The reason that I feel overwhelmed is actually because every so often I stop and look at my life and think “how did I get here?” I am overwhelmed at the amazing things I get to do, the amazing people I get to do life with, and even at the person that I have become!

It doesn’t feel like it was all that long ago that I was an insecure, shy and timid teenageer unsure of what I was doing with my life. So you could image why I stop and ask myself “how did I get here?”

I am writing this blog during one of the breaks at our annual youth conference ‘Encounter’. In the last session as we were worshipping God, he spoke to me and revealed how it was that I got to where I am today.

God reminded me how for some time there have been some simple prayers that I pray. More than an eloquently articulated prayer, they are my hearts cry, and not contained to any particular form or wording but their message stays the same;

“Let me know you more”

“Make me more like you”

“Use me”

As I have prayed these simple yet dangerous prayers over the years God has answered them and changed me. As I have gotten to know God more I have also come to know who I am. As I have become more like Jesus I have found purpose and become who I am meant to be. As God has used me it has brought forth such amazing opportunities and relationships that I could never have imaged.

God encounters have changed my life

The other reason that I often feel overwhelmed is that God has placed such crazy, unrealistic and seemingly unachievable dreams in my heart. I know that they are from God, and as they are that he is faithful to make it happen but it still overwhelms me to think that he’d use me.

I haven’t always loved Doonside. Just over three years ago I didn’t even know the suburb existed. The first I heard of Doonside was when I was asked to lead the team of volunteers that visit the suburb through Street Teams. I had already been serving in Street Teams out at Telopea, so I had some idea of what to expect when I arrived in Doonside for the first time.

It was in one of my first weeks serving in Doonside that I met Barry*. Barry had recently separated from his wife and moved into an empty house with pretty much no possessions of his own. While he was quite sad and down in life to begin with, I watched with amazement how he began to give live a chance and each week seemed happier. I will never forget the week where he surprised us all by encouraging us and giving us some of his own wise advice!

As our team grew, we were able to expand to new streets and visit new residents. We began visiting Diane* who had been living in the same house for over 25 years. Though she has three children and many grandchildren, as a widow she was quite lonely and had little help with things around her home beyond her capability. Once she met us for the first time she began to call us her angels sent from God and was telling everyone she talked to about these people that come to visit her.

One resident our team had been visiting for some time was Ruth*. While it took some time for her to warm up to me as a newer member of the team, I will never forget sitting in her lounge room listening to her opening up to the horrors of her upbringing as tears fell from her eyes. She pointed out to me how her street had improved since we had been in the area, and how grateful she was that we were there.

Last Saturday was my last day serving in Street Teams. While it was hard to comprehend leaving the team and the area, I was amazed by how God had prepared me for the end of this season. While driving home I was reflecting upon my journey of Street Teams. What I noticed is that while I had had gone to help and serve the people of Doonside, I think I was impacted the most. I fell in love with the people there and that is why I love Doonside.

For more information on Street Teams visit
http://myhillsong.com/citycare/street-teams

* Names have been changed to protect privacy

Lyrics

8am, waking up in the morning
Gotta be sharp, gotta say my prayers
No need for my bowl, won’t have cereal
Breakfast served, at the church soon
What a beautiful morning, toilet’s flushin’
Gotta get out to my front yard
Gotta catch my lift, I see my friends

One is in the front car
Another in the back car
Gotta make my mind up
Which ride will I take?

It’s Saturday, Saturday
Street Teams on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people
Saturday, Saturday
Gettin’ down on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people

Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin’ forward to helping people

8:35, we arrive at Hillsong
Time for some brekkie, and some good friends
Fun, fun, this meeting is fun
You know that it is
I got this, you got this
We head out to our area
I got this, you got this
Now we are here

Bob lives in the left house
Marge is in the right house
Gotta make my mind up
Which house will I visit?

