Outreach

Nepal and China

When a school leaves for outreach, we split up into teams, and usually head to different locations. This time was a little different- for the first 5 weeks of, all three teams and 26 students of the Sports DTS, as well as Claire's team from the All Nations DTS, were together in Nepal. So that was a very different experience- forty people instead of the usual ten! But it was fun all being together, and each team had it's own leader so I wasn't directly responsible for everyone.

We spent two weeks in Kathmandu initially, a little way outside the city. For such a well known city, I was surprised at how underdeveloped it is. It's a bit of a dump! During our time there, I had a lot of conversations with God about his heart for the poor, and His desire to generate wealth in societies to raise people out of poverty. It's hard to accomplish much of such a long-term enterprise when you're only there for a few weeks, but we did have a really encouraging interaction with a family near where we lived. I asked a crippled woman on the road if I could pray for her, and she instantly broke out smiling and invited us into her house for tea. Nepalis love tea. Turns out she was a Christian!

Over the time that we knew her, we were able to build steps up the hill from her house to the road so she could get out more easily; and also give her husband input on how to insulate their chicken shed to stop the chickens dying in the night from the cold. She said when we left that she had been living there for more than ten years, and no one had tried to help her like we had. It was so awesome to be able to address people's practical needs in some small scale in Jesus' name. They shared their house with two other families, both of which were Hindu, and through this woman we were able to get close to her young neighbour and share and show the gospel to her, too.



After Kathmandu we went east to Birtamod, a small town very close to the Indian border. We stayed with the YWAMers there, helping out with practical jobs as well as traveling to different parts of the town each day to do open air evangelism. A lot of people heard the gospel there! And it's a very Hindu part of the country. One of my favourite moments was being able to go into a school and preach the gospel to probably 400 students, and give tracts and bibles to most of them as well.

After one final week in Kathmandu, we took off and flew to Shenzhen, China, where we finished out our outreach. China is my favourite. We had six weeks there, and I loved it. We did a lot of sports evangelism there- my basketball improved immensely :). Just going to universities and parks, meeting people, getting to know them and sharing the gospel. Shenzhen is incredibly open to Christian activity compared to the rest of China, so we were able to plug in with various Bible study groups and bring our new friends to them as well.

My favourite story from our time there was at one of these studies. One of my students had met a girl earlier and invited her to come, but was worried she was more interested in him than Jesus! She ended up coming to our last Bible study before we left for Perth. During the message she was mostly on her phone, and in the discussion afterwards she quite forcefully asked, "how do you know God is real?". As people in her group shared their testimonies of knowing God, she softened. When the guy who invited her shared that when he had asked God in his desperation to show Himself, God had responded to him and he had felt God's presence. She said, "Ok, pray for that to happen to me, too." So they did, and she said she felt God! She gave her life to him right then. it was such a good way to finish our time there.

So that's a fairly succinct summary of the last 3 months. Thanks for all your support and prayers!

Looking over the last few months and onto the next few!

It's DTS season again! Heading into week nine It never ceases to astonish me how quickly DTSs go- on the one hand, it feels like I've been doing this for ages; but on the other, I can't believe that we only have a few weeks left until outreach! It's a big school this year- 26 students- and only three staff, so it's been a big challenge to get all the behind-the-scenes stuff done while still maintaining the time and care that each student needs. But it has been going well; week by week students have been dealing with things that have held them back from intimacy with God, and have been growing closer to Him. Leading DTS is a huge commitment of time and energy, and I've definitely felt absolutely ragged and empty more that once in the last few weeks! But it is such a privilege to get to be a part of what God is doing in people's lives, I really love seeing the way He'll use me even when I feel like I have nothing left. And in about three weeks we'll be heading off on outreach! Claire is leading a team from the All Nations DTS, and I'm leading one from my Sports DTS, but we will be traveling together for all but three weeks of outreach. That's definitely an improvement from our frequent three-month separations while dating :). We'll start off with 5 weeks in Nepal- 3 in Kathmandu and probably 2 in a city near the Indian border called Biratnagar. Then we'll fly over Chi.na, where Claire's team will stay for three weeks before finishing their outreach in Western Australia, and my team will stay for the full six weeks. We'll be going to She.nzhen, which is a young but rapidly growing city on the east coast of Chi.na very close to Hong Kong. It has a reputation for being very open to the gospel, so I'm really looking forward to seeing for myself! And we've heard a lot of stories recently from YWAM Perth teams in Nepal seeing miracles and salvations... lots to look forward to! Thanks for all your love and support! Bless you, Luke and Claire Prayer point: We still need about $4000 between the two of us for outreach. It's pretty crazy going from one person trusting for $4000 to all of a sudden needing twice that amount! But God has been faithful before and we know He will be again. He has already brought in about half of it, which is amazing, and He'll bring in the rest. Will you pray with us? Our deadline to have it all paid in by is the 11th of December.

