Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 9/10/2011
My brother in Christ, Ben and I had quite an experience the other day
here in Swaziland, a very small country located in the north of South
Africa. It is an extremely beautiful country. Rolling hills and high
mountains. It is very desert-like as well which is something I'm not
used to. Very dry and hot during the day, very cool and windy at night.
It is nice to get that relief at night from the sizzling daily heat.
Anyway, the other day Ben and I were riding bikes down the long dirt
road in front of where we are staying. I saw this child, about eleven
who was carrying a live chicken back to his home I'm assuming to eat. It
did look tasty haha just kidding...but serious. As he was running
alongside my bike as the kids often like to do, I noticed his eyes were
quite crooked. God gave me much compassion for Ugu. (I call him that
because I cannot pronounce his name or have any idea how to spell it.
Darn my American tongue! Haha)
I had asked him how far his home was and he just kind of pointed up
the road. So I felt like we should give a ride home. I asked Ben to
accompany me and of course he did. Instead of me biking all the way with
Ugu on the back of my bike with a chicken (I was afraid that it would
bite me, but the chicken was pretty chill), after about five minutes I
asked Ben if we could start switching off cause I am highly out of
shape. He of course said "yes", and we moved on.
We switched off for a while and continued up the long, dusty road.
The bike chain kept popping off, Ugu was riding on the back with a live
chicken, and we had no idea how far up the road Ugu lived. It was
already a quite comical situation. Well, then Ugu wanted to drive one of
the bikes by himself, Ben let him of course. So now, Ugu was driving a
bike with Ben holding it up and a live chicken in his hand.
Ben always has a deeper perspective than I do on some things and he
made the comment that it probably was the first time that Ugu had ridden
a bike. Judging by how Ugu was handling the bike, or not handling the
bike made me believe that that assumption was correct. It made me so
joyous to be there and I was ecstatic that God had put us there in that
moment to give that boy a chance to do something for the first time. I
am going to be honest I was starting to get tired at that point because
it was getting dark and we had no idea how much farther we had to go.
We had stopped to put the chain back on the bike and were ready to go.
Then, Ugu motioned to me to hold the chicken so he could have a better
grip on the handle bars. He held it out for me to take. I declined
because I was afraid it would bite me (I was a coward). Oh, how I wish I
had grabbed the chicken. It would have avoided the next event. As Ugu
started to grab the handlebars, the chicken began to flip out and
dropped to the road! Oh no! Of course as a survival instinct, the
chicken ran to an area on the side of the road that was bigot guarded by
enormous thorns. (most pastures around Swaziland are guarded by a wall
of thorns and then a barbed wire fence). That was the case here as the
fence made a second strong hold to protect the pasture. Let me first
explain these thorns as well. These thorns aren't weak sauce Florida and
Georgia thorns. These are inches long and are comparable to wooden
nails. They latch onto your legs and leave small gashes. They go through
your shoes and puncture the bottom of your feet. Like we are talking
monster thorns!
So as this chicken is chilling in all theses thorns and I am not
chilling trying to get close enough to it to grab it. I wass getting
poked left and right, top and bottom by thorns. I was trying to move
quickly so it wouldnt break the threshold of the barbed wire. Well, as I
went to grab the chicken, it almost waltzed just out of reach and under
the fence. I think I heard it chuckle a bit and possibly throw up a
middle feather at me.
I came back out of the thorns (some came out with me) defeated and in
a little but of a panic. The thoughts were crossing through my mind
that this was Ugu and his family's dinner and Ugu had walked probably a
good couple of miles to get it and what would happen if he returned
without one. If only i had taken it in the first place. Only on the
world race would you say to your friend in a panic: "We have to catch
this kids chicken!"
Ben had been scheming up a plan of how to get it back and ran to the
left of the fence to see if there was a better route into the pasture. I
ran around to the right and down a side street to see if there was a
gate. There was not and the thorns were even higher on that side. I
heard the little footsteps of Ugu follow around the corner and I started
to run back to where I was trying to catch the chicken. It was the only
feasible entrance. I told Ugu to take care of the bikes and put a hand
on his shoulder and reassured him that we would get it back. He did not
understand the words but heard the sincerity of my voice and understood
the gesture. He nodded and grabbed a bike.
