pehn in Cambodia. It's the wet season now. Water pours down in turrential rain here soaking down the streets in huge puddles. Many of the homes here are flooded up to a foot of water.

Our apartment, however, is try for now. It is a three bedroom apartment oddly right next to an auto shop. It has a very small kitchen, living room, and dinning room. All fourteen of us fit snuggly in this little apartment. We're very thankful for the airconditioners in each of the bedrooms which blow cold air in the hot and humid nights.

One exciting thing that happened was that we were invited into a Mosque yesterday as we were prayer walking. I immediately noticed the spiritual oppression as soon as I walked within its gates. Anyone who has walked into a temple and has felt the darkness in those places will know what I am speaking about. But we met several of the school teachers there who seemed very friendly to us. We prayed outside the Mosque walls asking God that the veil of misunderstanding would be lifted from their eyes and the Muslims would know the true God. I'll speak a little bit more about Islam later in my blog but Muslims do not know the compassionate and loving God that we know. They live in fear not knowing where they are going at the end of their lives. They worship a distant and unemotional God. But there's hope for them. I believe that Muslims can be some of the greatest Christians because they can take their zeal and apply it to their relationship with Christ.

We here are part of the first wave of hundreds and thousands that will be going to City J, crying out that the Lord will bring salvation into this city. But here there is much hard ground that needs to be broken up. The hard ground of the soil of City J needs to be tilled and the harder we hit this ground, with our prayers and in our faith, the greater work God will be able to do in the succeeding waves.

Christmas in Perth

2007-12-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

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.

People I Will Miss...

2007-12-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

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.

Exciting Things Happening

2007-12-19T05:38:00.000-08:00

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!

The Day that I wrestled Pete Brownhill

2007-12-12T01:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Broadcasting once again...

2007-11-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

The computers here at the Perth station have not been functioning for almost two weeks. I borrowed one of my room mate's computer so I'm once again blogging.

Being here in Perth for now two months I've now come to realize that coming here was the best decision that I have ever made in my life (next to accepting Jesus Christ). I know that sounds pretty radical but I've seen so much breakthrough in my life. I just have to thank all my supporters once again. I can't thank you enough for helping me get here.

We're now finished with our eighth week here at the base. In the past few weeks we've learned so much. Some of our topics were Authority and Submission, Father Heart of God, and Relationships. This week Sheryl Brownhill, the director of the Base, spoke to us about relationships and how to pursue healthy relationships with God. We were all captivated as we heard Sheryl's testimony who grow up in Sydney in a very rough neighborhood. Her dad was known as the best street fighter in the city and her home life was full of violence and anger. Back when she was only fifteen, Sheryl often got into fights. When Christians came to witness to her she would sometimes use her fists to beat them away. One day, though, she heard a voice. It was a voice that spoke to her with love and compassion and Sheryl grew to love the voice. Her life began to radically change as she listened and obeyed the voice. One day in the school yard, one of the Christians who had previously attempted to witness to her and was thoughly pumled came up to her hesistantly. "Sheryl, you're so different. What's happened?" Sheryl explained to him about the voice. "Do you want to know the name of the voice," the still hesistant Christian asked. "He has a name?" Thus began Sheryl's life with Christ that completely transformed her and her family.

Sheryl had amazing wisdom about relationships. One of the most important points I think she said during the week was, "Develop an ambition for others." What that means is that you make it your ambition to help people get closer to God. Make their progress in their spiritual journey your priority. Pride often hampers us from seeing the gift and the contribution others can make and helping to bring that out of them. Of course we need to manage our own relationship with God and grow in it but I think what America Christianity has been suffering from is that we're too self-focused. We're too self-focused on the areas that we need to grow in or our own problems. Sheryl said, "Your measure of success is how many people you call out into their spiritual destinies...It's not about creating your own ministry and slapping your name on it." That's something I will now live out for the rest of my life.

We're still preparing for our Outreach. We're really committing to prayer as our team has to raise $30,000 total for all of us to go. This weekend we'll be running a couple of car washes to help us raise support.

Thank you all again for being a part of my life. I was reminded this week as I looked at some photos my dad sent me of our family Thanksgiving how great it is to have family and friends back home.

