Miracles.

Money is no object to God.  I can say that for a fact now.  I've witnessed it, and I can't wait to tell you about it!

About two weeks ago, it was announced that as a whole DTS, there was still about 150,000 dollars that needed to come in.  But then the kicker came, it had to be in by "next Friday", which was yesterday.  I personally had been so blessed already and had more than enough for outreach, but some people on the DTS still needed upwards of 5,000 dollars.  Automatically, we were a team.  Every person who had their finances taken care of couldn't celebrate yet - some members of our family of DTS were still in incredible need.  We started emailing, blogging, facebooking, and praying that God would provide the money in whichever way He saw fit.  There were a few stories of 100 dollars coming here, 500 there, which were all lifted right back to God is earnest praise.  Many people started realizing that we needed to start praising God now, not just when the money comes in.  We needed to be so sure that God would provide that we would thank Him in advance.  Yesterday came, and many people were still in so much need.  We got together last night at what we called "Giving Night".  On the white board, they wrote all the people who were still needing finances.  Even in this, there was seen a miracle.  One of the girls was in need of over 5,000 dollars at the start of the day, and her name wasn't even written on the board.  All the money had been donated - in one day.  The same was the case with one of our staff members. She started the day needing over 2,000 dollars, and all of it was donated in one day.  Another one of the staffs needed 2,000 dollars as well, and his debt at the end of the day totaled to about 60 dollars. Anyway, they totaled all the numbers on the board, and it turned out to be about 66,000 dollars.  They then had everyone who had the money but hadn't paid it in yet go up and erase their name from the board.  It was awesome to see so many names erased!  At the end of that, they totaled it and there were still about 35,000 dollars left.  Then, we went on with the giving part.  Throughout the day, people had been praying that God tell them what to give to who, everything from money to a t-shirt.  Everyone who was in need went to the front, and all the other DTSers just walked up to them and either offered them prayer or money.  At the end of that phase, we went on to just giving anything God put on our hearts to give to anyone - the items ranged from toothpaste to boots to hiking backpacks and so forth.  It was such an awesome time of hearing God speak and then just following through with obedience.  Sometimes it seemed ridiculous to give someone a tube of toothpaste or an old piece of jewelry, but there were countless stories of people getting something they needed or that meant so much to them for a specific reason.  It really brought to our attention that God really pays attention to the little things, and if we're willing to obey, he can do some really amazing things.  God is so good, and so faithful!

I'd ask that all of you keep praying for finances to come in, as there are still a few with some loose ends to tie up.

Now for future news! For the next two weeks, the whole DTS is going camping in the bush! It's going to be amazing.  I hear that wild kangaroos run around.  I've also heard that camping is one of the best times on DTS, both individually and as a group.  We are cut off from internet and cell phone service for those two weeks as well.  I know God is going to just stir up our hearts in a big way while we're there.  It's going to be awesome!

Updating you in 2 weeks,
Nikki

Routine

Hey everyone!

In case you didn't catch it in the last blog, for about a week and a half I was living on the medical ship with all the girls in my school due to space issues.  There was a National Leaders Meeting going on, as well as Slingshot (leadership training).  Now, almost everyone has gone home, and besides it feeling empty here and having to say goodbye to some of the YWAM family, it's really nice.  We're finally getting a consistent routine down.  I like change, but sometimes routine and familiarity are a real comfort.

I thought you all would be interested and knowing exactly what it is I'm learning here.  Each week is a different topic with a different lecturer, and each challenges us differently.  Last week, the topic was "Relationships." If a relationship is a table, the four legs are love, trust, honor, and understanding.  The table will stand on its own without one of the legs, but if you put any pressure on that side, the table will collapse.  Carrying the analogy through, if you have a friendship that has lots of love, honor, and understanding, but no trust, the relationship will stand, but if the area of trust is at all tested, the relationship won't be able to withstand the trial.  We then broke each of those areas down.  I found myself incredibly challenged in all of my relationships to really live out those four elements to the best of my capability.  I wish I could just unpack it all for you, but there was just so much I'm not even sure where to start!

