Week 9 & 10

      Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while; the last two weeks have been a little crazy. I can't go into too much detail but I'll try to give you a brief overview of what's been happening !

      Week 9 was on relationships and forgiveness. We had the base director Annette come and speak to us all week and it was really good. Christianity is all about restoring relationships; with God, others, and yourself. Relationship with God is the reason we were made and it's the first commandment. The second commandment, to love your neighbor, is the reason we're on earth.We spent a few days discussing dating and marriage relationships, and later moved on to conflict resolution. I learned a lot about how important it is to honour others, how the rules God has made for us are out of love, and how the devil twists the truth to create a less valuble substistute.  Forgiveness also really stuck out to me this week. Often when someone hurts us we often complain to God and say we can't forgive them because 'no one understands what they did to me'. God knows how we feel in every situation;  He's been there and he paid for it all on the cross. Jesus died for us because we have value, therefore we forgive others because they have value, not because of what they've done. It's not a sin to aknowledge your feelings towards someone, just make sure that instead of acting on them you act in love and forgive them. It might take a while, but the emotions will slowly follow. Forgiveness is a desision, not a feeling. Overall it was an awesome week learning about God's heart for wholeness in relationships.

     This past week was what Aussies call 'schoolies week'. Basically this is the end of the school year and the graduating class heads to the beach for a week of staying in hotels and partying. This happens all across Australia but 30,000 students come from all over the country to be at Surfers Paradise for this week. There's a lot of drinking, beach parties, and unfortunatley a lot of crime, sickness  and assault that come with the crowds. As the week progresses situations get worse, friendships break, and schoolies get depressed when they realize they're not satisfied with this worldly lifestyle.

     As a DTS we partnered with another Christian organization and became a part of the team of 800 volunteers on the Goldcoast. We were in small teams of 4 or 5 with one person we knew from DTS. My team had 9 floors in one of the main hotels that we were responsible for checking in on rooms, but we would often get emergency calls to other floors. From 6pm until sometime between 3 and 5am we would check in on hotel rooms, clean up after parties, take care of the sick & hungover, call paramedics, cook pancakes, provide mediation, and walk kids home from the beach to their hotels. The schoolies knew who we were as volunteers because of our t-shirts, and were ecxited to see us walking on the streets or through the hotel lobby handing out candy and helping them. Through this positive reputation we were able to make relationships with schoolies that slowly grew over the week. The main goal of this week was not to shove the Bible down people's throats, or even get kids to change their ways; rather it was to love and serve regardless of the situation or person. The hope was that through our actions they would begin to question why weren't involved in what they were, and would see the light within us. Once they noticed we enjoyed serving them and asked why, the doors would open to share personal testemonies and the gospel. As an organization we saw 97 schoolies decide to follow Jesus at the church service (Glory to God!!) with hundreds more experiencing the gospel through the actions and words of volunteers. It was a physically, emotionally and spiritually challenging week, but I can honestly say it was worth it.

     This week along with learning about spiritual warfare, we are spending a lot of time planning our trips to India and Nepal as teams. We sent in visa applications, are visiting travel immunization clinics (I am up to date, praise the Lord!) and are going shopping for appropriate clothing and gear. Please continue to pray for communicaton to finalize plans with our contacts and for the many team members that still need finances! Please pray against anything the enemy has planned to stop us from moving forward! Your prayers are so powerful and I am so thankful for every single one!

     Also a MASSIVE thank you to all of you who have donated money to me for my trip!! I appreciate it so much and I'm getting closer and closer to reaching the full $4000. If you would like to support me still you can either get in touch with my parents back at home or donate online using this website. http://www.ywamgc.com.au/finance/paydonate-online19.html?view=donate
Please make sure that in the comment box you write that it's for Rebecca Jobse 's outreach fees and you're golden! Thanks again!

Love and peace and many blessings to you all !!
Bec

Week 8 - Baptism!

      Another busy but amazing week is over. This week we had Mark Parker from New Zealand come and speak to us about Lordship and Fear of the Lord. It was a really in-your-face, challenging week. Mark was not afraid to ask people questions, push them outside of their comfort zone and be honest with what the Holy Spirit was saying to him. At the beginning of the week this was a little intimidating but as the days went on we realized he was doing this out of a fatherly love. I have a lot of respect for him and am really thankful that he completely devoted his time here to seeing us grow.

      When we were in lectures something that was repeatedly emphasized was the difference between accepting Jesus as your Savior, and making Him Lord and King over your life. The difference between being a believer in Christ, and being a disciple of Christ. We talked a lot about dying to ourselves and living by the spirit. It says in Romans 12 that our bodies are living sacrifices to God; because we're living sometimes we jump off the altar and choose to act out of selfishness. When this happens we don't need to get down on ourselves, we simply have to stand up and jump back on! There are some things we have to daily be surrendering to God and let Him have complete control in. The verse goes on to say "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." We can't just skip to the end of the verse and think we will know God's will. We have to 1) know God 2) Offer ourselves as a living sacrifice 3) Renew our minds and then 4) we can know Gods will for us. I dont know about you but that helped me to understand the topic of surrender and Lordship so much more. It actually benefits us to surrender things to God. We don't have to carry around our burdens or worry about the future because if we let Him take control he will guide us and provide for our needs. Isn't that so comforting?! 