Some Changes

Outreach I had a great time leading a team of 10 DTS students to Cambodia, Thailand and the Land of the Great Wall from January to March. The above picture was one of my highlights of the time- playing with children living in an inner city slum in Cambodia. They were largely neglected by their parents, and so responsive to affection despite the language barrier. It was amazing getting to show the Father's love through piggy-backs! On top of that, we got to share the gospel, teach English, do construction, pray for people, organise a Volleyball tournament, visit hospitals, help out at a Rugby tournament, teach Bible and visit orphanages. It was a full on three months, but so good being out there and seeing my students develop a heart for missions. Since October... I've been to Cambodia, Thailand, the Land of the Great Wall, the UK, the USA and New Zealand. And I haven't written about it. So this is a whirlwind update about the last few months, to catch you up on all that's been going on, and a promise that I'll be better next month :). Bless you, and thanks for your prayers! Wedding We're married! After a quick stop in the UK, we arrived in California and were married on the 4th of May. Had such a blast with friends and family from Perth, the US and all over the world. It couldn't have been a better day, we were so blessed by the wonderful people helping out and being  there, and so grateful to God for bringing it all together. This is a good thing :). Home After two weeks in NZ, we got back to Perth to settle into our new home! We spent last week filling it with furniture, and it's feeling comfortable already. This starts another two year commitment for us in Perth, with a possibility of continuing on after that. I'll continue to lead Discipleship Training Schools during this time, and Claire works with a ministry called Megacities. So here we go! We'll continue to keep you in the loop by merging our updates, so you'll hear what's going on from both of us :).

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Getting Married!

This may come as a surprise... So remember how I let everyone know in May that Claire Griffin and I were dating again? Claire who I had been with for a year, and then not with for a year? Yeah. I may not have done the best job in communicating all this. But here we are now, and you'll get the full story! History is below, but here's the present and the future. Claire Griffin is going to become Claire Jones in May next year! We don't have an exact date yet, but we're working on it. She's from the States, so we'll have the wedding in California, then the plan is to come back through New Zealand to see people/have our honeymoon. So she's going to be around from now on! I'm sure you'll get to know her, both from updates of our life together and from meeting her in person- there will be opportunities! Sorry if you found out via Facebook. Hopefully this makes up for it :). Thanks so much for your care, prayers and support. God bless! On Claire and I started dating on the 24th of May 2010. We got to know each other staffing DTSs in July 2009- she staffed the Classic DTS; I staffed the Sports. Both schools spent the first part of Outreach together in South Africa, and I found myself spending more and more time with her there. I figured out pretty quickly that I was very interested in her, but for the next 8 months we managed to be in different countries. When we were finally both back in Perth, I asked her out. She said yes :). We then spent the next six months staffing DTS together. It was a pretty intense way to start out a relationship, but I reckon it went pretty well! :) Obviously we got to be together for the time we were in Perth, and thankfully we both went to Mexico for outreach! We were leading different teams, but at least got to see each other once a week. After the DTS was over, I went up to the States with her to spend Christmas and New Year's with her family. Off After I left the USA, things went downhill for me. You might remember me talking about this. I went through a really rough patch, and we decided it was best for us to break up, and for me to focus on God. It was the most awful and amazing year of my life, but that's not the point of this update. We weren't on a break. As far as we knew, it was over. It wasn't! Towards the end of 2011, I felt like God was leading me to ask her out again. That freaked me out possibly more than anything else could have! But as I was praying about it, I saw a lot of instances over the previous year where God had stopped me from giving up hope. I never stopped loving her. So, eventually, I asked her out again. Then she had a process to go through! It took her a while (I won't say how long :)), but she came back with a yes. As we talked about it, we could see how God had had His hand in it the whole time. Maybe everyone who gets married says that God brought them together. I know without a doubt He did it with us. On again! So it was May again (kind of a theme) when we got back together, and three weeks later she went to London for three months (kind of another theme). I knew I wanted to marry her then, but there was a bit of an enforced waiting period. October finally rolled around, though, and I finally had the chance to pop the question. We went for a walk down by the river, where we mysteriously discovered a table set up for the two of us :). There was cake, music, et cetera, and then I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes almost before I got the question out! So there it is. It's been a bit of a journey, but we finally got there. I'm stoked. She's stoked. That's a pretty good result!

