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| Marissa and I. Marissa is my roomie and she is from Canada |
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| Hannah and I. |
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| Team Cambodia!! |
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| Jason, Hannah and I. Jason is from Canada. |
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| Jess and I. Jess is from England |
Hello friends and family! I know it has been awhile but
things have been just so crazy here and it has been quite a bit since I have
had the opportunity to just sit and update everyone. I want to tell you guys about something that I had an opportunity to participate in. So about two weeks ago we participated in
this tour called, "The Pass It On Tour", for a little over a week. The tour was started by the YWAM group in
Brisbane, Australia. The object is to pass the word of God through Australia,
Europe, and the US by physically running with a baton over 17,000 km from town
to town; the baton represents the word of God. Each team would then stop in a
town and hang out there for a week and just simply love on the community
members like Christ did. So it started in Brisbane and they will be traveling
four different paths all through Australia. Different YWAM groups will join the
tour on different weeks and kind of host for the week. So our group joined up
with one other group and we travelled about five hours to a town called
Kingaroy! It is an amazing little town and the people there are so loving and so
passionate for God; it is crazy. I loved it! But I will back up and take you to
the first days. So we got in the car and drove to a town called Chinchilla
where we stayed the night in tents at a little ranch. They had two tents, one
for the guys and one for the girls. Our night was interesting to say the least.
We had 9 girls packed in one tent and my roomie and I forgot our bedding at the
house so we had nothing to sleep with. My AMAZING friend Hannah so graciously
shared her blanket and pillow with me but it was still a bit cold and I hardly
slept at all that night. But with the night behind us we got up on Sunday
morning to go talk to different churches about what had happened with the tour
during the past week in their town. We did this so that they could be informed
and encouraged about what God was doing there. After church we drove to a town
called Oakey and there we stayed the night at another church. In the morning we
got up to start running our 67 kilometers to Kingaroy. It was a hot day but it
was very cool to say that I ran through a bit of what looked like the “outback”.
The locals would laugh at the fact that we call it the outback but if I see a
dead kangaroo on the side of the road then I consider it the “outback”. In each
town they set up a huge white tent where we host kids days and evening services
all throughout the week. On Friday nights they have a YWAM group from Island
Breeze and they put on a show that entails tribal dancing and fire throwing. We
also went out and helped an elderly widow lay mulch and spent time at a food
shelter. It was amazing to just get up and die to yourself and dedicate your
whole day to simply loving others! We should be doing this everyday, even
though it can be very difficult. I think as Christians we have so much love for
God and are so passionate about Him that we can’t help but tell others all about
him. I loved being able to love these people with all of my heart regardless of
what they believed or their social status. We as God’s children are called to
love EVERYONE! We loose sight of that when we give ourselves agendas about how
many people we are going to talk to about God that day. But in doing that we
can sometimes come off as if we are forcing it down peoples throats. I personally
really struggle with this because I am always super self-conscious that I am
forcing my beliefs on people and I know how easily people can be offended and I
definitely never want to do that. God is a loving God and is a gentleman and he
would never force himself at you, He has given you the free will to follow him.
IT IS AWESOME, but he will not force it upon you. People will see God through
us when we love like Christ loved! God opened the eyes of many youth to His
love for them throughout the week and many lives were changed. We left Kingaroy
knowing that God’s hand was upon that town and that He would continue to give
them a fresh revelation of His never-ending love. Our whole team was very happy
to be home and sleeping in our own beds. God is truly amazing and is constantly
reminding me that there are people out in this world that He wants to reveal
himself to. He is waiting for one of His children to stand up and say they will
go to these people and tell them about His amazing love for them and how He
desires so much to enter into a loving relationship with them. I have told the
Lord that I will do that. I will give up my hands and feet to Him. I will give
up my future to Him. I will go wherever he wants me to go and I will not fear
for I know that, “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians
4:13 I live by this word from God, “But whatever was to my profit I now
consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a
loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain
Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes
from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that
comes from God and is by faith.” Philippians 3:7-9 With that I leave you until
next time! I love you all more than you know and I continue to pray for you.
Please leave comments, I love to hear from you.
In His Name,
Autumn
In His Name,
Autumn
