Step By Step

Weeks of 03/15- 03/28:

This week, our topic was Evangelism. Sounds a little scary, but it was not at all :)

Our speaker was Allan Kirchen, a pastor at a church in Brisbane. He was HILARIOUS. He had a wonderful sense of humor and had us smiling and laughing the whole time. He had a way of making us feel relaxed and comfortable. He was also very experienced in evangelism and had a lot of wisdom to share with us. He explained that our only responsibility in evangelism is to be obedient. The Holy Spirit does the rest! That definitely takes the pressure off.

Here are some truths that spoke out to me:

• Matthew 4:19 : Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." The foundation is to love God and follow him- He will teach us how to evangelize (become "fishers of men")
• Effective evangelism- Being used by God through word or deed to influence a person to take one step closer to Jesus. - It does not matter the size of the step! It is all effective. We often fail to see the significance of the seemingly insignificant. Sometimes people just need you to listen and understand there they are coming from.
• When we talk about Jesus, the Church, Christianity, God, etc. people automatically have a picture in their head of how they define those things. Some people have such distorted perceptions of God (from whatever their past experience has been). We need to meet them where they're at and love and accept them as Christ does. Challenge their "image" with the truth. It is good to ask them how they perceive Jesus and Christians before assuming you are picturing the same thing.

• John 4 (The Samaritan Woman): Illustration of evangelism.
• Jesus was deliberate. He actually did not have to go to Samaria, geographically speaking. He went in obedience to the Father. We need to deliberately choose to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. "Lord, I am available when you're ready."
• Jesus came in humility. He spoke with a woman; She was a Samaritan (culturally, Jews were repulsed by Samaritans); He put himself on her same level; Jesus initiated the conversation and relationship; Jesus avoided arguments- He never told her what to believe. He respected her. (Arguments are pointless. You may win an argument but you lose the person. Always keep the person first in love).
• He led her on a journey of discovery (Her perception went from "Jewish man", to "Sir", to "prophet", to "Messiah").
• Jesus did not judge her- He knew about her sin, but did not judge her. We often prejudge people- We think a person may not be open to hearing about Jesus or being prayed for, etc., but it is up to God to move in them and change their heart.

• It is the kindness of God that leads people in relationship with Christ.
• Be careful as you mature in God that you don't lose your complete dependency on God. Jesus humbled the disciples by telling them to have the faith of a child.
• Salvation is not based on intellect or emotion. It is a heart change based on faith.
• Intelligence will never bring about heart revelation. Emotion is the same way- we can stir up emotions, but without an encounter with God, emotions will fade. Christ is the only one who can penetrate hearts. Only God can bring about heart revelation.
• Salvation is of the heart, not of flesh and blood. Only God saves.

• "Traditional" church model: Behave ~ Believe ~ Belong (If you behave the way we behave and believe what we believe, then you can belong as part of our church.)
• Christ's model of the Church: Belong ~ Believe ~ Behave (It is our responsibility as Christians to create a place of belonging. Once they continue to come, they hear the Word of God, challenging beliefs and changing the heart, which by the Holy Spirit will change that person's behavior.
• Our only responsibility is to love on people and accept them as they are. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to work on behavior and the word of God to change beliefs.

I went to Set Free Care (the homeless ministry) on Tuesday and had some good conversations led by the Spirit. I was able to pray with one man about finding a job, which was encouraging for him. On Saturday afternoon, we did local outreach in a park by the beach at Surfer's Paradise. We gave out free coffee and tea, sharing the love of Jesus with people walking by. I had one deep conversation with a man who wanted to hear the Gospel message of Jesus and we gave him one of our Bibles, which was exciting! It is so amazing to witness the Holy Spirit at work.

In Spirit and in Truth

Week of 3/08-3/14:

This weeks teaching on the Character and Nature of God was challenging, perspective changing, refreshing, and completely anointed by the Holy Spirit. Chris Twinn, a pastor of a church in Brisbane called Christ Ministries International, came and spoke to us this week. His love and passion for the Word of God was so evident in each and every word he spoke to us. I had so many heart revelations this week... God is teaching me so many things about himself and the authority given to me as a follower of Christ. I would love to share all my notes on here, but there are far too many! I am in the process of typing them up for you, and will post them as soon as I'm done :)

We had some neat evangelism opportunities this week. The base does a ministry called "coffee van", where we set up a table and give away free coffee, tea, and hot chocolate- providing an opportunity to have conversations with people and tell them about Jesus. We set up our coffee table on Thursday evening across from a mall. A good number of people came and got free coffee. The classic question is, "Why are you all doing this?" and that provides a great way for us to tell them about YWAM and share about our love for the Lord. I had some really good conversations that night. On Saturday afternoon, we did outreach in a park called Burleigh Heads. It was a beautiful day out. We had live music, face painting, and free coffee/tea. We had a TON of people stop by our tables and were able to have some good, meaningful conversations. I had a long conversation with a man who opened up to me about his life and asked me a lot of questions about my faith and I was able to share my testimony with him. There were a number of praise reports from this afternoon. The Spirit was definitely moving!

