I have a potential 5 week furlough at this point in my work here. I'm aiming at getting home at the end of October, we will see how that works out though. If I get home I would love to meet up with as many of you as I can, just to talk about what I have been doing down here. Its very hard to completely share with these updates. That way you could ask me questions and I could share more in depth. It would just be very good to get home and visit all of my family, and to meet with and catch up with much of my home church family as well. If I God provides a way home, I hope to meet up with as many of you as possible. Please pray that doors would open and finances would come in to see this furlough happen.
Anyway, I will be taking a first aid course this next week to get a first aid certificate and I will also be meeting with a couple of my leaders to debrief me on my conduct as a leader, the students that I was over filled out a leader assessment form. I'm pretty excited to see what they have put and to maybe even learn from some of it. Hopefully all is well! haha.
Anyway, thats the news for this week. Just a few logisitical things around base, God Bless you all.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Kuma
In Kuma village, which was the first village we were in we went to an island where there was a cave that we walked through, and there was a shipwreck, and a whole "stacka" (lots of in SI pigin) coconut trees. So they showed us around and caught some crabs, dug a hole and made them fight each other. Climbed a tree that was probably about 12 stories high to get some coconuts, then husked them with either their teeth or a machete, so fast I couldn't even catch up, so we had coconut milk and coconut meat for lunch. We also got them all together and played some form of water polo in the amazing blue water of the South Pacific ocean.
While playing soccer with some of the kids one day, a child was sitting on a branch pretty high up, Nathaniel (my co-leader) went up and jokingly scared the kid, but because we were white and had just arrived to the village, a village that had never seen white people, the kid DID get scared. To make a long story short, the kid FREAKED out, the branch broke and he fell out of the tree. Luckily he landed on sand and island kids are as tough as nails, so as quick as he fell, he took off FAST running the opposite direction of Nate, haha.
One of the students, Brodie, was speaking for his first time in Kuma village. He is a very anointed speaker, although he is just stepping into it, his potential is very evident. He spoke on the Lordship of Christ and how salvation is not Christianity, thats like saying birth is your life. So when the people heard this message the holy spirit fell, and the whole room fell on their face and wept, including the team. People were slain in the spirit, healed in every sense, recommited to Christ and motivate to surrender to the Lord fully. It was a VERY powerful night indeed. It was like one of those evangelistic moves in Africa when a million people come to the Lord at once, much smaller scale, but the spirit truly moved powerfully through Brodie.
Anyway, some more cool stories from the Solomon Islands!
While playing soccer with some of the kids one day, a child was sitting on a branch pretty high up, Nathaniel (my co-leader) went up and jokingly scared the kid, but because we were white and had just arrived to the village, a village that had never seen white people, the kid DID get scared. To make a long story short, the kid FREAKED out, the branch broke and he fell out of the tree. Luckily he landed on sand and island kids are as tough as nails, so as quick as he fell, he took off FAST running the opposite direction of Nate, haha.
One of the students, Brodie, was speaking for his first time in Kuma village. He is a very anointed speaker, although he is just stepping into it, his potential is very evident. He spoke on the Lordship of Christ and how salvation is not Christianity, thats like saying birth is your life. So when the people heard this message the holy spirit fell, and the whole room fell on their face and wept, including the team. People were slain in the spirit, healed in every sense, recommited to Christ and motivate to surrender to the Lord fully. It was a VERY powerful night indeed. It was like one of those evangelistic moves in Africa when a million people come to the Lord at once, much smaller scale, but the spirit truly moved powerfully through Brodie.
Anyway, some more cool stories from the Solomon Islands!
Friday, August 18, 2006
Guatalcanal, Choisuel, Western Province
Those are the three provinces we were in within the Solomon Islands! Solomon Islands is an interesting nation, being 95% Christian. Very nominal Christian, but Christian beliefs nonetheless. Its even a Christian nation, meaning their government is Christian. They are passing a bill in Government that is going to take 10% of the government annual revenue and put it toward the churches as a tithe! Pretty Freakin amazing. Thats why we need strong men and women of God in Canada to be getting into high government places, influencing the world from the top down and the bottom up at the same time. From the inside out. There are many other Christian principals that they hold to that you would never see come to pass in the west, unless things change and people start to pray for their nation rather than just picket and demonstrate! Thats where the power comes from, not from the will of man, but the will of God unlocked through prayer! Another food story would be the amazing LOBSTER and CRAB that we had nearly every meal, haha. At first they were scared to feed us "their food", when we showed up they remarked "What do we feed white people?". But as they saw us eat the canned tuna without dismay they started to feed us fish heads and lobster etc... It was great, they catch about 30 lobster a night on a good night. So we had much good food to eat, interesting food at times as well, but all edible enough.