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Sports DTS

Friend on Facebook Forward to a Friend Sports DTS leaders! Feast your eyes on the faces and thighs of YWAM Perth's Sports DTS! That's me up the back there, in case you've forgotten what I look like. Or don't recognise me in lilac ;). In front of me is Jason, the guy I'm co-leading this DTS with. He's from NZ, too, so we have a good time with cultural in-jokes. And we're deeply comitted to teaching our school to play Rugby! Then to the left is Trisha, who has been training me and Jason in the lead up to October. Trisha started the Sports DTS in Perth back in 2006, so she had a wealth of knowledge to download to us, and hopefully we caught most of it. She's moving on to pioneer a Sports Ministry School in YWAM Chile, so she won't be around much longer. And finally, that's Landon in the pink shorts. He leads the July Sports DTS, who are on Outreach right now. Together we are the Sports DTS leadership in Perth! We were asked to make a funny promo poster for the Sports DTS, and the above photo is the result of that. We don't usually dress like it's the '80s!

October is here Here we go! It's hard to believe that after all these months of preparation, the school has finally started. It's been a lot of prayer, communication and organisation, but now it's been translated into people. People who are here to learn, to grow, and to find more of God. Honestly, I'm loving it! I'm finding that my role is, above all else, relationship. And i'm good at relationship! Yes there's forms and yes there's structure and yes there's planning; but when it all boils down, it's about investing in people's lives. It's about giving input and guidance, giving time and care, and trusting the Holy Spirit to bring the change that only He can. I'm seeing these guys with God's eyes, and I really want to see them grow and attain what they came for. it's not a job, it's a life, and I love the life I live. We've got almost three more months still to go in Perth, and after that another three months somewhere in the world! I just can't wait to see what God is going to do. Next week we have teaching on the Nature and Character of God, and still to come are topics like Repentance and Forgiveness, Missions, Lordship and Relationships. He's already been moving in people's hearts during the first week, and I have no doubt He is going to bring incredible healing and revelation over the weeks to come. It's so exciting to be a part of! Lately God has been speaking to me about trusting Him in my leadership- not letting the pressure get to me and cause me to make hurried or rash decisions, but taking time to get His perspective and answers. And trusting in His ability to do what I can't! It's a bit hard sometimes, but I know that I want God's results in the end, and I'll never achieve that in my own strength. So it's a good challenge, and I feel like I'm already seeing the fruit from letting Him take the lead! Students Here's the latest batch! We have twenty-one students from the USA, Canada, the UK, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Indonesia, and they make for a quality bunch. Yesterday we went to the beach for a BBQ, but got rained out and ended up soaked and shivering on the bus! But it was fun, we've had some great bonding times already and I'm looking forward to more! Last week we had Trisha speaking on Hearing God's Voice, and it was a really great start to the school. These guys have come here to learn, they're hungry for more of God, and it's an awesome privilege to lead them into that. Finances I want to testify to God's faithfulness- my staff debt is gone! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to it, I feel a huge freedom to be out from under the weight of debt. In case you don't remember, at the beginning of last year I had no regular support, and several thousand dollars of debt. Now I'm debt free, and have enough pledged support to cover basic expenses each month! It's been quite the turnaround, and it's so exciting to be able to say that the last of the debt is gone. God has been good to me, and I'm so grateful for the support I've received from you. God bless you!

Getting ready

Seven weeks. It's a bit hard not to freak out when I think about it- in seven short weeks the October Sports DTS will be fully underway, and I'll be at the helm!

I keep oscillating between being incredibly excited and completely overwhelmed, but I think that's probably a healthy place to be. The school is really taking shape, with eleven students accepted and another ten partway through their applications. Jason and I felt like God was telling us to trust him for around 25 students, so we're well on our way to that, and there's still time for more! I was told that because Sports DTSs attract boys, there tend to be some last minute applications :).

These days, my time is being shared between preparing for the DTS and continuing to look after the base's vehicles. People have commented on how funny it is to see me at a computer, when they're used to seeing me in work clothes, covered in dirt! But that's part of what I'm getting used to: corresponding with students and others who have expressed interest; emails and phone calls; praying over applications; inviting speakers; advertising the DTS; praying, praying, praying... it's new territory for me, but I'm loving it. Administration isn't my strongest suit, but I'm learning, and it's not as bad as I had feared. But what really fuels me is the relationships- talking back and forth with people who just want to give God room to move in their lives, and who are expecting Him to do just that during the school. That's exciting! I can hardly wait for it to all come together and go off.

