ASIA!!!!

                              The Holy Spirit has been moving strongly this week, and it has been really incredible!  Hahaha joy unending and laughter overflowing: drinking of the spirit pushes aside reason and overflows onto everything, including the body!  I can see that the Lord is giving me tools for what He is preparing me for in the future, and the process is quite exciting.  It’s really amazing when we stop trying to figure everything out with our minds and invite Holy Spirit to come and have His way; incredible things happen!  We had some awesome ministry times this week where spiritual baggage was broken off and there was bubbling joy (resulting in bouts of laughter), song, overwhelming peace, and many other spectacular things.  Intercession has a new door open for me, as it is becoming more exciting as the spirit moves and directs me how to pray more effectively.

                              We leave for Asia on Saturday!  It feels so strange that we’re leaving, I’m looking forward to what God has in store for us.  Thank you for all of your prayers, please continue to lift up our team as there are many stresses that come along with outreach.  I will be posting pictures and updates soon, bless you all!

Love, Aubrey 

Finally updated! (sorry for the long delay:( )

             I realize that I haven’t posted anything in over a month, and I apologize for that.  Things got a bit crazy for a couple of weeks and then we were in Manchester the week before last so I could write nothing then.  The weather has become much better here and spring is at last arriving swiftly to Carlisle.  Trees are budding, flowers are blooming all around the city, and the back garden of the Vic is beginning to come alive with color and life.  As these changes in season are occurring in the city, the Lord has been speaking to my heart about awakening from the time of winter and moving into spring.  My eyes are being opened to the love which He is pouring out on me, and I’m finding myself sitting at a window or going out on a walk just to talk with Him and spend time with Him.  It’s not easy to do though because I’m so used to think of myself as simply “doing things” for God, rather than just being a child of His.  He is beginning to show me just how much He loves time spent with me, no matter what I’m doing. 

                              The week before last we went to the city of Manchester and joined about five other YWAM bases from England, Norway, and Wales for a week on evangelism.  About sixty of us stayed in a church located at the heart of the city where the area wasn’t the greatest, but the people were in desperate need of Jesus.  I learned so much during that week about God’s heart for people, and I learned things about myself as well.  It was a packed week with lots of meeting new friends and stepping out of comfort zones.  We went out and had some good conversations and got to pray for people while getting some good teaching on evangelism and fear of the Lord.  I especially loved one “treasure hunt” I did with Lucy (staff on the Norway base).  What you do in a treasure hunt is ask God for clues about the “treasure” that you and your partner are going out to find, aka a person God wants to bless, and write them down on a piece of paper (your “treasure map”).  This could be a physical description, place, prayer needs, etc. Then you go out and look for people who fit some aspect of the description you got and talk to them about what you’re doing. 

                              When Lucy and I went out we talked with about six different people, some long conversations and some fairly short.  One that was encouraging to me was when Lucy and I were talking to a teenager and his little sister when a mom with a double stroller with two little red-heads in it walked by.  I really felt like we needed to talk to her, so when we finished our conversation I asked Lucy if we could go look for the mom.  As we walked in the direction she had gone, we looked ahead and saw that she had stopped at the entrance to a park and was turning to walk back towards us!  As she neared I asked her if her young ones were twins and she said yes.  It turned out she was the mother of five boys and the twins were the youngest, which reminded me so much of my family I began to really feel God’s heart for her.  As we told her about what we were doing and asked if we could pray for her, Lucy got the sense that she needed to give the mom a prophetic picture she had drawn of a woman walking a dog on a beach with the words “Rest and Restoration” written at the top.  It turns out the family had a dog, and just the weekend before she had gone to the beach with some friends for a short vacation.  I think she was really blessed by what we said because we spoke a lot of life and peace into her and I really felt like the Lord wanted her to be rested and refreshed, as being the mother of five young ones with twins at the bottom can be highly stressful and tiring (you can ask my momJ).  I really enjoyed seeing the Lord reach out to people and touch their lives through me, it is blessed to be a blessing!

                              We leave for Asia in three weeks, which is so crazy to think about.  It’s almost been three months since I left home, and I can really see the Lord’s hand in where He has me.  I feel so blessed to be His child and to know that He will always watch out for me: He won’t let me fall.  Going to Cambodia, Thailand, and China is going to be an eye-opening experience for me and I’m looking forward to experiencing the beautiful Asian culture first-hand. If you could pray for our team this last couple of weeks it would bless us very much; there is still so much preparation to do, especially for the staff, and it can be very stressful. Thank you so much for your support and prayer, I’m really trying to focus in on what the Lord wants to show me now and will keep you updated on what He does, hopefully more often than I have the past monthJ

I send my love back home to all of you, bless you!!!!

