Last week in QT first week in Malaysia

Week 3 and 4 update! Enjoy. Written by Alyssa Burroughs

UPDATE WEEK 3 (9/22 – 9/29/2012)

This week is our last week in Queenstown.  Time flew by!  Our heart this week is keeping God the center.  We don’t want to lose motivation or focus, even in these last days.

Saturday was our skate park, movie night with Freedom and SFC.  No one showed up outside of these ministries.  All of us ended up skateboarding, ice skating, chatted a bit and didn’t even watch a movie.  I think it was God’s blessing so we could fellowship with our brothers and sister in Christ.

Sunday was so, so great!  The 9 of us led the St. Andrews entire church service.  Mandi preached and did an amazing job!  The Holy Spirit was leading her every word.  Her message and authority blew everyone away.  Jeromy gave the children’s message to set the stage for Mandi.  Andy, Janie, Sophie, Thor and I led worship and got the congregation moving a bit more than normal   Pastor Ian was so thankful we took over for the week.  It opened hearts to the idea of mixing generations by compensating certain routines and traditions in the service.  Tracy and her husband Dave showed up.  They were so excited to attend church after being absent so long.  I pray they find a church to connect with quickly.  Today Loren came for his 3 day pastoral visit!  Yay L-dog!

Monday we treasure hunted in town.  Daniela, from Freedom came along.  Overall we had a pretty chill time.  Janie ended up giving Kylie a jacket and talking for a bit.  She said she needed one, so praise God because he totally set that up.  The friendships we’ve built with some of the store workers have grown so much.  That night was Freedom again with the youth.

Tuesday was riding at The Remarkables.  Not many conversations happened with liftees or other riders, but the most amazing part of the day was witnessing Sophie.  She was TEARING it up on her board.  No fear whatsoever.  It’s amazing to think how she broke her arm so badly just two months before, (at the same mountain), and now she’s back out there as if the injury never happened.  So stinking cool!

The rest of the week was quick.  On Wednesday we met with Freedom for their mid-week service.  The 9 of us got to share our testimonies with everyone and then we split in to small groups and prayed to close the night.  I’m going to miss them all so much.  We went night riding one last time at Snow Park on Friday and had a great close for ministry on the streets.

For our last day in Queenstown, Jeromy and Janie handed out free ice cream and popsicles.  They were able to talk about the gospel to multiple people and spread God’s love to nearly 60 people.  Tore had a great chat with one of the workers near the waterfront and shared the gospel with him.  Mandi was led to pray for a random worker in one of the outdoor stores.  Sophie, Tack, and Andy busked worship songs for a while and had a few people stop and watch. Jeff and I set up a “prayer booth” by the water.  Basically we held a sign that said “Sick?  Injured?  Feeling good?  All are welcome for prayer.”  A few people came to us and asked for prayer.  It was so sweet.  God opened so many doors for us this day...and every day for that matter.  We were able to end our time in Queenstown well.

UPDATE WEEK 4 (9/30 – 10/08/2012)

Well, we’re finally in Malaysia…and it’s APARENT.  This morning I woke up to the roosters crowing.  The 9 of us went from blending in to standing out ethnically, the humidity is over 60% and no one can stop sweating!  Driving a scooter is THE mode of transportation for Penang.  People buzz around on them constantly.  Today we saw a man driving with a tank of propane in between his legs, and another guy with his little kid on his lap.  The Malaysians are fearless when it comes to two wheels.  

Our base is in the heart of Georgetown (an island off the main land of Malaysia).  The ocean is a 2 minute walk away; although, the beaches are pretty polluted.  Food is incredibly cheap.  Just to paint a picture, we are allowed $7.00 USD/day/person for our food budget.  In New Zealand that was quite a stretch at times.  One US dollar equals 3 ringgit (Malaysia’s currency), which means we are allowed 21 ringgit/day/person for food.  Most meals from street vendors cost between 3-5 ringgit and drinks are between 1-3 depending on how fancy you want to get.  So basically, we are in heaven with the prices here and how strong the US dollar is.  I purchased a roll of Mentos today for .33 cents.  Awe yeah!

After everyone was awake, we went on a walk around town.  The traffic is frightening, especially when you are trying to cross the street.  Drivers do not like yielding to pedestrians one bit.  You have to go for it at times and run in order to get to the other side.  The streets are dirty.  The buildings are crumbling apart.  Sidewalks are cracked and jagged.  Stray cats and dogs walk around scavenging for food.  Foreign smells (usually bad) are everywhere.  The skies are polluted and overcast…yet this place is beautiful because God’s children are everywhere   I look at the people and think how our Father is just waiting to captivate hearts and bring his kids home.

Outreach prep was Tuesday.  Peter and Kevin (our main contacts) explained quite a bit about the Malaysian culture – what to wear, how to greet people, how Christianity is viewed and understood by Muslims, courtesies, offenses, etc.  

The heat was sweltering today.  A few of us got sick and pale from lack of water.  Instead of going on a 2-hour walking tour around Georgetown, the team skipped out to rest and rehydrate. 

That night, we had the option to either stay at base and continue resting or go to Penhop.  The Penang House of Prayer had a “worship with the word” session tonight.  The worship band sang through scripture and played many other worship songs during this time.  Revelation 19:5-7 & 11-13 was the chosen scripture.  It was a great time to fill up on God’s word and be in his presence.

Outreach is in full force!  Wednesday morning we served at Kawan.  Kawan is a Christian organization that serves the homeless Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week.  It started 5 years ago and is booming today.  Kawan opens at 10:00am and serves breakfast (coffee and buttered bread) until 11:30ish.  During this time a bible study is held.  There is also a room upstairs with mats for the men and women to rest.  Showers are available as well with soap and places to wash clothing.  After breakfast is lunch and then cleanup.

The majority of homeless people coming in are men.  It is hard being a female because you are not allowed to sit at a table with the opposite sex and talk casually.  That can be looked at as scandalous.  This makes evangelism difficult.  Tore had the opportunity to talk with a table of men.  He said it was hard because there was not much to be said.  Many of these men have no place to live, no job, no family and lots of broken hurts.  Pray that God continues to soften hearts.

Tonight we went back to Kawan for Wednesday night evangelism.  There were about 25 of us (the YWAM group, the World Race group and the Kawan staff).  All of us broke into smaller groups between 4 and 7 people.  I went with the car that drove to the “red light” district of Georgetown.  They Kawan staff only brought two of us because their relationships with the prostitutes are close and bringing in many outsiders can turn them off.  The hour and a half was spent talking to many women.  We walked down an alley way where nearly a dozen women were sitting, waiting for men to come.  They guys drove on scooters through the small alleyway.  It was so busy and chaotic.  This is one of those times where I just way to God, “ok, Lord, I need your words and heart right now.”  A few of us were able to pray with the women and talk a bit about Jesus and how he loves them so much.

