Making Waves

Off to Bali!

2009-10-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

Our 12 week lecture phase has just concluded and we are now heading into our 7 week outreach portion of the school. We ended the school with a final teaching of evangelism. It was such a great teaching that got the class all fired up to speak about the love and wholeness of Jesus Christ.

We will be departing the 14th of October and spending nearly 4 weeks in Bali and have our accommodation arranged with the YWAM base in downtown Bali. We will be fully emerging ourselves into the busy 3.2 million people population with a mindset of straight evangelism. We are planning to be visiting hospitals, prisons, and rural areas to really immerse ourselves into the culture for the short time we are there for. Indonesia is considered the largest Islamic nation of the world with the outer main lands of Indonesia being populated with over 220 million Islamic believers, although Bali is nearly 95% Hindu in there belief systems.

After our 4 week outreach on Bali we will then fly into Christchurch In the south island of New Zealand to be a part of the rising up of 30,000 New Zealand youth into the idea of helping the world’s justice and poverty issues. Were all packed up and ready to go so please be praying for us as we head off into such an amazing and intense place such as Bali, Indonesia.

On the 4th of October I had the opportunity to have a live video call with North Hills Church to be able to share with all of my friends and family what God has been doing in my life while on the mission field and they so kindly took an offering for me to help me with my finances in getting a plane ticket home and paying my staff fees. The church raised over $3000 for me which covered both airfare and staff fees. It was a complete answered prayer for I was trusting God for a lot at that time and I knew heading into outreach it would be very difficult for me to be raising support while in the 3rd world. I would like to give a huge thanks to all my friends and family over at North Hills Church for there amazing love and generosity towards my financial situation and simply just bringing me the well needed encouragement in perfect timing. It is so amazing to have the support of my family and friends while being nearly 3000 miles away from home. I feel so loved. Thank you once again for being vessels that the lord can use to bless others.

Also I would like to thank everyone for there amazing prayers and support towards me over these past 16 months. Without your guys’ prayers I wouldn’t be here doing what I am doing in the mission field today.
Continue to be praying for Gods protection over both teams going out on outreach. The other half of the team will be leaving for Papua New Guinea on the 15th and fly back into NZ one day after us. They will have quite the journey as they are heading into an extremely rural location such as PNG.

I will my best to keep you all posted throughout the outreach but please feel free to email me anytime you would like. Thank you for reading my latest Blog and Bless you.

School Update

2009-09-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone we are in week 8 of the DTS lecture Phase. It has been so powerful as we have just recently finished teaching in the Holy Spirit and Relationships. The students did awesome with tons of response and a complete movement of God. For myself I have been so blessed with more and more opportunities to connect with the guys in my small group, each one of my small group guys' love doing different things so its been great to find out the things that they love and going out and doing it with them. One of my guys loves the water so we have been able to surf quite a bit lately, another few of my guys love to just go out and play sports or walk and its been great finding out what it is that gives these guys excitement and finding out the keys to there hearts.

This past weekend as a DTS we went to see the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. It was so awesome for all the students to really be able to get together and travel outside of the classroom and experience some awesome Kiwi culture. Although they lost to the South African Springboks it was still good fun.

In other awesome news Outreach locations and team leaders been decided. After days and even months for some, God showed us where we should take the outreach teams. One team of 8 including 2 staff will be heading to Papua New Guinea and I will be leading a team of 12 with 3 other staff to Bali, Indonesia. The outreach will last a little over 3 weeks and it will begin on October 15 and we will be flying back into NZ on the November 10. We are still unsure of where we will staying in Bali or what we will exactly be doing but as a team we have been praying a lot for direction and God has really been speaking to us. So far the team feels very led to do prison ministry, hospital ministry, and most of all orphanage visits and children ministry. Most of all we have a heart to do straight up evangelism, this is radical group of motivated individuals and there hungry to see some lost and alone people find the Father God. Also there is another surfer on the team and we have been praying a lot into possibly doing some surf ministry so the possibilities are endless with God.