I tried to enter the treacherous thorns again as they punctured my
feet, arms, and legs. I tried to get to the fence but I had to give up
because of the pain. Just then Ben ran back to me and said there was a
guy already in the pasture who was moving towards the chicken. Almost
simultaneously a man braved the thorns next to me and the barbed wire
fence. Out of the goodness of the two mens' hearts, they cornered the
chicken and snatched it up as I watched from afar. The man handed the
chicken to Ben and he held it for the rest of the time while we moved on
up the road. We helped Ugu ride the bike for a while longer and decided
to break from him because we had to get back due to darkness and the
reality was that we were probably slowing Ugu down.
We didn't break without praying for him, though! We prayed for his
eyes, safety, and that he would walk in the great light of the Lord. It
was funny he really didn't understand anything we said but "can we pray
for you?" he exclaimed "yes!" i thought that was God's hand was coming
upon us in that moment. Ugu then proceeded to walk up the road with his
chicken safely in his grip while we watched to make sure he turned the
corner safely. Ben and I, then began to ride back to our residence
exploding in laughter here and there looking back on the ridiculous
event that had happened.
I gave me two realizations thinking back on the events. Even though
we probably slowed Ugu down and gave him more problems than he would
have had just walking, God gave him an experience through us that he
will never forget and may have never had. I imagined him getting home
and recalling the story to his parents and sibilings and them jus being
like "what?" haha I also know in my heart that God was with him and got
him home safe. I made me full of joy being a part of that.
The bigger realization I had was one that broke my heart:
" Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2And the soldiers
twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed
him in a purple robe. 3They came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the
Jews!" and struck him with their hands."
John 19:1-3 (ESV)
I realized the little pain I was in and was so weak. Jesus, our
Savior, had those same huge thorns slammed onto his head, was mocked,
flogged, beaten, and then crucified. He did it willingly for us. For
each and every one of us even though we are so underserving. My feet
were in probably one one-hundreth of a percent of the pain that Jesus
withstood WILLINGLY. that word willingly just keeps popping into my
brain because it is the ultimate testament of God's love for us. I
really don't have the words to describe how I felt in that moment and
still feel about it. He bore it all for us, undeserving sinners. I thank
God for the life that He has given all of us! I thank Him for His love!
I thank Him for His mercy! I thank Him for His grace! He is a God of
wonders! Oh how wonderful He is! I pray that I always remember that day
and the realization that God brought me. How weak we are and how strong
He is! His love is everlasting!!!
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 8/27/2011
Here is a video of our month in Mozambique (unfortunately we couldnt take photos in the prison)
Mozambeeker Features Presents:
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 8/27/2011
Joy. Peace. Loud clapping and singing songs of loudest praise to our
Lord and savior. You would think those beautiful voices would be coming
from a church. Actually those songs of praise came bellowing out of the
cafeteria at the Boane Juvenile Detention Center. It was an absolutely
incredible scene to walk into! The squeal of the bared door to the
cafeteria was unnoticeable as the smiling faces of the young men
rejoiced in the Lord. It was extremely powerful! My eyes became teary
and almost broke down in front of the whole group, but held back.
This was our third visit to the Detention center. Our first visit was
the second day we were here in Mozambique. The first day we went was an
incredible experience. The spirit was moving as we stood in front of all
the inmates. God burdened my heart for them and It was a blessing to
share my testimony with them. I felt I could really relate to some of
the young men in there. By their nods as I spoke I knew that was true.
After our team shared a couple of testimonies , one of the pastor that
came with shared a message and had them roaring with laughter. It was
great!
Our second visit was my highlight! God was present and it was obvious!
As we arrived in the cafeteria, I was the last one of our group to walk
down the side aisle next to the tables full of the young men. One of
them stopped me and "excuse me, I have a paper for you". ( of course it
was extremely broken English but that is what I gathered he had said
after the event) I had no idea what that meant so I called a translator
over to see what he meant. The young man looked kind of scared and I was
upset cause I thought he might be in trouble. I did not want to get
anybody in trouble at all! But it seemed to be ok as the translator ran
over to Flavio, an awesome dude who goes into that jail every week and
seems to me kinda runs the show in there. I gave the young man an almost
apologetic look and shook his hand to move to the front. I went over to
Flavio as well who was holding a stack of letters! He and the
translator were ecstatic reading through all of them.