Lordship and My 4 Things

2007-11-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

Last week, our guest speaker on our topic, Lorship, was a base staff leader Arie. Arie had an interesting past, being in the equivalent in the minor leagues of soccer in Holland, Arie drifted in and out of the drug scene until finally he had one too many bad trips. He became a Christian during his DTS (Disciple Training School) here in Perth.

Once again, there was much to learn, and Arie was effective teacher as he used his own story as an example of how he struggled with giving control back to God. God gives us certain rights, it's true. There are sometimes, however, when certain rights that God has given will keep us from obeying.

Richard, who is on staff as well, took time to illustrate how certain behaviors and things we do can possibly hinder us from growing in God. Things like relationships, watching television and movies, sports, hobbies, and eating foods are all good things. But occasionally our lives fall out of balance and the pendulumn swings too far to the right. We make these things into idols, that are fine to have and do when they do not vie for God's place in our hearts. When they do God asks us to withdraw from these for a certain period of time or in some cases forever.

In order that our lives come into balance (the middle of the pendulumn) the Lord may ask us to give up that particular thing. Arie explained from his own life, that sports had become an idol to him. He played soccer professionally before coming a Christian. Sports was his life but when he came to know Christ God asked him to give up soccer completely. Arie was obedient for nine years before he sensed the Lord tell him that playing soccer was once again alright to do.

In order to get us in that state of balance, God may ask us to do some pretty radical things, like Arie. No matter how radical it may seem we need to obey the Lord in whatever He is leading us to do. It took nine years for Arie to become into balance where soccer and sports were no longer an idol in his heart.

During the week I felt God impressing on four areas of my life that I had to surrender to Him:

My Time - My personal time is so important to me. After work there's nothing that I like to do more than just spend my freetime like I want to. Unfortunately, that right to use my time has impeded my relationship with God in several ways. Sometimes I have sensed that God wanted to spend time with me. Instead of retreating before the Lord in prayer I find something more entertaining to do. In other times there are people who may need to be helped. I've tried to get myself in the habit of helping and serving wherever I know there is a need but there are many times when I think to myself, "I deserve a break. I deserve my time to myself." The fact is that God wants to break me of that way of thinking. He's given me time and what I have to realize that my time really belongs to Him.

My Finances - Anyone who has known me for awhile knows that I have been saving for a condo/house in Southern California. For the past eight-months I've been looking at the realestate market and saving my money so one day I can afford a home. This has caused me to tuck away the possibility of God sending me out in Missions full-time. It has interfered with a possible calling in my life. I know that the money that I have been able to save now is going to be used for whatever God calls me to use it for. That could be one day a house but I have a looser hold over it and I'm opened to the possibility that God will use my savings for something else.

My Comfort - One of the things that has stood in the way of accepting a full-time in missions is my comfort. I've lived in OC California for so long that part of me fears giving up my comfortable way of living, having everything you need and want. The dream of living in a nice house and having a comfortable way of living is potentionally stopping me from the call that God has in my life. One morning, I was sitting on a park bench like I do every morning during morning excercises and watched the sunrise above the Swan River. As I sat there I spoke to God saying, "God I know there are certain comforts that I'm used to but I'll give them all up to you and let you send me wherever you want me to go..."

My Family - Recently I've come to realize that my family is very important to me. As we grow older and mature we become more thankful for the things our families have given us and in the past couple of years I have realized how much I have at home. I have also become concerned about my parents and especially my Nana. I have become afraid of leaving them for any length of time because I love them so much and I wonder how they will do without me being around. As my parents grow older I want to be there for them and with my grandfather having passed away this past summer I want to spend as much time with my Nana as I possibly can. Being possibly called into the mission field, I feel there is a possibly conflict with this and my calling. I want to be with my family and yet if there is a call in my life to be in full-time missions I will have to sacrifice being physically close to them all.

The things on my list were not easy to give up. The last day of the week we had an altar where we laid all the things the Lord was asking us to give up.

