I have a pretty amazing job...

I have a pretty amazing job. I have to admit to complaining all too often. "I don't have time to do what I want/need to do." "I get no time to myself." "I'm exhausted." "I'm so drained in every way." "I'm tired of living in community." But really, what I do is incredible. I am so blessed! I get to spend three intentional months smack-dab in the middle of the discipleship process in 5 incredible students' lives! I get to walk with young people, watch them grow, learn from them as they ask questions, see the lights go on in their head when they get something or watch the transformation happen in their lives when God drops something deep into their heart. So today I don't want to complain, but celebrate what I do and share it with you and thank you for being a part of it and helping me do this. It's amazing.

Anyway... I can’t believe January is already over! In Australia, it’s the middle of summer. Kids are going back to school starting their new year from summer holidays, but it’s still as hot and humid as ever! We are already on Week 4 of the DTS, and it is going great. So far, the students have explored the topics of Hearing God’s Voice and the Character and Nature of God, and this week in the classroom we are discussing the subject of Worldview. We are looking at questions like “What is a worldview?” and if ideas have consequences, then what are the implications of a Biblical worldview.

Outside of class, the students are really bonding with each other and with us as a staff. Because it’s such a small group of students, they have been able to go really deep with one another which is amazing to watch. God has been speaking to them a lot as a school about relationship, so it’s cool to see them put that into practice. On the weekends, we’ve gotten the chance to do some fun activities together as a school. A couple weeks back, we all took the train to Wollongong together, and last weekend we had a barbecue at a family’s house who are on staff at the base. Here are a few glimpses from these times:

DTS 2012. Here we are. What a good looking group of people. We're even surprisingly color-cordinated in this pic! Ha.

On top of an old war cannon during our Wollongong city tour day together.

Me with the two girl students: Nicola (from Canada) and Anna (from Austria/ Switzerland)

With one of my fellow DTS staff, Emily, and some pretty epic banana splits. YUM!

January DTS

Well, looks like I'm back to Australia and back to blogging! Life is in full swing around here. We just started our January DTS a little over a week ago, and it's going really well. We have 5 students... a guy from California (21), a guy from California (21), a girl from Canada (19), a girl from Switzerland (16), and a guy from Australia (21). They are such a fun group and all so open and hungry for God. It's been an incredible start to the school. This week we have a guy here speaking on Hearing God's Voice. Many of the students are newer believers and still young in their faith, so they are so hungry for God- to hear Him, to know Him, and to make Him known. I'm so excited to be staffing this school and walking this journey closely with these students. It's such an amazing opportunity to be able to have such a short window (3 months) to be able to speak into these students lives. I'm so thankful that God would trust me to steward this time with these students. It's quite humbling, and I know I'm going to grow heaps in this season as well. Exciting stuff. More to come soon.

Sausage Sizzle

Our team is still going! This past Monday we had our first of 2 or 3 "sausage sizzles." One of the local grocery stores, Woolworth's let us set up outside, giving us a grill to use and everything! Sausage sandwiches, as they call them, are definitely an Aussie cultural thing. I had NO idea that they would be so popular!! But those Aussies definitely love their sausages! I would call it a success! :) Enjoy some pictures of our day!

Laura, Jenn, and Sam sizzling up some sausages on the barbie! Haha.

My art skills coming in handy... wouldn't you want to buy a sausage if you saw this sign?? :)

mmmm... sausages! haha. I promise, they like them!

"Hey yall, come to our sausage sizzle!"

Fundraisers galore!

My team has been going, going, going putting on fundraisers galore! After the event night, we had a massive bake sale at our church, complete with homemade Swiss bread, orange almond cake, lemon coconut squares, brownies, fudge, and apple pies! We definitely went all out for this bake sale, but it was worth it. We made quite the profit and are that much closer to sending our team to central Asia!

Check out our mad skills!!! Quite the spread... :)

Bryan baked the apple pies... they sold so quickly!

Eliane and the special bread she made from Switzerland, called Zupfe. :)

I made lemon coconut bars and others in my team made fudge and brownies. Yum!

Event Night Update...

Dear family and friends,

Thank you all so much for praying for the event night we had last Thursday for our upcoming outreach in Central Asia. I saw God do amazing things through this evening. I am in awe of His faithfulness and provision in it all.

I’m amazed at everything that had to come together in order to pull this thing off and make it such a success. I’m also humbled in thinking that God used my team of 8 young people- who had never done anything like this in our lives- to mobilize the body of Christ here in Australia into responding to His invitation to join His work in the world.

