I am in Vanuatu!!  The flight was good but I am completely exhausted.  This is the start of a new adventure for me.  7 weeks of camping, real camping, in tents with no electricity.  I am so excited about this outreach time.  I pray that God continues to stretch me even further than He has already.  Since there will be no electricity where I will be, this will be my last post until the end of November.  Please pray for safety for my entire team and that God will use us in ways that we never imagined!

One Prayer Away From Breakthrough

G'day Mates! This will be my last post before we leave! I can't believe that outreach is already upon us! All of my stuff is packed up, and we are preparing to fly on Thursday (Wednesday in the states). We've done a lot of preparing of skits, sermons, and team building this week! We are all super excited!
One of the things that God has been teaching me both last week and this week relates to the story at the beginning of Acts 12. This is the story of Peter miraculously being released from prison, and it's a phenomenal story. Instead of looking at the feature of the story (Peter's release), God has been pointing out and teaching me through one of the side notes of the story.
Walk the story with me. At the beginning of the story, we find out that James has been slaughtered at Herod's command, and now, Peter is imprisoned with ultimately the same goal. The angel leads Peter out of prison, and Peter then goes to Mary's house. At her house, people are praying. The people see Peter and hear his story, and then Peter slips off like a thief in the night.
God has pointed out to me, the people praying. The group comes together to pray. They are grieving. They are frustrated. They are desperate. They know that Herod has just killed James. They know that Herod has imprisoned Peter with the same goal. They really need God to show up. Instead of giving up and thinking that God won't answer, they decide to pray one more time. They come to God one more time.
I think one thing we glance over while reading this story is that the people did not expect their prayers to be answered right then. We know this because they tell Rhoda that she must be seeing his spirit. They didn't believe that Peter was at the door. They came to God again, hoping for a miracle not fully expecting to see it answered right then. Remember, like I said earlier, they are probably grieving and frustrated and heart broken. Little did they know that they were one prayer away from break through.
I love that concept- one prayer away from breakthrough.
On Monday, the whole base met together for family time like usual, and we discussed that several people still needed money for outreach fees. The total of them collective was about $6000NZ. Funds needed to be in by 4pm Monday in order to fly out with the rest of us. If fees weren't met, then they would fly out a week later and catch up with the teams, if fees were met by then. We decided to pray for release, and then Linda decided to take up an offering. We know that God can multiple money; He is far above our earthly economic systems. Now note that everyone in the room is a DTS student, staff, or full time missionary. We aren't talking about a whole bunch of people who have a whole bunch of money. We take up an offering, and we worship some. They come back with the total. The simple answer is that God multiplied money. Out of the 70-ish people in the room, $8000NZ was collected. It's simply phenomenal. We were one prayer away from breakthrough, and we didn't even know it.
So, what are you trusting God for? What is the desperate breakthrough that you need? What if you were only one prayer away from breakthrough? What if you kept fighting the fight of faith? Maybe God doesn't answer your prayer today, but maybe tomorrow, you will be one prayer away from breakthrough.
Talk to you guys in 7 weeks!

Meet Our Team!

Meet out outreach team! In about a week and a half, we will be flying out to Vanuatu! We are getting everything prepped to go- acquiring all of the necessary medical supplies, preparing skits and songs, gathering things to do with the kids, and preparing our hearts for all that God wants to do in and through us! On our journeys, we will visit two of the islands in the south, including an island that will be new for Marine Reach, and then we will end our time in the nation's capital, Port Villa. We will return to New Zealand at the end of November! While we are out in the islands, we will be backpacking and camping in the villages, a very new thing for me! Some things to pray for: pray for safety during travels both there and back and between islands and simply safety in general. Pray for our health- even though we will have a water filter, the change in water quality will be hard for our systems to adjust to. There are also a lot of mosquitos, and though we will have bug repellent and our malaria medications, that is also a potential source of getting sick. Pray that we will be open to whatever God wants to do in the villages and that we would be ever listening to His heart and His prompting. Pray that God would do absolutely amazing things- things beyond what we can even expect- and that His name would be glorified in all that we do! Lastly, pray for team unity in our team, that no matter how grumpy we get, that we will still be unified. Love you all!

Top row- left to right: Marisa, Lindsey, Tayler, Jasmine (leader), Me!, Matthew
Bottom row- Helene, Hannah, David (leader)