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.
Hi everyone! Amy and I were inspired tonight to do something fun (or at least interesting) to get to know our "audience" and to share a little bit more about ourselves as well. So, here goes...
In our DTS training, we learned to prepare a short testimony about how we came to know Jesus as our personal savior, basically in 5 sentences or less. The purpose is to be prepared at any moment to share with someone else the good news about what God has done or is doing in your life. So, our challenge to each of you is to share your own story about how you came to know Christ, or some other story about how God is working in your life now, here on this blog. You can join in by scrolling to the bottom of this post and clicking on the adding a comment to this post. Remember it may only be 5 or less short sentences, something like this (Carl's testimony):
"I was raised in a Christian home, but I didn't have a personal relationship with Christ. As a young adult, I turned my back to Christianity and immersed myself in all kinds of pleasures. After years of vain pursuits, I was left empty and broken. I found myself running to the front of an unfamiliar church where a stranger prayed something over me that was only God could have known and at the same time I was filled with a deep sense of peace that has never left. Since that day I have been forever changed and I know that I am a son of God because of the work of his Son, and my Lord, Jesus."
Thanks in advance for sharing, can't wait to hear more about your own stories!
Wow, time is moving by so quickly, it's hard to believe it's been over 6 weeks since our last post! Since we last provided an update, we've complete our second half of training at the Discipleship Training School in New Zealand on the Crystal Springs YWAM base in Matamata, New Zealand. Our final weeks of training included additional areas for personal development including hearing the voice of God and inner healing as well as practical topics for the mission field ranging from evangelism to serving as families in ministry. We continued to have opportunities to practice what we learned in both the classroom and the community.
The girls continued to work on home schooling and also helped organized a drama class for those interested on the base. In addition, a YWAM team from the South Island came during the last week and did a program for the kids called "Kings Kids" where the kids learned to put on dramas as a team that can be used in churches, schools and other settings. The girls had been missing their dance classes, so this was a great time for each of them.
While we are glad to have completed our training, in a way it was very sad as we may not see many of the families we met again as we return home directly after our outreach. Going through the training in a community setting creates a very special environment and we forged close relationships with several families. We concluded our school with a graduation ceremony, eleven families graduated and it was a fun night for all. Soren performed a worship song that she had written earlier during the trip and the drama club performed their drama for everyone. I am working on editing a video of their performances and will try to post them on our Facebook page soon!
So what's next? Well, a core element of the training program is for each family to practice what they have learned in a practical missions setting, so each of the eleven families are off to three different locations for the outreach phase of our training. We are on to Australia with five of the eleven families and will be working as a team in our outreach phase in conjunction with the YWAM team on the base in Adelaide. In fact, we are already in Adelaide as I write this post, look for another post shortly with details on what we will be doing over the next 8 weeks!
Wow, time is really flying by, we are already in our fifth week of school here in New Zealand! I just realized when talking with someone from home that while we've been posting pics and short status updates on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/LefeverFamilyMissionsAdventures), our last blog post was from our layover in San Francisco, so here's a long overdue update on our family as well as a summary of what we've been learning and doing each week so far. I've also included a brief glimpse into what we've got coming up in the next few weeks as well as some prayer requests at end.
Family Update Our days are pretty well packed from morning to evening between getting the family ready for the day, school and base activities and homework, but we are all having a great time. Amy and I are getting a lot out of the school topics, the speakers are amazing and we are learning a lot from community life as well. It's been particularly relieving to see how the girls are settling in, each of them have bonded with several other kids and are spending a lot of time playing outside when they are not in home school and creche (nursery for Mala). There is definitely something special about living and working in a community of people that are all moving towards the same purpose! It's the tail end of winter here, so it's been raining quite a bit, here's a pic of Mala in her rain gear, complete with "gum boots".
Week One Summary This week the school started off with each of the students sharing a 10-minute summary of their "life story". Amy and I missed the first day of sharing due to our delay in San Francisco, but got to hear a few on the second and third days shared our own as well. It is amazing that although we come from very different locations and circumstances, there is a common theme behind each family's purpose for being here and significant examples of "divine intervention" in many of our journeys to New Zealand. We also spent time the first week getting acclimated to our accommodations and our schedule for each day including work duties around the base. We don't have a personal vehicle, so a highlight was the weekly van run to Matamata where we able to stock up on some necessary supplies (fresh roasted coffee beans and more importantly, gluten-free food for Mala).
Week Two Summary The topic for Week Two was "Biblical Worldview" which an overview of world history and world religions. John Rush was our speaker, he is currently a professor in Lithuania, but was born in the US, did work with YWAM Mercy Ship Ministries in the South Pacific and is the author of "The Man with the Bird on His Head", an amazing story about how he became intertwined in the conversion of group of cargo cult peoples in Vanuatu by unwittingly fulfilling their tribal prophecy! The teaching was great, it is very interesting to see how various cultures and historical events worked together to create the perfect circumstances for Jesus' arrival and how they continue to work together in preparation for his return! Having settled in the prior week, this week we were able to start to get to know the other families and start to make some personal connections. This week I started getting involved with the girls home schooling, so that's been fun and challenging as well.
