How God turned me into a Kitten

It all started at the end of my DTS in August. I was ready more than ever before to book my plane ticket home straight after my School of Digital Filmmaking would finish in 3 months, but during the last weeks of DTS, I heard God telling me in the still quiet voice in my head as He always speaks to me in: "Pop over to New Zealand. Get a working holiday visa, come back and get a job."  I was like, WHAT?! God, I want to go home - I want to see my parents - spend quality time with them for all they've done for me...  This is so unsafe to stay! So insecure!

Yet SDF happened, and it started to make more sense.  I went to New Zealand for 3 weeks with some of my new SDF family and visited old and new friends, and experienced old and new things (I'll write more about it later) - it was a refreshing re-set button in my life.  I got to spend a week with my friend from home, who has been in New Zealand for this past year.  It was an extremely tough week for her, so it was such a blessing that I could be there for her during this time.  I got to see how God provided for her in such huge ways, which encouraged me that God would provide for me in the same way when I got back to Australia.

Misha is basically like my sister and has been involved in the celebrity wardrobe styling in the film industry for many years.  Kitten D'Amour caught her eye one day during SDF as she was shopping - because it is designer handmade local clothing.  She went in and ended up getting job information which she passed onto me.  I emailed them while I was in New Zealand with my resume about possibly getting a job.  Many many people were praying for me to get a job right away.

I hopped on the plane to head back to Australia after a wonderful three weeks in New Zealand.  I had to pay for my luggage on the way back, though it was free on the way there - so I literally had about $25 pocket change and $9 in my bank account.  Not enough for rent, let alone food.  Essie picked me up from the airport and we had a fabulous night at the Gold Coast, swimming and eating sushi. What a sweet heart, she treated me and spoiled me.

The next morning, I went to church on base and during worship, God told me, "I'm opening all the right doors for you. Just walk on through."  After church, I was planning to go all around the area turning in applications and resumes.  But I was having printer troubles, it wouldn't print my resumes. I only had one printed up.  God told me - "Just take this one to the new cafe down the road and come back."  So I did - I took it, but the cafe wasn't even open... But this woman walked up right as I did, and said she could take my resume to the owner. Talk about perfect timing.  So I headed back to base, feeling extremely lazy for not turning in more resumes.

I went to my bedroom, where Misha was. She said that there was a call from an unknown number on her phone, she thought it might be for me. So we returned the call - it was from Kitten D'Amour in the Carindale mall, asking me for an interview the following day! I must admit I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with a new burst of energy, screamed into a pillow, ran around telling everyone, praising God, and had a massive smile that could not I could not wipe off my face.

Monday, I got all dressed up, (though I was fussing over what the heck to wear, God told me He wasn't limited to my outfit choice (; ) and headed out a good couple hours early. Good thing, because public transport was confusing!  When I thought I'd arrived, I discovered from this kind elderly couple that I had to take a bus as well. They showed me the way, and just as I ran to the stop, going to the wrong side first and having to run to the correct side, my bus pulled right up and I walked right on.  The bus driver told me the time I would arrive - I would still be 30 minutes early. Beautiful. Praise the Lord. He was protecting me like crazy.  After the interview, they called me for a trial the following day, to come in black high heels, a full face of makeup with red lipstick.  Once again, I had a massive smile that I couldn't wipe off my face.

So I went in for my trial, was guided to the back, put into a beautiful dress from the store, and began my trial. Though I was nervous at first, apparently it went well because I met the head boss who personally invited me to their Christmas party the following night, as well as the designer of the beautiful clothing, and got offered the job right afterwards!  I started the following morning and have been working every day since.  Its posed a new challenge as any new job would, but it has been such a joy.  God has continued to speak to my mind and protect me from public transport problems, and has shown me how to have confidence and be a light in the normal, Australian world.  Not to mention, God keeps giving me free bus fare.  When I touch my Go Card it often says "fare $0.00". That's such a blessing since I really don't have money till my first paycheck ;)

Its all very different from YWAM life, that's for sure ;)  Now I get to sell designer clothing inspired by 18th century France and dress in their extremely classy clothing every day! How blessed am I.

If I hadn't listened to the still small voice of God in my head, who continued to protect me and guide me, then I wouldn't have given myself the chance to grow my faith.  I came to Australia with hardly any money or means to get by not knowing what on Earth would happen, but just with the faith that God would provide a way for me, and He came through and continues to do so.  I almost feel bad and lazy that it all happened so quickly and easily.  I know for a fact I've been put in this store for a reason in this season, and it feels so right.  I am so eternally blessed to be a daughter of the High King.

First shooting week: School of Digital Filmmaking

The weekend before shooting week, we were given an assignment to shoot a scene.  This really prepared us for shooting week - we were split into two teams.  Misha directed our film - Jonny did sound, I was assistant director, Ben was camera operator, and Zack and Kane were our actors.  We ended up shooting in the boys bathroom, hiding away in shower stalls all of our equipment and ourselves during takes, peaking over the tops. We pulled an all nighter, filming till the birds chirped early in the morning!  Not to mention it was my birthday weekend and most birthday plans went out the window for it - but hey, it was fun in itself.  Crazy, fun times to be had - what preparation for the wildness ahead.

Directing my own film the first shooting week was an adventure in itself. I learned to plan less, and sleep more.  Because sometimes, plans go all out the window anyways.

