Team Blog

Hey everyone,
I'm here in Taiwan, Leaving tomorrow for china!
I have had an awesome time here in Taiwan, LOVE it here. But I'm really exited to move on to China.
I have been in charge of the team blog, so that has left me with little to no time on here. So if you want to see how we are all doing, here is our blog- http://www.traveljournals.net/travelers/fea09
I won't be able to update it during our stay in china, but will as soon as we get into either Mongolia or Philippians.
Love and blessings,
Paige

Outreach!

Today is my last day here in Oxford New Zealand!
Tomorrow morning I leave around 8 or 9am with Kenny and I will be flying to Auckland where my team will all meet up. From there we will fly to Hong Kong, Kenny and our leader Jon will be staying behind for just a little bit so Jon can get his visa all sorted out. The rest of us will continue on to Taiwan, they will join us shortly afterwards. After Taiwan we will go to China, than to Mongolia, than to the Philippians which we will be at the longest which is for almost 4 weeks!! We will have a short layover in Thailand and a 2 night layover in South Korea. We will get to stay at Dans grandparents house in Korea.
After that we will be on our way to Israel and we will be meeting the rest of our school there for two weeks and have our graduation on August 13th on the mount of olives!
I wont be able to update much if at all over the time of outreach.
I am so happy to be going on outreach, It's unbelievable to see how God has provided, he has just shown time and time again how amazing he really is.
Prayer: *Safety as we all travel and get to each designation *My leader Jon, he would be able to get his visa with no problems *Unity as a team, Patience, Keep short accounts *For our contacts that we will be able to bless them and really connect with them *We would really connect with the people of each designation and show Gods love on them *Health and safety *All of the other teams going, prayer for them as they travel *Overall that God would just really move in us and we would be open to receive and give what God has for each one of us, to experience God more and more in unbelievable and miraculous ways

Thanks for everyones prayer and support, You really helped make this trip possible.
Love and Blessings

God's Provision

Amazing news!
Literally overnight God has provided all my outreach money, and then some! Yesterday I had a few student's come up to me and tell me they where going to give me money so I could go on outreach, and combined with the money my parents where to generously give me and a few other anonymous gifts, I had so much that I was able to even give some to the gift pool to bless others! God is so amazing how he provides for us. I was really preparing myself for the worse, to not be able to go on outreach and go home early. But God has bigger plans. He really wanted me to just trust him and fallow his plans even if I didn't know what they were.
Isaiah 42:16 "I will lead the blind by a way they do not know. I will turn darkness into light in front of them. And I will make the bad places smooth. These are the things I will do and I will not leave them."
God has really tought me so much over this past two weeks, I am literally exosted just from all the emotions that I have felt and the ups and downs. I just am so freaking physiced that my whole team is able to go and we don't have to leave anyone behind because of financial problems. This time has totally pulled us together as a group. Alot of studants have been fasting untill God provided the money, even studant's who had their outreach paid for. Everyone really was generous and pulled together and really encouraged each other.
So this monday I will be traveling to Taiwan. After that we will be going to Mongolia, China and the Philipeans. In august we will be then in Jeruselum with all the teams for two weeks and graduate together on the Mount of Olives! It is going to be amazing, I am looking forward to see what God reveals to each of us and what else we will learn from this experiance and the many lives we get to touch.
I will try and put up one more update at least before I go, but after that I won't for awhile. For crazy scedual reasons and also for the protection of our contacts we cannot mention anything to do with God or YWAM because of the government and all that.
Thanks so much for prayers and support, You are all a blessing to me.
God is GOOD!

Bradly Hathaway-Silence

What's happening here?
I was once so alive and now I'm so full of dread and almost dead
Show me your wounded head that is lead to communion with the father
But where did he go?
His presence seems farther and farther away each day
but I'm trying so hard to steer his way
Yet still lonely and confused on this cold hard ground I lay

Speak to me wise mouth and say it's all good kid, it's nothing that you did, and though it feels like I'm not here with you right now just be still and silent and listen for that sound..
Shhh..
Did you hear it?
Listen again.
Did you hear it?
That silent voice that just spoke nothing, that is me, I'm listening to your plea with open ears Counting all your tears flowing from your irritated eyes
Searching the skies looking for that hope that beyond there lies.

Oh you young worrisome sparrow, find rest
Lay your battered head upon my omnipresent breast and make it your nest
No strong cold wind could ever blow and carry you from this your home
Look around, see the life shooting up from the ground
Spring colors springing fourth and celebration of your trusting

It's a constant process this is
Growing you into the man you are to become
But when you sense the setting of the sun know it is only rising and has just begun
Now go fourth, sing songs of faith, and lift up others in the midst of this race
And if you can't keep the pace or lose sight of my face
Know that I'm always near so you need not fear
But don't worry about all that right now
Just sit here and enjoy the peace I offer in my silence
When I am silent I am listening, and not abandoning.

