Hey Everyone,
I have been off and on the road for a month now. I haven't had a weekend for that month, so it has been difficult to really contact or update anyone. But now is my chance to come up for air before possibly disappearing for another couple weeks. The school is doing swimmingly. We have had to outreach weeks as of late. One to a country town called Millmerran and the other to Byron Bay, a coastal, new age Mecca. Both weeks were absolutely amazing for the school and for the places we were in. So a story from each shall we?
Millmerran - In Millmerran our mission was to reach a town of 1500 people, haha. I love country town ministry, you can see half the town come to know Jesus and we make up about 10% of the population when we are there! So this town wanted us so badly to come and run "crusades", so we called them crusades, but I'm not sure what actually constitutes a crusade. Basically we went and did some relational evangelism and taught Religious Education classes in the school there, then set up an after school program for the kids to come to where they could come to the tent and hear our band play or they could play sport behind the tent! (volleyball, rugby, soccer, frisbee)
But I want to tell you one story in particular. We decided that we should go to the one street with shops on it and tell all the shop owners that we are interested in serving them for no pay! They were a little thrown of by that but decided they could find something for us to do for and hour and a half. So they invited us back the next day! I ended up going to a coffee shop where we were supposed to be gardening, but they asked us to paint. So we agreed of course and ended up painting all day, maybe about 6 hours, we finished painting the outside of their building for them. Afterwards I had an opportunity to talk with the man who owned the place about his son who was on drugs then went into rehab and is now trying to get into the Catholic church. He said that the church he was going to was making him feel condemned. So, I knew some people in the Gold Coast and gave them a good Christian friend of mines number for their son to call.
They couldn't believe that I actually cared about their son and wanted to help him. I also asked them if I could pray with them before we left. So I prayed for them and their business and the woman was a little teary eyed. Then I prayed for their son and the woman started bawling. She was very touched. I told them to come by the pub because our band was playing in the pub that night.
They came by the pub and because the Holy Spirit was ushered in by our band the atmosphere in that pub was amazing. She ended up crying out that she wanted the love that we had, she wanted Jesus. She had a counselling session for about an our from one of my mates and then she accepted the Lord and got plugged into a local church!
Byron Bay was a lecture week on Holy Spirit. This is always a week to break peoples boxes regarding what our Loving, Almighty God can do. And I can say that God yet again surprised our team with some amazing stories. One in particular involved one American guy on our team. He is a little bit unsure of hisself, but committed to stepping out and seeing what God could do through a willing vessel. So he actually felt like God was saying he should stay with me all night. I felt like I was just supposed to stay at the worship circle in the middle of the city centre and intercede for the students and their outreach that night. But against what I felt God was saying I went for a walk with Ryan. The farther we got from the circle the more I felt unrest, like I wasn't supposed to be walking around that night. So, I told Ryan what I was feeling and he said he kept getting the name Emily pop up in his head. I told him that he was probably going to meet and emily that night. We went back and hung out at the worship circle, and when we got there I immediately had more peace.
While I was standing there many people were walking by, but one in particular walked by that I felt God was leading me to pray for. So I pretty much chased him down and asked if I could pray for him. He said yes (it was a weird scenario, he was a pretty wacky dude), then Ryan again followed me and came over to talk with the guy. Now, like I said, there were MANY people walking around, guys and girls. But a group of I think, four girls, walked by and God triggered something in me and I looked at Ryan and said Emily is in that group. He was kinda scared, I told him just to yell Emily and see which one of them turned around. He didnt want to so he did something even creepier and started following them, haha. So I stayed with the man and prayed and Ryan followed those girls to a bar and just before he lost them in the bar (because students are not allowed to do pub ministry, for temptation reasons, we don't know their backgrounds etc...) He caught them just outside the bar and he asked one of the girls if there was an Emily in the group. She said yes and got quite freaked out, as you can imagine. The girls were also from America and were travelling. Ryan asked her to get her friend and she did, she said "Emily, someone is looking for you out here". Emily came out and Ryan smiled introduced himself and said "hey emily", she too freaked out and asked if she knew him and whether her friends had told him her name. He said no and continued on to say "I serve a living and active God who speaks and he told me I would meet an Emily tonight and he told me you were in this group, I found you just to tell you that the God of all creation knows your name, knows the hairs on your head and wants you to receive His love, it hurts Him when you don't". She freaked out, I mean its not everyday God tells someone your name and to talk to you! She got a little teary eyed, said thanks and then Ryan moved on.
Sure that girl didn't get saved, but Ryan stepping out of his comfort zone showed that girl that God loves and cares for her, she is so much closer to God than before that scenario. And I KNOW all night in that bar she was avoiding getting drunk, knowing that God was watching over her. Holy Spirit conviction was in the house and she will never forget those words!
Bless you all!
