Stuff we do at the Pier...

Just wanted to post a few pictures from the ministry we do at the Pier.

Once a week we get a load of food from the local food bank (three square) and we are able to give it out to over 90 families in need. Some come to our building with an appointment and some are served in their neighborhood by our volunteers coming to them.

Each Friday for the past 6 weeks we've also been able to help an average of 6 families a week with free clothing. Each family member can pick out one free outfit, including shoes if we have some. It's a really fun ministry, as we actually get to be with the families when they pick out their clothes. We talk with them, help them with the sizes and are able to share more about what we do and who we are. Thanks to some amazing donations all our clothes are brand new!

At the moment we have a huge need in both ministries. For the food assistance we need $50 a month to pay for the food from the food bank.

And for the clothing we have an urgent need for new shoes and underwear. If you would like to donate towards either one of these needs, please contact me and I can let you know how to do this! :)

And if you would like to help out sometime and see what we do, feel free to come by sometime! We'd love to have you!

Resources for Intercession

I've really grown to like organising Intercession for people. It started out with me getting tired of just sitting in a circle and every 5 minutes someone utters a word... Your mind drifts away and instead of praying for others you end up thinking about what you need to buy for dinner that night.

It was hard for me to keep focused and to actually have fun during those times. And quite honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to prayer times much.

And then I felt God was challenging me to come up with ways that would keep my attention and would be fun and yet would make a difference for the people that we prayed for. So I started thinking more and more about Intercession and He gave me some fun ideas.

Lately I've been thinking I should share some of these ideas with others who also might be struggling to keep focused. Or maybe you want to take your small group to the next level and start praying for the lost in Russia... or for the neighbors in your street...

Here are a couple of Intercession ideas that I hope will be interesting for you. Feel free to change them/use them and have fun with them. Just let me know how things went...

The 7 Spheres intercession is about going to places in your neighborhood that would represent those 7 spheres of society

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7JUAyDG_ic3MDNmZjMwZTMtMGNjOC00M2E3LWE4OGQtYzlmMWY3NjEwMzQx&hl=en

Intercession Las Vegas style is about going into the Casinos and praying for specific people and groups. It's really fun and fairly interactive.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7JUAyDG_ic3MDNmZjMwZTMtMGNjOC00M2E3LWE4OGQtYzlmMWY3NjEwMzQx&hl=en

All Intercession times are designed for around an hour of prayer.

Have fun!

Old friends...

I got to hang out with my good friend Dave Skeat last week! He's amazing, has known me since I started in YWAM in Australia and it was so good to hang out with him!

You should check out the ministry stuff he does in Australia. http://www.arms.org.au/

It's great to have friends from a long time ago who know me really well! :)

I know how that feels

Today we had a bunch of Latinos come into the Pier and sign up for our services. What was different about this group though, was that their English was really limited and my Spanish even more.

As I was signing them up, with us both struggling to understand each other, I suddenly understood again how it is to walk into a somewhat official office with the desire to get a service, even though you know your language skill is not up to par.

I have been in those situations enough during my travels all over the world and it gets annoying fast. Do you realise that sometimes you feel stupid because you don't speak the language? Obviously you're not stupid, you just don't know the language. But the feeling is there and it's not nice.

Even though I can understand English now fluently and don't usually struggle with the language itself, I am still concerned when I walk into official looking buildings. Thinking back to when I was in Germany, having to get official documents and the likes, I remember feeling a little less nervous. (And I was struggling with the language there too).

I hope the families today were not too frustrated and I hope that I never made them feel stupid. It made me want to learn Spanish again... One day I will get the hang of that language...

4 years later

Four years ago my friend and me led this amazing Discipleship Training School. It was the CityNet Tour and instead of staying in one place for the 3 months of lectures, we traveled to 10 cities along the West Coast. Each week we were in a different place. I forgot how many different beds/mats/floors we slept on, but it was a lot!

For the last 4 weeks we stayed at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission in the apartment above the chapel. I think we were 13 people in a 3 bedroom apartment with only one shower.. We had a couple more toilets right outside. It was a time of not much 'stuff' (your space consisted of your sleeping mat, your 1 bag (that you had packed, repacked and unpacked more than 10 times by then) and a tiny little extra square foot for things like Bible, notebook and dirty clothes... ).

It was also a time of building friendships with the people at the Rescue Mission. They were the best people to hang out with and so gracious with us when we came back late, or needed help with lugging groceries upstairs or anything else.

One of the guys I talked with a lot is Big E. But shortly after we moved out of the mission (to go on outreach to Paris and Berlin) we lost touch.

Yesterday one of our staff was prayer walking through the neighborhood here and decided to buy a drink in this tiny little store. He was wearing his YWAM name tag and Big E happened to see it! So he asked if he knew me and about 2 minutes later he had called the base and we were talking on the phone!

So cool to know that this guy is doing really well, has a job, a place to live and that apparently he was quite impacted by our group. It was great catching up and he works like 2 blocks from here, so I'm sure I will see him again some time! :)