Decisions.

After spending a few days in hospital, I've had time to think, amongst sleeping, of what I am going to do these next six months. I am thinking that October will most likely be the DTS that I am leaning towards for several reasons...

1. The focus. Compassion seems to hit a raw nerve.
2. The timing. February has already gone past, April doesn't feel right and May maybe a bit too soon.
3. The communication. I really appreciate communication, so finding a base that communicates effectively is really uplifting :)
4. The location. I have friends and family in and around the area, so that is also helpful as well... far enough away to not get attached, but close enough to call for help if needed.

So now it is all down to filling the next six months.
Part of me really would like to do some anatomy and physiology courses. It is driving me insane, to have a mind so curious, yet to have no courses applicable to my mind's liking. Nursing still feels like a path I am to follow, yet I know, from previous experiences, that I won't enjoy it, and therefore should not go back to uni to continue something I will not enjoy. Biomedical science is catching my eye a bit as well, but again it does not seem right. Sometimes it would be nice to just have God point out His course for me. But that hasn't happened yet... that I know of. It all takes time I guess, and that'll mean just trusting in God, and knowing that He does know best.

Until next time. God bless and have a great week. :)

I haven't yet raised any money, so at the moment, my support fundraising account is at a balance of $0.

I'm relying on support from friends, family, and anonymous donors.

I will also be trying to find a part-time job, clerical, data entry, maybe hospitality, administrative, etc. to try and stabilise life and fulfil the amount of money required before the first day of YWAM initiation. This amount is usually the entire amount of course costs, registration costs, and as much of outreach costs as possible.

Other options is cadbury fundraising and car washing, but that could also be problem causing due to the increase expense on cadbury chocolates and water restrictions on car washing... I will keep my mind open on further fundraising opportunities though if the support balance is insufficient.

I have currently applied for an account for my YWAM deposits, and once accepted, I will provide details, at the footer of my blog and underneath the support raising thermometer (located on the left side of blog, just under the 'About Me' section).

These 'As of xday, the x of x month 2011' headings will begin each blog of financial support relevance. It may be 'total amount of support raised' or it may be a thankyou note to donors, anonymous or named. If you do donate, and wish to remain anonymous please let me know. I may not name people automatically, but I do want to express my gratitude.

Until the next update.
Thanks and God bless :)


Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Support Raising Target

So I've finally decided to try and get support raising underway by adding a few things to the blog. These updates include (and will include) a financial thermometer, and bank deposit support details where any financial support can be deposited (anonymous or non-anonymous).

At the moment I have $0, and am aiming to raise $9000.


This $9000 will cover the following:
$40 Registration fee (self-covered)

$100 Course deposit

$3950 Course cost (lecture phase - tuition fees, room and board, and the resource fee)

$4500 Outreach phase (Approx $2500 - $4500 - 2 months outreach, airefare, accomm, food,
transport, immunisations, vizas, overseas outreach insurance)

<$800 for flights and transport to and from Brisbane airport and base, or nearest airport to base (with/without connection flight).

Health insurance and phone costs, laundry needs and personal spending isn't covered in these funds, and as stated, I am aiming to have it as self-funded anyway.

I don't have an account listed on here, for financial support deposits but aim to soon... (if you feel like God is leading you into supporting me, or feel like supporting me financially, could you let me know, or contact me via mobile, face to face or email (w0079077@umail.usq.edu.au).

I am hoping to get this more up and running soon, and look forward to hearing how you're going, seeing God's work and keeping you in the loop.

GBUG
Kara

A journey. A God's child's story. A Beginning of an Adventure.

Dear Readers,

This is my ‘following Jesus’ blog.  I want this blog to detail my walk with God, in particular in what I believe He has in store for my life.  It may not be all clear and dandy, in fact I don’t expect it to be nor want it to be.  If it is, I don’t think I am moving forward and that is not right.  Life is always to be challenging.  It is always going to have something to strive towards.  If not, it is like treading water, which leads to no where and when exhausted, will only result in death.  There is always something to learn!

