Bella, Bush Dancing, & Barbecues

Hi everyone. I'm very thankful to staff here in Toowoomba, Australia. It was very hard to get up this morning though, because it is getting cold here. You'd think I'd be used to the cold as I was born and bred in chilly Manitoba, Canada, but my body has adjusted to that I'm cold when it gets colder than 10 degrees Celsius. Sad, I know.
Anyway, the past three weeks have been great. Students got back from outreach on the weekend of May 13th and we had report back on the Monday after they got back where everyone shared their stories from the last 6 weeks of overseas outreach. I loved hearing what God has been doing in Cambodia, Thailand, Fiji, and here in Australia. God is moving everywhere in the world and I love how we are part of that as Christians. There were many stories of healing and people beginning to know the love of Christ. One student got healed of her celiac disease during her outreach to Cambodia! God is so amazing!

Team Fiji speaking at a youth group in Byron Bay, Australia

Team Cambodia in the village teaching English

Team Thailand (who called themselves Red Curry) praying for a lady

Team Thailand (aka Green Curry) doing an impromptu Bible study with the kids

The weekend the students got back from outreach was a busy weekend for me. I helped out at a girls camp called Bella. I shared about my relationship with my father as well as my heavenly father and encouraged them all to cry out to God and give Him our pain. He delights in us and is pleased with us. I also shared my "Revelation of God as Father" that God gave me last year and that I posted in a blog entry back in February of this year.  Then we got to pray for the girls and they wrote out a letter to God and threw it into the fire, showing that they are surrendering all of them to God, who gives great gifts, the greatest of all being Himself. I also loved just hanging out with the girls and playing and laughing with them. They are so fun to be around and I love them so much!

Then on Sunday morning, we as Freedom Project got to go to a church and talk about the work of Destiny Rescue. Evelien shared a song she wrote about human trafficking that really impacted the congregation and then we got to answer questions people had about the organisation afterwards and sell some jewellery that the rescued girls made. I loved worshipping at that church and being a part of their service. They were so welcoming and such a joy to be around.

The next week, while students had lectures in Music & Missions and were preparing for local outreach and recording week, I was in the office answering emails from future staff and students, helping people with their visas, and doing accounts work as usual. It was a pretty busy week because I had to do some stuff in accounts with the outreach teams that got back. During that week, we had a going away party for one of the staff members, my friend, and my one-on-one, Kim, who is home for the next 3 months before coming back on staff here. We had a potluck milkshake party where we each brought some milkshake ingredients to share. The milkshakes were delicious and I loved hanging out with the rest of the staff. I love that over the last 5 months of me being here on staff, I have grown to love these people like my family. I'm going to miss the 7 staff who leave in a month's time.

On Friday, May 20th, I went to a Bella event where I did bush dancing for the first time. It's similar to square dancing and lots of fun, especially when it's with teenage girls. We also got to hear from some of the girls who go to a boarding school here in Toowoomba and their home is in the country. One of the girls lives on a property that is over 100,000 acres which is about the size of the city of Winnipeg. Wow, imagine one of us owning and living in a whole city!
If you want to see a little video of the bush dance, I've shared it to my Facebook page for you to view and enjoy.

Then on Saturday I went to a barbecue in a park, went to the library (I'm so excited I got a Library card here!), listened to a group of our students do a music set at a Relay for Life to raise money for Breast Cancer, and then went to a baptism of some of the girls from Bella.

barbecue in the park

our students performing at Relay for Life

baptisms!

On Sunday I went to a Mission Market. We drove for 1 hour out of town to get there and there was about 30 different missions organisations from all over the world present. We got to share about Destiny Rescue for 90 seconds before the timer went off (they had a different animal noise for the timer which was hilarious). Since it was at a church, we had worship songs in between and afterwards, people milled around, eating their Devonshire Morning Tea and talking to the people in stalls around the church. My favourite part (other than eating the scones which were delicious) was hearing the stories of the people representing other organisations. I talked so some people from WEC (which is World Evangelism for Christ but they joked that it meant Where Everyone's Crazy) who had amazing stories about God's provision to share. Being there stirred up my desire and passion to being a voice for the voiceless and advocating for a cause like Destiny Rescue, even after I am not part of YWAM Toowoomba anymore.

This last week was local outreach & recording week for the students. My work schedule was less busy so I got to work on writing articles for the YWAM Toowoomba website, write thank you cards to the churches we'd been to with Freedom Project, and unwind a bit from the week before. On Wednesday night, I went to Bella and I think I laughed pretty much the whole evening. Some students from our YWAM base were there and shared testimonies and did some worship songs with us. We also initiated two of the new leaders. They had a contest to see how many pairs of undies they could put on in a minute. It was hilarious and they both one because they tied!
Then they wanted to see if Landon, our school leader could hoola hoop and they had a competition with some of the students and girls from Bella. He was actually pretty good but one of the Bella girls was much better and ended up beating the majority of the people there with her hoola hooping skills. We also played some games and took a vote for the Bella magazine cover because they couldn't decide between two covers. They are planning on putting it back into print and one of the things they are doing to fundraise is going sky diving this next weekend. I'd love to go, too but sadly my insurance doesn't cover me jumping from a plane from thousands of feet in the air, even if I have someone jumping with me. Too bad. :)

recording time in Doug's studio

recording in our new studio on base!

local outreach week

I'll end by saying you are all beautiful, loved by God, your creator, and so blessed!


