Refocusing

What a week, once again. We had a South-African guy called Etienne Pieterse teaching us on Fear of the Lord and Lordship. Learning about the fear of the Lord was very intresting cos I'd never actually understood what it meant. I'm not sure if I still fully understand what it is but I'm working on it, with God ofcourse. One thing I got was that the fear of the Lord is the opposite of the fear of men, and if you're afraid of one, you're not afraid of the other. So which one I fear and respect more, God or men? His teaching on Lordship was very good as well and resulted in about 8 people getting baptised. It was really cool when he said that dying to self isn't something you do once and then you're done with temptation. And I don't know if it was Etienne or Ronnie who said that dying to self is not suicide; Jesus didn't hang himself on the cross, but he let others do it, he didn't resist. So that's what we are to do, to lay our lives, our desires and temptations, hopes and dreams and fears and failures, lay them all at the cross time after time after time and let God kill them, let them die. And after we've dies to ourselves it's not like our minds are suddenly out of Satan's reach and free from temptation. We still disobey God, but the key is to always return to the cross and be honest, take the focus out of ourselves and focus on Jesus and what he's done for us.

Etienne also taught a lot about worship. His main point was that worship should not depend on our emotions and circumstance. God is holy, almighty and worthy to be praised no matter how I feel at the moment. Worship and praise should flow out of understanding of who God is, not out of our emotions. That's what it means to worship in spirit and in truth; we worship in spirit because the spirit of God is in us and worships with us, and we worship in the truth of who God is. Worship and praise is not about music. In fact music has very little to do with it. Music can be a way to worship, but often we use it as a way to bring our emotions to a level where we feel comfortable to worship. That's why we find it hard to worship if the worship band sucks, we put too much emphasis on how the worship sounds and looks like, instead of focusing on what it actually is about. If we truly worshipped in spirit and truth we wouldn't mind the music. Then again, I'm not saying that it's wrong to get emotional during worship. Of course not, but it shouldn't be the thing that drives us to worship. We worship because God deserves our attention, He deserves our praise, even when we don't feel like it.

On tuesday night we watched a video of a man called Steve Thompson preaching. That night changed my life. It was the perfect timing to hear this teaching, as last week we'd started discussing sin and righteousness. What Steve Thompson basically talked about, was that once we become christian the God Almighty moves into us. We have God inside of us. We are completely righteous and completely holy and we are as close to God as we can get. The current christian mindset is that we still need to do stuff to get closer to God. If I sin, I fall away from God and then need to read the bible more or fast or worship more to get close to Him again. We think that by our deeds we can and need to reach a certain level of holiness before God can use us. We are still striving to be perfect enough for God, to be the person God wants us to be. No matter people don't like christians, we demand so much more from each other than non christians do. We hold each other to such a high standard that it's impossible not to get discouraged. Have we forgotten that Jesus already did all that was needed? He made us right with God and now He lives in us, and there is nothing that I can do to make His work more complete. God is in me and all of His power is in me as well. I am not lacking any spiritual gift, it's only a question of learning to use them. I just need to accept and receive what Jesus did on the cross and stop worrying about how I can make myself better and just start taking part in what God has planned for me and the whole world.

After we finished some of us stayed behind to talk about the teaching. I just sat there and listened. The others started to talk about how this teaching would change they way we approach miracles and healing. And I started to feel something stirring in my spirit, I wanted to try it out, I wanted to see a miracle. I had the living God alive in me, and so did everyone else in that room, so why couldn't He perform miracles through us. And this desire to pray for my acne started burning in me, and for 20 minutes I just sat there wondering whether or not I would dare to try it. And the others we're starting to leave already till I finally opened my mouth. And Ronnie agreed that we should try it. Then others joined, and so about 10 of us prayed for my skin.

At first nothing really seemed to happen, except for the way that we prayed, with a completely new sense of authority. Then I started to feel my hands go numb with the prickling feeling that comes first when you're limbs are 'falling asleep'. And the feeling spread throughout my entire body till I felt like every vain in my body was on fire. And it was amazing. To feel the power of God flow through me like that, I felt like I could do anything. But He didn't heal my skin. We prayed and we rebuked and we declared and we prayed some more, but nothing happened. So we agreed to stop and to trust that God would heal it in His time. But I didn't even care. I was so drunk on the Holy Spirit that I had to stay behind to sober up for a while. I sat down on a sofa in our dark lecture room and started to giggle by myself. And it turned into laugher till I was laughing so hard that I had tears coming out of my eyes. It took me a while to calm down again, and then I just worshipped for a bit and went to bed.

