Soul Intersections

I must admit, I was a little disappointed the first few days I arrived in Australia to realize that several other groups would be helping out with the Aboriginal tribes this month while my group was stuck in the party city hippy land of drugs, sex, and alcohol. However, God is teaching me to seek him moment by moment because he is working here at Byron Bay. I may not be doing what I expected, but I must embrace the opportunities in front of me or miss His purpose altogether. I had several conversations this past week that reminded me of why I need to be here.

 

 

At a community BBQ that YWAM and World Racers put together at Rails park, I decided to strike up a conversation with Kaine about who he was and where he came from because he looked so detached even though he was sitting with a huge group of his friends. He confessed to me that he had been drinking that day and that he had been wasted the past two days out with his friends. He has been in Byron Bay for ten years since he moved in with his grandparents. His grandparents both passed away two years ago, and since then, at the age of 22, his anger and depression was so great that he ended up with epilepsy, which forced him to quite skateboarding (his passion) and caused him to get fired from his job. Even with medication, he still gets seizures whenever he feels angry. Moreover, he says that he can’t find another job because no one wants to hire him once they discover his health. Once a top notch student (he was clearly intelligent and told me he use to get the highest scores in school), he is now hanging out in the parks drinking away his sorrows or playing poker at local bars to forget his life. We began a conversation on life and spiritually. I got to pray for his epilepsy to be healed fully in the name of Jesus and invited him to come with me and my friends to a healing prayer session that New Earth Tribe was hosting. He began to open up even more to explain how it was his hope to move out of Byron one day, when he has the courage to leave, to start over again.

 

A friendship emerges from opportunity, hope from a conversation, and a new journey from revelation.