July Newsletter

“Doing”

The majority of my month hasn’t actually been about “doing” things, which I will talk about more later, but I have had a couple of things that I was involved with leading in the last few weeks that are noteworthy. At the beginning of July, we helped run a 2-day holiday camp at a church where one of our staff is the youth and children’s pastor. We played games with the kids, did a bit of teaching about our identity according to what God says (that seems to be a favorite topic of mine), and we were even brave enough to let them do some baking! A couple weeks after that, a few of us also ran the kids program for a church camp that was going on - we occupied the kids while their parents were listening to speakers and having worship times, and then throughout the rest of the camp got to know the people there, went canoeing, and rested. It’s great being able to do those kinds of camps to bless and connect with churches in the area.

Besides camps, I’ve been loosely involved with the DTS that started on the 1st of July (which Dan is leading). Besides getting to know the students and just being a friend, I’ve been organizing one of their weekly local outreach opportunities, which has been a lot of fun for me. Every week, myself and 3 other girls visit a group home for people with disabilities (very similar to the ACR home I worked at in Minnesota, though the residents here are fairly independent) and do one-on-one activities with some of the residents: play games, talk, cook. The students have really enjoyed it, I think, and it’s of course right up my alley. I’ve loved being able to get back into working with people with disabilities a bit - it’s in my blood!

“Un-Doing”

As I mentioned before, this has also been a month of un-doing: as in not “doing” much, undoing lies that I’ve believed and habits I’ve formed, and rearranging quite a few things in my life. That hasn’t been an incredibly enjoyable process, but I know that God is in it and is teaching me things and growing me in ways that will effect how I do things for the rest of my life. The context of all this un-doing has been that for the first half of the year, I was pushing lots of things forward, working hard and a lot… and I enjoyed it. However, after the outreach team that I was hosting left (in the end of June), I had a bit of a pause in all the work and realized I was quite burnt out and that a lot of the passion for what I was doing had left. So, I’ve been taking it slow and lightening my work load a bit so that I can take time to learn to rest.

The biggest thing that God’s been teaching me through all of this is that I’ve been gaining my value through what I do, and not who I am (who God says I am!). Since I haven’t been doing as much (or getting recognized for what I’m doing), I’ve felt like I’m floundering in who I am a bit and really needing to let God re-shape the way I see him and the way I see myself. I spent almost an entire day a while back having God just tell me in lots of different ways that he loves me… just because I am, not because I do things, not because other people think I’m valuable, but just because I am. I know that it will be a life-long process to keep understanding the depth of God’s love, but I do know that I’ve reached another “layer” of understanding what that looks like.

So, through all of that, I’ve been trying to re-evaluate what I want to be doing for the rest of the year, how I can be learning and growing, and also I how I can be more and more content just being God’s friend.

News from the whole of YWAM Adelaide

Pablo and Fernanda

Our base directors, Pablo and Fernanda, are still in South America working on getting a new visa for Australia. They have overcome quite a few hurdles (needing to prove finance etc) and are now just waiting to hear if their nomination has been accepted. They are hoping to be back in Adelaide before the end of the year!

UDTS

Our Urban DTS has been running for about 6 weeks now and is going very well, I think God has already done a lot of healing in each of the students’ lives. The team is currently in Melbourne for a mid-lecture phase outreach and will be returning in a week or so to complete their lectures. Their main outreach will be to the USA and Mexico!

“Intimate” base meetings

Our staff numbers are quite low at the moment, so those of us here have been getting to know each other quite well! It’s been a bit of a stretch for all of us to keep the base running (cooking, cleaning, paying the bills…) and also move forward ministry-wise. We do have a few things in the works, though - we’ve been visiting lots of churches, supporting other ministries, and planning for events later in the year.

May/June update

Well, May and June have been quite full and busy, which is why this newsletter is covering two months and not just one. I’ve been too busy doing things to be able to write about doing them! I can honestly say, though, that I know I’m where I’m supposed to be so it’s good to be busy and exciting to see things happening.

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.

Traveling and learning

Never a dull moment... a few of us changing a tire on the way to ministry

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING

April was an eventful month for me. At the end of March I left Adelaide and traveled to Melbourne (Southeast of Adelaide) to spend 2 weeks there doing a course on leadership - once I finish all the paperwork and assignments I will be officially certified to lead DTSes. The course gave me a lot of good insights into leadership in general, as well as time-management skill

s etc. Even with all of that, perhaps my favorite part was getting to know the other students. We were from about 5 or 6 different YWAM bases, so it was really good to network with them and hear about different ministries and visions that other bases have. YWAM Australia is doing a lot of 

amazing things and impacting lots of people, it’s an honor to know these people and be a part of it. 