I shot the second to last day of shooting week, on Monday. It all started when I couldn't find tahini at the store to put in my homemade hummus for set, HA.  But hey, God even had grace in that silly little thing, because during morning tea on base, there was leftover hummus we could take with us!  Oh the chances.  To start the day, Misha became ill with a kidney infection and had to leave set. This caused confusion as team members had to fill in for her role. I then discovered that I lost one of the key costumes - a penguin onesie!  This caused me to have to completely re-arrange the shooting schedule until the onesie was FOUND.  Jonny just so happened to find it when he wasn't even looking - at the perfect time! Oh the grace of God!  We continued shooting, re-arranged schedule and my mind going 10 places at once.  Not to mention I hadn't even THOUGHT about how we'd shoot certain scenes that I had in my script, such as men changing in the bedroom.  The actors were far too eager to strip down to their boxer shorts (what kind of movie are you MAKING, Heidi?! What have you done?!)   Then, THE POWER WENT OUT ON SET. For half the day! WHAT.  But this TOO was the grace of God - because I re-arranged the schedule more and shot certain scenes with natural light which probably looked FAR BETTER the way they were than if we actually had had power and used our lighting kit.  The power just so happened to come back on, as soon as the sun set and we needed the lights again. Basically, all of my detailed, meticulous planning went all out the window. My scheduled papers were up in the air, torn, and trampled under foot. But it ended up being such a fun day of shooting - a fun day of laughter, of going with the flow, and learning to bend and handle myself in situations under pressure.  And alas, amungst all of the craziness, behind the scenes and in them, stories were born.

The first week of shooting our films, we shot all 8 films in 9 days.  We watched dreams and visions come to reality - and our minds and bodies were stretched beyond our comprehension.  One day we shot for 22 hours!  Christian started off our week strong with his film, which was shot in the woods.  We stayed on schedule - a perfect first day.  We also shot his film later in the week at some pools/waterfalls, which at the time I didn't know that I would be back at very soon to fulfill old prophesies.

For Misha's film, she is a BOSS at getting locations, and we got a free ride on the Brisbane Ferris Wheel for a good 45 minutes (she cleverly said that Jonny, Kim and I were her sound crew... Got us a free ride in a carriage next to her, Christian who operated the camera and her actors), and she had the whole side of a bridge blocked off for our shoot; as well as booking a studio which I got to turn into an art gallery for production design. Girls got skills and really pushed us all to reach for the stars - hey if we fall, we'll land on the moon. Originally she wanted a hot air balloon, but hey, she got a farris wheel which is pretty dang GOOD! GREAT!

I got to make cooking experiments for Alena's movie, where I made sticky cookie dough, colored cookies with charcoal, got to fling cookies across the room attached to strings...Make smiley cupcakes...

I got put on craft services a lot for the first week, simply handling the food and coffee on set - but it humbly taught me to serve the team and be there for them.  It also encouraged me to stand up for myself and my abilities and say that I CAN do more.  But hey, got to start somewhere, and its often in the humble position of service - and that's a good place to be.  Live a life of service to one another!  I worked my way up... got a taste of working with the camera for Ben's film, and assist camera for Christian's film.

We all were run RAGED. We all learned to really lean on each other and on God for strength. We learned to manage our time better - and to do our green light paperwork SOONER, rather than during shooting week (bad idea!) I learned how far my body can go and my creative juices without sleep. I learned about the buzz coffee gives (living juice!). I learned not to binge on food just because I'm tired and stressed - to turn to other things like God - which I confess I failed at most times (chocolate man.... So gooood...)  I learned that there are different kinds of tiredness - mental, physical, and emotional. Sometimes I get 8 hours of sleep but am just as tired emotionally.  Sometimes I get 2 hours of sleep and feel great physically and emotionally - my mind just might be going a little crazy.  This first shooting week really bonded us as a team in unity - we became a well oiled machine - to launch us into a successful final shooting week a few weeks later. BOOM. Dynamic teamwork is KEY.

Our roles:
Each of us was given a different role per film set, and with 8 of us total, we made a very well rounded team!
There was the Director/writer - the king of the ship - the first assistant director (1st AD) who helps the directors mind stay sane, handles the schedule and makes sure communication is crystal clear (the bossy one on set) - the director of photography (DP) who handles all the fancy camera stuff, the first assistant camera (1st AC) who deals with the slate and does what the DP tells them to - the sound mixer who makes things hopefully sound crystal clear and who hears every detail going on around, including hearing actors in the bathroom if they forget to turn off their microphones between takes (that's just awkward) - the grip/gaffer who handles the equipment and lights - the production designer/craft services who takes care of making set look like beautiful, well or grusem (depends on the story (; ) as well as feeds us, waters us, and gives us all our much needed coffee intake - then there's the script supervisor who handles continuity errors and writes down the details of each take during shooting.  There were other roles outside of production itself, such as the hair and make-up artist (which I did during second shooting week), music composer, editors, producers, etc.


Well, that's all for this chapter. I'll write more later. Dang, I'm long winded.  How can I NOT practically write a whole book about SDF?! It was incredible. Alright, peace out from New Zealand, my lovelies.

<3 Heidi

School of Digital Filmmaking

SDF has proved itself correct - a challenging, stretching time of business lots of assignments and lots of new information learned!  The first week, we learned all about different world views  and how filmmakers naturally portray their worldview in their films - which ends up influencing us as viewers!  It was a week where we really got challenged to face our own worldview and see why we think the way we do from our upbringing and trials in life.

Week two, we learned about the building blocks of a story - what makes a good story, about the "Hero's journey" and the three act structure.  I've learned how our lives are a story - it applies so much to just our everyday living.  A leaf can tell a story, and grain of sand has a story.  Inspiration is found in stories, and it's honestly given me SO much inspiration, in not only filmmaking - but music writing, story writing and every artistic aspect of my life.  Its made me realize that I want all of my art forms to tell stories of their own, that bring people inspiration.  A story is what people connect to - what brings life and hope - Jesus told stories and so should we. (He was the best storyteller, I believe (; )

Week three was all about the camera, lights, and sound.  SO much information! And we had our first test on Friday as well, and practical assignments where we got to play with all the equipment.