Jakarta and Ethiopia

2007-11-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

Last week we were introduced to the five teams that we had the possibility of joining for our Outreach Phase. After December, our class of more than 50 people along with ten staff members will all leave for Jakarta Indonesia. After a month, each team will be flying to a different location for another month before returning to Jakarta. The options were:
Team #1: Stay in Jakarta for all 3 months
Team #2: Stay in Jakarta for a month leave for East Africa return to Jakarta
Team #3: Stay in Jakarta for a month leave for Ethiopia/Djbuti return to Jakarta
Team #4: Stay in Jakarta for a month leave for Central Republic of Africa return to Jakarta
Team #5: Stay in Jakarta for a month leave for North Africa return to Jakarta.

We were allowed to choose one out of the five teams but only 11 people were allowed on each team. The base leaders stressed how important it was to pray and listen to God about where we were going. They believe that each person has something unique to contribute and, therefore, they it was important that we were led by God in our decision. After praying and fasting over my decision I made the choice to go to Team #3 headed for both Jakarta and Ethiopia. I had an agenda to go with Team #1 which would be staying in Jakarta all 3 months. But after praying and listening God corrected me and led me to go on the Jakarta/Ethiopia trip. We will be also spending a week or so in a country close to Ethiopia, Djbuti (Ja-Booty).

The announcement of who was on which teams was made this morning. It was official, after spending a month in Jakarta I will be going to Ethiopia for 2 1/2 weeks and another week in Djbuti. I'm happy about the members of my team. Some of them are friends I regularly hang out with. One of them is in my small group. The two leaders of the trip, Eric and Alicia, are both Americans and Eric happens to be my small group leader. The cost of the trip will be about $5500, so I'm continuing to pray for support.

In other news, after having spent a wonderful cool month in Perth, it has began to become warm. The temperature today was 39 degrees Celcius which equals to about 102 degrees Farenheit. Most of us are staying indoors as much as possible and some of us are taking off to the beaches. One thing about Western Australia is that the flies, especially during these hot days, are ferocious. They literally cover you and try to get into your mouth, ears, and nose looking for moisture. It's pretty gross, another reason to stay inside. Also, the 200 staff members who normally run the base have left on a one week retreat. They have left the base in the care of the students who now take over all the duties. Two girls, Amarra and Grace as well as myself run our DTS school with the speaker this week, Andrew. So far everything seems to be running smoothly but continue to be in prayer about the base and that we will be safe and protected during this time.

Thank you for those who have been praying about my decision for outreach. I really appreciate your prayer support.

Take care,

Jeremy

My Small Group

2007-11-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

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.

Intercession and Worship

2007-11-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

The teacher's name was Cliff. I looked at him and immediately saw there was nothing impressive about him. He was a mid-height, balding, skinny man entering into early middle-age, his voice a little too soft and a little too high for a man. On top of that his last name was Wiener. But he, nonetheless, was one of the most powerful teachers I have heard speak. He was an exhorter, speaking to us last week on Intercession and Worship with the energy of a high school quarterback. He was in our face, jumping from each side of the classroom, using his hands and body language to do half of the talking, teaching well and making humurous comments, and most of all getting us to participate, not letting us just sit there with our eyes glazed. He was calling us to action.

I've been looking over Cliff's notes from the past week and I can't help feel that we would all benefit from some of the thing we have learned. I wanted to summarize some of those notes so that we can all be blessed from them.

The most important section of Cliff's teaching was on hearing God. Cliff used the example by taking a basketball and asking us, "When you're playing in the NBA and you want the person to pass the ball to you, what do you do? What do you do with your hands, with your body language?" He then showed by using two of us how the right posture is when you have your hands wide open. You're ready to catch that ball and you're probably calling the person's name who has the ball to pass it to you. "Jeremy! Hey Jeremy. Jeremy! Pass me the ball! Pass me the ball!" You don't have your arms crossed looking cool and not really interested. Cliff then makes the connection with this and hearing God.

We can all hear the voice of God, Cliff explains but the posture of your heart has to be right. You have to keep your heart in a state of openess, of eagerness, ready to catch that ball. When we go to God we shouldn't have this indifferent or bored attitude. The people who hear God the most are those who are eager to hear Him, who are in a state of constant readiness to hear Him and this is an everyday, every situation kind of thing, where we go through our day in the posture of someone who wants the ball. To those of us who haven't heard God much or at all, it isn't that God doesn't want to speak to you or would rather speak to others. It's all about the position of your heart. Are you eager to hear Him? Do you want to hear Him? Do you want to catch that ball?

