December 27, 2012

Today, December 27th, means theres exactly one month until outreach. This is scary and exciting. There is still a decent amount of money that needs to come in, but God provides. It's faith that I need for God to somehow bring all of the money needed in. :) As of right now I don't feel super prepared for this 7 week outreach, but the outreach that I leave for tomorrow will give me practice with being bold and open with people.

 Heres the official schedule for my overseas outreach:
In one month I will be going to Germany and the Czech Republic with three other students, and two leaders. In Germany we will be in Berlin for two and a half weeks, working with a YWAM base, doing youth group events and going to churches. After Berlin, we will be taking a train to the Czech Republic. First we will be going to Litvinov for a few days, doing street evangelism and working in schools. Following Litvinov, we'll go to Chomutor for a couple more days where we will be teaching English in schools and leading worship and prayer in churches. After those two cities, we'll go to Prague for two weeks, doing children's ministry, working with victims of human trafficking, and helping people that live on the street. We'll be staying in a hostel for the two weeks, and then we'll go back to Germany. In Stuttgart, we will be pioneering for a week and a half, which means no outreach team has been there before so we'll come up with what we're going to do there. For the last day of outreach, March 16th or 17th we'll be in Frankfort, debriefing and preparing to go back to Australia. We leave on January 27th and get back March 17th. About half of the funds for my trip is still needed. (The total is about 3500). The money will go towards the plane ticket, hostels, and food. Any amount would be greatly appreciated along with your prayers. Also we will have a Facebook page with updates during the outreach if you would like to stay updated with how our team is doing.

TOMORROW I leave for Byron Bay. We will basically be evangelizing on the streets and on the beach, and worshipping for the majority of the time. I also am hoping that I can get baptized in the ocean while we're there!! That would be so exciting :) (someone will record it and take pictures of course for people to see it back home) We will be there for a total of 8 days, staying in a local church. Our school was split in half by random so I'm excited to get to be with people that I normally don't get to talk to often!! I'm so ready to see what God has in store for me during this week away!

"As we begin the destination, the outcome is just as unknown as the unseen. You walk into the future backwards." 

Thank you for your prayers..keep praying!! (safety and open hearts for the people I'll talk to in Byron Bay..Outreach money..etc.) :)

Love you guys..I hope you enjoy the rest of your break! Kari.

Running.

Hello Hello. Like usual, it's been too long since I've updated you all and like usual, theres a lot to say! We got back from the Pass It on Tour a little over a week ago. It was some of the best weeks of my life, and definitely the most challenging. Of course there were some hard parts.. the oatmeal every morning, the extreme heat, sharing sicknesses, walking to take a shower, the hard labor, the long days, the little breaks, the spiders and cockroaches, the sleeping on the floor, the early mornings, setting up the tent for 5+ hours, no internet, sharing a bathroom with like 30 girls, and the lack of energy. BUT all of that helped us grow in many areas of our character-especially our patience! We all came out of those 3 weeks closer to God and closer to our YWAM team. 

The Pass It On Tour is going on for the next 3 years. My DTS was involved with 3 of the weeks,  one track of the tour. The purpose of the tour is to carry on the wisdom of God throughout the Western world. Our track was only in Australia, but over the next 3 years they will travel across Europe, Canada, and America. And by carry- I mean actually RUN with a baton! We all had the opportunity to physically run from one town to the next. It was an act of intercession, or praying for the people of the land and pronouncing that land God's again. The total of the journey is 16,000 k, but we all ran in between 3k-8k.

Running was actually very fun! It was pretty hot since it's now summer in Australia, but the views were beautiful. The bus dropped me off, and I ran until I saw the bus again! And a lot of local people knew our mission or had talked to someone on our team so they would honk and wave to us as we ran.

During the tour we worked mainly in our outreach teams, which was a blessing because we could "practice" working together before actual outreach. So Team Germany went to the schools together,  did projects outside, and in the tent after school for the kids after school program. We went to a lot of RE classes (Religious Education) in the Australian primary schools. In most schools, we talked about the real meaning of Christmas, and in others we just talked about God's love for them. We did some skits, some games, played some one direction, and answered a lot of questions about where we came from, and why we were there. The kids were very receptive and a lot of them came to our after school programs and tent events in the evenings.

In each town we got to build relationships with them and just love on them. After school activities for me meant either working at the art tables, being a ball girl, or being a playground for the kids. They literally would hug you, play with your hair, jump on you, want a piggy back ride, or just want you to talk to them. It was really hard being enthusiastic at this time each day (3-5 p) after doing service projects, or hanging out with kids during schools, or cooking at the base, or doing work at the tent. But every day we would ask God for strength and true joy, and he ALWAYS gave it to us. 