I'm so looking forward to seeing how God uses these new skills!  My brain is BURSTING, people, let me tell ya!  

Today is actually my first day where I can breath since SDF began.  On week one, I decided to do my movie presentation (everyone has to do one over the semester).  I did mine on Edward Scissorhands, and well, I got into it a bit.  Yeah, just, see below:

I woke up early, and glued my eyebrows, put massive amounts of heavy duty makeup on, created fake scars, Misha teased up my hair, and I became Edward for the day.  Minus the scissorhands - would have been a bit tricky to give a presentation and work my laptop with those, haha!  Man, makeup brings me LIFE! One day I'd love to do this on set. We'll see, hey!

We've been working on our first short film's scripts throughout the school.  I've discovered script writing and story making is HARD! I'm very good at coming up with concepts, with the icing on the cake and little things that would be funny to put in the story, but coming up with the building blocks of the story itself is a definite challenge - to have all the lose ends tied, and to not make dialog LONG or CHEESY. AH.  But I'm excited for the results that are coming together - you'll be able to see my first film in a few months I believe!

This last weekend, on Friday, our staff got us together in the afternoon and told us that we were doing the 48 hour film festival in Brisbane!  I got my mind of Mission Simulation mindset like on DTS - no rest for me yet. I was already exhausted from little sleep, and so much learned, and much fundraising over the last three weeks.  But thankfully, they said we'd have Monday off (which is today, and man am I soaking up today! Sleep sleep sleep has never felt so glorious and usually I feel like rest days are a waste of time, but today I WANT it, [thats when I know I'm working hard.])  Our call time was 6:00 Saturday morning, so we rolled out of bed and got GOING.  The staff was up all night taking shifts writing the script.  I was given the role of 2nd Assistant director, which basically meant doing what I am told and helping with various tasks.  We went to a church, and set up the set, I got to be an extra as well which was fun!  

^This is behind-the-scenes for a bit of our shoots!^

There was a surge of excitement and energy in everyone, making a story come to life is so exciting and takes a massive group of people working together in unity.  Sunday I was mostly on standby because editing was happening and a couple reshoots, so it was pretty chill.  We all got together Sunday night and watched the finishing product - BRILLIANT.  We'll find out about our placement next month, fingers crossed!  This was my first experience on a film set ever, we'll see if its something that I'll do longterm :)

This industry is in desperate need of more Christian positive influence.  One amazing thing we've been able to do is to connect weekly with Christians who are active in the industry via skype - actors, film crew people, etc.  Its been amazing hearing their stories of how they've been lights for God in such a dark place - its encouraging to hear people are out there making a difference and staying strong despite the negative cultural influence.  Please keep the industry in your prayers!

One massive prayer request:

My classmates are needing the rest of their finances by Friday or they will be pulled from class.  We're doing various fundraisers over the weekends, including working for Heartbridge's race, movie nights, breakfasts, etc.  They've all taken the leap of faith to come here under God's call and I know He'll provide - he always does. Please join us in interceding in agreement that their finances will come, and thank God with us for His perfect will.  

Also, pray for my energy to keep going and to stay in tune with God with all of this, and my future and my present!

ONE LAST COMMENT: The Meeting Place cafe has opened, with coffee for a gold coin donation the second week of our school on our base! It's been a wonderful evangelistic place - local high school kids come and hang out after school all the time, YWAMers perform, people mingle and do homework.  Pray for more blessings and for the word to spread like wildfire! Good coffee, good fellowship, good God, can't beat the price.  Doesn't help our coffee addictions over SDF craziness ;)

Home sweet Home. What's NEXT?! What is identity?

I and my team of 9 other young brothers and sisters in Christ found ourselves, on the morning of Sunday the fourth of August, at the Gold Coast airport.  The moment I stepped out of the plane, I inhaled the fresh, clean, cool Australia winter air, and stared up at the clear blue sky with the sun rising higher as the day drew itself forth. Australia, I thought as a broad smile flashed across my face. Welcome back to a home, Heidi Lilly.  

The two weeks of debrief flew us by.  Each outreach team came back together and we were a full MAD family again - but everyone had changed, grown, and experienced God in a whole new way on their outreaches.  Everyone was able to put into practice all the things we learned in our lecture phase - and naturally came out of it different people.  God is so good and faithful. 

Please read through the team blog that Davin kept up during our stay in Japan to hear all about the ministries that we had the privilege of partaking in. http://mad2013japan.blogspot.com.au/

One thing that I've been convicted of is going by my first name again, rather than Lilly.  Every time I look at myself in the mirror I'm still Heidi, any time I talk about myself, I'm still Heidi.  God was speaking to me about it several weeks ago about my identity and why I was given my first name, but I pushed it to the side for a while, thinking it would just be a pain to switch my names again.  What finally convinced me to do it was when Kalli, my school leader, gave me a prophetic journal with "princess" on the cover of it.  What she didn't know was that that is what my name Heidi means.

What's next for you, Heidi? 

A few days ago, on Friday night of the 16th of August, I got all dressed up and walked down the aisle to get my Certificate of Discipleship and graduate from DTS.  Everything is a slight blur.  The last few days have been full of many tearful goodbyes of my brothers and sisters that I've gained being here.  But with every goodbye, there is a new hello! Many new faces have been appearing for the new Beach to Bush DTS as well as School of Digital Film making and School of Acting for the Screen (which run together).  Everything is happening so fast - but its all in perfect timing.  Tonight, Wednesday the 21 of August, I had my welcome dinner.  5 days after my goodbye dinner happened.