My skin wasn't healed the next morning like we'd prayed for. It still isn't any better. But I don't care. My God is Almighty and He heals me when He pleases and I have given away my right to complain when He doesn't do what I want Him to do. He's promised to heal my skin and I trust that. I don't know when, but I pray that it's soon.

A lot of remarkable stuff apart from tuesday night has happened this week as well. God's been powerfully present in our worship sessions again and yesterday we witnessed Him heal one of our students' knee. She'd injured it early that morning and couldn't put any weight on it. After praying for her for several hours, within 10 minutes she went from not being able to put weight on her knee to jumping up and down and dancing around the room and praising God. And yesterday we also baptised 8 people in our school leader's swimming pool. It was the most beautiful baptism I've ever been to, even though it was in the middle of this shaggy looking backyard, in this filthy swimming pool, the sun shining down on us so hard that everybody was soaked from the sweat. But it was beautiful because 8 people became new, with a new focus in their lives. This week has truly been about refocusing. Focusing on God instead of ourselves, setting our minds on heavenly things rather than what's here on earth. Standing in awe and reverence of God rather than in the fear of men. I gave up my rights to the things that I desire the most in this life. They belong to God now. I burned them at the feet of the cross and it is up to God if he wants to resurrect them or not. He is the Lord of my life, and he is no longer a guest in my house, but the owner, and I have become a servant.

Wow. That went pretty deep... Time to light up the conversation! Because our school is once again leaving the base, I won't have internet access for 3 weeks. So I won't be able to wish anyone a merry christmas on the actual day, so I'll just say it now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

And to anyone who's going to GearUp, I wish you the bestest frikkin time everrrr!!! I wish I could be there, and it kills me that I won't see you. I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Be blessed and praise God for He is good all the time! AMEN!

Revelations

This week has truly been amazing when it comes to learning new things. The whole week we watched Dean Sherman videos on relationships, which were absolutely epic. Who knew video lectures could be so intresting. The funny thing was that half way through the week I realised that I've actually read his book on relationships like 3 years ago. Even funnier was that I remember not liking the book when I read it. The lectures were so much better.

So the topic was relationships, and I learned so much more about relating to other people than just about dating. I realized just how important relationships are as a part of getting to know God more. How essential loving our neighbor is and how everything we do should be weighed according to "is it loving" rather than "is it allowed or forbidden". All this led to a number of conversations about the definition of love and sin. One of the guys on our school had some pretty intresting ideas about the role sin plays in our life once we're christians and how it affects our relationship with God. Basicly what he thinks is that our actions, or sins, don't separate us from God once we're under the protection of Jesus' blood. This goes a lot deeper and I already tried to write it here once but then I realised that the theory isn't quite ready yet so i deleted it. You can ask me about it when I get back. But what my friend thought made a lot of sense and there was just so much freedom in what he came up with that I'm pretty sure he's on the right track.

And through these talks about sin and love and relationships I also got a new revelation of my identity in Christ. To understand that God doesn't leave me when I'm disobedient and that I'm absolutely and completely righteous in His eyes, that there is no condemnation or judgement to me for I am in Jesus Christ. Old stuff, I know, but it just came to me in a totally new way as if I only heard it for the first time. And if and when I truly realise and understand that I am enough as I am, I no longer have the need to judge others because I know that I'm not judged. And when I don't judge or envy others I am free and able to love them, even when they don't deserve it. When I understand God's unconditional love for me I'll be able to pass it on. And loving others is crucial if I want to get forward in my relationship with God. Because whoever says that they love God but don't love their brother is a liar.

And also understanding my identity leaves less room for the Devil to work in me. Cos his favourite way to mess with our heads is to question our identity. That's how he fooled Eve in the Garden; implying that she wasn't wise enough without the fruit. And when Jesus was baptised and God said out loud "this is My beloved Son", straight after the Devil attacked Jesus in the wilderness asking "IF you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread". But if and when I stick to my identity, which is that I am holy and righteous in God's eyes and that nothing can separate me from Him and His grace, I won't turn my back to God so easily. Of course Satan still tries to trick me, but at least it'll be easier to notice.

Yeah, so that was cool. And actually for the first time in my life I really searched through the bible to find answers to the questions that were causing me to lose sleep. And I did find answers and confirmation to my thoughts. Which made me fall in love with that book even more. And the whole week and what I've learned has made me fall in love with God even more. Like the song: "the more I seek You, the more I find You and the more I find You, the more I love You". Next week we have lordship which should be life changing as well. I'm sooo exciteed.

