So I just have finished up with month one of the race. As you can probably tell from my blog already I tend to write about what is has been working in my heart. I am going to try and write a blog summarizing what all I have been doing each month.
All during launch and leading up to launch we were praying for rain in all of Australia. We arrive in Coffs Harbour on a Thursday evening and that evening started about three days of straight rain. What an answer to prayer right? The first few days we really took just trying to adjust to the time change. We skipped a day and were about 18 hours ahead of the east coast of the states. We partnered with YWAM Coffs Harbour. The head of that YWAM base is in the process of pioneering a new base for YWAM. So we were honestly kinda like guinea pigs to him. He used us to build partnerships with different churches, nursing homes, and drug rehabilitation centers. We did a good amount of what we call ATL also (ask the Lord). ATL is where we spend time in prayer and ask God what he would like for us to do. That can look like street evangelism, public worship, prayer walking, literally just asking God what do you have for us today. Here are some highlights of what this past month looked like for me.
The nursing home was really sweet. As a squad we went there two different times. We really just got to spend time with them and listen. Many of them hardly never have visitors and just want to talk to someone. My first time there was super sweet. The Lord had just what I needed there. Before I left the states I got to visit my Grandparents. It was a short and quick visit. My grandparents are very big supporters of me doing the Worldrace. My Grandmother has advanced dementia because of the dementia she probably doesnt know of what I am doing. The morning of we were going to go there I just woke up with a heavy heart. My heart was heavy thinking of just how I know my grandmother doesnt really know what I am doing. So we arrive at the nursing home we go in to sit. There was an open set right next to a woman near the middle. I walk over and sit next to her and strike up a conversation. She asks me what I am doing in Australia and I had the opportunity to tell her all about the Worldrace and why God has called me to do it. She listens very carefully and starts asking me questions all about it. She tells me stories of her travels around the world. I got to spend about an hour sitting next to her, we worshipped together, laughed, and just talked. I felt really bad because neither of us asked for our names. Right before she leaves I ask what her name was. It was Jean. That is my grandmothers name. The Lord knew exactly how I felt. He knew my heaviness. He gave me exactly what I needed right when I needed it also. He is sweet like that.
The best way to describe the drug rehabilitation center we went to is “A place to let the heart re-cultivate itself.” It is a full days journey there, almost a 2 hour drive to get there. It is placed in the middle of nowhere to be able to let these men rediscover who they are without the world screaming at them. The campus is almost completely self-sustaining. The men who come here to get clean live on a very strict schedule. We get there and are able just to serve right next to these men. We mow grass, clean windows, pickup rocks, you name it we did it. This place is such a cool place to discover who you are there.
One of the churches we got to partner with was called Voyage Church. Some members of our squad went to a few other churches also during our time in Coffs, I as able to go all three Sundays to Voyage. Voyage is a small church, maybe 20-30 members attended while we were there. The pastor and her husband just invited us into their family during our time there. We got to pass-out over 5000 inventions to Voyage Church in our first week of being there. I was cool to see the fruit come from that within just three weeks. Two different families came to visit Voyage on our last Sunday there! Also on my last Sunday there I got to sit down and talk with a woman who this was her first time ever being in a Church in her whole life! I had the opportunity to talk to her about the life of Jesus and the sacrifice he did on our behalf. She had been searching for truth for sometime and at the end of our 30+ minute conversation she said that this was the first time she felt like she had ever heard truth before. I got to just push her back to the pastor since I would be leaving so soon.
So much happened in Coffs while we were there. I miss it, but my first day in Indo has lived up to Australia already.
Love Joe