It’s Saturday, Saturday
Street Teams on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people
Saturday, Saturday
Gettin’ down on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people

Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin’ forward to helping people

Yesterday was Friday, Friday
Today i-is Saturday, Saturday
We-we-we so excited
We so excited
We gonna help some people today
Tomorrow is Sunday
And Monday comes after… church
I don’t want this weekend to end

A-B, Annie Black
So chillin’ in the front car
In the front seat
I’m drivin’, cruisin’
Driving college kids around
Wit’ a Jesus by my side
Passin’ by is a student with no car
Makes me stop, “come join our team”
Check my time, it’s Saturday, start of the weekend
We gonna have fun, c’mon, c’mon, y’all

It’s Saturday, Saturday
Street Teams on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people
Saturday, Saturday
Gettin’ down on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people

Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin’ forward to helping people

It’s Saturday, Saturday
Street Teams on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people
Saturday, Saturday
Gettin’ down on Saturday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to helping people

Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Servin’, servin’ (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin’ forward to helping people

I am writing this blog from my Gold Coast unit overlooking the ocean where I am taking time out to celebrate this end of a season. Leading up to this point I was giving my studies my all. Hardly sleeping and dedicating every spare moment to my final assessment (my graphic design portfolio), i was motivated by this coming getaway. Arriving at this getaway was a sudden halt in momentum. Being so driven to finish everything and do it well, it was strange to be here and have nothing to do but simply relax. Organizing people to cover every day-to-day responsibility I carry makes this 2 week holiday is quite surreal.

The view from my balcony..

Once I return home I will be commencing a new season of full-time work as a graphic designer, one that I am very excited for. I am a big believer in taking time out after the end of a season to reflect, process and look forward. In commencing this new season I want to be as ready as possible to be able to give it my all.

Yesterday afternoon I was reading Luke chapter 4 where Jesus went into the desert for 40 days after he was baptized, right before he started his public ministry. What struck me about this passage was how Jesus had just ended one season of 30 years of preparation for his public ministry and before transitioning into this new season was taking a 40 day fast in the desert.

While my 2 week beach-side holiday in Queensland is far from Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert, I see the principle as the same. For me, this 2 week getaway is a chance to spend some time with God, thank Him for bringing me to this point, and seek His direction for the future. I am also praying that in this time he will renew me and refresh me for this next season of life.

Preparation is important. If I am to do this next season well and to run the long race, I want to start from a place of strength. I would never want to start a new season still tired from the last and be running on the momentum of a season gone by. As a driven person, this sudden halt in momentum may be challenging, but I am excited relax, to seek God, and to get ready for the next season of life!

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

"breaking bread" after church one night

What does it take to see a group of Christians become a community like this? While there is no set formula, I believe it takes these few elements:

The Holy Spirit

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

The Holy Spirit is the backbone to any community like this. When we allow the power of the Holy Spirit to invade our life, we are empowered to able to do more that we could ever imagine!

Prayer

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

We have a God who doesn’t just listen, but cares. We are instructed in Philippians to pray “in every situation”. In our broken world there is so much to pray for, thinking specially about the QLD floods today. There is power in prayer when believers are in agreement.

Accountability

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

Its never easy to be vulnerable with someone and share your failings and fallings. Though when we are, and its centred around Christ, we allow Him to work in the situation and bring answers. God works through community.

Fasting

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18)

Fasting is the act of abstaining from food, and for Christians represents the sacrifice of a vital human activity to seek God. As the body reminds us of its need for food, we are reminded of our need to seek God. Fasting can be done in many ways, sacrificing any aspect of life.

I am encouraging my connect group to join in fasting for the next 16 days leading up to our annual Powerhouse Summer Retreat. We all have something that we are believing for, or would like to see happen. Powerhouse Summer Retreat is one of those places where God answers many of these.

My amazing community at the 2010 Powerhouse Summer Retreat

Powerhouse Summer Retreat is undoubtably one the most amazing experiences. Getting away with a few thousand young adults to seek God in one accord sets you up for the year like nothing else. I personally can testify to some amazing moments at Retreat’s where God has spoken to me or done something in my life that has changed the course of my year, my season and often my life.

For more information on Powerhouse Summer Retreat check out http://hillsongyouth.com and to register online click here

Humanity loves the ‘new’. We get tired of the old, regular and mundane. Western commercialisation is the most extreme example of humanity’s obsession with the new.

The new year is also a ‘sand in the line’ moment for many in that it marks a change, whether large or small, in one’s life. Many people will start off the new year making a list of resolutions that they aim to keep.

The New Year moment in Sydney

The most fascinating ‘new’ experience is to come to know Christ. Not only does it mark the beginning of an amazing relationship with the creator of the world, but also a new life as you are ‘born again’.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

While the ‘born again’ Christian has received a new life, it does not mean they instantly become like Jesus, rather that they start the journey of becoming like him.

My new years resolution is to each day be more and more like Christ.

