Oct 31, 2008

insert title here

Sometimes I tell myself 'Zac, you should blog more often", but than I realize that I'm going to be gone for a total of six months. I reckon that would be a whole lot of blogging about a whole lot of nothing.

This past week has been busy at times and seemingly quite slow at other times. For myself this week has been different because we've had a ministry group called VMTC (Victorious Ministry Through Christ) with us this week. It sounds funny to have a group ministering to another group of believers and essentially missionaries, but it was an awesome week. My responsibilities for the week were mainly kitchen and so that's where I spent a lot of my time. The VMTC group had roughly 25 people so we were cooking for sixty people for lunch and dinner every day. I actually didn't mind being in the kitchen for most of the week but enjoyed having a couple of meals off to just sit around and get some reading done. Wednesday evening was the evening that both Graham and I were being ministered to. The ministry time is a four hour slot in which you're in a room with three other people. One person is interceding for the whole time, one is ministering, and the other is being trained in the ministering. The time of ministry is basically a time where people who are normally pouring out to other people and doing ministry of their own have the opportunity to unload. Burdens from the past that you are still carrying, things from the present that you are struggling with, and whatever else the Lord places on your heart. The ministry is what you make of it. If you aren't completely open with God than you can't expect Him to bring healing into those parts of your life that you aren't willing to share with Him. I won't go into detail about my time of ministry, but God is good and He is faithful. It's encouraging to know that God speaks to His children through brothers and sisters in Christ. Praise the Lord!

Anyhow, moving on to other things. So the day after my last post about hiking to Morialta we did it again, this time in the dark :). I'll admit that I'm slightly afraid of the dark at times, but it was a good time and laughs all around. I could talk about SA being the murder capital of Australia, or how the biggest serial killer is actually from around Adelaide, but I won't. Wait, I just did. Let's just say that stories like that made the walk even more adventurous, not to mention Caitlin falling on her butt every five minutes.

Well, that's about it for today's news. Apparently I'm on the cooking roster for lunch and so I need to see how many people are going to be here and what I'm cooking for them. God bless and I'll talk to some of you soon I suppose. Cheers.

Oct 26, 2008

Morialta

G'day. I've just gotten a bit lazy again when it comes to blogging; I think about it but I don't get around to doing it because I figure it's not too important.

This last week wasn't too busy here at the base but Graham and I did manage to finish up completely at Paulette's house. That means that painting, floors, clean-up etc. is all done!! Yay for us. This Saturday afternoon we finally took the walk next door to Morialta National Park. That's right, we have been living next door to a national park and haven't even seen it. The main attraction of the park is, I believe, supposed to be the waterfalls that run through it. We cut through the neighbors vineyard and made our way to one of the parks paths to find the first set of falls. From where the park is in relation to the base we're technically coming in from the back so the first set of falls that we came to is actually known as Third Falls. One thing you also have to understand is that Australia has been in a drought for the last decade or so and these falls are nothing, I'm sure, like they once were. We weren't too satisfied by the trickle of Third falls and so we made our way down to Second Falls. Again, not satisfied by simply watching from the designated spots we hopped the rail and climbed down to the edge of the falls as far as we could go. The scenery is absolutely stunning and would be even more so if the falls were running at full capacity. After coming so far we figured we may as well take the walk all the way down to First Falls. We didn't want to come back up the hill after First Falls so we just stayed at the top. First Falls has by far the highest drop and Graham, Laura, and I decided to hop the rail again and climb down to the edge to get some better photos. As well as beautiful scenery it was also a fairly warm day, 32 degrees or something like that, so we also took a cold shower underneath what was left of the falls. Not even two meters next to us was a 40 meter drop into what was probably once a fairly impressive pool of water. Despite the lack of water Morialta was still a pretty neat experience and a little bit of exercise at the very least.

As far as today and this week goes..... Sunday is typically the relaxing day for me here. A few people were heading to church shortly after I woke up but I wouldn't have been ready on time, so I made breakfast and did some reading instead. Today some people involved in ministry are arriving from various places in Australia and Tasmania (the Saskatchewan of down under) to minister to the full-time staff here at the base. With the staff here constantly ministering to other people it will be a good chance for them to learn, be heard, and talk instead of listen. Because of the extra 20 or so people our responsibilities this week are mainly limited to the kitchen. This means that I am more or less in charge because apparently I'm the most capable one we've got. We'll see what other sort of work duties get done this week but I can only assume that most of the week will be spent in the kitchen.

A quick prayer request, although not a huge deal right now, is the things of the future. I suppose both the near and distant future. For our time spent working and traveling because we'll be living with a family of non-believers and most likely come into contact with a lot of non-believing people. As well as for the distant future with whatever it might hold for me after Australia. I'm not dwelling on the distant future too much but it's still inevitable, so I'm doing my best to seek and trust the Lord on that one. Thanks again for all your prayers and words of encouragement. Hugs to all of you, wherever you might be. Blessings.

Praise the Lord!