Support

Hey everyone,
I wanted to let you know that there is still an opportunity to send support for me and my fellow students on my DTS. If you are at all interested you are more than welcome to do so, whatever you feel led to give would GREATLY help us and our vision God gave us.
As of right now I need almost $5,800, and there are a few more studants and a few staff that are in need of support.
Our leaders Jeremy and Will have bought most of our tickets yesterday, and they are holding off on 6 tickets as of now until the money comes in.
The reality is if we don't get enough money some of us will not be able to go on outreach. Like how I have shared in my last post I really have a deep desire to go and see ALL of my family (ywam fam) go.

So if you want to give, you can go on our website and pay online-

ywamoxford.org

Or send a check made out to YWAM Oxford, here is the address-

PO Box 47 Oxford, North Canterbury 7430 New Zealand
Please send me and e-mail or something if you are sending a check, so we know that money is coming in, it takes about a week and a half to recieve mail from the States

Or call the office and talk to one of the staff-
Office # 64 3 312 4951 Office Fax # 64 3 312 4955

Thank you so very much for your time, support and prayers. You all have made this trip possible for me to experience. I appreciate you all so very much.

~Romans 10:15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!"

My update...

So last week was probably the hardest week here yet.
We had our lectures on Lordship by Mark Parker, He was so awesome and really challenged me. There were so many things that were coming to the surface that I needed to deal with and totally surrender to God it was overwhelming. I needed to deal with some pride issues, my "fear of man", some past stuff with relationships, paths I chose to walk on and bad choices. So there was alot to face and confess to God as well as I had been really upset and trying to cope with the fact that I may be coming home sooner than I wanted...Yes, that means I still don't have all my money for outreach.
At first I was mad at God, upset and really heavy hearted because I REALLY want to go on outreach and it was not looking like it was possible. So I was really wrestling with God on that all week. And God just opened my eyes more, I had to re-evaluate the reasons why I was wanting to go so badly and what was my purpose for going.
He asked me if I wanted to go because it would be fun to see these different places and be with my YWAM family longer, or if it was because my heart truly broke for the people there and I wanted to reach them and become more intimate with God. And If I was not wanting to go home yet for the right reasons.
That really got me thinking and it stirred up that passion again to go for the RIGHT reasons. So I just had to lay that down. If God wants me to still go on outreach than I will most certainly be willing to go and totally psyched and thankful for that. But if God doesn't want me to go on outreach and just go home, I need to be prepared for that and willing to obey him...which is really hard for me to even think about but that's the reality of it.
On Friday we had all laid stuff down and that's what I felt needed to be laid down, to just totally trust in Gods plan and not to try and make my own anymore. That day we where in lectures for like 11 hours, we had a short lunch break in the middle but that's it. So that was really draining but soo good. The one worship song "blessed be your name" we were singing that day had a line that really stuck out to me, "When there's pain in the offering blessed be your name". We truly know its a sacrifice/offering when there is pain in it, and yes it will be painful but I know that it is molding and shaping my character and walk with God. And that's what I came here for, to be transformed by God and walk in HIS plan for my life.
One verse that helped me was Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 it says how there is a time for everything, a time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to build up and a time to tear down, to find and to loose, to be quiet and to speak up, a time to have sorrow and a time to dance...and so on. You have to endure the bad to really appreciate the good and to really be stretched and grow. I really had to learn how to really worship God even if I was not wanting to, to worship him in the good and bad times.
By the end of Friday I was emotionally, spiritually and physically drained, and we were just starting worship again. At that time I really had to rely on God's strength and give him the worship he deserves, even if I didn't like some stuff that was going on and I was tired I knew he was showing me how to lay it down and give him all...no matter what.
So tomorrow the leaders are buying the tickets, and it will probably be the deciding factor if I go or not. Tonight my outreach team prayed over me at our meeting and that really helped give me peace, I really love my team and I really would love to go on outreach with them and experience all that God has in store. But really I know that whatever happens will be for the best and I'm still looking forward to see what God has in store for my future.
So if you could be praying for me and a few of the other students that are in the same boat as me that would help so very much and give us peace.
All I have left to to is to prepare to be amazed...