Once we return to NZ we will be joining up with the Ship In Christchurch and begin a 4 week ship tour around some of New Zealand's major ports including, Wellington, New Plymouth, and Bluff. Our main purpose is to rise up 30,000 young people into missions and share with them all of our stories that God has given us and show to the Kiwi Youth that they CAN serve God anywhere and that God is all about relationship with them. Once the NZ tour is over we will sail back into Tauranga harbor and then Graduate on December 10.

The next question is.. What are you doing after the school ends? Well as of now I have booked a ticket to Perth West Australia where I will spending 8-10 days with my good Ozzie mate Cheyne and his family. I was asking God "How do you want me to wrap up this amazing spiritual journey in NZ before I go home?". As soon as I began to pray I got the invite to Perth and new right away that it was God calling me. So after a solid word of the Lord and Spending every last penny I had I bought a ticket to Australia. I am so excited for the trip and feel very blessed that I have this amazing opportunity.

Prayer Requests

As a school we must still be focused on what the teaching is and it can be very easy to become distracted especially when outreach is on your mind, so please be praying for focus within the school and great opportunities for both outreach teams to become connected.

Also please be praying for guidance of both outreach teams and that we can be in complete step with God and hsi calling for us in Bali and the PNG team.

I always love spending time with my guys' so prayer for more amazing opportunitites for me to invest into them would be so amazing and such a blessing.

Lastly, I am so thankful for Gods financial provision over me being able to purchase both a ticket to Bali and Perth. It has been so great being able to have such amazing stories of faith for what God has done for me and the unique ways he has provided for me. I still do not have a tcket home though and still owe a staff fees so I am really trusting God for a lot right now. At the end of the year I will owe about $2500 in staff fees and about $1300 for a flight home. SO please be praying for me to get a ticket home before the ticket prices sky rocket for the holidays.

Thanks to all who have been in prayer for me and have blessed me with prayers and encouragement and also a huge thanks to all who have supported me finnancially. I feel so blessed to have such amazing opportunites to serve God in such amazing placs with such God hungry young people.

Love you all.

2009-08-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

What amazing past few weeks we have had!

The DTS has finished there second week of lecture phase and what an amazing opportunity its been to poor out there hearts and really give there all to God. There are 14 students this school representing 5 different nations. The diversity is incredible. I am one of 6 staff including our school director. He has asked me to take on the role of being 2ic which is a real honorable and responsible role that I feel privileged to take on. Having knowledge and

experience comes responsibility and I am so happy that this i

s the way God is using me.

This past weekend after an awesome 5 day teaching of intercessory prayer and hearing Gods voice I had the opportunity to take the DTS guys out to this famous surf break called Raglan. So all 7 of us guys piled ourselves, 5 surfboards and wetsuits, sleeping bags, and food into the school van and we headed off to what we like to call a “Mans Trip”. We drove about 2 hours to get there and jumped straight into the 5ft+ surf and got an amazing sunset session. That night we made it over to friends house and we through together a giant pasta full of meat, cheese and garlic, all the things men love. We woke up the next morning feeling sore from the living room floor we slept on but excited to get back in the water. We surfed for a few hours then came back and made an absolute gigantic breakfast for all 10 of u

s including our friends. We made 2 dozen eggs, a pound of bacon and sausage, hash browns, toast, it was “the works”. We made a mess but it was such a success. All of us guys just being men together. After our breakfast we went out for our final surf of the weekend and it was sunny and warm for a winter day. We all went out and had the times of our lives then packed up and drove back tired as you could be but the whole time smiling. What a privilege for me, to have the opportunity to take out all the guys in the group and allow them just be men together. To admire Gods beauty, make a mess while making food and fun, to surf and laugh together. Men NEED experiences like this. I am so thankful and so honored to have the opportunity to encourage and push the importance of men seeking the Father for adventure and having men to be adventurous with. Thank You God for such an incredible weekend!!

Prayer requests,

Lately I have been thinking a lot about home, being with my family and friends. Its tough because It can distract me at times and make me feel homesick a bit. I would love your prayers for me In this area of living in the now and staying focused on the task God has given me at this season of my life.

