The first half of May was filled with lots of planning and sitting in my office (yes, life as a missionary is pretty glamourous). One of the things I was planning for was a school seminar that I ran in the middle of the month. The seminar was held at a school in a small country town with about 65 kids from year 1 to year 10. We were talking about creation and sustainability - basically telling the students that we believe God created the world and put us in charge to take care of it, and then we talked about ways that we can do that. The younger kids, especially, were really engaged in what I was saying and loved our illustrations and games, I think we all had a lot of fun. We got great feedback from the school and made some good connections with the staff there, so that was great!
In the course of all of that, I was quite encouraged to see how I’ve grown. This year I’ve really been thrown into doing lots of things and sometimes feel like I’ve been just dropped in the deep end with little prior experience organizing, planning or public speaking. However, I feel like every time I have a big project like this to do, it’s better than the last time. God’s really given me grace this year and I’ve seen myself grow in huge ways. Looking back, I can see that the only reason I’ve grown so much is because I’ve been willing and open to God changing me, challenging me, changing my plans and guiding me. I’ve literally said to God so many times, “You know what you need to do in my life, just do it.” Any time I’ve tried to fix things about myself or tell God what needs to change about me, he just tells me he loves me and is proud of me, so I’ve given up giving God my list and just learned to trust him (I think it’s a much better approach…).
While working on planning my school seminar, I was also pu
tting together ministry for a team of 11 girls who came from the US to do a mission trip with us. They were with us for 2 weeks in the beginning of June, mostly working with Rahab but also helping out around the base and with different ministries around Adelaide. I had a lot of fun getting the know the girls; having other Americans around was a big blessing for me and I really enjoyed it a lot. The team was great - helpful, passionate, hard workers - and we were sad to see them go (though I was happy for the break from planning 12 people’s lives rather than just my own). I think they all returned to the US with a broader vision of
what’s happening in the world (especially in the areas of prostitution and human trafficking) and it seemed that God was challenging them as a group to do something about it! Very exciting.
Other than that, recently I have felt God asking me and challenging me to be praying more about the things that we want to be happening here, especially with youth ministry. Damian, who is also on staff here, and I are meeting 3 times a week to pray and hear from God and dream about what he has for us. I feel like we are at a point where some of the groundwork has been laid (networking, connections, I’ve gained experience) and we need to hear from God to know where to go from here. I still don’t really have a clear view of how long God wants me to be involved in youth ministry here, but I do know that I have a part to play now so I want to be sure I don’t miss out on what that is. I have also felt from God to be praying regularly for the DTS that is happening at the moment (it actually just started today!). I am not actually staffing the DTS but will be working with them in a few different capacities and want to be committed to covering the staff and students in prayer. So, I’ll be seeing a lot of the inside of our prayer room in the coming months!
Like I said earlier, I’ve been looking back and seeing all the ways that God’s been moving and working in my life in the past 18 months, but I’ve also seen him doing a lot in the present. The past 6 weeks or so, especially, have been quite the whirlwind - here are a few of the things that have been happening.
New Relationship
Introducing the newest addition to my life: Daniel Anear. Dan is 25, he’s been on staff here at YWAM for about 5 years and (among many other things) is leading the DTS that just started up this month. And I am very honored to be able to say that he’s my boyfriend.
God certainly has a sense of humor and a different sense of timing than we do, but I’m so glad that he makes things happen! Dan and I have been good friends ever since I was on DTS and about 6 weeks ago he took me out to a dance performance by a company made up of people with disabilities (very perfect, if you know me at all…). That night, he told me that he liked me and wanted to see where things would go with us. After a lot of thinking and praying and talking, we really felt like God was telling us to go forward with the relationship, and we’re pretty excited about what God is doing! Over about 3 days, God had completely opened my eyes to the fact that He’s been setting things up for the last couple years for us as individuals and as friends and he also opened my eyes to what an incredible person Dan is. He loves God, listens to him, has amazing clarity of what God has called him to do - I am very blessed. The timing did seem a bit strange at first, as Dan is just leading his first DTS, and I had only just been fully embracing my “singleness”, but we’ve already seen how God is going to use me to support him during the DTS and how he’s laying a great foundation. We are trusting God and listening to him every step of the way, and are also having a lot of fun. Your prayers for both of us and for us as a couple are greatly appreciated!
New room
For the 18 months that I’ve been on staff here, I’ve lived in a dorm room with a few other girls, which has been fine but had been getting a bit hard having minimal personal space. Last week, our base leadership decided to let 6 of us single girls who are long-term staff move into an apartment in the other end of our building. After 18 months of just having half a bunk bed and a cupboard (and other storage made up of milk crates), we now have 2 bedrooms for 6 of us and also a kitchen, living room and bathroom. We are all pretty pumped! We spent a couple afternoons moving furniture and belongings (Nat and I and a few others moved 6 of those wardrobes in the picture above - go us) and are now getting settled in and having fun shopping for things like spatulas and potato peelers and storage bins.
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