The other evangelism groups spread out down the whole of Chulia street (one of the busier places in Georgetown).  Sophie had a great conversation with a man Tey for most of the night and Tore shared about Jesus to a Chinese man Vri and prayed for him as well!  There were many stories like these from the other Kawan and World Race people.  God was definitely stirring the pot tonight.

From Thursday to Monday, the team left for a 5 day trip to the main land.  We met with Auntie Janet, her husband Joshua and her friends Joshua, Candy and Isaac.  Each day was packed.  Some nights we would get home from ministry around 2am then leave the same morning by 8am.  There was no time to rest.

Thursday night we went to an orphanage, acted out stories from the bible, sang songs, played games and loved on the children there.  Friday we worked with special needs children and helped in their classrooms.  We also sang them songs and acted out biblical stories.  That afternoon we drove nearly 5 hours into the jungle.  Jeff preached, and Andy shared his testimony.  We gave food to the people there, prayed for them, danced, sang and just had fun together.  They are people who have been rejected by society, so they fled to the jungle to escape this discrimination.  A lot of unforgiveness is in their hearts.  

On Saturday we went on a tour to the tin mines with Auntie Janet and all of her friends.  There were 4 cars full of people.  After that we drove into a different jungle where more of the “native” people live.  The majority of them are young.  Thirteen-year-old girls are usually all married and have 1-2 kids already.  They don’t really know how to fend for themselves and practically fought us while we tried to hand out food and clothes to them.  We attempted to get them to participate in singing songs and learn some type of obedience for food and clothing, but they were so impatient and the language barrier made it even harder.  It was difficult to see such desperation.  We found one of the members in town after leaving the jungle.  He was bitten badly on his foot by something in the jungle and we got to pray for him.  He asked if we could drive him back into the jungle to be with his people.  One of Auntie Janet’s friends is a pastor and she was able to share the gospel with him a bit.  He and his wife wanted to get baptized. So after driving them back into the jungle, Jeromy and Joshua and the pastor all helped baptize he and his wife.  Such a memorable experience!  

Sunday was church.  Andy, Thor, Janie and Sophie did a few worship songs for the church to experience “western church” worship.  I shared my testimony with the church and after we all ate lunch together.  That afternoon we went to an old folks home.  We sang them songs, prayed for those that wanted it and danced.  Haha!  Our team really likes dancing.  That night we drove back to the island for the Chinese church.  Holy smokes!  What en experience.  The church had an incredible anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Everyone was speaking in tongues and had radical faith.  We worshipped for hours and ended up leaving after midnight.  There was definitely a lot to think about spiritually after that night.  I don’t think most of us went to sleep until 3am.  Monday morning was our last day of ministry on the main land.  We went to the HIV/AIDS house to hangout with the residents and eat lunch.  They enjoyed playing games and we learned a few new ones.  This organization has been going for years and is slowly progressing.  They are able to house 20 residents, which is HUGE!  So praise God for that and all the help they are giving to those with HIV. 

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Prayer points:  Adjustment to the heat.  Awareness to our surroundings and a constant hedge of protection (the melting pot of religions is a constant battlefield for spiritual warfare). Safety on the streets, energy as we serve in the heat at Kawan, that God would give us his heart for the lost.  Sickness (Sophie has been sick since Queenstown, Jeff and Tack are feeling bad, and we got super sunburned on Tuesday).  

Outreach week 2!!

Another update written by Alyssa Burroughs. Enjoy :)

WEEK 2 UPDATE  (9/15 – 9/21/2012)

Saturday was spent interceding for Costa Rica.  What a time!  God was speaking to us like crazy.  Janie ended up writing 3 pages of notes down for their team.  If you want to see the notes, let me know and I’ll have Janie email them to you.

The rest of the day we prepared for the 4 church services happening tomorrow.  Those leading worshipped practiced, Mandi, Tack, Jeromy, Jeff and I read through our scriptures, etc. 

After dinner, we treasure hunted downtown.  Andy and Thor broke off.  Mandi and Soph were a team and Tack, Jeff and Jeromy went together.  Janie and I went back to the liquor store where Kylie works, but she wasn’t there.  We ended up leaving a prayer/intercession note for Kylie and some chocolate.  The guy working in her place, Eddy, made a joke about not getting any chocolate…so we bought him some fudge and talked for about 15 minutes   Haha!  He was not expecting that at all.  Eddy told us quite a bit about his life story and showed us pictures on his computer of places he’s gone boarding.  No prayer.  We saw a man with crutches on the street.  His name is Dave and he recently tore his ACL.  Janie and I asked if he wanted prayer, but he said no (although kept talking to us and was very nice).  I think the best part of the night was going to CookieTime and meeting Jo.  She talked with us for about 15 minutes.  After sharing a bit of our life and hearing more of hers, we got her interested in the Youth Booth nights on Friday.  Jo is going to bring a bunch of cookies this Friday (hopefully) and hangout.  Also, she offered to give Janie a FREE pair of Jucy sunglasses.  Janie and I want to keep pursuing Eddy, Kylie and Jo.  There’s great potential for relationships in all three…hopefully prayer too!  Other than meeting plenty on new people, we are all still hoping to pray for God’s treasures.  He is moving in Queenstown.

SUNDAY

9:00am – St. John’s church service in Arrowtown.  Shane, Linda and Shayne were a no show   Bummer.  Murray, the pastor, was so funny and lively.  The majority of the congregation consists of 70, 80 and 90-some-year-olds.  There were a few under that age group, but not many.  I can see what the locals mean by “generational churches.”  It was a great time though.  All of us were able to speak with many of the members and love on them.  We made it a point to sit apart from one another.  The worship, scripture reading and YWAM introduction all went well. 

10:45am – St. Andrew’s church service in Queenstown.  Tack gave his testimony (which went very well).  Rev. Ian even referred back to it as he preached.  Jeromy and I read scripture and Mandi shared about YWAM.  It wasn’t as involved as St. John’s, but still wonderful.  We were able to mingle with quite a few members after the service and see the Korean church set up.  Next Sunday we are running the entire church service!

3:00pm – Glenorchy church in Glenorchy.  The church is the size of a shed and the congregation (apart from YWAM) is under 10 people.  We preformed the exact same service from St.John’s church this morning.  There was more discussion during the sermon since everyone could share in such close quarters.  We even got the chance to pray for one another.  After the service, we walked across the street to one of the member’s homes for tea and coffee.  All of them are such a family and love fellowshipping.  They were so excited to double the size of their service.