I am currently trusting God for his provision over me financially in both airfare and staff fees. I had gotten and invitation to go spend 10 days with my school director and his family to his parents’ home in west Australia in December right after the school. I have been looking at flight prices and got an estimate for about US$1400 to go to Australia then back home to Los Angeles. I am really praying a lot into this area for it can be a stressful issue but God is an amazing and trusting God and I strongly believe in his calling for me being here.

Thank you so much for reading my latest blog and look forward to a new post being put out in a few weeks time. Blessings and love to you all.

While In New Zealand...

2009-06-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Now that the DTS has just finished I am currently on a 4 week gap before the next school training starts which begins july 15th. I am living In Tauranga at the moment and will flying over to the great barrier island on friday. I will be there working and living for the next few weeks to get myself prepared for the next school. God is an amazing God, a week ago I had no plans for what I would be doing these next few weeks and in just a few days God opened lots of doors for me. If you could please just be praying for wisdom and preparation of my heart for the next school. Currently the next school I I'll be the only male on staff besides the school director and I will also be the only senior staff. There are currently 15 students enroled and 4 female staff,two male staff including me and our school director so I am a bit nervous but overall very excited for the new challenges and fun times ahead. Your prayers will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all and bless you all so much.

2009-06-15T16:16:00.001-07:00

Cheers!!

Its nice to finally be back in New Zealand after our 2 month outreach to people groups throughout the Fijian islands. What an amazing outreach it was. We sure faced our challenges but what was so amazing was seeing God's grace and guidance of our team while working there.

The first 3 weeks of outreach were spent doing medical outreach to the4 different villages in Theisland of Vanua Levu. We were operating in the dental clinic, primary health care, optical, and we also had a construction team. We were all split up into one of the teams and rotated throughout the outreach. I had the opportunity to work with the construction team for the first week. We mostly built sets of steps and hand railing for those who needed it. We had little to work with so we couldn't really do any large projects but we used what we had and it really was so cool just to see how grateful these people were for just a simple set of stairs leading into there homes. While the construction team was doing all we could the optical and primary healthcare teams would be working in a nearby town hall each having there own stations separating them and the dental team would be working in the dental clinic aboard the ship. For the second part of the medical outreach I was stationed in the dental clinic. I moved patients throughout the clinic, handling the dental communications from the ship, and also assisted in dental education and post operation prescriptions. A few days I was blessed with the opportunity to assist the dentist. It was absolutely incredible; in one day of assisting we saw over 20 patients and did 4 root canals. I got to do over 10 extractions myself. I learned so much during those weeks working the clinic.

Over the 3 week outreach we would pray over and ask for God's provision in treating these people. We all had the opportunity to be trained on the field with those who were specialized in their field. Overall we had 1 optometrist, 1 GP, 6 nurses and 2 dentists. Including the captain and the ships crew there we 48 people living aboard the ship with a maximum living capacity of 50. We would constantly be praying for patients before and after treatment, here are some of the medical stats from our medical outreach:

1988 patients overall

Primary Health Care

760 patients

410 doctor consultations

314 nurse consultations

189 physical therapy and group education

Optical Care

653 patients

152 pairs prescription glasses distributed

344 pairs reading glasses distributed

Dental Care

575 patients

984 teeth removed (extractions)

249 teeth restored (fillings)

95 cleanings

2009-06-15T03:19:00.001-07:00

DTS Outreach Completed!

Rabi Island Outreach

Hayley and I had the responsibility of leading a team to the small remote island of Rabi. We made our arrangements during the medical outreach and it was amazing seeing God lay out plans before us. So not before long we were blessed with a church to stay with. When we first arrived we were escorted by the chief of a nearby village called Koroko. He took us to a small village of Tabiang where we met all of the church elders and family we would be living with for the next 3 weeks. It was quite funny because on the first night we all introduced ourselves in the dark due to the generators that power the lights not being on just yet. Little did we know that these people would make such a large impact on us. While being in Rabi we felt a strong calling in reaching out to the special groups of people there. Such as children’s and teenage ministry, and men and women's ministry. It was really great to have nights or days simply dedicated to one focus. For example we would have a day focused on just high school ministry so we would have program scheduled at the high school then after that we would go play volleyball with them and then close out the night with a bible study with them. We would have days focused on medical we gave out free tooth brushes, and of course days focused prayer for the village. Hayley and I felt a strong calling to do something radical and different with this team we weren't sure what the calling was so we prayed and prayed and He led us to student leadership. Allowing the students to be more and more involved in facilitating the day to day programs. So we did, we designated one student a day to plan the day and organize the team. It was amazing seeing the students handle the we deal with daily and seeking us leaders and God on what to do.

