Good Friday

Last night i joined in on a prayer vigil in the middle of Victoria Square. There was a small group of people that came and went at different times.... the max amount of people that were there at one time was approx 20. It was a great time of praying and worshipping together, although it got a little cold.... (it wasn't really that cold, it was like 14C when it finished at midnight, but it feels cold when a week ago it was 30C at that time of night, and i had shorts on...) But anyway... it was great just to pray with other people who are passionate about seeing this city saved.
While we were there, a guy walked up carrying a cross (it has a wheel on the bottom, so he isn't carrying the whole weight), he walked there from Noarlunga (20-30 min drive away to the south), he started off in the morning. He is continuing his walk now, and heading up to Elizabeth (30min drive north). He is prayer walking as he goes.... praying that God's power will fall on this city, that people will experience the Power of Christ. That we will see healings, deliverance, and see people coming to Christ in the thousands. He is also sharing the gospel with the people who stop to speak with him.... It's awesome. As he was walking the cross broke, the wheel came off, he got picked up and he went home, he was going to give up.... however he went back, fixed the wheel and continued on....
He used this as an analogy. in that we all have a God given calling (our cross) and as we walk out in it, things don't go well or don't turn out as we expected and our cross breaks... we can then choose to stop and give up, or to press on with Christ in what He has called us to do...
When we press on we will see God's grace and mercy in our lives and we see His blessings and support.

the impact of being let down

Tonight i have been thinking about the impact people have on others when they let other people down. If a person has been consistantly let down over the years, they tend to put up a safety zone around them, allowing people in to a certain point however not fully trusting them, so that they won't get hurt when they are let down. These people may not show how much they have been hurt by someone letting them down that day, but they are hurt... and if that person has a low self esteem, it feeds into to the negetive view point which they have of themselves.
I have seen the effects of being let down on both sides... through out my life i have been let down numberous times, now most of the time i can understand why and see the real reason. However, that doesn't stop the enemy poking around and linking the current issue with the hurts from the past in this area... It sucks.... I hate it..... I hate him.... But Jesus is the mighty comforter, and He shows us the truth... He tells us who we are if we stop and listen...
Sometimes we need to tell others what Christ thinks of them, especially if we know people who are struggling in their faith, and also with low self esteem, cause they may not be listening to God telling them who they are.

The heat wave is over PTL

Well it is official, Adelaide's heat wave is now over, after 15 days over 35C, Today it was only 28, and that was in the morning.... the welcomed cool change came through about midday, by 4pm it was like 24C and now it is 19C, it is awesome, i am enjoying it heaps. My life may get back to normal now (well normal for me, anyway)
On a sadder note, we had cell tonight and there was only me and Fleur.... i missed the other 2 and was sad that the guys that i invited last week didn't turn up again.... I'm not sure why... I'll find out tho, and continue to build relationships with them.
However it was fun to just hang out with Fleur one on one for a while, it's something that we haven't done for a while, and i have missed catching up with her.
Catching up with people can be hard, with others having a different timetable to you, and if you are not carefull you can go for a long time with out talking and catching up with people. Which can bring a saddness in your heart when you realised that you haven't caught up with people that you used to be close with. I know that is how i feel, and if there is anyone who i haven't caught up with for a while, I'm sorry for my slackness... if you want to catch up contact me and we'll see what we can do.
However when you catch up with those people that you haven't seen for ages, to me it is awesome and brings stacks of joy. This would be how the Lord feels when we make time to catch up with Him and He would feel sad when we don't make time for Him. Are you making time to catch up with the Lord in your daily life.
We are made for relationships, both relationships with others and relationship with God. And relationships take effort to build and keep in contact. We impact lives of the people that we have a relationship with. We leave footprints and memories. Some good, some not so good, but we can choose what sort of impact/mark we can leave in someones life.
So i want to encourage you today, to build into the relationships that you have with the people around you, make an impact in their lives for Christ and also with your relationship with Christ. Leave an impact that is good.....