This blog will contain my thoughts, plans and possible aspirations.  I want to be able to keep friends and family in the loop of how I am going with my potential plans to joining YWAM (Youth With A Mission – www.ywam.org.au), which YWAM I am attending, and how God is moving in and around me… it is going to be one CRAZY, FUN, and EXCITING ADVENTURE!!!

So right now I am at the stage of utter confusion and overwhelming opportunities… there are so many choices, it is crazy.  If life now was only like it was fifty years ago, where it WAS simple, and there were limited choices, so therefore you had to know where you were going and stick with it… but in some ways I thank God that it’s not.  I can’t keep wishing things were different because then I’ll never live… I’ll only compare myself to others, to the past, present or future… so I should probably just explain who I am, what I am doing and where I am right now… and maybe where I hope to go.

WHO AM I?

I am a LOVED child of God.  I am slowly having to realise this AND believe this… even if I have struggled with it in the past (subconsciously) and do struggle with it in the present (consciously), IT IS THE TRUTH!!!  God DOES love me and God (the one and only Jesus Christ) DOES love you!!!

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be used by God.  I didn’t want to be stuck in an ordinary day job.  I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives.  I wanted to help people!

I used to love reading biographies of David Livingstone, Christopher Columbus, John Wesley, Nate Saint, Harriet Tubman, Todd and DeAnn Burke (their story of ‘Anointed for Burial’), Eric Liddell, Billy Graham, Abraham Lincoln, the list goes on…  Reading these books gave me a small passion… It gave me a dream… a thrill… and an excitement.  Even through these godly people’s hard times, in looking at their lives, I thought it would be an awesome life of adventure to live.

At first, I thought it would be through possible dream jobs like police officer, navy officer, army officer, nurse, paramedic, doctor, teacher, etc. but slowly all of these aspirations slowly fell apart one by one; either by likes or dislikes, what I was and was not allowed to do, health, or physical capabilities.   I started to lose interest in trying to fulfil my aspirations; in trying to find any sort of direction in life.  I was ready to just give it up, and let life slowly drivel past.  It just didn’t seem to make any sense… to have a mind full of aspirations, only to have them never succeed.  To feel like I was following what God has planned for me, where things seemed to slip in place perfectly, sometimes uncannily, only to have it fall apart later. 

I was sick of the roller coaster life of aiming and failing, and I still am, but I guess in some ways I am slowly learning (and relearning) to just trust God, give it ALL to God, and know that He has my life already predestined, already with every second recorded in His book of life… and whilst, at times, I wonder if this means that I just wait for God to say “GO!”, doing nothing until He does... I know that I should not be completely idle, even if it does patronise me taking false steps and feeling like I’m tiptoeing everywhere…

So where does this leave me now? 

At the moment, after trying three different university degrees, I have decided Uni is not for me.  I am not planning on going back, nor do I want to.  While that shocks a lot of people and I have lost respect in a few people, that’s okay, because I know Uni is not for me… not at this moment anyway, and why should I do something which is not for me, only for the sake of saying that I have completed university, taken away a piece of paper, and followed along the general 2008 high school graduates pattern where we were told that once finishing Year twelve you have to go to university to be anybody. 

In my life, God comes (and should come) first and then my health.  I have already taken six months of Uni off, in which I aimed for these six months to be focused on getting better, both physically and spiritually.  I wanted to rebuild my relationship with God, Jesus, Yahweh, Emmanuel, (the whole entity).  However, these past six months did not go as planned.  I lost focus and motivation, I was over life, and I tried to kill myself multiple times.  I am not proud of what I have done or did, nor am I seeking pity, sorrow, attention, grace, et cetera.  This is just something that needs to be said, because it will also be the foundation of the view of God’s foot prints in the sand.  It is the starting point to see who I was, and how God is growing in me, and how I am growing in the Lord.  It will be completely His work with who I become, and all in His (God’s) glory.

