Seeing and following the Wind

Everyday at Byron Bay is budding with promise because of the opportunity to create change and experiment with engaging the community. While some of us are volunteering at youth centers, soup kitchens for the homeless, and at community programs, others are putting up prayer booths, building relationships in the night life, creating volleyball tournaments for backpackers to connect. In the upcoming week, my team is planning to do a campaign to raise awareness on depression, suicide, human trafficking, and more on the issues affecting Australia.

The Spirit of God is sometimes referred to as the ¡°wind*¡±. The wind is invisible, powerful enough to break trees in half, fast enough to carry cars in a tornado, and is ultimately in control of where it wants to move and how far it wants to go. This month in Australia is really a practice of seeing God¡¯s handiwork in everything. Like the wind, we can¡¯t tell where the Spirit wants to take us unless we are constantly immersed in the wind to feel it¡¯s movement. There is no structure that dictates what we do day by day other than our initiation for that very day.

This past week, my friend on the WR, Jillian invited me to meet up with her at The Beachy later that evening because she had made a new friend from Germany, Vicky. We hung out, chatted, and danced to the beat of drums. It was getting too hot so I went to take a seat. Right when I sat down, Vicky asks me to join her outside for some air as she smoked a cigarette. Almost out of no where, she starts asking me about my background and my faith. She had grown up in a part of Munich where Catholicism was woven into its social structure and people ¡°did¡± their religion to get into the best schools and for social approval from their family and friends. Because I did not grow up in a Christian home and chose to follow Christ of my own accord- she was somewhat shocked because for Jillian and I, our faith was not a product of what anyone said nor was it forced on us, but we have indeed met and experienced the living God and knew that He was real. She realized that day, some people get to choose. No, not just get to choose, but WANT to choose Jesus. The wind moved and is moving, where are you going now, in this moment?

*7-8″So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’¡ªout of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.” (John 3:7-8 The Message)

Read more about the movement of the Spirit in these two blog entries by my teammates:

http://jakekennedy.theworldrace.org/?filename=oh-how-beautifully-she-sings

http://emilygilchrist.theworldrace.org/?filename=when-in-roma