God is doing amazing things. I am growing so much closer in my relationship with him. One area that has been transformed during this DTS is my prayer life. My perspective on prayer has changed to where I pray in belief of who God is (what the Word says about his will and character), and wait in expectancy for him to move. I think I used to pray with uncertainty if God would actually answer my prayers. Now I know that prayer is God's opportunity to move through us and complete his will on earth as it is in heaven. How cool is it that we can be apart of that?? I am excited to be used by him in prayer to see his will be done in situations and in other people's lives.

Over the weekend, I went on a hike with Andy and Kerstin (2 staff members) up in the mountains. The hike was through a beautiful rainforest. We had such an amazing time together. Here are some pictures from the hike:

Andy and I at the beginning of the hike

Kerstin and I

View of the Gold Coast

Thanks for reading! I will update again soon :)

Love,

Stephanie

Some Photos...

My DTS:

From left: Paivi, Daniel, Ellice, Nate (behind Ellice), Leah, Andy, Dave (behind Andy), Sara, Alex, Rochelle, Grace (behind Rochelle), Me, Monica (behind me), Taelor and Amy-Joy

My outreach team:

Me, Taelor, Daniel, Alex, and Paivi

Lectures, Love, and Leeches

Update from last week (3/01-3/07):

Another eventful, fruitful week here on the Gold Coast!

This week, our lectures were on the "Father heart of God." We had an amazing speaker, Rob Hencer, who came and spoke to us throughout the week. He had a very unique way of conveying the heart of God- through the use of stories. Most of his stories were modern-day Bible stories, told with incredible detail, like he was reading a book to us. He kept us captivated throughout each lecture. The lectures were on God's great love and relentless pursuit of us. Some heart revelations of this week:

• Never confuse the perception of yourself with the truth that you are desired and wanted by God.
• We cannot disqualify ourselves from his pursuit- he won't stop or give up. He is committed to finding us.
• God does not withdraw from us when we sin, he immediately engages us and pursues us. Evidence of this in the Bible: When Adam and Eve hid in the garden, the very next line is that God searched for them. He searched for them in the midst of their hiding and shame, not after they repented.
• Parables that illustrate the heart of God and his relentless pursuit of us:

The Lost Sheep: leaves the 99 to search for the 1 lost sheep.

Prodigal Son: The father's mind was focused on finding his son.

*These stories are about the search. You don't search for something that's not valuable.

• God's heart is incredibly generous. He gives us far more than we deserve.
• The only thing God cares about is obtaining the hearts of his people. We are always on his mind.
• The phrase Jesus speaks the most: Do not be afraid. There is no need to ever be afraid to come to the Father.

I realized this week the depths of how much God is pursuing me. I often feel as though it is up to me to search for God... like I need to stay focused or I'll lose him, as funny as that sounds. God really spoke to my heart the fact that he is in constant pursuit of me- and there is nothing I can do that will change that. It is not that we loved God, but He loved us. He is the initiator. He is love! What a beautiful revelation.

Over the weekend, I helped lead a kid's camp in the countryside of the Gold Coast (about an hour away). There were 6 of us YWAMers and 3 YWAM staff members who worked as leaders for a group of 46 kids, ages 10-13. We had our hands full! It was only one night, but it felt like a week. We stayed at a camp in the midst of a rainforest, complete with all kinds of bugs, plants, and even leeches that we literally had to pick off of children (lovely!). Aside from the leeches, we did a lot of fun games and activities and got to share Jesus in a variety of ways. On Saturday night, we did a "talk show" where we told our testimonies, we also had a time for the kids to ask any questions about God, a prayer time, worship time, and a church service on Sunday morning. It ended up being a very fruitful time. We were able to pray with many of the kids. I prayed with one girl, Jemaika, who asked me if God was real, could he please show her. I encouraged her, told her the gospel and how much God loves her, then prayed with her that God would reveal himself to her before she went to bed that night. The next morning, I asked her about her night, and she told me that she could feel God for the first time and that she was ready to let Jesus in her heart. So we prayed together for her salvation! It was a very exciting moment to be apart of. I later found out that Leah, a fellow YWAMer in my DTS, led a girl to the Lord as well. Praise God!!

Please take a moment to pray for these kids- that God will nurture the seeds that were planted, and for Jemaika and Ulani, the girls that accepted Christ this weekend- for their lives with Jesus ahead of them.

This week is on the Character and Nature of God. I know I was late getting this past week out to you- we are so busy, it is difficult to find time to update. I will try and post the details of this week tomorrow! I have so many exciting things to tell you about! :)

The van ride to camp

Jemaika and Hannah

Makaylah and I

Jemaika and I