YWAM 2009 Update (Australia)

Films and Pictures from Australia

This film is from when I played for an Open Mic Night at the YWAM Perth base.



It took us 2 hours riding buses and a train and then another 2 hours walking to get to this wildlife park (Caversham Wildlife Park). It was so worth the journey.




Here are a few pictures from the base (meeting area, dining area, kitchen area), the city, and random fun:

Shadow & Light

Today I sat down to pray wondering if God would really speak to me or not. I felt kind of complacent, but I wanted to be open. So I sat down and I closed my eyes to shut everything out. I asked Him, “What do you want to show me?” and then I waited. A few random things came to mind. Then I saw a picture in my mind of a shadow cast during the daytime from a flagpole.

It was long and skinny and the light from the sun shone on everything else. I nearly skipped the picture, but then remembered that God speaks to us in pictures sometimes and about things and in ways we do not expect. So I continued to focus on the picture in my mind.

Then I felt God telling me, “Joel, you have a choice. All people have a choice,” and He went on to tell me about how the shadow represented the freedom people had who lived in their way without God, and the light represented the freedom people had who chose to follow Him and live more by His understanding, trusting He is love.

The idea was that the path we can take on our own is wide, most trodden, and seemingly to many people, freer. But in actuality, the path that is less trodden, the one that is pursuing God and living with Him as the center and is thinner perhaps, is the path that has more freedom, joy, truth, love, fullness, etc. It’s where the light dwells.

It is that those who live in the light of God’s understanding have this expanse of freedom while those who live by their understanding are limited.

Limited in changing the world. Limited in serving and loving others. Limited in reducing poverty. Limited in helping HIV/AIDS victims. Limited in experiencing a constant, true love.

Drinking?

“So what is your dream in life?”

“My dream? I want to be happy.”

“That’s good.”

“How about you?” I pondered the question for a second and turned back to face her.

“My dream is to learn more and more how to love God and love others, to learn how to serve other people with love.” The airplane continued to rise. I continued.

“We have so much freedom, me being from the United States and you being from Korea. We have so much freedom, and I don’t want to live using my freedom to satisfy myself. I want to learn how to use my freedom to serve others with love.”

This was about 10 minutes into my conversation with the woman next to me on the airplane. She was 33. Born in Seoul, Korea. A doctor. By the time we had this conversation we had exchanged names, I had learned she wasn’t married, and that she was going to Hong Kong for a 3-day, well deserved vacation. She’s very busy as a doctor and hadn’t had time for a vacation in about a year working at least 6 days a week, sometimes 7. I had shared that I worked with a mission organization and explained why I was in Korea and what I was going to Perth, Australia for (more missions training). She guessed that I was a Christian and I said, “Yes.”

“Have you ever broken a bone?”

“No. Try to keep healthy,” she said in her broken English.

“Well, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?”

“Drinking.”

“You like to drink?”

“Yes, how about you?”

“I enjoy a beer with a meal here and there, and wine goes really well with some meals. I’ve felt buzzed before, but I’ve never been drunk. It’s something I have thought about throughout my life though. I don’t think it’s good when we let things take control of us whether it’s alcohol, cigarettes, watching television…” She laughed, and I could see a glimmer of understanding in her face at what I was getting at. I continued.

“There’s a man who once said, ‘Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.’”

We kept talking and then as the airplane leveled we went to doing our own things. I don’t know what she did, but I watched a film. A few hours later we resumed our conversation and at some point came to this:

“So do you keep in touch with your friends from university or high school?”

“No.”

“Who do you drink with?”

“My friends from work.”

“Have you traveled to many places?”

This last question led to her asking me the same in return. We had about 40 minutes till landing. I started with, “I’ve been to many places since March, but none of it was my plan.” She looked at me waiting for me to continue. “There’s a story behind it. Do you mind if share it?”

“Go ahead,” was her reply.

Over the next 10 minutes I shared my life from how I ended up with the mission organization OMS International when I didn’t want to join, and what happened that led me to continuing with them overseas rather than finishing in April.

She listened attentively as I shared about God’s love in my life. As we continued with small-talk she made a few comments about the way I lived my life and the way I spoke about life as well. I would just tell her that it honestly was only because of God, which was the simple truth, a fact that cannot be changed.

With all the good I can accomplish with my own ideas and direction, God’s ideas and direction go much further in sharing true love.

What I in fact had shared with her was simple, my story. Or as some might say, my testimony. We had a lot of laughs and really enjoyed our time together. It was great.

“So, what is your idea about spirituality?” I asked, surprised at how confident I felt asking the question.

“My parents are Catholic, but I’m not. They don’t force me to be Catholic.

“That’s good. No one should have God forced on them. That’s never good.”