So this is how I'm doing at the moment. I'm kinda missing Finland now that Christmas is getting closer and it's over 35 degrees everyday and humid as you like. Not too christmasy... And I'm also bummed that I don't get to go to GearUp, a youth seminar my mum's organizing on New Year's. I'm sad when I think about all the people who are gonna be there that I won't see :'( Well, there's always next year... Ooo, and also I got my student allowance, 210e a month, which is like 330 dollars. SWEET! I've already spent like 200 on shopping :P They have sales here before Christmas, which seems like a really stupid idea, but I'm not complaining. So many cool shirts for 10 bucks, which is like 7 euros. Cheap as you like. Though I guess I need to slow down with spending, it need to save some for Japan.. And I wouldn't mind having some money left when I go back to Finland... Oh well. At least I'm financially secure at the moment :) Yay God!

the Byron Bay experience

So for the last two weeks I have been without an internet connection, thus I need to tell you about two weeks in one post, which is gonna be exhausting, but I'll try.

So our MAD school went to a town called Byron Bay, which is a small beach town that's very popular amongst backpackers. During our time there it was also a scene for this massive event called Schoolies. Schoolies are basically highschool graduates who head to various beach locations after graduation to party hard. For the first week of our stay we were doing Red Frogs which is basically a christian voluntary organisation that takes care of Schoolies by walking them back to their hotel rooms, baking them pancakes and cleaning up their hotels. And through all that we try to communicate God's love for them and also to talk to them about Jesus, or in other words evangelize. I was really excited to just get there and talk to people and see what God was gonna do through me, but once we got there and started doing our thing the reality wasn't quite what I expected. Our team didn't really function that well and there was a lot of confusion and I often found myself totally lost in all of the logistical mess. It was also way harder than I had imagined to just go for it and start talking about God, even when the kids were drunk out of their minds and actually really open to conversation. I don't know if it was just spiritual attacks, sleeping on a carpet floor without a matress, or eating nothing but bread all the time that got to me, but a lot of the time with the schoolies I felt helpless and lost. During that week I only had one good conversation where I actually got to share the gospel with someone. So by the end of the week I felt like an absolute failure and just so dissapointed in myself, questioning God's faithfulness and my ability to hear His voice. But fortunately a week earlier I had started to journal and write down what I felt that God was saying to me and through that God really revealed Himself to me and I learned so much about His character and the way He sees me. In spite of all my self-doubt he was saying that He wasn't mad or even dissapointed, that I couldn't know the consequences of my actions and words or see the whole scale of things that had happened in the spiritual world that week by just me being there, and that He doesn't appreciate me any less even though I didn't bring anyone to Christ. It was my first mission trip ever and I guess I expected too much of myself and God made me realize that everything's a journey and I can't expect myself to be amazing right away. Maybe I'm not called to be a street evangelist. Maybe I am called to tell people about Christ through my songs or just my life. He has great plans for me and I just need to be susceptible to them and stop trying so hard to be something I think I should be. So all in all the schoolies week was a good experience and it definitely brought me closer to God, and stepping into other outreaches it's good to have a little perspective on my purpose and my part in building His Kingdom.

The second week was way more relaxed, though we were short on money for food and had way worse breakfast than during the first week. Not having milk for coffe really tested my nerves and during the whole 2 weeks I actually ended up spending about 50 bucks on coffee alone. It's ridiculous, I know, but what can I say... Anyway. We spent almost every afternoon on the beach and because of the modesty rules that us girls had I now have a ridiculous shorts tan on my thighs. The beach in Byron was amazing and I swam in the Pacific ocean for the first time. I also tried surfing, which didn't go so well. I mainly just lied on the board and floated on the waves, I didn't even try to stand up. It was a lot of fun though. There were still Schoolies around during the second week and we baked them pancakes a couple of times in the evenings even though we weren't red frogs anymore. I felt better about the whole evangelism thing though I still didn't manage to get into any good conversations. All of us were starting to get really tired. Most of us hadn't had a proper sleep since we came, and everybody was starting to get really sick of eating sandwiches every day. On tuesday we'd also climbed a mountain, 8,8 km altogether up and down, and some of us had caught a cold. The whole climb was a very ridiculous thing. It took about 2 hours to climb up and when we finaly reached the summit it was so foggy we couldn't even see the view. It started to rain and after having lunch we descended in the rain. I was one of the people who got sick and am actually still pretty ill as I'm writing this, and it's sunday now. But I'm still very proud of myself for doing it. Just going down took about an hour and while doing it I kept wondering where I'd ever get the strength to up in the first place. On saturday morning some of us went to the Byron Bay lighthouse to see the sunrise. That took strength as well but I am so happy I went. It was so amazing to see the sun rise from the ocean, all red and huge. It was the perfect ending to the Byron Bay experience.