YWAM you may say… well yeah, YWAM.  I can now say it clearly, not quite boldly (yet) but it is better than not being able to say it at all :D.

But this has not always been the case.  For those of you who knew about the two mission trips (Cambodia and India) with TMI (Teen Missions International Australia – www.teenmissions.com.au) that I went on whilst at school, you may or may not have known what my stance was when I first heard about YWAM during this life stage. 

Strolling the grass paths of stalls at AGMF (Australian Gospel Music Festival), now known as Easterfest, I was introduced to the idea of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) whilst talking among friends.  A lot of these friends were people I had gone on Teen Mission bootcamps with, and somehow the topic of YWAM came up.  For some reason I automatically concluded that I would never do YWAM… I came to this conclusion straight after my first trip with TMI.  I don’t know why, nor how.  All I had heard of YWAM was positive encounters expressed through TMI’s leaders, schoolmates, chaplains, friends, etc.  I believe and am sad to say that this poor lack of evidence stance of YWAM has remained strongly probably right up until a few months after one of my close school friends joined the YWAM Mitchelton base in Brisbane.

I was glad for my friend joining YWAM.  I was glad because she wasn’t giving in to what any one of the school’s, family’s, friend’s or work mates’ opinions that ‘YWAM was to be conducted only after tertiary studies, not before’, and I hugely respected and valued her for taking that stance and following through with her goals, motivations, and dreams.

Watching my friend’s journey with YWAM was amazing.  I was so blown at how she had grown, and how her relationship with God was growing, and yes, this was where the cookie started to crumble… this is where my opinion of YWAM slowly started to change, and yes, my friend did a little bit (or rather a lot) of whispering (and shouting) of encouragement and excitement - an introduction of how I should get involved with YWAM being included in all of that.

Along with a friend whispering in my ear, I believe God was doing a little bit of whispering Himself… I was just never still enough to listen to His whispering.  Every corner I turned, God’s whispering seemed to be there. 

• A friend’s YWAM experience. 
• First Summer Project I attended in 2009, outreaching to some of the schoolies, walking into a friend’s outreach, which her partner left for some reason, and she was feeling overwhelmed with the questions being asked.  I sat down in the group, in which a YWAM student was listening in, because she was Norwegian and was intrigued on the different evangelism methods.  We have remained friends ever since.
• 2010, Summer Projects – Outreach discipler of the group I was designated to had attended YWAM Vanuatu a few years earlier.  Great chats J
• 2010, Summer Projects – The first conversation I initiated was with a middle aged man, with two absolutely nice dogs, in the middle of a schoolie infested park.  He was the pastor of a Byron Bay church with the ministry focus on the youth.  It was near Byron Bay’s YWAM, which allowed the topic of YWAM and everything to do with YWAM to be talked about for over an hour.
• 2010, Summer Projects – a lot of friends made with YWAM students from Mitchelton, Byron Bay, South Australia, and a few other bases.  Close school friend was also there.

There are also others, I just cannot remember them right at this moment.

So I am currently planning on doing YWAM (Youth With A Mission) THIS year.  I don’t know fully when or where, but I know it will be this year.  It has been something I have, and still am praying about, and would appreciate your prayers as well.  In planning on doing YWAM, I have had a look at all the YWAM ministry focuses for Australia (and the World) and have narrowed it down to the following six ministry focuses, of the following five bases…

Byron Bay (New South Wales)

(September 14^th 2011 – March 9^th 2012)

The DTS is the place to be to grow in your faith!  Share the love of Christ with travelers from all over the world!  Hit up the surf in your spare time!  Grow closer to God in one of the most beautiful places on earth!  If you’re into adventure, exploration, and meeting new people from all over the world, then this school is for you! The school will both challenge and change you in many ways. It is a six month school designed to take you to a deeper place in your walk with God. The school is divided into 3 different parts:

1) The lecture phase - national and international speakers will come challenge and encourage you in areas such as; Hearing the Voice of God, Destiny, Prayer/Intercession, Worship, Spiritual Warfare, Missions/Evangelism, The Working and Power of the Holy Spirit to name just a few of the topics covered. The speakers won’t just teach and lecture from upfront but they are there to pray with you and chat one on one.

