Monday, April 19, 2010

Good bye to the new hello to the old.

Hey everyone! This is another blog update from the team. Just to let everyone know that we are all doing really well and were all fit and healthy. We just finished the second part of your trip and were off the Philippines in 3 days! So another language to learn…. Anyway just gona give you a little update on what we have been doing this past 10 days.

So after saying some sad goodbyes to our friends at the ywam base. We picked some old friends from the sunshine coast! Mark and Melisa and there sons Jai Jessie and josh. We teamed up with them as One Friday Skate Ministry to do some skate comps. We also joined a local church out here called C3 Bali. They are our contacts out here. Our main driver and also our best friend is a dude called Agung. This guys is a hero so pray for him hes only 18 and he is charging for God here in Bali. So yeah all week we have been going into high schools and teaching English. We weren’t allowed to talk about Jesus but we had a little plan. At the end of each class we would invite them to this youth Party we would be holding on the Friday (ill explain it later) so we did that all week at different schools. Also we held skate comps at all the skate parks and also invite the kids to the party and that’s where they would receive there prizes. We also did some surf ministry through out the week where we invited a hand full of gromies to the party. We surfed this spot all the time so we made some cool little friendships there. Also we just invited anyone we became friends with. So doing all this all week was pretty full on again. But all of it leads unto this youth party everything we did was based around this party. So Friday came and its was EPIC! Seriously we had crowed full of kids and yeah was awesome. We had live music (we held auditions and the kids from the schools played was sick) Games, Testimonies we did a Drama for them, worship hang out times with Xbox and free Wi-Fi (big deal here) yeah it was just heaps of fun! The kids moshing out to worship was awesome! We got the Gospel out to them trough the Drams and also Indra told his testimony this Guy is a local skater who just got saved and all the kids look up to him and yeah it was so powerful. So that was Friday night it was sooo sick a lot of hearts got touched that night and a lot of the kids will be going again just joining there youth group so they have support and discipleship. So that was the work we did for C3 Church and One Fridays.

We have also been visiting our friends we were ministering to during our stay at the YWAM Base. We were able to take 4 of the guys from Kuta out for dinner and they are now coming to church with us! Yeeew! Also the girls today have been visiting Komaing they met her during the prostitution work. Anyway today they took her out for lunch and she said to the girls that she wants help to get out and start a new life! How sick is that!! So we have hooked her up with C3 church and they have a program to help girls like her to get out and get back into school etc. so the church will be looking after her! Also were praying that Nadal and Ludi the guys we meet in the nights will come to church with us and plug them in there. So yeah this whole time in Bali has been pretty epic to see how God puts things together. Because everyone we have spoken to and the people who want to take there faith further we are able to put them into a church with solid discipleship! Its so good because as a team we feel like we have actually made an impact in this place because when we leave we know that the church will be following up on all our friends and were not just bailing on them. To me that’s what its all about. Its all well and good getting them saved and that’s good but so many times people come in and do that and then just leave them on there own to fend for them self’s… and I just think to my self how are they going to grow? Who’s going to teach them about God and how to live a life following Jesus? So having the YWAM base and the church supporting these guys is just a blessing.

So God we just want to say thank you for they way you have used us out here and Bali and for the friends we have made. We just want to life them up and ask that you just keep growing these guys and teaching and moulding them. I Thank you that you have put support in place for them so God we just say thank you we couldn’t have done any of this without you. And this Blog isn’t here to tell people on what we have done but its here to share on what your doing and how your moving in these places that we are visiting so we give you all the honour all the glory and all the praise to you Lord Jesus! We love you! Hallelujah! Amen.

That’s it for now. Sorry its not a long one but I hope it encourages you guys that all your prayers and support are working and Gods kingdom is coming! So keep praying there’s still a lot of work to be done and the power of prayer is Huge! So please keep praying for us and the people God puts in our path.

Prayer points

We stay healthy we have had a few stomach bugs and fevers but were good now

Still unity as a team

Safe travels to the Phillies

All the people we have met

C3 church and ywam Bali

Strength for the team to keep charging!

Love,

Daniel, Callie, Cheets, Tom, Nick, Tiffany and Jocelyn

Monday, April 5, 2010

Its Begun

Hey Friends!

Soo… we made it too Bali! Yeeeew! Been here for 8 days now and it feels like we have been here for months. That’s good though, to me Indonesia is like a second home… anyway we're here and life has been anything but chill. It’s been go go go right from the start! We never intended this outreach to be easy.

