Greetings from the Sunny Coast!!!!

Greetings from the Sunshine Coast of Australia!

As I have been getting used to being back here, I have noticed a few changes.  The base has grown exponentially over the past year.  We now have more vehicles, houses, and people staffing than ever before.  I am very fortunate that I know many of the staff already.  There are actually several people who were students with me during my school who are now staff.  My fellow Arizonian Sean Marin has been on staff ever since 2007 and has pioneered the media ministry here on the Sunny Coast.  Justin Tierney from Indiana and Kelly Tierney from Oregon were married in June and will be staffing.  Ashlee Rohrer from Pennsylvania has been on staff for nearly a year and has also been on several outreaches to Asia.  

I am very excited to start working with these great people and serving the community and each other.  For those of you who aren't familiar with how the base works, I will try and explain it.  The base acts as a platform for all the ministries that YWAM is involved in.  The Discipleship Training School, which is what I will be working with, is only one part of the base.  There are several people who work at the base, but are not directly involved with the DTS.  There is a skate ministry which works with a lot of the youth around the Sunshine Coast.  We also have a surfer's ministry that attracts people who live the surf lifestyle.  As mentioned before, we now have a media ministry which works with the DTS, the skate ministry, and the surfer's ministry.  And last there is a coffee shop at a wake boarding cable park.  For those of you who don't know what a wake boarding cable park is, its exactly like wake boarding, only you are pulled by giant cables that surround the park and not a boat.   

The Discipleship Training School starts on October 6.  For the first three months, the students will be in a classroom setting every morning Monday through Thursday until lunch time.  Each week offers an exciting new topic and speaker.  Students are expected to keep a journal, report on several books, and meet with their one on one which is assigned at the start of the program.  After the three months are over,students will have already split into teams which will go to other countries to do outreach.  Generally, we have teams gong into Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific.  

This particular school starting October 6th will have 20 male students out of 29 total students.  This translates into me being very busy and learning a lot along the way!  If you could please keep me in your prayers as well as these students, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.  I look forward to hearing from you and sharing my experiences.

Grace and Peace,

Matt Brown