lux

Last night

Last night at the soup run, i meet a guy who used to be in jail, he has been out for a while, however he is finding it very difficult to get a job... No one wants to hire an ex-con, no matter what he done. He wants to work and is willing to work, he may have a job next week, but he will have to travel to and from murray bridge (at least 100km from adelaide). He used to be qualified as a Security Guard (which he can't do now), and he has a qualification as a mechanic, however it was before cars had computerised systems, so it doesn't really count. This guy wants to get his life together, however he can't because of this, it sucks... i told him that i'll ask around the salvos here to see if we can help him out... surely this part of what the salvos are meant to be doing. And serisiously if a salvo gave him a job, and fully got a long side him, imgine the mentorship sort of relationship they could build, and see him come to Christ in a huge way..

I also met this lady, she to had been to prison in the past, and has been on drugs, she has 3 kids, the 2 older ones are teenagers. She has had the youngest one taken off her, the older 2 were hanging around the wrong people in Adelaide and were getting in to trouble, so she sent them up to the riverland, to stay with her uncle and she is going to move up there, she has already ot a house there. She is also fighting to regain her youngest child. She has to go to AA meetings. apparently there is only a couple up that way and the closest one is 30mins away, and she has no trouble... So i said that i will get in contact with the salvos up there, and see, if there is anyway that they can help, whether someone picks her up or a a few people taking it in turns.. Imagine the impact that sort of contact with someone could make, and allowing God to work through you.

Sometime the biggest impact that we can have on someone for Christ is to help them practically with their needs, cause people nearly always ask, why, why are you doing this for me... and it leaves the door wide open to share the gospel with them.

a great time at Westcare

Well it is day 10 of our heat wave here in Adelaide. I am sitting outside in 37C heat... I'm in the shade which is good..

Anyway, today i went to Westcare (a day centre, for homeless and loney people) at lunch time to chat with some people while they had lunch. The first person i saw was my friend, K, who i invited to cell, but they didn't turn up... K, forgot my address, so now he has my address and phone number, so we should see him next Tuesday. I also had a good chat with him.
Then i saw another friend P, i chatted with him for a while. P told me that he was still a bit drunk from last night, he was still at a pub at 6am this morning. P than left to go get some much needed sleep, saying that he'll see me on Friday.
Next i met C, He is an older guy that lives in the city, C told me that he stopped drinking about a year ago. Which is awesome.
I also met B, a young guy, who i found out was a Christian, and he has been a Christian for 4 years... He was saved through Teen Challenge and volunteered with them for a while, now he only sometimes goes to church. I invited P to cell, and he said he'll probably come along.
I also talked to yogie, one of the volunteers on the way out, and had a great chat with him.
So all up i had a lot of fun while at Westcare today, Christ was there leading me and the conversations.
God is good. I just pray that Christ will continue to speak into these guys lives and draw them closer to Himself.

Sometimes i think it would be great to have a strong Christian guy here at Gen1, to get along these guys and mentor them... However God can and does use us to speak to them and draw them closer to him. Praise the Lord.

Lux

longest heat wave

ok it is official, Adelaide is in it's longest heat wave EVER....


Heat wave is anything above 35C, so it is hot... (for those that use Fahenheit instead, it is 95F)



today marks day 9....



On another point... one of the guys that i invited to cell last week came, tonight. PTL. I'm not sure what happened with the other guy, i'll follow him up, and find out next time that i see him.



Also last night after i blogged... as i walked home, i saw a young lady, says that she was in her 20's looked a lot younger, anyway she was sitting on the footpath in front of the salvo store down the road from my place. So i stoppedn and chatted with her, she was waiting to be breathalised, she had been drinking, and was meant to be staying at one of the shelters, but since the workers could smell alcohol on her she had to go to the sobering up unit, and could go back to the shelter til she blew 0.00. So i got to sit and chat with her, and then i walked with her to the shelter. I pray i get another chance to talk to her.