After Melbourne, I had a bit of an adventure with planes and airports (my last blog entry tells the whole story), but when I finally got to Brisbane, I met up with a team from Adelaide and we all ran a NIKO camp there for a week. NIKO is an outdoors challenge that aims to help the participants grow in their leadership abilities and their relationships with God. We had a fun group of high school students from YouthStreet Townsville participating. To add to the planned challenges of the week, the first day we had a quite major rain storm and had to change quite a few aspects of the camp due to that. We were all quite a bit soaked and some of the kids had a hard time,  but overall the participants (and staff) took it all in stride and enjoyed the rest of the week. Although we didn’t know any of the kids beforehand, the staff that had come with them said that many grew in leaps and bounds and they were really excited to see the kids stepping up onto things they hadn’t expected. I personally have learned a lot from NIKO and was excited to see others benefit from it as well. 

After the week in Brisbane, we headed back towards Adelaide, stopping for 3 days in a small town called Morgan to run a kids’ program at a church camp going on there. We had about 15 kids, all there with their families, who we entertained while their parents were listening to teaching. We enjoyed spending time with the kids and in the afternoons had the opportunity to go tubing on the river nearby. I had a lot of fun reliving parts of my childhood at my grandparents’ cabin - I even got to

 go fishing, although we didn’t catch anything. It did make me miss the lakes in Minnesota!

After being back home in Adelaide for only 3 days, I left again to be part of a rally in Melbourne. The rally, called “The Rescue” was being put on by an organization called Invisible Children, and we were raising awareness about the situation in Northern Uganda. For more than 20 years, children in this area have been kidnapped and forced to fight in a war they have nothing to do with. There has been little media attention or public knowledge about this situation, and for the last 3 or so years Invisible Children has been fighting it. I really believe in this cause and wanted to be a part of it. About 65 of us took a bus from Adelaide to Melbourne to be part of the rally, and it did catch a bit of media attention. We filled the night with listening to political figures speak, learning more about the issue, and an impromptu percussion/dance session. The event was actually happening around the world and in Chicago they held out until Oprah put them on her show - pretty exciting! (Pictures from the event on the right. If you’re interested in more information, visit invisiblechildren.com)

Needless to say, after all that traveling I was pretty well spent and happy to be back home in Adelaide. It’s funny how being away for a month in another part of the country has become commonplace for me at the moment, but I’m glad that life is never boring! 

LEARNING

The last 2+ years that I’ve been a part of YWAM have been a constant process of learning and growing, and the last month or two have been no exception. As I’ve really been setting my own schedule and for the most part organizing all the ministry I’ve been doing, I’ve been learning to manage my time, think in details, manage people and plan ahead. Those have been really important lessons to learn and will be imperative, I’m sure, as I move forward in ministry. 

One of the main things I’ve been working on (and learning from) lately is school seminars, where we go into a school for an hour or so assembly and talk about any range of topics from a Christian perspective. We did the first one of those at the end of April, talking about our identity and value from God’s perspective. I thought it went really well, I had a great team with various backgrounds and we were all able to share from our own experiences. I have another lined up at the end of May and lots of other schools that are interested in us coming to talk to their students. I’m really excited about this prospect, and really amazed that we have this opportunity to go into public schools and talk to kids about what we believe. I’ve had to learn very quickly how to run these, how to get people together to help me out and how to engage the kids, but I feel that every time I have an opportunity to lead a seminar or assembly or ministry opportunity, it goes better than the last, so that is encouraging!

The more I do youth ministry, the more I do feel passionate about, so I’m still talking to God about where he’s taking me with that. As I’ve mentioned in other updates, I first got into focusing on youth to support my friend, Laura, but she is still in America support raising, so that has caused me to re-evaluate where my heart really is. I have been more and more excited about the prospects that we have regarding the youth in Adelaide, so we’ll see what God does with that. I am praying regularly with Damian, another staff who wants to help with youth ministry, about options and ideas. We will see where God takes us! 

Outside of “work” hours, God is still teaching me a lot in my personal life. After growing up in a very Christian environment, I’m finding myself needing to ask real questions about what I believe and why I believe it, and what God says about things that I take for granted. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been talking a lot to my friend in Brisbane about spirituality and what I believe. It’s been a great experience, because I find that so many of the “answers” that I offer make sense to me, but they aren’t quite enough for her. I am realizing there are so many real life issues that I haven’t ever really thought through. Although it is the truth, saying “because God says so” isn’t always enough for people who don’t know God. I’m glad that I’m having to think through these issues because I know that once I’ve wrestled with things I’ll be so much stronger. I want to be able to really talk to people about God and his love and what he wants for their lives and feel like I have real answers to offer them. God is taking me on a journey, and I’m really happy to be challenged and messed up if it means being closer to him and more ready to impact other people’s lives.

