June!

time flies when your loving life.. and yes i am loving being here in perth.. it has been a refreshing season of being back. new and old faces, getting out on the streets and telling peeps about Jesus, living in community, being invested in through
time and prayer.. so good..

Happenings~
i have been here now for 2 months and have been able to be apart of many different things here in Perth. My main job is being apart of Megacities doing data entry for the teams that are in London and writing up their reports.. reading testimonies and getting to hear firsthand what’s happening over there. we have also had testimonies of people coming to know Jesus here in Perth as well! it’s exciting to be apart of. Saturday we took part in the World Outreach Day and 2 people accepted Christ... wow! stepping out in boldness and obedience can change our own lives as well as others!

One girl here on the base shared how she was always told that everyone has heard the gospel in countries like Australia.. and then she met a group of guys on the street that had no idea about who this Jesus was .. she was like, “it’s not true! there are people out there that have no idea who God is and they really want to know about Him!” Really good to be apart of evangelism weekly and see people transformed including ourselves.

So... incase you were wondering, here is a schedule of what a typical mon-fri day looks like for me:

8am-morning chores
830am-intercession (prayer for people around the world)
930am-data entry in open offices with Megacities ministry
1230p-lunch
130p-back to Megacities office
530p-dinner
chill nights (except wed-fri. wed-work cafe. thurs-evangelism.
fri-friday night meeting)

There is about 300 staff and students, so we are one big happy family.. really.. we are..

London Trip~
this week i have been praying about doing a vision/ministry trip to London for 4 weeks at the end of July (July 20th to August 20th). I will be going with 4 other girls from the base here. The focus of the trip is advocating against human trafficking and prostitution, especially since it will be on the rise during the Olympics. We will be teaching on the issues of human slavery and prostitution, leading the church to reach out to the women in their Burroughs during the Olympics.

i am stoked about this new opportunity... God says go and i say i am willing to be sent! the cost of the trip is $3000. If you would like to be apart of giving towards this trip... you can go to...
http://www.ywamperth.org.au/007/payonline.asp

or you can send a check to my home address and it will be put into my account by my lovely mum - Kim Cates. 14095 Proctor Valley Rd. Jamul. Ca 91935 USA

blessings!

a man named peter.

evangelism.

every Thursday night here on the base, we do evangelism in the city. this past thursday, i was with a group of 30 that take the train into the city after dinner. once we get there we start off by worshipping God in a circle, welcoming His presence to come. we do different things each week but this week we broke off into pairs and went around the city asking people questions like 'if this was the last day of your life what would you do?'
i was paired up with one of the students and we went for it.. we talked to around 8 people and it was sweet! i loved the conversations i had and the openness of the people that we talked to and even if they weren't open .. you could tell that they were willing to hear what we had to say ..

we talked to 6 different people, but the conversation that stood out the most was the one we had with a man named Peter.

we walked around a corner and standing in front of a "nude girls" place.. was a guy smoking a cigarette that looked slightly intimidating but not enough for us to pass him by without a chat. we walked up to him and asked him if he was from around here. he was surprisingly friendly, talked to us and then asked what do you want? ha. it was great. i love aussies.. so blunt..

so we continued to explain what we were doing and why we were there talking to people on the streets and he told us that he didn't want anything to do with Jesus.. he didn't believe in a God that would let horrible things happen to innocent people.. and walked off because he had to grab the salvation army van that was driving by and giving out free food..

we were a bit taken back by his language and honest opinions and disgust of God. as he walked away and we stood there not arguing with him, a peace came over me to not argue with him and i knew that if i had a conversation with this man a year ago, i would have argued with him in who God is and what His character is like, but i didn't feel like it was the right time to do so.

we prayed for him, and saw another guy walk out of the 'nude girls' place. we went over to talk to him and as we asked him if we could talk to him, he seemed closed and not wanting to talk.. but his face looked shameful and guilty. we asked him 'if this was the last day of your life, what would you do with it?' he was polite but not in the mood to talk.. very solemn looking. i asked him if he was a Christian or believed in God and he said.. maybe in a few years he would, but not now and walked away to catch a cab. it was a bit heartbreaking and we prayed for him after he left. as we turned around Peter had come back, and was leaning against the window of the 'nude girls' place with food in his hand from the salvation army van. He asked us if we wanted any soup and i said sure! since i hadn't eaten dinner yet.