So what AM I doing, anyways?!  Well, I've felt the call to stay to attend the School of Digital Filmmaking with The Initiative Production Company here on base in Brisbane.  It is a 3 month long second level school through YWAM's University of the Nations.  It is a chance for me to gain skills to use in ministry in the film industry, or other art industries.  Film has SO much power and influence in society today, and unfortunately Satan has really grabbed a hold of that power in many ways.  Its time for Christians to step up and put out true entertainment that glorifies our creator!  I'm looking forward to being challenged in self-discipline, character development, story-telling, communication, camera use, all about the best kinds of coffee because from the sound of it I'll need LOTS of it during this time, haha!  It will be a full-on three months.  YWAM is wonderful, because everyone is already a family, we are already united by Christ in each of us.  Its amazing how you can know people for only one day and already love them so much and feel like family, because of that connection.

I would SO appreciated your prayer!  It means so much and seriously makes the largest difference.
1. That I'll transition well, feel fully at peace and have full closure from my DTS time.
2. My health.  My voice has left me today!
3. Strength, and energy.  This three months will be full on, and from what I hear, not a lot of sleep will happen.
4. Humility. To go through everyday thinking of how I can give out of what God's given me for the day-not what I can get.
5. Clarity and peace for the next steps God is taking me on in life.
6. Finances for my classmates. They've felt the call of God to come here, and He'll provide everything they need! 

Thank you so much.  I miss you all and love you so much! Thanks for taking the time to read this and keep all updated.

Peace in Christ,

Heidi Lilly

Tokyo cultural immersion

Its hard to imagine that three weeks have already flashed by us on our trip in Japan!  I'm sitting here on a coach in Osaka, Japan, for the first day here, relaxing after a long bus ride over night, preparing for the change-of-pace.

The culture in Tokyo is one of such kind, generous people.  Everyone was so nice to us, probably annoying foreigners who didn't know all of the common etiquette.  People always bowed at the streets, said thank you, lavished us with kind words and gifts.  I feel as though I have so much more to learn from this generous culture than they do from me.

Tokyo is massive.  It goes on for what seems like forever, with crowds of people, busy, thin streets, tall buildings and so much shopping.  We found ourselves in trains, inches from people's faces as we all jammed into the system.  The air was thick with the lack of vegetation and the many people breathing the oxygen or filling the air with smoke.  Little shops, restaurants and cafes are to be found all over the place, selling noodles, curry, coffee, souvenirs, or daily needed items.  Another surprising thing about Tokyo is when vans with mega phones drive by, advertising political campaigns through the streets for everyone to hear.  Going to the grocery store, we found everything was sold in smaller quantities than we were used to from the United States, and then there was the language barrier which made for a few awkward situations here and there, but nothing that couldn't be covered over with a bow, sorry, and big smile.  Then there are the toilets - either squatty potties, normal western style toilets, or the fancy ones that unexpectedly spray your bottom to get clean (and even have mouth wash once in a while...) 

These past three weeks we've spent in Tokyo, Japan have been an adventure to say the least.  In this polite culture, our team of 10 white, loud westerners have found a little piece of home in the East, older portion of this massive city, where a little Christian school resides called God's Kingdom.  

***

Read my next post to find out how God has been SO faithful to us during our time here.

Japan: Less than 24 hours away!

This last week, we had a speaker come and share with us from the YWAM base in Newcastle, Australia.  He spoke on Destiny and living out obedience in the callings that God has given us.  I received so much clarity and peace from this week about my future!  God's got it covered, and I don't have to worry; but simply must listen and obey His guidance.

Our team of 10 is leaving for Japan tomorrow bright and early in the morning!  We'll have a direct flight from the Gold Coast to Tokyo.  I won't be able to keep this updated as regularly while away - but our team will be keeping up a blog each week, follow us here: http://mad2013japan.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/japan-bound.html

This is a video half of my team has made to show in Japan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FcJhxzLjz3c

God bless you all! Please remember us in your prayers as we fulfill the great commission, to go into all the world and preach the gospel!  For Holy Spirit strength, boldness, unity (they'll know we are Christians by our love for one another), and loving encouraging words for the people.

Heidi Lillian Osborne

JAPAN COUNTDOWN: 23 DAYS. Continued preparation!

Our plane tickets have been booked for Japan!  Our team is planning to fly out on June 17 from the Gold Coast, Australia straight into Tokyo.  We’re continuing to pray, plan, visualize, prepare and grow together in unity as a team.  

Some of the things that we’ve been preparing for lately are: sermons to preach at local churches to encourage them; a prophetic video on Identity, which we will show in Japan; skits and dances for evangelism. 

What will be doing over the course of 7 weeks?  We will be working at local orphanages with kids; teaching English to students; street evangelism; church/youth ministry; filming a documentary of how God is working in Japan; and over all staying open to the Holy Spirit, to go where he leads us and work his will in the supernatural.  Each of us has been assigned a different job during outreach, so I personally will be in charge of food.  So excited to make my team all healthy and eat their greens, and learn how to cook Japanese cuisine! ;)

The staff here at YWAM Brisbane put together a mission simulation for all of the outreach teams last Sunday-Monday.  They acted as Japanese people and put us into possible scenarios that would happen, such as how we should eat at a host’s house, we did “street evangelism”, preached at a Japanese church, put on English classes where they pretended not to know the language, bought foreign food at a “market, took bucket showers (not that we’ll need to do that in Japan…) etc.  My luggage was also “lost” in the plane, so I had to share with my teammates as we camped out in some of the staff’s backyard on the coldest night of the year.  As a team, we learned SO much about each other and how we handle situations under stress!  We all feel so much closer, even more unified, and all the more prepared for what God’s got in store for our trip.