6:30pm - Freedom church in Queenstown.  Tonight, the 9 of us attended Freedom to wind down from our long day and chill.  We weren’t apart of the service in any way.  The worship was INCREDIBLY powerful.  The best part of the night was walking into church and seeing John (the street evangelist) sitting with Vashon (the Hindu man staying with us at the Shotover Lodge).  Ahhhhhh!  SO GOOD!  Tack sat by Vashon we both got the chance to pray for him that night.  Vashon got the job in Queenstown too!  And he wants to keep going to Freedom!  And possibly get involved with worship!  Our Father has such a plan for Vashon and is working in his life more than he realizes.  The sermon was perfect for him too!  Absolutely perfect!  After church, Janie, Thor and I went to CookieTime to see Jo.  She gave Janie the Jucy sunglasses and we know where she lives too.  I think Janie and I are going to leave her some written prayers…or something like what we did for Kylie.  It was pretty busy in the store, so we couldn’t talk long, but God has definitely put Jo on our heart.  

Monday morning we helped out a family from St. Andrew’s plant their flax bushes.  We were able to work 30 minutes before getting completely rained out.  After waiting the rain out and eating lunch, we went back to work only to get soaked once more.  Hopefully we can go this week or next to finish what we started.

The afternoon was gloomy.  That evening we went to Freedom youth.  They asked us to cook dinner.  Fellowship was fantastic.  Freedom and YWAM are really starting to bond   They all have incredibly huge hearts and accepting, inviting spirits.  After dinner, the youth went upstairs to discuss Ben’s testimony while YWAM stayed downstairs to hang out with the young adult group.  They were asking us about ministry opportunities in Queenstown and wanted to know what we’ve done so far on outreach.  It was a lax, open discussion.  This Saturday we are teaming with Freedom to do a skateboard/movie/BBQ night open to anyone.  It’s locked in!  Ministry is in progress…

Tuesday we snowboarded at The Remarkables. The boys all had a great time doing park laps and messing around with the GoPro.  Janie and Sophie hung out in the lodge all day.  Mandi and I boarded a half-day and tried some “gutsy” things in the park.  Not many of us got a chance to talk to people on the lift.  It was a slower day.  I did see Eddy snowboarding though, and the Chilean guy who juggled in the street from Saturday night.  However, they didn’t recognize me.  I wish I had Janie boarding with me to tag team talking with them.

Tonight was so great!  Everyone was busy cooking dinner around the same time as us.  We got to see John and Vashon.  Thor ended up talking to Vashon for over two hours about Christianity, Jesus, the gospels, etc.  Janie, Jeff, Andy and I were playing card at a table nearby and kept looking over at the two of them with huge smiles – we know God is at work!  Thor is awesome for stepping out in faith and taking the time to be with Vashon.  I feel a harvest reaping soon!

We fasted on Wednesday, as well as the Costa Rica team (although it’s Tuesday their time).  All nine of us started off the morning in devotion, encouragement and prayer.  Mandi emphasized Isaiah 61 to us.  It is the scripture for our outreach team.

Jeromy broke off from us that afternoon to rock climb with one of the Freedom kids.  It was the perfect opportunity to fellowship and grow roots deeper between YWAM and Freedom Church.

That afternoon the 8 of us went in to town for a few hours with no set agenda.  I met a worker in one of the souvenir shops, Angel, and recognized her from the last time we were in Queenstown eight weeks ago.  We spoke for quite some time, but after a bit of courage build up, Angel is going out to coffee with Janie and I tomorrow at 2.  It’s crazy how the Holy Spirit leads you to someone like that and sets up a coffee date without you even trying.  God is so great at planning!  Haha!  Wow…

Jeff and I saw a man with crutches near the waterfront.  We asked if he wanted prayer for healing but he said no.  Oh well.  We prayed for him anyway after he walked away.  Healing can happen without hands being laid on an injury.  A prayer has the same power   So, Jeff and I followed at a distance praying…and then all of a sudden…he started walking/limping with his crutches down the main strip of Queenstown!  It was nuts!  You’re cool God, real cool.

Tonight was Freedom Church’s mid-week service/bible study.  A lot of the same people from youth night went as well as new faces.  We ate dinner, chatted and had a GREAT night learning more about the fruits of the Spirit.  After, we broke into small groups and prayed for one another.  Awe man, it was a fantastic night.

Thursday was our day off.  All of us went in to town that afternoon to hangout and bum around town.

Janie and I had a blessed time with Angel.  She is 29, from China and moved to New Zealand less than a year ago.  Angel doesn’t claim to have a specific religion, although she has studied and practiced mostly Buddhism beliefs.  She asked some really tough questions about our faith, like: Do we ever doubt our faith?  How do we know God is real?  How do we explain judgmental, unaccepting churches?  It was insane!  Angel was extremely open to hearing us out and patiently listened.  I really wanted to talk more, but we had to leave at 3:15 to get ready for Snow Park.  I invited Angel to our skateboard/movie/BBQ night this Saturday though.  Pray that she comes!

Everyone except Janie and Sophie snowboarded at Snow Park tonight with SFC.  It was super fun!  We all practiced plenty of tricks.  Mandi bashed her head really hard after falling off a dragon box :/  She was in pretty bad shape tonight after we got home.  A doctor didn’t confirm it, but I think Mandi may have gotten a concussion.  Please keep her in your prayers and ask that her brain in protected and her muscles loosen up. 

Back at base:  Janie and Sophie got to hangout with John and Vashon tonight.  They watched the X-Factor for nearly two hours and chatted plenty.  Janie taught Vashon new songs on the guitar too!  I really think God is doing a tremendous work in Vashon.  Keep praying for him!  There was a definitely a reason why Janie and Sophie stayed back at base tonight.  Thank you Jesus for them!

Friday was spent preparing for St. Andrew’s service on Sunday.

Youth Booth was from 5-9.  We helped set up and worked alongside Nathan.  The kids were much younger this week.  We played computer games with a few of them.  The acoustic music was great and Tracy was there again with her husband Dave (one of the judges).  I invited them to St. Andrew’s tomorrow since they don’t have a set church to attend.  Hopefully we’ll see them Sunday!

Prayer Points:  Pray for Chenay working in the Shotover Lodge.  She attends Freedom and has been given many opportunities for ministry during work, but is a bit overwhelmed by it. Kylie, Jo, Tracy and Dave.  Continued growth between Freedom and YWAM.  Vashon, Vashon, Vashon.  Enough said.

Outreach week 1

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.

Mete Atu E Toa (God is the King of Kings)

Week 1 of the students being here is complete. Only 19 more.... or something like that. This first week has presented it's challenges and it's awesomeness, but first let me catch up on everything leading up to this first week.


The last 3 weeks of staff training was awesome. We had a guest speaker named Trish come in the second week and she was great. She showed us a lot on how to run small groups and how to be a team and all sorts of great stuff like that. The next week was spent with a little more training on what it is gonna take, but with a lot more of getting to know each other and where we come from, and some logistical stuff as well. That weekend we got to go on a sweet staff retreat to a place called Dansey's Pass and it was awesome. The campground we stayed in had a flying fox and a sweet rope swing. Then on the way home we stopped at this place where there is a penguin colony and waited for like 2 hours for one to come on to shore. Then finally this penguin waddles up onto the beach and into a cave.  Coolest thing ever! Then we had the last week to prepare. We prepared our job roles and got everything ready for the students to arrive.