It’s really incredible when I think about it. God has been speaking this entire 12 plus weeks of SOSM to us about “team” - working together in interdependence. This has not only moved from head knowledge to heart revelation for us, but it has moved to application and behavior. This night would not have been possible without the transformation God did in each of us to be able to work so well together in a team. We needed every person to pull it off. Some made videos and powerpoint and visuals. Some transformed a plain gym into an incredible atmosphere with wall murals with maps and stats and quotes and floor lamps for lighting and more. Some slaved in the kitchen to cook up traditional Tajik food (cooking for over 100!) Some worked hard on their speaking parts for the presentation we did on God’s work in the world and in central Asia and His invitation to join Him. It was truly a grand production.

The result? We worked hard and achieved each element with excellence, but it would all be in vain if God’s spirit didn’t move the way it did. We prayed so much, surrendering ourselves before God and trusting that we could do nothing on our own without Him. But He was so faithful to meet us. People were inspired by God’s call to go. Their eyes were opened to God’s work in a part of the world mostly ignored. Perhaps people of the Australian church are now praying for the first time for a country off the radar of most of the Western world. That amazes me. There are people interested in giving their lives more to missions. There are people inviting us to speak at churches and Bible studies to share more of our vision and our passion for the gospel to reach the least reached peoples of the world- that all may hear of God’s love. We even received over $1,800 just from donations that evening. God truly is providing for the needs of my team and is proving His faithfulness time and time again. I know there are deep-reaching seeds that the Spirit of God planted in the hearts of those present Thursday night. He truly inspired and motivated the people there.

Thank you so much for praying for this and being a part of what God did. I believe this night was a part of a greater story God has been writing to awaken the church in Australia into His heart for all the nations. You are a part of that. God’s Spirit is moving here. I believe He has asked me to come here and be a part of it for such a time as this. Thanks for coming with me through prayer and your partnership. I couldn’t do it alone.

For His Glory,

Christy

Enjoy some photos from the night...

Three of the girls on my team and I before the event night began- Kiki, Laura, and Jenn

my friend and team leader Bryan sharing our SOSM vision

one of our guests seeing where we are going on the massive wall

map that Eliane and I made together

My friend and I cooked a "taste" of central Asia for 100!

This is rice plov (rice pilaf), a very traditional central Asian dish! :)

Cooking Turkish

Ever since we moved to Port Kembla, I've gotten to know the owners of some of the local shops on our street. Our street is kind of abandoned, but still buzzing with activity during the day with that small town kind of feel. One local shop that I visit frequently is Port Kembla fruit and vegetable market. It is a family-owned business owned by a family originally from Turkey. Once, the dad invited my friend Britani and I upstairs above the shop to try the food he was cooking. We went up with the mom, the dad, and little five year-old boy and ate the most amazing meal. Afterwards, he invited us to come back and to learn to cook a Turkish meal!

Last Saturday, we took him up on the offer. 4 other girls and I showed up, and he graciously bought ingredients while we hung out with his son and his cute cat, Henry. :) We learned to cook an incredible Turkish stir fry and these sort of fritter things with chicken mince, potato, onion, and egg. While we cooked, the grandfather told us some unreal stories of growing up in Cypress. It was a wonderful time enjoying the hospitality of this family above their shop. Then of course we got to try it, and it was AMAZING! Now I'm going to have to try out my Turkish cooking skills. Here are some photos we took...

This is me mashing this stuff with my hands.

Watching carefully... how many eggs are you putting in that??

Enjoying after cooking... the best part!

Turkish stir fry!

My roommate, Jenn, and I

trip to the city

Well, it's been a busy 12 weeks of studying in the School of Strategic Missions training program I have been doing. It will be another busy month this month preparing for our outreach in Central Asia, but first.... a nice 2 day break (addition to the weekend) to catch my breath! I spent the day in Sydney, by myself, just exploring the city. Such a refreshing way to rest for me! I thought I'd include some pictures of my day to show you what I did...

First I went to a massive Bookstore- Dymocks- where I bought a fiction book to read. I picked one out that seemed to be pretty popular and recommended. It's called "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett and is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960's. A good read so far!

With book in hand, I set out to find some lunch... walked by this guy selling flowers and pretty buildings so took a picture....

Guzman and Gomez= yum! Burrito stand in Sydney. If I was in Sydney, you better believe I'd be hitting up the Mexican because you can't really find it anywhere else. :)

Then I went to eat my lunch in Hyde Park... sat in front of this fountain by Saint Mary's Cathedral. I even wandered in to the cathedral at one point... beautiful.

Hyde Park is beautiful... Walking around here reminded me of walking to class through Retiro Gardens in Madrid, Spain.

This little guy was stalking me waiting for some lunch. I wonder what kind of bird he is?

I actually resisted the temptation to get Starbucks! But I had to take a picture anyway because it's just that familiar "homey" place... part of the Sydney experience.

That's all... just wanted to share my day. Definitely feeling refreshed and looking forward to gearing up for more excitement in this next month. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement!

love, christy