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.
No comments:
Post a Comment