We’ve seen God be so faithful in our preparation.  He’s been putting people in our path before even GETTING to Japan who will happen to be there at the exact same time as we will be, who will be partnering with us!  We had the privilege of meeting a professional chef who was visiting a friend here at the YWAM base for a couple weeks.  He will be moving to Osaka in June, and wants to join us in our ministry while we are there!  We’ve also met a woman here in Brisbane at church who is moving back to Tokyo soon.  The pastor of the church was Busking in Brisbane when she approached him.  As they were talking, he prayed for her back because it was bothering her, and God healed her! We’re hoping to be able to speak life and encourage her to find a church and stay strong in Jesus while we are in Tokyo as well.  We’re still trying to find a place to stay for the first three or so weeks, most likely in Tokyo, hopefully at the YWAM base there.  We will be staying at the base in Osaka for the last 3 weeks.

            We are currently looking for 200 people to partner with us prayerfully during the trip.  Please email me at lillyofozland@gmail.com if you’d like to be a prayer warrior!  We believe that having people intercede and fight with us from our hometowns is one of the most powerful, necessary spiritual battle weapons that we can have.  You will receive weekly email updates from us in Japan, and will get to freely view our finished documentary.  Not only are you assisting us in missions, but also providing a means for others world wide to see how God is working in Japan!  Visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/holy-spirit-waves-to-japan for more details.

            The final budget of the trip is going to be a bit over $3000 per person.  If you feel led to help me financially, (I’ve got about $2500 to go) please get a hold of me and I’ll let you know how you can go about that!  There is also a donate button on the right side of this blog to donate via paypal if you feel led!

Current prayer points:

1.     God will be preparing the hearts of those we will reach in Japan, for openness to hear His word spoken through us.

2.     That we will soon find out where we’ll be staying in Tokyo.

3.     Continued unity, good communication, and confidence as we each discover our separate roles in our team.  They’ll know we are Christians by our love for one another - this is SO key!

GOD BLESS YOU! May you find peace in life today!

Heidi Lillian Osborne

Pictured below: Team Japan!

Holy Spirit Receives Lordship!

After our three weeks on the road, we arrived back at base on Sunday afternoon, thoroughly welcomed to be home.  The next morning, I put on a dress and fancied myself up a little simple out of the enjoyment and the fact that I finally could again, such a simple pleasure! We found ourselves right back into the swing of lectures onto week 9, with Chris Twinn speaking to us on the Holy Spirit.  I found such renewed energy and excitement in all the things he had to say about the Bible, it was blowing my mind in ways I never knew about!  Revelation after revelation about God and His work here on Earth in and through us.  If you’re interested in some of his podcasts, download them here: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/christ-ministries-international/

The next week’s topic covered Lordship; in other words learning how to give God ownership and leadership of everything in our lives.  Even in the small things we hold onto - like a favorite piece of jewelry that has sentimental meaning to us!  To think that if everything in our life was taken away-remembering the truth that God is still good, even if our life sucks.  We had a ministry day on Friday in which we confessed and let go of things in our lives holding us back from giving God everything.  It is so freeing to remember that God will care for us and He knows and wants what is best for us, even more than we ourselves do! Why would we not entrust everything to Him?

SAVE THE DATE: GLOBAL OUTREACH DAY!

I wanted to let you all in on a very exciting opportunity that we have to be involved in!!

Coming up on May 25 is an event that will sweep across the whole world: 

Global Outreach Day!

For a whole day, 24 full hours of evangelism, and churches all across the world will be participating!  Imagine the impact this day will have - if every Christian in the world rises up and spreads the good news - oh all the healing that God can perform through us, people encountering God in such a big way, Satan shaking in his "boots" with fear because we are no longer being mediocre about our faith but rising up and taking a stand!  

Here at YWAM Brisbane, our day will be complete with 24 hours of prayer over the city, street evangelism, service projects around the city, handing out bibles, serving free ice cream, performing at local cafes, and just being led by the Spirit to see how He'll move through us.  SO excited to see how this happens! If each Christian tells ONE person about Jesus on this day and they come to accept Him-our family, the eternal kingdom doubles in ONE day!!! The impact of that!  It will also encourage people to make evangelism a part of their every day lives, to go beyond this one day.  To simply love people as Jesus loves people, and to spread the best news the world has ever known.  This is the third year this program has run, and currently, there are about 20,000,000 Christians around the world getting involved, wow!

Please join the cause and the excitement and spread the word to the churches in your community!  To get involved, please visit:

http://www.globaloutreachday.com/

You can find more information on this incredible day and register. Please spread the word, and allow God to work through you to make such an impact in your community!

God bless you all!!

~Lilly

Three weeks on the road... Week THREE: Pass it on Tour: Running to Stanthorpe!

Third and final week on the road... By this time we're all feeling pretty drained of our energy juices, but alas, we weren't giving up yet!

