Awesome and Ridiculous Times in Timor!

Thank you for your prayers! While we were over in East Timor we saw God move in awesome and ridiculous ways and I am again in a place of awe that God has choosen me for this task of reaching the nations.

So, after concluding our time on outreach in Darwin we headed over to East Timor not quite knowing what to expect. We spent the first week up in the mountains living in the homes of a hilltribe and adjusting to the life of a Timorese. This week was my personal favourite as we were able to build such deep relationships with the people while living in their homes and had the chance every evening to run a Bible Study and share about the Lord with this village. Every evening we would crowd as many as could fit (and some that couldn't) into the Cheif's living room, and gathered around a single candle we would begin to worship. We would then share stories and teachings from the Bible and spend time praying with and for these people. That week we saw people make decisions to follow the Lord both for the first time, as well as recommiting their lives to Christ. One of my favourite stories was that our translator woke up one morning and overheard conversation taking place between the locals. Those that had been at our gathering the night before was sharing with others about God being always with us wanting a relationship with us. As the language barrier made it difficult to have deep conversations one-on-one with the people it was exciting to me to know that not only were they understanding, but were taking the initiative to then go and share that with others! Another highlight for me that week was have 6 people profess to being healed after we spent an evening in prayer for them! Praise God.

We had lots of ridiculous stories in the midst of everything else as well. We drove a vehicle that needed to be push started which made for quite the adventures, especially when we stalled it going up a hill in a very muddy section. We ended up paying a local to push us forward with his tractor and somehow got the speed up to start it again even while going uphill! Another day we drove for 8 hours with all 12 of us and all our luggage in one enclosed pickup truck. We lined the back of the truck with our bags and sat on them the whole way! Other moments included lying in bed and hearing the rats running around on the beams above us, and clearing large sections of land for houses to be built on with just our bare hands. I don't normally consider myself a real girly-girl but I sure felt like a whimp that day as I screamed every few minutes and then stopped to remove the latest thorn from my fingers. The locals had quite a laugh at us about this one.

Over the other weeks we were there we also worked with preventative health care, developing a community vegetable garden (including clearing the land, preparing the soil and then planting), assisting at a preschool and primary school, teaching in churchs and home groups, putting on a concert and other community events, visiting and praying for the disabled, prayer walking the communities, and serving local missionaries through practical help (I am now quite sufficient in mowing large lawns with machettes!).

All in all I felt the hand of God leading, guiding and blessing our team and his grace upon me as their leader.

This is not just something I have done by myself, but each of you has been a huge part of this journey through your prayers and support in so many ways. You have invested and seen lives changed forever in the nation of East Timor. Thank you!!!