Final Stages of Outreach

Outreach, what a crazy and exciting time in which I was able to grow with God in the practical application of what I have learned throughout the lecture phase.  In my previous post I told you about Living Waters Village in Indonesia, that is an orphanage and the vessel they are using to bring the gospel message to the remote parts of Indonesia.  There we did a lot of work that helps a ministry that is growing so vastly to keep running by doing manual labor work.  Then due to us only being able to get a 30 day visa in Indonesia we finished with our last three and a half weeks in Kuching, Malaysia.

In Malaysia we got involved with a youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Mervyn.  In the beginning we had limited ministry opportunities due to the bad experience they had previously had with a YWAM team.  Once we got past the first week though we seemed to get more and more opportunities each and every day as God just really worked through all of us.  We were involved mainly with the youth group and it was our greatest chance we had to minister.

With the youth we did several things as each Friday night they had a youth night that ran for about two hours.  At this Friday youth gathering they would have a game to start out with to break the ice as several new kids seemed to come each week.  We then had worship for about 30 to 45 minutes and after that we would give a message for about 30 minutes.  They then finished with prayer and asking those who need prayer to come to the middle and we would pray over them.  The issues of their lives were very similar to the ones that I went through in high school.  Malaysia is probably the most westernized Asian country so the only thing that is different is that they also mix that in with the Chinese culture their parents come from.  The youth there are very in tuned with God and it is amazing to see how they are seeking God with a desperate hunger.  Through that hunger you can see how God is really moving in Asia right now and the reason I really feel a calling to go back there as God gave me a heart for them.

We also were able to go to a youth retreat during the school holidays and we got a few more chances to minister to the core group of youth that put on a outreach retreat for about 150 youth that have not yet committed their lives to Christ.  During this retreat we stayed in the same rooms as the youth and got a chance to not only just preach to them, but also for them to ask us questions and just to relate to them.  Relating is a huge thing in Asia as everything is relationship based and if you are sharing the gospel message or any other message you have to first build a relationship or else your message will hold little to no weight in their lives.  We had talks at a primary school, church, Sunday schools, and several other spur of the moment ministry opportunities where we were able to share the gospel and have kids commit their lives to Christ.  The rest of the time we spent just hanging out with the different youth over their school holidays going out to eat, going to movies, going to see animals, and just hanging out. 

Just to give a little feedback on what we did on outreach I would like to tell you some of the highlights.  We saw somewhere around 400 plus salvations over the period of 10 weeks along with several people commit to walking in obedience and actually step out by faith.  One of the most remarkable things was huge number of people change their attitude by just seeing us and how we worked or went about our relationships with others.  Beyond all these things we poured out a lot of God’s love into several people and gave them encouragement to keep going.  The true results of our outreach may never be seen by us, but we will always remember the people and the experiences and we will trust in God to be with each and every one of them for the rest of their lives.

See you all soon as I will be coming home in a matter of a few days.

Outreach in the Jungle

Wow it has been a while since I have last updated all of you and I got to say that a lot of things have changed and happened in that time.  Last all of you knew I was in Coffs Harbour in Australia and had just got back from two weeks of doing outreach.  We had been working at a rehab center and speaking at All Nations church in Woolgoga and having their youth come and work with us over their school holidays. That really seems like months ago as I am now in Indonesia at Living Waters Village in the middle of the Jungle and less than one degree south of the equator.  So how about I tell you a little about what has happened in the three weeks we have been here.

So we arrived in Kuching, Malaysia on the 19^th of April at about midnight and they had some people come and pick us up and take us to the house that Living Waters Village has there that visitors can stay at.  We then had the next day off so we went and explored a little of Kuching and all the small shops that they have along the streets.  We then left on the 21^st of April to come to Living Waters Village and had a van ready to take us to the Indonesian border at 5 am.  It was about a 2 hour drive to the boarder and then we had to walk across and buy visas.  We however, were only able to get a 30 day visa and we were planning on being at the village for 52 days, which has now changed.  After we got our visas we headed to a bus that was going to take us to the village, when we walked up they were changing the tire on this rickety old bus which we eventually got on.  So then we proceeded down the road, if you want to call it that, it had rivers running across it in places, pot holes all over, and then some places there were complete washouts of the road surface.  So after about an hour of driving we stopped to change the tire again as it was starting to wobble, we then got that fixed and had no more hitches along the way.  We however made frequent stops at little towns or houses along the way to deliver rice and other goods, which was interesting that the buses do both bus driving and deliveries or our bus driver did anyways.  We then finally arrived at Living Waters Village at 8 pm that night and got introduced in front of all the kids during their Thursday night worship service.

