January!

Hey Peeps, I'm back!

It seems ironic to me that after a post about being faithful in everything, I have managed to go a full month without posting anything on this blog. Whoops. However, it seems that this is the perfect opportunity to enact a biblical principal laid out in Proverbs 24:16, "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again...". This is me rising again.

Alright, news. First of all, Junior has officially moved out. Anthony, Matt, and I were initially planning on moving into the new house with him, however the Spirit guided us to stay here. So rather than arguing, we stayed. Junior has also taken his blender with him and owns the dryer. Pray that we can buy it from him for a reasonable price. In his place, we've received a Canadian into our house. No longer am I, "Moose". His name is Ryan and he's from British Columbia. He came with his dad initially about three weeks ago and rented a camper van to tour the East Coast and apparently had some good times. So far, I've found out that he's a beast at acoustic guitar and can hopefully show me how to play decently. He's also thinking about getting an amplifier, which would help during jam sessions. I'm happy to have him and hopefully I can help him out on his journey here.

Brian has also returned from Shanghai. It's nice to finally start getting to know him. We've had all of his stuff in our house for about 2 months now and I only was able to see him about twice before he left. It turns out he has a replacement DVD player for our crap one. Hallelujah. Matt is coming back on the 27th with a bunch of audio equipment which we can mess around with. I'm excited to see what we can do with our house since we are once again filled with worship students. My job with Ecomed is now over after 4 weeks of solid full-time. The general response was that my work was very appreciated and they were very impressed with how quickly I picked it up. They'll also be keeping me on the books for casual work when they need it. Again, Hallelujah. Anthony is now a horticulturalist and working really long days on the beaches.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to wake up at five, take two buses to Macquarie, and head to the Macquarie University to help prep and then observe three brain surgeries! An Iranian woman who just joined our small group is an ER Doctor turned brain surgeon. I asked her if there was any possibility for me to job shadow her. Turned out that the answer was yes and amen. Who would've thought that God would open up medical opportunities like this over here? How crazy is that! I'm not sure if this is God totally confirming to me what I think is his plan for me to go into medical work, but I'm up for the opportunity in any case.

I guess the main lesson that I've been learning lately is that if God puts a dream into your heart, it'll be him who makes a way for it. It gets really easy for me to take ownership of an idea and put it fully under my responsibility, forgetting that it was God who gave the idea in the first place. I get all worried about the success of something rather than focusing on the only one who can bring it to pass. If you're worried about the promises of God for you right now, I encourage you to remember whose responsibility it is to fulfill his promises and that your main goal should always be to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

I love y'all, and you should be hearing from me soon.
G'night!

Faithful

Gidday!
A few quick things: 1. My job as a warehouse worker with EcoMed begins on Monday, please pray for that. 2. God is still burning in me through this Summer and I still want to encourage you all. 3. I've received incredible feedback from people about what God has been doing in their lives recently. Thank you so much for that, I love it. Praise God.

This past week, everyone left. My house is now empty except for Anthony and I. The team out at Macquarie is at about half of its original roster and everyone is either home for the holidays or working. It is incredible how much of Hillsong Church is based around the college as a volunteer work force. Almost all youth services take a break over the Summer because there are not enough people to put one together. I'm definitely missing my family and friends around this time of year. I love you all and thank you so much for supporting and encouraging me to come to Australia.

Recently, I heard a message about the meaning of Faithfulness that really struck a chord in me and has changed a few things about the way I do life. The message stemmed directly from the parable that Jesus gave in Matthew 25:14-30, in which a man leaves and gives his servants an amount of gold to be faithful with. The first two servants both take their money and invest it to receive double the amount. The encouragement given to them is "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things." In stark contrast is the message given to the final servant who had buried his gold in the ground. Even though he ended up with exactly what had been given to him (No loss), the master says, "You wicked and lazy servant!". The point here being that faithfulness goes beyond maintenance. To be considered faithful in this case means to actually have a positive impact (bear good fruit) in the responsibilities that you've been given.

Applying this to my own life, I took a look at what God has given me and how I can be faithful in it. Do I take good care of my house and add value to it? Do I encourage my friends and add value to my relationships? Am I practicing my instruments, reading books, strengthening my body, writing music, giving generously, and asking God to show me how I can be even more faithful every day? Yes, it's difficult. However, the reward is to be commended by God with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things." Plus, God is with us to strengthen us and help us in every step. So please, go after everything that God has for you by being faithful in what you have already.

Hot

Hello!