Coming back to Brisbane was amazing. That's all I can say. This base feels so much more like home now. I'm so thankful for my bed, our room, our bathroom, our kitchen, our slow internet connection. I can't wait to start lectures again, to get back to the routine. Right now I'm ill and I'm just gonna relax and enjoy the weekend. Soon I gotta start thinking about christmas... It does not feel like december in this 35 degree weather and sunshine. People are listening to christmas songs and decorating places and it just feels weird. But the truth is that it's gonna be christmas in less than 3 weeks... If you wanna send me a card or a present for christmas my address is 671 Samford Road Mitchelton 4053 QLD Australia. Also any kind of financial support is more than welcome!

So this is how I'm doing at the moment. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing, a lot has happened and I'm not the best storyteller in the world. I probably forgot many things but that's ok. Peace out.

Father Heart of God, Outreach and other stuff

I'm super tired but I'm gonna try to write as much as I possibly remember...

So this week we had Mr. Ken Helser teaching us about the Father Heart of God. Though he didn't really teach, he just told stories. He really is an amazing man of God, and a lot of people got so much out of this week that their lives will be changed forever. But to be honest, I wasn't one of those people. I had trouble concentrating, and in a very weird way I felt really disconnected. I don't know why and I'm still very confused. This week was supposed to be emotionally draining, life changing and plain amazing, but I didn't feel it.

Last saturday we got our outreach options: India, South-Africa, Japan, Canada and Australia. Our entire band was asked to go to Japan as a group, which was something that has never happened before. Noah asked us to pray about it together, and we did. Most of us didn't have anything against Japan, except for Koji, our Japanese guitar player, who of course didn't want to go back home. So we accepted the fact that Koji wasn't coming and we all prayed about our decision as individuals. On tuesday we had to make our final decision. Apart from Koji everyone in our band was going to Japan. On tuesday evening Steven, our band's staff member, came to us and told us that Koji was coming too. Koji had prayed about it and God had told him to stick with the band. How amazing is that?

So in the beginning of February I'll be going to Japan for 7 weeks. On thursday the staff announced the outreach teams, and it turned out that I am the only student girl who's going to Japan. With me are coming Koji, Josh, Izac, Nick, Steven, Ronnie and Jess, who is the other girl coming. She's staff, and she's actually my one-on-one, which is pretty sweet. All the other girls are a little jealous of me cos more than half of all the MAD guys are coming to Japan... The South-Africa team is the biggest. It's actually like 3 times too big. The second biggest is the India team. Smallest one is the dance-oriented Asutralia boat trip team. They only have 6 girls. And there was no Canada team! Nobody wanted to go there.

Thursday night when we heard our outreach teams was our pizza night. Ken Helser had this thing with every school (mad, b2b, sports) where he and all the guys cooked pizza for all the girls. Our guys had decorated the community room and it was gorgeous! They baked alltogether 60 pizzas, and it was probably the best pizza I've ever had. They served us and were all polite and wonderful and it was sooooooooooo lovely. I ate so much that I was in physical pain for like a half an hour.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Byron Bay for two weeks. I won't have internet access there so you're just gonna have to wait. The whole idea of this trip is to go minister to so called schoolies. Schoolies is the Australian version of Spring Break. When australians graduate from highschool they head to different beach locations to party for a week. Many of their parents actually buy them alcohol. Young people about the age of 18 get absolutely smashed, many of them do drugs or have sex for the first time. We are going to minister to these kids, to play volleyball with them and to bake pancakes to them. I hear it's gonna be super intense, so I ask for you to pray for me and for the whole team. After a week of schoolies we're gonna have a week of lectures at the Byron Bay base. It's gonna be less intense and we're gonna have time to surf and just hang out on the beach. I am really looking forward to it.

So that's all I have for now. Please keep praying for me. Pray that I don't get sunburnt. It's nasty. Weather here has been lovely, plus thirty-something degrees celcius every day. It's starting to get really humid which is not too nice. It's like living in a dishwasher. And it's gonna get worse. Annyway. I shall be back in a fortnight!

week 3

Oh no oh no oh no!! It seems like time is finally starting to go fast... This week has pretty much just ran by. I've almost been here for a month. Crazy.

