His name is John Lewis, and he just arrived on staff. It all seems normal, until you find out that he's Welsh, and was born only a few hours' drive away from me. In the same year. On the same day. We now share a room, and to top it all off now we've started saying the same things at the same time! It's a bit freaky.
Actually we've had a few changes to our house lately. Two new staff have joined, one came back from outreach and two left on outreaches. It's fun having new guys, we have a really great house dynamic at the moment. For a long time I was quite detached from my house, sleeping here but not much more than that, and not interacting much with my housemates. I think it was the same way for a lot of other guys as well. But we've really changed that this year, and have deliberately cultivated unity. We meet and pray together regularly, and even organise house events, which are awesome! It makes all the difference, and I feel a lot more at home in my house than I ever have.
I think that all ties back in to how God was challenging me in my hospitality. Creating that kind of unity where we live really opens up opportunities to invite other people in and make them feel welcome. It's a good knock on effect.
One of the high points of last months has to be the high school weekend camp I staffed. There's a Christian high school on the outskirts of Perth that often calls in YWAMers to help out with their camps, and this year I was asked to help out along with a couple of other guys. It was an all-boys camp, and we went to join in with the activities and lead some devotional times for the boys, one time each. To be honest, the three of us didn't really know what we were doing or what was expected of us, so we just went with the flow and asked God to show us what to do for the devotions. On the first day, my new housemate Jason shared his testimony, which was really powerful. I think the kids might have seen us as 'special case Christians' at first, as though there was something about us that allowed us to know and follow God in a way that they never could, but that really got broken down as Jason shared his far-from-perfect history of finding God.
We had intended to spend that night's session going into the gospel, because the teachers told us that a lot of the boys had fairly nominal faiths, but that didn't work out. We got back from our activity really late, so we decided just to have a short time of worship and then go to bed. We were really tired. But as we got into worship, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me about how He wanted the boys to experience His manifest presence and power. Long story short, what was meant to be a 15 minute session turned into an hour and a half of these boys meeting the Holy Spirit, receiving the Father's love, praying and being prayed for, and experiencing God in a whole new way. Even after we officially finished, we were talking to and praying for the kids for hours. One of them said to me that for his whole life he'd thought that he knew God's love, but that night he experienced it in a way he had never known he could.
The next day I shared with them about what God had created them for, and went into detail about the meaning of the gospel, and how it shows God's deep desire to be close to us. The night before showed them just how true that was, and eight or so boys recommitted their lives to God before going home. Isn't God good?! The head teacher told us that in seven years of doing those camps, he'd never seen kids go that deep in experiencing God. And my favourite part of all this is that the glory can only go to God! We were clueless and ready for bed, but God used us to introduce these boys to Him in a way they will not soon forget. Hallelujah!
One last exciting thing before I finish- Claire is back in Perth! She spent the last three months working with Megacities in Mexico city, and then home in the US for holidays. I have to say, I prefer her being on this side of the world, so it's really good having her back!
Thanks for your prayers, God bless!
