Week 6 - Identity

       Story time! So this week I decided to challenge myself and not wear any makeup at all. God brought this to my mind last week but I honestly didn't feel like giving it up and didnt think it was a big deal for me. However, on monday I was reminded of this and decided to just obey. The cool thing was that when I got to class that morning I noticed that a few of the other of the girls wearing any makeup either. We found out later that God had spoken to us induvidually about doing the same thing for different reasons. It was a little bit uncomfortable in the beginning but as the week progressed I was so happy I did it. I also saved myself 10 minutes of getting ready in the morning! 10 more minutes for devotions with God. Win win! Our world is so focused on outer beauty it's ridiculous. We need to start looking at the heart of people! I'm not saying wearing makeup or caring about how you look is bad; I actually quite enjoy dressing up, I just want the world to know that I don't find my identity in how much makeup I wear. And guess what topic lectures were on this week... Identity! God's a funny one I tell ya.

       We had the amaaaazing Joanne Blaik come and teach us about Identity in Christ all week. I know God created me perfect, and I can quote verses to you, but in reality I wake up every morning believing the opposite. For me this week was a journey of moving my head knowledge down to my heart. Joanne did very well at explaining where the lies we believe come from, the difference between men and women's beliefs about themselves and what the Bible actually says about us. On The last day we were told to write out a list of lies about ourselves that we believe. Things that have been spoken over us in the past or things that have always been an issue for us. Then we were told to write out a list with the corresponding truths. On Friday morning Joanne asked us to one at a time read out the lists of truths in front of everyone. Often more than once, and until we were confident in what we were saying. Every person reacted differently and some truths were harder to proclaim than others. It was difficult  to do but it was also so powerful. This excercise brought heaps of confidence and healing and it was just an awesome experience for everyone. Then we ripped up all the papers with lies on them and prayed for a renewal of our minds. Identity is so important because what you truly believe about yourself affects how you live your life entirely. Believe the one who made you :)

        Just for fun some of the DTS students thought it would be cool to make a video with our identity as the Bible says it. We call these 'I am' statements. Please watch and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdXNknW6Yko 

     On another note, India is happening in 71 days!  Our information is still limited, but I am so excited for what God is going to do on this trip! I have such a heart for meeting people and hearing their stories. I want to see miracles happen, people's lives changed, and I want to lead people to Jesus. For this trip I still need to raise $2000. God has been faithful in providing me with work and finaces this far and I know He will help me finish raising funds. I would appreciate it so much if you could consider giving to me financially; every contribution means so much! To do so you can shoot me a facebook message/ email or contact my parents. Thank you soo much for everything you guys have already helped me with and for all the prayers !

God is still God. He is still good & He is still changing lives.

Becca

P.S.
Sorry I don't have any pictures from this week, I'll make it up to you next week because we're going on a 3 day adventure from Wednesday to Friday where I'm sure I will have plenty of stories :)

5 weeks in.

        I've been here for over a month! It's weird to think about because it feels like I've known these people for years, yet it's like I'm on a short vacation of sorts. I don't miss home very much, I just miss being around all the people I love. I'm very glad I'm here and that I have this opportunity to travel and learn about God. I also get more and more excited about our trip to India. We still don't know very much, but plans are falling in place and we booked flights! We're flying out on January 6th to New Delhi with a long layover in Singapore and will be spending 6 weeks in the Northern part of India in places like Agra and New Delhi. Please keep praying for the places we will be staying and the contacts we're meeting with.

       Lectures the past weeks have been awesome. Week 4 was the Character and Nature of God/
the Father Heart of God and we had Chris and Jill Twinn come and speak to us. I learned so much through them and I was constantly thinking about what they said, trying to absorb all the information and read the word of God for myself. This past week was on Evangelism and Apologetics and that was really cool for me because I learned how to defend what I believe in.

       So I realized the other day that most of you probably have no idea what I do on a regular week day, so Ill try to give you a little low down to help you imagine whats going here and how you can pray for me. In the morning we meet for worship and intersession 9am. Twice a week it's everyone on the base and the other 3 days its just our DTS group. Morning tea is an Aussie thing that always happens at about 10am every day then from 10:30 - 1:00 we have our lectures with the speaker of the week. After lectures is lunch and after lunch is different everyday. Monday is outreach prep, Tuesday is one-on-ones, Wednesday is study time. Thursday and Fridays after lectures are ministry days where we go out into the community to love on people and share the gospel. On thursday our DTS is split into 2 groups where half of us go to "Set Free Care" in the afternoon and half go to "Coffee van" in the evening. Set Free Care is run out of one of the local churches here where we team up to serve lunch and share testemonies with about 35-50 street people. Coffee Van is where we take our van and park it by the large mall in Southport to serve the people walking by free coffee, tea, milo, or baked goods. In both situations I have had the privledge of hearing life stories and praying for people. It's been awesome to see people come back each week because they know we have something that's different than what the world has. On friday afternoons we focus our attention to the beach at Surfer's Paradise. We set up our beach volleyball courts and encourage visitors to come and play a few games with us. I really enjoy this ministry because sports have always been a large part of my life and it's easy for me to interact with strangers through sports. The members of our DTS who dont play volleyball often talk to the visitors who watch our games and just encourage them. We want to be a group that shows God's love to everyone and plants seeds in hearts for the Holy Spirit to grow. I have really started to grow a heart for this city and for the thousands of lost people in it.