Tweaked out method on the rope swing

Some of the beauty of Dansey's Pass and New Zealand

The first student came in on Thursday and we were doing airport pick ups from then until Sunday afternoon when our last student came in. Sunday night we had the welcome banquet for students, during the banquet myself, Stephen, Loren (school leader), Matt (Bible Core Course school leader) and Jeremy (base team leader) all broke out into a Haka we had been practing for a week prior and it was so rad! We owned it of course. Laying down a spiritual challenge for the students to pick up and go for it. That night we had our first worship session as a school. Oh and by the way I somehow ended up as the worship coordinator for the school. So I was involved in my first worship practice on Sunday afternoon. I'm not too experienced in this regard so I'll definitely be needing Jesus' help. but I'm sure it will be all good. God will make it work! Anyways the worship night on Sunday was fantastic! The students really got into it and we had a great prayer session and everyone just dove in head first. The Spirit of God was certainly among us. Then Monday we had all the administrative boring stuff you have to go over with the students. Tuesday was great though we had another great prayer time with the students and God was clearly working in their lives. Tuesday night we had a wax party and got all our boards waxed and ready to go to the mountain on Wednesday. Gnarly first day on the mountain! There was actually some powder and a little park I was trying all sorts of new stuff and we had a lot of fun. Thursday was a lecture on hearing God's voice and it was a new teaching for a lot of the students and I'm very excited to see how God works in their lives and speaks to all of them personally. We had our first small group on Thursday night as well and it was so good just to sit down and chat with those guys. I'm super excited to get to know them more. Friday we had a lecture on The first and greatest commandment. Loving God. We also had a little talk on local outreach and mountain evangelism. It was good stuff. Today we went up to Mt. Hutt! yay! It was a great day so much fun hanging out with everyone and a bunch of the guys from the SFC (Snowboarders for Christ) crew. It was good to push myself and at one point I reached about 95 Km's an hour!

So that's the sum of what happened in the past month. I've been feeling really tired lately and been fighting to get enough rest. Now that the students are here I know it's gonna be a real challenge. A lot of things that I just have to rely on God for. I know that I'm not the most qualified leader and I know I certainly don't have all the answers but God called me here and I believe He'll teach me and guide me for these next few months. Even though it is going to be tough it will also be an amazing time of growth together with people and with the Lord. I know every day I'll laugh and have a good time. Just excited to see what God has in store next...

I've been missing home a little bit lately as well. Missing my family, my friends and Lindsay. She got me a bracelet that says "Love knows no distance" and sent it in the mail. What a sweet heart.

I'm in awe of God's ability to move people and praying that it happens in all our students lives and they come out completely changed and willing to be used by Jesus. Willing to live blameless lives and give everything they have to follow Him. That's what I'm here for, just along for the roller coaster ride of love being poured out by God.

Stoked as bru.

Brendan

Ambergris

It's the first official day of winter here in New Zealand, June 1st. We've had a week of staff training so far and I've really learned that this is gonna be a whole new and more challenging, more growing experience than last year. We've talked about a lot of base stuff like YWAM Oxford history and YWAM values and base structure and it's been interesting. The tough stuff to talk about so far has been Staff fears/expectations and Self-care. A lot of talk about making sure you spend enough time to yourself and with God so you don't get overworked and bogged down and so that you have an enjoyable time staffing and so that it doesn't suck. I know it'll be a challenge but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to when the students get here in 3 weeks. We've had lots of down time so far to just chill but I know that'll be a different story when they get here.

This was a double rainbow I saw on my second day here. It's so beautiful!

That's right I painted a picture. A fun night's activity.

As for the title of this blog Ambergris is basically whale vomit. We were discussing at lunch one day that when whales hurl it like hardens up in the sea and kinda looks like a rock when it lands on shore. Kinda nasty but a 4 pound block would be worth like $20,000!! I guess they use it in perfume or something but it was one of those hilarious ongoing discussions about how we would get a hold of some Ambergris. We decided to capture a whale and feed it beak squids which bother the whales stomach so it throws up. We would never have to fundraise again!! Then we decided that would probably be animal cruelty... and we have nowhere to store a whale. Anyways it was a hilarious discussion!

Thanks for checking this out guys! more to come soon.

Brendan

The Next Adventure

For those of you who haven't read my blog yet, last year I went on an adventure to New Zealand to be a student on a DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). YWAM is the largest missions organization in the world and they run schools, such as DTS’s and various other schools, all around the world all year long. A DTS consists of a 3 month lecture phase, where students grow in their relationship with God and are taught how to live with a mission focus, and how to serve God in all aspects of their lives. With daily lectures, weekly speakers, daily devotionals, daily and weekly work duties, mission opportunities, small groups and living in a God-focussed community setting, students solidify their relationship with God. My DTS was a Ski and Snowboarding DTS and during the lecture phase we went snowboarding twice a week to share God’s love to people we can easily relate. The ski hills are a place largely absent of God’s presence, and for the most part it’s full of people seeking satisfaction in places other than the Lord. We went out with a heart to usher the presence of God onto the hills.

Following the lecture phase, there is a 2 month outreach. During the outreach, students apply what they have learned and take it to serve different people of the world, showing the love of Jesus (Mark 16:15). My outreach last year took place in Malaysia and Turkey. In Malaysia we worked at a homeless shelter, a children’s ministry and a sports ministry. At these ministries we had the chance to build relationships, meet physical needs, teach English and share the gospel with people who wanted the message of Truth and love and salvation. In Turkey, we were able to host English clubs and paint their church. The Outreach is living out Jesus’ call on our lives as stated in Matthew 28:18-20.
This year I’m going back to New Zealand to do another SDTS. This time I won’t be attending as a student, but instead as a staff member. My role will be to disciple students through their growth with God that will occur on their SDTS. I will be constantly praying for them, and with the strength of God, will walk through their struggles and their rejoices with them. I also will be leading an outreach with a group of 5-10 students. I feel God is bringing me back to New Zealand because He has big plans to work through me there using my gifts and talents and uses me in ways I don’t yet understand to help these students see His glory and live for Jesus with their hearts, minds and bodies.

In order to participate in this leadership opportunity, I will need support through prayer, and also financial provision. I believe the Lord provides, and I know that He takes care of the birds, so of course He will take care of me, whom He loves even more dearly. (Matthew 6:26)   If you feel led to bless me financially, you may receive a tax deductible receipt by making cheques payable to Sunwest Christian Fellowship, You also may drop donations off in the donation box at Sunwest, on Sunday mornings. Please indicate on the envelope that the funds will be going towards my YWAM missions trip, or drop them off at the church office, or you may give them to me directly. You can also make payments online via email money transfer or pay pal to btack@me.com. The easiest way is to click on the donate button on the top right of this page. If you have any more questions or would like to chat with me more about where God is leading me, please send me an email. While I’m away, feel free to see how God is using me on this particular journey by checking up on my blog


Thanks for checking this out and please keep updated!


