"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

Airplanes and Sheep

After the bus ride we hung out a couple days in Van City, and it was a great time. It was a really good way to take a break in between 15 hours of bus ride and 2 days of planes.

The planes started out pretty good and it was super exciting taking off from Vancouver to be on my first trip over seas. We took off from Vancouver at like 7 on Wednesday June 22nd arrived in LA around 11 and left for Fiji around 130,  landed in Fiji at 540 On friday the 24th (that's right we skipped June 23). From Fiji we left at about 830 in the morning then went to Auckland landed at about 1130, and that is the first time we had to grab our luggage since Vancouver. So we picked up Scotty's big clothes luggage bag right away and then started waiting for my luggage and both our board bags... and then we kept waiting... and then a little more waiting... and then it clicked. They were not there. So we filed a report and gave them the contact number for our base and the address and all that and now were just waiting on that stuff. So we left with our carry ons and Scotty's luggage flew out of Auckland at 3 and arrived in Christchurch around 400. We got an awesome welcoming from a few of the other students who had flown in that day and the staff that came and picked us up and things were instantly good to go, everyone clicked right away it seemed. It was then an hour drive to Oxford and by the time we got to Oxford it was dark out... and that's when I realized we were in winter again, from Summer Solstice to the sun setting at 530. Typical.

Anyways that was our travel itinerary, now a bit about the base. The room I'm staying in has bunk beds and there is 6 of us staying in the room. That should make for a gong show of epic proportions. The student lounge is downstairs and that consists of a bunch of couches and a ping pong table lots of chill time there probably to come. The other building has our classroom and our dining hall. In the classroom there is like 6 acoustic guitars all with a broken G string and a drum set and a bass, maybe I'll learn some music skillz while I'm here. Behind the main building there is a building called "The Ghetto" it's got a weight room/library and the old bunks. Behind that building there is "The Field of Dreams" and this field is epic. It's got a trampoline, a volleyball net, a mini half-pipe for skating and a sweet open space. That will be unreal. For those of you who have been to SABC they have the really awesome free hot chocolate things hear as well and I'm lovin' that.

We just watched "That's it That's All" which is the best snowboarding movie ever and if you haven't seen it then you need to. Anyways it was just a great time getting to know the bros since only one of the girls are here so far. Gets me stoked to be here. I can't wait to see what God does with me and these guys  and everybody else when the DTS starts on sunday.

Love from NZ

Btack

How I Found Myself Here

As another day begins me and Scotty embark on the journey of our lives thus far, and perhaps the coolest one we’ll ever have. I personally am so thankful for the way things turned out in my life to this day. As the date approached for my departure and all the goodbyes began I started to realize just how loved I am. I couldn’t believe how encouraging all of the goodbyes and the see you laters really were. Everyone from my lacrosse team to my friends and my family and my church family were amazing in the encouraging words and I have seen so much more love than I’ve shown in the past few weeks. I already knew I’d miss everyone and now I know you will all miss me, so thank you so much for all your love! I can’t wait to pay it forward and I can’t tell you how much it impacted me.

Today we are on a 15 hour greyhound ride from Calgary to Vancouver and for those of you who don’t know my story this is how I got to this point, sitting in this seat with this friend.

I guess if we want to go all the way back in the past briefly I first accepted Christ into my heart in kids church. It never really meant much at that point because I didn’t really know what it meant and I didn’t really feel any different. Then life went on until high school and the Mexico trip in grade 10 I really felt the presence of God and that’s when I accepted him in my life again, but this time really meant it. When I got home from the trip however life just continued on the same course it had been on, just living life as a high school kid no different than anyone else. There was spiritual highs on SABC (Southern Alberta Bible Camp) youth trips and Mexico trips where we went to build houses for people who desperately needed it. Amazing how by serving other people you get more fulfillment then you do serving yourself, something that I learned very quick in Mexico but never held it for very long. Near the end of high school I started leading a great bunch of kids in youth church that were in grade 6 at the time, I still lead them now and they are just finishing off grade 9, It’s amazing how much they have grown already. Through leading a bunch of rowdy youth kids my faith was challenged to grow through having to teach about God and about the way He loves and the way we need to reflect that love in everything we do. When I started leading youth that’s when my faith slowly moved from one or two days a week to being challenged to live everyday for God. It hasn’t been an easy journey and it sure isn’t done yet but since then my faith has grown much faster than before and right now it’s about as solid as it’s ever been and I couldn’t be happier.... well at least not that I know of, but I can’t wait to be pleasantly surprised. 

I’ve run into some challenges along the way as well. Probably the longest lasting and most difficult challenge so far has been the challenge to try and bring my friends back to the light after they had lost their way. Naturally after high school a lot of my friends got involved a lot more in partying and drinking and  drugs, I know it happens right? Well I didn’t want to see my friends go down that path of constant yearning for that living in the moment life. After a while my friends every sunday at church went down to 2 or 3 friends every sunday, before that on a good sunday I probably had 10 or 15. Anyways seeing the drastic change and the desire for the physical desires had started to wear on me and all I could do was keep loving on my friends every single day, and I always did love them and never fell far out of friendship with them and I’m so thankful all my friends still loved me as well. Anyways eventually most of them decided that they were done with all that and started thinking about mistakes they were making and questioning what they were living for and a huge revival happened and now one of them is with me on this trip and mostly everyone else is praying for me back at home. I thank God all the time for their hearts.

Well that is a brief version of where I have been now for when I decided to go to YWAM Oxford instead of another year at general studies school.

I will never forget one night in Palms Springs, California. I was sitting on a longboard with a dear friend and that was when the decision was made that I wasn’t gonna go back to school for that year and I was gonna save up to go somewhere... she asked if I was gonna go back to school next year and I said no I don’t think I will. I didn’t know where yet but I knew it was gonna be somewhere. I had no direction in life and I was really struggling with that, I wanted to go do something to learn about myself and I thought it would be nice to help other people as well. I loved school and I made a lot of really awesome friends there whom I still hang out with a year later, but I needed to find a purpose, mine wasn’t there. At least not yet it may be when I come back home who knows. It was about a month later I believe some time in August when I heard about the Snowboarders DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Oxford, New Zealand I was hooked. Initially the snowboarding drew me in but God knew my passions. It wasn’t long before my intentions switched solely from having a good time to serving God, that being said I’m still very excited to have fun. My fun won’t just be on the hills, it will be in the lectures, during worship and during anything we may be doing on base, and of course the outreach.

Soon after I decided to go to YWAM God moved something in Scott’s heart and then I had someone to go with, amazing how that worked out. He has his own stories to tell as well.

The next 10 months were devoted to working and saving up and this trip was always on the horizon of my thoughts and I finally had something to look forward to that I knew was what I was supposed to be working towards. It made all the days at work in the cold for winter seem a lot shorter because I knew what I was working towards. I got to know my friends better and met more lovely people and life kept keeping on. It was awesome. A few months ago a young adults home group started and I was getting support from a lot of people I have learned from and will continue to learn from. It kinda sucked getting to know so many people and then leaving right away, but I know they will be there with open arms when I return, they have meant so much to me.

I’m so excited for what God has for me and I can’t wait to see where he takes me in outreach and what he will have me do. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support and stay tuned for the next post on what I’ve done so far.