The people of Rabi are very friendly; we had the opportunity to do house visits and really get to know the people of the village. We would pray for them and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. We find that most of the believers there are just believers because they will be looked down upon if they are not involved in church. So we stepped out and reached out to them. We also went and prayed for widows and the injured and sick. We saw a lady be healed after seeing her swollen leg that had been hurting her so bad she couldn't walk but after praying for her the next day we saw her back teaching in the classroom and walking around like normal. It was just incredible.

Like most Pacific Islands the Rabi people live off what they have. They fish and eat what they grow. Food such as taro, cassava, and of course coconuts. They also really love their rice and flour which they use to make all of their bread which is cheap and easy for them. We also ate a lot of fish- fish and rice nearly 3 meals a day. It sounds like it may be bad but truthfully I miss the food quite a bit. I would have to say the most special thing was the relationships we gained. We met some amazing people. People that would just sit with us and sing songs all throughout the night. They would always be laughing and always be happy. We got very close with a man named Aretane, he was such a man of God and had been praying for a team like ours to come to his village and encourage him to start up some type of youth ministry but is finding it very hard due to the poor relationships between churches. It was so amazing seeing him come house to house with us and seeing him pray for the of his village. They may have felt that we were the encouragement to them but really they were the encouragement to us with there amazing openhearted spirits and incredible hospitality.

Bon Voyage!!

2009-03-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

The sailing begins today as we head off to our first location of Orama located in the great barrier islands of the northeast coast of New Zealand. We will be there working with a camp and finishing week 7 of the lecture phase. Great Barrier is an absolute beautiful place. I had the opportunity to sail there last September and it was such a experience. The sail is short just 12 hours and were praying for smooth seas.
After our week in Orama, we will head back to the main land in Auckland to dry dock the ship and do any last minute preparations for the ship before we sail. After a week of of inspections and week 8 of lecture is finished we will sail 4 days out to Lautoka, Fiji. We are planned to spend the last 3 weeks of the lecture phase in the YWAM base in Fiji then we will begin our first half of outreach by working with the medical team on the ship. We will be doing eye care, dental care, and also primary health care. Once we are done with our first outreach on the sip with the medical team, the teams will be split up and sent off to our 2nd outreach locations. The first of 8 which is led by Dahvede and Caroline will be flying back to New Zealand to do a backpacking type outeach traveling through the parts of the North and South Islands. The second team which is led by Hayley and myself will take our team of 8 will be heading out to Rabi Island. A small Fijian Island in the northwest islands of Fiji. We are still not set on what we will be doing there but we feel called to simplay let God lead us. It is hard to make contacts with the people of this islands seeing how it is ran by generators only running at certain hours of the day. Both teams will be staying in there location for 3 weeks and then we will meet back up in New Zealand for debrief and graduation. I will be updating my blog the progress of the last weeks of lecture and also outreach when it begins. Hopefully I will be able to find an internet source to update you at least once a month.
Please be praying for our safety as we sail, for safe seas and complete guidence in the open south pacific seas.
Also please be praying for Gods Revealance of his plans for us. We are blessed to have the opportunity to reach out to these people and we ask that we can can be as much as a blessing for them as they are for us.

Thank you so much for reading my latest blog and I will updating you as soon as possible. Bless you all. Thanks for all the love.

All staffed up and ready to go!!