A few quick updates: Day 38 of P90X, still going strong (haha...). I recently had a day at the beach where I learned how to surf! I'm officially a lighting operator for the Hub Auditorium at Hillsong and I am in the weekly rotation for Powerhouse! Now for the bigger stuff:

School is out! The official classes for the year are now over and Summer has begun. Monday is the official graduation date for everyone. However, some people have already left and it's really more of a formality anyway. On Thursday, instead of mashed potatoes, gravy, and turkey for dinner, I was treated to a nice Scotch Fillet and some strange beetroot salad for dinner at a really fancy pants place called Le Montage for the graduation ball. It was incredibly gorgeous and was a great opportunity to meet with some of the guys from the TV/Media stream and find out how God led them to study at Hillsong. The best part of the night was definitely the live music put on by members of college and our teachers. The amount of space that we had to dance to the music was too small though, so everyone ended up doing the penguin shuffle.

I got a job! For the past couple weeks, I've been praying for God to provide something for me to do in the Summer that will prepare me for the future and help me to pay my way through next semester. On Tuesday, I received an e-mail from my connect group leader that someone had phoned to her office about casual warehouse work over the Summer. I followed up, sent in my resume, and God provided favor and an interview for Friday. In the interview, God's grace came through again and I received the job. The job is to do packaging for a medical supply company called EcoMed. It's a 30 minute walk from my house and the hours are from 8-4:30 every day. God has definitely provided above and beyond all that I could hope or ask for. Praise the Lord.

A lot of people ask me what they can do for me to help me out here in Australia. Recently, through reading 3 John, I've realized how we can build and sharpen each other. John is writing to his dear friend Gaius and says in verses 3 and 4, "It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." I definitely don't feel like I have any children, but the greatest encouragement that I can hear from a friend or family member is how God is working in their world. As Christians, we need to be constantly fueled and built up by hearing how God is still working in circumstances today. John says that he has "no greater joy" than hearing this. Please continue to pray for me and help me however you can, but never withhold the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ from anyone. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. I hope that by writing down little snippets of God's faithfulness here in Australia and in my life, you are all encouraged in some way.

Gidday!

Busy

Hey people! It's day 13 of P90X and I've been faithful to my commitment every day. Thank you all for any prayers or thoughts that you've sent my way.

This past week has been an incredible whirlwind of activity at Hillsong Church. Because of that, I've been incredibly busy as well. On Thursday, a team of about 80 men were gathered to the Acer Arena to prepare for the album recording on Sunday night. We placed envelopes and cards in over 21,000 seats. It was definitely an incredible test of my patience and endurance to continue doing the most monotonous job ever for over 3 hours. I've found that most of my problems with patience come from my motives. If my motives in doing a job or putting forth an effort are not in line with the will of the one who can carry me through, then I'll get tired very easily. The only way to get through 21,000 seats is to realize who you're doing it for.

Friday and Saturday was Men's Conference. As with any good manly event, there were sports, music, and a lot of barbecuing. However, the most important sections were definitely the teaching and the worship. The theme for stage design this year was Top Gear. The best part was a section where the lead pastors from the Hillsong churches around the world came up and gave seven minute sermons. *Small sample of my notes: James 1: "each is tempted by his own evil desire...conceives...gives birth to death." Our desires determine the fruit that we produce in our lives. What do I desire and what fruit am I seeing from it? Am I eagerly desiring the spiritual gifts?* This incredible revelation came in a space of about three minutes and has completely changed my way of thinking about my desires and what I pray for in that area.

Sunday at Macquarie, we finally got our new digital soundboard. It is incredibly genius and simplifies almost everything about running sound out there and removes half of the cables that we were using. However, it also removes the position of a monitor engineer, so I won't be doing that anymore. On the other hand, I'll soon be hanging out with Jared at his house so that he can teach me how to run a fully digital soundboard. Tonight for powerhouse, I'll be doing my last assisting job as a lighting technician in the hub. If everything goes well, I'll be able to operate lights in the hub for anyone at any time.

Also on Sunday was the new Hillsong Live album recording. So far, this is definitely my favorite album that Hillsong Live has put out. There are so many songs that are beautifully written that allow you to simply belt out the praises of God. I heard that over 200 songs were submitted to be used on the album and those were narrowed down to about 15. For the recording, I was able to serve on the catering team. I served on a coffee cart with the staff at the arena until about the second song, and then I was able to praise for the entire rest of the night. I was right in the handicapped section, which gave me the opportunity to pray for a bunch of people in wheelchairs. The absolute best part of the night was during a song which has a chorus that goes, "We are running! Chasing after all that you are!". It was incredible to watch as a lot of people in wheelchairs fistpumped the air to the beat and praised God.

If you want to pray for me, please definitely pray for discipline. I'm really learning how to use my time well and keep a very tight schedule. I've been busy for the past couple weeks and I'd be falling apart if the Lord wasn't my strength. I need everything that God has for me every day, and I'm absolutely sure that prayer is going to help.

Glory

Hello friends! I am continuing to flourish over here in Australia, and I thank you all greatly for your prayers and encouragement.

