This is what I have been up to the last two weeks

The last two weeks we have been at Sherwood Cliffs, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, in Coffs Harbour, Australia.  It is a place that is about forty minutes on a gravel road outside of town, so it is out in the middle of nowhere.  This rehabilitation facility is a place that has been running for 32 years now and was founded and runs still today by faith in Christ.  It was founded by John and Honi and they started with nothing and lived by faith for all of their lives.  They bought the land that the rehab center is on by money they were given when they talked about the vision God had given them and each bigger vision they got they received more funds to supply for that vision.  Sherwood Cliffs is a place that is just for men so after it got started and was off and running they had this vision to start a women’s rehab facility that they could host women and their children as they get away from their addictions.  On May 7, seventeen years later from when they had the first vision, Sherwood Glen a women’s drug and alcohol rehab facility will open and begin changing lives of women as Sherwood Cliffs has done for men the last thirty-two years.

So now a little about what we did there and how we got into our outreach phase of our DTS.  We started each and every morning at 9 am with praise and worship and a daily devotion, which each one of us read and discussed how we thought God was speaking to us through that reading.  We then would have our work day start at 10:30 am and we would work until 5 pm with an hour lunch break in between that.  For our work we had the opportunity of doing a lot of manual labor at Sherwood Glen, the women’s facility that will be opening in May.  When we got there they had just received a huge donation to get all the paving of the walkways and sheds done as well as plants and trees for the gardens to make the place look and feel welcoming.  When we got there they had two guys working and not a lot had gotten done as they hadn’t had enough help or resources to make any advancement on the property.  So our being there and everything else falling into place as it did was a divine intervention from God.  As we left they thanked us for the blessing that we were for getting so much work done, which was very hard at times when we had to dig holes for fence posts. 

While we were up there we also got to interact with the seekers, whom are the recovering addicts at Sherwood Cliffs seeking to find Christ.  The rehab is only successful in making a change through God, which is the new life that He offers us once we repent and commit ourselves to living a life that is holy and guided by Him.  In interacting with the three that were there at the time we got a good perspective on what changes they had and are making in their lives.  One particular seeker, Jaime, is one that I can see the most change in and how he is now living a life for Christ.  It was his third time back at Sherwood as he found relapsing was very easy if you don’t take up Christ, the only true change to a life of purity.  He is a guy who has had some pretty horrific things happen to him and also has made some pretty horrible choice that has lead him down a path of destruction, which drugs easily do to you.  Jaime after his thirds stint of six months at Sherwood Cliffs now is looking to Christ and has began to feel a conscience inside of him that leads him to making the right choices; some may call this the Holy Spirit guiding him.  Whatever the case this is a man that has been through a lot and has made a lot of bad decisions, but now has found Christ and is living for Him and leading several of his friends and family to the Lord.  What a testimony this guy has about God and His grace that He offers us and that is a message that we got to help him see that he could share with youth about choices of a righteous life.

During our time there we also got to speak at All Nations Church, which is the home church for the Living Water Ministries we are going to be working with in Borneo, Indonesia.  At this Church we all got a chance to speak about what God has been speaking to us throughout our DTS and how we see that working in our lives and what impact that will have in the ministry in Indonesia.  This was in Woolgoolga, a surfing culture town that is swarming with young people.  By going into this church we got to speak to the youth about the importance of their decisions they make now and how it will take them on either a path that hinders them or a path that blesses them.  This was a huge message and we got to talk to these youth and the rest of the church two times that Sunday and we really saw the message sink in.  We saw 15 of the youth from the church come out over their school holidays and devote two days to help out working and doing manual labor down at Sherwood Glen.  This was pretty impactful as we got to speak into the lives of many of them and see how they were already stepping out and making choices to follow Christ and that is a choice that they will reap benefits from for the rest of their lives.

So during the entire time we spent at Sherwood Cliffs we were able to experience a variety of things and help others serve the Lord through the rehab center and the huge mission field of youth that Woolgoolga is.  From this we saw a number of blessing as people bought us meals came to see us at Sherwood Cliffs two different times to speak to us about what God had planned for us and how they blessed our team with $1450.  Through our outreach team being obedient to God in the decisions we made about what to speak about and how to communicate it we saw the blessings of God pour out upon us and overflow our cups.  This is the application of the lecture phase that so many people hear about and yet never experience but I can say I experienced that first hand twice.  For example I was about $1,000 short of being able to fund my trip to Borneo so I emailed my church and they took up a donation and they raised $1,371 and that was the exact amount of money that I owed to be able to go on this outreach, without taking any money out of my own bank account.  I just want to say that God is amazing and He knows our needs and if we step out in obedience and trust in Him then He will provide because it is who He is in His character and His character never changes, it is as consistent as the day is long.