2009-02-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Staff training has came to an end and my new journey of being a DTS staff member has begun. The staff training began on the 15 of January which consisted of training in numerous aspects of leadership including relational, team building, counseling, and communication. Being a part of the staff is a great opportunity for me to grow not only as a leader but another amazing opportunity for me to further my intimacy and relationship with God. This decision for me to stay in New Zealand for another year has been a very hard decision. With months of prayer and hearing from God I truly felt the calling. I couldn't see myself missing such a blessing and opportunity to grow in my walk with God and in leadership.
So far we are at week 3 of lecture phase the spirit has moved so much in our team. Every week we have opened up the floor to students to open up to the class and express a struggle in there life. It has been unbeleivable seeing students growing together in prayer so much by relaeasing these struggles to one another. So far we have baptised 2 students where they fully commited to leave there old life of self reliance to relying on the Holy Spirit.
Being on staff has really opened up my perspective of DTS. It's cool to get a different view of the students and progress of the school. As a staff member I am in charge of a small group where I arrange one on one meetings with students, go over the lecture week with them, and also go over their weekly class journals.
So far I coud say that this school is one of the most radical schools in the past few years. This past week was absolutely incredible. Having a babtism, a 5 hour worship session that lead to having nearly all the students open up in confession with there hurt in there life and give it up to God. With all the tears and celebration of what God has been doing its been exhausting energizing. We are only at week 3 of the school and so much has happened so far. Im so excited to see the growth of this school from the beggining to the end. Its going to be such a radical difference.

Heres the Staffers..

Prayer requests

Wisdom as a staff member, at times its been stressful and full of surprises but prayer to be strong and smart about decisions in leadership.

Finnancial support, as a staff I am responsible for paying $300 a month in fees for living. which includes food and housing, also other DTS fees. For me to trust God in his provision for me.

That God can continue to move so much with the students and staff of the school. Gods preparation of there hearts and minds for Gods plans for them.

Thanks for checking out my newest blog, I will be updating twice a month to keep you infromed on what Gods doing here. Bless you guys!!

Were Back and all Graduated!!

2008-12-16T00:07:00.000-08:00

Wow! What an adventure these past two months have been. We have done so much in this time it has been amazing. Our first adventure was our trip to Samoa. Samoa was an absolute amazing place with beautiful beaches, wonderful weather, and some of the kindest people you will ever come across. As a team of 5 students and 2 staff we headed off to our first outreach still slightly unaware of what we would exactly be doing there. The entire team had a strong passion for really seeking God and letting him lead the team rather than us trying to lead and create our own plans. Well just that happened; our plans for what we thought we would be doing completely changed. Typically on a DTS outreach a team will be sent out to there given location and given a place to stay at a local Youth With A Mission base. But for us our housing situation was a little more unique. We had the opportunity to live with different family’s each week in different villages all throughout Samoa. Our first location was in a little village near the capital city of Apia name Vialoa. We were able to do so much while being there, everything from running nightly church programs to visiting hospitals and even prayer walks all through out the city doing random acts of kindness like buying bread and water for the homeless on the streets. The family we had stayed with also had many family members living in each home. Like most Samoan homes an entire family of up to maybe 15 consisting of moms, dads, grandpas, cousins, brothers in law, and all other members of the family will all be staying in these households. They were all so hospitable it was amazing, giving us all food and giving us there beds to sleep on. As a team we really felt that God had a distinct job for us and that was to really learn and respect the samoan culture. In doing that we would all do our absolute best to step out into the action. We would help cook and gather food for them which envolved everything from carrying coconuts to even killing pigs and preparing them for a traditional samoan feast. In the second week there was a time where we as a team had done something that no other white man had done in that village and that was to hike nearly two hours in rain and mud all the way up to this mans plantation where he had been living and growing all of his crops. He was so surprised to see us and in complete confusion to why the heck we would head up there just to see his plantation and I think after hiking that long and getting bitten to death by mosquitos we were all wondering what the heck we were doing up there. But after speaking to him for a little while we had found out that he had actually been struggling so much with alcoholism and that it was costing him his family. He had little faith at the time and was in desperate need of prayer and support. We all knew after hearing his story exactly why we were there. So we did just that, we prayed for him and gave him words of encourgement and left his plantation feeling completely blessed and filled with the holy spirit. It was trully a divine appointment. Heres a pic of the man named Somate. Some other amazing things we were able to do was visit hospitals, prisons, and even primary schools. On our 3rd week we had the opportunity to visit the bigger but less populated island of Savaii. Where we experienced intense rain and thunder at night and intense sun during the day. We had a very busy schedule though consisting off doing church programs at night and during the day doing things such as working at the plantation or helping serve the villages with cleaning up or just spending time getting to know the people of the villages. In our 4th and final week we had gone back to Vialoa to do alot of work with the Samoa YWAM base. Our biggest job was to just help cook and cooking is just what we did. All fresh and cooked under the fire. It was amazing, this is also where we had met the president of YWAM named John Dawson. He had completely surprised us and was so excited to chat with us and pray for us which was amzing. When it was time to go we spent our last day visiting a local resort named Aggi Greys. It was beautiful with a nice pool and and great food but the strangest thing and saddest thing was thinking that nearly all the people that come to visit Samoa go and just see beach resorts just like that. When really Samoas true beauty is deep down in the hearts of the people and the amazing storys of struggle and success all due to there amzing relationships that they have with God and eachother. What an Amazing and unforgettable journey that was.