Brendan Tackaberry

The Burning Bush

Our last day in Penang, Malaysia.

Before you scroll down and see that is blog is too long to read the majority of it is a story by our leader of an unexpected event that happened one day while serving at Kawan, it's pretty awesome I encourage you to read it.

As we wrap up our time here nothing is more precious then knowing we made a difference. Knowing that God smiles on the work we've done here and is proud of us and having that prayed over us almost brought me to tears. Sometimes when you don't see the fruit of your actions and how much you have impacted people until you hear it from God. As the YWAM base here prayed over us and sent us on our way, Nick one of the people who prayed over us just told us that God was proud of us and it made all the difference. Now I will no longer look back at this time by what I thought were unmet expectations, but rather the fact that we have been a blessing to all the believers here. That is one of the biggest keys to short term missions I think is to encourage everyone here to keep givin'er. Being filled with the fire that they are I'm excited to hear what this place is like in 5 years. I expect it will be much different.

With our team much more focused and diving into fasting and prayer we are prepping for the journey to Turkey. Everyone one of us has engaged in fasting in the past week. We have our hearts and our minds refocused/refocusing on the Lord. We are realizing that Turkey is gonna be an intense adventure and if we want to be difference makers there we need to pray first and then be ready to go out. I personally am really expecting to meet with God in big ways during my time of fasting. Like Moses and the burning bush. I've been learning so much and I can't wait to head to Turkey and see how God moves through our team.

As we've continued on in our ministries here, sports ministries, Kawan a place for homeless people to get food, a nap, a shower and a place to hang out, and the door of hope time has just flown by. We won't forget the wonderful people we've met or some of the stories and adventures to tell. God bless Malaysia. There is one particular story that was pretty intense. This is Stephen's story of what happened on a wednesday at Kawan:

Written By Stephen Wood

ok where to begin where to begin... So yesterday at Kawan, a man named david came in completely drunk. He was wobbling around and just not stable. about ten minutes after being there, he has already annoyed some of the other people that were there and was not listening to Ben the leader guy. Ben tells david to leave but instead david calms down and says he will go sleep. There are mattresses up stairs for them to use so he went up there. he only slept for about 30 minutes so he didn't lose any affects of the alcohol. anyways I had just come down from another part of the house to see a small fight break out in front of the house. I ran out in time to see a hammer fly from a guys hand (lets call this guy Jobin as i don't know his name). Edd, a guy we work with grabbed Jobin and Ben was holding David. I ran after the hammer so that neither of them would get ahold of it again. i quickly learned that Jobin didn't like David and David didn't like Jobin. Jobin had not hit David with the hammer at all Thank you Jesus! so we sent them on their separate ways but David, being drunk, followed Jobin... i dont know why. i said to Edd and Ben they are gonna fight again but they said "its not our problem off of the property" thats fair but ridiculous i thought. anyways i walked to the corner to watch as Jobin turned around and started coming back... everyone else was at the door to Kawan and couldn't see. at this point David and Jobin where about ten feet from each other i turned to Edd and Ben and said "they are going to fight again should I break it up" they responded with no its not our business. i looked back just in time to see Jobin catch David in the neck with a screw driver. Shocked i said to Ben and Edd "David just got stabbed"... at this point hammer in hand i am determined to go and stop this. so i start toward the fight and as i look back to fight i see Jobin stab David again in the chest and then Jobin takes off... David turns around and says call an ambulance... at this point Edd is right behind me and he tells Ben to call. Edd and I help David, covered in blood, back to the Kawan centre and lay him down on a mattress. When he was laying there he said he could breath. it was because the stab in the chest punctured his lung we believe. he was a bloody mess he was dirty and smelly and sweaty and worst of all BLOODY! i didnt know what to do i was repulsed by it. i didn't feel love for this man at all... he was a stupid drunk man in need of love and i couldn't do it... i was mad at myself. this is what i was here to do! love the unlovable. why was this such a struggle? My mind instantly went to Jesus, these were the people he loved... so i told myself this is where the "training" ends and the reality of loving, really loving, the needy starts! so i did i changed my mind and held his hand when he asked for it and rubed his sweaty head when he asked me to. I got his blood and sweat on me but i figured it was where i was supposed to be. I knew he wouldn't die from the hole in his chest and neck but it was weird being there. i was lost in thought for a long time. Then the ambulance came and took him away. i dont know when i will see him again or if i even will see him again. but i wont forget it....


Thanks for reading


Love you guys,
Brendan

Char Koay Teow

As time goes on here in Malaysia I'm not quite sure who is helping who.  We've met some incredible believers here and I have been inspired by the strength of the christians here. I've heard a few times now that there will be a revival here within the next few years and with this kind of God fearing, God loving people it is easy to see why. We've come here to serve the people who need our help here and we've done that but at that same time I feel like they've helped us just as much. Encouraging us as we need it and letting us know were doing a good job even when it doesn't feel like it. As time and time again our humanness fails us and we don't say the right things, or we back down from an opportunity to share, It's great to hear that our God still loves us and will never stop loving us. For me as I push more and more into Him and spend more and more time with Him while I'm here the easier it is to talk to strangers and to not back down. Not to say that it's easy. I still find myself missing out on more opportunities then ones that I take. I just need to keep loving like Jesus did and when I keep seeing God's love of me I'll be able to see his love for others. So I'm still working on that but like the potter and the clay God is moulding me until I become perfect. Which I will never be, but as I respond to his love more and more I can only get closer. 