And i had a suprise phone call today while i was at work.... it was anexpected, but it was really cool to talk to this person, so if you read this blog, i am glad you rang... it was a great suprise



Anyway, I pray that the Lord will bless each one of you today, and that your day is full of suprises from God. And that you will grow closer to Him today and everyday.

Lux

Sorry that last post is a fairly long one....

Soup run

Tonight i went out to the soup run as usual.
As i arrived a cop car was arriving, this means that there has already been a bit of trouble there. It had quietened down before they got there. However not long afterward a bit of a fight broke out again.... This is the first time that i have seen this much trouble for ages (if ever).
There were a number of new faces there, and a large group of aboriginals... the fight was among the aboriginals, from what i can gather it seemed if one group didn't approve of a guy that one of the girls were hanging out with, she told them to leave him along, and they then turned on her.
I have been reading a bit about the aboriginal culture here. They are known as not being aggressive (unless drunk), but in my reading this isn't true. There traditional culture is simular to Old Testimony culture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, so if someone offends them they fight. If a woman cheats on her man, she can be bashed. Also a man could have many wives.
This volience comes out more when they are drunk, just like whites.
Now don't get me wrong i know a lot of great Aboriginal people, i used to climb the back fence as a kid when mum wasn't home, to go and hangout with an aboriginal family. (The father taught me the basics of how to box). So i have a soft spot for theses people, and so does God.
The book i am reading tells of a spiritual revial that happened in the north of Aus, within the Aboriginal people. The stories of what God did are amazing, people talking in tounges and people understanding, many healings, deliverance, it's awesome to read, many were being saved and experiencing Christ, both aboriginals and whites... There are also stories of how God was working in the aboriginal people before white man came, how they saw a man shining in light who raised a dead man, (can't remember the other stories, i might blog some later, when i have the book with me). God has a plan for these people, there have even been prophecies of world wide revial starting with them.
After reading this sort of stuff, it isn't suprising that the aboriginals are some of the most bound and afflicted by the enemy people in Australian, and so many whites think that they are beyond help, or they are just trouble.
So please pray for the aboriginals here, pray that they will once again experience God's love and power, (some for the first time others for a second or third time)
If these people came to Christ and get freedom from addictions, and fully change in Christ, the rest of Australia would notice and will be questioning what has made them change, and will not be able to deny the power and love of Christ. Cause the only reports people hear of Aboriginal people are bad, beside the odd one or two of sporting achievements.

On another note, i was talking with one of my friends from the soup run, and it ended up saying with him saying that he wanted to start going to church, so i got to invite someone esle to cell, so i pray that he remembers and comes.
And on the way home i got to talk to another guy briefly about Christ. He was fairly drunk, however God can still speak to him and impact him.
So i pray that Christ will do His work. and i praise him for using me for some of it.

Heat wave.

Well it has been another hot day. We have been in a heat wave for 8 days now, which equals the record for adelaide. The last time we had a heat wave this long was in the 1930's (can't remember the exact year). If tomorrow ends up being over 35C, it will be the longest heat wave ever in Adelaide. Not only that it has be 46 days without significant rain here.
Now, you get used to it not raining, but 46 days without rain, is insane (i think anyway), and it also makes me miss rain, and get excited when there is a little rain (like less than 5 mins of rain).
I want rain... it makes me think about the times where i haven't spent much time with others, i longed time to spend with other people, and also when i haven't spent much time with God, i have longed to spend time with Him, and feel surrounded by His presence.
Now with it not raining i can't do anything but pray for rain...
However if i haven't spent time with people or others, i can do a lot more. I can make the time to see and hang out with people and also with God. Sometimes the people i want to hang out with to see how they are are busy, so we can't catch up straight away. That is not so with Christ, Christ longs for me to hang out with Him more then i long to hang out with Him.
Just like i sometimes wait til, friends are free to hang out, He just waits til i am ready to come and hang with Him. And He gives me reminders that He is there and still loves me, and is waiting for me to have time with Him.
This is the same for each of you.

