I finally went to Sydney and it was amazing! My friend Ashley and I took the train from Newcastle to Sydney (3 hour trip) and met some of the YWAM staff at the station because they were in Sydney for the weekend relaxing and getting some R&R. The Opera House was amazing to see in real life. If you haven't been to Australia yet, I highly suggest that you do! After seeing Sydney Harbor we went to a local farmer market. Then we went out to dinner at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks and I had the most amazing plate of pancakes ever! We were only in the city for a few hours but it was amazing. I can't wait to go for a longer period of time.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Warfare at Lewis House
2 Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
We had finished up a week of lectures on Lordship and felt refreshed and peaceful. Our speaker Mark Parker before the week ended, said the following parting words; “Don’t get too comfortable. The enemy waits at the foot of every mountain.” All of us nodded but didn’t realize how true his words would be until the next evening.On Saturday March 20th, I was upstairs in my room working on homework. My bedroom overlooks the parking lot and I suddenly heard the sound of multiple feet running hard on the pavement. Even before I heard anything else I jumped up from my bed and knew in my spirit something was wrong. Next I heard a scream and the sound of shattering glass. I bolted down the hallway towards the front door seeing a mass of people starting to gather by the stairs.
Our glass front door to our base was in pieces on the floor and people were standing around confused. I didn’t know what happened but I yelled at some of the guys “Don’t be a hero. Get back!” I walked down the hallway and passed people who had confusion and fear etched on their features. I walked into the dinning hall and saw Svein, (my friend and member of my India Outreach team) sitting on a chair trying to catch his breath as his chest rose and fell.
He shared with me that he, two other guys and a girl went to McDonalds down the road and passed through a shortcut through a alley in a neighborhood. A group of six guys randomly decided to attack them and started cussing them out. One of the guys attacking them grabbed the girl (another member on my India Outreach team) and the other guys on my DTS grabbed her and ran. The guys who attacked them chased them up the hill all the way to Lewis House (our base).
A staff member was on the front porch and saw them running and opened the door for them and shut it behind them so they were safely inside. The guys who chased them started to taunt them, cuss them out, spit, and one smashed his head against the glass and then ended up shattering it by putting his fist through the door. In that moment when the glass shattered something happened. They did not enter our base, they backed away.
After Svein shared with me what happened, our base director David Stevenson gathered everyone together and announced that the police were on their way and then asked us to pray together as a group. The thing I love about Stevo (our base director) is that he was willing to press charges if the attackers were caught. I love his wisdom in the whole situation, and his grace and forgiveness.
We prayed against the fear that was gripping the base, we prayed that the police would catch the guys, and we prayed for peace over the people who were attacked. Something Stevo said after we were done praying was that we were at war. Looking at my two India team members who were attacked, I realized how true those words were. Svein a few weeks ago had another encounter with someone who was territorial and was punched in the face. This was the second time he was attacked. Is it coincidence? I don’t think so.
Something broke in our group after Lordship. We surrendered our lives to God and we laid aside everything that was distracting us from our relationship with God. By opening ourselves up in front of each other, we broke the fear of man. The very next day we our base was attacked and intimidated. Mark Parker was right. The devil does wait at the foot or every mountain.
Although there is a powerful darkness coming against us here in Newcastle the God I serve is even more powerful. The students were saved, they weren’t harmed, and God protected them. I think in the moment that glass of the front door shattered those guys felt the presence of God flow out of the base, and then they became afraid.
This week our India Outreach team needed to buy our plane tickets. That day we prayed and asked God to provide. By the end of the day we needed to buy the tickets and two of our team members still didn’t have enough money for their tickets. At the last minute one of the students had a $2900 donation that took care of the rest of their lecture fees and also paid for their plane ticket.
Without us knowing it, our leader spoke to the travel agent who was holding the tickets and found out that we needed to buy at least 10 tickets to get the group discount. Because of that random donation, all of us were able to get the discount and for the eleventh ticket, we were given a week extension to pay for it. So we have one more team member who needs $1300 for their ticket. PLEASE PRAY FOR ASHLEY! We have already seen one miracle, I KNOW we will have another!
We are at war. This world needs to wake up and open their eyes. Whether you believe in the devil or not, he exists. He loves the fact that you don’t believe him.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Lordship and Outreach
Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve done an update. I have once again been busy in lectures, doing homework, hanging out with people and working around Lewis House. The weather is still incredibly warm even though it’s now fall here in Australia. We have had a couple cool days which was a nice break from the heat. It was hilarious because everyone wore flannels, comfy pants, and sat around sipping on hot coffee reading and I was reminded of home. Seattle isn’t very far away when flannels and coffee are involved.
This week in lectures we’ve been studying “Lordship”. That word sounds strange on it’s own without any explanation. Lordship. Makes you ponder what it could mean or what it should mean to oneself. It’s meaning in YWAM terms is emptying yourself of everything you try to control and allow God to be Lord of your life. Most people would hear that and cringe and say “No way I’m in control”. I have to say, that’s the problem and that’s why things aren’t the way they should be. When we deny that God is God and put other things before him because they are more important to us, we are basically saying that we care more about other things above our creator.