For the past week, God has continued to train me and has placed in me a strong desire for more of Him and more of his gifts. I've been talking to a lot of teachers and praying with my bandmates for the spiritual gifts that God has for us and asking Him to enable us to love people more and more. I am incredibly thankful that God has placed me in the band that I am with here at Hillsong for my classes. They are ridiculously encouraging and are completely following after God with all of their hearts. Every Wednesday, we have an hour long prayer meeting where we grab a guitar and sing our hearts out and then blanket one another in prayer. It is incredible.

I've been talking to a lot of my friends about employment and different places I could work. Yesterday, I talked with my friend Michael about where he works and what they do. He said that he works in a production company warehouse and that they need more people to take on a lot of casual labor and help out in the warehouse. He said that I would be great for the job, except that involves a lot of heavy lifting. Thus, last night  I started P90X. I know that I've only got about 40 days until the beginning of Summer, but if I do as much as I can in the natural, I know that God will do the supernatural and strengthen me for whatever job that he has for me.

My favorite teacher at Hillsong so far is a man named Duncan Corby. He's my teacher for New Testament Introduction. His classes are always the most interesting classes that I've ever had and have completely changed my way of reading the bible. I used to read the bible to just find quotes that applied to my life and different verses to help me while I was struggling. While this is helpful, it isn't really that interesting. Duncan has helped me realize that each of the books of the bible was written for a specific purpose and that the writer was attempting to address an issue with their book. This is incredibly cool, because now I can go back and try to figure out the purpose of the book through the context, audience, and information that the author chose to include.

Duncan also encourages us to be really grounded in our words. Which is incredibly helpful to me, because it helps me to create really solid definitions of words that I usually only refer to in "church language" and define in a really ethereal way. For example, Glory. I've always thought of glory as one of those things that you really have to "feel" and can't really put a definition to, kind of like a feeling of warmth, or a feeling of affection. However, If I'm going to write songs that are really powerful in the church, I need to have a real idea of what I'm saying. So, through a word study, I started redefining Glory. Instead of some sort of undefinable thing, I've realized that glory is more along the lines of deserved, obvious, greatness. God is infinitely glorious, and for us to "glorify God" is to make his deserved, obvious, greatness more visible on the earth. That's an easy definition, but it really adds a lot more meaning when I sing or think about glory.

Rest

Hey gang! It's the end of spring break already and I've been resting pretty much the whole time. Hanging out with Will and Matt is quite a bit of fun, but I'm ready to get back into working all the time.

If there's one thing I've decided over this break, it would be that I MUST get a job during Summer. I definitely can not handle sitting around for 2 months watching movies and sitting around. Even if I'm just volunteering for church every day changing light bulbs and vacuuming floors, it's better than just sitting around. I've also learned that I'm really bad at resting. God has really been showing me how to relax with the guys and stay Christ centered with my hang out time.

Tonight at team night, I got connected with Matt Sharpe, one of the lighting assistants for the Hillsong main campus. We started talking, and he wants me to start doing lighting for Sisterhood services every Sunday to get training on the main board that they are using there. He also said that I could come into the main sanctuary and start programming light shows whenever there isn't anyone using it. This is going to be really, really cool.

I started looking for jobs with Hillsong maintenance and production, but with no luck. Please keep praying that God provides for me to be effective wherever he wants me.

Break

Hello everyone! Yesterday was the beginning of spring break!

So far, I have still been incredibly busy and loving it. 2 weeks ago, I started praying that God would increase the discipline and self-control in my life. Ever since then, I've been completely booked with events, practices, and rehearsals. I have been learning everything from how to take care of blind children to setting up and programming light shows from start to finish. Along with these skills comes the frustration of not knowing exactly what they are for. Back home, I don't foresee any access to moving lights or working with special needs children. However, I know that God has moved me into these situations and is training me for specific purposes in my future. I am excited to see what God has in mind.

Sadly, I will no longer be attending Merrylands Youth service on Friday nights. Instead, I'll be playing bass guitar for the Macquarie Youth service which is having its grand opening in a high school tonight! Whoo! I'm excited to see what God is going to do in the youth at Macquarie and to be part of a brand new endeavor.

I think that the main thing God has been teaching me since I've been here is how to be an effective person all the time in every situation. The love of Christ should compel me into action to love others. I am definitely convicted every time I remember my testimony to want to share that love to others. With this mindset, God has encouraged me to be volunteer in whatever place that I can to do the labor that nobody else wants to do. Whether at home, at church, or in friendships, it should always be on me to love because I am loved.

As soon as I get to the place of helping others for no benefit to myself, I have always ended up getting selfish and expecting to be rewarded for my work. God has changed my mindset here by putting me into places of service where there is absolutely no recognition given to the most time-consuming and menial jobs. However, it always comes back to who I am doing it for, rather than what I am getting out of it. If you put the Kingdom first, God will give you whatever you need, but never serve the Kingdom for the purpose of getting whatever you need.

Alrighty! Thank you all so much for praying me into this place. I am exactly where I need to be to mature and live out day by day God's call in my life.