Our first week of outreach has taken off and gone already. This update is written by Alyssa Burroughs, Thanks Alyssa :)
WEEK 1 UPDATE (9/8 – 9/14/2012)
Outreach started off attending the Snowboarders for Christ (SFC) conference on Saturday and Sunday. We stayed at the Lakeside Christian Camp together. It was wonderful to spend time with our Christchurch brothers and sisters and get to know the Queenstown SFC members better. God blessed our time of fellowship during discussions, worship, games, meals, and free time.
On Saturday, a few of us (Thor, Andy, Janie, Jeff and I) treasure hunted in Queenstown. Janie prayed for a girl, Kylie, in the liquor store! God gave me TWO free water bottles from the pharmacy since I couldn’t afford to buy a new one. No joke, I simply prayed in my head for God to give me a free water bottle, since they were are stinking expensive, and Catherine working in the pharmacy found two behind the counter and gave them to me for free.
The 9 of us drove to Wanaka on Sunday and spent the afternoon/evening there. We worshipped outside by the lake for over an hour. The snowcapped mountains and God’s beauty made it so memorable. That night we attended The Lighthouse Church (where all the pro snowboarders attend). Instead of a normal sermon, we broke into small groups and discussed spiritual gifts, strengths, and weaknesses and pretended to be God’s “superheroes.” We prayed for each person in our group and prophesied as God led us. It was a late night.
I was incredibly encouraged by Janie’s testimony Monday morning. Ever since we were in Queenstown the first time, she came back to Oxford carrying more fear than normal at nighttime. It has been my prayer ever since that she would not be afraid and feel God’s presence and protection in the dark. Last night she woke up and apparently was calling for me because she was scared, but I did not wake up. Instead of persisting, she remembered God, felt safer and fell asleep relying on God. It was so AWESOME to hear this.
From 2 – 5, all nine of us were out loving and blessing Queenstown. Mandi and Sophie read their bibles in Starbucks. Thor prayer walked around downtown and read his bible in McDonald’s. Janie and Andrew sang and played guitar on the street. They only played worship songs and made sure the guitar case was closed so no one could give money. Jeff, Jeromy and I handed out free cake and hot chocolate. Later, I broke off with Tack and we walked around the block seven times reading Romans. Tack and I were able to talk with a chef on his smoke break and a hostess outside of a restaurant. We weren’t easily approachable reading out loud and walking, but I felt like God wanted us to set up a spiritual boundary around that part of Queenstown. It was so powerful. The Holy Spirit was buzzing all day.
Jeff and Jeromy talked to plenty of locals and tourists. Everyone was amazed that we were handing out food and drink for free. Once we ran out of cake and hot chocolate, Jeff and Jeromy went into the clothing store JayJays and helped work for free. All of us had plenty of fruitful conversations and Amazon (the skate shop) said we were welcome back anytime to busk outside their store and handout free food.
That evening we went to youth night with Freedom church. We had a family meal, talked around the fireplace and shared a bit about YWAM.
Tuesday was our day off. We moved all our stuff from The Lakeside Christian Camp to The Shotover Lodge in Arthur’s Point. The rest of the day was spent relaxing or going into town if you wanted.
WEDNESDAY WAS POWDER DAY AT THE REMARKABLES!!! Today was a blue bird, face shot, freshie, go bananas, jump-off-30-foot-cliffs, practice back flips, go-hard kind of day. The Burton Stash park was open, there were no injuries and the mountain was remarkable. Ha! Hence the name…
Andrew and I met a young man Merick. He is from Australia and has been on holiday snowboarding by himself for the past week. We ended up riding together for most of the afternoon, taking gnarly pictures off jumps and talking on the lift. Andrew and I talked about YWAM and our mission in Queenstown and Malaysia. Merick said he knew a girl who did YWAM and really admired her. I’m just so glad we were able to love on Merick and keep him company that afternoon. I don’t think he is a Christian, but today seemed like a positive interaction. I know God is working on his heart and planning for a great harvest.
Funny side note: the boys wanted to watch Mirror Mirror tonight. They chose it without any input from the girls. I love it!