Outreach #2 New Zealand South Island Public Relations Tour

Our main focus on the second part of outreach was to drive nearly 700 miles south all the way down from our base in Tauranga to a little town of Edendale, just about 30 min from Invercargil. We visited churches and shared our amazing island experiences to people in Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Wanaka, Gore, and many other little towns throughout the southland area and finnally based in Edendale at a camp named Edenview. One goal we really had was to connect with people and spreading the news of what God is doing in our lifes and can do in theres. There is a large struggle going on in the churches of southland right now with nearly 30 churches within 40 minutes of each other all shutting down within the last few years. We were about as busy as a group can get with days where we all split up into 4 groups covering nearly 7 different churches doing programs in all of them. Some amazing things that we had the chance to do visit a prison and put on a complete hour program filled with worship and our own personal testimonys followed by a short encouraging message. The prisoners there were absolutely amazing, speaking to them after they were asking for prayer and for us to share more our personal storys with them. They had shared how inspiring it was for the 7 of us students representing 6 different nations come together as a team and be able to be so close. It left us all so inspired. We also had the chance to visit primary schools and put on programs for them which for alot of us going to a public school to speak and sing about Jesus seems like a strange thing but do to how small these farmland based schools were there wasnt much of an issue. The schools I would say was one of the best experience for me. Always the kids were so interactive and always laughing and dancing when doing skits and songs. New Zealand has some absolute gorgeous places that I would say is down south where we had the opportunity to go to. Filled with tall beautiful mountainsides and neverending strethches of green farmland the south Island offers absolute breathtaking scenery. Some of us students had the opportunity to view a place called Millford Sounds where they had filmed a majority of Lord of the rings films. They have these little sand flies there that just love to bite you up and they say that in old maori history God put these flys there to bite you and remind you that your not in heaven. And by looking at some of the mountains and lakes I can see why they believed that. Overall after driving nearly 75 total hours and about 1500 miles we were exhausted, run down, but intirely filled with love and rewarding feeling of a job well done. Our hearts were inspired and we created memories that will last a life time.

Once we all returned everyone began packing up there bags and preparing to head home. With our graduation following just after outreach our class of 15 students representing 8 different nations were all graduated and begining to thank God more and more for the amazing relationships that we had all established with eachother. It was heartbreaking to say bye and there was many tears shed but with plenty more laughing going with it. I will never forget this discipleship training school where I established an amazing relationship with God, met amazingly unique people from all over the world, and had the chance to be in parts of the world that I never imagined. What an amzing way to start the rest of my life. Heres a pic of us guys doing a traditional Maori Haka at graduation. A haka is just a loud fast moving intimidation tool that they used in tribal war times and still use them in rugby today. Check out a New Zealand Haka on You Tube you will be impressed.

My New Challenge!

