There and Back Again

Well, I am finally back at my house in America. Thousands of miles away from the Australian culture I have left behind and my team is scattered all throughout California again. It feels so strange to be done. To really have gone there and back AGAIN, all by the grace of God. Our team had a great time at debriefing. We stayed a couple days in Los Angeles to put a wrap on our trip. We cleared any miscommunications or angers people had kept on the trip, and then did a lot of encouraging one another. The last two weeks of the trip I thought I would feel so relieved once I knew that everyone was safely back in their houses with their families. And that is definitely true, I do feel relieved that God delivered everyone safely back home. At the same time, I was a lot more sad the past couple of days with them. God blessed my first time leading with such an incredible team. Honestly, they were a group of people growing in Christ, seeking to advance His kingdom, and honest about where they came up short. It was such a privilege to be a part of the team. Please continue to pray for every one of the members of my team as they transition back into life back home, and for me in having peace with the team now being apart. It was so strange to drive around in Bakersfield yesterday. All the sights I had not seen in two months, and the hot weather I definitely had not experienced. It felt like an out of body experience. All I could think about was the city of Melbourne, on the other side of the world. It looks nothing like this and is nowhere close to the temperature. Yet, there is a whole city of people over there, many who still have no clue what the true gospel is. Continue to pray for the city and the people over there.
This trip has taught me so much and I don't even know where to begin. Let me start with the conversations that our team had. We initiated conversations with around 925 people. About 530 of those turned into spiritual conversations. In about 260 of those, members of our team got to share the gospel. And of those 260, 8 people RECEIVED CHRIST! That is a large number for Australian ministry, so I feel that God blessed our team very much in that regard. Honestly we had more initiations and spiritual conversations than are even here. It is so incredible to look at the number of lives that God affected by using us. I love being a part of the missions field, on the front lines bringing people to know Christ. It is one of the greatest blessings to be a part of this type of ministry.
Personally, I learned a ton on this trip. It starts with how this was a different trip for me than last time. I was the leader. And I learned a ton about being a leader. Not just about being a leader in "spiritual" things, but throughout the trip. While I didn't oversee administration and finance, I learned a lot about that stuff by helping with it and seeing how God uses it to help. I also learned how to protect and care for the team. When a drunk guy was in the hostel I had to make sure everyone was protected from his presence. The hard things like that are what a leader does. Leadership takes a lot of self-sacrifice and a ton of humility. It takes diligence and perseverance. Above all, it takes reliance upon God and allowing Him to lead through you. After leading this trip, I know that God has blessed me with the spiritual gift of leadership. It was different being there more for the students on my own team than for the students in Australia. The mindset had to be setting up the students on our team so they could do the most effective ministry. I was definitely involved in this ministry, but humility and self-sacrifice played a part in this. I loved leading the team and found so much joy through it. This is a lesson I will take into consideration as I allow God to share with me His future for me. I got to do discipleship with the guys every week. This took up about half of my week on campus, but it was one of my favorite things. I loved sharing with the guys how God has grown me, and how He is continuing to grow me. I loved how we shared our struggles and helped fight against them. I loved doing well-being check-ins with the guys, and then learning truth about God and ministry together. I loved being a shepherd in this way. I also got to be a shepherd for the team as a whole by sharing the vision with the team for different weeks. Our visions ranged from hearts for the lost to knowing Christ to spiritual warfare to prayer centered ministry. I was given the ability to grow in my teaching ability as I shared these visions using Scripture. This was another one of my favorite parts of the trip. I love Scripture and how it helps us in every step of our life. Throughout this trip I continued to learn how to place my relationship with Kelsey in the right place. God put it on our hearts to have our relationship take a backseat this trip, while we focused on ministry first. It was great to see how God made that easy for each of us, and how I was barely even tempted to ever waver from that. We both grew so much individually which is only going to help our relationship become more Christ-centered. I also continued to learn about evangelism. I did not lead anyone to Christ on this trip, just like the last one. That can be a foothold where Satan could give me discouragement. This is where the definition of successful evangelism comes in. Taking initiative in the Spirit to share and leaving the results to God. I love evangelism! I don't believe it is a spiritual gift of mine, but I know from Scripture it is my responsibility to do it. I could see God using me in it. I had some conversations with "intellectuals" where my religious studies degree came into play. God gave me boldness and confidence in sharing which inspired people I shared with. Most of all, God continued to grow my individual relationship with Him. I continued to learn more about Him by studying His word. The tram rides made me feel sick, but because of that I would sit in the front and just listen to sermons. I learned so much from all of those. I continued to try and grow more and more of a heart for prayer and fasting. I am nowhere close to being perfected in holiness, but I believe God continued to make me aware of struggles and how I can continue to grow in them. This was by far the biggest thing I take away from the trip.
This was such a great trip for me and I can't thank each of you enough for praying and supporting me all the way. I loved this opportunity. It continued to make me missions minded and want to grow more for the kingdom. As a leader, it is so great to see the impact God allowed our team to make! The last night of encouragement was one of the greatest things for me. Some of the guys told me I had become their greatest spiritual mentor. I don't even know how to express my gratitude in words to the Lord that He would use me in that way. Others said they loved to see my heart for prayer. Prayer is something I am constantly working on and I know I am far from where I should be. It was so encouraging to hear that God is working on me in this area too. The whole team felt like me and Kelsey put our relationship in the right place for the trip, which was such a blessing to hear. I mean I thought we did, but there could have always been stuff I was oblivious to that I was doing. Others said they respected the wisdom I brought. I am far from knowing much at all, but I was so glad that God worked through the little that He has begun to teach me. The best part, however, was something different than all of this and was not even about me. I told the guys that my biggest prayer for them this summer was that they fell more in love with God. I knew if that happened, then everything else would go well. I just wanted that to be true of this summer for them. The last night many of the guys told me this happened for them. All I can say is thank you Jesus for allowing Your people to grow closer to you. Much love to all and much thanks! GOD BLESS!