But how social is social media? The computer was designed to make work easier and to free up time but many believe it did the opposite. Social media is aimed at making social interaction easier but there are many critics who believe it has made people less connected to each other. While a person may be able to connect to someone over social media, are they really connecting? Does human interaction have to have a physical element to it?

Today’s society is potentially the most socially isolated society in the history of the world. People hardly know their neighbors, work mates are only work mates and I find no one even says “hi”, let alone smiles, at the stranger passing them on the street. Yet at the same time people have a yearning to connect with people, often going unfulfilled. I do believe the ‘cafe culture’ is a reflection of a society where people want to connect with other people but rather than experiencing real community, find themself alone in a place (like a cafe) with other people who are alone. Does social media in essence connect us with others at a distance by keeping up walls that prevent us from experiencing real community?

Tweeting on Twitter

Recently I took a class on making presentations, and one of the assessments was a team debate, our argument being that social media has affected human interaction for the positive. Studying and then debating this made we realise that I actually do believe in social media and the great potential it holds. I do however believe that like anything good, there are pitfalls and ways to abuse it. Social media is proving to be a revolutionary thing, and rather than ignore it, i’m happy to embrace it and utilise its potential. Here are some of the main reason why I believe that social media is good for social interaction:

Keeping connected

In preparing for the debate on social media I did some interviews and noticed that for most people, social media has been a positive thing and is mostly used to keep in touch with people. For many people, it allows them to interact and keep in contact with friends and family who are far away geographically. People can share photos, relationship updates, new jobs, and many other parts of their life for others to see. For example, a couple can announce their engagement on Facebook rather than communicate to all their friends and family the traditional way through phone calls or text messages.

Not only does social media allow people to keep in contact with people, it allows them to find people that they use to know. Many former classmates, friends, co-workers, couples and more have been able to discover each other through social media and reconnect. Social media has also allowed people to make new friends, meet romantic interests and to also recruit for job vacancies.

Here is the findings of the interviews I did.

Businesses & marketing

While most people think of social media in terms of social networking, the business side of social media is rapidly expanding. Social media in business is regarded as the magic key that unlocks the door to prospective customers through customer interaction, well beyond the reach of traditional media and marketing. It is much faster, cheaper and easier for a business to use social media than any other method of reaching their customers. A business can use a Facebook or Twitter account to interact with customers, keeping them up to date with products and promotions. Social media is said to make a customer become a loyal repeat customer.

Changing communication

Communication methods have evolved over time to become more efficient and purposeful. While previously a person could only communicate to a distant person via letters in the post, people today can ring, text, tweet, email, facebook, or even skype someone far away instantaneously. For example, business people can hold a meeting over many locations via video conferencing, a mother can keep up to date with her child via Facebook, and fans can follow their favourite celebrities via Twitter.

The advantage to these new forms of communication is the limits and boundaries they bring. In a fast paced world where time is often viewed as money, it is beneficial to be able to control the amount of communication. For example, a business person can send an email to their colleague, saving them having to leave their desk, or a person can text their friend some quick information rather than phone them and engage in a conversation.

Here is the animation that I created in my Adobe Flash class that looks at the evolving way that people have communicated over time.

Influence

Social media has proven to be an integral tool for expanding influence. Celebrities have utilised social media to connect with their fans in a unique one-way communication method, where they can share as much of their life as they want and chose what they receive from their followers. Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway and Panama.

Through social media, everyday people can also influence the people they know. People have a platform to voice their cause, belief or preference, directly or indirectly. More than one-third (38%) of Americans surveyed in a recent study said that they aim to influence others when expressing their preferences online.¹ It also allows people to connect with others of the same cause, belief or preference.

Social media is continuing to revolutionise communication and human interaction. It is no longer a question of whether to engage in social media or not, but how best to. While it can be misused and abused, like anything it comes down to understanding a healthy balance.

1. http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/06/03/social-media-users-aim-to-influence-others

As a Christian, I am living for the ultimate cause – the cause of Christ! However many Christians living for this cause are much less passionate for this cause when compared to many of the causes I see supported around the city.

I have been listening to the Hillsong album ‘For This Cause’ and the title track, while about 10 years old, has been speaking to me about this cause that I am and want to keep living for.

For This Cause – Hillsong
Words and Music by Joel Houston

Hope has found its home within me.
Now that I’ve been found in You.
Let all I am be all You want me to be.
‘Cause all I want is more of You.
All I want is more of You.

Let Your presence fall upon us.
I want to see You face to face.
Let me live forever lost in Your love.
‘Cause all I want is more of You.
All I want is more of You.

