Off the road

Hello all, we hope you have had an amazing last two months. Welcome to some of our friends that joined the update emails! We hope you are able to get a better glimpse into what were up to and more importantly what God is up to here in Australia (or when borders open, all over the world as well!). Feel free to go back and read some past updates.

In our last update we were in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. We had driven 35 hours through the outback in three vehicles with our students from the DTS (Discipleship Training School) that we were leading. This was the last month of their 5 month school.

We had such an incredible time in Darwin staying at a YWAM base that has been there since the 80’s. It is currently very understaffed (there’s only the base leader, a single woman in her 50’s), as the rest of her staff left during COVID. Because of this, there were many practical things the base really needed help with. Leading up to leaving for Darwin, as we were praying, we really felt God asking us to bless the base with practical work and encouragement. The Base leader has been there since the early 90’s and has been faithful to all that God has called her to, even in the midst of many hardships and sorrows. We were honoured to spend time with her, help out on the property, and engage in the surrounding communities where she has spent 20+ years cultivating relationships.

While in Darwin one of the things we had the honour of being a part of, was going into one of the Aboriginal communities for ministry. The base leader, Jen, is incredibly honouring with how she goes about her relationship with the aboriginal communities. She follows their systems and traditions, only coming when invited and welcomed by the community elders. We were honoured to have all been welcomed in by the elders of Bagot community. While there, we were invited to do kids programs, as well as partner with a local aboriginal church by being a part of their nightly sessions on the field, playing, worshipping, praying, sharing testimonies, and generally just going wherever Holy Spirit seemed to be leading that night. We loved each time we were there, both honoured to hear the testimonies of some of the believers in the communities, and heart broken by the hardships, trauma, and heavy alcohol and drug abuse that still has such a strong hold on many of those in the communities. During the youth and community programs, many experienced the loving touch of the Holy Spirit, and some also gave their lives to Jesus there, where local aboriginal church members will continue to disciple them.

One particular testimony from our time that really marked us was at a kids’ event. Again, we partnered with a group that regularly engages with the kids in the community and has been welcomed and encouraged to come in. We played games, ate dinner, and one of our students was given the opportunity to share the Gospel. After she did this, one of the girls, who was 10 years old, said she wanted to give her life to Jesus and she also said she wanted to be baptised right away! So, we got a water bottle and right there, after she accepted Jesus, we baptised her in water, and then prayed for her to be baptised by the Holy Spirit as well. She was visibly being impacted and touched by His love. After this, one of the other girls also wanted to be baptised. We shared with the 10-year-old who had just committed her life to Jesus that she then could also be a part of sharing Jesus with others. She baptised the other little girl and prayed for her. The next week when we came back, the 10-year-old was going around and praying for adults with us. This was such a powerful testimony to all of us. It was a beautiful reminder that kids don’t receive less of Jesus and Holy Spirit when they surrender their lives, and that we always need to encourage the immediate ability to share Jesus with others.

Another thing we were able to be a part of while in Darwin, was going to a national park where a couple in there 60’s has a large piece of land and host music camps for local kids in aboriginal communities. They are believers as well. One of the other things they are currently creating is a walk-in gallery on their land. There they want to display a beautiful piece of art that has been created by a few local Christian aboriginal artists. The work portrays the creation story through to end times painted in their cultural story telling dot art. In addition to this piece, they hope to have live artists painting in there as well. The couple want to employ and train Christian aboriginal people as tour guides and evangelists for the gallery, leading tourists through the story of the Bible in the art. While on the property we camped and had the honour of helping with building projects and such--anything to help the music camp continue and for this next dream to become a reality!

There are so many more stories, but this is already getting long and there is much more to update you on! After our time in Darwin, we needed to head back to the Sunshine Coast. In prayer leading up to the school, us staff had felt we heard God say that the students would travel back without any leaders, and they would only have 2 days to pray and plan their return trip. It was to be a time completely led by the Holy spirit. We were very excited for this time as this is what the ‘olden day’ DTS outreaches often looked like. We split the 10 students in two teams of 5, and after telling them their teams, we gave them some hours to pray. They prayed and listened together for anything that God might have been saying. They drew up routes where they believed God was saying to stop and which ways to go, and perhaps certain things to do or ministries to partner with or places to stop. Sam, Karis, Andrew (our co leader), and Indie of course, headed off ourselves a day before the students. The students let us know each night where they had ended up so we could make sure they were all safe. They had 7 days for the trip back. We arrived back on a Friday night and the students came back Sunday night. Both teams had such incredible experiences. They were beyond excited sharing all the stories of listening to God, not knowing why He said to go somewhere or do something, and having these beautiful encounters with people experiencing Jesus, giving their lives to Him, being encouraged, having healing, and so much more! For us staff, this was so encouraging. It was one of those moments where you know they got it, you didn’t have to lead them in it because they had taken on being led by the Holy Spirit themselves. It was also encouraging because they were doing all of this in their home country. They had broken out of so much fear or hesitancy and were joyfully sharing Jesus with anyone they could, being sensitive to the Spirit on how and when to share with people. It’s not a formula, each person is beautifully unique, created by the Creator. He is the only one that knows their hearts, where they are, and what they need to hear, see or experience so that they can Know Him. He is the only one that knows this, so we have to ask Him to share those things with us for each person. What an incredibly honour and adventure to be a part of!