2) The outreach phase - a time when you get to get out there and share your own Christian experience with other travelers. This will be a time for you to put into practice what you’ve learned during the lectures. Taking the gospel to places where people have not had a chance to hear the name of Jesus, seeing God’s kingdom Expand. The outreach phase will be two-fold with both a focus here in Australia as well as overseas. Check out our Current News section to
see what the latest outreach team got up to.

 

3) Debriefing - is the third and last part of the school. A week or two at the end of the six months when the different outreach teams come back and tell of all their amazing experiences. A time of reflecting and learning from what happened on outreach. This time will also prepare and equip us all to go back home and keep the fire inside of us alive and burning. The D.T.S. will be both fun and challenging. Six months of your life set aside to get to Get to Know God and Make Him Known.

 

DTS Lecture Topics

• Hearing the Voice of God
• Character and nature of God
• Father heart of God - Identity in Christ
• Destiny and Purpose in Christ - Spiritual Warfare
• Holy Spirit
• How to study the and understand the Bible
• Biblical World View
• Laying down your Rights
• Missions
• Poor and the Needy
• Prayer and Intercession
• Worship - Evangelism
• Relationships
• Faith and finances

Besides lectures there will be intercession and prayer for the nations, worship, morning devotions, and small group gatherings. The evenings will be varied eg. additional lecture, personal studies, and some outreach in Byron. Weekends are normally free, unless a special ministry or field trip has been planned.

www.ywambyronbay.com

Darwin (Northern Territory)

Outback Adventure DTS (26 February – 13 August 2011)

ADVENTURE WITH PURPOSE

A Discipleship Training School is about living life to the full and stepping out of your comfort zone to make a difference in a hurting world.  Pursue all God has for you as you learn more about Him and then take His love to those in desperate need.

Our February DTS will have a youth ministries/outdoor adventure focus in the rugged outback of the Northern Territory.

During the lecture phase we will spend two weeks in a remote Aboriginal community camping out under the stars and sharing around a campfire as we learn more about indigenous Australian culture.  Join us in kayaking down the impressive Katherine Gorge or take a day tour to world famous Kakadu  National Park.

Come and transform your life while impacting lives of young people on the streets, backpackers travelling the road or teaching English to refugees adjusting to a new culture.

The adventure continues as you head to South East Asia where you might be four wheel driving through the mountains of East Timor or trekking through rugged terrain to a remote hill tribe village.

www.ywamoutback.org.au  

Norton Summit (South Australia)

Justice and Mercy DTS (May 11^th – October 21^st 2011)

Make a change for 6 months to step out of your comfort zone and step into God.
This Discipleship Training School will provide an opportunity for students to learn about God's heart for Justice and Mercy with a focus on Prostitution and Human Trafficking.

www.ywamsa.org.au

Newcastle (New South Wales)

Compassion DTS (4^th October 2011 – 17^th March 2012)

Does your heart break for the poor and needy of this world? Are you feeling like God is calling you to put your heart of mercy into action, but you don’t know where to start?
The Compassion DTS is a great first step as you seek out God’s calling for your life. Walk deeper along the journey that God has for you and draw closer to His heartbeat. Uncover the many opportunities available for those who are eager to reach out with compassion.
Example core curriculum topics include:-

• God's Nature and Character
• Building and Maintaining Godly Relationships
• God's Intentions for Individuals, Peoples, and Nations

Example “Compassion” sessions include:-

• The value of human life through the eyes of the creator.
• Bringing the promise of hope into a broken world.
• Addressing issues of poverty and injustice

OUTREACH

Compassion will fill every step, as you participate in an adventure into mercy focused missions.
From feeding orphans in Mozambique to praying for the sick in the leper colonies of India, there are endless opportunities to respond with God’s heart for the poor & needy.