Learning the hard way

I’ve spent the last month away from Adelaide, studying and doing ministry, living out of  a suitcase and sleeping on lots of different floors. I spent two weeks at the YWAM base in Melbourne, doing a course so that I’m certified to do training (DTSes etc.) and then at the end of that time had a flight to Brisbane, where I was going to stay with a friend for a few days and then meet up with some others to run a NIKO camp  (a leadership development/team building outdoors experience). Sounds simple enough…right?

Well, add the fact that my natural hair color is in fact blonde, and we have trouble. I organized a ride to the airport, got there an hour before my flight, went to the electronic check-in kiosk…and no flight to Brisbane was listed. I quickly grabbed my laptop to check my flight details and also called Nat back in Adelaide and asked her to check my email. We both came to the same conclusion - I was at the wrong airport.

Brilliant. 

The airport that my flight actually left from was over an hour away (pictured on the right, and yes, that is basically the entire airport...) with no direct shuttle so that I had to take an (expensive) shuttle

 to the city and then another (more expensive) back out to the other airport. I called my friend in Brisbane, told her what was going on, jumped on the bus to the city and tried to figure out my options. At this point I was pretty certain I would miss my plane and was completely frustrated, all I could do was ask God what to do. My friend had suggested getting a taxi, and I felt like that was what God was telling me to do also. So, when I got to the city - with 30 min to go before my flight - I found a taxi driver, asked him how long to the airport and he told me it would be an hour. I didn’t even ask how much money that would be and walked away, figuring it was too late (and figuring I knew better than God, of course). 

I sat at the bus station for a while, found internet so I could check on the airline’s website etc. I called the airline, was put on hold, naturally, and just as someone got to me I ran out of phone credit. Amazing. After another 30 min or so of trying to figure all that out, not being able to get on the internet to put more credit on my phone, and watching some other guy use the pay phone that I could’ve been using, I finally was able to use that phone, got through to the airline and they said they couldn’t do anything and I had to go to the airport. I tried calling the airport to avoid the $20 shuttle and got this message, “our office hours are 8am to 5pm, please try again at that time.” I looked at my watch: 5:01. 

So, I finally figured my only option was to actually go to the airport, suck it up and pay the money. I had to wait an hour and a half for it to actually leave and in the meantime was at least able to finally buy phone credit. I took the shuttle, the whole time asking God to make it work out for me, to figure something out, and to make it clear to me what I was supposed to be learning from all of this. I finally made it to the airport, went to the service desk praying for someone helpful. The lady was really nice to me, but when I told her which flight I had missed her response was: “That flight was delayed for 3 hours. Had you arrived 45 minutes earlier you would’ve made it.” 

0 for 5. 

Recall the taxi option? Probably should’ve just listened to God - it’s almost like he was saying “I tried to hold the plane for you…”

I had hoped I’d at least be able to get on a flight the next day or something, but there was nothing else available to Brisbane for a few days. Fortunately, I had somewhere to stay in the city, so I jumped back on that shuttle to the city, took the train to my friend’s house and tried to figure out what the heck I was going to do. 

It all ended up working out, although I only spent one day with my friend in Brisbane rather than 4 and I had to fly into a totally different city and meet up with others going to Brisbane for the camp. It also cost me a good chunk of money, which was annoying. 

I guess the reason I wanted to tell this story on my blog was to comment on what I got out of it. Like I said, the whole day I kept asking God what he was teaching me. And I don’t know if I ever got a clear answer but looking back it was pretty clear that I should’ve just taken a breath, slowed down and listened to God and done what he directed, even if it didn’t seem to make sense. I think in this concentrated situation, I was able to see a little of how I tend to live my life day-to-day. I’m so often so busy that I am just constantly reacting to what’s thrown at me (or the consequences of being disorganized) rather than being able to step back and see the big picture. I know I should talk to God about what’s going on, and usually do, but don’t actually take all the time needed to listen for the answers to my frantic prayers. 

This has been something God has really been teaching me lately, anyways, and was just another reminder that I’m getting there but haven’t yet arrived (and honestly, do you ever actually arrive?) I’m learning to plan, organize myself, say no, set boundaries… and it’s been good but hard. I am becoming more and more aware of how important those lessons are, though, so I’m getting there. I am really thankful that God allows me to reap the consequences of my mistakes and oversights so that I am able to learn, but at the same time helps me pick up the pieces and figure stuff out. He really did work things out for me, and has blessed me financially so that I wasn't at a complete loss in that area. I’ve been reminded again and again lately of his wisdom and the fact that he can see the big picture…how good is that?