The letters consisted of the inmates expressing their joy in us coming
in there and asking for prayer and help and counseling on certain
issues. I looked at Flavio who was grinning from ear to ear and I could
tell that it was a big break through.
After two of our teammates shared their testimony I began to preach a
sermon on redemption and Paul's life was a main point. The Holy spirit
was there and flowing through me.
I just felt great after I preach the sermon, I felt like God had touched
someone through me. When is was finished preaching Ben hot up and asked
if anyone wanted prayer. Hands shot up all over the room! Many of them
wanted to feel God and it was three of them that wanted to give their
lives over to Christ. One was Albim who I prayed over and it was an
exhilirating and beautiful moment! I had never prayed with someone
giving their life to Christ. It was extremely powerful. Albim was lost
and is now found. He was dead and is now alive for eternity!!! He was
crying when we finished praying because the Holy spirit was now living
in him!! Yeeeeeaaaaa siiiiccccckkk!!!
Our main purpose of going there the third time was to minister to
some of the inmates one-on-one, but my team leader Ben, shared a word as
did a pastor from Assemblies of God that came along with our group.
I scanned all of the young men in the cafeteria, about 60, during
Ben's message and they were all listening intently to his choice in
following God and how God has a purpose for all of us. Then the pastor
got up and preached a great sermon. It was very intense. Then we went
into an extremely long and powerful prayer session. I was quite
distracted at first, then all of sudden found myself at such peace and
basking in the presence of God. I felt something on my face. Oh, there
were the tears I had tried so hard to hold back at the beginning of the
service. God's presence was so tangible in those moments.
I also had the pleasure of talking with one of the inmates, Nelson and
my heart really went out to him. His family had no idea where he was
and his very good friend in the prison had passed away due to
tuberculosis. Nelson had taken care of his friend till the very end.
Bathing him, getting him food and water, and basically showing him love
till be passed. Nelson shared with me that he was very sad and upset
about it. I shared some encouraging words with him from the bible and
from God. One of the men who goes in to the jail to evangelize was able
to contact his family as well and they are organizing a visit. It was
great news to Nelson and he was very excited for it.
In Nelson, I see just a young man who is a great person, but just
messed up. That's what I see in all the young men there. They aren't
malicious at all, but there is a thirst for truth and light and that was
our purpose in going into this place. God used us to convey is
redemption and forgiveness and and the young men responded very
positively. It was an incredible experience and words cannot really
describe how it felt to be there and how it felt to see these young men
leave death and deception and glide into life and truth through our Lord
Jesus Christ. I really wish I could convey what happened in there. They
are awesome people, they aren't untouchables as we sometimes view them.
Like I said they are normal people like you and I who happened to mess
up. My prayers are with them and my heart really does go out to them. It
was one of the highlights of the whole race and I believe God put me
there for a bigger reason than I originally thought. I am blessed and
honored to be living on His will.
In other news I really wanted to thank everyone for being supporting
me in this venture far away from home. I am now fully funded!!!!!
Yaaaaaayyy!!! Thank you everyone again!! You have honored God and God
will honor you in your finances! Much love and peace to you all. We
leave for Swaziland tomorrow on a another project that is in God's
hands. Only threes months left time has flown but it will never be
forgotten. I pray many blessings upon y'all and I hope all is well at
home!
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 8/27/2011
Hello everyone!!! Wow! What a year this has been!! I have been
absolutely blessed to be on this trip! It is by God's grace that I am
traveling to different parts of the world to proclaim His great name. I
also thank God so much for all of you!! With my corporate sponsor I am
now fully funded!!! Yeeeaaa!!! PRAISE JESUS!!! God is going to bless
your generosity immensely if He hasn't already!! He will bless you and
multiply anything that you have given! That is for sure my prayer and I
will go ahead and thank Him because He has already answered!
We are in month eight of the race now in country number eight ( and of
course a few bonus countries due to layovers). God has just blown my
mind for these past eight months. He has broken me down and lifted me
up. I feel completely changed from when I started the race. I think
back to Thailand (month 1) compared to now and realize how spiritually
immature I was then. God has totally changed my thought process and has
transformed my heart. I have learned more about His great and living
word and learned more about the character of Jesus Christ who we should
all strive to live like. Is it possible that God has been cultivating my
spirit for moments on the race that I have had and for moments that He
has in store for the rest of my life? Yeeeeeaaaaa mmaaaan!!! Is my
answer. I have seen first hand how God's will and timing are absolutely
perfect!! How our God, the God of everything, works is just baffling and
incredible. I honestly have felt more used by God in the past month and
a half being in Africa than I have the whole race. He has used me in
many instances before on the race, but I feel like He is using me in all
minutes of the day.