Outdoor DTS (3^rd January – 16^th June 2012)

The Outdoors DTS is for the wild at heart, the outdoors lovers, the wilderness seekers and the God chasers. It will be an adventure that will equip you to use that same love and passion, to go share your first-hand revelation of God to the world!
Explore tracks, diverse riverbanks, rich lakeshores and a mountain all located on the 170 acres of exclusive lakefront property, Tahlee. Spend nights around a fire, while learning about the God who created us for adventure.
Example core curriculum topics include:-

• God's Nature and Character
• Building and Maintaining Godly Relationships
• God's Intentions for Individuals, Peoples, and Nations

Example “Outdoors” sessions include:-

• Lessons learnt in the wilderness
• Crazy Missions Opportunities in Global Frontiers
• Faith Lifestyles for Risk Takers

OUTREACH

Your passion for the great outdoors will take you to the hard to reach places, to the unreached and the left alone and forgotten peoples!
Whether it’s walking through jungles or climbing up the mountains, you will do it to get to forgotten people who desperately need the love of Jesus.

www.ywamnewcastle.com

Townsville (Queensland)

Ship DTS (April 3^rd – August 6^th 2011)

Be a part of an amazing community that sails around the Pacific to help the poor and disadvantaged. Experience some of your training right on board the ship, bunk up with your mates in the cabin, and eat meals prepared in the galley.

Whether you’re looking for an incredible adventure, or specifically desiring a way to combine your passion for health care and outreach, the YWAM Ship DTS is for you.
And get ready – because this ship has a medical clinic on board and as part of your DTS outreach, you’ll be visiting one of the most exotic places in the world – Papua New Guinea – where the YWAM Medical Ship is helping to provide life saving health care to some of the most remote areas of the country. With up to 1 in 7 women dying during childbirth, and 90% of the population affected by malaria, the need is great.
Don’t have a background in medical work? No worries! It takes a huge team of all sorts of gifts and passion to make this happen! We’re certain there’s a place for you!

www.ywamrto.org

Looking at each of these I get pangs of excitement.  I want to do them all.  I would love to do any of them.  But I know, to start off with, I need to and only can choose one.   So this is where the praying has been mainly happening and the listening has been a little bit fuzzy…  It is times like this I wish God would speak loudly and clearly and that I could listen with full attention devoted on Him at maximum volume!

At the moment, I am thinking of the following order:

Newcastle’s Compassion DTS, Norton Summit’s Justice and Mercy DTS, Townsville’s Ship DTS, Darwin’s Outback Adventure DTS, Newcastle’s Outdoor DTS, and Byron Bay’s classic DTS.  This order is not set in concrete though and flittingly changes regularly, almost as regularly as the weather or rather every time I’ll read one DTS’ ‘about me’ section.  (Further thoughts on each base and what attracts and detracts me will follow, in a different post… later.)

This has left me wondering which DTS (Discipleship Training School) I am to do.  Having been approved a University study medical waiver; I received my University fees back for four courses I had previously applied for.   These four courses, I was hoping would be enough to fully cover one YWAM DTS, and direct me to one DTS exactly.  However, the repayments provided would only be enough for about one month of the lecture phase (accommodation, food, internet, resources, etc.), meaning that support raising would be needed for the rest of the six months of the YWAM DTS.  I believe that this is a trust and faith lesson that God has in store for me and I look forward to growing in my relationship with Him.  If you have any questions, comments or enquiries, please feel free to leave a comment on this page, email me at w0079077@umail.usq.edu.au, kargie_friends@hotmail.com, http://peace-truth-love.tumblr.com/ or skype me.  I look forward to keeping you in the loop of what God is doing. 

GBUG (God Bless U Good)

Kara Martin