So after a fun flight from Australia to Bali we were picked up by Alther (our contact/driver) and he took us to a place we would call home for 10 days, a place called YWAM Bali! This place is pretty sweet we have fans in our rooms! So we can’t complain. The Staff
and Students here are real friendly people. A few old faces from my last outreach to Nias. A few people we know from Australia. (If you have been in YWAM for a bit you will start to notice that it’s a pretty small world.)
Anyway right from the get go Alther had us plugged into some pretty sweet ministries. Everyday we have been going to the local slums in Bali and been teaching Kids English ages vary from 4 - 16 (don’t hold me to that) this at first was a real eye opener to the reality of Bali. When you think of Bali and you hear about people who have on holiday there. They paint the picture of Beautiful beaches, nice weather, palm trees, clear blue water and of course epic waves… but that is such a small part to this place. There is so much more about this island than meets the western eye. Amongst all the beauty there is an extreme amount of poverty. House are basic wood frames. People doing everything they can just to make a living. So when we went to the slums it was like stepping into to a whole new world. I wont describe it ill let the pictures do the talking.




Pictures taken by Nick Knopf


Were also doing street evangelism down in Kuta. If you know anything about kata it is where the majority of the hotels/bars and shops are. It is extremely western. When your there you don’t really know where there is. Am in in indo? Am I in Australia? I just don’t know. But we go down in the morning and just hang out with people and get to know them and share with them the good news of Jesus. We have made some really good friendships down there. We have had a chance to pray for people and had some really deep talks about Jesus. Bali isn't the safest place to do open evangelism but being lead by the holy sprit keeps us safe! So we could do with some prayer especially for the people we have met. Ryian, Tigger, Monkey and Tido (wired names I know but God knows them!)

Then in the nights we do prostitution ministry this is where are team splits up. Callie takes the girls to well… the streets. Let me explain. So here in Bali they have a lot of road side vendors who sell water and coffee. But in the nights it’s kinda different they do the same but also sell girls or the girls sell them self's I don’t really understand how it works but it happens. So the girls have been talking to this one girl Komane we met here on our first night and the girls have kept going back talking to her and bringing here gifts etc. they have built up a lot of trust with this girl. We still have time we are praying for a lot of fruit to come from this relationship. (Don’t worry our contact stays with the girls so there not on there own without a guy.)
Then I take the guys to Kuta. So Kuta at night is completely different to Kuta in the day. At night its supper dark. A lot of drugs and prostitution goes on. So the idea is that as guys we just walk up and down the street and we wait for dealers of all sort to come up to us and offer us well everything… you name it we get offered it. So we use that as an opportunity to talk to these guys about Jesus! Yeeeeeew! It’s kinda scary not going to lie. The first night we did this we really didn’t know what to expect. So we prayed and then started walking. So this guy comes up to us and offers us drugs and girls and we just kinda kept walking saying no thank you. A few of us felt like we should have talked to this guy but we were a bit sketched out. So we kept walking after seeking God he lead us straight back to this guy Nada. After sticking with it he found out we were missionary's for Jesus. He asked us to sit down and have coffee with him. So we got him coffee and his friends and got them some rice (they were stoked looked like they haven’t eaten for awhile.) anyway we talked to him for about 2 hours and the whole things was about Jesus and what he did for us and how were living for him. He was so open and really wanted questions answered. This guy already knew so much. But he saw us and saw a difference he was saying that he meets missionaries and they talk with there mouth but he rarely sees missionaries who talk with there heart and he saw that in us. After hanging out with him he asked us to go meet up with him again so that’s what were gona be doing! So pray for us this guy what’s to see a change in Kuta and Bali! So yeah Jesus loves the drug dealers and the pimps AMEN!

We have also been visiting the prisons this has been a real cool experience. Tom and Cheets have had the chance to talk to some guys in the prison who are pretty famous and a big deal fro Australians. They were in prison for drug trafficking and have had the death sentence. So I cant really talk about it a lot but they have built up a really good friendship with these guys are building trust it’s a cool thing to see them excel in this ministry and also there heart for these guys has been amazing.

That’s really it as far as ministries go. We have been serving the base here as much as possible helping cook, fixing things and just helping where ever needed. So the team are doing really well. Just getting used to the super busy schedule. And always going the extra mile! Tom and cheats have made friends with this skater kid next door so on there free time there skating with him and building that friendship with them. Nick and I are hanging out with some of the locals here on base. Going surfing with them and really encouraging them and there also encouraging us so it’s been super sweet. Local Knowledge here in Bali as far as surfing goes it goes a long way!!!! Surfed some epic spots a few secrets and yeah been a blast but forever picking coral out of our feet. And the girls are hanging out with few guys form base and really building friendship with them and going shopping etc. so it’s been busy busy busy but its all for Gods kingdom so our strength is in Christ alone.

So that’s our first update. Many more to come. So please keep praying for these people we have met and for our team were all fit and healthy pray that it stays that way. Also keep praying for unity and strength!
Thanks you guys for all your support

Love,

Daniel, Callie, Tom, Nick, Cheets, Jocelyn and Tiffany