    
            The weekends are free time for everyone, other than attending church on Sunday. Sometimes we try to plan outings with our group to explore Australia, and sometimes we just spend our free time doing homework and suntanning in the backyard. Last Saturday a bunch of us went to Mount Tambourine (about a 45min drive away) and did a little exploratory rain forest walk. It wasn't the nicest weather outside, but it was still a really beautiful park with a big waterfall and it was fun to go out with the group.



This is Rachel S. and I on the edge of the waterfall, she's from Calgary, AB and lives in my house :)















      Like I said earlier, the one thing we are encouraged to do on weekends is go to church. Usually we attend King's Church (about 20mins away) and I really enjoy the service there. Last Sunday we went to the local Ashmore Uniting Church right beside our base because we use their facility a lot and the congregation there really likes to see the young adults they're supporting. Even though the service was more traditional and it was an older congregation, it was awesome to be there. I had the opportunity to sing a duet with a fellow student for the offering and in talking to some members after I could tell that they were really blessed to have us there and be apart of their service. Since it was also Thanksgiving for us Canadians we had a massive Thanksgiving dinner at our leaders Tina and Emmanuel's place. Below is a picture of all us Canadian students and a few Canadian leaders. It was weird not being home for Thanksgiving but it was sweet to share this special holiday with my new family here.There are so many things to be thankful for. Just fact that I am here living in Australia is something I am so grateful for and I can't thank you guys enough for supporting me! :)

heaps and heaps of love. xx

Week 3 - Holy Spirit

      This week was my favourite one so far, and it went by so fast ! We had the DTS from the Byron Bay base come up here to visit with us and do their last week of lectures before leaving on outreach to Papa New Guinea. We had so much fun with them and I hope we'll see them again before our team leaves for India !

     The speaker this week was Stefaan Hugo from South Africa and it was awesome to hear from him. God has clearly put an anointing on his life and the stories he shared were amazing. For me this week was really an eye-opener to understanding the Holy Spirit, what its purpose is, and what all the gifts really are. I've read about all these things in the Bible before, but it was so good to have someone like him explain things in much more detail and help us put them into practice.

    On Wednesday night we had a worship session planned, but instead of doing worship the usual way, Stefaan wanted to challenge us to exercise our faith and worship God by giving gifts. We were instructed to really dig deep and ask God for something we could give to bless someone else on the base.  The first thing I thought of was money, because I am trusting God to provide for me financially and I knew someone who was still paying off their lecture phase. We all arrived in the church and he made us sit in a big circle. One by one people went to the middle and announced who their gift was for and what it was. The other person would accept it and they'd go pray together. This was such an awesome night ! I teared up a few times because some of the gifts were sentimental, but I honestly couldn't stop smiling. It was cool to watch people give away both big and small and be so joyful! As the night went on I sarted to realize our earthly posessions are simply that. Earthly possessions. They might mean something to us now but in the big picture of life they're merely a second, and you can't take them into heaven. Matthew 6:21 says "Where your treasure is there your heart is also"and this has challenged me to live a lifestyle of giving and gratitude. I want others to see that my heart isn't attached to things of this world; that I invest in my relationship with God and sharing Him with others because that's what matters more.

     On friday morning we had a 'Holy Spirit party' where Stefaan and the leaders prayed over us to receive the gifts of the Spirit. This has given me more confidence in God's ability to work through me and I'm so excited for Him to use me to do miracles in other people. When that finished we headed down to the beach and watched 7 students get baptized (from both DTSs). This was an awesome finale to our week. I got to watch my friends publicly declare their love for Christ and choose to live a new life. I couldn't be more proud :)

In Him,
Becca

Settling In

      Hello hello! I figured a blog would be a nice way to get thoughts out to anyone who wants to read it so look back here every week and Ill try to post what's going on and pictures ! 

       For those who don't know I'm living on the Gold Coast of Australia, doing  Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM. Theres 10 students on my DTS and 4 staff that are dedicated to us with plenty of other staff and mission builders running around the base. We live in houses in the neighborhood of Ashmore all within walking distance from each other and the base. I actually quite enjoy living in houses, it feels more like home and it has forced us to become a tighter, family-like community. The picture below is everyone in the DTS, just so you can see who I get to hang out with :) 

top row -- Emmanuel (staff - Canada/Nigeria) Frank (staff - Ontario), Me, Aggie (Ontario), Mikayla (staff - California), Dave (staff - Ontario) 

middle row -- Emma ( Idaho), Kailee (Ontario), Lizzy (Colorado) 

bottom row -- Eric (Ontario),  Flurina (Switzerland), Rachel (Manitoba), Rachel (Alberta), Shannon (Saskatchewan)

      We found out where our outreach locations will be last weekend and we're going to be sending 2 teams to different parts of India!  Each team has 5 students and 2 leaders , but all we really know so far is India. My initial reaction was a little bit of fear because its a very unknown place to me, but I am becoming more and more excited every time we talk about it. I really have a heart for missions and for reaching out to people who don't have what they physically need and who don't know about Jesus. Details about our trip are slowly going to be put in place, so please keep our planning and search for support in your prayers ! If you would like to financially support me on this trip I would be so blessed ! Just shoot me an email ! 

      This week our lectures are all about the holy spirit (last week was hearing God's voice) and its been really, really awesome. I'm learning a ton and we got to experience the presence of the holy spirit in such a powerful way a couple nights ago. People were getting prayer and the holy spirit was manifesting itself so that people could experience healing and joy. The coolest part for me was that after we had laughed and cried it out, literally 3 hours later, someone looked at their hands and noticed there was gold glitter all over their palms. so I went over and looked and the gold was on me too. It was literally gold glitter on the hands of people who had been prayed for. It was so cool. Probably my favorite part of the week. Stoked to see this happen more and more! 

Love you all !