DTS Outreach Darwin [Katherine]: Week 4 Recap

Yung Bala Kamp team :-)

On our last week in the Northern Territory, we journeyed down south, past Katherine.

Pretty much the scenery for the entire 3 hour trip

Potty break at the Adelaide River Inn

We unpacked for a one-night-stay at a missionary's house

One inspiring, beautiful woman of God

Chatting with my amazing friend and leader...

...during this gorgeous sunset!! 

We joined a Yung Bala Kamp (Youth Camp), which was run by an SIM missionary, who ministers in the Aboriginal communities in the NT.

Our warm welcome to the outback

Unloading the troupie. We dumped everything here, then moved it all over to the shed, and then moved it all >>

>> here. To our campsite :-)

Story of our lives in the outback

Teaching

Discussion time

Bailing out water from the leak, created by someone driving into a tap! Oops! 

Craft-time

Outdoors activities (these guys are FAST!)

The Shield of Faith

Tug-o'-War - girls won!!!!!!

:-)

Learning about the Armour of God

I spent hours during this week reading and journalling. It was amazing!

Had lots of fun with this little kid!!

On the last night at camp, we had a wonderful worship and sharing time.
During that time, suddenly there was a scream from one of the tents.  The girl in the tent had a toothache, so she'd been sleeping while we were around the campfire. A bunch of the ladies, as well as a couple of the leaders from our group rushed into the tent. The girl said that she saw something; felt something in the tent with her.
Earlier in the camp, we as leaders felt a very strong presence of the enemy. We'd spent a good couple of hours in spiritual warfare at that time, and now it felt that the devil was back, in a very physical way.
The women in the tent prayed over the girl, casting out any demons and anything of the enemy. Those of us around the campfire were praying as well, and eventually there was release. Eventually the girl in the tent calmed down.
I started singing praises to the Lord, and everyone joined in. Just remembering that moment gives me goosebumps! I literally felt the Lord's presence there, in those moments. He was so very real; so very close. I was amazed at the breakthrough that we felt during that time of spiritual warfare.
God is so powerful!

Yung Bala Kamp

On the way back to Darwin

I got the joy of opening and closing gates =D

Team debrief on the way home

Overall this camp was an eye-opener. I've never really spent much time with Indigenous people, and I loved living with them and seeing how they do life.
Spending that week with our team was a great experience, too.

~Rachel

DTS Outreach Darwin: Week 2 Recap

Hello everyone!!
Here I am again, a week later, sweltering in the heat that is Darwin's winter! Well, not quite sweltering... But definitely still rocking out the shorts and t-shirts!!

 This last week was absolutely amazing. The Mission Adventure students were all finally here on Monday, and then the fun began!!!!
There were just over 20 students, from 2 schools in Victoria. There were 6 boys and the ready were girls, plus a few teachers thrown into the mix. There were about 10 full-time YWAMers on staff for Mission Adventure, plus a bunch of young people about my age who came at various times to assist with various parts of the program.

The daily program [for the students] looked like this:
7.00am wake up
7.15am: breakfast
8.00am: leave for the church (we used the facilities for the entire program at a local church)
8.15am: team/student/teacher meetings
8.45am: devotional groups
9.15am: CARE training (preparation time for outreach - included skits, puppets, kids games, craft, and sharing personal testimonies)
10.15am: morning tea
10.45am: morning session (worship, intercession and teaching)
1.00pm: lunch
2.00pm: work duties (e.g. lunch clean-up, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, dinner prep)
3.00pm: CARE training / outreach team meeting
4.15pm: games
5.30pm: dinner
6.30pm: clean up
7.00pm: evening session (worship and teaching). This was always followed by special workshops/stations/activities designed to give students the opportunity to cine closer to God
9.45pm: drive home
10.30pm: lights out

Whew!!!! It makes me tired just remembering!!
Ahh, but it was so good!

Two leaders setting a great example for the students =D

I was a devotional group leader with Naomi, and the girls in our group were absolutely amazing!!! We had done awesome chats with them - it was such a privilege to be a part of their lives for a few short days.

MA teaching session

I was also in the band for every worship session, and that was great! It was soooo nice to be playing music with a team again, and experiencing worship with new people and in different styles was so cool! On Wednesday I happened to song God Is Able and ended up leading that song (while playing keyboard)... At the end of worship, the leader who came up to do announcements gave me the hugest compliment by thanking me especially for singing, "I didn't even know you could sing!", and in general making me go all shy ;-) But it was kinda cool, I admit =D As it happened, I ended up leading the following morning's worship session!! I truly had SUCH fun, and was so blessed by the experience!

Worship at Mission Adventures

Leading worship

For the whole week, Janet and I were I charge of the intercession times. We basically had to teach the students what intercession is, the principles we use to lead into intercession, and how to learn to hear God's voice. We prepped everything the week before, but each night we'd spend time looking over the plans, making sure everything was together for the morning, and checking that we were on the same page. This meant we had quite late nights! - but out was definitely worth it. It was great to learn to work with Janet and have the opportunity to learn how to teach these important things!

Leading intercession

Toma and I were work duty leaders for a group of 4 students - 2 guys and 2 girls. Our duty was to drive back to base and clean the boys and girls bathrooms. It was fun! The first day I was trying to organise everyone, when I myself didn't really know where anything was... But they were an awesome bunch and knew how to clean, so that made it so much easier. There happened to be a few cans of lemon and lime fizzy drink in the fridge (SO GOOD!!), so Toma and I rewarded them (and ourselves!) by sharing the cans around =P we had to finish them in a hurry though, before we got back to the church - we couldn't have everyone jealous, now, could we? ;-)

Some days, in the afternoon, my DTS team regrouped and prayed together. I really appreciated those times of rest with the team.