He has been speaking to me alot about my character and although I have
a lifetime to improve, I have still come along way from what I was.
Only a year and half ago I was lost in utter darkness and so broken and
beat up. I thank God for His love, grace, and mercy. In those dark years
when I thought I was living, I wasn't even close. Now, I am living!!!
The race is life for real. Living for God with God! I love where and who
I am now and I have our Saviour King to thank for that! PRAISE GOD!!
Much Love!
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 8/5/2011
Hi everyone! The month of July was an incredible month! We were on the beautiful Indian ocean coast in Coffee Bay South Africa. It was awesome! We worked this incredible woman of God named Mandy. We were actually the first world race teams that she had hosted and we were joining her to start a ministry in Coffee Bay.
I think that it was good for our squad to see what it takes to start a ministry because I believe that most of us from the U squad are going to end up starting ministries in our dedication (life) to Christ. It was great for me to see how much work is involved in establishing a ministry. It is very tiring, so I am glad that we were there to help Mandy out.
Mandy's vision is to lead children to Christ through sports. Our two main sport were soccer and ... Yes folks surfing! I love Jesus and I love surfing so I was naturally in my element. It was an absolute blast!! I did not join the soccer ministry, but instead stuck with the surfing due to my experience and love of the sports. By the end of the month the children were simply getting stoked on surfing and getting way better at it. Some, not everyone, became stoked about Jesus as well. A total of Forty or so children gave their life to Christ and were baptized at the end of our time there! PRAISE GOD!!!
Personally, God used me and stretched me in different ways. He put me in a very much leadership role and gave me a boldness I have never had before. Mandy had asked me quite a few times to run the surf camp, which was awesome. Also, four of the six teams of our squad were together there and we were in charge of our own meals. Because of my culinary experience and because of Chelsea's (squad leader) culinary experience, we were out in charge of the kitchen and in that was put in charge of the food budget for the month. It was quite nerve racking at times, but I learned to surrender things to God and He took care of them ALWAYS.
It was a really incredible month!!! The place of Coffee bay is such a beautiful place, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the area is chained down by Satan and is very dark spiritually. Substance abuse and witchcraft are rampant. So in your daily prayers, please cast Satan out of that place and pray that God uses Coffee Bay for His glory. He is always faithful and will answer all of our prayers. I am also going to post a link to an absolutely incredible video my extremely talented and gifted teammate, Beka had made for Mandy and her organization (Volunteer In South Africa). It is such an awesome movie and give you more of an idea of what we did there to bring the kingdom to earth! Thank you all for your support and prayers and enjoy the movie! It's siiiicccckk!!! Love you all!
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 6/23/2011
Hello everyone!!! I just wanted to let everyone know where i was in financial support. I only have $700 to go to be fully funded!!! Yeaaaaa!! so if you would prayerfully consider giving financially to put me over the mark. Spread the word to family members, close friends, and even people you don't know all that well.
I thank God for all of you and your support in finances, prayer, and encouragement. God is changing me in every moment. It sometimes don't recognize myself, which can be scary at times, but then i am comforted in the fact that God is shaping me to be the man he created me to be. I don't want to be the same after the trip or even during the trip. I always want to be in a state of change for the better. God has most definitely been faithful and delivered in every second with that. Praise Him!!
The month has been a tough on but incredible. The fact that a classroom full of Hindu students are singing worship songs and some are understanding and asking questions. Unbelievable!!! God is great and i will have more to come on the month when we get back to Kathmandu which will be in a few days. I will for sure sum up the month when i have processed it more.
God is for sure bringing His kingdom to Nepal and i am blessed to be a part of it. Pray for this nation and remember: You are a part of it also, being in the body of Christ!
Thank you for everything and i hope all is well at home!! I love all of you!!!