We then got to celebrate Good Friday with all of them as they actually re-enacted the crucifixion of Jesus and red exerts along the way as we marched along their dirt road down to where they have three crosses standing.  This was a point to make the kids here understand fully what Good Friday is all about.  They then followed that up on Easter Sunday with the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb.  After this guy gave his testimony about how he survived a car wreck and gave his life to Christ because he had a revelation of where he would have gone if he would have died.  On Monday we then got a tour of all of Living Waters Village and it is like a little city of its own here.  They hire people from villages around to come and work construction here so they can help them out by giving them a steady income to support their families.  They also make the kids work here for the first year before they go to school so they can learn how to behave and have structure, which many of them know nothing about.  They have a little more than 500 kids here right now and it is growing about every three months were they see about 20 new kids come in.  They have many buildings that have gone up and several that are still going up all the time.  They right now have a cafeteria, which serves as a worship center also, a school for grades 1-4, a clinic, homes for each of the kids, and several other buildings that will make this village self sufficient within the next 10 years.  God has already done so many amazing things in the mere 8 years it has been running.

So the ministry we are doing here is totally different from many YWAM outreaches as we have done manual labor each and every day we have been here.  We change a bedroom that several kids had been sleeping in into a storage room.  We had to take down all the beds they had in there and repaint the entire thing as well as install railing for the second level, a place to lock stuff, shelves, and fences around half of the shelves so they could serves as little lockers in which you could stack stuff without it falling.  That was our project for the first two weeks as well as moving all the stuff from odd storage places to the now official storage room.  We then had a few days where we helped out around the property just doing maintenance jobs like changing light bulbs and fixing several little things around the village.  Then this past Saturday is a day that I will never forget for the rest of my life, it was the most humbling experience I have ever had in my life.  All the guys on our outreach team had the privilege of cleaning out the sewer pipes at the school that was clogged.  We had to actually glue pvc pipe together and try to fit it through the tube where all the sewage comes out.  It was the worst smelling thing and it took us all day and we got it unclogged, but sometimes serving the Lord isn’t always joyful to say the least.  We got through and looking back we blessed one of the staff people by doing that so it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

So they have four services every week that we have the opportunity to do ministry at and one of those being church and the rest are all evening activities that all the kids come to.  The first week we got to take all four services and I spoke on Sunday during the church service.  I spoke on the Ten Commandments and we saw 52 Indonesian kids stand up and make a commitment to Christ to live out a life that is holy and glorifying to God.  It was the first time they had ever had an alter call here so it was big for that many kids to stand up and make the commitment as there were about 200 kids in the service because  the young ones, which are the majority of kids here, left for Sunday School.  We then had an opportunity that following Tuesday evening, which we found out we were doing 30 minutes before, in which we talked about how we need to let our love for God be shown so we don’t let our friends, family, or other loved ones be lost sheep forever.  I then was given the microphone to close and I just got this vision that all the kids were going to scream out that they love the Lord and not be embarrassed by it, but actually to be proud of it.  I was on a roll and failed to actually give the interpreter time to talk as I had the coach mentality in me and every single one of the kids stood up and yelled “saya chinta Tuhan,” which means I love God in Indonesian.  On that Sunday each of us got to take a group of Sunday School classes and I got the youngest group of boys and talked to them about the story of Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea and we then got to sing Pharaoh, Pharaoh which all the kids loved because we got to do actions with them.  Then during supper on Sunday, which is an hour and a half before the evening service we were told again we were on for that nights service.  We decided to go with a theme that tied into giving the keys of your life to Christ and they wanted me to share my testimony so I did and shared a short version of it.  Then one of the ladies who is staff here felt God telling her to give her testimony so she did and then did an alter call and we saw about 200 or so kids commit to Christ and we got to pray over them.  Several burst into tears as we prayed for them and only about half of them understand English, so God definitely was working in their hearts on that night.

So, it is ridiculously hot here and we wake up each and every morning for prayer at 5:30 am and then we work all day doing physical labor in the blistering heat from 7-4.  I am doing some jobs that people get paid huge money for and I am giving much of my time away as well as the comforts of home and all the things that entail.  But, what I am learning and seeing is life changing and more than worth it.  I see where these kids come from and I have heard numerous testimonies of what kids have been through and I see where they are at now and it really puts the sacrifices you make into perspective, by me doing this work I am giving them a chance at a life that has value and that is in God.  I have also been learning a lot about working during the day and preaching at night, we need to align ourselves with them and their lifestyle before we can preach and find common ground.  They see us as superior and if we do their work and then preach to them they see us walking out what we speak about and that is really what matter because actions speak louder than words.