During our conversation at one point she asked for my e-mail. I was so glad she asked because I was pondering giving it to her anyway, but wasn’t sure about it and had prayed God would work it out for me to give her my e-mail without feeling uncomfortable.

Before we parted at Hong Kong airport she said, “If you come to Seoul you can e-mail me.” I said to her with a smile, “Ok, but make sure you send me an e-mail so I have yours. I’ve had a lot of people ask for my e-mail and then never e-mail me, so you better e-mail me.” I smiled and said, “Let me know how your time in Hong Kong goes” as I walked away. She agreed to write and turned towards baggage claim.

I can only thank God for our time together because I was so out of it and tired. I hadn’t had much sleep in the 2 weeks prior and I had gotten a really bad cold the day before…bleh. I had prayed that if God wanted to use me, He would do it regardless of my weakness. Then when she sat down next to me I suddenly felt I should say “hello.”

And that’s where it started.

Cut It Off!

“As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (a.k.a. "cut off their you-know-what")

When I read this I was amazed. Paul, a man who met Jesus in a vision, was sharing his opinion of people who were shifting the focus of new believers from God himself to a method of being with God. I can't help but have a love and respect for the way Paul speaks about this issue in the church.

Paul is writing to new believers in the city of Galatia (around 50 A.D.) expressing frustration towards Jewish teachers who are trying to influence them, non-Jews, to live in relationship with God in the same way the nation of Israel has always done so. The particular issue here is circumcision. (now you know where Paul gets his inspiration in writing the sentence above)

In this letter one of his points is, “When you come to know God, don’t get circumcised!” which is a really big statement for that time.

From the very beginning of the nation of Israel, circumcision has been a sign of God’s covenant and a very important part of the nation’s commitment to God (That may sound weird to you, but it’s true. If you’re curious as to why shoot me an e-mail ... if you’re reading this and you have more insight, please let me know : )

The Galatians have been deceived. These new believers are in danger because they are close to removing their focus from God himself to a "method" of being with God. Even though circumcision has been around for thousands of years as an important part of the Israelites commitment to God Paul states that Jesus will have no value to these new believers if they follow it.

How often do people simply join the crowd in Christian communities? How often do people set their traditions and methods of living with God onto others? Who do we serve? God or methods and traditions.

But we can't stop here. If we want to know the truth we have to keep reading. People don't have free reign to relate to God however they want to or however they feel.

God is beyond traditions or methods or ways or laws, even if they've been around for thousands of years. And Paul knows that if people focus on meeting "requirements" and "traditions" instead of on the truth of who God is and what it means to pursue HIM, they will be bound by those things and therefore unable to walk in the power of the Spirit. But there's more. Paul continues by saying:

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love."

So what does this mean?

I think God is moving. He’s doing something new for a new people. He's being God (one who is above all things, full of understanding, the essence of true love for all people). He's being personal. This is exciting for me because it tells me that people haven’t reached the end of discovering how to relate to God or how He relates to us. It tells me that He’s not closed by a certain way to live with Him, but open to a way of life with all people that grows out of a relationship with Him...

...based on love, faithfulness, grace, forgiveness and truth.

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." - Paul

p.s. -to read this section of the letter you can go to: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205:1-15&version=NLT

Water, Atoms, & Something Personal

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Spirit and body.

I've been pondering these things as of late. The flesh. The spirit.

What are we made of? Is it more than chemicals? Is it more than physical?

I was talking with someone once about an experiment a Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto, did on water. As you may know the largest component of the human body and of the world itself is water.

Well, Mr. Emoto took glasses of water and after performing certain tests would freeze droplets of the water. Then he would examine them under a dark field microscope that had photographic capabilities.

One example of his research is testing these glasses of water with certain music. He took one glass and played positive music for a night. Then he would examine the crystals. He did the same with a glass of water he secluded to negative music. The result was that the water crystals that had been listening to the positive music were symmetrical and beautiful while the water crystals that had been listening to the negative music were jagged and contorted.

He also taped certain words and phrases on glasses over night like "You make me sick. I will kill you." and "Love and Appreciation" and there was the same effect.

It's been said that "from Mr. Emoto's work we are provided with factual evidence, that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water."

Re-considering how much a role water plays as a part of all living things, these findings cannot help but cause me to wonder at what is in this earth that we cannot put our finger on.

Humans have been putting their fingers down on a lot of things in science, but as humanity digs its fingers deeper into the foundation of it all, rather than finding the final, solid puzzle piece to creation, they are finding things that seemingly have a kind of personality. (Check out Rob Bell's film called "Everything is Spiritual" to learn more about this.)

There's more studies and findings, but I'll end here so as not to make this too long.