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 6/16/2011
Nepal!!! Craaaazyyy!! Honestly, I am so grateful that God has brought me to this part of the world. I can't believe I am here. When i stepped off of the plane onto the tarmac, i couldn't help but be awestruck by God's great creation of the Himalayas!(Yes the himalayas). Naturally i thought that all of Nepal was going to be nice and cool and mountainous. Once again God is awesome in how He works and totally .jpg) blows expectations out of the water. There are three regions to Nepal: Mountain, Hilly, and Terai. All of them are pretty self explanatory except for the Terai, which is where our team is. It is located in the southern part of Nepal. It is near some mountains, but otherwise it is very flat and extremely hot. It is by far the hottest we have been on the race. I love it here though. The village we are in is called Nijgadh that is surrounded by corn fields. I enjoy them because there arent any corn fields where i come from. Our contacts are incredibly awesome people who are service oriented and love God. They have blessed us beyond all belief. God had called them here through an organization that focuses on spreading the gospel, church planting, and schools. What we are doing this month is teaching classes at a school and doing Vacation Bible School as well. It is really awesome. The kids are so cute and are always smiling. The young ones are a tad out of hand but thats ok. (candy helps :) So far i have two favorite parts of this month:
.jpg) 1) One day near the beginning of the month, we went walking down a road in the village we had never been down. While we were walking, like 25 kids from the school ran out from their houses and just started slapping us high fives and laughing with us and hugging us. It was incredible. God really worked through me in those moments and just gave me his heart for these children. They are just so adorable! 2) My teammate Tye was invited to visit houses of some of the students and i tagged along and once again, God is great!! I had an amazing time. I was also stuffed from all the corn and papaya they gave us (forced us) to eat. It was just so cool meeting these kid's families and i know it meant alot to them as well.
I really love it here. God has got great plans for this country! His works are being seen throughout its lands, especially here where it is tangible. I am so blessed to be here and i often times can't believe that i am here. Sometimes it is uncomfortable, but God does not care about comfort, only character. He is building my character up and i have a feeling that i am about to break into new ground in the spiritual world and i thank God for it. We often times too take alot for granted. I know i do and God really laid .jpg) something on my heart this month. Having a bible is such a blessing! Alot of people out here and even in the world dont have a bible or even access to one. We are so blessed in the fact that we are also granted freedom to even own a bible and have one to read. Please pray for those who do not have bibles and pray that they are granted the freedom to openly proclaim the Good News of the Universe.
I thank everyone for their support both in prayer and financially. I thank God for you! Unfortunately, the support deadline to be fully funded is rapidly approaching and i am still $1,700 short. The deadline is July 1st. Please tell your friends, family, anybody that you know who would be prayerfully willing to support me financially. The race has been unbelievable so far and i cant wait to see what it will be like in Africa and Eastern Europe. I do really want to be here and i believe God called me to this and he will provide because He is great God that always provides. I thank ya'll for everything and love ya'll. Keep my team and i and all the workers in the field in your prayers, you are surely in ours.
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 5/15/2011
Hello Folks!!! Just wanted to give ya'll the link to this awesome video my awesome teammate Beka made for our ministry in Malaysia. It recaps month 4 in Malaysia. Ya'll enjoy!!!!!
Mission: Malaysia from Beka Fritz on Vimeo.
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 4/25/2011
Hellooooo!!!!! I hope you have enjoyed the photos!! A lot happened in Malaysia (month 4). It was a jam packed month. We were always on the go with ministry which was awesome due to all the downtime the previous month in Australia. We also had team changes at the end of Australia! Our new team is awesome!!! They have such a joy in their walk with Christ. We laugh all the time, yet we are focused on bringing God's Kingdom to Earth!! We are now known as Team Rooted (U Squad)!!!
So hear is the deal with the pictures from left to right and from top to bottom:
1) When we first got there we went to a street feeding to help out with and to talk with and love people. They do it every saturday which is really awesome!
2) At the street feeding, i spoke to this man named Albert. I have never had a more intense conversation with anyone in my life. I also have never felt the Holy Spirit work through me like that. All of the word that were coming out of my mouth were from God himself!!!! IT was incredible!!! Words that were coming out of my mouth were teaching him while at the same time teaching me too hahaha!! It was insane!!!!!!!!!! I love it and my prayers are that God keeps speaking through me and that i have tangible experiences such as that all the time! The two hour conversation also solidified the fact that we are at spiritual warfare at all times and that the spiritual world is absolutely and positively real. I used to ignore it, but God was not going to let that happen any longer.