Pictures

Check out my picasa album (or photos link) for pictures from my time in Melbourne. 

Long time coming....

Hey all

Long time no update. I've basically copied and pasted a newsletter that I sent out via email, so if you've received that no need to re-read. If you haven't.... happy reading (and let me know if you'd like to be added to my email list)

We have had a very busy beginning of the year as a YWAM family. At the end of January, our base directors (Pablo and Fernanda) had an oversight with their visa and have had to go back to South America to apply for a new one. That was quite a shock and adjustment for all of us, but things have been going quite well in their absence. Ray Lind, who has been with YWAM Adelaide for 18 years, is our acting base director and is doing a great job. He is very practical and motivated and has us doing a lot - ministry, cleaning up the base, getting involved in the

 community. Although the changes were quite sudden and a bit stressful I know God knows what he’s doing and that he’s using this time to prepare us for more in the future. We have also had quite a few people leave lately which is always hard and a bit sad but I know that each of them is where God wants them to be (and so are those of us still in Adelaide) so it is exciting to see what God is doing with their lives. We also had a new DTS start in February, and while I am not directly involved in it, I have been able to teach them some dramas that they will use for outreach and am enjoying getting to know them.

My job description

Like I said, there have been lots of changes to the way that we’re doing things and with that what I do on the base has morphed quite a bit. As most know, part of my longer-term vision for the next couple years is to help with the start of a youth ministry here. My friend, Laura, is planning on heading up the ministry but she is in the US raising support and so I am trying to lay some of the groundwork for the beginnings of it. At this point, I am mostly networking with people already doing youth work, running highschool seminars about various topics, and helping with youth camps through different organizations and churches. For this season, my motto is basically “if it involves youth and meeting people, I’m there”. The focus of the entire base is shifting more in this way anyway, so I am just one of the first to get the ball rolling but have many people backing me up and helping me out. 

I have also been doing a few things to help keep the base running on the practical side of things. I’m learning (slowly) how to do a bit of the accounting for the base and work on that for a few hours a week. I think that’s been a great skill to learn, although sometimes it makes my head spin.  I have also been trying my hand at cooking for the base which has been a good

 learning experience. I definitely appreciate the courage that it takes for everyone to come to meals that I have prepared. 

Travels

Life with YWAM wouldn’t be YWAM if I stayed in the same place… In the end of March I will be traveling to Melbourne (about 8 hours away) to take part in a course on training and assessment. The course is required by the government for those leading/directing DTSes and while I don’t necessarily have plans to do that anytime soon it is a good thing to have under my belt. After that, I will be going up to Brisbane to visit a friend who I am discipling a bit and then in Brisbane we will be running a NIKO camp, which is a leadership/team-building outdoors experience. And if that wasn’t enough, on the way back we’ll be helping with another weekend camp in a small town. I’m trying hard to guard my time in Adelaide and make sure that I am here for the majority of the time, but it is exciting to be able to see other parts of Australia and reach out to Australians. 

CML

As a part of everything else that I’m doing, I am still involved in the Christian Missions Leadership course. We meet for lectures once a week and have some homework like reading books and articles and writing reports on outreach that we’re a part of anyway. For the next few months we are going through the classic Boundaries series and that has been really good for me. I had been realizing how much I struggled with saying no, volunteering for everything, and then feeling tired and a bit burnt

 out. So, I have really been able to apply what we’re talking about in practical ways and it’s been really good. I feel like I’m still busy but able to limit the new things that I put on my plate and not feel guilty or that I’m letting people down. So, it’s been really good and I know that God will continue to teach me more through this course as well as everything else that I’m doing here.

Other things of note:

I’ve been taking a dance class once a week and have really enjoyed dancing again as well as getting to know people through that 

I’ve been attending a house church  that is run by YWAMers and others

God has been teaching me lots about money, time management, organization and relating to people. These are constant lessons, I know, but I am very glad to see changes in these areas of my life. 

Autumn will be coming to Adelaide soon and I am actually looking forward to the cooler weather - must be the Minnesotan in me

I am incredibly blessed by all those around the world supporting me and keeping in touch, it's always good to hear from you! 

God's blessings

Caitlin

 

New way to Donate

Check out the "finances" link on this blog to see a new way to donate to me financially, if you are interested. Also, check out my latest update below!