<3 Aubrey

It’s so amazing how completely changing culture, surroundings, friends, and climate can show you so much about yourself.  I’ve been seeing different things pop up in me; strength that wasn’t there before, parts of me that are not actually “me”, but rather traits I have acquired from other people, and areas of vulnerability that I have been able to reveal.  I’ve been learning more about myself and seeking the Lord to help me find my identity in Him, rather than my identity in the world.

                              The weather here has been quite moody the past week or so; it doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be grey and depressing, crisp and sunny, frigid and windy, or simply wet and freezing.  Friday night it was snowing outside, but it’s actually rather funny how I found out (for I didn’t notice right away).  I was on kitchen duty and needed to wash the floor, so I was walking through the dark hallway to get a mop.  As I neared the office door (going slowly for lack of light) suddenly Hannah flung the door open and leaped out right in front of me yelling something.  I gave a startled cry (for not only was it dark in the hallway, her exclamation was completely unexpected) and I fell to the floor, which made her laugh so hard she went on the floor as well.  We both laughed hysterically for a minute or so, rolling in the middle of the hallway and getting a surprised and confused look from Kelly who was walking by at the moment.  Hannah was excited about the snow and was going to proclaim it to the world, but I happened to be in her way at that moment and, apparently, gave her even more amusement because of my startled reaction.  leaping through the air right towards me. I in turn gave a startled cry and fell to the floor, which made her laugh so hard she went on the floor to and we were both laughing hysterically while rolling in the middle of the hallway for about a minute, it was pretty funny:) lol She was excited about the snow, and was going to proclaim it to the world but I happened to be in her way at that moment, which gave us both a story to tell and a good laugh. It's the second time she's scared me unintentionally haha

                              The Lord is working great things through this DTS, but there are constant obstacles to cross over along the way.  There are distractions, warfare, and challenges to conquer, all things defeated by prayer.  Thank you all for your prayers, they mean so much to me!

Blessings!

~Aubrey                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Beginning Week 6!

I have been learning more and more about the love God has for His creation, and the depth of His passion for us.  He’s helping me to understand that He doesn’t love me for what I do for Him, the way I respond to Him, or even because He sees Jesus in me; He loves me for me.  That is what we are on this earth for, to be loved and to love.  We are here because God loves us, period.  Yes we worship, yes we serve and pray and go to church and evangelize; we do all of the things “good Christians” do, but none of those things are why we are here.  Ahgggg, why is that so hard for us to understand?  Why is it so hard for me to understand?  I want to understand it, I want to know the love God has for me on a deeper level, I want to see myself and those around me the way He sees us; that is just about the most difficult thing to do in a performance-driven world where love and affirmation are earned. 

                              Last Saturday we went to the Lake District via bus and it was beautiful!  We walked around a lake called Derwent Water (by the town of Keswick) and although we didn’t go super far (we walked about thirty minutes in) it took hours because we stopped so many times to take picturesJ  We saw lots of sheep, geese, dogs, and grass, not to mention water and gorgeous scenery.  Kelly stayed behind to spend time with Ernest and Emma (Ernest is Kelly’s cousin and also the husband of Emma, the YWAM base leader).  Lisanne, Juil, Eva and I all went together and we hope to go again because it was so beautiful.     

What’s in YOUR pocket?  This week we have been blessed by having Steve Sullivan teach on God’s “family business” that we are a part of; God has said that we are blessed to be a blessing!  Steve talked about the covenant that God made with Abraham in the Old Testament that said he would be blessed and he and his descendants would be a blessing to all peoples.  Abraham had the “contract” in his pocket, and so do we!  We are all being challenged this week to not only receive the blessing of God (His kingdom on earth) but also reach out beyond ourselves and bless all peoples (the nations). 

                              The sun has been out today for the first in a long time, and even now as I sit in the lounge its rays pierce through the curtains brightening up the room a bit more, reminding me that the joy of the Lord is my strength…and that sunshine still exists.  Tomorrow Eva, Lisanne, Juil and I will journey down to Keswick (pronounced Kezick; any other pronunciation and you will be instantly branded as an identifiable tourist and looked at as, well, a tourist).  This place is in the beautiful Lake District, and we will hopefully hike around the lake and see some beautiful scenery with the sun smiling on us and a gentle breeze in the air (although I imagine that even if the sky is pouring rain the scenery will still be beautiful).
                              I have also been learning to laugh at myself this week; instead of getting frustrated or offended when I am teased for something, I’m learning to put aside my pride and be amused with my own humannessJ  Haha, it’s quite fun.  When I process things I tend to either sing, draw, or write as somehow the arts let out things inside of me that can’t be let out any other way.  Here is a little poem I wrote when I was processing through some things I didn’t, and still don’t, quite understand.  I’m learning to search out the things I have questions about, and instead of looking to my own understanding I look to the Holy Spirit to give me the answers I seek:

So many questions flying through my mind,

I cannot count them all

To think or not to think; answers I must find

Are there answers at all?