The first reason why we listen to God is because He is worthy! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to hear from God just to get my questions answered. The most important thing in prayer is not getting our questions answered but listening to Him. Intercession is not just prayer but it's prayer with a purpose. In Intercession we listen to God and get specifics from Him about how we are going to pray for an individual, a group of people, or a situation. We hear God's heart and we pray it back to Him, and we stand in the gap between Man and God and Man and Satan.

It's like in movies where we see the special ops soldiers. They come in quietly into enemy territory. They are in constant communication with the command center who can see from their satellites the bigger picture. The command center gives specific commands to these soldiers, "Go to your left. Turn right now. Ok wait here for one minute. Now see that door in front of you. Go and open it. That person to your right, take him!" We are meant to be connected to God in this way and we're given leadings to help, serve, and tell others the Gospel in this way. The Holy Spirit leads us and every day we come to Him and ask, "Ok, what do you have for me?"

But now there are things that can cause "static" in our connection with God. Things like fear (of what He will say or ask us to do), unbelief, apathy/indifference, self-idolatry (being too worried about what others think or placing what I think and what I want to do too highly), and false-comfort. False comfort is a huge one I think especially because it goes the most undetected. You know what it is? Instead of going to God's voice for comfort, God who can genuinely tell us how much we're really worth and make ourselves feel better, we go to something else to make ourselves feel better. Maybe it's food like chocolate and ice cream, or watching tv, playing video games, or even other people. What do you use to replace the comfort of God?

If you want to hear God you need to have a soft heart. The Bible speaks in Hebrews 3 about not hardening your heart like Israel did in the desert. The way you develop a softer heart is by being eager to obey God in the little things. You know, when God gives you a tap, tap, on the shoulder to go help someone or to go encourage somebody, or even from refraining from doing something. It may not make sense to us but whatever God is asking us to do it's better just to do it. We like to require more information from God because we're afraid of obeying. We don't want to look weird or we're afraid of what the person/people will think. But when we obey God without requiring more information we bring a softness and a tenderness to our hearts.

God wants this kind of relationship, where we hear from Him, with everyone. Unfortunately we can get caught up in thoughts like, "Hearing from God is only for certain Christians" or "I don't think God would really want to talk to me." You need to understand that God has no reluctance to speak to you. You're His child, how could He not want to speak to you? Hearing from God, however, is a discipline. It's something you can only benefit from when we get in the habit of everyday assuming that posture of, "I want the ball God," being eager and ready to listen to Him.

Well there's heaps more. One more things is that we should all keep a record of what God has spoken to us. It's a great discipline to have especially when we fall on hard times we can look back on what God has spoken over us.

Thanks Cliff for all your teaching!

My Greatest Weakness

2007-10-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well everyone knew it was bound to happen. Yep, I couldn't control myself and gave in. I guess I'll have to go confess and repent for this one...

I taught line dancing.

It's been almost a month since I did it and well, I went through withdrawal, until finally some of the girls here at the base asked me to teach a lesson. So last Saturday at 8:00pm, I put on my belt buckle, tucked my shirt in, found a little speaker system for my iPod and taught a group of about 10 girls Black Velvet and Copperhead Road. Some people around the base came in to see what we were doing. A couple of the girls loved it so much that we might make it a regular thing.

Here's a little sample for you...

Life on the base so far...

2007-10-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Life is busy here on the base. At 5:50 in the morning I wake up with the others in my dorm room. We hurry a couple blocks away from the base where we all meet for morning prayer and breakout into groups for different excercises. We have the option of volleyball, walking, or running. I've been running the past two weeks. Yes, to those who are familiar with me I know that sounds funny but running is challenging to me and I work on bettering my time every day. We run east of the base down a bike path to the Swan river. It's a gorgeous view from the bike path, with the sun rising in the distance and I usually stop in the middle of my run to enjoy the view and to also work on my abs and triceps. I walk back just in time to have my breakfast, my quiet time and then to begin morning work duties.