***

On Sunday we went to churches and told them about our plans for the week.  We split off into our separate outreach teams for the week for service projects.  Sunday night, all of the teams except for my team Japan went to a different town many kilometres away so that they could run into the country town of Stanthorpe on Monday to symbolically and physically reclaim the land for Christ.  My team stayed back on Monday to set up the large tent in a park where all of our main events would be happening through the week.  My team Japan got assigned to help out at a local golf course.  It was such a privilege helping this man who ran the whole course on his own!  We helped him pull weeds from the bunkers (sand pits), did some gardening, moved sticks from around the course, etc.  In the middle of the week we took a break from that and went to a nursing home to do some heavy duty gardening.  The residents were patients suffering from dementia and other mental illnesses.  We weren't able to go talk with them, but they would go to their windows and simply watch us and smile.  It was nice to know that we didn't even have to say anything and we made their days better!  

Below is a picture of team Japan when we gardened for them :)

In the afternoons we had children's programs at the tent where we would make animal balloons, have a massive blown up soccer field, draw pictures, make braceletes, etc, all while connecting with the local youth.  It was a simple way to share the love of Jesus with them and build lasting relationships.
In the evenings, a speaker from around the town came and spoke to the community on the Father Heart of God, as well as what God has for the town specifically.  We had worship as well.  I was able to really connect with many of the locals and make lasting friendships!  On Friday we had a youth night, and Saturday was a barbecue and then a group from the Island Breeze came and performed for us world dances as well as a fire dance to top off the night.  Their show attracts such a crowd, for what would usually cost an audience a lot of money to see was free, and at the same time proclaiming the name of Jesus! There is such power in that, and I trust that God moves mountains through what they do.

It was definitely a very stretching week as we had been going on the road for several weeks without beds, normal shower privileges, or any real restful days.  But God showed me SO MUCH about myself, our group, and how to continue to encourage each other and work together when we're all drained physically and emotionally!  It's trips like this when we're stretched that we come to realize just how much more we have in us than we realize, just how to deal with ourselves when things aren't going just right, and how to rely on God to find rest and strength in Him.

Three weeks on the road... Week two: Impact Byron Bay!

We drove up to Byron bay after a long night and day of packing up at Easter Fest, arriving somewhere around 3 in the morning Tuesday.  Though groggy, and ready for a good nights sleep and perhaps a day of rest, (which was yet to come) our spirits remained high and we were ready for what God had for us in the beautiful bay.

We had lectures on Evangelism by the YWAM base director of Byron Bay, Kevin.  We were able to apply what we were learning in lectures through out the week as we did street evangelism in Byron and in a little town called Nimbin (nick-named the "drug capital" of Australia.)

On Wednesday, we went to Nimbin.  I've never seen a place more artistically inspired by drugs in my life! Every building was multi-colored, the locals were letting their hair grow and believed in the power of self expression, many were handing out - code name for marihuana: "cookies" in the street (which we did not accept FYI, haha!) We held a free barbecue complete with live music, at which I performed some covers and original songs with Ryan.  What I'm learning is that there is SUCH power in music, to attract people, power to change the spiritual atmosphere, power to change people's moods, minds, beliefs, days, etc!  There is also such power in FOOD, there is nothing quite like it to bond people together, catch people's attention and make automatic relationships!  I got into a nice conversation with one of the locals who owned a painting shop, and she asked us how long we'd be staying, and that we brought a lively new spirit to the town.  That's the power of Jesus, baby!  I also left Bible verses around the town and we talked to and prayed for locals.  Below is a picture of colorful Nimbin streets!

On Thursday night we were planning on having a Chai tent in the park with free chai and pancakes for the community, but the weather did not permit us to do so.  Instead, we simply wandered around the town awaiting on God to work.  We danced with people on the street to the music of a busker and invited them to the barbecue the next day, evangelized, and prayed for people.  This specific man that we got to pray for looked SO improved the following day, praise the Lord!

At the barbecue, I got to talk to this French woman who was there for work travel.  She was a scientific atheist who was studying the weather.  She made the comment of how strange it was that the sky was so clear when it had been so rainy earlier, how that was so un-predicted.  That gave me the opportunity to tell her so many of us had been praying for clear weather and God was faithful!  

Lessons are constantly being learned, and God is constantly revealing Himself in new mysterious ways.  His name be praised forever!

Three weeks on the road... Week one: Easter Fest!!

It's been a while since I've written an update!

Week one of our long trip on the road, we had the privilege of helping out at a Christian music festival called Easter fest.  There was a lot of manual labor in helping set up, I was with the boys much of the time setting up tents, stages, moving crates and speakers, as well as decorating for shows.  This really taught me how to have a servants heart and just how far my body can go and be strengthened!  There was a separate crew area where we would hang out during breaks and meals, as well as wait to be recruited to the next job.  

^^ Here is a picture of our fashionable high visibility gear, taking a break from set up ;) ^^

When the festival actually started, we were shifted on for 8 hours a day doing various duties. I helped with security (checking wrist bands at the gates), setting up for certain shows (I got to help set up Tigertown's show complete with christmas trees and fake snow! Their performance later was absolutely magical, and they shot video for a music video they're working on. It was so cool to be able to be a part of something like that!), serving Chai tea in the YWAM tent, etc.  All of these opportunities led to good conversations with people, some of whom are now convinced that they'll join YWAM and do a DTS and even attend the University of the Nations!  God taught me a lot about how far my body can go with lacking sleep and constant energy output, as well as perseverance.  Some mornings I felt miserable, sitting out in the cold and rain near sunrise... But through that, I was able to have meaningful conversations and begin relationships with people, God's hand was all over those situations!

Ever since the beginning of DTS, Taco has been singing and playing this song on his guitar by Mark Lowndes, so its kind of become a theme song for our group.  We got to meet up with him after his show at Easter Fest, in which he didn't play the song! The funny thing was that his wife told him he had to play that song that night, but he forgot!  He said he would come to our crew kitchen and do a special show just for us.  That was such a cool experience, getting our group song specially played for us in our kitchen behind the scenes.  SUCH a special time!  Below is a picture of our YWAM group with Mark in the middle.

