Adelaide Outreach Update

Just over a week ago, five families totaling 9 adults and 14 children arrived at the YWAM base in Australia to begin the outreach phase of our Discipleship Training School which started in New Zealand!  While in Australia, we are staying at the YWAM Adelaide base in Norton Summit, which is located in the hills above Adelaide.  The base sits on 20+ acres of beautiful land with lots of great views, particularly in the morning and evening.  There are frequently koala bears in the trees on the property and occasionally some kangaroos travel thru in the mornings, although I haven't seen one yet.  The building is huge and has lots of space for the kids to run around and the rooms are pretty comfortable.  The permanent staff on the base are made of singles and newly married couples, so it would be an understatement to say that we are bringing some new activity and noise to the base!  Most of the staff are Brazilian, so it's been great to get introduced to that culture and as I write this, I am looking forward to the Brazilian barbecue we are going to enjoy this evening!

  

Our primary focus on this trip is to serve the people of the city of Adelaide in some practical ways and minister personally to individuals as opportunities arise.  There YWAM team here in Adelaide have already been working to establish various forms of outreach to the city, so we have great opportunities to join in there.  We will also be doing some projects on our own in the city and pitching in on some practical work to help maintain the base.  Here's a summary of the main ministry opportunities we will be involved in each week:

• Throughout the week we've been going out in small teams out into the streets of Adelaide at various times of day to get to know the city, make connections with people and find small ways to bless them.  So far we've had groups going on the streets at night as well as families going out to parks in the day.  We've made a lot of great connections already.  I was on a team that went out at night and we had a great time, met several people who we were able to pray for and got to learn  more about the city and plan out future activities.  
• On Tuesday's and Fridays, the women on our team are joining in with a ministry that serves women involved in the sex industry here in Adelaide. While prostitution is technically illegal here, there are over 1,000 known brothels operating in massage parlors and homes in the city.  The main focus of the ministry is to reach out to the women involved, blessing them, praying for them as well as facilitating help for those looking to get out of the business.  It's a blessing that Amy and the rest of the team are getting a chance to minister directly to those involved here in Adelaide, as these women tend to be ignored by most of society due to the assumption that they are involved willingly.  While some do live this way by choice, many of these women are enslaved to drugs and some are physically enslaved, having been trafficked out of South East Asia and other areas of the world. While here I has a chance to read a book called "Not For Sale" that documents the degree to which human slavery in various forms, including the sex industry, is operating across the world, it's quite astonishing to see how pervasive it is and heart breaking to hear of the stories.  
• On Saturday's, the men on our team are helping to staff the "Do Unto Others" program in conjunction with the Salvation Army in Adelaide.  The Salvos open up their shelter from 6pm on Saturday to 5am on Sunday to provide an alternative place for homeless and other vulnerable people to find food, clothing and shelter.  The serve about 150 people for dinner, hold a church service and then have the shelter open for coffee, donuts, movies and sleeping until 5am on Sunday.  The YWAM team serves in two shifts, I served on the night shift from 12am - 5am this week.  I was the "barista" in the cafe and got to make some great coffee.  It was somewhat slower than normal, but I was able to meet quite a few interesting people and got to pray with one man who has some back problems.  
• On Thursdays, the YWAM team partners with a church in Portside Adelaide to run a breakfast club at a local high school and a play area for preschool kids and mums in the church.  I helped out with the breakfast club this week, making pancakes in the school courtyard for kids coming to school.  Some others helped out with the preschool program, called "Green Monkeys" and got to make some connections with some local moms.  

As you can see, we are keeping busy, but we are having a lot of fun and enjoy having the chance to get involved with having a positive impact in the world.  The girls had a sad time leaving their new found friends in New Zealand, but each has some friends close to their age in the families that are in our team here in Australia and there are a few others on the base too, so they are now back to running around inside and out during the days when they are not home schooling.  We are helping out in the kitchen on this base, so we've had a lot of fun coming up with meal ideas and learning how to feed an army!  We are also responsible for leading our own times of worship, prayer and planning our outreaches, which is giving us lots of opportunities to practice what we learned in New Zealand!  While we have free time throughout the week, Mondays are completely free.  During our time off this week, we were able to get out to the beach and it was wonderful.  The water is very clear, there were some great shops along the beach and we got to see a beautiful sunset!