A Few Little Changes

Just a few minor changes. In the right toolbar there is now a search function for the blog. With this you can look up things from old posts without having to go through the archive.

Also, the DONATE button now leads to a link for giving through Praxis Church, and not PayPal. You can still give online and now it is tax deductible!

Taking a New Direction

I have now completed a year as DTS staff. It has been an incredible journey as I've watched our students grow and be stretched in new directions. I have had the awesome opportunity to travel and minister in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and across New Zealand. Through it all God has moved in some amazing ways.

For the remainder of the year I am committed to staying on with Marine Reach Ministries, but my role will be changing. I will no longer be DTS, but am coming on board with the national tour. In a few months, the ship will take part in a nationwide campaign to call 30,000 young New Zealanders (or kiwis as they're called) to answer God's call on their lives, get serious about their faith and consider different options in missions locally and abroad. It is a vision that requires great faith, but we are expectant to see God move in great ways.

Havalah will come on board as well once we are married. We are still in the process of finding roles with the tour that seem to fit our abilities. We will likely be going into port cities ahead of the ship and speaking in high schools, churches and other forums. Please pray for us as we move forward in this area.

Free Range Flannel's debut album

Before many of my friends left NZ, we discovered a garage sale. At this garage sale two of my friends, Lane and Ryan, got sweet flannel shirts. Later in the day we took some photos while playing in a tree. As I played around on Picasa, the following fake album cover was born:

NZ Outreach - Some Photos

Just a few pics from the trip. For more check out the Picasa album.

Claire & Mirjam praying with a woman in Wellington

Ministering to homeless in Christchurch

Meeting the cast of Cats! in Auckland

A little diddy we made in Napier

Our communion that day: peanuts and water

Saad, our Saudi friend, with us on the road near Taupo

Claire and Jada with packs ready to go

Matt and the giant kiwi costume we found

NZ Outreach - Highlight Stories

Jonathan is an Israeli backpacker that one of our DTS students met on the streets of Auckland before we sailed to Fiji in late March. She gave him her Bible and shared her faith with him, as he had many questions. In late May we ran into him in Christchurch - on the other side of the country! I was able to talk with Jonathan and share more from my faith, answering some of his questions and admitting I didn't have all the answers, but to search out God and the Scriptures of the Bible. As we parted ways my Jewish brother let me pray with him.

Jonathan and I

American students at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch offered to serve us dinner one night - all 9 of us! It was an awesome time of fellowship as we shared from our journey and planted seeds with our new hospitable friends. Havalah and I were even able to connect with one of them as we visited Christchurch last week.

Some of our new friends

A tree in Taupo was our home one night as we could find no other place to spend the night. One man in town offered to drive us to a campground, where Claire, Jada and I rolled out our sleeping bags and froze that night. As we lay in bed, listening to each and every noise I questioned God on what his plan was in this scenario. He responded by reminding me of his words in Matt. 6:

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

Early in the morning the same truck that dropped us off came around 7AM. The man's wife poked her head out and asked if we were hungry. She had brought us each hot breakfast from McDonald's and offered us a ride into town. Yup, God had done it again. Why did I doubt him?

Our makeshift camp site

I didn't want to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag

While in Napier three of us helped out with the Salvation Army Youth. They run a drop-in centre type place for teen guys. After hanging with the youth for a few hours, we were able to share our testimonies, talking about how God replaces your heart of stone with a heart of flesh. We were able to share with these young men about issues truly pertinent to being a godly young man.

Marie is a city worker I ended up talking with in Auckland. She was weeding a public park as we stumbled into a conversation that ended up lasting close to 45 minutes! She asked me about my faith, if I had doubts, etc. I was able to be real with her and share the redeeming love of the Gospel. She shared how she didn't feel like Christianity fit with her life because she was homosexual. God then opened up a door for me to apologize on behalf of the Church for how we single out homosexual sin as opposed to other forms of sexual sin (adultery, etc.). She received this with thanks, understanding that while I was apologizing for how we had dealt with the issue, I was not condoning the behaviour. She let me pray for her and hopefully we'll be in touch.

NZ Outreach - The Result

As the 9 of us ventured out from Christchurch we saw God move in some really cool ways. With our 3 teams heading in different directions we talked and shared with hundreds of people. We distributed over 50 New Testaments. We gave out clothes and food to the needy. We stayed in numerous homes in over a dozen locations across New Zealand. We saw people put away addictions to alcohol. We shared with youth about God's power. We slept under a tree. We talked with Jews, athiests, Muslims, Christians, agnostics, homosexuals, heterosexuals, homeless, prostitutes, addicts, young and old. We engaged the Church and the lost.

We spent most of our time hitchhiking from one town to another. We would use this time to engage whoever picked us up. Sometimes they were locals, others were from Germany or Saudi Arabia. As we entered a town we had to trust God for a place to stay. Sometimes were taken in by a local church, other times we stayed with strangers, friends or family. Once we slept under a tree without a tent. In each town we would try to engaged people on video, with general conversation, through acts of service and by whatever other means necessary. We prayer walked through many towns and on the sides of many highways. We saw God move!

If you look on the map below, you can see where we traveled, ultimately ending in Auckland.

NZ Outreach - Laying Out the Plan

Our team arrived in Christchurch on May 17th. We spent a few days there before splitting up into 3 teams (each with 1 guy, 2 girls, a cellphone, $10/day for food and other costs). The goal was to minister as God led while traveling up to Auckland and spend a few final days there doing ministry, concluding on June 4.

We had accomodation set for our first 2 nights in Christchurch. We did not have transport. We did not have much money for food. We had money to take the ferry across the Cook Strait. We didn't have an agenda. We had eager hearts.

As a leader it was challenging to release these 8 students and be challenged myself to trust God with whatever he had for us. Whether that meant hitchhiking, sleeping outside, going hungry, only staying in 1 city, etc. I knew I would have a hard time letting these teams go their own way and let God direct their steps. I never could have imagined what God would do...

NZ Outreach - Video Project

As part of our 3 weeks of travel we sought to initiate conversation with people across the nation. Our goal: to discuss issues of faith and life and death, hoping to share the Gospel with them. One way we did this was to interview people on camera. We've compiled a selection of these interviews into one video. Check it out here (you may need to turn up the sound on your computer):

DTS: The End of an Era

Yes, it's true I am in fact alive. It's been sometime since I've posted, and for that I apologize. Since my last post I have traveled across NZ with our outreach team - ministering from Christchurch to Auckland over 3 weeks - watched as our 16 DTS students graduated and many new friends left, completed my year as DTS staff, traveled to Christchurch with Havalah to visit friends and rest, and came down with a nasty cold.

Because of the immense number of days and stories that I want to cover, I'll put up a number of follow up posts here. Just remember that you can check out photos from DTS lecture phase and outreaches in Fiji, NZ and graduation on my Picasa Web Albums.

Havalah and I are now moving quickly towards our September 5th wedding date and are seeking supporters to commit until December. Please let us know if you are interested, as we need a total of $1850/month to sustain all that we are doing.

For more on the NZ outreach check out:

The Plan

The Result

Video project

Highlight stories

Other pictures

The Plan for 2009

Havalah and I have been seeking God about what to do with the second half of this year. He came back to us with some crazy, awesome plans and we're excited to share them with you. Read about it here and please see how God would have you partner with us for the exciting adventures ahead.