“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You ARE a CHILD of GOD. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the presents of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in EVERYONE! As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others” – Nelson Mandela 1994 inaugural speech.
Think about it.
This week has been the quietest of the three weeks but it has still been full with worship, showing God’s love in acts of service more than in speaking out. For example, the house of the pastor which was affected by the floods we helps tidy up, weeded and sweeped, mowed the lawn and generally made it look nice for when they got back from work. I’m sure everyone can agree the thought of gardening after a long day isn’t appealing so it was great to be able to help out in a small way. We also thoroughly cleaned the church, They had many people staying there when people were evacuated from their houses so walls were cleaned, windows washed, floor cleaned and the church was also made very presentable which was great! J What we did was greatly appreciated.
We had the chance to go into a school for a lunch program, after sitting down at a table with a group of 10th graders and them all leaving my partner and I found a group who were willing to talk to us and we had a great time laughing at things they had done and sharing what we had done. It was great to start to make the relationships. Unfortunately we only stayed in Emerald five days and so relationships within the churches are strong but with the community and school it is less so as there weren’t many opportunities for us to go in and help out around the school. I am looking forward to spending longer in Emerald in the second outreach, we all believe that there is great potential for God to work in the community of Emerald so it’s all exciting! J
We were back in Townsville (home sweet home) on Wednesday evening and Thursday we got set on setting up for YouthFest – a day when teenagers from around Townsville get to come to seminars and workshops around a race track and get to experience different activities. The YWAMers had a garage which was decorated in bright colours and pictures and we were involved in a quality of life seminar, talking about how we as individuals, as Australia and a nation and how we can help Papa New Guinea and build on that relationship. Part of the seminar was splitting into small groups and deciding what our strengths were and how we could improve our quality of life personally and what we could do for others, the things that the kids came up with were great – e.g. give blood, work for free, donate money, clothes, books, toys, help around school – all things that they could do to change and impact their lives and the people around them! J The evening was more of a time when the youth could just hang out, there was live music, a maze, rock climbing wall, silent disco, buggy riding with beer goggles and loads more different activities. Being able to mingle for 6 hours meant of course I went into the silent disco - AMAZING! and the rock climbing wasn’t too good as I freak out and only got half way up. However it was great to be able to just see the youth in a safe environment having fun and being able to ask questions about different topics at the different stalls.
It has come to the end of first outreach, a rollercoaster of emotions, from being shattered and not able to go on to pumped for get out there and change lives. The best bits for me was speaking to the youth group at emerald when God had his hand over it all and it all linked together, the feed back was awesome, Being able to make friends with particular people at schools and having the opportunity to speak life into their lives and encourage them, even listening to them and having a laugh was not only great for them but has also taught me a lot about how to work with young people. The experience has been amazing, my outreach team has become tight and the laughs have been many.
Thank you for all your support through prayers and encouragement on my first outreach phase! It really has been awesome!
God bless.
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