Class begins normally at 8:30. We begin with worship and sometimes prayer for one another and then continue with our session until noon. After lunch at 1:30 I'm needed in the back where I re-stock the large pantry and coolroom for the whole base. Yesterday, I made a pickup of groceries with Rob, a former pastor who now works at YWAM. We go to Cash and Carry the Australian equivalent of a Costco and with five large trollies of goods, millk, frozen foods, pantry items, and massive ammounts of toilet paper, we checkout and take them one by one to van. It's hard for me to belive that the huge spread of items is only for one week. We will come back next week and pickup the same amount. It's just me and him. He's an older man in his early sixties. We talk about his past, what he did when he was a pastor, where he came from, and how he became a Christian. He becomes my tour guide on the way to the Cash and Carry and tells me everything I could want to know about Perth. By the time we're done re-stocking everything back at the base it's close to 5:00. We take a break drinking ice coffee before we finish up and I take a seat for dinner.

The night's activities vary depending on the day: Monday night we have class, Tuesday night is small group, Wednesday night is free, Thursday night is evangelism, and Friday night is the service we have at the base which runs until about 9:00pm. I'm reminded as I write I once heard the rumor that one church support their college students to go to YWAM because it was too much like a vacation. Nothing could be farther from the truth here at the base in Perth.

Being so busy has been difficult for me. Normally I like having time to my self but in this environment it has become hard for finding personal time. I have been a little frustrated because of this until recently I had a conversation with one of the staff here. We had taken tonight to have dinner at the home of a staff family. YWAM is not only made up of young people but there are actually many families here who are here on staff.

This evening I had dinner with Danny and Laurie Taylor. Although YWAM's mission is focused on youth, many of the staff have their own families. Danny is a tall bald headed man who looks like he could be a football player. Laurie is a short burnette who is pregnant. They have an 18-month year old. Sam, who is bulky like his father, has a fascination with wheels and loves his little wagons and cars.

As we relaxed in their tiny living room, I told Laurie about the problems I had been experiencing having very little time to myself. She explained to me that she had felt the same way when she did her DTS but she learned something through that experience: There is a flow of the Spirit that comes into our lives when we sacrifice things like personal time. It caused her to rely on God for her strength rather than taking personal time to be alone. Her comment surprised me and I meditated over it that night. DTS is about making room for God in the sacrifices we make. We all came here giving up the comforts of home and many times the comforts of a marginal Christian life. The sacrifices we make, although uncomfortable at times, are necessary for us to really get the most out this experience here and I feel at peace with this.

The Longest Day

2007-10-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

Our topic for the week had been confession and repentance. Caleb, our DTS leader, was teaching this week. Friday was to be the application for our teaching. Many people were nervous that day. We were doing something that was kind of radical. In the morning we finished the teaching for the week's topic and then we were given a half an hour break for us to prepare our hearts before God.

When we came back the classroom had been completely changed. Chairs had been placed around the room in a circle and in the center of the room mattresses were laid down, in case people wanted a more comfortable experience. In the front of the classroom there were three chairs. We had a bit of worship before we began.

This day we were given the opportunity to openly confess our sins to God in prayer to Him and before our class. The three seats in the front were for you, your small group leader, and the third for Caleb who would both pray for you after your confession was over.

The application was completely optional. No one is forced to do it, but one by one we all go up. Most of us break down when we get up there. You are completely exposed and vulnerable. The Holy Spirit works and you don't hold back. In front of sixty people (40 girls 20 guys) you ask God to forgive you and you release those who you've been withholding forgiveness. After the two leaders are finished praying for you, you take your sins which you have written down and nail them to a cross which has been waiting in the back of the room.

I don't know if it's because I'm a little older and I have come to terms with what I've done or whether it was because I've been in an accountability group for years but I felt like I had the courage to go up first but I ended up tenth in line.

There are two great things that come of this. One is that you have completely opened yourself up to your fellow classmates. There's no more pretenses, no more masks. You've confessed your deepest and darkest secrets to them which means you can't hide from them. Secondly, it prepares you for the ministry God is going to do through you. You're not carrying anymore the burden of unconfessed sin. To all of those of who are reading this, we did what the church has really yet to be able to do and that is become a place of safety where people can openly confess and repent of their sins without the thought of rejection from others.

We continued throughout the night. We finished at one o'clock in the morning.

Some thoughts about my first week...