The three towns were Beaudesert, Boonah, and Warwick. Each town was different, spiritually and physically, but the routine was a lot of the same things. We always went to churches and schools. We always had something to do each day. But Boonah really stood out to me for some reason, as to a lot of other people. The people were so incredibly welcoming and nice. We were in the mountains and the town was a few blocks away so it was so beautiful and peaceful. We were staying in a church, so we had a bathroom, a kitchen, and multiple rooms with an eating area and a sleeping area all in one area which was SO NICE. (In  Beaudesert we had to walk about 20 minutes for breakfast and a shower) And in Warwick the boys had to canoe across the river to the tent sometimes, but I'm sure they didn't mine that. 

As soon as we got to Boonah I felt that it was just very spiritually heavy. I lost my voice and was pretty sick when we arrived on Saturday night, but on Sunday I got to attend a Baptist Church. It was pretty old school- but still it was nice connecting with the older people that wanted a revival. This one lady, Cheryl, came up to Amanda and I and just started talking. She was a new Christian, and her family wasn't. She said her daughter was dealing with demons in her house, and whenever she went to pray, the daughter said the situation got worse. We encouraged her to KEEP praying because that meant that she obviously was affecting the dark spirits. We got to pray for her and she just cried and smiled and was so happy for someone to listen to her. She also said her family never came to church but she really wanted them to come to her baptism the next Sunday. 

Later in the week, it was my teams turn to walk down different streets and hand out gift bags with a Bible and tea. Some people were receptive, some houses were pretty sketchy, and some were people that have heard of us or the Pass It On tour! I walked up to the one house and Cheryl opens the door! She told me to come in because it was scorching hot, and I got to talk to her for a little and invite her to the fire twirling that Island Breeze was doing in the tent. The next night- she came! AND she told me her daughters and sons surprised her and told her that they would come to her baptism!  Wow. God let me pray for her and see the result too. I knew God answered prayers but it was awesome seeing that happen after one prayer for this one random lady. 

It was awesome to see how I changed and also how other people at  changed out of these challenging yet crucial weeks in our lives. God taught me how to trust him with everything- because we had no control of our schedule- of our circumstances- or the reactions of the people we talk to. But we chose to trust that whenever he tells us to do something- we do it because HE knows what's good for us, and what people need to hear. And most importantly it was SO COOL to see God work in peoples hearts- especially teenagers, and bring them to their knees. There were countless stories of kids coming to know Jesus during these tent events, especially the Youth Night. :)

God blessed me with such a great outreach team and I'm so thankful that He specifically picked each one of us out and put us together into a team. We've been getting so close- and even the hard times of arguing and disagreement have brought us together and made us stronger.

After we got back, we had one day to relax and do laundry and do homework. And then another week of lectures began. It was on Relationships. It was SO GOOD. Some review for me, some new revelations on relating to God and relating to people.

And this week- is Lordship. These past two days so far that we've had have been incredible. It's almost overwhelming with how much I've learned from the speaker, Mark Parker. He is SO funny and SO wise and SO easy to listen to. At first I was terrified, lets be honest. (He even said people don't usually like him at first) But by the end, I loved his teaching style, and his realness that he brings. His love for God just explodes and it's such a cool thing to see.

Some things that really stood out to me so far this week were-- 

"Whens the last time the world promised satisfaction and actually came through?"

"THE GOD YOU IMAGINE IS THE GOD YOU REFLECT." (If we can't accept God's love for us, how can we love others)

 "We hear, We know a lot, but we are so slow to obey.."

"Stop 'working on yourself' and just follow Jesus." (Not focusing on religion or rules, but just doing what Jesus has for us)

"Laying our life down means we're involving God. We're not losing it, we're finding it. But that also means its not controlled by us or our emotions anymore, but God is in control of it."

"People that soak things in, and don't overflow are prideful."

The definition of God- "whatever we make supreme."

SO ITS CHRISTMAS. It's very hot over here, but with all the decorations and christmas music it's actually starting to feel like it is that time of year. We had a Christmas decorating party with the game Now you have it now you don't, and a lot of food, and the movie Elf. On Friday we had a Love Feast, which was a nice dinner served out of love from our amazing staff. Then we had Christmas dinner on Tuesday which was DELICIOUS. On Saturday, as a base we have presents for each other (Secret Santa), a brunch, and then we're all going to the BEACH. Crazy right. We're all going to the Sunshine Coast for the day, and in the evening we'll also have a Bbq.

On actual Christmas I will just be watching Christmas movies and relaxing, and then two day after I will be heading to Byron Bay for 10 days with half of the MAD school. I think there's about 15 of us? We will be doing beach evangelism and setting up a tent with free Chai, and connecting with the YWAM teams there. More details on that later, but this will be another mini outreach. I'm really looking forward to it!!

 It was a little sad at first thinking about not being at home on Christmas, but then I realized that  God gave me these wonderful people to enjoy fun things with, so I should enjoy every second of it. So what if i'm sweating all day and there's no snow! I'm so blessed to be able to experience God like I am, and to be able to be a part of an incredible YWAM family. :)

Thank you for reading this book I just wrote about the past few weeks. Prayers always accepted :) Love you guys!! -Kari.

ps. I DID SEE 15-20 KANGAROOS IN A FIELD ON THE WAY TO THE FIRST TOWN. YAY.