This past month we were sent to Byron Bay, Australia. There were a total of five teams sent there, two from “M” squad and three from “N” squad. We did not have a ministry contact for the month and we were to ask the Lord what He wanted us to do for ministry each day.
Byron Bay was a very interesting place full of true hippies and lots of tourist. The atmosphere was very friendly and free-spirit with a lot of apathy alongside of it. Everyone wanted to stop and have conversation and take the time to get to know you and become your friend in a short period of time. Hardly anyone wore shoes, everyone had their hair in dreadlocks, hitchhiking was a normal daily and safe activity. People want to pick up hitchhikers so they can get to meet people from all over the world who are travelling through. They will not just pull over and say “get in” but even go so far as to pull off of the side of the road and get out to clean out their backseats and help you put all of your stuff in the car. There are tons of surfers on the beach and a lot of homeless people who have gone there for a good time and just never ended up leaving. It’s definitely a gathering place for the extraverted of the world. People go there alone and end up travelling the rest of the world with someone they met in Byron Bay. It’s a lot different than any place I’ve ever been in both a good and bad way but I absolutely loved it.
We started out the month at a campground called Belongil Fields about a thirty minute walk from town. We would walk into town every morning and come back at night to sleep and check back in with our teams. About one week into the stay, we were having praise and worship under a picnic shelter as a group and it started to pour the rain. Most people were pretty liberated about worshipping with God in the rain and a lot of freedom seemed to be breaking out over different things. It started to rain harder and harder as the night passed and then, a man drives up and gets out with an umbrella and tells us that the rain is going to continue and that our tents were probably going to flood and he wanted us to come stay in the floor of his church for a couple of night until the rain stopped. Praise God!! God blessed us without us even asking or knowing what was about to happen. We had been longing for better community between our teams because we were so spread out in our tents but who knew he would use a flood to bring us closer together as a community. We ended up staying there the rest of the month and not even worrying about going back to the flooded campground. It was such a beautiful night to experience and a blessing to see hospitality like that and a pastor’s heart that goes beyond the call of duty.
We moved to East Gate Church that night and it seemed like the entire dynamic of the month and the entire ministry changed in an instant. We started to get to know each other on a whole new level and our two squads started to know each other by name instead of just “M” or “N” squad people. I got “antiqued” or floured in the shower in lieu of our new community which was fun also and we were starting to share ministry ideas with one another and get involved as one team rather than trying to work individually. We found out about opportunities in the community that we did not know of before and started to go out and help in a lot more areas.
We helped out in ministries such as volleyball tournaments on the beach, witnessing baptisms, passing out water to people on the beach, free barbeques in the park, helped out at the community center and the youth center, cardboard signs and street evangelism, staying the night in the park, 24 hour prayer, surfing with locals, etc. We spent a lot of time becoming a part of the community and learning to blend in with them. We spent hours upon hours making relationships with people and meeting new friends. We learned to become more intentional in every single thing we do and learned to love like Christ loves in every situation. We learned to live in community more than ever before and experienced hospitality from strangers that I didn’t even know existed. God definitely showed up and revealed himself to each one of us in His own perfect way. He linked everything He did everyday last month to the month we are in right now. We are with the same “N” squad teams here that we thought we were saying goodbye to for the year last month and walked into the same unity with them being here this month in the Philippines. God is working in mighty ways here and is continuously weaving every piece of the plan together so, stay tuned!