3-10) We worked at a Burmese school/church. Malaysia has many Burmese refugees due to the persecution going on in Myanmar these days. We taught at this school, but we mostly transformed it. We cleaned it, painted it, brought in desks for the kids and just loved the kids. Pastor was an awesome dude. We became really close to him. There is a little before and after deal in the pictures. The church/school has a lot of color now, but the most important thing is God's light. He delights in their surrender and their fellowship there. The group picture is some of the kids one of our contacts ( who is an incredible man of God/ never takes time for himself and is always blessing other people, especially schools of the Burmese), our team, the new squad leaders (recently promoted and totally anointed by God), and Pastor. It was a really incredible experience blessing that place and just serving our hearts out. The were a blessing to us as well. We also threw them a party with games and a slide show about America and had a dance party!!! It was a Blaaaaaasssssttt!! All the kids had so much fun!! I also never knew how to make balloon animals until that day and i am really good at making dogs because i think about 30 kids wanted me to make them one hahahahaha.
11) Ty (my awesome teammate) and I leading worship at a prayer meeting. God has totally blessed me in giving me the aptitude to learn the guitar fast. I thank him so much for it!! I picked up the guitar and the next night playing in front of people. Craaaaaazzzzzyyyy! I want to learn more of it and believe God is calling me to learn more music in his name!!
12) One of the weekends we were there, we went to a village to stay for a couple of days to visit different churches that an awesome missionary had planted. This man was awesome and just loved worshiping God and ministering to the people in the villages. That is a group picture of the first church we went to and the gentleman in the wheelchair sang us two songs, one he wrote and it was beautiful!! God has for sure given him a gift to write music. We visited a total of six churches and all of us (6 of us) had to prepare a word to preach. So we all quite successfully gave sermons and really let the Holy Spirit speak through us! It was awesome!!!!!!!!First sermon i have ever given and i hope not the last. Considering the things the God and the World Race throw at us, I don't think it will be the last time i give a sermon.
Malaysia was an incredible month filled with Joy, work , and hardships spiritually. Our contacts were unbelievable people. They touch our lives and totally invested in us. Their knowledge of God's word were inspiring and extremely helpful. The genuine love that they had for every person was something that i will always strive for. They have made a huge impact on my spiritual life and i thank them so much!! It was an incredible blessing just being in their presence. Anyway that is the blog i hope ya'll enjoyed. I will be more diligent about posting them as well. We are now in India which is an awesome country with a lot of need of physical things, but mostly the love and hope of Christ. Please lift India up in your prayers. I love all of ya'll and thank you for supporting and reading. Until next time God Bless!!!! GOD IS GREAT!!!!
Psalms 23 :)
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Posted in General Posts by Trey Genser III on 3/29/2011
Hello folks!!!! I hope all is well at home with everyone. I have been praying for you! So, we were in Australia
this month. It has been a fun, adventurous, dangerous, and just plain
strange month! I don't know how else to describe it! Hahaha. It was a
really incredible month though. We started out doing ministry in
Katherine, which I captured a little bit of in the first blog about
Australia. We then moved on to Beswick,
which is an Aboriginal village about an hour and a half from Katherine.
The people here just love to worship! It's really incredible to be
around! The Holy Spirit definitely shows his presence during the worship.
The fellowship is very small and for some reason men usually don't
attend, which is a super bummer. Please do pray the men in the
communities to attend fellowship. That would just strengthen the
communities so much.
After spending a few days in Beswick, we rolled on out in our sick off road Toyota Land Cruiser,
from like the eighties, to Bulman. Bulman is another Aboriginal
village, which is a couple hundred kilometers from Beswick and it is all
dirt road!! And yea you guessed it! I drove on It while it was muddy
and pouring rain!!!!!!! It was the most fun I have ever had driving in
my life!!! Wooooooooo!!! So that was a blast driving on the crazy
outback roads. We did get stuck at the Mainoru River for three days
though before getting to Bulman. It was also exhilirating driving
through rivers! Oh yea don't see that at home! Luckily there was a
station at the river and the store owner was just so incredibly nice and
hospitable to us. She is an awesome woman who we owe alot to.
We got to Bulman and had incredible services there, too. Also in Wemol,
which was a neighboring community to Bulman. We had a street service
ther under the street lights. It was most excellent. I ended up sharing
my testimony alot this month which was awesome because most of the men
and even alot of women struggle with the same addictions I had. One
night at a service in Bulman, I brought in a word to my testimony!