Vision and Calling

This week was our final week on our Sports DTS and we had the topic of Vision, Calling, and Destiny.  Our speaker was Teveta Coffa and he is originally from Tonga and has lived in Australia and China much of his life carrying out the calling God has put on his life.  Tevata was a part of this base here in Newcastle, Australia and also has been a huge part in the rising up of Christians in China.  Teveta has a family and they are a part of his vision and calling and they way he interacts with his 3 kids makes it evident the love the God is pouring into his life.  He explained that when talking about Vision, Calling, and Destiny we need to take into account four things; beginning, you, world, and convergence.

When we look back to the beginning we have to understand what was on God’s heart when He decided He wanted to create us out of an abundance of His love.  The way we were created by God brings up many questions in one’s faith, but if we take each and every one of those questions back to God and ask what was on His heart we will be astonished at the abundance of His love.  Some of us in the world today believe that history happens on a timeline and other cultures believe that the timeline is very cyclical.  Either way when we look at history we find that events tend to repeat themselves in one way or another.  So if you want to see where you are going in the wise, perfect, and best plan of God then you need to know where you come from.  Each of our names means so much and within that family each of us has a certain place.  This is similar as our last name gives us an identity in our community and for certain people even in the world as someone who carried their last name did something amazing that revolutionized the world that we know today.  My last name Lucas means, ‘bringer or light,’ when we look at that I can see how that will fit into my calling of the future.

Calling, what does it mean to be called to do something?  God makes it very clear that he has predestined each and every one of us to be like Jesus and bear the image of our heavenly father.  However, if we are going to actually hear and take in what God has planned for our lives then we need to hear God in the way He leads us and also we need to respond and take a step out in faith.  In doing this we actually go through three stages of development, which takes us into a deeper intimate relationship with Christ.  We first come to God as children in a childlike sense confessing our sins and knowing our father with forgive us.  We then become young men or young women and overcome through knowing the word of the Lord is in you and being strong because in Christ all things are possible.  Then through understanding the Father we know Him who is from the beginning and if we keep our eyes fixed on him then there is no way we will falter.  When we think about our calling we can see it as a child first starting to walk and you keep encouraging them and picking them up when they fall down.  You know that the child is trying their hardest, yet they just don’t have enough balance and strength to fully go forward so you guide them while still protecting them from getting hurt.  Our heavenly father is just like this He is going to pick us up when we fall down and if we keep our eyes fixed on Him then we won’t ever take a tumble that we can’t overcome.

We have the knowledge of where we came from and how we fit into that, but how do w fit that into what is happening in the world and how we go about changing it to glorify the kingdom of God?  This is the initiative that is very difficult and requires a lot of faith, but also is the time where you learn the most and develop character.  YWAM is doing this and this is what a DTS is all about, building character and letting that character be defined by God and the relationship He has with you.  Our world today can be split into seven spheres; family, church, education, arts/entertainment, media, business, and government.  Each one of these is very important for us to reach as Christians.  YWAM currently is filling the section of the church as a body of Christ ministering to the nations.  Each one of these sphere however is interlinked and helps us to know how to reach out to all the children of God in a way that speaks to them and will help them glorify God.  For example, China is a huge country that some think may overtake the USA as the national power and the huge area in which they plan to do that is by the business sphere as so much stuff we buy as consumers comes from there.  China however has over 400 million Christians in it and is seeing 33,000 people convert each and every day.  The blessings of God came upon the USA due to the focus on God, so maybe is it now as more Christians come out of China now that country has blessings from God also?  These are just thought and help us to see the magnitude of how each of the seven spheres will impact our world in one way or another.

Once we see how our beginning in history affects us, how we answer the calling of the Lord, and what that means in the seven spheres of the world we then have to know how to fit all that together to do God’s will.  That is something that is a huge task, yet really if we wait upon the Lord we will see guidance and blessings pour out.  If we continue to sow in to the word of the Lord each and every day and let it live in us then we will see reconciliation among nations and hundreds of millions of people led to the inheritance of God each and every day.  It is up to us how much we want to walk in faith with God, but Moses also had that choice at the burning bush and if he wouldn’t have listened to the call of God imagine where we might be at today.  These are the great lessons I have learned this week and speak volumes to me as I go on outreach looking into what my calling is while there and then also some of the huge things God has called me to after completing my DTS.