     As a result of this week I chose to get baptized on our ministry day on Friday. I was baptized as a child by my parents, but I've never made the desision to do it myself. I really felt like it was the next step in my relationship with God and I wanted the date to be a physical landmark of my choice to make Him Lord over every part of my life. After a morning full of worship, giving to each other and repenting, we packed into the vans and headed to the beach to get baptized in the ocean. My friend and housemate Emma also chose to get baptized.

    After I shared my heart behind getting baptized to the group, both Mark Parker and my house leader Mikayla came out into the water with me. They prayed over me for a while and baptized me. When I came up, out of that water I knew I was a different person. The old Rebecca died and a new one lives! Hallelujah! I was greeted on the beach by all my friends and leaders and they spent a while praying and prophecying over me. While this entire thing happened the sun was setting beautifully. It was such an amazing day!

 

     When it was all over, I got to watch Emma do the same thing. It was so exciting ! The picture below is the girls I live with. 4 of us are DTS students and Mikayla (second from right) is our leader. I am so, so blessed to have them in my life. They are truly amazing people and I love them a lot!

 

     I also have exciting news regarding our outreach trip! We are leaving in January and flying to India, but in the beginning part of our journey we will be heading up to Nepal (!!) and ministering to the people there for just under two weeks. Then we will go back into India for the remainder of our trip. Please keep praying for our contacts, funds and trip logistics. We are applying for visas this week! If you feel called to give and support me financially I would be so blessed. Please message me so we can work something out. I love you guys so much and I would not be here without you! Thank you for everything!! xox

 

Oz Quest

        This week was quite different to the other ones so far. On Monday and Tuesday we had regular days and lectures, but from Tuesday night until the end of the week the students went on a trip called Oz Quest. The whole thing was a surprise to us. Literally all we knew before leaving was what we had to pack. We were given a packing list and were told not to bring anything that wasn't on the list. Just so you get the idea of what was going through our heads at the time I'll let you know a few things about the list. Sleeping bags were allowed but 'pillow' was not on it. The only hygiene items on the list were toothbrush/toothpaste and a bar of soap. We could judge by how many shirts we were allowed to bring approximately how long the trip was, but we really didn't know anything for sure. So as you can see this trip became a challenge right from the start; simply because we didn't know what to expect.

     We met tuesday night and the first thing they told us was "All of your questions about Oz Quest will be answered by the end of Oz Quest". How brilliant is that? So then it started. We ended up running around, hiking and camping in Australia's wilderness. There was a lot of hiking and walking involved, the leaders estimated about 150km by the time we were home. The first day alone we spent about 8 hours hiking to the camp in our teams. The plus side of this was the amazing views we had at the top of the mountain. Everything was so green and alive! It was a beautiful couple of days.

     This trip was designed to be physically, emotionally and spiritually challenging, but most of all it was meant to bring our outreach team closer together. Oz Quest was an opportunity to work out all the kinks in our team and discover what we're good at and what we need to improve on so that when we go on our outreach trip it's not about us. Our focus is going to be sharing the love of Jesus with people and speaking value into their lives. We don't want to be distracted by our selfishness and potential team conflicts. We did a lot of team building activities and each person had the opportunity of being a leader. Through this we got to learn each others' style of leadership and their strengths and weaknesses.

    The other goal of Oz Quest is to learn how to fully trust and depend on God. Like I said before we were given a strict packing list to abide by and being in the wilderness we didn't have the comforts of home. We had to sleep outside, eat outside and pee outside. The food we were given was not what we were used to eating, and there wasn't a lot of it. We learned to be completely satisfied in God and to trust Him to give us energy for the day. We spent an hour every morning in personal quiet time with God and another hour doing devotions and worship as a large group. I think the biggest thing I learned was to give God complete control of everything; surrendering my plans to Him. I am one of those people who likes to know what is going on at all times and I like details. It was a challenge for me to have everything as a surprise, but I think it taught me a lot. I wouldn't say this was my favorite trip ever but there were for sure some high points and some good times. I know this trip was a large part of coming together as a team and Im really glad we did it!

   **Side note for all those who are interested: we saw heaps of weird and kinda scary animals while we were out.  Lots of spiders, including a huntsman that was the size of a toilet paper roll and some long legged green ones. (EWW) We also saw a few snakes (a little too close gor comfort) an iguana about 4ft long, something that looked like a small crocodile but might've something else.., multiple lizards, and a ton of wallabys! They're like little kangaroos and they're super cute! All this and we didnt even go to the zoo. I'd call that a success :)