A huge praise: A girl's neck was constantly bothering her all week long, and God healed it as I prayed!  She said it felt better after that, and any time during the day it would spontaneously flair up again she'd simply pray again and the pain would go away, praise God for He is faithful!

Easter was absolutely crazy.  It dumped rain on us all day long, so that all of the walkways were just a foot of mud to sludge through.  Everyone walked around barefoot with their pant legs rolled up because any shoes would be demolished in the mud.  It made for an interesting adventure of a day!  Definitely not the typical fancy breakfast and dinner with the family, painting easter eggs and reading the bible together!  But I wouldn't trade the experience for anything, it was probably the most memorable Easter I've ever had. Not many people can say that they got to worship God out in the dumping rain and mud at a huge festival that they volunteered at on the opposite side of the world from their home!

Heading out, and a financial update!

Just a heads up, I'm leaving tomorrow for 3 weeks, so I won't be able to keep up the blog during that time. The video below describes what I'll be doing!

Financially, I have approximately $1500AUD to go for my first deposit for outreach, and then the final cost will be announced after the trip is all planned (about 1000-2000 AUD more.) I have no doubt that God will provide, He always does when he calls His children to GO!

Here is an update vlog for you!

GOD BLESS YOU TODAY!

TALK TO YOU IN A FEW WEEKS

Buzzing with Anticipation!

The outreach teams have returned from the September MAD DTS, and we've found our base has nearly doubled in size!  Things have certainly picked up here at YWAM, and there is hardly a quiet corner all through the base.  What a blessing to get to know all these new faces and hear their stories of how God has worked through them in growing the kingdom in the countries they've traveled to!  This is getting me all the more pumped up to go to Japan in a few months.

Our speaker is this week is going through and lightly dissecting the whole Bible with us.  We've split off into teams of four or five and have been given a section of the Bible to act out in a skit, starting from Genesis, going all the way through Revelation! It's so fun to see how creative telling the story of the Bible can be, and how interactive.  This is such a great tool for evangelizing in the world, as it becomes engaging, entertaining and meaningful at the same time.

MAD DTS on Brisbane base is buzzing with anticipation of being on the road for the next 3 weeks!  Week one we'll be helping out at Easter Fest, which is a large Christian music festival in Toowoomba, Australia.  We'll have a massive YWAM tent and be helping set up the festival, camp out, and do several activities during.  The following week, we'll be going to Byron Bay to study and do some outreach.  The third week is what we call the Pass It On tour, where we are given a baton and literally run from town to town in Australia, passing on the word of God to each town, then passing it over to another country where they will do the same thing.  During this week we'll also have outreaches in these towns.  I'm excited to find out everything that is planned through all this, and to see how God grows, stretches and bonds us all as a team and to be a part of watching His kingdom grow in Australia through this.

I cherish your prayers in these areas:

• Health.  Many of us have been coming down with sickness this week, so prayers for speedy recovery and that nothing else strikes us during out three week treck!
• Energy.  Several of us are really starting to be drained of the energy juice! Pray that God is our energy source and re-fills our cup.
• Openness. Openness of mind and heart to where the Spirit is leading us, as well as the hearts of those who we will be reaching out to.

Many blessings!

~Lilly

Boo Yeah!

Outreach teams have been announced!

After intercession on Thursday, our staff team had a little surprise game planned for us. They split us into two teams and asked us trivia questions about the different outreach location options (Japan; Finland and Sweden; Norway; Germany and Netherlands.)  When a person had the answer, they would run up and slap Lana's hand, and when the answer was correct a staff member gave them a puzzle piece with a part of a picture of their location. After everyone got a piece, each separate team put the pieces together, and we were together finally for the first time!

I'm going to Japan for a 7-8 week outreach in a few months! 

So excited to see what God's got up His sleeve, and to watch the kingdom grow through this ministry!

If you could please pray for the following points:

• God's will will be done and the glory will go to Him! That we'll be open to His Spirit and callings as we go overseas.
• Finances! I have a long way to go. I'll keep you updated when we find out the total cost!
• Unity in our new team
• Planning, that it will go smoothly, that we'll get the visas we need, all paperwork done, plane tickets, etc.
• Health! May we all stay fit and healthy to keep us kicking for Jesus name!

This below is my new team when we first found out from left to right: Davin, Micah, Lilly (me,) Essie, Sarah, Lindsey, Rachel, Kim, Lena, Anna. So excited to go with this wonderful group of people!

Exciting news inside!

So much has happened in the three and a half weeks of being here, I can't even imagine what will happen in 6 months! God's got a whole lot more greatness up His sleeve for us than we ever could have imagined.

A new speaker comes each week to lecture for us on a certain topic for 3 hours each morning. Our speaker was Jan Denharder for the first week, and he preached on the character and nature of God.   A couple highlights I learned are that God equips the called, not necessarily calling the already equipped, and how evangelism is about capturing people’s hearts, not simply preaching at them.  The second week, a new speaker from our own base taught us about hearing the voice of God.  It is so encouraging to hear the speakers' many stories from their journeys as missionaries, of how God has provided endlessly and protected them.

Every Wednesday morning, a pair of us is doing a presentation on a nation that is greatly un-reached in the gospel, a project we call “Adopt a Nation.”  This is such an eye-opening project; I’m realizing more and more how much I really have living in the western world, and how so many people survive on so little, as well as the shocking statistics of people in the world who have never heard of the salvation of Jesus Christ.  This is getting me so excited for outreach in a few months! 