The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

Thank you for your prayers and support. If you wish to support me financially, please contact my parents to ask for my bank details or go to my GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/gmz85bz8

We are children of the Light

The past few weeks have been a mixture of renewing of the mind, relying on God for His strength, and constantly choosing to focus on God rather than wanting to please people.
On April 16th, we had an outreach tour fundraiser for the Rural & Coastal team. I was welcoming people at the door, receiving their money and letting them know there would be a silent auction, goodies, and live entertainment by the members of the team going on tour; a four piece folk band called Kindred Summit and a two piece rock/blues band called Jack Pine Drive, all of whom are staff  at YWAM Toowoomba and great friends. Beautiful paintings created by some of the staff as well as local artists were sold at the silent auction, as well as items donated from local stores.  We raised enough money to rent a van and had a little bit extra for food and gas. One of the highlights of the night was that one of our neighbours came. He's about our age and is in a learning time with the Lord. We got to speak life into him and encourage him in the last few weeks especially and now he's thinking about doing a DTS!



Also during the weekend of the fundraiser, a couple of friends of one of the staff here stayed on base. They are staff at a YWAM in New Zealand and one of them went to Indonesia for a month to help out at orphanages in Bali after staying on our base. Talking with her really stirred up my passion and calling to go to the nations and serve people wherever I go. God put Indonesia on my heart years ago but at the time I didn't really think about it, but now I would love to go there at some point in the future and am praying into it.

The week after the fundraiser was pretty busy for all of us. Team Fiji had to come back to Toowoomba because of the cyclones that hit Fiji and so we were busy preparing for them to return; changing their flights, preparing local outreach for them in Toowoomba plus accommodation and their time in Byron Bay for the last part of their outreach. Additionally, a group of pastors who were having a conference here in Toowoomba stayed at our base that week. They were amazing people to talk to and had amazing testimonies that they shared with us throughout the week at meal times.

Last Wednesday, I led intercession for the first time. I focused on Indonesia and we prayed for the country as a whole; for the hundreds of thousands of daughters and sons who are sold into human trafficking, the children who are underweight and living on the streets, and for peace and protection for believers that boldly proclaim grace and salvation through Jesus Christ.  We prayed and saw that despite the danger and things going on in Indonesia with children being forced into human trafficking and growing up before their time, we prayed into them always having childlike faith. I've been reading a book called "Not For Sale" and can see that there is despite all this, there is hope for this country and that people are starting to work towards changing this nation.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Byron Bay with the Rural & Coastal team.

There wasn't enough room in their van on the way up for the beginning of their tour in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, so I joined the Fiji team on Friday morning going to Byron Bay for the next 2 weeks. On Friday evening, we all helped out at a weekly free barbecue that YWAM Byron Bay puts on for the community. It's in a park in the middle of the town and people come from all walks of life. I met people from all over the world including France, Germany, Albania, and Belgium that were visiting Byron Bay or backpacking around Australia. Families were also present, as well as some people off the street that came for the free food and entertainment. Jack Pine Drive and Kindred Summit played, a couple of guys from the community fire twirled, and the director of YWAM Byron Bay talked for a bit, sharing the gospel boldly. It was amazing how the whole atmosphere shifted and a peace that can only come from God washed over the park.
A woman I was talking to from France named Pauline said the same thing. She really liked the songs that were being played by Kindred Summit and wanted to buy a CD but didn't have any money as she had been busking for food for the last few months. I was able to connect her with the Kindred Summit guys and they generously gave her their CD for free. Then we all got to pray for her and encourage her. She said that every time she meets Christians, she feels peace and that they are filled with "something, I don't know" she said. We said it was Jesus and she just nodded. I'm praying that she will meet more Christians and desire that peace that is constant and accept Christ as lord over her life.
On Saturday, we went to Nimbin which is a very hippy town. They had a festival this weekend called "Mardi Grass" where they have a rally for legalising Marijuana. The team played in a restaurant just outside of Nimbin and afterwards, we walked around the festival for a bit. I could feel the sadness and emptiness of this festival and these people. They think they are doing this for freedom, but really they are just following the patterns of this world; riches, drugs, and self.  I was praying the whole time I was walking around for the people to see the truth and for them to fall in love with Jesus instead of the world and with weed.
On Sunday morning, we went to a lighthouse in Byron which is most easterly point of Australia. I saw my first dolphins in the wild! Then we went to church were the pastor spoke on missions. One of the things he said really stuck with me. He said that if we have Jesus as Lord over our lives and really believe that He is Lord, why would we ever disobey Him? He has our back, like a papa bear standing up behind a baby bear who's about to be attacked by a mountain lion.  After church we spent a few hours taking in the sights of Byron Bay. On the way back to Toowoomba, we wanted to go to Minyon Falls. After much searching and winding narrow roads, we found it. A short hike later and we were at a lookout point with the top of the falls right in our eyesight. It was a sight to behold. I have been wanting to go to a waterfall for a couple of months now, so I'm very happy that I was able to see it.




























There are so many more things I want to share with you, but for the sake of space I'll end it here. If you have any more questions or need prayer for anything, just shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you!

Prayer Points:
-Please pray for the upcoming Bella camp. I've been a leader at Bella, a Christian girls program dedicated to showing girls their identity in Christ as a child of God, loved, and beautiful, for the past couple of months. They have a weekend camp 4 times a year where girls come to learn about God, forgiveness, and their worth in Christ.
-You can be praying for the outreach teams in Thailand, Cambodia, and Byron Bay. Some of the members from these teams are sick with the flu. As well, for the team in Byron Bay that they would adjust and find new opportunities to serve and for softening and open hearts of the people they will be evangelising to.
-Also, there is a couple of things happening with Freedom Project this month. We are helping out at a Mission Market and speaking at a Church, all in support of Destiny Rescue who rescues and restores the lives of children that have come out of human trafficking in south east Asia.

Thank you so much for your support! If you wish to support me financially, please go to my GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/gmz85bz8