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!
Hello from "down under" to all of our friends and family. In case this is the first post from our blog that you are reading, we are currently serving on an outreach team doing volunteer missions work in city of Adelaide, which is in the state of South Australia. Our team is stationed on the Youth with a Mission (YWAM) base in Norton Summit, a town in the Adelaide hills with beautiful views of vineyards and cityscapes nearby. Amy, the girls and I staying in a dorm room and are enjoying the close quarters so much that we are actually considering down sizing when we return! While we are here we are joining in with several ministries run by the YWAM team, including working on Saturday nights at a Salvation Army shelter, visiting brothels to minister to women involved in the sex industry as well as going out on the streets in teams to meet people and pray with them. We have been able to join in supporting churches in the area by supporting preschool/mom programs, cleaning, performing dramas, helping run worship and sharing sermons at various church services. Lastly, we've had the opportunity to help with practical things like cleaning and maintenance both here on the base and in the local community around the base.
For those of you keeping up with us in real time on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LefeverFamilyMissionsAdventures), you already know that the ministry opportunities continue to grow and bear fruit. It has been exciting and life changing for the team to watch God move in amazing ways. At first it seemed like we were just working on a variety of unrelated things, but the Lord has been showing us how he is working behind the scenes to bring everything together in ways that only he could do. We are seeing people that we meet during street ministry on subsequent occasions, which is amazing in itself given that there are close to 1.5 million people in the city! We've also watched as seemingly simple acts of kindness, like handing out water or flowers has opened doors for very deep conversations. In all of these interactions, we have been able to share God's love practically and when possible, share our testimonies and personal understanding of the gospel. As a result, we have been able to make some deep connections in a short time and are seeing lives transformed!
Just one example that I am excited to share with you is the story of a man called Richard, whose family moved here to Adelaide 20 years ago from Czechoslovakia. We met Richard a few weeks ago and in this short time has become a dear friend and brother. I share his story because it exemplifies the extravagance with which God works to bring his children back to him and the amazing way that he uses his people and circumstances to do this:
We met Richard during street ministry one night early in our outreach. The team went out that night praying that God would show us people who really needed prayer and encouragement. We passed by Richard huddled in a door frame, dazed from drinking heavily and afraid for his safety after being robbed and other tough experiences on the streets at night. We learned more about Richards life and struggles during later encounters, but at this time we just visited with him, encouraged him to not give up and pursue God and also prayed for healing, as his ankle had been injured during a fight and was making walking difficult. He was noticeably brighter when we left, mainly because we had taken the time to sit and talk with him and had prayed for him. Before leaving we shared information about the Salvation Army shelter with him and invited him to meet us there on a Saturday night when we worked there.
After not seeing Richard for two weeks, one of our team members called to check in on him. He sounded much better than when we'd last met and agreed to let us meet him at the park near where he was sleeping. We took him some food, talked with him for a while and learned that his ankle was no longer giving him trouble! While he was still on the streets, he had moved out to a park outside of the city center and was working on getting a place to live. We felt we should spend more time with him, so we invited him to help us pick up some donations for Salvos. We ate a meal at a diner together and heard more of his story. We learned that several months earlier, Richard had a good job in Melbourne and was living a "good life". After being made "redundant" and losing his job, Richard returned home to Adelaide, began using heroin and quickly blew through a large sum of money and ended up in a serious vehicle accident. After almost seven days in a coma, Richards kidneys, liver and lungs failed. However, with only four hours left before the doctors were scheduled to pull him off of life support, he awoke free from heroin and speaking of seeing a vision of heaven! Richard had a number of health complications as a result of the coma, including diabetes and an enlarged heart. Much to the amazement of his doctors, the diabetes disappeared after 24 hours and other than needing medicine to help reduce the swelling in his heart he was healthy and left the hospital.
While this was an amazing experience, there were more issues in Richard's life and within 3 weeks he was kicked out of his home due to a fight with his father that had turned violent and landed him in a prison cell for two nights. With no where else to go after being released, Richard began living on the streets and drinking heavily. After living on the streets for 6 weeks, Richard wanted to return but did not believe that his father would accept him as every call home ended in shouting. We encouraged him to contact his parents again and prayed with him that they would be reconciled. Less than 24 hours later, we received a text from Richard that he was at his parents house and that his father had invited him to eat with them! While the night with his parents had gone well, he returned to the park that night because he was struggling with their request that he enter a detox program before coming home. We encouraged him to follow his parents wishes and prayed for him that he would have the strength to complete the program. He agreed to give it a go and so the next day we dropped him off at a government run detox facility in Adelaide.
Five days later, Richard was joining us at Salvos to help pick up donations and minister to poor and needy people on the street! He is continually talking about the way the Lord has intervened in his life and knows there are greater purposes for him; in fact, he is already developing ideas for reaching out to the youth on the streets here in Adelaide. Life is certainly not easy, as Richard has to deal with the repercussions of his poor choices, but he is fighting to stay sober, he is working to make things right with the law and his family and is studying to get a project management certificate so that he can find work and live on his own. God is still working to bring other strong christians to come along side Richard to support him in his journey; just a week ago we we happened to be introduced to a man who migrated to Adelaide with his wife from Czechoslovakia have been praying to connect with new christians from their homeland that they could support and mentor. We connected Richard with them, he is staying with them now and they have committed to loving him back to health! The Lord obviously has great plans for Richard and it's been a pleasure to be a small part of them.
(L to R, Nicolai, Matt, Richard, Matthanja, Carl)
While Richard's story is certainly the most dramatic of those we've met, there were many others that God connected us with to encourage and pray with and several whose lives were changed tangibly. We've seen healings, we've seen people that had turned cold to God warmed again and we've seen people come back to us to learn more about God and what they need to do find him. In each case, God used different members of the team and different circumstances and methods, but in each it was clear that God was already working in their life and that our interaction was simply a physical way to remind them he was there and cared about them. This has been a key learning for me, as I've often had the mistaken impression that all of the pressure was on me to go out there and do something and hope that God showed up and that people were receptive. Instead what I see is that God is the one doing the work - he is leading us to people that need his love and we are simply coming alongside to help him. In a way, it's very similar to our children helping us around the house. For those of you with children, you will appreciate this analogy as often it is the parents that are really doing the work, but it teaches our children to participate and brings them joy to be a part of the work.
This has been an exciting and rewarding adventure for each of the families on our team. Our goal was simply to be available and do whatever God led us to share his love and help people in their journey with God. We have been truly blessed to see what God is doing here in Adelaide and feel privileged that he would give us the honor of joining with him in this work. On a personal level, God has shown me that he has a much greater purpose for his children here on earth that just living a "normal life" and that while we are but weak vessels, he can do many great things through us if we are only willing to lay down our lives for his way. As a family, we are finding it hard to leave here as it has been so rewarding but are looking forward to continuing in this journey wherever that may lead! Until next time, blessings and peace to each of you and heartfelt thanks for all of your prayers and encouraging words throughout our trip.
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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!
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.
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