Finished in Newcastle...Back to the Sunny Coast

So I have now completed the 1st portion of the Certificate IV Phase 1 course on training and assessment in Australia.  In order to get the certificate, I must complete several more requirement while I am staffing the DTS starting July 6th.  It's "on the job" training.  

One thing I have certainly learned here in this course is that it is very necessary and helpful to have taken the course.  Before it started I was skeptical on why it had to be done and just wanted to be able to staff without any hassle of taking a two week course.  However, the course taught me so much about YWAM and gave me an appreciation for the criteria we have set up for our students.  If we didn't have high standards, then we could easily settle for a mediocre experience.  I think God is teaching me that it is important to push the students and myself for the very best.  Another thing I learned is that assessing students according to the criteria helps us to address one thing at a time instead of trying to help the students figure everything out at once, which is impossible.  This course heavily relies on teaching through experience and that is the very best way.  

So today I am flying back to the Sunshine Coast and will have about 3 weeks to work on everything for the upcoming school.  There is lots and lots to talk about and figure out, but I am looking forward to it.  Also, my girlfriend Brittany will be coming out near the end of June to attend the school as well.  I am very excited about the next season and the new school coming up.  Please keep me in your prayers as I have many responsibilities and only a short time.  Thank you so much also, for all the encouragement when I was home.  I was so glad to hear that there are many who read the blogs and enjoy them.  I will try and update once a week...

Back in Australia

So I have successfully made it back to Australia and have been here for about a week now.  However, I am not back yet on the Sunshine Coast where I live and work.  I am in Newcastle, Australia for a 2 week course called Cert IV.  It is a course for DTS staff in order to offer the best possible training for students doing a DTS in Australia.  For those of you who are still fuzzy on what YWAM is and does I found a mission statement in some of the materials I have familiarizing myself with for this course.  It reads:

"Youth With A Mission (YWAM) is an international movement of Christians from many denominations dedicated to presenting Jesus personally to this generation, to mobilizing as many as possible to help in this task, and to the training and equipping of believers for their part in fulfilling the Great Commission.  As citizens of God's kingdom, we are called to love, worship, and obey our Lord, to love and serve His Body, the Church, and to present the whole Gospel for the whole person throughout the whole world."  I thought this was a clear description of what YWAM is and why I am a part of it.  

This week has been very busy with working through this course.  We spend a lot of time practicing what we have been taught in pretend situations.  It has been fun getting to know staff from other bases here in Australia also.  Fortunately, we also have time during the weekend to sightsee.  On Sunday we are going into Sydney which is a few hours drive from here in Newcastle.  We plan on going to a Hillsong church there for an evening service.  This course will last until the 29th of May and then I will be traveling back to the Sunshine Coast to prepare for the school starting in July.

Leaving home for the third time was very difficult and probably the hardest thing about coming back here.  I miss all of you at home, especially my family.  I am praying for you and think about you daily.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support.  I am excited for this next season of DTS.  

Back to Oz

So the time has come to go back again to Australia.  The time here in Arizona has gone by so fast.  I am so glad that I got to see many of you while I have been back and spend some time with you.  It has been such a blessings to be able to come back, have a place to live and work, and spend time with friends and family.  Thank you to everyone who has supported me both through prayer and financially.  It means the world and would not be possible without you.  I am leaving Thursday the 14th and will fly out of L.A. at 11:30 pm.   

When I get back to Australia on the 16th, I will be attending a 2 week certification class in Newcastle, Australia (near Sydney) that helps me to assess students among other things because YWAM is an accredited operation.  After that, I will fly back to Brisbane and drive to the Sunshine Coast!  I will have roughly 3 weeks before we start staff training for the July DTS staff.  During those 3 weeks I will be working on organizing the training as well as working on talks for it.  Also, I will be working on talks for the "week of prayer" which I will be speaking on.  I am nervous about speaking, but I am gaining more appreciation for prayer as I have been reading about it and practicing it.  I hope to be hearing from all of you again as I update the blogs regularly.     

While back in the U.S....

I felt compelled to write about what I have been doing since I've been in the U.S.  There have been lots of opportunities to meet up with family and friends and I have been taking advantage of those times.  I was also blessed to learn that I can pick up shifts at my old job working in the group home with 12-17 year old boys.  Also, I have been working on a video from our outreach that I will be giving to the outreach team and to supporters.  The video has been a long process as I am wanting it to be done well and used in churches for presentations.  

It has been hard to be back in the states again and usually is after a DTS experience.  But I am so glad to have some great support from friends and family.  I am hoping to be able to see everyone at least once while I am back.  