Another ministry story would be when in Taro (Choisuel province) we went to pray for people at the hospital and as we walked in I got a pain in my wrists and really felt like there was someone who had pains in their wrists right there in that room, so I asked them if anyone did. And one lady stood up and said, "Yes, I have problems with many joint pains" and particularly in her wrists. So we prayed for her and she was instantly healed. God was really moving powerfully while we were there and the name of Jesus was glorified and many peoples eyes were opened to the reality of God! It was truly an amazing trip with much Kingdom fruit harvested.
Anyway, another update to come within the week for sure. God Bless
Adam
Another ministry story would be when in Taro (Choisuel province) we went to pray for people at the hospital and as we walked in I got a pain in my wrists and really felt like there was someone who had pains in their wrists right there in that room, so I asked them if anyone did. And one lady stood up and said, "Yes, I have problems with many joint pains" and particularly in her wrists. So we prayed for her and she was instantly healed. God was really moving powerfully while we were there and the name of Jesus was glorified and many peoples eyes were opened to the reality of God! It was truly an amazing trip with much Kingdom fruit harvested.
Anyway, another update to come within the week for sure. God Bless
Adam
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Village to City
I'm back, back in the hustle and bustle of city life. Pretty sureal actually, after living without shopping for 6 weeks. Where people just kill their food themselves or garden it themselves anyway. Now there is roads, I don't have to canoe everywhere! I can walk on a footpath or get a ride, or take a train. No more wearing whatever I grab first, in Choisuel the people just where whatever they can get, Most only have one MAYBE two pairs of clothes that rarely match. But now, I have to make sure that I am colour co-ordinated (which, by the way, is a struggle for me anyway) while making sure that I've washed my clothes in the past few days, haha. Its actually kind of tough re-adjusting all the time. Now, on the other hand, I VERY much missed my friends here, and music, and having access to let you all know whats going on, etc... When I get home I am always far more thankful for whats around me.
Anyway, some interesting tidbits about Choisuel, or ministry in Choisuel. Well, I figured the best way would be to tell some facts and then one major story and do that every day this week or every other day. So for today! We went to a village called Kolony, a very religious community, disunity and the spirit of religiousity was disgustingly thick there. God created man and man created religion, God didn't want a religion, but a relationship. This was what was constantly on my mind here. This village is where I was out for a couple days with malaria. However, before I got malaria, I was around for one of the kids times, which we ran every afternoon. At this point we were just getting to know the kids, so we decided to play a game where we roll them a ball and they have to say 'nam blong me (my name is) Peter' and then 'me nambawan caicai (my favourite food is) fish' etc... There was one kid however who caught the ball and says 'nam blong me...coconut', I'm not to sure if he understood the game, then again maybe I was the naive one and his name was coconut, I don't know. But it was pretty much the cutest thing ever, everyone had a good laugh.
We got to eat many wild and exotic foods while we were there such as sea turtle, which is illegal to eat EVERYWHERE in the world (I believe) except in Solomon Islands, because its an endangered species. But solomon Islanders can kill them as long as its not to sell them, just to eat them! So on the final feast in one of the villages (Kuma, the first village) there was this great meat out there on a platter, we ate a lot of it. I thought it was chicken with some odd seasoning at first, it was actually VERY good, but it was very interesting that there were NO bones. Usually there are many bones in their chicken. Then the I asked the pastor with a mouth full of food "whas dis delisus meapff" and he pointed beside him on the floor. There on the floor was a GIANT sea turtle head and some kids picking the meat off it. I just stared for a second then cracked up laughing. Well, it was very good anyhow.
As for ministry. We had opportunity to speak probably about 10 times each at least (there were 6 of us). So a lot of our ministry was teaching. I taught on hope and faith mainly, then gave my testimony, based on destiny and how God speaks into our potential. He speaks into who He created us to be, even if we aren't walking in it. Anyway, those are great and I'm passionate about all of those. I got an opportunity though, to speak on missions near the end. When God sent us to Solomons, we all felt like God was saying to mobilize Islanders for missions into South East Asia and Muslim nations. Islanders are made to be missionaries, they have insane adaptibility and strength, independance, self-sufficiency, etc... And many of them are strong Christians, they just have this mentality, that they are the mission field, not missionaries. Anyway, I preached for an hour and a half about what God is doing in the world right now in terms of the Great Commission, I told many stories, talk about the history of the spreading of the gospel and the book of Acts, then I talked about what prophets today were saying, and I talked about how its our job to reach this world. Ten of the maybe twenty-five in the room came forward at the mission call and got prayed for, we took up an offering so the body could help support them and sent them into the mission field. Some were old men with businesses and families, willing to give it all because they knew they were meant to be on the mission field. Some were 15 year old kids who had had dreams earlier that week about a man coming and telling them to go into missions. We were praying that those who need to go who have dreams of going into missions, and it really happened it was amazing. After losing my voice and sweating my shirt to saturation, I got some of the team to pray for them. But I found a piece of my calling, THAT is what I'm passionate about doing in the Kingdom, is seeing people thrown into their destiny. Whether missions or business, or carpentry..."The glory of God is man fully alive" - St Iraneus. Man fully alive, is man fully in his identity and destiny! It was awesome.