Oct 20, 2008

I AM a Blonde Surfer

That's right, me, a blonde surfer. This last saturday was the first time we took the opportunity to go surfing. Actually Graham and I weren't even planning to leave the base that day, but as fate would have it we headed out to South Port with Matt Newman and the surf boards.

The drive to south port is over an hour away and we didn't have a whole lot of time because Fauger's birthday party started at 5. We only ended up being in the water for an hour and a half but it was heaps of fun. Graham took a little while to get into his wet suit but once he was suited up we bay watched it into the water and took the waves head on. Paddling out isn't hard and waiting for the waves isn't a big challenge either, but finding the waves and predicting when they'll break is another story. The waves were breaking in sets of 3 or 4 and quite randomly. So where as some of them were big enough to slam you others didn't even have enough power to get up on. Graham and I each caught about half a wave, yes half, because we didn't really get high enough to actually ride them. Apparently we both did quite well for our first time and I'm thinking we'll probably go again before we leave the YWAM base. After all was said and done I had experienced all there is to experience in surfing (ok, so I didn't get slammed into the reef, but other than that I did it all). I got wax rash on my stomach (due to the lack of a wetsuit), cut my leg on the fin, and got slammed by a larger than expected wave. All in a days work. After a long and tired ride home we rinsed off the salt water and got ready for Fauger's party.

Let the party begin. Fauger is our head of maintenance here on the base and one of the Brazilians that lives here. This last saturday was his 30th birthday. The party consisted of some beach volleyball, both sweet and savory cakes, some oh so delicious beef and great fellowship. Not a whole lot else to speak of but it was good times.

On Sunday morning Graham and I woke up at 7:30 to phone Lyndol (shout out to Lyndol). After that we headed up to the guest house and finished off painting in one room just to get it done with. The rest of the day we played some more beach volleyball and just hung out in general. Shish Kabobs for dinner were delectable. Well, that about sums up my activities for the last few days; sometimes I just feel like I should blog even when I don't have a lot to say. So, in conclusion I reckon we can all learn a few things from this post...... nah, I'm just kiddin', but seriously, learn. Cheers.

Oct 15, 2008

Beachin' Marksenfest

It's been another week or so since I've last written, October is flying by. I have most definitely been keeping busy with all sorts of things, a lot of them being the usual but some of them being fairly out of the ordinary. I guess I'll start with this last weekend, the beach. Our actual plan for this last weekend was to drive out to Mclarenville to do some wine tasting. Mclarenville is just over an hour away from Norton Summit and is a pretty big destination for those hoping to taste some lovely wine. Graham, Matt Macgregor, and I were getting ready to go when our DD canceled on us. You might say 'hey, shouldn't you be spitting the wine anyway?' To that, I would say 'NO'. Anyhow, plan B was put into motion. Plan B in Australia, on a nice day of course, is going to the beach. Although sometimes I guess it ends up being plan A. So we packed up one of the lovely YWAM vans along with the Macgregor family and headed off to Henley beach. The cool thing about living along the coast in South Australia is the endless choices you have when it comes to beaches. We spent the day at Henley and came back to the base for a lovely BBQ. Graham and I are also no longer the newbies on base, Sandra, a mission builder from Switzerland arrived last friday. We spent the meal time getting to know everybody a little more and Graham and I are still learning more about people.

Sunday was an interesting day in itself. Nine of us from the base had the unique opportunity to volunteer with an organization called Red Frogs. Red Frogs is an organization that attends uni parties etc. and aims to be a positive example to young adults. We drove into Adelaide to a small university wear a fund raising event was taking place. Thus, Marksenfest began. It is exactly what it sounds like, a booze and schmooze fest. The gates opened at 10 am and tickets cost 50 dollars, after you were in you could drink as much as you want. Our responsibility was to hand out red frog gummies (which, because they are incredibly sweet, makes the beer taste awful apparently). We also made pancakes, handed out water, and distributed sun screen to those who were less than able to make logical and educated decisions at that point in time. The event had a live band, sumo suit wrestling, and a bouncy castle. I was actually quite amazed at how most people were able to hold their liquor in the bouncy castle. Our time at Marksenfest ended at 1:30 when our relief volunteers showed up, after that we headed to, you guessed it, the beach. This time we went to another beach called Brighton. We were all pretty tired and ended up taking a lovely afternoon nap on the beach instead of actually going in the water. That is how our weekend ended.

As far as work goes we have been continuing on with the painting in the guest house. The painting is tedious but will be well worth it when all is said and done. We hope to finish up the painting along with some minor renovations by the end of this week, in hopes that Paulette can start moving in next week.

The last week has not been a huge week spiritually for me other than one thing. We are up against some intense spiritual warfare and opposition here at the base. I will not get in to details but I can assure you that our fight is not against the flesh and blood of this world. I, as well as others I'm sure, would greatly appreciate your prayers for peace. We know that the Lord is our comfort and provides incredible peace but would still greatly appreciate you interceding on our behalf. Blessings to you all and let me know if there is anything that I can pray about for anything concerning you. Seek first His kingdom and everything you need will be added to it. Hugs from down under.

