Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off To Work We Go (whistles)

 

So this month my team of 6 is paired with another team (Imago Dei) at a Youth With A Mission  (YWAM) base here in Brisbane Australia. We were given the first 5 days off for rest- days of sleeping, reading the Bible, and exploring the area. We needed these days hardcore as we had worked the last 2.5 weeks straight doing Soul Survivor & New Wine (youth & family/ kids camps). We had no time off and literally went nonstop with ministry, schedules, and no time to ourselves…not to mention…then we started traveling. We took a bus up most of the North Island of New Zealand over night so we didn’t really sleep. Spent a day in Auckland waiting to get to the airport that night at 10 pm. Got to the airport, and didn’t sleep at all again.  We boarded the plane at 7 am, flew to Brisbane, and after about 48 hours of no sleep, we pretty much fell over.  2 days of travel with no sleep (sleeping on buses/airports/pretty much anywhere we could close our eyes for a bit…but def. no beds:) Needless to say our bodies and minds were pretty tired…so we were very grateful to have some good rest, fellowship with God & each other, and have some fun (will try to share some fun stuff in those days off in another blog:) BUT for now…back to the topic at hand… 

 

Here we are. Rested and ready to go. We met our YWAM contact, Angel,  and asked what she would like to us to do this month. She had an interesting response. Angel talked to us about the situation of the city. Mitchelton is an area that is hardcore. They are hard working, they are tough people, and they know how to survive because they have had a lot of obsticals to overcome in their lives. Therefore this area, and the greater Brisbane area, is one of the top areas for bullying, and so the typical mindset isn’t how to help others becasue people are busy just trying to get by.

 

So here is our option. Angel wasn’t going to force us to do anything this month because these people dont need pity, they need love. We could do as much or as little work as we liked, but these people have needs. Their need is to see people who live Christ in the good and bad. Then she introduced us to the ditches. Angel attends the local city counsel meetings. There people in all different spectrums have mentioned how they need to clean the waterways because of the random flooding that happens in this area. But the counsel doesn’t have the money, the people don’t want to raise taxes, and no one wants to do the back breaking work.

Angel explained how if we choose to, we are not just cleaning ditches, but we are really blessing the community and soooooo…….HERE WE ARE!

 

 

12:18 has a great chance to spread the love of Christ by doing the job that no one wants to do. But lets be honest, after us girls shoveled in the 213th  wheelbarrel load of gravel, and the boys pushed it away, I realized why no one wants to do it.  =) Oh yeah, and it might be becuase of the spiders too!

 

But the point is that we have a chance to bless people, and that Jesus called us to love. So we are committed to serving this area, and letting them know that we are here because Christ has set us free, and we want to encourage them, and show them the love of Christ.

 

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A few nights ago my team gathered to pray over the area and discuss how we were doing. The emotions were honest when everyone talked about sore muscles and the feelings of what happens when the dirt is gone? God what else are we supposed to do?

 

Matthew 7: 7-8 came to our minds:  “Ask and it will be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, whoever seeks finds, and whoever knocks the door will be opened.”

 

So as a team, we came together and prayed. We asked the Lord to show us why we were here. God we dont have a problem just digging ditches & serving doing manual labor, but we thought you were going to use us in much different and bigger ways. Please show us WHY we are HERE specifically. He has answered and we have been given the opportunity to also pour into some people (which is right up my alley- more to come…but for now I think this is long enough blog- don’t want to lose ya:)  

 

So here we are Lord…send us.