Week Three Summary
Jerry Brownell was our speaker in week three, he is an American but has lived in Singapore for the last 20 years with his wife Virla and he directs the "School of Biblical Studies" on the YWAM base in Singapore. The topic for this week was "Studying the Bible" and we received a crash course in how to use the "inductive method" of studying the bible, using the book of Philippians as an example. I think we'd have needed a lot more time to really pick up the skills, but we picked up some good tools and learned a lot about how the structure of the texts and context of the author and times can shed new light and life on the word! Even better was seeing Jerry and his wife in motion - they are an amazing couple, full of grace and so loving in the way they serve. It was encouraging hearing their stories of living and serving as a family in missions. Another highlight of this week was that we were able to borrow a van for a Sunday afternoon drive as a family. We got to see some beautiful countryside, including the Waikere Falls, which are only 10 minutes down the road. We also made a stop to McDonalds, which I think the girls enjoined even more than the sights!
Week Four Summary The topic for week four was "Intimacy with God" and our speaker was Josh Cole, a leader in the House of Prayer in Tauranga, New Zealand. Josh is very passionate and uses hands on application to drive learning in the classroom vs. extended lectures, so this week was stretching, but very fulfilling. We learned some good techniques for meditating on the word and also the importance of prayer in the life of the believer. We also had some great ministry times with class involvement in hearing, giving and receiving words. Another highlight of this week was our drive to Tauranga, which is the 7th largest city in NZ. It was a very scenic drive (although Amy spent most of it white knuckled as the roads wee very curvy and I'm not used to driving on the left just yet) and it was nice to be in an urban setting right on the ocean. We arrived after most things in town had closed, so I think we'll be making a trip back here as there are lots of interesting shops and we'd like to visit the House of Prayer.
Week Five Summary
The topic for week five was "The Father Heart of God" and our speaker was Frank Naea, a key leader and prior YWAM president. Frank is a huge man (half Somoan/half Kiwi) with a tremendous sense of humor who carries a significant word on understanding God as our Father and his heart towards his creation. Our class time this week was anything but typical, just to give an example, we spent some time learning the "Haka" ritual the All Blacks use before every rugby match (to see it in action, click the video link below) and had some fun as a class practicing it together! The dance and words look and sound menacing, but there is actually a very rich history behind its creation and the meaning of the words had an interesting application to what we were learning. We spent most of our time on base this week, but have our weekly trip to town on Friday are planning to take a field trip with some other families to visit a local dairy farm on Saturday.
A Peek into the Future
We have 7 more weeks here in New Zealand before we take off for outreach. We'll be covering a new topic each week, including Evangelism and Family in Missions. We'll also be picking our outreach destination and working within our various teams to prepare for our work there. We've been given three potential destinations to select from - North China, Australia and Vanuatu. A team will go to each location and partner with an existing YWAM team in that country to help them with various areas of service. We'll be there for 8 weeks and then return home to PA in mid-December!
Prayer Requests
Continued Wellbeing - We had some health issues going on with the girls in the first few weeks, many of the other families and staff members have had some issues as well. As of right now, everyone is doing pretty well, please pray that this continues!
Outreach Location - We have a few more weeks to make a firm decision on where we will spend our outreach. We are in the process of learning more about each location, they all sound interesting and we are leaning towards one particular place but are still praying about where might be the best fit.
Future Plans - There are many reasons behind our adventure, but a key one is that we are looking to get a fresh and godly perspective on life and from that foundation, begin the next chapter of our life together as a family. Our desire is to find a way to live in which we can devote our lives to serving God with joy as a family vs. being stressed out to the max while chasing the elusive (and deceptive) American dream.
If you read our last post, you know that we've been granted an unexpected mini-vacation in San Francisco, CA due to missing our flight to NZ on Thursday night. The next available flight wasn't until Sunday, so we decided to make the best of things and get some rest and spend some time together seeing the sights. Here are some pics and a short description of some of the things we did...
San Francisco Transportation - We got an all day pass for the subway, bus, cable car and trolley systems... not the easiest with 6 and a stroller, but made got us around and made for some first time experiences!
Westview Mall - After getting in the city, we needed some snacks to re-energize. Amazing food court, went back later for dinner too! I even found a cafe that serves the treasured fresh ground, pour over coffee and had a taste!
Ghiradelli Square - I'll give you one guess on who's idea it was that we go here...Ok, all of us wanted to go there, but Amy made sure there was no chance of an unfavorable vote :0)
Lombard Street - We took a walk down San Francisco's "Crookedest Street", Amy wanted me to go back with the rental car on Sunday, but I refused...ended up driving down something almost as curvy and more precarious, see note on Muir Woods Park.