2007-10-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

This has been an amazing first week. God has already been moving in the lives of the people here. Our first week lectures were on the character of God. We talked about God's attributes, His love, His wisdom, His faithfulness, His righteousness, justice, and faithfullness.

But already our base has experienced some spiritual warfare. One of the girls that is here had experienced a demonic attack. Whatever it was, came in the middle of the night and held her down and began to choke her. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, but at last she spoke in her mind the name of Jesus Christ and the demon fled.

One of my room mates also had an experience in which he approached three aboriginal men. One of them came close looked at him and suddenly his whole face changed. He grabbed my room mates' cross necklace and held it. My friend was about to fight him to get it back and the strange man gave it back but then grabbed it again. My room mate said that he could see in the man's eyes an un-human presence. It was a strange and frightening experience for my room mate who is used to settling disputes and fights physically. He knew after meeting the possessed man, it had been the first time he couldn't confront a situation like that with his fists. Spiriutal warfare for the first time became a reality to him.

The first week, we all have been busy with our creative journals. These journals help us really think over what we're learning here. We've also made a trip to Serpent Falls this Saturday which is an extremely beautiful waterfall with a large pool beneath that you can swim in.

As part of our discipleship here we all have certain chores and duties everyday. There are "family chores" which begin around 8am that are simple house-cleaning things we do. Then, during the later part of the day we all have about 2 hours of duties like dish cleaning, lunch/dinner prep, data entry, answering phones, etc. My particular responsibility is keeping the cool room, the bases' refrigerator in order. That means taking all the food supplies we get each week and arranging them so they're not only are they organized but they are in order of when they'll be used.

A prayer request this week is for better health. Almost all of us on the base have colds that we're going through. I had a sore threat a couple of days ago. I'm doing fine but I could be doing better. Thanks everyone for keeping tabs on me. Talk to you next week.

DTS Begins!

2007-10-08T00:50:00.000-07:00

Well today was the first official day that DTS has started. We began today with morning Monday worship. It was so good. Lots of people gave words of encouragment to us to pursue God during this time.

We had our orientation as well today where we got familiar with the base activities we'll be doing. We even were taught some Aussie words like "arvo" (afternoon) and snacker (sausage, which is a totally random word to know).

Basically our day starts with morning excercises, after which we have free time to have our quiet times. We then have morning tea, afterwhich our classes begin. To those who wanted to know a little bit more about YWAM and what actually takes place, the base is very much like a school. You come here to learn, so they have reports for you to do and books to read. We all have daily chores to do. Most of us will help prepare dinner or lunch. I might be working in the media team. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, God's blessed me heaps while I've been here. I've met so many people who are just here to give themselves to God and be at it for Him.

Love you all,

Jeremy (Heesh)

Kangeroo Island

2007-10-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Being here early definitely has its advantages. You have time to meet people before the DTS starts. You also have the opportunity to going to some cool places. Yesterday we went to Kangeroo Island. It's not actually an island but its more a park you can go to. It's surrounded by water from the Swan River here in Perth.

We heard about this island the day we arrived and we had to go when we were told not only there would be kangeroos but they are so familiar with humans that they're almost completely domesticated. We took a long walk around the city of Perth and followed a bike trail to the river. Once we got to the river we made our way to this beautiful field. Finally we arrived, at the penninsula that is called Kangeroo island. Several girls and I were remarking at some of exotic birds not even noticing that all of the others were actually petting the kangeroos who they had found.

Amazing. These kangeroos will actually let you pet them. They keep a wary eye on you but they'll actually stop and you can quietly walk toward them. I can only say that their fur feels a little bit like rabbit fur. We all took pictures and I shot video. I'll post the pictures later but right now internet connection is sketchy at best. Dean our Irish friend did his best Steve Erwin (Crocodile Hunter) impression as I was filming. It should be funny to watch.

Hope all is well with you and God Bless!

Here in Perth

2007-10-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well I made it. After the grueling experience of going through 21 hours on a plane I'm here in Perth. One thing about Australia, is that they have the tightest security imaginable. Imagine, you exit the plane and enter into customs and immigration. You first pick up your luggage and then commence standing in a line that is approximately the size of the line for Space Mountain.