*****

Our location options for our 7 week overseas outreach were just announced a couple days ago!  I'm not aloud to announce where I'm going yet until all the teams are firmly established, so wait for more exciting information to come, and I’ll keep you updated! Please pray for clarity and peace in the choices of where to go as all of the teams come together.

*****

We are also involved in local outreach. Specifically, every Wednesday afternoon we give a free barbecue to the community in the park, play sports, do art, and play music.  This is a great opportunity for us to invest in the people of Brisbane and Mitchelton and show them the love of Christ.

As far as music goes, throughout the week we have activities called “Creative Encounters” where we all gather as musicians, artists, or dancers, and share our creations with one another.  We discuss how we can best use our gifts to bring glory to God and make His name known.  

God is constantly reminding me that these six months are not the end of anything, but only the beginning of something bigger than I can imagine which God has planned.  I’m so excited to continue this journey by His leading hand!  Some prayer requests that I have are for continued unity within our YWAM family, as well as physical health, the courage to step out in faith when the Spirit calls us to do something outside of our comfort zones.  Also, if you could pray for the overseas outreach teams that are being put together right now, that as groups we can work together and hear clearly from God all the things He wants us to do, and for good planning.

Many blessings!

Adjusting to a new land

      This is a simple brief over-view of my first week and a half in Brisbane!

I said my goodbyes to friends and family in the Portland airport and awaited my flight.  As I boarded the Virgin America plane to LA for my first lay over, I was welcomed by airline background music, purple and pink lights all around, faux leather seats and television screens in front of each seat.  It was the perfect start of a sure adventure!!  The plane food was actually not bad, might I add…

I peaked out the window as the plane flew over Australia, my first glimpse.  Wow, I’m flying over my home for at least the next six months, I thought!  I arrived safely at the Brisbane airport after 3 long flights and a crazy layover in Melbourne in which I hardly made it to my next flight, arriving in a sweat as the passengers were boarding.  But alas, my first time flying internationally alone was a sweet success.  I was welcomed by YWAM staff holding a sign at my baggage claim to find me.  Australia! YWAM! I’m finally here!

Getting in the van to head to base, I had to do a double-take as the driver was on the opposite side of the car from America, and we drove on the left side of the road,  I quickly remembered I was in Australia before freaking out too much.

It is so wonderful to live with such an awesome community of people who are always here and available.  I love living close enough to town, shops and malls to be able to walk to them, and close enough to a train to ride into the middle of the city.  It’s so different from life back at home where I would have to drive 30 minutes to get anywhere!  Both ways of life have their perks, but I’m really enjoying getting used to this nice change.

I got some tours of the base on day one, and settled in a bit.  The following day, a lot of us students on base took the train into the middle Brisbane and walked through this gorgeous park, and got sushi.  While we were crossing the bridge, the floodgates of the sky opened up and poured wind and rain on us! I was the only lucky one who thought to bring my umbrella, but everyone got soaked. I felt kind of bad about it and wished I had enough umbrellas for everyone… Twas adventure number one.  Brisbane weather has been quite rainy, I’ve actually hardly seen any sun at all so far.  I count it a blessing though, it’s a nice way to gradually transition from my rainy state of Washington to Australia.  The city is so beautiful! I honestly would not mind calling it my home longer than six months.  We also went and crashed what seemed to be the biggest Valentine date hot spot in Brisbane.  It was an over-look of the city lights up on a hill.  We went in the evening on Valentines day, what a romantic place! We definitely made it less romantic with our numbers though, poor couples..
Friday night I believe we did a "bonding" activity with MAD, where we prepared a lip-syncing song in groups to perform infront of fake judges.  It was embarrassing  but a good way to break down ice barriers relationally, and a good time to laugh together.

Through the week we had orientation and get-to-know-you sorts of gigs.  We as a MAD (Music Art Dance) group all went to Redcliffe over the weekend, stayed in a mission house and shared testimonies with each other, played games, and went to the beach.  I also ate my first bit of kangaroo meat.  We weren’t even told it was kangaroo at first, I simply thought it was funny beef or some strange seasoning in the sauce (It was in spaghetti sauce.)  Then we were all told it was kangaroo, I was incredibly excited, as it was one of my goals before I left, haha! It’s actually quite delicious, and lean. We played and sang a lot of music, and danced freely quite a bit.  I’ve never been around so many people with my similar artistic mind at once! It’s a wonderful feeling, and we all meld together so beautifully, even though we all come from various backgrounds and cultures.  Speaking of which, all the different accents are beautiful! We all fail miserably at mocking one another, but hey it makes for a good mock and laugh.

Let me tell you, the food here is amazing! They’re so kind to keep separate gluten and dairy free things for those of us with special dietary needs.  It’s so healthy, we eat lots greens, lean meats and fruit everyday.  I’m so incredibly happy to be in a place where health is considered important.
As for wildlife, I haven't seen much.  I've eaten a kangaroo before seeing one, and only saw one very large garden spider in the city which wasn't poisonous apparently.  No poisonous snakes, spiders, crocodiles, or anything.  We'd have to be in the outback, or middle of Australia for that apparently, not the city.  I did see one jelly fish washed up on the beach though, which was neat-o.

Yesterday (Monday) we started our lectures. This week we’re discussing the character and nature of God. Today we’ll have our first “creative encounters” where we’ll come together as musicians, dancers, artists and create together. Yay. So excited to see how all of our talents come together to make something great (hopefully, haha!)

I know that God’s got great things in store for all of us here, and after this 6 months.  I am constantly reminding myself that this DTS is not the end of anything, only the beginning.

XOXO, many blessings,

~Lilly of Ozland