Margaret River Outreach

Margaret River Outreach 

 Hello sweet church family! I hope and pray you are all doing well. I’m so excited to share with you all what God has produced out of the DTS I recently finished staffing. As you know there are two parts of a DTS (Discipleship training school), the first being the lecture phase, the main theme of my last update, and the second being the outreach phase. During the recent outreach phase, we split the school  into two groups. The first group consisted of 5 students and one staff member, Alex. They went to Indonesia and Japan. The second group was made up of 5 students, Kolton, a fellow-staff member, and me. Our group went to Margaret River for 6 weeks, followed with 6 more weeks in Sri Lanka. Today I want to highlight our six weeks in Margaret River and share a bit more in depth everything God did through the team.

  Margaret River is what my Leaders, Terry and Janice, and I call the “Promise Land”. It’s where Terry and Janice will take a team to pioneer a new YWAM base. Our hearts focus for this part of the outreach was preparing the grounds for the new base. We targeted growing relationships with the fellow Christians and churches already existing in the region, street evangelism in Margaret River and all the nearing cities, as well as prayer walks and worship times in the same cities. We also did mercy ministries by helping locals in need clean their homes. This was a good time for the team and I to humble ourselves and lay down every expectation of what outreach “should” look like. I personally referred to our team as the seed planters, because although we couldn’t see much happening in the physical, the spiritual seeds we left behind were widespread and numerous! We practiced the discipline of spiritual warfare daily, and we even experienced fighting back the enemy trying to intervene with all the good works we were doing during our time. To finish our time in Margaret River, we were able to volunteer for the Margaret River Pro Surfing Competition. An organization called “Christian Surfers” has been volunteering with them for over a decade, and they partnered with my leader Terry to enable our Christian Surfers DTS to help alongside them. I was able to participate in this event last year when I was in my DTS, while Terry has been apart of this group for the last 5 years. Throughout the six weeks in Margaret River We all accumulated many different stories from how God moved in our lives and in others lives through us! I myself have so many great memories and moments from this time, and I will share some now with you!

During Evangelism:

 One story I love to recall during our evangelism times in Margaret River is of a time in a city called Busselton. We split up into groups of two and allowed the Holy Spirit to lead us into street evangelism. I paired up with a student named Benny. After walking around for about 15 minutes praying and seeking opportunities for deep conversation to arise, we found ourselves in a small park with a few people hanging around. While we were listening for Gods direction, we spotted a woman throwing up near an entrance of the park. She was with two other men, they all appeared to be either homeless or poor. I saw the men weren’t coming to her aid in any way, rather standing by and watching her hurl. We quickly ran over and asked her if she needed help. She couldn’t speak in the moment because she was trying to gather herself, so we told the men around her we’d be back with water and napkins (not knowing exactly what to do).  When we got back, she was laid out on the grass with the men still casually sitting around her chatting. They insisted that this happens often, and she had just had too much to drink. I knelt and got her to sit up and drink water, she was able to get to a spot of consciousness (by the grace of God). I really believe God enabled her to sober up enough to have good conversation. All we felt to do was ask to sit with them, and when we asked, looks of shock came on their faces. They couldn’t believe we would long to be with them in this condition. They simply replied, “Yes we’d love that if you’d like!”, so we sat, and we spent almost two hours with these three chatting about their lives, their struggles, their beliefs, and everything in between. Both Benny and I had opportunities to share how we overcame struggles with the strength of God and his mercies surrounding us. Every now and again the woman, named Georgina, would thank us for helping her. She referred to us as angels and said many times that she could tell there was something different about us. I would refer her back to Jesus and always thank her for her gratefulness. I told her not many people know how to be thankful these days! Towards the end of our time with them we got to share the gospel with them, and I read John 3:16 and encouraged them by saying that they are so deeply loved and sought after by our Father! When we asked to pray for them, they were so eager. They continued by gathering in a circle with us and held hands. Benny and I were then able to pray for them. I could truly see that they received every word we prayed over them. When we walked away that afternoon, we could both see the light they saw in us, in them. Benny told me as we were walking back to the car, “When we walked up to them you could see the hopelessness in their faces, and as we left, all I could see in their faces was a newfound hope.”

Prayer Walk:

               A favorite memory of mine when it comes to our many prayer walks, was the time we walked the streets of a small town about 20 minutes from Margaret River, Grace Town. We split the team into two separate groups and headed in opposite directions. The team I was in headed straight for a massive mountain-like hill that seemed to nearly go 80 degrees upward. While straining up the hill that lined the North side of the town, the beauty that we saw as we got higher up was captivating. Grace town is lining the coast with some of the best surf spots in the area. One spot in this town is called North Point, classified as a world class wave that the Margaret River Pro uses sometimes for their competitions. It’s beauty from the top of this hill brought us all to a place of a pure worship. I did my fair share of shouts on this hill, as I peered down to the homes below us that faced the beautiful West Australian ocean side. The team and I couldn’t help but to praise our King and Creator! We prayed for topics like the opening of people’s eyes to see this beauty in a way that makes them see the Father, family union, grace, and we prayed many specific prayers for certain houses we felt the Holy Spirit was pointing out to us. After making our way back down the hill through the town, we found ourselves now at the lowest part of town in a car park by the sea. We finished our prayer walk with a song. As the song played, we all stood on a picnic table and danced our most beautiful dances (keep in mind we are a surfers DTS… Not a performing arts DTs) for the LORD.  We may never see the effect we had in the spiritual realm that day, but we all felt it in our own spirits!

Margaret River Pro:

             During our time at the Margaret River Pro, I gained a lot of stories - funny stories of humbling times cleaning porta-potties, or good conversations with a lot of the staff around the site, but the story that stands out over them all was getting the opportunity to give a Bible to one of the security guards on site. The guard, Brad, was one who had worked in Margaret River Pro for years. He knew “the Christians” well and took a liking to us. I’m not sure if he liked us because we oversaw making sure they were fed and taken care of, or if he was able to truly see our hearts behind our taking care of them. Either way, it opened many opportunities to get to know Brad. My friend Megan, from Christian Surfers, and I would bring all of the guards brekki (Aussie slang for Breakfast) and lunch every day. Through this we were able to get to know about things in Brad’s personal life - health, family, past, and his hopes for the future. Although Brad had a hard exterior, underneath the tuff security guard act, was a soft teddy bear. At the end of the week after Brad made it known he cared for us through gifting us with a box of his favorite cookies from “the best bakery around”, I felt the next day would be my opportunity to give him a Bible. When the time came and I saw a good opportunity to share, I told him about God’s love for him, and how I felt the Holy Spirit was asking me to give him a Bible. I shared with him that I believe there are lots of truths in the Bible for everyday life and guidance, and that God wants to speak to him through it. He received it with what appeared to be gratitude, and it even allowed us and one other security guard to speak about our faith, and some of our fears. It was so amazing being used by God to give Brad a Bible. This is something I hold on to and get excited to share about! As we gain relationship with others, we can gain opportunities to share our faith, or even share Bibles with others!

             

              I hope you all enjoyed reading a few of my stories from The Margaret River Outreach! I sure loved writing them and living them! My next update will be on the second part of our Outreach which was in Sri Lanka! Thank you all for making this life possible through your faithful prayers and support. It’s so encouraging to know that we are all allowing God to use us to impact people from across the world! Our God is so good and faithful! I’m so thankful to be apart of his family alongside you all. I am so thankful to journey with you all on this race to see Jesus’ face! Keep running my friends!