Our first day of ministry we had orientation and then we went to this Ministry called Kawan which means "friends" in malay and there was 3 groups. Johnny and Blake went and did some street evangelism with other people. Stephen was at the church service for the street people and that was with a bunch of other people. Me and Josef were praying over the night in a little upstairs room with a couple others. Then we had another day of orientation type stuff and walked around to see all the different temples and places of worship. That night we went to the Door of Hope which is a children's ministry and then we went there for 3 days in a row and hung out with kids and acted out David and Goliath and taught a bunch of english and we'll being doing that a bunch while we are here it's great. One of the days at the door of hope we cleaned these nasty public washrooms, It wasn't so bad because we listened to worship and made it a worship session, haha like on base morning worship duties except a lot nastier.  Sunday we went to Grace Sanctuary which is a small little church with almost all chinese people so it was amazing of course and we were all prayed for by the pastor there. We played floor ball monday night and it was amazing!! It was basically floor hockey and I was so happy to see hockey sticks in Malaysia! It reminded me of home in Canada. They were like plastic looking things but I was in my element. It's a great way to relate with college kids and the ministry they have going with that is awesome. We rented motorcycles that night and cruised around all night. We still had the motorbikes for the next day and cruised around the whole island looking for beaches and seeing the country it was awesome. The traffic is just ridiculous here and there is like no rules so were weaving in and out of cars watching for pedestrians and watching out for cars and other bikers then at red lights we just cruise up to the front of the line it's amazing!! oh and monday we had a treasure hunt and we decided it would be good to go to this one place for lunch and while we were there this guy came up to us and talked to us for like an hour or more and it seemed like he was prophesying over us and he said he believed in Jesus, but then he said he was hindu and believed in all gods... so it was weird, we tried to tell him that Jesus was the only God and we prayed for him and gave him lunch. Today we went to Kawan again helped out, hanging out with the homeless people for breakfast and lunch and helping clean up the place, it was fun. Wednesday we spent the day at Kawan which is a place for homeless people to come and eat and take a nap indoors, and free showers. We spent time there just chatting with people and cleaning up the place. We did night evangelism and street church there again. Thursday we had activity with Ed. Ed is a guy from Holland who has been here for 4 years now doing evangelism so we took the bus somewhere and found this awesome hike off the road and climbed up a river for an hour or so and then got to this dam in the middle of the jungle and we saw some awesome jungle animals that I've never seen before it was great! I'm used to only seeing moose and deer in the Canadian forest it was a little different here.  Then right after that we went to the Door of Hope again for kids ministry it was a long but great day. Friday helped out at Kawan again  then we hung out with some people from the "Logos Hope" which is a ship that is docked here that is part of Operation Mobilization and the ship has been for a while now and is leaving on wednesday but they do lots of good work at each country they visit brining help, hope and knowledge. We also went to Penhop and had friday night burn from 10pm-1am and it was a great 3 hours of worship. Good to be filled.  Today we went to play futsal with some locals kids and hang out with them it was great fun but I've never sweat that much in my life! At least it's good for me. And that's where I'm at so far in Malaysia. It's been fun and I'm excited to see what comes next!


Thanks for reading,


Brendan

5 dudes in Malaysia, why?

Last night as we walked up to the roof to have a worship session and pray in high places over the city, Steve our team leader pointed out something very interesting to me. Why would 5 very capable, handsome, strong men who could easily be working out fantastic successful lives, in university, working, getting girlfriends, guys who could have awesome lives living the american dream give that all up and go to the ghetto in Malaysia just to love people? (Granted we may not be here for ever, but were still sacrificing half a year of our normal lives) We do it because we are so loved. We go way out of our way, half way across the country just to love people because we are so loved. We're loved so greatly by our father in heaven and the people around us that we can't help but go out and share that love to people that may not know it. If we really realize that and love people with all we've been given were gonna make a huge impact in this world and that is what it's all about. Anyways... I'll tell you about Malaysia so far.


God is great and our travels went incredibly easy. We got on the plane, without hardly having to wait in the airport. After a long 11 hour flight we landed in Malaysia. Johnny was sitting on the plane with a man named Jeeva, and he helped us out when we got there and got us started on the buses to Penang, super nice guy. After a bus to Kuala Lumpur Central station we got on a few trains to where the bus stops to Penang are. There we were walking around like chickens with their heads cut off... or just 5 dudes who didn't know where to go. Then a lady came up to us asked us where we were going and showed us to this awesome bus and then walked away. We paid 35 RM or about $12 each to take a 6 hours bus ride to Buttersworth, Penang. It worked out so smoothly we thought we were getting scammed. Then we took a fairy across the island into the city Georgetown, Penang where the base is and just walked right to it. Praise God it went so smoothly. We just spent the rest of the evening walking around finding where we are and grabbing some grub, which is cheap and delicious. Seriously Penang is a food lovers paradise, EVERYTHING is so amazing! and so cheap!! So today we've been walking around, we hit up the mall and we'll be going out again this afternoon just to get a feel for the locals and what this place is like. Lovin' life here so far! We start our scheduled ministries tomorrow, not to say we aren't looking for opportunities even on our days off. So yaaaaaa That's Malaysia so far, it's real gnarly.


Love ya!


Brendan

The Start of A New Chapter

Well in two days I'll be leaving on outreach and I couldn't be more excited.

Today we had our last day of lectures and it was some awesome worship time and just praying for each other and loving on each other. This afternoon we packed away all our stuff and now all we have access to is the our backpacks and the clothes were taking on outreach. It was a bittersweet day. Coming up to the realization I'm gonna have to leave what has become my home, with what has become my family. That's the bitter part. The sweet part is that I'll be taking some of that family with me to some very beautiful places, and the adventure I'm about to be taken on is gonna be one with wild stories to tell. I'm gonna see a lot of things on outreach that wouldn't be possible without God on my side. I can't wait to just show some major love to people in Malaysia and Turkey. It's been confirmed time and time again today that me and my outreach team are mighty men and mighty warriors for God. Me and 4 men. Me, Blake Ryan Cooper, Josef, Johnny, and my team leader Stephen. My passport also arrived today, fresh off the printing press and looking beautiful it couldn't have arrived at a better time. Our commissioning was also tonight and we had everyone on base sending us out with prayer and good words of encouragement. After that we gathered everyone and had our very own premiere of the brand new snowboarding movie "The Art of Flight" and it was amazing. It was more like a documentary about the risks of snowboarding and what a life chasing snow is like. Seems fun, but there is so much more... The video was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen and the cinematography was amazing.

Since Queenstown the school has made huge steps of growth. Queenstown was kind of a turning point for us. After that week we had a speaker named Mark Parker who challenged us in big ways and we gave up anything we were holding on a little too tightly and it made us free to live out God's will in our lives. Since then we have all actively pursued God more and more. Through a series of people fasting and getting revelations from God this school is more than ready to go out there and spread the love.

As I'm sitting in the library writing this and just hanging out with a few of my friends I'm realizing how much I love them all. These people in this school have built me up and encouraged me through this time and I'm so thankful for the group that was brought together in this school. This is what church is really like. A group of believers encouraging each other and teaching each other and learning from each other, but most of all loving each other. Laughter, joy, tears, injuries, healings (just tonight Jessica's knees were healed), successes and failures, we've been through a lot together and it's fantastic. Love these people. For those back home don't worry I still love you! haha just making sure you know that...

Going out on outreach please pray for us to have strength to fulfill God's will for us, strength from God. Also pray that we would know God's love for everyone we see and share that love with them and feel that love for ourselves. That kind of love would enable us to be humble servants and that is what people take most notice of. I've learned a lot so far but I can't wait until I learn even more on outreach. God is putting together a good plan for the next year for me. I can't wait to see where he takes me.

Thanks for reading!

Love ya,

Brendan

King of Queenstown

Queenstown is so gnarly. We drove up last saturday and when we went in to town saturday night there was a big rugby game going on New Zealand against Australia and the streets and the bars were crowded. We had been living in a christian bubble for the past month and a half so it was pretty crazy. It is such a party town I think there is more bars than anything else there. It was so much fun hanging out there.

