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