So this week our topic was Biblical worldview. We did lots of random stuff, and we actually had only one lecture that was just about worldviews and stuff. Then we watched a video of Landa Cope preaching about dicipling nations and discussed it. We actually used quite a lot of time discussing dicipleship and what it means. To be honest it could've been a it more intresting...

So as there's nothing much to share about the deeper stuff this week I thought I'd tell you a little about the everyday life on base. I'll just start with our weekly schedule:

Tuesday is the first day of our week, actually. Live every day, we have breakfast from 7 to 7:45. In the morning we have a community meeting, and we're given some random chores to do before morning tea. This basically means that everyone gets a little task to help around the base, like for example to tidy the community room or wash windows. After that we usually have a little worship time in the community room. For morning tea we usually have fruits and pastrys and coffee and tea. After that we have lectures till lunch at 12:30. After lunch on tuesdays us MAD students have the afternoon free for doing our homework. Supper's at 5:30. At 7:30 we have another lecture or something to do with the week's topic. That usually takes the rest of the evening..

Wednesday usually begins with worship in the MADhouse(our classroom). After that we have lectures till lunch. In the afternoon we have free time, and for a couple of hours before supper there's sports in the nearby park. I've tried to use those afternoons working out at the gym on the base and then gone to play volleyball with others. It's been pretty sweet, i gotta say. Wednesday evenings we have small groups that usually begin with everyone sitting in the madhouse talking about the day's lecture or something else Noah(our school leader) wants us to think about. Noah's really good at digging deep into people's own beliefs and questioning everything. It can be a little annoying at times but it does make one think more about their beliefs. After that we split into small groups where we discuss a topic that Noah gives us. I really like our group and we've had some pretty sweet conversations.

On Thursday mornings we have intercession in the MADhouse. For the last 2 weeks we've been praying about the Muti murders in south africa. It's pretty heavy stuff and I still find it hard to believe that our prayers would make a difference, but i guess they can. The rest of the morning is normally lectures, but for example this thursday we went to the city to visit an art gallery and afterwards had a barbecue at the manmade beach (which from now on I'll be reffering to as South Bank). In the afternoon we have MAD moments, which basically mean that we divide into our domaine groups and "do our thing". Thursday evenings are free, and the nearby mall (which from now on shall be referred to as Brookside) stays open till later so it's possible to go shopping in the evening.

Fridays are pretty much the same as thursdays with two exceptions. In the morning we have community intercession when we pray about different things with the whole base. For example yesterday we prayed for different authors who have lots of influense in the society today. And in the evenings we have some sort of MAD group gathering, whether it's worship and prayer, theological discussion or just mandatory fun. Yesterday we had an 80's theme birthday party for all the people who have their bday in novemeber. It was loads of fun. Afterwards we went to McDonald's (which from now on shall be referred to as Mackers), some of us still dressed up in our 80's costumes. Good times.

On Saturdays we don't have lectures but in the morning we usually have like a discussion thing. Today we watched a documentary about global warming and talked about it. I suppose that you've noticed so far how Noah's trying to make us talk about stuff all the time. He's really trying to make us think for ourselves instead of just believing everything we've told. And it's working. So when I come back and a lot of me has changed, don't think that I was brainwashed. Cos that is exactly what our dear school leader is trying to prevent. Anyway. On saturday afternoons we have the so called GO day, which is divided into two sections. First there is EPIC, which is a youth programme for the children that live near the base. Loads of children come and we organize different activities for them, such as skateboarding, sports, art, music, games etc. Then there's community work which can be like picking up trash on the streets, taking care or the elderly or raking someone's yard, or just cooking lunch at the base. I was lucky to get be in the art team for EPIC. It's probably the most relaxed one... after EPIC the rest of the day is free.

Sundays and Mondays are our weekends. We have no obligations, except for breakfast/lunch/dinner cleanup (everybody in MAD is either on breakfast, lunch or dinner cleanup team, which means we have to cleanup the kitchen and the dining room 3 times a week). We're also recommended to go to a local church here in Brisbane, but it's not mandatory. We can spend the night somewhere else if we wish to, so it's possible to go somewhere like Gold Coast and spend the night there.

So that is our weekly schedule. Of course it looks a little bit different every week. There's also loads of stuff i could talk about that's part of our everyday life. Such as the bread station. It's this thing in the diningroom where we can get hot water for tea and toast bread 24/7. There's a small fridge with peanutbutter and jam for the bread. The station can be very deceiving and I am trying to avoid it as much as possible. What else... We have 2 pool tables and a pingpong table and a trampolin. We also have a gym like I mentioned earlier. In the MADhouse we have a dance studio and a recording studio. Mackers is like 10 minutes walk from the base and to my great joy Apple pies cost only 1 dollar!

