Saturday, June 18th, the combined churches of Townsville held a community outreach day called “Neighbour to Neighbour”. Over 200 volunteers spent their day helping over 400 homes around the city in any way needed. A group of staff from YWAM Townsville, and all of Youth Street volunteered on the day.
Watch this short video to get a glimpse of what the day was like!
The Not for Sale DTS focuses on learning about human slavery, and how to put an end to it in our world today. They are an incredible group of people who are all passionate about knowing God on a deeper level, sharing his love in as many ways as they can, and seeing freedom throughout the nations. They just returned from Thailand and Papua New Guinea, so here’s a look at what they were a part of…
Youthfest 2011 kicked off on April 8th, 2011 here in Townsville. Thousands of young aussies came through the event throughout the day as they went to seminars, played games, danced to live music, ate (sugary) food, and built new relationships.
Here’s how YWAM Townsville got involved:
Over this past Easter weekend, we celebrated “Anzac day” – a national holiday for Australians to honor those who have served and are currently serving in war. Over the years, YWAM Townsville has volunteered on this special day.
Take a look…
Week five of the Ship DTS has just ended--we spent last week diving into the Bible with Helen Middleton, who is also the school leader. We've been learning some of the keys on how to do inductive Bible study. Specifically throughout the week we have been looking at the book of Philemon in the New Testament. We've had to do research regarding that period of time and the specific people the letter was written to. We've slowly and surely been able to discover truth within and also have gained new perspective! In about three week's time, we will be flying up to Papua New Guinea to soon after, meet up with the medical ship for outreach! There is still lots to get together before then...we are excited to see what God does in and through us all! Here's a bit of an overview of one student's journey thus far: "When I was at home, I was the perfect example of a Sunday Christian. I grew up in Christian family and went to church every single Sunday. I knew there was so much more to having a relationship with God but I lacked the motivation to make the changes I needed to in my life. Before DTS, God was never very real for me and the whole concept of actively spending time with God everyday was also not real for me. Since the start of DTS, I have been pushed way outside of my comfort zone. God is continually revealing himself to me and I am developing a day to day relationship with Him. For the first time in my life I am experiencing God and He is finally real to me. I am learning to walk in His truth as well. It’s so exciting for me to look back at where I was 4 weeks ago and to see how much I have grown since then. I know I have so much more to learn and am going to grow so much more in the rest of my time here. I pray that I would continue to have a growing courage to step out in faith and follow what God has planned for me."
The Townsville Bulletin recently sent up Ian Frazer to report on the first medical outreach for the YWAM Medical ship in 2011.
Read the whole article here.
Woje, a local band from YWAM Townsville, is heading out on a short 2 1/2 week tour this week to promote missions and the YWAM Medical ship. This past Saturday night, Woje released their latest album and brought locals and YWAMers to their feet.
To see what they’re up to, watch this clip!
This past week 11 new faces arrived at YWAM Townsville all ready to embark on a new journey together as the Ship DTS began! We are a team of 14 total, 11 student and 3 staff from 6 different nations who have come together for 21 weeks to learn about who God is, who we are and how we can be effective in bring life, hope and practical care to a world in need. This first part of our journey is based in Townsville, Australia where we will have 8 weeks of lectures on topics such as ‘hearing God’, ‘identity’, ‘lordship’, ‘Bible study’ etc. After that we will be heading out to Papua New Guinea to join with YWAM Medical Ships – Australia to assist in bringing much needed health care to the people of PNG.
Our first week was packed full as we learnt all about YWAM, the base here and what we will be doing during the school. As part of our time here in Townsville we will be helping at Youth Street, a program for 12-17 year olds ran at the base each Saturday, and to get our ‘feet wet’ we also helped at Youth Fest this past Friday, a city wide youth event where we got to meet some of the Townsville youth as they sampled our ‘bubble chai tea’ and chilled out with us!
This past week 11 new faces arrived at YWAM Townsville all ready to embark on a new journey together as the Ship DTS began! We are a team of 14 total, 11 student and 3 staff from 6 different nations who have come together for 21 weeks to learn about who God is, who we are and how we can be effective in bring life, hope and practical care to a world in need. This first part of our journey is based in Townsville, Australia where we will have 8 weeks of lectures on topics such as ‘hearing God’, ‘identity’, ‘lordship’, ‘Bible study’ etc. After that we will be heading out to Papua New Guinea to join with YWAM Medical Ships – Australia to assist in bringing much needed health care to the people of PNG.
Our first week was packed full as we learnt all about YWAM, the base here and what we will be doing during the school. As part of our time here in Townsville we will be helping at Youth Street, a program for 12-17 year olds ran at the base each Saturday, and to get our ‘feet wet’ we also helped at Youth Fest this past Friday, a city wide youth event where we got to meet some of the Townsville youth as they sampled our ‘bubble chai tea’ and chilled out with us!
The Pacific Link out of the water
We are happy to report that after a three day sail, the YWAM Medical Ship and crew arrived safely in Port Moresby last week on Saturday, 5 March. The crew was up late Sunday night, watching the ship being pulled out of the water at the dock yard of Motukea Island to begin the dry docking process. The hull of our ship is now being sand-blasted, stripped and re-painted as a part of the standard maintenance required to operate a ship. What a sight to see the Pacific Link out of the water!!
Excitement is beginning to rise here in Australia and in Papua New Guinea as we get closer and closer to the starting date of our outreaches for 2011! Outreach #1 begins on 31 March…just two weeks away! Our ship team in Townsville is working around the clock to have everything prepared and to recruit the volunteers still needed for each of the eight outreaches this year.
Are you a marine or medical professional that would like to come on board this year? If so, we need you!
Do you know marine or medical professionals that may not know about us? If so, send them our way!
Additional marine crew (engineers, first and second mate, etc.) are needed to see the ship sail to each outreach location. In addition, more medical professionals (optometrists, ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses, doctors, nurses, etc.) are still needed to fill up our teams for each of the outreaches. We want to have a ship full of people ready to serve the beautiful people of Papua New Guinea!
See you soon!