All this is to say that science is beginning to find that there is more personality to the foundation of life than we might think, and perhaps some underlying, dare I say, Person.

This morning I read from Proverbs. The part that really stuck out to me was, "By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by His knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew."


[here's a website on Mr. Emoto where I got some of the info: http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm]

Fight

Today I thought about a conversation I had with a Hindu man as I was leaving India. His comment was basically that sharing with others what Jesus shared with us was not something everyone needed, and in fact was more of a problem.

He said that the two things in this world that cause problems and mess with peace are religion and politics. I had to agree.

At the time of the conversation I realized more about how I believe peace can be overrated. I came to the conclusion that I believe that there are some things that are more important than peace, like standing up to share what you know is true (This is only a simply way of stating the thoughts I had at the time…so I understand that some who read this will misinterpret what I mean by these words). Some examples of what I mean carried out are Martin Luther King and Jesus of course : )

Today I considered his words in a new light. I asked myself, “Who strikes who? Who starts to fight?” If you just look at news articles and testimonies it's easy to see that in India and Bangladesh it’s the Hindu people who are violent, not the Christians. The people who I know who have shared the message about Jesus and the kingdom of God have show kindness, faithfulness, peace, love, etc. That is what they live by because God instructs them and the Holy Spirit gives the the strength to do so, even in seemingly impossible circumstances.

It’s Hindu people within those communities (not sure who it is among the Hindu people) who strike out with fists out of fear of having the community broken up by a new belief system that is unfamiliar to them, which makes sense from their perspective. One reason I think there is fear is because they misunderstand the new way of life that the people have chosen to receive and adopt (which is not a changing of their culture, but a fulfillment of true life in their culture). Because those people who meet Jesus and decide to follow him do not begin to live to hurt a community, but to build that community up in ways it could never have.

The one thing many Hindu people in India fear is their misunderstanding about Jesus, what he taught, and how the lives of those who put their trust in him are transformed. They are afraid that what they do not understand will spread and hurt the community because those who meet Jesus cannot help but share about him with others. He is a real part of their lives and they have learned that he told and tells the truth, that he is the Way to life, the Way to communion with God, and power and authority by the Holy Spirit to redeem all things that have been corrupted. It is a fear of the unknown.

Coincidentally, when the Christians are persecuted more, people come to know God (from the side of the persecutors) because they see how the Christians respond, how they love their enemies and pray for them. The Christians do not strike back with fists, but with confidence in the truth and in their relationship with God and sharing the same love that God shared with them. It’s pretty amazing.

So in conclusion, the religious fighting that happens in this man’s country is not the primary cause of Christians’ actions or pursuits. It is something that happens because of fear from the Hindu people in the community. The Christians aren’t fighting for their way of life, they’re living for it. The only thing Christians have to fight is the spiritual forces that try to distract them and keep them from pursuing God and His kingdom.

HERE IS AN ARTICLE OF PROOF WORTH READING

(Actually this is a letter from a pastor, but there are also articles of this massacre)

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Joel LeMaire <jmlemaire@gmail.com> wrote:

this is an e-mail sent from a man in India

From Orissa India
URGENT PRAYER REQUEST!
AUGUST 27, 2008
Dear beloved sponsors and friends of GNI,

We have never seen anything like this.

We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work.

But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage....
And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media.... Let me explain....

A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and "reconverting" people back to Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last weekend.

Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up..."Kill the Christians!"
And the horror began....

In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have been slaughtered. For no other reason than they bear the name of Christ.

Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa... they are right in the middle of all this chaos.

In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They have promised to come back and "finish the job." Our kids and staff are locked inside and have stayed that way with doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer. More police have come to offer protection.

In Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or any personal belonging. As they fled, the blood thirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We would have had a mass funeral there, but for His grace.

In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in Balasore.

All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a chance to kill.

Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher in a house and burned them to death. Many believers have been killed and hacked into pieces and left on the road.... even women and children.

At another orphanage run by another organization, when this began, the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and staff behind. Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: "We stay with our kids.... we live together or die together, but we will never abandon what God has called us to do."

More than 5000 Christian families have had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living in great fear waiting for the authorities to bring about peace. But so far, no peace is foreseen. This will continue for another 10 days.... supposedly the 14 day mourning period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down.

The Federal government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask for your prayers. Only the Hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times.

Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children. Orissa will be saved... that is our heart's cry. If we can take these thousands of throw away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will be transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic thinking in terms of the Great Commission.

What can you do? First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer. Second, pass this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word out and increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its most basic meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom.

The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations....

Blessings!
Dr. Faiz Rahman
Chairman/Founder
Good News India

If you’d like a more recent article of these things, I can send it to you.