Haight-Ashbury Street - I know, those days are gone, but it was fun to see what's left and there are some pretty cool shops down there. Found another pour over coffee shop, this one even better, oh, and we found gourmet chocolate there for the girls too!
Golden Gate Bridge - Took the traffic filled drive up 101 North to drive across the infamous bridge on our way to Muir Woods. The fog was settling in right over the bridge, made for some cool photo ops.
Muir Woods Park - Ok, no one warned me that we had to risk driving off the side of the road with hair pin curves and no hand rails, but it was well worth the risk as the sights were amazing!
San Francisco Airport - Ok, not the sight everyone typically puts on their list, but we spent as much time, if not more, in this location during our 2.5 day stint in the city, so it's worth mentioning. Found lots of great food and shops and some very helpful people too!
Well, our adventure has officially begun! Preparing for this point has taken a lot more than we imagined, but we made it with lots of help from friends and family and are presently in flight on route to New Zealand. Traveling by plane is a new experience for most of the family and so far it's going well, even for Mala. Lots of Z Bars and Yo Gabba-Gabba helped to keep her content until now and just moments ago she dropped off to sleep.
We left our house yesterday around noon after some hectic last minute packing and re-packing to meet our 50 lb bag weight requirements. It's amazing how hard it can be to choose between those last few items... after a 2.5 hr drive we made it to the airport in plenty of time, only to get delayed for 2+ hrs. We made it to San Francisco, but too late to catch our connection. The next flight isnt for two days, so we are getting a surprise mini-trip to SanFrancisco! We have a 12 hr flight to New Zealand that leaves Sunday night, we land at 5:40am NZ time and from there we take the final 3 hr leg by bus to our home for the next 12 weeks in Matamata.
Our next post will likely be from NZ after we've had a few days to acclimate and get details on what we will be doing, in the mean time, here are some areas we'd love your prayer support in:
Adjusting: Between the new location, time zone change and lifestyle change, we've got a lot of adjustments to make! We don't want to lose any time jumping into our training so we're hopingto be quick learners.
Outreach Location: As I said in a prior post, we will be determining our outreach location in the coming weeks. There will be several options, and we certainly have some thoughts on what we do (and dont) want to do, but our hearts desire is go wherever we can be a blessing to others.
Longer Term Plans: A big reason we are going on this adventure is to take some time as a family to figure out what we will be doing moving forward. We've certainly learned a lot in the last 15 years as a family, but are anticipating some new direction, just not quite sure what yet! We know we want to get more involved in working together as a family and helping others along the way.
We have less than one month until we leave for New Zealand. We are all getting very excited, this will be our first international adventure as a family! Our family has been focused on transitions - I (Carl) have been transitioning work responsibilities (last day is Friday!), Amy has been turning over her women's ministry responsibilities and the girls finished dance classes for the year (pic to right is from the year end recital) and are wrapping up homeschool for the year. Now we turn our attention to preparing for our adventure...
We are so thankful for those that are praying for us, here are some things you can stand with us on:
Preparations - As you can imagine, we have many things to prepare and every day we find more! We have our list and are working at staying at peace as we work to accomplish all that is needed.
Health - In the busyness of life, we've not been as disciplined as we should and as such have a little bit of physical tidying up to do. We are just wrapping up a 21-day "purification cleanse", are generally feel much better and are praying that we can continue on in our new found disciplines so that are bodies are more prepared for the challenges of international travel.
Family - Besides re-locating our family, another big change for us is that we will be together 24/7 for the next 6 months. We are super excited, as this something we've been dreaming of, but it's a little scary too! We've already been hanging out and doing things together more and are trusting that we'll continue to grow in love!
We are the Lefever family (from left, Amy, Ascher, Mala, Bente, Carl & Soren) - pretty much a standard American family, living life and growing as a family, and as you can see from our picture, trying to have fun together along the way. We recently made a decision as a family to do something a little different from the norm…in July we are departing on a five month journey in volunteer missions that starts in New Zealand and ends up somewhere else in the world - we don't exactly where yet!
I know…pretty exciting and scary all at the same time, but we really feel like this is significant and are expecting this to be a milestone event for our family! We will be leaving the US on July 19 and then spending the next 12 weeks on a missions base a town called Matamata, which is on the northern island of New Zealand (if you've watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this is the town where the Shire was filmed). The base is run by an organization called YWAM (Youth with a Mission), which is a large missions organization that runs over 1,000 bases across the globe. While in Matamata, we will be going thru training with 11 other families like ours for about three months and then afterwards, participating in volunteer missions work somewhere else in the world, potentially in New Zealand or another part of the South Pacific or Asia regions, for at least another two months. As of right now, we are planning to return home in December, but are open to potentially spending more time doing similar work depending on how this adventure goes…
We'll be posting updates on our journey along the way, we hope you enjoy following us on our adventure!
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. 
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