God Is Able

 

 

This week has been a roller coaster kind of week. I'm pretty much alone during the day and it doesn't really hit me until after dinner, that I am actually alone. However this week God has really helped me out with comfort and peace about being here.

So last Sunday I went to church with my director Jen and it was really neat. They had an Evangelist  named Daniel come preach and pray over us. The first time he prayed for me he told me that I would be a person to break religion off of people and that I was called here for a good amount of time. He told me that God is my comforter and he will put people in my life here and that he saw me surrounded by a great community of people back at home. Then he asked me what my name was. So its was pretty amazing to have God confirm things through other people who don't know me.

 

Then Jen introduced me to a guy who plays in the worship band because they have random meeting places for worship that I would be interested in going to. He vaguely mentioned that they hangout after church and desperately I asked "Can I join?" Thank goodness he said yes, this was my chance to get off base for a little bit. I hung out with him and his friends till church that night, Daniel was preaching again. During this prayer session Daniel called me out and said " YWAM girl come up here so I can pray for you" so I obeyed. This time when he prayed for me he told me that God wanted to go deeper with me and open me up to more of the spiritual gifts. This kinda makes me nervous but I'm ready to go deeper. Then he told me that I would have a children's ministry and that he can see me coming and going from Australia for at least a number of years. This still freaks me out since its been a challenging couple of weeks. However the Lord has good plans.

 

Amazingly the girl who lives next to my room but who isn't on staff will randomly find me, we will go on walks and just talk. I'm so thankful for her because she is some one who I can just have fellowship withhand just be myself around.

 

Ministry is starting to pick up, last Friday we did a picnic for the aboriginal community at a water park. We sang songs, did a puppet show about the Lords grace and love, then ate. I didn't really know anything about aboriginal people here in the Northern Territory until I got here. Its definitely a diff rent culture I will post a couple of links if you want to know more about them. Basically there culture believes that animal god's formed the earth and diffrent structures represent different gods. they believe that doing certain rituals will give them rain, sun and wind. However each tribe has a different view on these issues. Now a lot of them live off the land and are very poor. Substance abuse is very common among them and there isn't really any structure to how things need to get done. So the Lord has put me here to help with these people groups as well. It can be very hard at times sense the culture is so different.

 

Next week we start children camps and I was nominated to be a main coordinator. So hopefully this goes well, its focused on The true story of Easter so hopefully it will impact these kids. It will run for a total of 2 weeks.

 

Overall God has been putting people into my life off of base to interact with and its been amazing. I'm starting to find friends and I'm getting a chance to get involved in the community! Things can only get brighter from here. Thanks again for all your prayers and support keep them coming! You guys are so awesome that people here in Australia know that I have an amazing community back at home!

 

Love you guys!!

 

I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him. Psalms 40:1-3

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australians

Organisational StructureEach clan-grouping has an important religious specialist who will initiate and foster contact with spirits and divinities. Specific elders may also be keepers of specific stories or rituals. Sometimes this knowledge is segregated according to gender – there is men’s business and women’s business.

Key Beliefs

• The earth is eternal, and so are the many ancestral figures / beings who inhabit it.


• These beings are often associated with particular animals, for example Kangaroo-men, Emu-men or Bowerbird-women.


• As they journeyed across the face of the Earth these powerful beings created human, plant and animal life; and they left traces of their journeys in the natural features of the land.


• They also connected particular groups of people with particular regions and languages.


• Some groups held belief in a supreme being.


• The Dreaming continues to control the natural world.

Key Festivals

• Ritual ceremonies involving special sacred sites, song cycles accompanied by dance, and body painting, and even sports, invoke these mythic and living beings and continue to provide the means to access the spiritual powers of The Dreaming.


• At important stages of men and women’s lives, ceremonies are held to seek the assistance of spiritual beings. This makes them direct participants in the continuing process of the Dreaming.


• Other ceremonies are known as increase rites, in which the willingness of ancestral beings to release the land’s fertility depends upon humans continuing to perform certain rituals.


• Recent years have seen major indigenous festivals emerge, including Stompin’ Ground, Yeperenye Dreaming, Barunga Festival, Laura Festival, NARLA Knock Out, Survival, Coming of the Light, CROC Eisteddfod, NAIDOC and Reconciliation Week.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/stories/s790117.htm