Jesus says to seek and discover,

Proverbs says the same.

My curiosity I cannot cover,

My mind will not be tamed.

You alone can fill my need,

Your word will provide.

Now my mind your wisdom feeds,

In You I will abide

And more pictures....

This is Kelly, Lisanne, and myself on Banker Street in downtown Carlisle:)

These are all of the "trainees", or those being trained in the DTS program.  From left it is Lisanne (from Holland) me, Kelly (from Canada), Juil (from South Korea), and Eva (From Arizona).

This is the whole team (plus Craig).  From left back is Juil,  Ben (DTS assistant leader), Kelly, Craig, Eva, Lisanne.  Crouching in the front is Lucy (DTS leader), Hannah, and me.

Well, this has been quite a week!  There has been a new face added amongst us at the base in the form of Craig, a native of Carlisle who did his DTS (discipleship training seminar) here a few years ago and since then has been staffing a YWAM base in Norway.  He came back last week because he is going to be leading the SOE (school of evangelism) here in the spring, the first held in England since around 1990!  Craig is staying with his parents who live near the base, and he stops by quite a lot during the week, in addition to coming with us on our outreaches.

                              So far we have had three evangelism “events” in the DTS, and there will be at least one per week for the remainder of the lecture phase.  The first was the Thursday before last when we had a “Thinking Allowed” event which is based on a book by David.  The book is a compilation of excerpts from his blog that take different topics in society and look at them from different perspectives, challenging people to think.  The turnout was fairly small, but considering it was our first attempt it went very well.  We have another one next Thursday, and the topic will be atheism (the last one was evolution).  We hope to have more people come this time, David will speak on the topic for a few minutes and then there will be a discussion time where each table will address the questions handed out and share opinions and thoughts. 

                              On Wednesday we did an evangelism activity where we had a sort of scavenger hunt to find different things in the city, such as people who had heard of YWAM, people who wanted prayer, getting someone to take a weird picture with us, attracting a crowd, and other things along those lines. We were in groups of three (I was with Kelly and Juil) and we went out into Carlisle for about an hour and a half. It was great because it got us out into the area and helped us to get more outside of our comfort zones, but it was also difficult because the people here are rather suspicious and not super friendly. Actually, it was a bit funny because the two people who said that we could pray for them would only consent if we prayed somewhere else.  One lady in Starbucks said that we could pray for her general well-being, but that she would prefer we do it somewhere more “discrete”.  No matter how many people we asked, how many places we went, or how many ways we put the question we could not get anyone to take a picture with us.  Even when we said we were on a scavenger hunt and just needed a picture with a stranger in it, everyone acted like we were stalkers looking for a target to follow.  However we did have a good time, and we learned some strategies on how to best approach the people of Carlisle, as they are quite different from those of Southern California.

            Friday night we went out to Botchergate Street, notorious for being the central of pubs, dance clubs, and other party places.  The street is closed off to normal traffic at night as people have gotten hit in the past,, and police have a constant and extensive presence there.  YWAM has been doing outreach there for about three years now, roughly every other Friday evening.  We have a table set up in front of a charity store (long closed by the time we arrive) which has given us permission to use the space, and we give out free coffee and tea to the passersby.  The reactions vary; most either decline the offer or ignore us all together, but there were a fair amount of people attracted to the free beverages.  I had multiple people ask me if I was from America, and then ask me why in the world I came to Carlisle.  Sometimes people don’t want to talk, but most are curious as to why we are there and what we do.  There was one good conversation I had with  a man who thought it was amazing what we were doing and kept on saying how we should feel so good about ourselves because we were allowing people who didn’t have any money to get a drink if they were thirsty (he also tried to give us money).  I told him we were there to bless people and be the love of  Jesus, and he proceeded to ask me what I believed.  I was able to tell him about how I believe in the God of the Bible, Jehova, and how I believe He is part of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Because of sin, relationship was broken between God and man, and that is why the Father sent His Son to earth so that His death could restore the broken relationship and take away all shame and guilt.  He was definitely searching, so I invited him to the Thinking Allowed event on thursday and after he left Hannah and I prayed for  him.  I hope he comes thursday but if he doesn't I trust that the Lord will water the seeds that were planted.
                                           I am so grateful for all of your support, thank you so much for your prayers!  The enemy hates what we are doing with a passion, so he will use every thing he knows how to distract, frighten, and discourage us from pressing further into God, your prayers matter!  Bless you all, I send my deepest love!

<3 Aubrey