"We don't fight for victory, we fight from victory."

This week has been amazing as we learn about spiritual warfare.  Our speaker is Leal Pittaeu all the way from Melborne.  She has so much insight and knowledge.  We are learning about our authority in Christ and how to pray with the dominion God gave us since the beginning of time.  She is guiding us through the book of Ephesians and basing the topic on Genesis.  When we're dissecting the Bible word for word, it's amazing the revelation I receive.  The most significant things I'm learning are my authority in Christ, that I am FREE, and I am righteous in Christ. There is so much to learn! I love lectures and am continuing to grow in God.  

God has been teaching me a lot in and out of the lecture hall.  On Saturday, YWAM usually has beach sports outreach in Surfers Paradise.  Unfortunately, the rain prevented us from going, so we went to the mall to evangelize.  Each student paired off with a staff member.  Then we asked God to lead us to someone to talk to. Malls aren't my favorite place to do this because everyone is on a mission and not in a talking mood. So Rochelle and I went to the food court.  She suggested buying something and praying about who to give it to.  I bought a sundae at McDonald's (purposely something that would melt, so I couldn't chicken out) I prayed that God would give me direction on who to give it to.  God showed me who, so I mustered up some courage and I walked straight out of my comfort zone and toward the girl with the ice cream in hand.  I can't remember what I said, but something to the affect that I'm a Christian and I wanted to bless her with this ice cream.  She looked at me obviously surprised.  Then she smiled and said "Oh, wow that's so cool.  Thank you!  I'm a Christian too."  It turned out to be such a blessing.  Here she was thinking about going to America for missions.  I was able to encourage her to try it out.  She asked me so many questions about missions, and I was happy to be able to encourage her to go for it.  I was so glad I got to help her out, and it wasn't an accident I was supposed to talk to her.

Yesterday, I had some time off.  Going through some personal things, I was pretty frustrated.  I could sense God was saying something to the effect of "Well, you can sit around and mope about it or can can get up and do something fulfilling."  So I took up what was bothering me with God.  I wandered down the street and prayed if there was anyone I should talk to.  I saw this lady at the bus stop and felt like I should talk to her.  Now all these thoughts are going through my head.  I was so close to just passing by.  I sat down next to her and we talked for a good 20 minutes or so. (if you come to Australia, be flexible with the busing system because it's always late.)  Anyway, we just chatted about aboriginal life, art and culture for a while and I shared about Jesus through the conversation.  She told me she was Buddhist so we talked about that until her bus came. I mostly just asked her questions and listened.  It was pretty low key.  It's important not to stress when you're talking to someone about God.  If you pray God will give you the words to say He will.  Maybe you're just supposed to be the person who sows the seed or waters it.  I think a lot of times we have such a tendency to get caught up with our own life.  How hard is it to take 20 minutes out of our day to talk to a stranger?  I hope that I'll continue this throughout life.

I am going to learn how to surf this weekend!  My room mate, Caitlin is going to teach Sarah and me.  Some of us are heading down to Byron Bay to reunite with our friends that lived with us for a week.  The base is on a beautiful farm.  It will be a different atmosphere from Ashmore, that's for sure! It's been one of those weeks where you just need to get out, so it will be perfect.

God is so good!  I am continually amazed at his provision and love for me.  This seems small, but I was having trouble sleeping for a while.  I would wake up at 5:00 am,  thanks to the heat and squawking birds.  Now that Laura the intern moved out, (and we miss her greatly )  I moved down to her bed.  I am sleeping much better, praise God! I'm happy to say I've been sleeping in until 6:00am. I had a top bunk before. Every night before bed I would put pillows on the floor in case I rolled out.   My room mates and I would laugh about this ritual, but now I can just cruise into bed and not have to worry.  I'm still in the same room as everyone and I love our late night chats that go on forever.  Being surrounded by Goldy people all the time has been such a blessing.

Philippians 3:7-10
"But whatever I consider a profit I consider a loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

Hebrews 10:24-25  - my guiding verse this week.  (I remember Bonnie Mateer leading this scripture in church.  I was in fifth grade and she had all these props and ways for it to stick in our memory.  I will never forget when she led those scriptures in church.  She made it fun and every week, our congregation would recite them. Thank you Bonnie, they will always be in my mind)

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- all the more as you see the day approaching."