The 2nd half of the road trip!!

     We left the YWAM base in Airlie Beach early monday morning. We drove about six hours south west to a large ranch near the town of Springsure. The ranch owner Scott raised cattle for beef and also broke in and trained horses for rounding up cattle and such. We camped in four large tents in the yard at the ranch. Scott gave us a couple lectures of how God often works in our lives, while he was breaking in some horses, and showed us some similarities between the two. We took some time to rest, and also toured around the ranch.
    After three days, we packed up and drove into the town of Emerald. We split up into our four outreach groups, and visited some schools and led some religion classes. We also visited some churches, and led a small group meeting. There was a strong spirit of apathy/not caring/laziness on the town. We all felt it almost as soon as we came into the town. We ended up going on quite a few prayer walks, taking authority over Satan ect. During one of the prayer walks, one of the teams felt God telling them to do some worship in the park. So, they rounded up a guitar and a jambe, walked to a local park and started worshipping. After a while, a man drove up and used the bathroom in the park. When he walked out, he stopped and listened for a while. Eventually he approached them, and after talking for a few minutes, they found out he was also a Christian. He had hurt his back quite badly a few days before, and couldn't stand up straight and had trouble walking. He told them that he believe God wanted to heal him. So, the outreach group all laid their hands on his shoulders and started praying for healing. Part way through the prayer he was able to stand up straight, and at the end, he was able to run around and jump without any pain!
     I think its a pretty amazing example of how God uses us when we listen to Him. It was definitely out of everyone's comfort zone to go and sing worship songs in the middle of a park. But, they knew God was telling them to, so they did. And then, because they listened, they got to pray for a man and see God heal him! The other option would have been to not listen, and they would have never ended up in that situation and would not have seen God heal that man. Pretty amazing how God uses us when we obey!
     After about a week of outreach in Emerald, we packed up and heading to the Carnarvon Gorge state park. It was a massive Gorge, several hundred feet wide, and at least two hundred feet high on both sides. We saw dozens and dozens of kangaroos, and were even able to get close to some. We had lectures on worship while we were there, and also spent quite a bit of time together as outreach groups preparing for the outreach opportunities we were to have in the next town, as well as beginning to prep for our major outreach to India. We also spent most of our spare time hiking through the Gorge.
    We stayed at the gorge for 3 nights, and on the fourth day packed up and heading to the town of Roma, where we stayed in a church. Roma for the majority is a mining town with a population of about eight thousand. We pulled in on thursday, and for the next two days we visited schools and led religion classes, as well as helped out at their track and field day. On sunday our outreach group, Team India, led a service at a local church. We gave a couple testimonies, as well as the sermon. God led each of us in what to say, and it was amazing to see how everything everyone said all came together very well and focussed on the same point. Definitely led by God! We did some more children's ministries over the next couple days, and wednesday morning we packed up and headed back into Brisbane!
     Over the road trip, God did a lot of amazing things. We all grew a lot in our faith, and were stretched out of our comfort zones, where God was able to use us more effectively. We got to see a man give his life to God, see God heal several people, witness to many adults, teens and children, and learn to hear God better. And of course, we're all glad to be sleeping in beds back on base again!

On the Road!

I'm in the middle of a 3 and a half week roadtrip :)   

We left the Brisbane base at 4 am last saturday morning, and drove on up this way. We made a couple quick stops along the way, and arrived here at the Whitsunday YWAM base around 9 pm. Its pretty nice up here. We're about a 4 minutes drive from downtown Airlie Beach, and thats where the Whitsunday Islands and all that good stuff is. The base is a big rental house tucked away in the trees. Its actually technically rainforest. There's huge hills on all sides. We've seen lotsa snakes, lizards, spiders and even one frog.

  I got a nasty boil on my shoulder that was quite painful. I couldn't sleep on that side, and if anything touched it it really hurt, and my shoulder use was limited. So I went to the doctor, and they cut the hole in it bigger, pushed everything out that they could, and then packed in with gauze to stop it from closing up. Then I went back the next day, and they pulled out the gauze and squeezed it out again. Then they put jell in the hole so keep it from closing up for another day, and now its pretty much healed up.   They also gave me antibiotics, and pain killers. At first after they cut it open, it hurt almost as much as when I tore the rotator cuff in my shoulder.

     On tuesday, we went into town and did a prayer walk, and then thursday night we went into town to evangelize and invite people out the next day to the bbq we were having at the beach. Friday we had the bbq down at the beach, and we were able to talk to quite a few people. One guy who was talked to even came to Christ!! And, he's coming out to the church here on sunday! 

     During the week, we had lectures on the Holy Spirit, and learned about spiritual gifts. The guy who was teaching was a missionary, and had seen all kinds of miracles happen. People getting healed, prophecies, words of knowledge from God, God getting them out of intense situations, God directing them, and other miraculous signs, and speaking in tongues ect.  Also, during prayer times I prayed for a few different people, and God gave me pictures and words for them. Neither time did they make any sense to me, but I just told them anyways, and it ended up that what God gave me, really applied to the people and the situations they were going through. 

     Next we're doing some outreach next week in Emerald beach. We split into four groups for our outreaches, and when our group got together, God led us to do a high school outreach. Then God led certain people to speak, and it was really cool. Everything we got from God was confirmed by at least two people in our group. Tomorrow morning we're back on the road, heading down the coast to the town of Emerald where we will be doing the outreach.