P.S. A huge thanks to all those who have supported me financially as well as prayerfully.

Oct 7, 2008

Work, SAYCO.... YWAM family bonding?

Well than, let's not even look at the last time I posted. I was going to post before last weekend but I guess that never happened. I've managed to keep busy in the last two weeks mostly with base work, but I do have a few other things to share.

Recently the work on base has consisted of lawn mowing (which never seems to end), weed whacking (ditto on that one), and a variety of other aesthetic upkeep tasks. Today was a base cleaning day, which basically translates into a day where everybody helps out with our jobs and we all work a shorter day so.... woohoo!!. Most of the base ended up working at the guest house today. Our guest house is actually split in two, so one half is specifically called the guest house and the other half is referred to as the Thompsons' house (the name of the family who lived there previously). The house is currently being completely remodeled and will be used by Paulette for a short while until her house is underway. Paulette will use it for her Rahab ministry office. Rahab is a ministry outreach that deals directly with women stuck in prostitution. Base leaders recently made a decision that if women needed a place to stay in between getting out of prostitution and finding another lifestyle the house could be used for that. It's exciting to see the physical renewal of buildings here on base. The location is extremely old but exceptionally beautiful, so the TLC is much needed but oh so worth it in the end.

This past weekend in SA (South Australia) was October long weekend. I reckon it's probably similar to our May long since we're in spring over here right now. Eleven of the bravest YWAM people, yes that includes Graham and myself, volunteered at SAYCO this past weekend. SAYCO stands for South Australia Youth Camp Out. A very fun event with lots of energetic teens, heaps of activities, and almost zero sleep. Our actual responsibility was to be chaplains if the kids wanted somebody to talk to or have someone pray for them, but we had the opportunity to do so much more than that. The event took place at Cornerstone College (highschool) in Mt. Barker, Adelaide. Don't think it's a Mt. either, it is slightly in the hills I suppose though. The event brought out about 300 or so youth, leaders, and others. The kids camped out in the footy field (australian rules football) while the volunteer staff as well as us 'chaplains' slept on the floor in a few of the classrooms. Our responsibilities were different all the time and we got to do some pretty fun, and tiring, stuff. We weren't on a strict schedule so it was a nice weekend. Again, exhausting nonetheless. The friday was spent setting things up for the rest of the weekend because campers only arrived saturday morning. Saturday is when all the action really started to take place. The schedule was pretty packed for the campers. They had a session just before lunch after they finished setting up and they had various events planned until 11:00. Maybe you don't care about absolutely everything but I'll tell you some things anyway. They had two sessions a day and had mini sessions with their small groups after most sessions. Afternoons were filled with xtreme games and carnival type things (bouncy castle etc.). After evening 'devos' with small groups we had something called night life. The kids had options of doing laser tag, dance partying, dart guns, chillin' out (board games, pool etc.), and the list goes on. We led a few of the afternoon carnivals, xgames, and night life activities.

It most definitely wouldn't have been a youth event without lack of sleep. Saturday night was a real short night but lot's of fun; maybe I should say long, depending how you look at it I suppose. We had responsibilities to do security shifts during the night on campus just to make sure everything was running ship shape. Graham, myself, Caitlin, and Laura took the drag shift, 3 am until 6 am. The two downfalls, besides of course being the drag shift, was that saturday night was daylight savings here and breakfast was served at 7 for us. This means that I was only asleep at about 12 and our clocks went forward, so what was supposedly 3 am still felt like 2 for my body. Security was easy and I drank heaps of coffee (yes, real brewed coffee). I just stayed up and took a shower before breakfast and finished sunday at about midnight, so Sunday was a really long day needless to say. Although Sunday afternoon we had really good sun and I definitely got some color. The crazy part was that saturday night was probably just as cold here as at home. Plus 1!! It was really funny to hear the Aussies go on about how they thought they would die. It was cold but not that bad. Probably one of the highlights of my weekend was the alter call at Sunday nights chapel. The speaker hadn't been challenging them a whole lot but I know that the Holy Spirit was speaking to some people that night. It was also just a general call to prayer and we were just open and available to the campers for whatever they needed. Graham had the opportunity to lead a camper to Christ!!! So freakin' awesome. I haven't talked to him much about the details but it was just really exciting to hear. I had the opportunity to talk with Jamie, a 16 yr. old guy I had connected with earlier this weekend, and pray for as well as with him. He was just talking about growing up in the church and becoming complacent, something that I could hugely identify with. He was a really awesome guy and I think he's coming to visit YWAM, along with a few other youth who would be able to do DTS next year. Isn't it cool how God opens up outreach opportunities into recruit opportunities sometimes?

I have been both incredibly tired and amazingly blessed in the past several days and I know that the Lord can do huge things through ordinary people. Blessings on you and I pray that you will experience the fullness of the glory of the Lord in your lives. God Bless and cheers.