On sunday we went into this town called Wanaka and it was awesome, crazy beautiful scenery and a great burger place. We went to a church in Wanaka that was founded by some snowboarders and it was awesome, we met Kelly Clark there, she is an olympic gold medalist in the half pipe, best girl snowboarder in the world I think. We got the chance to talk with her and pray for her it was cool. Then on monday we went to the hill called The Remarkables which is on the mountain range that Mordor was filmed on. So it was super windy on the hill so only a couple chairlifts were open and we had to hike to find powder, but we found some awesome powder and it was cool hiking that much. Then in the afternoon we found this jump that Scott had been on earlier he said it was awesome for backflips so we then decided we were gonna do backflips. A bunch of us were there hiking up and down the hill to get this backflip down. A few times I had the spin down but not enough air so my nose hit the ground and then I bailed but that was the closest I came. Then Scott ended up getting the rotation down a bunch of times but not landing and finally he landed one it was super awesome! I'll get er' next time though don't you worry. Another guy Davie Jones also did it so it was pretty awesome. Then on Tuesday we had lectures, with Angelina she tought all week on how to do an inductive bible study it was good to learn that stuff. Tuesday we went to Snowpark, it was legendary!! Right before we went up on the hill they closed it down for an hour for some pro skiers to do some filming for a movie and there was a helicopter flying around filming them and they were riding up the hill on snowmobiles to get to the top of the jumps it was a huge production and cool to see. It was just such a privilege to be at Snowpark that place is amazing. However disaster struck at Snowpark and one of the girls Jessica landed on the knuckle of a big jump and blew out both her knees. It was bad, but her spirits are still high so she's a trooper! Keep her in your prayers for healing. Wednesday and Thursday was all lectures. Except on Wednesday night we went out to Queenstown to try and do some evangelism and we got in some pretty cool conversations. Friday we went up to a hill called Cardrona and the burton open was going on and they had ripped down the park the week before to make all the jumps triple the size for the contest. We saw one guy pull a double back 1080 it was so amazing. All that being said we had tons of fun playing around in the other parks that were there and it was just a great day. Since the contest was going on there was a lot of free giveaways so I didn't even have to take a break for my sandwich. The best kind of day! It was a great end to a great week in Queenstown and we had Fergberger to finish it off, best burgers in New Zealand.

This week is supposedly gonna be a gnarly week spiritually so pray for it to be super awesome and for energy throughout the week!

Thanks guys,

Love You!

Brendan

X comes before Y

Sometimes we find ourselves asking why we would hike half an hour up the hill for a 5 minute ride down it, or perhaps why we would ride in an area where it is mostly rocks, or how come we always put our gnarly boots on instead of turn down an awesome opportunity? Well the answer of course is because X comes before Y!!!!! It's time to get X-treme!!! This week are heading to the world capital of extreme sports Queenstown. We will be hitting up 3 different mountains while we are there including the infamous Snow-park NZ, in which some scenes of the best snowboard movie ever "That's it That's All" were filmed! http://youtu.be/Z3heqxz43_0 this will be one of the places I'm gonna ride next week. The rest of the week we will be doing lectures and going out in Queenstown to find some opportunity to serve the Lord and having another week of getting closer to God. 

How many snowboarders does it take to screw in a light bulb?

3, one to screw it in, one to film it and one to yell "SICK!!!!"

Anyways... Last week we had this speaker named Adriel Booker and she talked about Identity. She taught us that as christians our identity is in christ and God know longer considers us as sinners but as holy people and the royal priesthood of God. We learned some really good stuff about acceptance and rejection in society and all sorts of cool stuff.

This week we had a speaker named Mandy Hudson, she talked about spiritual warfare and it was pretty gnarly. We just learned about the ongoing battle that is everywhere. We learned that we can stand from a place of victory because of the Holy Spirit in us. Pretty cool stuff!

I'm really excited for this week in Queenstown though. We have had some pretty big warnings against disunity so please be praying for unity within the group so that we can be as effective as possible.

Love you all

Brendan

"Let's get it on" -Marvin Gaye

Well we're finally getting to go snowboarding on all the days we are supposed to, the hills are just starting to open because this has been one of New Zealand's worst winters for snow in the mountains! But it's not the only reason I'm here so I haven't minded that at all. Anyways this saturday we got to go to Mt. Hutt again and there still wasn't much snow but it was open and so was the mini park with some boxes and stuff, and on Wednesday we went to Porters and it was the same kind of deal. Porters only has T-bars it's crazy! some fairly long runs are available but you have to ride a T-bar for so long and now my inner thigh is majorly bruised. None the less it was such a great time and I hope to improve a bunch by the time I get back!

We've had this speaker this week named Frank and he is this massive Samoan guy and I call him Frank the Tank, not really sure how feels about that though. He is this huge guy with the softest voice but sometimes he yells and it scares the crap out of you but it's really awesome. He's has got us to do a couple really cool activities to prove his point like he had one guy lay on the floor and have 4 other guys each grab a limb and the one guy has to escape from it. The idea was for the one guy to get help from all the people in the classroom that weren't involved in the activity or to use full force to get out, but the one guy was Scott, so he didn't want to actually hit anyone. I definitely would have... Anyways he didn't get out of the hold, especially since I was holding his leg. All the guys holding him had a certain issue that guys have to wrestle with like pride or lust or doubt written on his arm so the idea was that it is hard to do that alone.

And we had to do charades and I had to act out Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it on" so people guessed that in about 10 seconds, of course I did a great job with that. Some of you are probably picturing me acting that out... you get the idea.

Ya Frank the Tank has been going over the character and Nature of God so it's pretty great. We had some outreach prep today and it was all about culture shock. Our outreach teams had to make up a culture to interact with other cultures and violence ensued, and now I have burns in 4 beautifully symmetrical lines on the side of my torso... use your imaginations and try and figure out how that happened that should be fun for you. It involved using Styler as a sacrifice and that's the only hint you get.

So still learning lots and having tons of fun, Can't wait to go to my countries and still loving everyone here, still loving everyone back home. I miss you all!

Brendan

Asia and The Middle East? Beauty!

I have had so much the fun the past week it's been amazing! Joel Parker continued to challenge us to move and to actually pursue some of the call on our life instead of just dream about them. I'm still trying to find out what mine are, but I'm getting there. Friday we went surfing and it was so much fun! It's a lot cheaper than snowboarding as well because you don't gotta pay for a lift ticket. We've only been able to go snowboarding one time so far because the hills still haven't opened, but apparently it will be open saturday so hopefully we will get to go. Today we went to Castle Hill and checked out some awesome scenery and climbed around on huge rocks and did all the fun stuff. Castle Hill is also a place in The Chronicles of Narnia so it was super cool! I'm really realizing why they filmed so many awesome movies here! The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of The Rings if you didn't know. 