Most people suffer from feeling depression of some sorts. It’s no wonder if they have no idea who they are or what they were created for. God loves us, God is good, he created us because he is good, so doesn’t it seem strange that we don’t want to be close to him? What is it that people are really afraid of? What is it that makes them push God away? Everything always seems to come back to control. We want to be in control of our own destiny, we want to be in charge of what makes us happy. It seems strange that we deny the one thing that makes us complete. And that’s having an intimate relationship with the God who created us.
Our speaker for lectures was Mark Parker, an odd man from New Zealand. He’s a base director there and he screams a lot. And I mean a LOT. I have never met anyone as loud as him. He loved to shout, scream, jump up in down, and dance. He was probably the strangest speaker we’ve had so far when it comes to personality type. But I enjoyed every minute of it. I love it when people challenge why you live the way you do and why you believe what you believe in.
We always had a pastor and some other volunteers from Maui come to our base to help build our new Youth Street Building. Youth Street is a ministry out of our base. It’s to help the Aussie youth have a safe place to hang out, have mentors, and learn something new such as how to skateboard, paint, play an instrument, etc. We normally have Youth Street at the house we all live at, but our base has a warehouse they bought and are trying to remodel it into the new Youth Street.
Dwayne, the pastor from Maui also has a side business in construction and was a huge help this last week. He also has an amazing gift of prophecy. I’m still amazed whenever I see someone use that gift and it blows my mind. He has such a good heart and made himself available to pray with each and every person at the base. We have over 90 people living here! You do the math! He certainly didn’t rush it either. When he prayed for me what he told me was spot on! God certainly is doing amazing things in his life.
Outreach is fastly approaching. I can’t believe I only have one week of lectures left and then another week of outreach prep and then I’m gone! Our India team is currently learning some dramas so we can perform them for people. I was casted as a demon which was interesting. I guess I make good scary faces or something :-) I still need $1100 for outreach and I’m praying I’ll get every last penny! Me and another girl on my outreach team are currently fundraising. We’ve made cookies and have been selling them. It’s been such a blessing because people are so generous and giving around here. We made close to $50 for one batch because people paid more than we asked for!
Please email me at lisamorrone@gmail.com if you would like to contribute financially. I would love it and it would be such a huge blessing to me and my team! Thank you so much for supporting me with your prayers and for reading my updates. I love you all and you are close to my heart. God has big things in store for me and the same goes for you! You just might not know it yet :-)
This week in lectures we’ve been studying “Lordship”. That word sounds strange on it’s own without any explanation. Lordship. Makes you ponder what it could mean or what it should mean to oneself. It’s meaning in YWAM terms is emptying yourself of everything you try to control and allow God to be Lord of your life. Most people would hear that and cringe and say “No way I’m in control”. I have to say, that’s the problem and that’s why things aren’t the way they should be. When we deny that God is God and put other things before him because they are more important to us, we are basically saying that we care more about other things above our creator.
Most people suffer from feeling depression of some sorts. It’s no wonder if they have no idea who they are or what they were created for. God loves us, God is good, he created us because he is good, so doesn’t it seem strange that we don’t want to be close to him? What is it that people are really afraid of? What is it that makes them push God away? Everything always seems to come back to control. We want to be in control of our own destiny, we want to be in charge of what makes us happy. It seems strange that we deny the one thing that makes us complete. And that’s having an intimate relationship with the God who created us.
Our speaker for lectures was Mark Parker, an odd man from New Zealand. He’s a base director there and he screams a lot. And I mean a LOT. I have never met anyone as loud as him. He loved to shout, scream, jump up in down, and dance. He was probably the strangest speaker we’ve had so far when it comes to personality type. But I enjoyed every minute of it. I love it when people challenge why you live the way you do and why you believe what you believe in.
We always had a pastor and some other volunteers from Maui come to our base to help build our new Youth Street Building. Youth Street is a ministry out of our base. It’s to help the Aussie youth have a safe place to hang out, have mentors, and learn something new such as how to skateboard, paint, play an instrument, etc. We normally have Youth Street at the house we all live at, but our base has a warehouse they bought and are trying to remodel it into the new Youth Street.
Dwayne, the pastor from Maui also has a side business in construction and was a huge help this last week. He also has an amazing gift of prophecy. I’m still amazed whenever I see someone use that gift and it blows my mind. He has such a good heart and made himself available to pray with each and every person at the base. We have over 90 people living here! You do the math! He certainly didn’t rush it either. When he prayed for me what he told me was spot on! God certainly is doing amazing things in his life.
Outreach is fastly approaching. I can’t believe I only have one week of lectures left and then another week of outreach prep and then I’m gone! Our India team is currently learning some dramas so we can perform them for people. I was casted as a demon which was interesting. I guess I make good scary faces or something :-) I still need $1100 for outreach and I’m praying I’ll get every last penny! Me and another girl on my outreach team are currently fundraising. We’ve made cookies and have been selling them. It’s been such a blessing because people are so generous and giving around here. We made close to $50 for one batch because people paid more than we asked for!
Please email me at lisamorrone@gmail.com if you would like to contribute financially. I would love it and it would be such a huge blessing to me and my team! Thank you so much for supporting me with your prayers and for reading my updates. I love you all and you are close to my heart. God has big things in store for me and the same goes for you! You just might not know it yet :-)
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