After finishing the line you are questioned as to the contents of your luggage. If you're lucky like I am and you have nothing to declare your luggage is then thouroughly examined and your questioned about its contents. It is then X-rayed once again before you are allowed to continue. If you do have something to declare, even if it is as trifle as some chocolate you picked up in another country, you are sent into another line which is even longer and your luggage is even more thoroughly checked. You have to empty your bag completely and every item is checked and you must give an explanation of what each item is.

Everyone goes through this process! No one, including Aussie nationals are exempt. What's more surprising is finding out why the Australians are so anal about checking what is in your bag. It has to do with preventing foreign seeds and plant material from entering into the country.

I was taken to the YWAM station here in the city. I'm staying in a classroom that has been emptied out with the exception of five bunk beds and some modest drawers for putting our clothing in.

Since I got here I've been really busy. I've adjusted already to the time here so I've been sleeping pretty well. The one thing that has surprised me is how cold it is. I've brought a couple of jackets which I'm really thankfull that I've brought but I'll probably go out and buy a new blanket.

Aussies never do anything small here. They announced the birthday of one of the staff's babies. The whole dinning room errupted into a birthday song that I'd never heard of. The shouting filled the hall and the song was intermintent with banging on the table and clapping. It was loud and when it ended it was concluded by a round of Ausie! Ausie! Ausie! Oi! Oi! Oi!.

Or even eating a cookie, the Australians have to turn it into an art. Last night we had Tam-Tam shouts. Take a chocolate biscuit and bite two ends of it. Suck your choice of hot beverage, most likely coffee or hot chocolate until you can taste the liquid through the cookie and then shove the cookie in your mouth. If you do it right the hot liquid melts the cholocate cookie and your mouth explodes into a chocolately mass of goodness.

Well I have to go. Love you all heaps.

Spirituality in an Eggshell

2007-09-29T22:33:00.001-07:00

I was once told by an old wise woman that our spiritual walk is much like an Easter egg hunt. When she was a young mother she used to hide Easter eggs for her kids. When they were young, three or four years old, she used to hide them in obvious places. Maybe sitting there right on the carpet or on a coffee table in plain view. Gradually, as they got older, she began hidding them in less obvious places making it harder to find.

The analogy is that in the beginning of our walk with Christ, God makes it very easy to find Himself. Things just come easy in understanding Him. The Bible opens up to us. We find it so easy to pray. Eventually, as we mature, God begins to hide Himself and the things of Himself from us. The search is more difficult, we enter dry times with the Lord, we're tested, and find it more difficult to do the simple things of our spiritual youth but it teaches our hearts to seek after God and in the end we're rewarded with new insight, a closer relationship with Him, those sweet little Easter eggs are found.

This trip for me is the Easter egg hunt. Why I am going on this trip? To have a nice vacation? No, it's to seek the Lord and to give Him my heart. I've come to a place where God is calling me to find Him in another place. I heard His voice calling to me as soon as I found out about the lay-off. It was the voice calling, "Come find me, Child."

This last week has been amazing time spent with friends and family. I've had my last night line-dancing, had a couple of going-away parties with some of my closest friends and family, went to Disneyland today, and tomorrow I will have to say Good-bye to you all. Thank you once again for all your support and prayers. May God richly bless you, may His face shine upon you, and may your heart always seek Him.

And as for You, Lord...

Ready or not here I come!

Temp-job

2007-09-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I received my official acceptance to YWAM. I'm continuing to prepare for my trip with prayer.

After connecting with two temp agencies and waiting for almost almost a month I have a temp job. I'm working at a local insurance company in Mission Viejo. I learned an important lesson though during that time.

I was so adamant about getting a job. I wanted to feel like I was doing everything to support my trip. A friend of mine though pointed out that God might not want me to have a job yet. It may be that He wanted me to use this time to prepare me. I knew if He wanted me to have a job He could provide me one. I surrendered this to God in prayer and He answered. About a week after that my temp agency told me they had a job for me.

Turned out that it was about a couple of miles away from my Nana. We have lunch together everyday. I believe God wanted me to have this particular job because it was close to where she lives and He knew I would miss her.

God has really blessed me through so many people. I've received so much support and just wanted to say "Thank you!" once again to those of who are praying for me and who have supported my trip financially.

Two more weeks...Almost there!

The Layoff continued...