I’m living for this cause.
I lay down my life into Your hands.
I’m living for the truth,
The hope of the world.
In You I’ll stand.
‘Cause all I want is You.

All I want is,
All I want is You, Jesus.

Love at first sight

So the reason the car was such a bargain was that firstly it was unregistered (only for about 2 months) and secondly was completely, disgustingly dirty. I’m not talking about dirty as in it’s missed it’s fortnightly clean but more like I doubt the previous owner ever cleaned it the whole time he owned it. There was clumps of dust, cigarette butts on the floor, slime on the handles and dashboard and don’t get me started on the smell!

All of that said, I actually fell in love with the car straight away. I saw past It’s imperfections and saw the potential. I guess the price also made it look attractive! Driving the car home, I was reflecting on this thought and realised the spiritual symbolism in this experience, its likening to the salvation and sanctification process.

Dust and slime

The car had been owned and used by someone that didn’t care for it like they could, abusing it for all its worth and not caring for it. God intended close relationship with his creation, but sin and rebellion caused separation, a separation that by default means captivity by the enemy. In the same way that I came to buy the car and see it freed, God sent His very own Son to die on a sinners cross and pay the ultimate price so that humanity could know forgiveness and freedom in a relationship with Him.

Once I had driven the car home, I immediately began giving the car the clean of my life. I vacuumed, scrubbed, wiped and even Gumptioned the car with all I could. Once someone has made a decision to give their life to God, He doesn’t just leave them, rather it’s only the beginning of a literally life transforming relationship. God desires to restore humanity, and at His own pace begins to heal, deliver and convict us of our own failings, brokenness and issues, once we hand him control of our lives.

Pretty dirty

As soon as I had gotten this new car (and increasingly as it got cleaner and cleaner) I was so proud to show it off. God delights in seeing his people transformed, made whole and resorted, like an artist looking at his finished artwork.

As people began to also ride in the car and get to enjoy it’s use, it reminded me of how God connects all these masterpieces in his Church which is in one sense a museum or portfolio of Gods works. One of my favourite parts of a Hillsong church service is when a persons testimony is shared on the screens, when one of Gods masterpieces is shown off.

Oh, what a feeling...

It didn’t take long for a clean car to get dirty again. While It will never be as dirty as it was when I first got it, I also know it will never be perfectly clean all of the time but yet I will continue to clean it. In the same way, Christians will fail, continue to make mistakes and sin, but God keeps forgiving and restoring. It so humbles me to think that the perfect creator of the universe bothers to work with such an imperfect humanity.

I am actually from a divorced family myself and have witnessed many other families I know suffer from the very real 50% divorce rate statistic. So you might ask then why did this article annoy me so much? You see I actually believe in marriage and desire to be married someday. Having experienced the trauma of a divorce first hand actually stirs up a desire in me to see marriage done right, to fight for this institution and to see others who are disillusioned by the failure of marriage in our society to be the change.

My parents were married in October 1983 in Tumut, a small country town in NSW. These young and somewhat naive lovebirds had met a couple of years before doing street evangelism in Brisbane during a time of Pentecostal revival where Jesus was coming back any minute. It was an era where things were rushed, not planned or thought out and done with an urgency. I do believe that marriages were conducted quite similarly with little preparation for longevity.

The wedding day

They were brought together by a united desire to serve Christ and build his church despite vastly different personalities, hobbies, interests and cultures (dad being a 5th generation Aussie and mum a Finnish immigrant). Without much preparation for married life this newly couple were starting a life and family together.

After planting a church in a small town on the NSW south coast, having two children, eventually moving to the big smoke of Sydney, leaving full-time ministry, and re-entering the secular workforce, much had changed. For them what was once love had become familiarity, what was once passion had become an obligation.

Happy memories

In early 2002 it all came to a sudden halt and mum and dad were separating. It may have appeared sudden for some but the cracks had been growing overtime. Amongst the pristine happy memories of life before the separation, I can now look back and remember many arguments, signs of unhappiness and a sense of we’re in it for the kids.

The hardest part of it all was the years following where the reality of a divorce began to be outworked. The guilt, disappointment, confusion, hurt, and brokenness affected us each differently. The saddest part of divorce for our family was the broken relationships – with each other and with God. For me I saw firsthand that the enemy “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” while Jesus came so that we could have “life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), as it was during this that I found Jesus for myself.