The last blog in note form.

I realised the last blog was very long so here it is in note form.

- Found 2 people sleeping out the front of my place, left water and food for them before I left for work
- Found that they left there sleeping gear folded in a corner out the front, think they will be back tonight.
- Searched for a hotspot for internet, took ages. Then couldn’t get on hotmail and facebook took to long to load.
- Went to soup run, had tea, talked to a few people, 1 invited to cell, might come with a friend.
- Library closed, so wandered mall.
- Saw a street preacher and team in the mall, team members were debating more than talking… Unfortunately some of the convo’s seemed like they were doing more damage then good.
- Went to Macca’s to get a drink, felt lead to buy a meal and that I would find someone to give it to.Found that someone, he walked with me down the street talking. His first question was “are you a Christian”, then apologised about asking it before I answered.

interesting day

Sorry it is a long blog.
Well a lot of today has been interesting. It started off by me finding 2 people sleeping on the porch out the front of my place… I saw them when I was about to close the windows so that the hot air wouldn’t get in, so that hopefully my place stays cooler for a bit longer (since there is a whole week of high temp, like nothing under 34C). So since it was going to be a hot day, I filled up a water bottle for them, and put it outside near their stuff, with some food… Then left for work.
When I got home, I went out the front to check the mail, and discovered that the 2 people who were sleeping on my porch, left their sleeping gear, nicely folded up in one corner… So I think they may be back tonight to sleep again…
I went for a walk to get on the internet, I thought not having internet at home would cause a little hassle, meaning that I just had to walk down the road to where there was a hotspot… I didn’t know how much a hassle it could be… it took me a while to find a hotspot (I went to a different place, cause the places where I have gone before where in busy parts of town for a Friday afternoon). Then once I found a hotspot, it would let me on Hotmail, and Facebook was taking ages to load (I ended up running out of time to get on Facebook, battery went flat).
It was time for the soup run, so I went there and had tea and talked to a few people, invited one guy to cell, and he said that he’d come, and asked if he could bring a friend. It was a lot of fun, there tonight and it was very relaxed…. (I think Friday’s are a better time to go then Mondays).
I thought I would go to the library to get on line, however when I got there I found out that they close earlier then what I remembered. So I wandered around the Mall… And I saw a street preacher… I stopped to observe what was happening and people’s reactions… As I watched, there were people that were with the street preach talking with some people, however some of the chats were more like debates, sometimes not even listening to each other. And there was one lady, who had a lot of hurts. As I was watching, I started to pray, I felt like some of these convos, were doing more damage than good… they were approaching people in the same way, the same arguments, and I could see that sometimes using one approach for everyone doesn’t work. And that each person is different and has different needs, and we should share the gospel in a way that it would meet their needs, like what is the Good News for them. Which I learnt from MC. Someone came up to talk to me, and it felt like at times they weren’t really listening to me.
Later on I bought a cheeseburger meal, not cause I was hungry, but cause I was thirsty, as I walked in I felt like I should buy a meal and that I would find someone to give the burger and fries to. Less than a minute walk down the street, I saw a guy sitting on a step, who was a bit out of it. So I gave it to him, and he walked down the street with me a bit and chatted… sometimes I think that sort of thing leaves more of an impact in someone’s life than just debating with them.
So I praise God for a great day, (besides it being hot) and also for a great night. God is Awesome.

