Learning more and more every day.....

Hey, all my lovely friends back home! It has, again, been far too long since I've updated and I do apologize for that. It seems to get increasingly difficult to find time to sit down and think over all that's happened in the last weeks. The last couple weeks have been really good - as usual. We had a speaker on the Holy Spirit for only 2 days, but those days were packed with goodness. He had some really good insights and I learned a lot. The last day he was here, we had a ministry time that was very intense for a few of us - dealing with spiritual things from family histories and some other things. I've only experienced anything like that once before, but it was a huge thing to see the power of the Holy Spirit working through other people on our team. The rest of that week, we prayed and talked a lot about outreach, and have gotten some cool words and direction for that. I am definitely looking forward to putting all that I've been learning into practical ways.

Last week, the topic was technically church planting, but wasn't what I expected, although still really good! We started off talking about what the Gospel really is, and Kris (our speaker) encouraged us to look at it with a relational point of view rather than a legal standpoint. The biggest thing for me, though, was talking about community, and how the church should look. It should be about every area of society, not just a building and meetings once a week. We talked about how a community totally surrendered to God and committed to serving him would look like - what would be different about the arts, business, commerce. It was really exciting to look at that ideal, and then really think about ways to get there!

We've also been working on creating the dramas we'll be performing and using on outreach. We are still in the ideas stage, but will be working really hard on those in the next 3 weeks, and I'm excited about that. I'm really enjoying the drama and dance part of our ministry - ironically, coming here I swore I'd never be in creative arts ministry! I'm sure glad God knows better than me, and knows exactly where to put me, even if it's against my will at the beginning.

This week, we're talking about relationships, which has been great so far, and will also have 2 days on spiritual warfare. We have this week and 2 more here, then are traveling to Sydney for a week for a conference, and will be leaving for Uruguay straight from there. I can't believe it's coming up so soon! For a financial update: personally, I have everything paid off, so praise God for that! We do still need finances as a team, however, and are trusting God to provide about $20,000 still. We've already seen God come through in some really cool ways - one of the girls needed about $2500 for her lecture fees, and in 3 days of fasting and prayer, we saw it all come in for her, and even more for outreach. God works in really cool ways! So, that being said, I would just invite you to pray, and if God leads you to give anything to bless my team, we would be grateful! Know I'm not asking or expecting anything, but we're trusting that God knows where all the money will come from and that he will bring it into us! So, if God leads you to be a part of this part of my ministry, you can either give through the website, (https://ywamsa.org.au/payments_page.aspx?menu=donations) or give my parents a check, and they can put it in my account, and I'll make sure it gets to the right place. Again, thank you all so much for all that you've already contributed, and know that your prayer support is the most important thing you can give me. I am very blessed by each of you!

Prayer requests:
~ Wisdom and creativity as we put together our dramas and dances. That we would be able to get across the gospel the Uruguayans need to hear.
~ Financial provision in God's timing.
~ Wisdom as I'm looking toward the future, deciding what to do after DTS.
~ Homesickness - pray for me, and my family!
~ That I'll continue to soak up all God has for me

Thank you so much for all your love! I do love and miss all of you!

God bless you greatly!
Caitlin

caitlin.wiese@gmail.com