FATH WEEK

So I just got home last Saturday from faith week. I described in my last post on what faith week is. It was amazing! we got dropped off in a town called Sheffield and we just chilled there for like 2 hours doing devotions and talking, that is pretty much how all our mornings started, we didn't rush and just devoted that time to really hearing God's direction for us. I think that really helped us alot and kept the focus more on God and what he wanted. We got a few interesting people that gave us rides, like a couple from Israel had this station wagon that they spray painted a boat on the one side and painted "sail away" on the other. They where really cool, they took us to Lake Tekapo. They shared their dinner with us and let us borrow there tent for the night, which was barely a 2 person tent and there where 3 of us so that was funny to look back upon. So the first night was super cold, crammed, barely any rest and there was little bits of snow on the ground from that night. But thankfully that was the only night we had to sleep outside, God provided a warm place every night for us! We then got to go to an old stone church for Easter Sunday, it was super awesome. We had a beautiful view of the snow peaked mountains across the clear blue lake.We ran into Jon slack and his family and they blessed us with lunch, snacks and some money. It was so cool to meet up with them and totally be blessed. We then ran into another team: Kayla, Kari and Heesuk. We all got a ride from this guy named Dave, 2 sat upfront with him and the rest of us jumped in the back of the truck with all the chopped wood. It was so much fun, we got better sleep back there than the night in the tent haha. We stopped by mount cook and saw the BEAUTIFUL scenery.

So Dave let us crash a his house overnight in Wanaka, he cooked us steaks, salad, salmon and red potato's that we helped pick from his garden. It was awesome getting to know him, he has this website called snowdrifta.com and he pretty much helps kids do something with there lives and not waste it away. He's totally reaching out to others and it's just really cool to see that. We got a few more rides from people, got to talk to them about what we are doing, YWAM, God and other stuff. It was fun and we got to make some stops along the way and see more of the south island. We had bummed into like 2 other teams in Wanaka, so that was random and fun to see how others where doing. We then got to Queenstown, which is like the most tourist city in NZ so you had to have money to do ANYTHING there. While we where wondering around, looking for a place to sleep cause it was like already 7ish, we ran into Jacklyn, Amanda and Jaeshik. They had looked in a phone book and felt like they should call this number and when they did they where briefly telling their situation and the woman right away said a van would be there to pick then up in a half hour. So we thought that was great they had possibly found a place and we continued to walk a little ways and sat on a bench to pray. While we where praying and just being quiet in God's presents listening, we pretty much thought we where going to have to sleep outside. But I just let it go and stopped trying to make it work and surrendered it to God. I was thinking it was kinda fun actually and right then Beau just looked at us smiling and was like "this is fun guys!" haha so it was cool that we all where just on the same page and letting God take care of us. Literally like 5 seconds later the other team ran over to us and told us to come with them the van had room.
We had no idea who this guy was, where we were going and what we where doing but we just felt like God said to go and I loved it cause I knew God was taking care of us. When we got to his house to our surprise 2 other teams where already there! So they fed us and told us their story and about the church they where starting. We got to go over and pray over the church and see God's vision for the place. There names where Janet and Chris, and they showed us sooo much hospitality and blessed us. We stayed there for 3 nights, and while we where there we cleaned, helped cook, gardened, built the church website and prayed over the church a few more times. The cool thing about the website is that someone prayed 6 days before we came and prayed that someone would come within a week and make the website for them. We saw God answer prayer in so many ways, little and small it was amazing. We also got prayed and ministered over like every night. There ended up being like 7 teams staying there by the 3rd night, and totally not planned at all. So we know God totally wanted us all to be there for a reason. So we left to start heading north toward home on Thursday, we actually got a ride from a guy named William from Hong Kong with another team all the way to Christchurch (45min from Oxford) He not only got us some food for lunch on the way there but also took us to his house and made us Korean noodles with diced ham in it, it was sooo good. And he make us coffee which was awesome cause we where just saying how great it would be if God gave us coffee and choc. We got choc. like the next night then. God did things like that for us the whole week, it really showed me how he truly cares about us, even the little things he loves to bless us.We went to like every hostile in Christchurch and asked if we could work for accommodations. All but one turned us down, but we gave the spot to another team we bumped into. It was actually alot of fun because we took turns in 2's asking the hostiles and it was just a great opportunity to stretch us in asking for help and jump in and just do it. We ended up staying at a friend of Jacklyn's that she knew near the square. So we got to crash there for the last 2 nights and in return clean up the apartment for them. The last night we had a BBQ and just chilled with all the people that where coming in. The apartment was so cool, it was in this alley that had a bunch of bars and restaurants and the apartment was above them. The guys there where real chill and cool to talk with. We actually got some deeper conversations with them about religion and explain our points of view and hear theirs. Last day we walked like 1 1/2 hours so we could like just talk and debrief about the week. Our last ride was cool, Rebbecca and Ben. They didn't even live near Oxford but that day they just out of the blue decided to go to Oxford for the day. I was so happy to be at the base, It was the best feeling EVER. Overall we only missed like 2 meals, had to sleep outside only once, and our longest time waiting for a ride was like maybe 45min...pretty much God REALLY protected and provided for us. I can't even put into words what God did and I could just go on and on with more detail about this week. He just showed me that he is my comport and home wherever I go. He will provide for me and more if I just let go and give him the wheel and he thought me more on FAITH. I think this week helped prepare us for outreach and also drew us even closer together, It's amazing how much love there is here for each other and how we have grown together so far.