After arriving back in the Sunshine Coast, the students had two more weeks before they graduated. We spent a week debriefing their time on outreach, what they learned, what was hard, where were areas for growth. We then spent a week hearing from an incredible couple here on the coast, Merv and Yenni. Merv is Australian and actually pioneered YWAM Sunny Coast, He also helped pioneer YWAM India many years ago. Yenni, is from Indonesia, and has been an incredibly influential woman in leadership in YWAM Indonesia. They have been married for a few years now and are a true power couple for the Kingdom! The week of teaching, they shared on Missions and Calling. One thing that made the week incredible was how much they were able to share from their past and current experience of obedience to God in their lives. Both of them have a rich history with God, where they followed Him even at great personal expense, but they have not slowed down! Their “retirement” years are still full of miraculous testimonies of God working through them. Throughout the week, students were stirred up to follow God with their lives, no matter what it meant for them. This was evidenced at the end of the week, when we allowed a short time of personal prayer to discern whether God was laying a people group, a nation, or a sphere of society of their hearts. When we came back to share, each staff and student, often with tears of passion and joy, surrendered their lives to God and prayed for the places they would follow God to. This culmination of a lecture week and school was among our most treasured. We thanked God for His faithfulness and for how powerfully He had moved in all of us.

Our students Graduated on July 2nd and we had a blast celebrating them and celebrating what they are doing next! One of the two students that have moved back home for a time has seen God radically set her family free while she was on DTS through her openness to share and pray with them throughout her time. She is continuing to disciple her family in this coming season where two of her sisters have rededicated their lives to Jesus and one is getting baptised this month! Another student was offered a job at church a few hours away, where his fiancé lives. He will be doing skate park ministry as a part of His role in the church. Two of the girls felt God calling them into missions and ministry long term. They felt God asking them to commit to staffing for a few years as continued preparation for this and we are so excited to have them on our team! Five of the girls are going to be doing a secondary level school with YWAM here on the Sunny Coast called SBS (School of Biblical Studies), which is a 9-month course going through the Bible multiple times using the inductive method. They have all gone home for the few months in between. A short testimony from one of the students, is that thorugh the years she has been faithfully praying for her sister to come to Know Jesus. While finishing DTS and asking God what to do in the ‘waiting months’ before SBS, she felt Him ask her to move in with her sister (who she hasn’t lived with in 7 years). Within a few weeks of being home, her sister became soft and open to Jesus, she experienced the presence of the Holy spirit and excepted Jesus! That students is now discipling her sister! We are so excited for each one of them, knowing that they are seeking God’s direction on what’s next and stepping into that.

After Graduation, we took a week of rest without meetings or doing things on our to-do list. We had fun celebrating Sam’s 27th birthday, catching up with friends we hadn’t seen since ours travels, and doing some projects at our apartment (we love projects). After that week we have spent the rest of July having a balance of house projects, meetings and preparation for the September school at a really nice pace. We have often embraced slow mornings which has been very restful for us. We both are feeling well rested and ready for the next season ahead of us. We have had lots of sweet time together, and we also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in June! The other day we were asked if we find it hard being married in YWAM. It was cool to see how quickly we both responded, “we love it”. This doesn’t mean there aren’t hard aspects of working together and finding healthy boundaries and balances between ministry and our marriage, but we were able to share how much we love working together. It’s fun to see how God planned this, as we feel this will continue for us in the future.

We have continued to struggle with homesickness, but this hasn’t taken away how grateful we are to be here. We fully know this is where we are meant to be, and we are doing what we are meant to do. This doesn’t minimize the fact that we are missing our families and friends back in America and finding it hard to continue not knowing any timeline by the Australian government on when they will open borders. We would appreciate continued prayer for our hearts in this, our families as well, and honestly prayer that the borders would open so we can visit, or people can visit us here.

In these coming months, we will be doing lots to get ready for our next school starting in the first week of September. We are looking at and praying through what it will mean to care for, train and support the DTS staff before, during and after schools. We will be running staff training from mid-August and Sam will be leveling up his training and assessing certification to meet legal requirements for a training organization in Australia. We are also teaming up with other people on base to update and improve the staff training courses that we have here. These courses allow staff to come on student visas, but more importantly they train our staff in Christian missions, leadership, and character. With so much going on now and in the coming weeks and with another lockdown starting, we are focusing on God’s faithfulness as much as we can to not lose focus on where our hope comes from.

As always, there is so much more to say, but we will suffice it to say that we are seeing more evidence day after day of the fact that God’s ways are higher than our own. We are so thankful to have so many people like yourselves supporting us and following along in our journey with God. Please feel free to contact us to catch up, with prayer requests, or anything else! We love you all!

Samuel and Karis

DARWIN

Litchfield National Park (where we camped on that couples property to help with projects)
At the YWAM Darwin base with Jen, and a few others that were staying there helping out or renting accommodation.
quick swim to cool off (very hot in darwin!)
back to work
concreting
the start!
Our students praying over a couple staying at the YWAM Darwin base (this was the day after us staff left, they were leaving the next day) and one of the people staying at the base sent this to us (: