The Prac Week season has begun! This is when we head out in small teams to serve the community through the church and para-church organisations. This semester one team left just yesterday for Cooma, to serve the church and our team leaves tomorrow to serve with the Salvation Army in Sydney. Just to give us a heads up for working with the disadvantaged our team began the week spending two days working alongside the clients at Mission Australia's Triple Care Farm. This is a drug rehab for 16-24 year olds and it's situated about half an hour from us on 100 acres of beautiful farm land. We made some really good friendships there and on Wednesday we invited them back to work with us on our property. Six came and we had a great morning of work followed by a delicious lunch and then a trip into Bowral to enjoy a GREAT coffee. This is real ministry. A lot of the clients find it hard to talk about everyday stuff, instead they talk about their 'party' lifestyle so we encouraged them as we spoke of things like food, cars, movies and music and even computers! It was great and we look forward to returning before the end of term to build up these friendships.
A lot of the work we do is all about building relationships. This is what Jesus did - all ministry should be through relationship - that's the difference Jesus makes! We go to give and there's a lot of love that we can share from Jesus. We always top ourselves up by having a Quiet Time at the start of everyday so that all that we do is the outflow of our own relationship with Jesus. Our aim is to be led by the Spirit in all that we do and simply join in with what God is already doing. Sounds easy but often we can get in the way!!
At TCF it was interesting that as we helped them to paint their chicken pens it was very easy to strike up conversations. Our guys were able to share lots of what we do and what we believe in a very easy going environment. We were also able to learn lots about the backgrounds of the clients. Somehow it seems unfair that they have had to face so much heartache and hurt in their lives, but we believe whatever their experiences, there's nothing that Jesus cannot redeem them from or forgive. God loves to use all our experiences for his glory and maybe help us to relate to others who have experienced the same as us.
In a little over a week I'll be able to share a lot of the stories of our team experiences and encourage you how Jesus is using us to make a difference in this world. I already know that even though we go to give we will also receive so much more - just wait and see...
HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND A TERRIFIC WEEK!
STEVE aka WOODSEY
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
REPORT: Hong Kong Mission Trip September 2009
Going to Hong Kong with a mission trip for the second time this year was a huge blessing. Not only did we raise all our travel money with relative ease, but we also had a bounty of cash to donate which, when added to what we gave in April came to way over HK$100,000. This we gave with much joy to the Building Project, which consisted of a prayer sanctuary, a swimming pool, and a school building. This is a wonderful confirmation of the fruit of the partnership that we have enjoyed with St Stephen’s Society for the past five years.
Speaking to the three guys who went - Thane, Thomas and Jordan - it was clear that that three things impacted them the most; the lifestyle of worship, the commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus and the huge sense of community. Here are some stories that describe something of what they experienced.
We lived in a community at Shing Mun Springs that consisted of a little over 200 people who were either dedicated Christian staff or recovering drug addicts looking for new life in Jesus. There were five main housing blocks in which we all lived. The staff was made up of singles and married couples, many had babies and there were lots of children.
The daily routine would begin at 7.30am when we would start with exercise followed by breakfast, then onto Quiet Time for an hour followed by worship ministry and sharing. Often during these Spirit-filled ministry times the brothers, (the name given to recovering drug addicts), would be healed of physical and emotional wounds. After a short break there would be time to do the household chores before lunch and in the afternoon there would be more work and recreation. Each evening consisted of worship, ministry, and sharing with social time before bed at 10.00pm.
Some of the house leaders would change up the daily routine which gave an amazing result – virtually during the normal course of the day we were able to hear the heartfelt cries of worship coming from somewhere!
At Shing Mun Springs prayer also seemed to be continuous. The ‘new boys’, (the name given to any new brother coming into the house), would receive round the clock prayer and care for ten days. During this time of ‘detox’ many would sleep peacefully and be ministered to by the Holy Spirit. In fact, we prayed for all the needs of our community – all through the day! It was very refreshing to see prayer as a way of life and an obvious foundation to the effective ministry of St Stephen’s Society.
Joe Joe was one of our robust helpers in Block 4. He had entered the community some years earlier looking much like a skeleton with only seven days to live due to cancer. He was given round the clock care and prayer and he attended the worship sessions whenever he had the strength. He was healed. He is now reunited with his family and serves at Shing Mun Springs with the Father’s love and gives much hope to all the brothers.
One of the things we did which the brothers particularly enjoyed was organizing a Western Food Night. Our team along with two helpers shopped for over six hours in all the local markets to return and prepare the biggest Mexican meal that has ever been seen at Shing Mun Springs. We calmly chopped tomatoes, sliced lettuce, cooked mince, and put sauces into bowls while the tortillas were warming in the sun. The result almost transformed our houses into restaurants! Over 100 people were fed until they were full! We felt so satisfied to see the happy faces of everyone and the joy that we had brought in this way.
The evening progressed to worship and Jordan presented some of his own songs. He taught the guys one of them and you would have thought that they were all fluent English speakers! Jesus was in everything! Thomas then showed a video of the Torchbearer’s community sending a message in Chinese - the brothers thought it was wonderful. They responded with an equally uplifting message for us back at school – all soaked in a spirit of gratefulness and fun. We will all remember that evening forever!
After two weeks we returned home having made lots of friends and having touched lots of hearts. Our aim was to go to give and we were satisfied that our mission was accomplished. During our time we realized that no matter what our role, whether upfront or unseen, our purpose is always to use the gifts God has given us to serve His Kingdom purposes. As we stepped out in faith to do this and sowed into rich soil we left as much better people for it – totally inspired, tired but refreshed and eager to learn more and give more. All glory to God!
Speaking to the three guys who went - Thane, Thomas and Jordan - it was clear that that three things impacted them the most; the lifestyle of worship, the commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus and the huge sense of community. Here are some stories that describe something of what they experienced.
We lived in a community at Shing Mun Springs that consisted of a little over 200 people who were either dedicated Christian staff or recovering drug addicts looking for new life in Jesus. There were five main housing blocks in which we all lived. The staff was made up of singles and married couples, many had babies and there were lots of children.
The daily routine would begin at 7.30am when we would start with exercise followed by breakfast, then onto Quiet Time for an hour followed by worship ministry and sharing. Often during these Spirit-filled ministry times the brothers, (the name given to recovering drug addicts), would be healed of physical and emotional wounds. After a short break there would be time to do the household chores before lunch and in the afternoon there would be more work and recreation. Each evening consisted of worship, ministry, and sharing with social time before bed at 10.00pm.
Some of the house leaders would change up the daily routine which gave an amazing result – virtually during the normal course of the day we were able to hear the heartfelt cries of worship coming from somewhere!
At Shing Mun Springs prayer also seemed to be continuous. The ‘new boys’, (the name given to any new brother coming into the house), would receive round the clock prayer and care for ten days. During this time of ‘detox’ many would sleep peacefully and be ministered to by the Holy Spirit. In fact, we prayed for all the needs of our community – all through the day! It was very refreshing to see prayer as a way of life and an obvious foundation to the effective ministry of St Stephen’s Society.
Joe Joe was one of our robust helpers in Block 4. He had entered the community some years earlier looking much like a skeleton with only seven days to live due to cancer. He was given round the clock care and prayer and he attended the worship sessions whenever he had the strength. He was healed. He is now reunited with his family and serves at Shing Mun Springs with the Father’s love and gives much hope to all the brothers.
One of the things we did which the brothers particularly enjoyed was organizing a Western Food Night. Our team along with two helpers shopped for over six hours in all the local markets to return and prepare the biggest Mexican meal that has ever been seen at Shing Mun Springs. We calmly chopped tomatoes, sliced lettuce, cooked mince, and put sauces into bowls while the tortillas were warming in the sun. The result almost transformed our houses into restaurants! Over 100 people were fed until they were full! We felt so satisfied to see the happy faces of everyone and the joy that we had brought in this way.
The evening progressed to worship and Jordan presented some of his own songs. He taught the guys one of them and you would have thought that they were all fluent English speakers! Jesus was in everything! Thomas then showed a video of the Torchbearer’s community sending a message in Chinese - the brothers thought it was wonderful. They responded with an equally uplifting message for us back at school – all soaked in a spirit of gratefulness and fun. We will all remember that evening forever!
After two weeks we returned home having made lots of friends and having touched lots of hearts. Our aim was to go to give and we were satisfied that our mission was accomplished. During our time we realized that no matter what our role, whether upfront or unseen, our purpose is always to use the gifts God has given us to serve His Kingdom purposes. As we stepped out in faith to do this and sowed into rich soil we left as much better people for it – totally inspired, tired but refreshed and eager to learn more and give more. All glory to God!
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