I don't know what else to share... I guess that was enough for now. Oh! We got our outreach destinations today! We have till tuesday to decide where we're going, but I'm pretty sure where I'm gonna go. I can't tell it yet though... in case God tells me to go somewhere else. But I'm pretty sure.

Annyway. Keep praying for me, I need your prayers! And I try to write here a little more often. I guess. I promise nothing!

week 2

So. This weeks was a little different than the first one when it comes to lectures. The subject was Strength Finders, and we were supposed to learn about spiritual foundations and building "the house of God" on top of our foundation and then learning about our strengths and what they mean and how we can develop them etc. Before the school started they made us take a psycologic test that told us what our five strengths were. Mine were Empathy, Communication, Strategic, Developer and Responsibility. During this week's lectures we were supposed to study eveyone's strengths and learn more about them, but on wednesday our lecturer Dave decided that we should do testimonies and ministry, cos he felt like some people had baggage that needed to be dealt with before we could start "building". So we spent all wednesday and thursday mornings listening to people sharing about stuff they struggled with, confessing stuff and getting delivered from stuff. It was powerful. I'm not sure how much of it is appropriate to be shared here, but i guess i can just mention a couple of things without giving any names. So we had this one guy who used to be a drug dealer tell his life story and at times i thought it was a movie cos it just sounded so amazing. He's not a christian but he's doing dts and he's definitely getting there... Just last night he gave away 900 dollars to some homeless guy and a lady who had cancer or something. Some people confessed idolatry and distrust towards god and sexual impturity etc. One guy told about his addition to pornography and after praying for him we had all the guys stand up in one line and all the girls standing in another line facing the guys, and we passed a microphone around and girls and guys would apologize for sinning against each other. It was powerful.

That was friday, and on the same night all MAD people had a movie night. Our school leader Noah had selected a film that he hadn't seen, but since it was PG-13 he thought it couldn't be that bad. The film was Year One, and a lot of people were very excited to see it. So we watched like half of it, and it turned out to be quite inappropriate, especially after what had happened in the morning. So Noah stopped it in the middle and we had a discussion about the film, which was super cool. We talked about world views (which btw is our subject for next week) and how a PG-13 film could have such provocative stuff in it. Ironically, later Noah told us that he's watched the rest of the film with his wife and after the point where he'd stopped the film it had become totally clean, all the dirty jokes were gone and there was actually a pretty good moral message at the end. So we might watch the rest of the film some day. But nobody minded, cos the discussion we had about it was so awesome.

On saturday morning we had a bible study forum thing, where we discussed about the Bible and what makes it real and true and how we can be sure etc. It was really cool to dig deeper into what we believed and why we believed so. I personally came to the conclusion that even though the Bible and it's stories are historically accurate, without the Holy Spirit working through it it's just a sotrybook. Just like no one comes to Christ without the spirit of God working in them, nobody can really believe in the Bible if they leave Holy Spirit out of it. And debating with non-christiand about what is true and what is not is useless, cos no scientific information is ever gonna change the way people feel inside them. The power to change hearts lies in our actions, loving our neighbour as ourselves. Of course we need to tell people eventually, but jumping headfirst into a debate with an atheist isn't gonna help anyone. So on that note, and also out of Noah's encouragement, me and a couple of friends decided to go interview people on their vies about God and Christianity etc. Our purpose was not to tell them what we thought, but to actually learn what people thought about stuff. And it was super intresting. We had a videocamera with us, and hopefully i could get a video of it on facebook or something. One thing that was really obvious, was that people weren't really sure what they believed in. Most people thought that there was a God, or just a higher power, but they couldn't define it more. There was a christian girl who wasn't sure if she was going to heaven cos she didn't think that she was a good person. Someone said that they didn't believe in God but they did believe in heaven and hell. And old lady told us she couldn't live without God but when we asked her what makes the difference in a person's life that decides whether they go to heaven or hell, she didn't know. A lot of people thought that the Bible was too long, unreadable and that it should be updated. We might do the same thing another time, cos it truly was enlightening. I truly recommend it for everyone, whoever you are and wherever you live. Cos oftentimes we christians think we know, but then we really have no clue, cos we don't think about it. Kinda like what those non-christians thought about God and stuff. They think they know what they believe in, but when you ask them straight, they have no clue.