Coming back from all of these amazing journeys God has challenged me with a new opportunity to step out in my faith and test my own personal experiences by staying on the boat in New Zealand and becoming a staff member for the next 2 Discipleship Training Schools. I was asked to stay several months ago and had been prayerfully seeking God in how I can not only Grow in my faith but grow in leadership skills, relational skills, and overall maturity and i felt that this was exactly that. I am so excited to stay to see whats in store for me and how I can be used in ways ive never been used before. Currently there are 3 other staff members that I will working with and untill the next school starts in January 26th we have been using this time to prepare ourselves and rebuild oursleves for the next school. The School still intales a 3 month lecture phase followed by a 2 month outreach. If you would like to see what we will be doing in the next school please visit the Marine Reach Website at http://www.marinereach.com/. and check out the Pacific Challenge DTS.

Prayer Requests!

I have been using alot of my time just praying thanks of all the amazing experiences Ive had and all the awesome support I have been getting from family and friends. If you could please just pray thanks to God for keeping us safe as a team and leading us to such awesome people and places with tons of awesome experiences.

Prayer for guidance and wisdom for my commitment to becoming a staff member. It will be very challenging and educational for me and I am very excited to take on the role.

Pray for my parents and all of my family for giving me the blessings to step out in my faith and stay another year here in New Zealand. Ask God to give them blessing and fill them with love and comfort that I will be safe here.

Also if you can be praying for provision in me finnancially, that God can provide for me and I can be taken care of both finnacially and Spiritually.

Thank you so much for checking out my latest blog entery and I will continually update it with any thing new that is happening. With tons of blessings and love thank you.

Have An absolute Merry Christmas and Happy New year! Feel free to email me anytime you have any questions or want to chat about anything!

Off To Samoa!!

2008-10-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody! We are all packed up and heading out to Samoa where will begin our first phase of outreach. We will be leaving on Friday the 17th of October and will be returning on the 17th of November. We are not completely sure of what we will be doing on our outreach but we do know that we will be having oppotunities to do such things as childrens ministry, prison ministry, painting and construction, primary healthcare, and most importantly bringing the love of Jesus to the people of Samoa. Samoa is known to be a very generous culture, they live with the friendly concept of what is mine is yours, and what yours is mine. There are 5 students and 2 staff heading out to Samoa and we are all so excited. There is another team of 12 that is heading out to the Solomon Islands on the 21st of October and also will be returning in mid November. They are scheduled to do similar types of evangelizing but also are intented to do a small concrete project.

After 3 months of learning about God's love and training how to express it, we are now excitedly beginning a journey in which we will use that knowledge to be inspirational as well as to be inspired. We ask you if you could please pray for both teams for safety and protection not only physically but spiritually. Also if you could pray for the people of Samoa and the Solomon Islands and prepare there hearts for our teams coming. Thank you so much for all your prayers and I will continue to try and keep the Blog updated.

With Love and Blessings

Marine Reach Discipleship Training School

2008-10-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Kia Ora Friends and Family,

I would just like to start off by apologizing for it taking so long for me to create my new blog page. It has been a very amazing but busy last few months. But the Blog is made and here to stay so please feel free to check up for updates and also feel free to email me at LCromelin@ymail.com if you have any questions about anything or simply just want to chat, I am open for anything. I really thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy it.

My Amazing Journey So Far...

The Pacific Challenge Discipleship Training School is a Christian based ministry school bringing all walks of life from all over the world together to train and prepare aspiring short term and future long term missionaries. We have the blessing to be able to all serve the people in and around the South Pacific. There are 15 members on the team representing 10 different nations around the world. Countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, The Philippines, Colombia, England, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States all aging 18-28 years. It has been so amazing being able to spend time learning and growing with young adults that have come from all around the world.

The school begins with a 3 month lecture phase preparing students for a 2 month outreach. The lecture phase has a subject each week focusing on one different aspect of serving and bettering your relationship with God. Our schedule looks something like this,

Week 1 Jessie Misa, Father Heart of God:
A week to really grasp on to our identify. Knowing how important things such as being chosen by God and being a personal possession of God. Great way to start off DTS.

Week 2 Femi Oni, Nature and Character of God:
Definitely our most controversial week. Femi is a man of African descent but raised in England. He was loud and confident about his personal convictions. He taught us that Gods primary purpose is to fully restore a person into the perfect state in which he created him. This was week was pretty cool though, one of my classmates Caroline was baptized this week and it was really cool to be a part of that. She has grown so much in her faith and truly becoming an inspiration. Plus she was wearing my wet suit during the baptism so not only did Caroline get renewed by the Holy Spirit but my wetsuit did to. Ha here she is...