Our Speaker this Week is named Nick Badger we call him Nickjagger. He's a really cool dude. He's teaching us about The Cross and what it means and why it was necessary. God's love and grace is just amazing. So were still gonna be diving into that for the rest of the week.

Most important thing that has happened so far though.... Outreach is confirmed!

I'm going to Malaysia for a month and then Turkey for a month! They are both primarily muslim nations with something like 90% of people being muslim in Malaysia and like 96% or something in Turkey. I've been given a probable rate of arrest for Malaysia and almost definitely will get arrested in Turkey. I'm super stoked to share some love and hope in those countries!!

That's it for now.

I'll blog again when something cool happens!

thanks for reading :)

How real it becomes.

This week we have had this gnarly speaker named Joel Parker. This guy is next level bro, dude, so rad. That's how he talks he is a christian snowboard film maker, and a surfer and a pastor at a mega church in Seattle. God is moving through him in some awesome ways at our school. He has been teaching us some pretty hard stuff about dying to ourselves so that we may be raised again not as ourselves but as Jesus living through us. It's not just something we can do once and all of a sudden were all Jesus like, but it's a daily struggle that we need to pray about every day and really concentrate on listening to God every day. Some pretty crazy stuff, however super awesome. He also tells some real funny stories which is always helpful. We learned a whole new perspective of looking at Simon Peter yesterday as well. I'm sure it is new for all of you as well, he calls Peter so punk rock. He often challenges Jesus just like a punk kid would challenge someone in authority. But God used him in awesome ways in acts as he started the church and brought 3000 people to God in one day in Acts 1. pretty cool. Today we went over ways to answer common questions asked by non-believers. I still don't have all the answers but it's cool to explore!

Yesterday we went to christchurch again to clean up some more earthquake damage. Then of course last night an earthquake hit off the coast of New Zealand and flooded some of Christchurch... It's never ending work for God's people.

But the big thing that happened last night... OUTREACH LOCATIONS. Finding out our outreach locations made this trip seem so much more real! It finally set in the purpose for why I'm here. To spread hope to all the nations and just like Jesus, Seek and Save that which is lost.

The options are:

1. Malaysia and Turkey

2. Jordan

3. Queenstown and India

I've Picked Malaysia and Turkey as my first option, not quite sure yet which one I'll be going or what I'll be doing so I'll keep you guys posted!

In the mean time just keep up your prayers and especially pray for discernment from the leadership team as they finalize what places we will all be going to and continue to pray for unity with everyone here.

Thanks everyone, Love you all!

Brendan

It's time to get extreme!!!!

We finally got past all the detail type stuff and were into what we are really here for. On wednesday we all shared our testimonies and for 20 of us it took about 5 hours so it was pretty awesome. There was such a wide variety of stories being told it was amazing. Stories ranging from people who have been christian there whole lives and were destined to come to YWAM and some who were struggling until the day their plane took off with drugs and alcohol. The most powerful way we saw God move that day is when we renounced any demons that Scotty had left in him and saw him shake as they left, and the instant smile he had on his face when the Holy Spirit filled those places that were now open (getting a little hot and heavy here). Ya it's just awesome to here the variety of stories and I'm so thankful that we are all here together, and that we all answered the call and made it out here.

On Thursday we then had our first lectures and they were awesome. First we talked about Hearing God's voice and then Worship was our second lecture. It was just some basic stuff and it was just really cool to see some ways God speaks. Then we had some sweet hearing God practice it was super cool. Then on friday we talked about intercession and prayer and learned some awesome things about why we pray.

On friday afternoon we went to Christchurch to do some earthquake relief. There is this things called liquefaction that happens with earthquakes and it brings all sorts of silt and crap up to the surface so everyone's lawns and gardens and sheds are just full of this crap so we went into Christchurch and helped with some of the clean up. It was a humbling experience and I'm so glad I don't live anywhere near a fault line. But seeing all the damage in Christchurch really brought it home that there is a lot of people that need our help in this world. and what 21 of us could do in a few hours just the homeowners would have taken months, probably years. Many hands make light work.

Then today we finally went snowboarding and it was awesome! except for there was only a couple runs open and there is barely any snow yet... and except for that I really owned myself. I've been struggling with this nasty hip injury and the bruise now takes up my entire leg between my knee and the top of my hip, and it looks like I have a volleyball or a woman's basketball (but not big enough to be a regular basketball) starting to protrude from my hip and it makes it really hard to walk let alone snowboard. So I had to sit in for the rest of the day :( I am not a fan of taking time off to heal injuries so this is definitely gonna be a challenge. Testing my patience. So that is where we stand before I go to bed tonight. Keep me in your prayers for that.

Thanks

Brendan

Skates, Luggage, Irish.....and so forth.

I finally have collected all my luggage! My board bag and my clothes are all here! I'm so very excited to have everything that I wanted to have... Including jackets because it isn't especially warm here during the winter season. Anyways that's very exciting but not exactly what I'm blogging about.

The school just started on monday and we haven't had any real lectures yet just administrative stuff and rules and regulations and all the stuff you have to go through. We had our first School thing on Sunday night and it was a welcome dinner and everyone involved with our YWAM base was there so we got to meet everyone working behind the scenes it was pretty cool. We had a New Zealand special meal... mutton. Which is sheep and it was delicious, and then there was this awesome dessert, it pretty much sums up all the meals we have had so far. The food has been delicious, and if I keep eating like this I'm gonna be huge in a few months... hopefully I'll just lose all that weight again on outreach. Also sunday night was our first worship session and it was amazing. We may not have had the most practiced worship band and their was a few hitches in the music and Scotty is playing drums right now, and he hasn't in so long but actually sounds pretty dece, but it was still fantastic. Everyone was just concentrating on Worshipping the Lord and not about who was around them and the Holy Spirit filled that place.

Now that our real schedule is starting tomorrow I think we will have a lot less free time, but since we have had so much free time since we got here we have been taking those opportunities to hit the skatepark. Now that I have my skate it's gonna be even sweeter! We are getting to know a lot of the local kids pretty well. Some of them are so sick at skateboarding it's awesome. These two kids that are always there one is named Andre, and one is named Irish (Yes that is his real name) are really good at skateboarding and they are pretty young probably like 15 and 12 or something like that. They played a game of SKATE with a guy from our DTS named Skyler and it was really cool to watch them doing some really cool tricks. Getting to know the locals is cool because we could get a chance to do some evangelism with them and spread the good news. Pretty cool.

Finally everyone arrived today as well and it was really cool meeting with everyone else and everyone just fitting in right away and I'm looking forward to get to know everyone here in a fantastic strong relationship. It's only been 4 nights and these people are super cool. I'm also getting pretty good at ping pong, I'll be a legend by the time I get back. Tomorrow we get to hear everyones testimonies and share our own. I'm really excited to learn so much more about everyone through that. Getting so stoked for that and real lectures starting up on thursday as well! Can't wait to get to know God so I can make him known.

Love from NZ

Btack