So some cool stories, tune in for more on what the nation was like, more funny stories and more great moves of God in the Solomon Islands!
Much Love! Adam
Anyway, some interesting tidbits about Choisuel, or ministry in Choisuel. Well, I figured the best way would be to tell some facts and then one major story and do that every day this week or every other day. So for today! We went to a village called Kolony, a very religious community, disunity and the spirit of religiousity was disgustingly thick there. God created man and man created religion, God didn't want a religion, but a relationship. This was what was constantly on my mind here. This village is where I was out for a couple days with malaria. However, before I got malaria, I was around for one of the kids times, which we ran every afternoon. At this point we were just getting to know the kids, so we decided to play a game where we roll them a ball and they have to say 'nam blong me (my name is) Peter' and then 'me nambawan caicai (my favourite food is) fish' etc... There was one kid however who caught the ball and says 'nam blong me...coconut', I'm not to sure if he understood the game, then again maybe I was the naive one and his name was coconut, I don't know. But it was pretty much the cutest thing ever, everyone had a good laugh.
We got to eat many wild and exotic foods while we were there such as sea turtle, which is illegal to eat EVERYWHERE in the world (I believe) except in Solomon Islands, because its an endangered species. But solomon Islanders can kill them as long as its not to sell them, just to eat them! So on the final feast in one of the villages (Kuma, the first village) there was this great meat out there on a platter, we ate a lot of it. I thought it was chicken with some odd seasoning at first, it was actually VERY good, but it was very interesting that there were NO bones. Usually there are many bones in their chicken. Then the I asked the pastor with a mouth full of food "whas dis delisus meapff" and he pointed beside him on the floor. There on the floor was a GIANT sea turtle head and some kids picking the meat off it. I just stared for a second then cracked up laughing. Well, it was very good anyhow.
As for ministry. We had opportunity to speak probably about 10 times each at least (there were 6 of us). So a lot of our ministry was teaching. I taught on hope and faith mainly, then gave my testimony, based on destiny and how God speaks into our potential. He speaks into who He created us to be, even if we aren't walking in it. Anyway, those are great and I'm passionate about all of those. I got an opportunity though, to speak on missions near the end. When God sent us to Solomons, we all felt like God was saying to mobilize Islanders for missions into South East Asia and Muslim nations. Islanders are made to be missionaries, they have insane adaptibility and strength, independance, self-sufficiency, etc... And many of them are strong Christians, they just have this mentality, that they are the mission field, not missionaries. Anyway, I preached for an hour and a half about what God is doing in the world right now in terms of the Great Commission, I told many stories, talk about the history of the spreading of the gospel and the book of Acts, then I talked about what prophets today were saying, and I talked about how its our job to reach this world. Ten of the maybe twenty-five in the room came forward at the mission call and got prayed for, we took up an offering so the body could help support them and sent them into the mission field. Some were old men with businesses and families, willing to give it all because they knew they were meant to be on the mission field. Some were 15 year old kids who had had dreams earlier that week about a man coming and telling them to go into missions. We were praying that those who need to go who have dreams of going into missions, and it really happened it was amazing. After losing my voice and sweating my shirt to saturation, I got some of the team to pray for them. But I found a piece of my calling, THAT is what I'm passionate about doing in the Kingdom, is seeing people thrown into their destiny. Whether missions or business, or carpentry..."The glory of God is man fully alive" - St Iraneus. Man fully alive, is man fully in his identity and destiny! It was awesome.
So some cool stories, tune in for more on what the nation was like, more funny stories and more great moves of God in the Solomon Islands!
Much Love! Adam
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Back from the Jungle of Choiseul
Well, I'm back, but I don't have much time to really update, now. SO I did update our team blog at godinsolomons.blogspot.com - - - and you can go there to here about the mission...
I will update more in depth when I'm back on base, but thank you too mas! (Solomon pigin) for the prayers and support!
Much Love!
I will update more in depth when I'm back on base, but thank you too mas! (Solomon pigin) for the prayers and support!
Much Love!
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