we stood there talking to him and he opened up about his past and how he was raped as a kid by his mom. we spoke words of life into him just seeing the qualities in his life that were good and asked if we could pray for him. he said sure.. so we prayed with him and it was great to see him change from cussing at us to opening up and letting us pray with him. we hope to see him again in the upcoming weeks.

please keep Peter in your prayers.

God fills us.. so we can pour it out again

the new base

sweet! yes.. life is a sweet aroma at the moment. God is so good.. i am loving being back and although its busy and full of people all the time.. its rich!

so i have officially had one full week of getting back in the grind of YWAM life.. with a new fresh perspective and a new fresh base! the base is beautiful! wow.. God definitely did a miracle here with how much he provided for us to build this base. he is a miracle worker for sure!

so this time around i am working in Megacities! what did my week look like?

well a few things that are really important that we do all the time is one.. PRAYER and two FELLOWSHIP

lots of prayer... i get to the base each day at 8 am and start off with cleaning the base for a half hour with everyone else on base. we are broken into smaller groups of 10 and clean every area that needs a bit of a scrub. there are around 150-200 people on the base at the moment so i am always surrounded by amazing people.

monday we do worship for an hour right after morning chores. tuesday and wednesday we do prayer for an hour in small groups and pray for things like where our teams are in the world.. different nations.. perth city.. London.. people.. unbelievers.. etc.

and the other days i go straight to the offices to do work. this week my work has consisted of transcripting videos that groups recorded when they went over to London. some of the videos are random footage of London city.. some are ministry times.. and others are testimonies of what God has already been doing in and through the city. its been great to hear what He has been doing in this city that i feel strongly tied and called to ..

there are 8 others that also work in Megacities in the office and its awesome to work with them as well... they are all full of life and are encouraging to work with.

i am fully exhausted from this week but its a good exhaustion as i have been going and going ..luckily its friday.. time to rest and refresh. aussies usually go to the beach on the weekend .. but its raining so i am going to have a laid back and slightly social and Jesus filled weekend.. Hope yours will be an amazing one as well! blessings yo.

the dining area 1st floor

the open offices.. where i do my work

meeting times.. worship.. prayer.. speaker.. boom

the lovely cafe

landed in OZ

i arrived in Perth, Australia last night after probably my best travel experience ever. i slept probably 9 hours straight on the first plane. it was glorious! i have rested and settled in here in Perth and have my first day in the offices in a half hour. just wanted to thank everyone for their continued prayers and encouragement! God is faithful and so good. Be led by Him and He will direct your paths :)

13 days...

13 days till i go.. i am in great anticipation and hope in going! i am still waiting for my visa to be confirmed for sure which is making me nervous.. but being anxious and worried about it won't change the situation.. worry is like trying to drive a car with the engine next to the car..

i need to remember the oldy but goody...

"dont worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." philippians 4:6

thankyou Lord for all you have done.. for me.. for those around me.. you are a God of miracles and a God that can move mountains.. thankyou for your continuing promises and deep love for me and all of your beautiful children.

"then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." philippians 4:7

:)

10 things God wants you to remember...

i am for you

i love you

i believe in you

i will not fail you

i will be with you

i will provide for you

i will bless you

i will give you rest

i will strengthen you

i will answer you

hope

encouragement is so key

so how amazing is it to be surrounded by other believers who want to speak words of life! LOVE that!

GODS CHARACTER is beautiful.. His love is so deep and so wide. if you can experience one thing out of life...i hope it would be His incredible LOVE for you :)its so good.. and then once your filled up to overflowing.. it just pours out.. and oozes out of you.. compelling you to share it..

one word i got from last night is Hope .. and that when people look at me.. they would see Life and Hope.. yes i am a dreamer.. but.. thats my little dream :)