Week 3 Linda Cowie, Boundaries:
It was awesome having Linda come and speak with us, we all called her mom do to the fact that she was so nice and sweet to everyone. She spoke on the issues of life and how to approach them with God and handle them responsibly. God gave us freedom and with freedom comes responsibility.

Week 4 Dean Shermon, Relationships:
Dean Shermon was interesting; it was a week of watching the lesson of him on video. I thought it was great though. We learned how important it is to put God first in all of friendships and relationships with a loved one. To have a pure heart and not let the condition of your heart affect your relationships.

Week 5 David Dishroon, Faith:
David taught us about how faith is confidence, certainty and a firm belief. Knowing that faith is an action and how important it is to have endurance in your faith in God.

Week 6 Jono Turner, Repentance:
Keeping your hearts clean and pure so there is nothing in your heart that would not let God fully surrounds you in his love. Developing a lifestyle to recognize God’s will and Gods acceptance. Repentance is not turning away from bad things but turning towards God creating love and pure heartedness.

Week 7 Brandon Gardner, Evidence that demands a verdict:
Or also known as apologetics. He spoke on the theory of evolution vs. creation. Also another speaker that spoke strongly on his personal convictions and his personal beliefs.

Week 8 Carolyn Chisholm, Fear of the lord:
This week was very interesting; Carolyn had come to speak on how to understand Gods power but also Gods love and gentleness. This week turned out a little differently becoming a week a week where we really came together as a team, praying so much for each other. We confessed to each other and really broke any spiritual walls that were there and blocking our relationships as a family. It was a very much needed week and really helped us grow so much in our walks with God together.

Week 9 Big wave Dave, Your calling:
David was awesome, he told his story about when he was 18 he decided to head out onto a surfers DTS. After his DTS he felt a calling to go to Afghanistan and spent 5 years there spreading the word of God and living out Gods calling for him. He is now 25 and traveling around sharing his testimony and working with Youth With A Mission. His inspirational story touches so many young lives and now he is seeking out Gods calling for him to start up a fire in the hearts of this generation. He really got everyone very excited to seek God and believe that there is more in there life’s that they can do then they think.

So that is where we are at currently and are moving into our final week of lectures. The School has absolutely flown by but has changed each one of our hearts. It’s been amazing to see how every student has been touched in their own specific ways.

Now our team is being blessed with the opportunity to serve 2 3rd world nations, being Samoa, and the Solomon Islands. The team has been split into 2; one team of 7 and the other of 12 students and staff. The team I am on is the team of 7 going to Samoa. We are team Tauria, the name coming from a historical canoeing tribe that began in the early tribes of the Maori tradition. The Solomon Island team being team Awara also a Maori historical tribe. We are so excited to see what God has planned for us in these Islands. We currently do not know exactly what we are doing but we know that we will have the possibilities to work medically, evangelizing, giving aid in building/churches, and simply just sharing our love for Jesus to the islanders. After returning from the islands in mid November both teams will join back together and begin our public relations tour down through the south island of New Zealand where we will be speaking in churches and schools to spread the word about what God is doing in Marine Reach as a ministry. We leave on the 18th of October for our trips and have been doing so much to raise funds for our teams such as bake sales, car washes, jewelry sells, and simply just generous donations. God is doing so much for us. Praise God!

Prayer Requests,

If you could please pray for both teams in our preparing for our trips, that we can touch the hearts or the islanders and also be able spread the awesome news to the south island of New Zealand and share what we have done in the islands.

Currently I have been offered the opportunity to stay in New Zealand and staff the next 2 DTS's. I feel God is calling me to take on the challenge and live the adventure that God is putting through. If you can pray for me and my personal strength to know and trust in my faith with what Gods will is for me.

Simply if you can just pray for our unity as a team and that we can be a strong body of Christ and not break in times of stress. We have all been brought here together for a reason and want to continue being strong as a family.

Thank You so much for all your prayers and support for me, you guys' are all such a blessing.