Canberra Outreach!

Hey so we are at the end of out first week of outreach in Australia, and what a week it has been! We started off by saying a sad goodbye to the other teams as they left Canberra to head out to their outreach locations. Not long after all the teams had left, we spied a suitcase and sleeping bag that looked suspiciously like someone from another team.....after further investigation we discovered that it was Hannah's and she was happily in the van on her way to Sydney without any of her belongings! One quick phone call and a rescue-mission drive out to the team later Hannah and bag were happily reunited and the team was on their way again!!

The next few days involved helping the base here clean up after the Jubilee, calling all the schools, youth groups, etc in the area to see where we could go and share our message of Jesus, and times of worship and prayer at different places around the city.

Tuesday was Australia day and so we took advantage of the events going on in the park and spent the day and evening challenging ourself in evangelism, there were many conversations to be had, here is a testimony from Katy of one of her experiences: It was Australia Day, and our outreach team went to a celebration in a park to do some evangelism. I was pretty freaked out, having never done evangelism like that before, so when Jess and Britt saw a grandma sitting on a bench by herself, they literally shoved me in her direction. I walked over and asked if I could join her in the shade for a while. We talked about where I was from and what I was doing, and about her family and her many grandchildren. As the conversation carried on, we started talking about crime and abuse in the world and how communities no longer take care of each other. I said, "The world needs Jesus." And she laughed at me and I laughed at me. But then I went, "Seriously, what do you think about that? Does the world need Jesus?" And she told me to not get her started on the subject of Christians but I told her I was really interested in her opinion. She told me about how her Grandpa used to go to church but then drink and verbally abuse her Grandma. So she told me that she thought Christians were hypocrites, and that she didn¹t need to go to church to have someone tell her to be a good person. The story of the good Samaritan came to my head, so I shared it with her and she told me that the story made sense. Then I was able to tell her that I thought that Jesus didn¹t want us to be like the Pharisees because he said so in the Bible. She agreed with me and then we got interrupted and we went our ways. But I was able to speak about Jesus and hopefully alter her way of thinking about Jesus and Christianity!

The rest of the week has been a fun experience of waiting on God each morning and asking Him what we should do, so far we have done a lot more evangelism, helped out at the soup kitchen in town, spent time praying over the city on top of one of the hills nearby, and we spent one afternoon in the shopping mall handing out lollies to workers and shoppers alike with scriptures on them. Emma has a story from her experience that day: Well, today we went to Canberra Centre (shopping mall) equipped with lollies with scripture. "We're dressed like this just because we want attention," stated the five youth clothed in Japanese style linens. Matthew, Jessica and I approached these youngsters not to give them their heart's desire for attention but to share the love and gospel of Jesus Christ. I entered the conversation labeled with a name tag and as I entered I knew they were not shy, for one immediately blurted out, "Hey how did you meet the Lord?" I assumed Jess and Matt had already shared their introductions to Christ, and so did I happily. Then we go the opportunity to hear their views and answer their questions they had about us and the bible and God. It was such a privilege to talk with these teenagers instead of to them. We chatted as a group for nearly an hour, while side conversations were naturally stemmed. One girl, Shana, looked at me and asked, "Hey, what kind of Christian would you say you are?" Puzzled, I asked her what she meant by the question. She explained to me that her grandparents were "strict Christians" who she would never dare say the word gay in front of. She further explained that she is a Christian who believed in God but does not always act like it or talk like it. I get the impression that she is not unlike her atheist friends. I used Shane Claiborurne's idea of describing myself as an ordinary radical Christian. A normal girl who is in love with God and will go to the ends of the earth for him. Simply enough, she understood and the incoming questions ceased when I turned the tables on her, firing the same question in her direction. "What kind of Christian would you say you are?" I asked. Her reply: mediocre. My hope is to continue this conversation with Shana via Facebook. The teens left with heaps of seeds thrown onto them, which I am trusting God will water and grow.

Well, that is about all from our team for this week, next week we are staying in Canberra where we hope to do much of the same, lots of evangelism, hopefully visit some schools and we are going into churches as well to share about our experience in Papua New Guinea and about the Ship Tour that is coming up.