Prepping to lead worship, during a quiet moment in the middle of the day

The night sessions were quite powerful. The different activities that we had included stations around the room with activities and time to pray, and a foot-washing time where us leaders washed student's feet and were able to pray for them individually.

Surrendering at the cross

So as you can see, the a schedule was really quite full! It was exhausting at times, but 100% worth it. The times didn't hanging out with the students, observing them, posting for them, and serving them was just amazing. I am SOOOOOO grateful to have been a part of Mission Adventure!!!

YWAM Outback Mission Adventure 2012 staff

The students all left at the end of the week for outreach - one group to an Aboriginal community; the other to Cambodia. Please pray for them as they serve - first and foremost that they will individually experience God in a new, amazing and personal way.

After they left on Friday, we had to clean the whole base and prepare for guests who stayed here on the weekend.
Saturday was a complete chill-out day! Sleep-in, reading, went for a walk, op-shopping, more reading, another walk into the city, and all finished up with the best Indian food ever, prepared by my favourite Indian people ever ;-) So, so good!

A meal with friends :)

Early morning walk

Sunday I went to Berry Springs... For a friend's wedding!!!!!!!!!! SUCH a special surprise!!! God really grants the randomest blessings! I'd been invited to the wedding, but had declined cos I knew I'd be on outreach. The turn of events came this week when the bride's sister emailed me, and through conversation, I realised the wedding was this Sunday! And waddayaknow... But I was re-invited (to the ceremony AND reception), a lift to and from the event was organised, I found a dress on Saturday, and voila! - I surprised Chanelle!!

Ready for Chanelle's wedding!

After she walked up the aisle, her sister (maid-of-honour) whispered something to her, and next thing I know, dear Chanelle's jaw drops open and she gets teary as she realises I'm there :') That was so special to know that I was a good surprise! ;-)
The ceremony was followed by a barbecue lunch, and then a lot of people went swimming in the springs, which looked lovely! The heat was pretty atrocious, so I was happy when the hottest part of the day was over! I would like to point out that I only had a few centimetres of skin that got only slightly burned!

Overall, last week was absolutely amazing!!!!!!!! I was just so amazingly blessed by all that transpired.
This week will be odd jobs and various bits of outreach, and then we're going to an Aboriginal community that is about 3 hours away from Darwin. We'll be helping with a youth camp there. I can't wait for this new experience! (hopefully I'll get to learn some bush tracking stuff and maybe even eat some bush tucker?!?!)

Janet and Tim preparing morning / afternoon tea

Please continue to pray for me and my team as we move on and serve in various ways. Please pray against any illness, injury, or vehicle problems as we travel out bush. Pray with us, also, with the authority that's been given to us by Christ, against evil spirits in the community we'll be serving in. The spirits are very real, and we're called to stand against them in Jesus' name.

Thank you all so much again for any prayers and thoughts and encouragement as I continue this wonderful journey!
Lots of love to you, my friends...
~Rachel

DTS Outreach Darwin: Week 1 Recap

Hello, lovely people!!

Finally, I have a chance to use Blogger on this fancy phone of mine :) It's such a blessing to have wifi connection, at least at the moment!

So, one week has already flown by, here in Darwin!!
We are staffing a Mission Adventure here at the Darwin YWAM base. Mission Adventure is a 2-week program for high school students - kind of like a mini-DTS: days of teaching, followed by outreach.

So this past week we have spent every morning in training sessions, to get prepared for when the students arrive tomorrow (Sunday). The sessions covered topics such as teamwork, personal quiet time, child safety policies, intersession, and outreach. We did some fun team-building activities, too!!

Toma kindly gave us the afternoons off this week - because next week will be so full-on. Thanks, Toma! In the afternoons I did various things. One afternoon I exercised with Tim and Toma. Another afternoon we went to the Wave Pool with all of the MA staff. One day Janet and I went down to the park and read for a couple hours. It's been a privilege to have time out this week - I'm sure this isn't "normal" outreach!

I've missed home a lot this week, especially leading up to the weekend. There's a mid-year youth camp happening, and I would've loved to be there! To make it even more of a struggle for me, Andre is there, too! I'm glad he got to go, but I am pretty jealous =P

 Before I finish with a few phone pics from the week, I'd like to share a few prayer requests with you.

 1. Physical energy. The Mission Adventure students arrive today, and from now into the week, our schedule will basically be full from 7am until 10pm!
 2. Grace to be able to focus here, for this season, instead of pining away for home and my boyfriend!
 3. That I will be able to continue to have personal quiet times every day - very important when all day is spent pouring out into the lives of the youth.
 4. For God to use me as He wills during Mission Adventure.

Your prayers and encouragement are greatly appreciated!
 ~ Rachel
PS Sorry that some of the pictures are sideways - didn't know how to rotate them on my phone!

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Evening chats with some great people: Annie, Manuel, Toma and Tim 

Walking in the Botanical Gardens

Morning view outside my window

Mango gelato after walking into the city with Janet

Loving the palm trees!

Relaxing at the Wave Pool =D such bliss!

Visiting the Fannie Bay Gaol

One delicious meal!