I will be leaving again for Australia on May 14th as I have a training to attend in Newcastle, Australia for 2 weeks.  I am very excited to get to staff another school and I also have a friend here from Tucson who will be doing a DTS.  Her name is Brittany and she is very excited to go and also has grandparents who live in Brisbane.  Part of my job this school will be recruiting staff and I am in need of female staff.  Most of the schools that start in July have a majority of girls and it seems that there is a lack of female staff.  I am hopeful that I will get some soon. 

Thanks for all of your prayers and support and I hope to see all of you during my time back here:)   

Back from Outreach

After two months of traveling from Cambodia to Thailand, our team of twelve is back in Australia.  The last week of DTS here will include debrief where students will get to celebrate and share their outreach experiences.  We also talk in depth about plans for after students get home.  It will be a tough transition going from third world nations back home to the Western world.  This is known better as reverse culture shock.  On top of that, students are wrestling with ideas about what to do next in their lives.  Many students show up at a DTS hoping that it all falls into place (I know I did on my DTS), but it does not.  We have to base our decisions on our will and not on emotions.  Students are challenged throughout the week to continue to look for ways in which they can "continue on" with the same mindset they have here back home.  It is easy to allow the comforts of home and ease of life to distract us from getting out and doing something for God.  Also, students are given information about how they can continue with YWAM if they choose and come back to staff.  

It is without a doubt a very fun and exciting week, but it is also a fork in the road for almost everyone involved.  Please keep the staff and students in your prayers as they think about these things.  

As for the last part of outreach,  we had been helping Pastor Wasan build a pre-school and also teaching English to some Thai people at a local community center.  The guys team was so grateful for their experience with Pastor Wasan.  We all got to see a man who's heart is fully devoted to serving God and people any way possible.  He is inspiring to say the least.  

Thailand is a very unique country in that it has it's own culture apart from Western influence.  Thailand is very closed off to Christianity because they see it as being influenced by the Western Culture.  They don't understand that the Kingdom of God transcends all cultures in all times.  But meeting people like Pastor Wasan left me with some hope that there are Thai people who are making a difference and helping Christ change lives.

 

Pastor Wasan & the Thai Coast

Since February 2, our team has again split into two different ministries and gone to two different areas of Thailand.  All four of the ladies on our team have gone to Phucket to work with “She” ministries”, which helps women in prostitution.  “She ministries” tries to employ women who want out of the prostitution industry.  They make jewelry, sell chocolate, and work in various other trades. 

All eight of our guys have been working with a man named Pastor Wasan.  Pastor Wasan is an example of what Paul was talking about when he mentions doing good whenever we have opportunity.  Wasan has been helping out here on the Thai Coast ever since the Tsunami of 2004.  He has helped to build dozens of homes for people.  He is a liaison for churches and other groups who want to come and help out.  Currently he is working on a project to build a new preschool for some local children.  He also is a full time pastor, windshield repairman, and father.  He is possibly the most humble man I have ever met in my life.  Never does he consider himself before other people.  He has really had an influence on the guys of this team and myself.  We are constantly amazed at what he does for us and for others.  People stop by all the time that he has helped in the past to give him some fresh seafood or some other gift.  He always accepts them but usually finds a way to pass the blessing on to someone else.  He always says, “Praise God that He always provides for me”.  The man literally lives to serve others and loves to do it.  The people he helped after the Tsunami wanted to name a pier after him and he refused.  He is an example of a godly man for all of us guys who strive to be the same. 

We have been helping Pastor Wasan at the preschool and also with his Saturday and Sunday children’s programs.  Every day after work, Wasan takes our team to the beach for a quick swim.  It is just one of many things he does to thank us for helping him.   

Phang Nga, Thailand

Our team is now in Southern Thailand where we will spend the rest of outreach phase.  Some things have changed for us since we have been here.  My co-leader and I both agreed that our team was hard to manage because we were 12 people.  We found it overwhelming to try and disciple everyone with our different leadership styles.  Fortunately, a staff person from YWAM Sunshine Coast came out to visit for a few days.  I mentioned Merv in last week's blog.  He suggested that it might be more effective to split our team up.  This allows us to put more responsibility on the students and allows us to challenge them to step up.  We also can give more attention to each student on the team.  

So far, it has been much better.  The students had mixed feelings about leaving one another but I know this was the best decision for our team.  I have already witnessed people stepping up and taking more initiative. 

So far, my team has been working with a church here in Phang Nga.  Of a town of 50,000, there are mostly Buddhists and Muslims here.  We have had a chance to go into a couple of schools and teach English.  We are also helping out with a community center this week that is building a fence and a coffee shop.  The challenges here in Thailand are new, but the work is very similar.  I'm hoping to see the students gain an understanding of how much people need to hear the the Truth here.  We have been so blessed with this opportunity and have already seen so much here.  Compared to Cambodia, the quality of life is much higher here.  The food is phenomenal, but we have had a lot of sicknesses over the past week.  Please pray that our team gets healthy and that we seize any opportunity we have to share with people here.