Me..... an unusual site

Lately i must have been an unusaul site for a lot of people....
You see, i have had the internet and home phone cut off, So to use the internet i have been sitting on the side of the road somewhere, where i can pick up free internet... and some of these places are the most random places. Whether being outside a cafe that has closed, or outside a parking lot in Chinatown (our extremely small Chinatown), to just randomly on morphett street (my street) half a block from whitmore Sq (which is where i am at the moment). i have been out here for a little while and had a few people walk pass.
One of them actually made a comment about me sitting here, saying that it was unusual and that i should be careful, cause it is an unsafe area.... what that person doesn't know is that i know the area, and i know a lot of people in the area, some of these people i know are the ones that make people think this is an unsafe neighbourhood... And i go for a walk around here whenever i feel like it.... the lastest being at 2am. (Mind you, i wouldn't let another female walk around here by herself).
I think it is going to be good doing this... it means that when ever i want to get on the internet i have to go outside somewhere, and i may meet more people while sitting on the street. I am sure people will wonder why.... and i can tell them, and maybe even tell them about Christ.
I pray for those opportunies.... and for Souls....

Lux

cell tonight

Today was the last cell that our new christian Jewish friend would be at... He is going to a different city. During cell he thanked us for sharing with him, and said that last year when he first met me he didn't know what to think of me and the rest of us, that we were weird. He also thanked me for sharing the gospel with him "that first time" (which was last year after cell).
It shows that we never know what sort of impact we have had on people for Christ, but Christ uses us if we are willing.

Also His departing words to me were, that he could see Christ in me, that he could see that i longed to follow Christ. This guy then said something like this, "go out there and show them what your made of, you know the scriptures, preach the gospel, kick them up the bum, and bring them to Christ, show them what your made of, I know Christ will be with you in all you do".
Wow... That was so straight forward... It is also one thing that i stuggle big time with, going out and sharing the gospel.... i know it is something that we are all called to do, for some reason i struggle when it comes to actually speaking. I can go out on the streets and just have a general conversation with people (if they want to talk, if they are a quiet person i struggle as well, cause i don't know what to talk about), and i find it easy to just generally hang out with people, and show people God's love and stuff is easy for me.... Me telling people that God loves them and is able to meet their needs.... i struggle with, yes i do know the gospel, however a lot of people i speak to have "heard it all before", and switch off... I need Christ to give me the words that would pierce the heart of someone that i meet. I need to be in a close relationship with Christ so that i hear those words and know that they are from Him.
Basically I need Christ to be able to do it.... without Him i am nothing, i have no power, no influence.

Christ i need you so much, each and every day.

Op 58

On Friday night, Salvo youth from a few different corps in South Australia, came together for Op 58. I have blogged about Op 58 before, but for those who don’t know. The youth come together and worship, and the meeting is justice focused. They are also challenged to give up something for a term, and put the money that they would normally spend on that thing in their pigs (blue piggy banks) and then bring the money back to the next Op 58. So far the youth have raised enough money for a dormitory to be built (and it is now being built). However it doesn’t stop there, they are raising more money, which will go towards building a kitchen, dining hall and other buildings for this childrens home… This children’s home is on the board of Cambodia, where a lot of kids cross the board to look for work and end up in slave labour places, (like cocoa and coffee farms, sweat shops) or as sex slaves. A lot of the kids who are and will be brought in to the home are these kids… they have already rescued some kids from prostitution.
On Friday, the youth was challenged to do more, to act out for Justice… to sit down and make a plan of action and follow through on it, and be willing to become the unpopular person, to be the person who makes things uncomfortable… and example was give, if asked if you wanted to go for coffee, to reply with “if it is fair-trade, cause if it isn’t kids were used to harvest the coffee and not paid” or with chocolate the same sort of thing, bring reality to the situation on how chocolate or coffee was made.
I was asked to be a witness to the covenment of one of my cell mates (it was his first time at Op 58)… and it was a modern day example of when a widow gave one coin and Jesus said that she had given more than the Pharisees, cause they only gave a small part of what they had, where as the widow gave more in percentage of what she had.
It was awesome to witness….
I pray that everyone will be faithful to their covenment with God that they made on Friday.