So I would just like to take a little  time to inform all of you what the next step in our outreach is as it has changed a little bit due to complications and just God really moving in our hearts as well as other peoples.  We only were able to get a 30 day visa in Indonesia so we have decided to go back to Malaysia on the 19^th of May and help out at a few churches and Christian Schools.  We are unable to do evangelism as if you attempt to convert a Muslim in Malaysia you go to jail.  We however have made contacts with a guy who has offered to set up ministry for us, as well as get us into schools.  Living Waters Village has offered us their house in Kuching as our living arrangements.  We then will be flying back to Australia on the 12^th of June and I will be spending a week there debriefing our missions trip with the leaders of the base and having our commissioning ceremony as we will have officially passed the DTS course.  I then will be flying back on Monday the 20^th and will have about a day to rest and then will be speaking at the United Methodist Church in Wood River on Wednesday evening at 7pm and then again for the Sunday church services at Wood River and Alda.  I thank all of you for your prayers and support and can’t wait to get back and share all of my amazing stories and experiences with you.

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.

A few pictures to keep you all updated

 My Sports DTS and the Rugby DTS

 A Goanno...this is for my nephew Noah (hope you enjoy)

A little taste of Sydney from a couple weeks ago

Missions

This week we had the topic of mission and what that means in our lives as we go on our outreach trips and what it means in the spectrum of the rest of our lives.  Our speaker was Waqa, who is from the Island Breeze YWAM base in Brisbane.  He is originally from Fiji and came to Australia about 15 years ago and has lived a life of mission ever since doing his own DTS.  He gave us a few statements telling us what being a missionary is about and it basically isn’t a job or an event it is a lifestyle.  With that lifestyle we are called to make disciples and not to make Christians out of all nations.  This is something that hit me as we try to make so many people fit into what we have molded Christians to be in the way we look, yet we fail to teach them how to live it which is the true mark of a disciple.

We discussed how the God we serve is a missionary God and if we read Genesis 1:1-4 then we can actually know all we need to know about who our God is.  In verse 1 we know that God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it.  God is omnipresent which means that He is everywhere all the time which we read in verse 2.  In verse 3 we know that our God is a God who communicates to us and His voice is a voice that brings peace within our spirit.  Verse 4 explains how our God is all knowing about everything and that He is all powerful and has power or authority over everything such as the enemy we face in the devil.  So when we look at who our God is in we hear about His glory and how Moses wanted to see His glory, but really in the Hebrew meaning which Genesis was written in there is no word for glory as it is unexplainable.  That is the God that we serve and are in partnership with, the God that takes our words away because of how amazing He is.

With our God being a missionary God the Bible is our missionary book, which was inspired by Him and His works.  The bible is the way that we can become closer to God and become in tuned with His will.  We all have many different bibles and if it all is inspired by God then why are there so many translations such as the KJV, NIV, and the Message?  Well the many different versions allow it to be cross cultural as it makes it possible to get past cultural and language barriers.  Waqa preached to us how it is so important to understand the vision of God and you can only do that by getting into His word, the Bible.

In getting in tuned with God’s word and helps us to see His vision and through that vision then we are able to be disciples and make disciples.  With this we have 3 challenges in every culture that we have to get past in order to achieve our mission or goal of a lifestyle, which missions is.  We have to overcome the issue of money as a source of integrity, sex as the foundation of a relationship and not using it in the context of why God created it, and power as a means of authority because God is our authority and we get our rights from Him.  These challenges are ones that are huge and in each area you have to get in tuned with their culture before you can actually tackle these issues.  This all takes hard work and time and this isn’t just in third world countries it is right at home in the community and things we need to teach ourselves and the next generation.

