I'm leaving for outreach in 5 days!!!

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So I now know where I am going for outreach and if you didn't catch my facebook status update I can let you know that I am officially going to Indonesia. I will be leaving for Bali on Wednesday evening and will be visiting 3 Indonesian Islands: Bali, Lombok and Flores.
I don't really know a great deal right now but i do know that at some point I will be taking a 2 day boat ride on what was described as a 'sturdy' boat so clearly very interesting and exciting times are ahead! Another thing which has been mentioned has been an epic mountain hike and travelling through the jungle!

My outreach now looks like this: instead of a month in Cape Town and one month in Milan it will be 2 months in Indonesia where I'll be doing similar things as I was going to do in South Africa and Italy i.e. working with churches, working with YWAM bases, talking about Jesus and doing dramas in public places and helping people in some way shape or form. The team I am now on consists of 1 leader and 4 students. My leader is called Tanner, he is 20 year old, is a YP leader and is originally from America. He is really nice, is super cool and very creative. There are 4 students in total, 2 YPs (Young Persons DTS which is the course I am on) and 2 compassions (another DTS which is running in this quarter). The 2 YPs are me and a guy called Christian who is originally from Hawaii but now lives in Switzerland, is a sweet guy and was going to protect me like a little sister until he found out he is just under 3 years younger than me. The compassions are a girl called Lisa who wasn't a christian before she did a DTS but has had her life turned upside down and inside out by God through these past 3 months and has just been blown away by God, she is originally from Singapore but she now lives 15 minutes from base. The second compassion person is a guy called Shalom who is from Ethiopia, is very wise and is quite a bit older than us...i think he is mid-30s. He seems very nice but is very shy.
It's a pretty small team and i only really noticed how small it was when we went to get a visa...we went on a bus meant to seat 13 and it was only the 5 of us and the driver...we are going to be one tight group by the end of it!

After the 2 months of Indonesia we will all rejoin the group which we were originally on for the australia part of the outreach. Me, Tanner and Christian are all originally from the South Africa team so we should fit quite nicely back into the group! It's going to be great! Even though I was originally disappointed that I would be able to be on the team which I had become close to I still get to spend a month with them so all is good!

So this week it has been another up and down week. I've been feeling up and down about outreach but am feeling a lot better now that I know where I am definitely going and we're actually talking about it, making plans and starting to get used to each other as a team. We've had one team leave already for outreach which is pretty weird...even though i've know these people for only 3 months the things you go through together and the fact that you constantly see them really brings you close together so to think that we're not going to see each other for another 3 months and then actually have to say proper goodbyes....but let's not think that far ahead!
It's been a hectic week of getting ready, packing and all this stuff which often carries a lot of stress with it and then amongst the whole packing and moving and getting ready chaos i get a text off the bank to ask me if i've purchased something for £6800 which i hadn't and when i tried to contact them it literally wiped £10 off my phone in 3 minutes. To cut a long story short someone got my details somehow, my card has been cancelled and a new one has been sent to my home in England so i am now bankcard-less which means i now have no in case of emergency money...but it's ok...I can still do bank transfers so it's not the end of the world! I'm glad that they didn't purchase things for decent amounts of money and slowly drained my overdraft but just went full on out...God's protection right there!

We had out commissioning night this Wednesday where we dressed up, had a nice meal, heard about the different types of schools on this quarter (Jan-March) and then were prayed over. It was pretty sweet. Was the first time i properly straightened my hair and dressed up which was nice and i think quite a few people were shocked at what i could look like with a bit of effort!
It was so nice and we all took so many pictures...every category you could think of was suggested...outreach teams, room mates, best friends, europeans, asians, flight buddies etc. Hopefully I'll attach some pictures to this blog of my outreach blog but i'll have to see! Facebook is definitely the place to look in terms of pictures!
And what's the best thing to do after a fancy night of eating and socializing...swimming in the ocean! I love Australia...you can just hop on a train (where we all sang random songs real loud and encouraged public participation), go to the beach and swim fully clothed, get out and ride the train home without being thrown off the train for being too wet. IT'S SO GOOD!!!

Only 5 days until I go on outreach which is pretty surreal. The indonesian team is the last to leave so i will be waving EVERYONE off which will be difficult especially the team which I originally thought I was on but great things are yet to come.
We learnt about spiritual warfare this week which was really good. Our speaker was from New Zealand and was just very honest and funny and related everything back to a story to do with his kids or marriage so it was so much easier to understand. Today was the application where we tried to prophesy which basically means asking God for a glimpse into the future to encourage, build up and give faith about certain situations or to generally help an individual or a number of Christians understand how God sees them and how He wants to use them.
Each group prayed into the country they're going to and the things we got in our team were pretty epic. One of the things were that we were walking through indonesia and we were on fire (not literally but with God's power) and we left fire filled footsteps as we moved through Indonesia and everything we touched caught on fire. Another thing that our group would be accelerated forward in understand of God and our relationship with God and with just so many different things. Another thing was that we are going to be forerunners, paving the way for other groups to come and that we will bring breakthrough. Basically a lot of positive crazy things which really does stir hope and excitement within me! Argh this outreach is going to be crazy. It is completely possibly that these things won't happen though, they will only come to pass if we follow God continuously listening to what He wants us to do, who He wants to speak to and just generally follow Him in obedience - even though God has said all these things about what our outreach could be...our free will could take it all away and stop Him from working in the powerful ways He showed us.
I know it can all sound a little crazy if you're not used to it BUT IT'S SO COOL!!!

So yer that has been a disjointed blog about my week! Sorry it's been all over the week...it hasn't really felt like it has flowed as much as previous weeks...i think it's partly because of the time limit i'm under and how hectic things are in general!
Not sure how much I'll be able to blog in Indonesia as I don't know what the internet is like but if I ever get access to the internet I will always be blogging first so keep your eyes peeled!

Just want to say another big thank you to those who have been supporting me through love, encouragement, prayer and finances. I have really really really appreciated it and it has definitely helped me during my time here. You have all been a real big help to me and I just want to say a great big thank you and I love you!

Love and blessings to you all!
Rachel

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