05/04/2018
Hello! Once again I welcome you to the latest edition of Ben’s Updates! This shall be my last update while in New Zealand as my team shall be headed to the Himalayas on this coming Sunday!
Here is what we have been up to since the last update. We have been learning about Bible overview: what the Bible as a while looks like and gaining a heart for God's word, evangelism: getting rid of the fear of man and learning on God's heart for the lost, and on sonship in God and the mother heart of God. All weeks have been super impactful and inspiring in so many different ways and I am excited to bring all these new experience into outreach and into God's call for my life. We also went bungee jumping which was sick.
About two weeks ago our school went on “Faith Journey" in our outreach teams, what this means is the 14 of us headed to the Himalayas packed into 2 vans with no money, no phones, no spare clothes, no plans and drove to a random town for 3 days trusting in God and having faith that He will provide, and He did! We didn't have any plans so we prayed a lot and talked to a lot of people about God, and we decided as a team that we would not ask anyone for anything. Within the first 20 minutes in town we had lunch already done for us, we saw God heal people of incredible leg pains and fishers catching fish right when we prayed for them to catch more. There was not one moment that we were hungry and we always had a place to stay for night. On the last night we ended up with 22 boxes of pizza and fish and chips and cookies, it was so overwhelming how much God provided and poured out his love for us.
This week our base is hosting a conference called “Catalyst” and hosting Youth With A Mission basses from across New Zealand and some from Australia for a few days of worship and learning together. We have different workshops with Andy Byrd as our speaker. We are also getting ready to leave in a few days with last minute things. We have teams heading out to New Zealand, Cambodia, Uganda, and the Himalayas. This will be my last update before we leave but I hope to keep sending out updates while there.
Prayer Requests:
Health and Safety
Sickness is common in the Himalayas so pray against that and against sickness before we leave.
Finances to come in
Not all people have the funds yet to be able to go on outreach.
For God to be moving ahead of us in the nations we are going to.
For courage and boldness to share God's love to all and not be afraid.
For God to perform miracles and salvations.
For team unity through thick and thin.
Psalm 42:1-2:
As a deer pants for streams of water
so my soul pants for you, O God
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God