While divorce in essence is not good¹, we cannot assert that marriage is good simply by contrast. Here are some theological, psychological, and philosophical reasons why I believe in marriage, based on my own personal experiences.

1. We are not meant to be alone
No one is meant to do life by themselves. While not all of us will find that special someone, there is a need in all of us to find connection, community and contact with others. We are made in the likeness of a relational God (who desires relationship with all of us). Part of our relationality is that we desire “eros” love, an intimate love between a man and a woman. In that intimate love, a man and a woman will share their lives, passions and interests. For my parents it was a shared desire for ministry, however there could and should have been more shared interests as when ministry left their lives so did a major part of their bond. I desire someday to be married to my best friend, that girl whom I can share and enjoy every part of life with.

2. We need commitment to see love last
History has shown that people need commitment, the security that comes from promise. Marriage is and has throughout history been a covenant between a man a woman to each other before God. The marriage ceremony has evolved to be a commitment before friends and family too. It is a public declaration that an individual is committed to another person, forsaking all others. I have witnessed many couples living together (some quite close to home) whom are rather confused about the status of the relationship. While they act in many ways as a married couple, they lack the sense of “one flesh” with regards to living united. This is outworked in finances, children, work, and so on. What I have also commonly observed among those living together is the uncertainty of them being with the right person. They appear to think that they’ll hold off from marriage as someone better just might come along. Marriage is actually somewhat of a step of faith, choosing to believe that this person they can spend the rest of their lives together. Once the initial feelings of love begin to fade, it is a commitment that keeps two people together.

3. Marriage is about giving not taking
Ephesians 5 beautifully paints an image of the mutual submission and the giving of oneself to each other in marriage. Our world has a warped understanding of love. Love is too often confused with infatuation, lust, sex, power, and so on. It is when a couple looses sight of each other and begins to think more of self that a marriage begins to fail. I believe that in order to make it last, a married couple should never stop “dating”.

4. Don’t just marry anyone
One of the biggest reasons I believe we are currently experiencing such a high divorce rate is that the many people (particularly from the Baby Boomers generation) married young and naively only to rediscover what they really wanted in life after they were married. It is commonly thought that it it best to get married from the mid 20′s on.² While it makes sense to wait till you are at a place in life where you know who you are and what you want there must be more to consider. My sister and I have approached looking for our significant other in the most polar opposite ways. My sister at 17 has has numerous relationships of all lengths, many many heartaches, and even a baby resulting from one relationship. I on the other hand have never had a serious relationship. My year 6 girlfriend of 2 weeks doesn’t really count! The main difference is that I know what I want and am enjoying the single season of my life as I search for it. My sister on the other hand loathes singleness, running hastily into relationships which I believe are clouding her judgement and distracting her from finding what kind of husband she would like to have.

5. A marriage needs outside support
While it is pretty obvious that a successful marriage needs both people to participate, I think many fail to realise the communal nature of a marriage, or any relationship for that matter. Relationships are best done not in a vacuum but in a community of people where there is accountability, example and a change to be an example. One of the pitfalls of my parents was the perfect image they presented, not revealing any of the struggles or challenges they were facing which is why their divorce came as such a shock to many. Not only are times of trouble a good chance to seek counsel from others but to also seek professional advice from a counselor. As mentioned earlier, a marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman before God. God should be at the centre of every marriage. He is the ultimate source of guidance, encouragement, wisdom and counsel for any marriage or relationship. As they say; pray together, stay together.

6. There is no marriage or relationship beyond repair for God
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). The Father’s heart is restore a broken and separated humanity to Himself which is why He sent His Son. Likewise He desires to restore broken relationships that occur within humanity as a result of the fall. This past Sunday was Fathers Day and it was such an awesome day for me when in church I was worshipping God with my mum, dad and sister. My parents may not have gotten back together but God can restore relationships and mend broken hearts. That’s my testimony.

It is today’s generation that has the power to change things and to see divorce rates lower, and I believe it’s possible! Statistics are showing that divorce rates are actually lowering and that surprisingly the number of marriages is increasing.³ I believe that today’s generation has learnt from the makes of the generations gone before, and like me is determined to get it right!

1. Divorce in essence is not a good thing however it must be pointed out that divorce can actually be a good thing for certain situations such as in the cases of abuse. While divorce may not be God’s ideal, He does forgive, heal and restore.
2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-09-delayed-marriage_N.htm
3. http://www.theage.com.au/national/marriages-at-20year-high-as-breakups-decline-20090831-f5a2.html