In the midst of the preparation, God has been speaking to me about leadership. This is the most significant leadership role I've been in, and I'm definitely feeling the weight of responsibility. God's been reminding me that leadership equates to service- not in cliche, in fact- that this role means that I am giving up my time, my energy, my life, to serve and benefit the ones He's putting under my authority. It's sobering, but the truth is that He's worthy of that kind of sacrifice- without Him I probably wouldn't give a fig for these people who I've never met, but because He is worthy, I'll pour myself out for the ones He asks me to lead. Doesn't necessarily sound encouraging, but it is! I'm excited at how He's prepared me for this over the last few years, and I'm looking forward to seeing how He'll use this opportunity to go further and deeper than He has before.

Prayer points- there are a few!

• That I would allow God to make the most of the seven weeks we still have before the school! That He would prepare me to be able to lead and model to His highest standard.
• For health. I've been under the weather for a while now, and I really want to shake it before the school starts, and especially to stay healthy during that six months.
• For more students. Honestly, we'll take as many as want to join! We want to see people raised up to live fully for God, and serve Him in whatever capacity He'd ask, and we want as many as possible!
• For school staff- at the moment it's just me and Jason. Ideally we'd have one staff for every five students, so at this point it looks like three more staff would be prime. Female staff would be great, because about half of the students are girls
• For someone to take over vehicles from me- one way or another, I'm going to have to leave it by October, but at the moment there's no one lined up for me to pass it on to. We need our vehicles, and they'll fail very quickly without someone taking care of them.
• For my finances. As of very recently, I have enough regular pledged support to cover my monthly staff fees. That's a massive praise report! It's the first time since I joined staff that I've been able to say that- four years! But I'm still paying off accumulated staff fees from the last couple of years, and I will need around $5000 after that for outreach. Please note that this is not me being sneaky about asking for money- I really desire your prayer.

That's about it for now- it's probably plenty. Thank you so much for your support and prayer! I've been realising even more lately that I'm not a lone ranger- the effectiveness of what I do here is so dependent on people all over the world getting behind me with their prayers and encouragement. Thank you!

Playing Catch-up!

So after a six month gap in communications, you'd be forgiven for wondering if the move and the build consumed me, and we never made it to the new base. Well, I'm pleased to tell you that that's not the case! We moved out, we built our new home, and we moved in- maybe not as easily as that makes it sounds, but we got there in the end. And here's the end result!

Although we left our old base in December, we didn't get into the new one until early February. In the meantime, we kept busy with building the new place. I loved it! It was so good, getting to build things. Our base leader pointed out that everything I've worked on is a wall! Dry-walling, welding stair rails, putting up fences, and last but oh-so-certainly not least, the dining room's timber feature wall. That last one kept me going well past February, but I finally slew the giant and after three and a half months of blood sweat and yes, tears, it is complete. Here's a look at it! 

Although it has been a long time coming, it's wonderful to finally be able to rest in the amazing base that God has provided for us. It's an incredible facility that practically suits our needs in a way that the old base never could, and the fact that it's so beautiful as well is just testament to God's goodness to us.

I've learned a lot through the whole experience- about who I am and how I work, what my strengths are, as well as bucket loads about perseverance, prayerfulness and spiritual warfare. It's been a battle at times but it's borne fruit, and I can stand on what I've learned and look forward to what's ahead. Which is...

DTS! I'm excited to say that I, along with another guy, will be leading the October Sports DTS. To clarify, what I've done in the past is staffed DTS, working in a support role to the leader. Now I'll be leading the school- a big step up in responsibility and leadership, but God has been speaking a lot about moving further into what He is calling me into, and leading DTS is a big step along that path! We're already preparing for the school; getting adverts out to get people interested, inviting speakers, relating with prospective students and, of course, praying. We have three students accepted already, and are hoping for many more. It's hard to sum up what my role will look like, but in addition to the prep work, my responsibility during the school revolves around the students- mentoring, teaching, giving direction and prayer- essentially discipling them towards breakthrough in their own relationship with God, to the point where they can do the same within their circle of influence.

So there's where I've been, and where I'm going! I'm really excited about it all, a little nervous at the same time, but looking forward to all that God is going to do and all that's going to happen.