With Everything

I've been getting some really cool feedback from friends that've been reading this blog and it makes me super happy to know that I'm not writing this for nothing. So thanks guys <3

So far this week hasn't been quite as intense as last week. The topic this week is Strength Finders, and so far we've been learning about the spiritual foundations that each of us have. Our this week's lecturer, base leader Dave Niebling, hasn't rocked my world quite as much as Kevin Norris did, but he's had some good points too. We still have another 2 days of lectures on this subject, so I'm eager to see what God's gonna show me. So far I've felt a bit disconnected by Dave's teaching, but it'll get better, I'm sure.

The last couple of days have been frikkin hot here. In the day time it's been like 32 degrees celcius, and I can't believe that it's gonna get even hotter! But so far I've managed to avoid getting sunburnt, though I did get a sunstroke on monday when we went to the city. So my first time in downtown Brisbane was filled with headache and nausea. Whatever, I still enjoyed it. The city has like these 2 main shopping streets that are for pedestrials only. They form a cross in the middle of the city, and on the streets there are cafeterias, bars and performance stages in the middle of the street. And oh my word are the shops here amazing. Me, Liz and Nat didn't really have a good chance to do any proper shopping cos we had to drag 5 guys around, but we're definitely gonna go do some hard core shopping before leaving for Byron Bay, which btw I believe is in 2 weeks!

Last night we had community worship and it was frikkin amazing. I don't know if I have any voice left to sing at band practice today. I was jumping and dancing and shouting and jumping like crazy, it was sooo goooood. God really set people free to worship Him and there was just this overwhelming joy that filled the whole place. We we're singing the song With Everything by Hillsong and it was just unbelievable. And it made me wonder why worship couldn't be like that at home. Where's the fire, where's that overwhelming joy that sweeps over the entire room? I'm sure God's presence is there, but where are our hearts?

After these challenging questions I only have one word left. Breakfast!

week 1

It does not feel like I've been in Astralia for about 10 days no. It feels more like a month. I've already learnt and experienced so much. I can't believe that I still have 6 months left.

This week we've had Kevin Norris speaking about God's nature and character. Deep, deep stuff. He basicly turned everyone's world upside down by totally destroying some of the ideas about God most of us have lived with our entire lives. But it really made me think how little I've actually questioned people's theologies in the past. I realised that usually I just take what preachers say just like that and not really process their words to see which parts are actually true and which aren't. Kevin said loads of things that made me angry and even scared, but he did back his words up with Bible verses, and he challenged us to look for Bible verses to prove him wrong, if we could. And the things he couldn't prove with the Bible he told us as theories and assumptions, not the truth. It was really cool and I learned a lot, not just about God and His character, but also about myself.

On wednesday Kevin taught us a little about worship. Again, he challenged the things we'd been taught in the past, and again he made lots of sense. I almost felt embarrased about how distorted my picture of worship was. Or that I actually had no clue. One of the things Kevin said about worsip, was that it it not just an "attitude of the heart". In other words, you can't worship God by just doing mundane things with a loving heart. No, worship is an intimate time with God, it's encountering someone that is Holy and it should be something you focus on fully while you're doing it. Cos if worship could be what ever, it wouldn't be anything special. He also challenged us to think about what we sing when we worship. Are we really sincere when we sing "Wherever you go I promise to follow"? Are we actually willing to do that? And what do we mean when we sing "Halleluja to the Lord of Heaven and Earth"? Doesn't Halleluja mean "Praise the Lord". It's a command adressed to people. So what's the point in singing "Praise the Lord to the Lord ... " There's something for you to think about...

On thrusday we started our Music Arts and Dance stuff. Dividing people into different bands was an intresting procedure, but the staff came up with pretty good groups. I am now the lead singer in a band with four guys. It's pretty cool. We have people from 4 different continents; Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. We had a chance to do a bit jamming yesterday but due to technical problems only me and the drummer Izaac were able to hear singing. But it'll get better.

Right now I don't have more time to talk about what's been going on. We've had loads of free time so we've been mostly just hanging out, and there's nothing too intresting to tell about that. Tonight we're having a Halloween party for all the MAD students. We're all gonna dress up and bring loads of sweets. I don't really know what my costume's gonna be, but I'm sure I'll think of something. Should be awesome.

And I just wanna apologize the lack of pictures. This internet is just too slow. Tomorrow we should get the bandwith back, cos it's the first of the month, so I'll try and upload some pics then. Hopefully it works.

INTENSE

This weekend all of us MAD students went to the mountains for two nights. It was cool to finally see the whole crew in one place at the same time. The place where we stayed was so pretty, though the bedrooms looked like they were straight from a horror movie that takes place in an asylum or something... It was creepy. Annnnnyway...