Whaaaaat!? Now were getting crazy. Jesus' teaching of the Lost Son in
Luke 15:11-31
because that sums my life up in about twenty verses. The Holy Spirit
spoke through me I believe and I also believed it impacted people. One
young man came up to us and said that he wanted to stop using and if we
could pray for him! Stokeworthy!!!!! It was the first time I had ever
"preached" a word from the Gospel. Also at the beginning of the month
was the first time I had ever shared my testimony with a congregation!
It was a big month of growth for me in that area of speaking in front of
people and having faith that the Lord would and will speak through me.
In Wemol, we were apart of two baptisms! It was so cool. My brother in Christ,
Teammate, and friend baptized them in a beautiful spring in the
Australian outback. It was crystal clear and about waist deep. It was a
perfect venue for the Lord to wash away our sins. While it was Ben's
first time Baptizing, he still taught the people there that anyone of
them could baptize the people that wanted to get baptized. It was really
cool! So considering I had never officially rededicated my life to
Christ publicly, I was also baptized in the beautiful spring in Wemol in
the Outback of Australia! It was really awesome! I have now publicly
professed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!!! Exciting!!!
We still did some ministry in Bulman and even an awesome family that
lived in Bulman, Lazarus and Lisa, took us out fishing with their family
and cooked water buffalo over the fire, and we swam with the kids in
the river. It was an absolute blast!!! Lisa also made these incredible
bread things just made of flour and water (called Damper) cooked over
the fire. They were like a really large and thick English muffin but
still doughy! So tastyyyyy! Lazarus and Lisa were a blessing to us for
sure and so was the food. God provided meals like that for us because we
are on a very tight budget this month and I have realized that
Australia is the most expensive place on the planet! A can of coke is
like 3.25! It's nuts!! We sacrificed lunch for almost all of the days
this month, which for sure opened my eyes to the world. At least we
still had dinner and breakfast and most people in the world don't even
have that! I was hungry and upset about it for a while until I did come
to the realization that I was still getting more than a lot of people in
our world.
Anyway, we had a lot of down time as well this month
because our main ministry wasn't until the evening and we had a lot of
time to wait for rivers to go down. We did end up leaving Bulman two
days ago and are now back in Beswick getting ready to roll back to
Katherine. But check this out haha: we got to the Mainoru River to cross
back over to get back. Well, the river was extremely high and we don't
have a snorkel on our Cruiser. So what do we do? We do it World Race
style, that's what we do! We fashioned a snorkel out of a plastic
bottle, duct and athletic tape, rope, and an old muffler off an
overturned truck in the river that's probably been sitting there for
twenty years or so. Can you believe it!! I have pics that I can
hopefully post. The ingenuity was incredible and the team effort was
incredible! It sure enough worked! I drove it across and it made it!!!!
God totally came down and push us across it was so exhilarating!!!!!! I
couldn't believe it!!! We were hootin and hollarin! It was awesome!
As we head back to our origin in Australia, I reflect on the month. It
was just an odd month with strange yet beautiful things. We slept where
we could, ate what we could, and even got chased by animals on a few
occasions. I had heard that it was spiritually dark working with the
Aboriginal tribes, and I now have experienced it and believe it's true. I
felt attacked almost the entire month and it was tough. At one point I
got extremely homesick which I never thought was possible for me. It was
a month of growth for me especially. I was more into the word than I
have ever been in my life which was definitely a highlight and I was
bolder than I have ever been before. I overcame a lot of personal things
holding me back from fully surrendering to Christ and I still have a
long way to go, but I also need to celebrate what was accomplished in me
through Christ. Honestly, Australia is incredibly gorgeous no doubt and
I would probably love to be here on a surfing safari one day catching
some tasty Pacific waves, but I do not feel that I have been called here
to do ministry. God had totally broken me in South East Asia and that is where he spoke to me the most so I am extremely excited to go back to Southeast Asia. Malaysia, get ready because warriors of God are coming to rock you!!!!!
Thank y'all so much for your support and prayer. We didn't have much
internet this month (prob a good thing), but I have now checked my
support account and Y'all have set me over the 10,000 mark!!!!! So I am
here to stay!! I thank all of you for that (especially Mom and Circle K
Furniture :) and I thank the Lord for his faithfulness and providing
just as he always does. Thank you everyone I love you I miss you and God
bless you!
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