So that's the most part of what happened on faith week. There is more events and details, not to mention all the other teams and there story's. But this post would be never ending if I tryed to write it all. So Faith week is over and done, now only 3 weeks till outreach...

Faith week and such...

So This week so far has been pretty awesome, and it's only wendsday. God has just been bringing so much up to the surface that I need to work on in my life and see how they have affected my walk with him. And also to see what he's doing in everyone elses lives here is so sweet, I love it. The lectures are getting deeper, they are about missions this week and i just can't get enough out of it! So far we have heard about relationships, father heart of God, Charactor and nature of God and much more.

This saturday is faith week!

So a little about faith week:
For one week, our DTS is going to split up in groups of 3ish and get dropped off a few hours away from our base with nothing but 20$ each person and a change of clothes. We will have freedom to travel anywhere God leads us on the south island for a week, meet new people and totally just relying on him and streatching ourselves in faith,
Me and my teamates (Grace and Beau) are totally stoked for what God has planned for us and also excited to hear about what God does in all the other teams. We have all been praying for faith week and I ask for your prayers as well.

*Prayer for safety and protection as we rome around and hitchhike New Zealand
*God would provide for our needs
*God would give us an amazing week experiance and amaze us
*We would pour heaps of blessings on all the people we meet

I can't wait to share with you the amazing exeriances and what God does in that week!
On another note, I really would appriciate prayer for outreach finances. On april 20th they are buying our tickets for outreach, so that means we all need our fees payed by that time. Our school altogether needs around 300,000.00 New Zealand Dollars, I myself personally need around 12,000 New Zealand Dollars (7,000 us dollars) So your prayers would be awesome! I know God's going to provide but just knowing people are praying for me helps alot :)

Blessings!

Outreach

So I finally got to know where I am going on outreach! Woohoo!
I'm going to Far East Asia!!!
I'll be going to China, Philipens, Taiwan and Malaysia and then i'll be going to jerusealem for two weeks to meet up with all the teams for debrefing and graduation on the mount of olives!!!
So yea I'm pretty happy to finally know where i'm going, I have 4 other studants on my team and two staff. It's a really cool group and i'm exited to see what all God has in store.
Lectures this week have been good, today especially was good and God just keeps revealing more and more to me.
Also Jacklyn made this video as a fundraiser for our school and to show people more of what our DTS is about. It's really cool and I think she did an amazing job on it:

http://www.vimeo.com/3933196

So you should totally check it out, it's the bomb.
Thats all for now.
Paige

First post

Hey everyone,
So I figured this would be an easy way for me to get updates on how I'm doing to everyone.
This week I'm going into week 4, so far the lectures have been really good. Last week was about relationships and even though I've learned about this subject at so many retreats and stuff I really got alot out of what the speakers had to say. Yesterday I got to go surfing for the first time! It was alot of fun and had some time to just chill and relax. Yesterday we had to give our top 3 choices for outreach in and if we where going to do faith week or church service week, I'll explain faith week more later. So I'm not sure when we will know the teams, but it should be soon. Also we found out a few weeks ago that outreach cost went up, so as of now I need around $6,000. As a school we are doing a fundraiser together, a few of the students are putting some video footage together and making a 3-5 min video of our DTS and asking for support. So when that's finished I'll put the link up it anyone wants to watch it. So other than that everything is going really well, Last friday at out reach I was in the ART team. We took a huge roll of paper and put paint out and started painting and invited anyone to join us, it was great alot of people stopped and we got to connect with them even just for a few min. Another team across from us was the MUSIC team, it was like stomp they had drums, a guitar some trash bins and other random stuff to make some cool music. That got alot of people involved and a big crowed, it was awesome. There where also a MOBILE team that just went around starting conversations with people and the PROSTITUTE team they did a prayer walk and talked with the prostitutes. So our local outreach is going well. I just put some pictures up a few days ago, its not all of them but I put more up soon. Heres the links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18250&id=1059034758&l=1912628205

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18290&id=1059034758&l=47705c23f9

If you could keep me and the school in mind when you pray that would be awesome. Prayer requests:
*Finances- That we would continue to trust God to provide and that support would come in.
*Spiritual growth- I would continue to be growing in God and he would really work in my life.
*Connecting- We all as a school would continue to connect with each other well and build each other up. and also connect with the community and Christchurch (place where we do outreach).
*Outreach- The leaders would clearly hear from God as to where everyone should go. And visas would go through smoothly.
So I think thats it for now, I'll try and keep this updated.
Blessings!