I have been meaning to write a blog since being home. Honestly, it has been hard to do so. Part of me does not want to but I feel the Lord is wanting me to move forward with this blog.
AUSTRALIA
It felt like home. Australia was probably the best start for me of the race. It felt like home, the salt in the air, sunburned skin, just the light hearted beach town that was so welcoming. So much happened during this month, I wish I could go back and relive it. Every Monday and Friday morning we would have corporate worship with the YWAM base we were with. It ranged from 30-50 people each morning in a small back room with one or two small speakers. We would pour out ourselves in worship to the Lord. These mornings to start and finish the week were such a sweet time of community. Many words were given, prayers prayed, dreams dreamed, and just a time of collective worship to our most Holy Lord. Looking back at this currently makes me miss corporate worship. There is something about a group of fellow brothers and sisters coming together and crying out to the Lord. When we gather and give praise to our Lord, Heaven comes. Each morning it was a glimpse of what Heaven will look like.
Australia was a month of growth together for our squad. A few moments stood out in particular for me. Tuesdays we would separate into guys and girls and have evenings apart from each other. The guys would go to the beach and play Volleyball with members from the Church we were staying at. Afterwards we would come together and do a devotional together. We were talking about spiritual warfare and how it attacks us and what we can do to help protect ourselves from it. I really felt the Lord tugging on my heart to open up about how I had been being attacked in my dreams. Dreams that were not of the Lord and in no way were they good. It was nerve racking to open up about something that honestly scared me as much as they did. After a moment of quiet after sharing our YWAM host Sam started talking about how the enemy attacks us. How in his experience the enemy often attacks many believers in the same way, and how we may feel alone and isolated by the attack but in reality we are never alone. He looks around and asks if any other of the guys had been attacked in their dreams recently also. Almost unanimously everyone raised there had and said they had been attacked in our dreams. Man, even the enemy cant even attack us well. Once we all found out that we were in the same boat together we all came and prayed. We prayed that the Holy Spirit would protect our minds and our sleep, we boldly proclaimed that the enemy has no authority to come in and influence our dreams anymore, and we thanked Jesus for coming and conquering death and the enemy with the cross. The attacks on our dreams stopped. After this the guys were able to come and ask how we slept. It started a atmosphere of accountability amongst the guys.
A few days later that week we as a squad were volunteering at a music festival called Rolling Sets with an organization called Red Frogs. Red Frogs is an organization that goes to festivals, spring break weeks, and other events where there will be drugs and alcohol at and walks around to make sure people stay safe. If they see someone who is denigrated they get them water, if they see someone who just needs someone to talk to they will be the listening ear to them, they will walk people back to their car if they alone at night. It was a full day event, people of all ages were there, we saw many different things. It was difficult in many different ways. For the all guys in our squad it was hard cause many of the women who attended the festival would wear what seemed like almost nothing. We would constantly have our eyes looking to the sky so we would not stare at the women around us. We did not want our eyes and minds to wander to places they should not go. It was difficult and heartbreaking because of all the sin all around us. Upon reflecting on the festival I saw a beautiful picture of the Church. The Church going to the place where the need was, not waiting for them to come to us. It was a perfect example of Great Commission, Mathew 28:19b ” Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”. The Great Commission is not a passive command to obey but active one to go pursue. Yes, I went to different Nations to pursue the Great Commission but we so easily forget that the United States is also apart of the Nations. What can we do to “Go” and reach our own Nation? Back to the festival; Part of me did not want to be there for it was difficult with all the women and how they were dressed, I wanted to do what the Bible tells us to do, flee 1 Corinthians 6:18. But this is where God wanted us to be, so I stayed and I prayed. I would walk through the crowd of people I would lay my hands on them and pray. I would pray for their safety, I would pray that they would see that even in the midst of such a worldly event that you are still there, I prayed that they would be forgiven for they did not know what they doing. By the end of the festival I was heavy. Heavy from sleep but also from everything that was seen and experienced. The only thing I was wanted to do was get lost in the Lord, I needed to fill myself with the truth and life that only comes from the Lord. On the way home in the van we started to pray as a squad. Emily started to pray and she prayed that the Lord protect the minds and the dreams of the guys on the squad from everything that we had seen during that day. Wow. We had not told the girls what we had talked about just a few days earlier, yet she prayed for exactly the same thing that had been attacking the guys. She had no idea of that and yet the Lord put it on her heart to pray specifically against that.
The Lord is so good people. Prayer is so powerful and so needed in every aspect of our lives. Speak to him. He hears us every time we cry out to him.
Australia developed a community of believers that will attacks the world with prayer and Kingdom comes when we pray and worship our Heavenly Father. Being apart from them has only made me miss this culture so badly. I am praying and asking the Lord to use me to bring and help develop this type of culture at home and where ever I am. I miss my squad, but I am excited to be in the time of waiting on the Lord for He will bring next.
Love Joe
