One of our favorite memories of our time in Australia is of the various people we met and the things we witnessed God doing in their lives during street ministry in the city of Adelaide. Our approach to street ministry was a little different from the stereotypical idea of people standing on street corners, handing out tracts and confronting random strangers, which often results in pushing people away from the kingdom. Instead, we "adopted" a small area of the city called Rundle Mall and Hindley Street and visited there many different times each week, frequenting the shops, walking the streets, hanging out meeting people as God led. Sometimes we just walked and prayed and other times we found ways to connect with people by giving out water, sodas, flowers. etc. Our main focus was simply to be available to join in with whatever God was already doing. Some nights it seemed very small and weak, but every time we found opportunities and through these simple acts, God moved in amazing ways!
Rundle street has a open mall with many different shops. During the day the mall is full of shoppers, vendors and street performers ("buskers"). At night the streets are much quieter, but there is still quite a bit of foot traffic, made of a mix of business people, lingering shoppers, street performers, homeless and revelers. There are many benches throughout the mall area and free wi-fi, so there were always opportunities to meet interesting people who were just hanging around. We ran into Michael and Rod almost every night on the mall and were able to develop a connection, praying with them about their struggles and having some very deep discussions.
Hindley Street is known as the entertainment district of Adelaide. This is also the area of Adelaide where many of the underground brothels operate out of the back of nightclubs, karaoke bars and massage parlors. Many nights we simply walked and prayed in this area, as many people were not really open to talking, but over time things really opened up. This was the place where we met Richard, the man whose testimony we featured in a prior blog post. God was really after Richard and he used our encounter with him to bring about a total transformation in a very short time.
No matter what we did or where we went, we found that if we would just be willing to look around and really see what was going on, it was actually very easy to find people that needed some help, a little bit of encouragement or just a kind word. It was amazing to see the reactions when they asked why we would come from all over the world just to walk the streets and talk to people. It gave us a great opening to talk about what God has done in our lives and in many cases led to opportunities to speak into their lives and prayer for issues or speak into opportunities that He was highlighting in their lives.
Our approach to street ministry was inspired by a movie we had watched as a team called "Father of Lights". There was one story in particular that impressed us all, which followed a man named Todd White (who happens to be from PA!) as he simply prayed for people he met on the streets. I don't have a direct clip from the movie, but here is one of his videos on YouTube, which is a great example of the amazing things God does to demonstrate his love and interest in his children!
Hello everyone! We are finally over jet lag and are settling back into "normal" life for at least few months before our next adventure! Now that we are sleeping at normal hours, we have been able to get around a visit with friends and family and get back to our home church in Ephrata. As we meet old and new friends, we get to share a lot about what we did with YWAM during our school in New Zealand and outreach in Australia. One of the most common questions we get is about what all of the children did while the parents were in school or involved in ministry. In this post we'll highlight their involvement and provide some pictures and videos to so that you can share in the experience.
DTS Lecture Phase (located on the YWAM base in Matamata, New Zealand)
While in New Zealand, our main focus was attending daily lectures, participating in corporate worship and prayer and other community events and serving in practical ways around the base. While we were in lectures, Bente, Ascher and Soren were homeschooling with the other kids on the base in a classroom that was monitored by one of the full time missionaries on the base. Mala spent her school time in the "creche" which is the term for nursery school in New Zealand, where she made quick friends with the teacher there, Niede.
There were lots of other kids in the homeschool, so everyone made lots of friends and had a lot of fun running around the playground and fields around the base. On some weekends they had games or other events for the base, like one week we all participated in the Family Olympics! The kids had a lot of opportunities to express their creativity. They developed a passion for Risk and have always liked the Chronicles of Narnia, so why not make a Narnia version of Risk?Some of the older girls got together and organized a drama class that they ran on the weekends and performed one of their dramas at our graduation dinner.
The kids also received some formal training while they were on the base. From time to time the speakers that were teaching our lectures would spend time with the children. For instance, we had a entire week on "hearing God" and our speaker, Cheyne, spent time with the children teaching them the principles of how to listen to God's voice and even had some practical application in praying blessings over each other! On the last week of school we had a special treat in that a YWAM team from the Kings Kids base on the South Island came and taught the children a series of dramas that they could perform on outreach. They were taught to pray before every performance and use their talents to bless others and open doors for the gospel. Here is a link to one of their practice performances that they did on the base, this one features all of the children that participated.
In addition to learning and community life on the base, the girls had lots of opportunities to experience the culture and sights of New Zealand. Each week we had trips into town and several sight seeing tours in nearby areas, including visiting Tauranga, a city with great beaches and mountain views, Hamilton Gardens and Hobbiton, where Amy and Ascher toured the movie set of the Shire, a scene used in the Lord of the Rings series and most recently The Hobbit.
DTS Outreach Phase (located on the YWAM base in Adelaide, Australia)
Our girls were very excited to visit Australia. They had made a lot of friends in New Zealand, but they were looking forward to warmer weather and the chance to meet some koalas and kangaroos! Some of their friends came along too, as we traveled with five families, made up of 9 adults and 14 children. We stayed in a large house that was once used as an orphanage and then a governors mansion. The kids loved being able to run around the large house and play together, which at first caused quite a stir in the base!
As part of our outreach, we tried to share God's love with the people in Adelaide through simple acts of kindness. These proved to be great opportunities to involve the kids in things like handing out free waters, giving out flowers, picking up rubbish at local parks and sharing free ice pops to the kids after school. In each case, the kids had a lot of excitement and showed a genuine interest in helping people. Many times they displayed unusual boldness in approaching strangers, offering a free gift and even praying with many.
In addition to serving on the streets, we did a lot of practical service on the YWAM base, at churches and in the community. The children all participated in various ways to help maintain the base property and jumped in to help with several of the projects we did in the local community and at a local church. They also had the opportunity to perform their dramas at one of the local churches we served.
One of the highlights of our time in Australia was the performance that the children put on for the service that we did for the crowd at the Salvation Army one Saturday night. Our girls were part of the team that did two different drama performances and Ascher even gave a personal testimony in front of the crowd! There was a lot of interest in the performance as they don't usually have any live entertainment at the shelter - there over 50 guests in attendance and the the staff said it was the best service they had!
We did a bit of sightseeing in Adelaide as well. The girls visited the Adelaide Zoo and a Wildlife Reserve, where they got to see lots of animals and even petted kangaroos! We visited the oldest German settlement in Australia, called Hahndorf, which ended with an full course German meal. We frequented several beautiful beaches and spent lots of time in the city of Adelaide, where one of our favorite stops was the local "Hungry Jacks" which had soft serve ice cream for just 50 cents! On the last week we had a community outing at a wonderful (and free) play park where they had amazing rides and activities.
No matter what we did or where we went, we found that if we would just be willing to look around and really see what was going on, it was actually very easy to find people that needed some help, a little bit of encouragement or just a kind word. It was amazing to see the reactions when they asked why we would come from all over the world just to walk the streets and talk to people. It gave us a great opening to talk about what God has done in our lives and in many cases led to opportunities to speak into their lives and prayer for issues or speak into opportunities that He was highlighting in their lives. 