2007-08-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I continued praying about my decision but at last I knew what I was going to do. For the past few years several of my close friends had gone out with an organization called YWAM, Youth With A Mission. All of them had stories of how God had changed their lives through leaving what they knew behind and following God to a foreign country. I had researched YWAM a bit and saw that their values closely reflected my own. The more I thought about it the more excited I became.

There were of course those safe, reseasonable voices in my head that told me what I wanted to do wasn't as good as staying at home, finding some secure job and continue on my way to affording a home and settling down. "Don't do anything risky, or foolish like wasting money and time, when you could be out there finding yourself a job or getting your Master's degree." But those voices didn't affect me long.

"Since when has God called us to be safe?" I asked. "And why would God choose to lay me off now from my job? "There's a sepcific reason why he did this", I thought. "And what was this feeling, this desire in my heart, this longing to seek God beyond the horizon." I realized then that this had to do much more than going on a little trip somewhere. This had to do with the priority of my heart. What was going to have a higher place in my life - my plans for success, of a home, a education, of a bigger salary or was it my quest to know God and to radically seek him?

I looked through a YWAM magazine I had taken from a missions conference and browsed through all the places I could go to. Finally, that night I made my decision. I was going with YWAM. I could not think of anything better than to go through a 3-month period in another country that I would use to study and come closer to God and another 3-month period following where I would be challenged to share my faith everyday and to serve him 24-7.

After looking in the magazine for several days and after speaking with some friends of mine I decided to go to Perth Australia. Why Perth? Why Australia? YWAM is everywhere. You can be overwhelmed with the possibilities of where to go. If I wanted to stay in the States I could, in fact there is a YWAM station in both San Diego and in LA. But I realized that part of this challenge was being out of my element, far away from what was familiar. YWAM recommends that you go to a station in a country that you've may have always wanted to visit, so I picked Australia.

Two weeks ago I bought my plane tickets and I've sent in my application.

The Layoff

2007-07-27T09:57:00.001-07:00

My story begins a month ago. I was on my way home from work. I was sitting in my car and had been talking to God. "God I'm not really happy where I'm at right now. I love the place that I work and the people I work with but I'm not happy with what I do." I felt that I needed more challenge.

My job responsibilities were fairly light. I was the administrative assistant to one of the pastors at Saddleback Church. I had started working on the Missions Team of the church more than a year ago, becaues I had been excited about being part of a revolutionary plan to mobilize millions of Christians to do the Great Commission. I did office work: filing, organizing, some basic accounting stuff but I felt like I needed more.

As I sat there I soon became a little worried. I had been in this situation before two years ago only I was working in a different place. Seeing that my circumstances were the same as before I began to ask myself, "Is my life really going anywhere? Why do I keep on running into these situations where I get into a dead-end job?"

"What do I do God?" I asked. "Should I quit my job and look for something else or do you have something for me where I'm working at and I just don't know it?" God spoke to me after I was finished. He said very simply, "I'm not going to give you my answer now but you need to wait for my answer." Great, well everyone who has ever waited on God for an answer to prayer knows that God's timing could mean weeks or even months and years down the road but I had been in that place a couple of times so I wasn't really expecting God's answer to come a week later.

I remembered how I felt when I first heard about the lay-off. I was sitting, listening to my boss, Skip, as he explained to our team at our last lunch together that there were certain changes coming to the Missions Team at Saddleback Church and there would be lay-offs. Skip couldn't tell us how many people or who exactly it would be let go but as he spoke I had the feeling, the kind of nervous anticipation one feels before you get on a roller-coaster. You sit down and then the protective harness comes down. You know its going to be fun but you can't help be a little scared. I realized then before I was actually let go that I wanted I truly wanted to be laid-off. I wanted to leave. It would have meant a fresh start in something new. "It could mean anything," I thought and I began imagining the possibilities. "Was this how God was answering my prayer?"

And then I walked into the office after our meeting. Some of us were still clinging to hope that the changes to our team wouldn't be so radical. We sat at our desks still trying to laugh and joke our way out of our nervousness. We were all expecting to hear the news of who was laid off the following day but one by one they called us into a separate office not two hours after we had come back from lunch. My friend Courtney was first and then James and finally they called me in and it was done. My last day would be Friday.