This week, the topic is "Destiny by Design."  We've talked a lot about our dreams, the dreams God has given us that we've abandoned or simply thought impossible.  Sometimes we feel like it's unwise to dream because it will only leave us disappointed, but really God wants us to dream with Him.  He created us with desires and passions, and those certainly are not to be ignored.  He has a specific and ordained call for each of our lives, and those desires and passions are like clues to really understanding what He has for us.  There's no reason to decide for God what He can do in our lives, and no reason to limit Him with our doubt, fear, or pride.  It's really cool to dream and share our dreams with each other.  I've learned so much about my brothers and sisters around me from them just sharing their dreams with me.  So I have this question for you: What's your dream?  Ask God to dream with you.  It's awesome what He'll show you if you stop limiting the possibilities by the world's standards.  Go for it.

Learning to dream,
Nikki

New information!

Hey Everyone!

I’m sorry I waited so long to blog again, but there a lot of things on the brink of happening and I wanted to wait until they happened before I wrote.  They have now happened, so get ready for a packed blog!

Over the past week, there has been a National Leaders Meeting (NLM) here at our base, so a lot of YWAMers from bases all over Australia and the world have been here.  It’s really awesome to be able to have people who have been in YWAM for years and years all around us new DTSers.  They’re so willing to answer questions and just tell us their stories whenever we ask.  Anyway, because of the NLM, the flat that all the girls and I from our DTS were staying in was needed for some of the YWAMers that were coming, so they moved all of us girls to live on the ship!  You know, THE ship, the one that went to Papua New Guinea (PNG) recently and that I’ve written the past two blogs about.  I am now living on that ship.  Here are some pictures....

The gangway

My bunk

The lounge

Out the window

The lounge couches

Also, here’s a video of the recent ship tour of PNG with statistics and all.  I would definitely recommend watching it.  Ship Tour to PNG.

Now for the other exciting news:  we just found out where we’re going on the outreach phase of DTS.  On Friday night, they told us our four options and gave us the weekend and Monday to pray about it to discern where it is that God is calling us.  We were asked not to discuss it with anyone so that our decision wouldn’t be at all swayed by who else could potentially be on our team.  Yesterday morning, they had us write down where it is that we feel God has called us to go out of the four locations we were given, and then throughout the day they prayed and discerned us into four teams.  Only a few people had to be asked to consider a different location than the one they wrote down on the paper.  It was a really neat process, and by the end of the day yesterday we were all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to find out where we’re going and what our team looks like.  Of course, our leaders stalled in telling us, much like I am doing now.  J Ok ok, so here we go. 

The four options they gave us were all in Papua New Guinea, Australia’s nearest international neighbor.  The four locations are Port Moresby (capital of PNG), Kerema/Vailala, Kikori/Ero, and Western Province.  At all of the places, the main focus will be discipleship.  Here's a map of the four locations circled in red. They go in the order I listed from right to left.  

The goal is really follow-up with what the ship just did as it went through and provide encouragement and help to those who have made a commitment to Christ.  The culture itself is extremely different, and the language will be somewhat of a barrier.  They have over 800 indigenous languages, the most of any nation of the world.  We will be working with translators the whole time, which will certainly be a new experience.  We will be there for 5 weeks.  We leave right after Christmas.  After this phase, we'll come back to Townsville for one week and then go out in the same teams to different locations in Australia to really empower young people into missions.  In Australia, it is still legal to teach religion in schools, so we'll be able to go right into the high schools.  Those locations are unknown as of yet.  

Ok, now for where I am going.  The location that God assigned to me is Kikori/Ero village.  I am in a team of 10 people, two of which are leaders.  The names of our leaders are Markus (Germany) and Anna (New Zealand).  My fellow students are Janine (Canada), James (N. Ireland), Megan (Colorado), Michael (Georgia), Paula (England), Victoria (N. Ireland), and Jacob (Florida).  As you can see, we have 6 nations represented throughout the ten of us.  If all of you could spend some time praying for this group both as a team and individually, that would be so helpful.  Each one of us was handpicked for this team for a specific purpose, and it's going to be so neat to see exactly how the dynamics work out.  I'll give all of you more information as it comes to me.  Thank you so much for all the support you've given.  Without it, I wouldn't even be close to seeing this outreach to the nations become a reality in my life.  

Blessings unending,

Nikki