This week we got a true taste of missions and how it is something that is cross-cultural and one in which you have to be relational and take time to get to know other cultures and their interest.  Waqa is in charge of the Rugby DTS and brought down nine guys with him and 8 of them were from Fiji and one was from Scotland.  It was amazing to learn about their culture in Fiji and just see how generous and relational they are in the Fijian culture.  The truly love their neighbor over there and it is custom to invite others over for meals and if you don’t then you are seen as lesser of a person because you are going against the culture.  The Fijian guys here are very generous as they gave me this Fijian Rugby jersey, which is an $80 gift and they still don’t have enough money for them to go on outreach.  They also put on a show for us with their dances and songs and it seriously is some of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, sounded like angels singing.  This generosity just continued to pour in from others this week as I was about $1,000 short for outreach and my church and its members took up and offering and through that has provided me with all the funds I need to go on outreach.  Our God is a God of love and with that He wants us to be a unified body from missions to Sunday church service and everything in between.  When we have faith and works in our faith with that love we are blessing others and God will bless us and I have seen those examples in my life over these last couple weeks.

Spiritual Warfare

Our topic this week was Spiritual Warfare and we had the privilege of having our leader Jeff Boardman speak on this topic.  Jeff has had a number of things happen throughout his life and was left to raise three kids on his own.  He is a man that has been through a lot and has a great testimony on what it is to engage in spiritual warfare.  He laid everything out on the table and gave us the fact that every day we are in war at all times and it is part of life not an event.  The only way that we can prepare ourselves for warfare is by knowing who we are in Christ and living responsibly before God.

Our verse for the week was Eph 6: 10-20, which talks about putting on the Armor of God.  By putting on this armor means that we know God and his character and through that we may cast out any dark forces that present themselves in our lives.  Some of the dark forces may be as simple as sin and the desires of it that the devil puts before us, however, they may also be manifesting in another person.  We need to understand that our battle isn’t against our flesh and blood it is against the supernatural dark powers.  The devil wants to lead us into deception, bondage, and destruction and that can manifest in a number of ways in each of our lives and we can all think of a few pretty easily.  So the foundation of staying away from dark forces and casting them out of your lives and others around you is to put on the armor of God, it helps you to recognize the strategies of the enemy, refuse to cooperate with those strategies, and then cut the strategies of the enemy off by the name of Jesus.

Every day we are in war yet we determine how much of the enemy we have to fight be wavering from the word of God.  The war we fight is based upon how tight we keep an eye on the gate, meaning what decisions we make in different circumstances.  We can make sure that we keep the gates closed by not believing inferior or condemning thoughts in our minds, giving our attitudes and emotions over to God and denying and fleshly nature, the words that we speak, and the relationships we live in.  To do this we have to see the cross from the top and the outpouring of God’s love for us as His children.

If we take up the Armor of God we have authority over the evil forces based upon what Jesus did to Satan.  Jesus disarmed Satan and destroyed his works.  We can our authority for what Jesus did for us, He delivered us and the authority to exercise His power.  When we deny our flesh we have God and realize He that is within us is greater, the devil stops when we use the name of Jesus.  So how do we exercise this authority that Jesus has bestowed upon us?  We us the name of Jesus, the word of God, the dynamic guiding of the Holy Spirit, the blood of the lamb (denying the flesh), and the word of our testimony all in congruence with one another.  When we do this we realize that God and his character are perfect and it stays consistent as the day is long.

So then why is there evil in our world if God is so powerful and loving and just?  See this is the argument that we hear a lot and we give into the strategies of the enemy and doubt the character of God.  We should never try to interpret the character of God by circumstances, we need to see the circumstance, bring light to it through scripture, and then compare that to what we know about the character of God.  God gives all humans free choice or free will and people tend to give into the flesh easily and are then in a battle because they took off the armor of God and gave in to sinful acts.  Know that the temptations that we have each and every day are not more than any of us can handle because there is always a way to escape, we can depend on the character of God because it is our only true hope.

The next time you are faced with circumstance I hope that you aren’t looking up and asking why God has put you in this place rather you are looking down seeing the love of God and blessings He has given you.  We are always looking for more from God and we forget to give him thanksgiving and praise for the wonderful thing He has already done.  This is something that I struggled with this week as we are getting ready to go on outreach and I am thinking about when I get back home in June.  This is tough for me as I am unsure of so many things and how they are going to work out.  This was a time where I gave into the enemy and let my mind think about the “what if’s” when I get back and doubted the character of God.  By doing this I open the gate to be attacked by the enemy and I was as I was almost in panic mode, but then I went back to the word and found the verse Luke 12:24 which says, “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn: yet God feeds them.  And how much more valuable you are than birds!”  This put things into perspective for me and helped me to realign with the character of God. 

I have two more weeks of lectures until I go on outreach to Coff Harbour, here in Australia for two weeks and then off to Borneo for the final eight weeks of outreach.