Thursday we interceded for Arrowtown. We are helping with the 9:00am service at St. John’s this Sunday and wanted to tell people about it. As we prayed, Tack got gold, wooden wagon wheel, blue jacket and Bob. I got a whole heap of stuff, but pharmacy and dog on a leash were the two words that matched up with anything.
Once in Arrowtown, Jeromy and Thor went on a prayer walk. Andrew, Janie and Jeff were busking worship songs near the skate park and then walked around town later. They spoke with a couple people (Jeff was intrigued by the lady wearing a Whistler BC jacket). Mandi and Sophie walked around together and later played guitar on a bench near the shops. Tack and I went treasure hunting together…literally. It turns out Arrowtown was founded 150 years ago on gold mining/panning. There were signs everywhere with word gold and outside the museum were multiple wagons and old wooden wheels. God was really speaking to Tack. We started off talking to Linda in the liquor store. She told us all about Arrowtown and was extremely friendly. I don’t think Linda is a Christian, but we invited her to church and told her what we would be doing there. We spoke with a few people near the water, but no luck in inviting them to church. Things started to get interesting as soon as Tack and I stumbled upon Shane, the local sculptor. His business name, The Church, drew us in. We chatted maybe 20 minutes. Shane told us all about his business, life and religious views. He was curious why we became missionaries and asked some tough questions regarding that. Shane suggested we get a sticky bun at the coffee shop next door (since they are in the best in town) – instead, we bought him one to bless his day. We might see him at church this Sunday! Whoo! At the pharmacy we ran into another Shayne (except this time a girl). She remembered us from the Snowboarders for Christ conference. Shayne attends Freedom and is hopefully coming to St. John’s too. Tack and I asked if she had any prayer requests, and we lifted her dreams up to the Lord. Shayne is a new believer and had some pretty demonic dreams recently. Keep her in your prayers.
Tonight was the SFC meeting at the Salvation Army church…but no one came besides Tim who leads the entire group. I think it was God’s plan though so the 9 of us could hangout and bond as a team. Whether that meant taking silly photos on the couch or playing ping-pong, it was a fun, relational night. Janie and Andrew OWNED the ping-pong table though. They won 10 games!
What an eventful Friday morning. Tack, John (a local door to door evangelist) and I were able to talk to one of the guests staying in the Shotover Lodge about Christianity. His name is Vashon. He is from South Africa originally, but is trying to get hired as a card dealer at the casino in Queenstown. Vashon is Hindu and believes that it is the same as Christianity. Tack and John tag teamed the conversation and ended up giving Vashon a bible. He seemed really open and wanted to know more by the end of the conversation. Thank you Jesus! Plus, we get to see him everyday in the kitchen while we cook at eat and fellowship
From 6-10:30ish, we attended the Youth Booth. It is a secular gathering for kids between the ages of 12 and 22. There is a 4-week battle of the bands going on. Tonight we were able to see 5 bands rock out! Fi (who was in charge for the night) gave us different tasks – whether it was selling finals tickets, coke or candy, making tea and coffee for the judges, cleaning up afterwards or simply hanging out with the youth, the night was so fun. I ended up talking to Tracy for about an hour, a 40-some-year-old local in charge of sound the equipment. Her husband Dave was a judge for the competition. She told me all about the struggles in her life, in the church, about Youth Booth and so on. The Lord was leading me the entire time. I didn’t ask to pray for Tracy, but said I would pray for her mortgage, for her to find a nursing job and the church she used to attend. I will see Tracy again next Friday and fully intend on talking to her. The coolest part of the conversation was her excitement about our missions in Costa Rica. Tracy has contacts there that might be able to help with ministry opportunities and connect the 7 there in deeper ways. She has my e-mail and will be giving me more information about that. God is so good!
This concludes week one in Queenstown. The feel is incredibly different this time around. We are all so excited to see God’s plan in the coming weeks. Some prayer points are: sleep, dreams, protection over rooms, fear, fear of man, God’s vision every day while we are in Queenstown (baby steps), safety on the mountain, peace over our budget, stepping out in faith, pray against the spirit of segregation, unity for our team, the Youth Booth, growth for SFC in Queenstown, and pray for the churches in Queenstown.
People to pray for: Vashon, Shane, Shayne, Kylie, Tracy and Dave, Merick, Linda, Mel, Claire and Jackie.
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