During almost the entire weekend we all shared our life stories. It took a while, as there was almost 40 of us and one story lasted from 5 to 20 minutes. But it was very intresting, and it got pretty intense. When it was my time to share I just cried my eyes out and by the time I was finished with it I was soaking wet. But it was cool and I felt like God really worked through the vulnerability. Later last evening we had a worship session and intercession. It was good. God did some powerful stuff, tho I'm not gonna get into the details.

Althogether the weekend was frikkin amazing. Everyone's so great. I feel like every moment I spend with these people is a party like no other. What's funny is that everybody keeps complementing my clothes. I wore my harem pants (well actually they're Hanna's, but whatever) today and like 10 people said they were awesome. Also my jeans, my scarf, my hat.. All very popular amongst the dts people. And they're all weirded out by my british accent. Some people just can't get over it. One of the staff members named me FB, as in the Finnish Britt. I don't have anything against it, though he keeps mocking me by talking to me in a ridiculous posh british accent. But it's all good fun.

On the way back from the mountains we had a proper rave in the bus. Everybody was singing and dancing to the music and there were times I was actually scared that the bus is gonna roll over... By the time we got back to Brisbane it was raining. I've never seen a thunderstorm like this. I'll post a video on facebook once I'm able to, I really don't know how to describe it. The lightning literally lights up the whole sky and the rain's pouring down so hard that it's impossible to move from a building to another without getting soaked. We haven't been able to unpack the van yet cos it's still raining...

Tomorrow we're starting the actual lectures. Should be awesome, I can't wait.

GDAY MATE

So, I'm finally gonna try to overcome my hate towards this stone age internet they have here and try to write something about the last few days. We have a class starting in half an hour so I'm gonna be reallyquick and just list some stuff...

The journey here was pretty painful cos my knees started to ache like hell on the plane so I couldn't sleep. The food was good tho. And I had company, some other dts people who I met along the way.

The first day in Brisbane was a bit of a blur as I was so tired. Too much information and too little energy. The first night I froze my ass off cos I didnt have a blanket or a sleeping bag, just sheets. And the birds make so much noise at night. But I survived, and one of the students had an extra blanket so the other two nights have been better. Tho I still havent managed to sleep past 5:30 am. I have no idea why, I just wake up really early, it's so annoying.

So far we've basicly just hung around and got to know each other, tho yesterday we had orientation, loads and loads of information, and again too little energy. Everyone here is sooo nice and funny. There's people from all around the world, but the biggest group is definitely the Canadians. They're everywhere!

The school itself hasn't started yet, I think our classes start on tuesday. This weekend us MAD students are going on a retreat to the mountains, about 1 hour 45 minutes from Brisbane. It's gonna be great! Yesterday we had intercession in the morning and a worship thing in the evening, and both events were so amazing. I can't wait to see what God has in store for all of us.

I'm running out of time.. I just want to say that I'm sooo happy here, everything's great and I already feel like God's really taking care of me. I'll try to upload some photos at some point, so you too can see how beautiful this place is. But now I really gotta go. Byes!

x

HERE GOES...

So, this is it... After months of waiting, I'm finally about to leave for Australia. Less than 6 hours till my plane leaves. Crazy. My brain still refuses to wrap itself around the fact. Yesterday I spent the whole day just packing my stuff and organizing my room and still I managed to forget that I'm going. TODAY. I don't know why it's so hard for me to understand that this is actually happening to me! I have to tell myself to believe it, over and over again. Unbelievable...

For those who don't know who I am or what this blog is about, here's some info:

My name is Sonja (pronounced like Sonia) and I'm a 19-year-old christian girl from Helsinki Finland. For some time now I've had a dream of taking a gap year and leaving Finland after graduating from hichschool. I was introduced to a christian organisation called Youth With A Mission that organises Dicipleship Training Schools around the world, and I thought that a 6-month-long DTS would be the perfect way to spend my gap year. A friend of mine told me about a special DTS in Brisbane, Australia, called Music Arts and Dance DTS, or MAD DTS. As I love music and everything that has something to do with it I instantly felt like this was the place for me to be.

And that's also where I'm going now, and here in this blog I'll try to write about what's happening in my life in Brisbane. From what I've heard from my friends who've done dts it's gonna be a life-changing experience. It's gonna be absolutely amazing, but really tough too, so I'm gonna need all your prayers!

I guess there's nothing more to add at this point. See you on the other side...

To learn more about YWAM Brisbane visit http://www.goywam.com/