A Path of Reflection: worship

5 September 2012

Blessed Events in my First Week at Home

After one week at home, enjoying time with family, sleeping in, doing nothing, and spending time with my boyfriend, I was blessed this weekend to be a part of two amazing events with dear people from my church.

The first one was a pampering afternoon for the ladies and girls, thanks to Girls of Grace [With A Mission]. It was SUCH a privilege to spend time with the lovely ladies and girls who came!

To set the mood...

Thanks to Miss Mikayla and Miss Brooke... mini cupcakes!!

Lots 'n' lots of sweets - just what every girl gets excited about ;-)

Chocolate icing, of course! - with colourful butterflies :)

Coffee and laughs, while enjoying a foot bath!

Gorgeous girls - Amy, Hannah and Jordan

Alicia - all smiles, with her freshly painted nails!

Elyse always works wonders with nail polish!

Prepping for more foot baths!

Alicia lending a helping hand to Gabby =P

Claudia getting treated to a hand massage by Mikayla

Family!
R-L: Sarah and Kathryn (sisters), and Kathryn's daughter Christina

The second awesome event was our monthly youth service. We hold youth services every last Sunday of the month, and I am SO happy that I got to be here for this one!

A few of us stayed at the church all afternoon, and others joined a little later to help set up.

And set up, we did!!!

All musical equipment moved; new lights; posters; chairs moved... Such fun!!

Setting up for youth service = ...

... CHAOS!!!
There were a lot of busy little beavers running around all over the place! =P ha!

Pretty lights :)
These make me happy!

The service started with a fun skit =D
I wish you could've been there to see it!

Our amazing worship team.
Nathan, Daniel, Brento, Kim, Gabby, Chris and Aaron [on drums]

Worshipping

Gabby led worship for the first time, and was a superstar!! Love that girl :)

My amazing boyfri-....... uh, I mean, the youth pastor preaching and challenging us: "What is Your Life All About?"

I am SO happy to be home! As I continue to settle in, I am just so grateful that God has called me here for this season.

I can't wait to see what He's going to do in and through the young people in my church and beyond - and I am super-excited to be involved in this!!

~Rachel

11 January 2012

Thailand - Third Wave 2012 [Day 4: Sessions, Small Groups & World Market]

In the lift - story of our lives at Town In Town!

Wednesday January 4 was our first full day of Third Wave. The morning was free for those of us who had already checked in and registered. We had our first Plenary Session at 10:30am. This was a “Welcome and Cultural Orientation" – so we learned some things that would be useful to us as foreigners, plus some general information about Thailand.
After lunch, we had regional meetings. This is where we joined with people from our own region (usually just one country, but Australia and New Zealand joined) to have a discussion time. We had to think of particular people in our lives, and ask the Lord how He sees them. This really opened my eyes, and I have a vision of how I can put compassion, love and friendship into action!
After our discussion time, we had free time! YAY!! (we didn't get much free time over the week)

We set up for the World Market, and then I went and had a lovely, hour-long massage. It was good, but quite painful as well! I had the back, shoulders, neck and head massage – traditional Thai style. It cost 350BT, which equals about $12AUD.

My masseuse

The topic for the evening service was “Called”.

We had great worship…

"Holy, holy, holy... I want to see You..." Love singing in other languages!

…and prayer…

…as well as a panel-Q&A time.

One of the questions that were asked was, “How can we be prepared to fulfil or develop a specific ministry call?” Some points that were given were:

We need to hear a call
A call is not always a lifetime
Find a mentor – someone to journey with
Get started – jump right in! Don’t only prepare, prepare, prepare

On the panel was one person from each region – people from Germany, Africa, America, Vietnam, Mexico and Spain.
One thing that I’ve loved about Third Wave – the different languages! I love that SO many different nations and cultures were represented, and that even through the language barriers, we were able to communicate and worship!
After the service, we had our World Market. Everyone brought items unique to their own country, set up stalls, stuck prices on the items, and we all bought from each other. All of the money raised was given to 12:7 Serve (LINK). My friend Dani is one of the 12 young people who will be travelling around Meso-America for 6 months this year, and I am SO proud of her and excited for her – and so happy that we were able to help the team in that way!