Week 11. Missions

Week 11- Missions/Outreach Prep (last week of lectures!)
Journal entry no. 10

That's right, this is our final week of lecture phase. I can't believe it but on Friday afternoon, Outreach Phase begins!
On Saturday morning we'll head to a small town here in Australia (about 2 hours away from our base). We'll be partnering with YWAM Brisbane and helping out with the "Go Pass It On Tour". These guys run to a town, set up a giant tent, host people from the town for exciting events, help out with projects in the community, go door-to-door giving out fun packages which are full of stuff focused on bringing families closer together, and teach about God :)
We'll be with them for one week, and it's going to be awesome!
Then we come back to our base, get re-packed, and head to Thailand on Monday morning!
Yikes!

So this week we've been talking about missions. (Makes sense, right?)
We have a crazy awesome speaker named Angel McGill. She's a hardcore missions chick, and exactly what we needed this week as we prepare for outreach.

We've covered a ton of super helpful topics.
Such as...

1. Knowing what type of prayer/worship is most appropriate for whatever setting you're in, and being able to discern what will be beneficial and uplifting to those you are worshiping with (assuming you're in a corporate setting). If you're by yourself, pray whatever way you do. But there's a reason why everything gets super weird when someone randomly shouts "hallelujah!" In a time of corporate prayer that's solemn/reflective. It doesn't fit and immediately disrupts some deeeeep thought processes, I'm sure.
It doesn't mean that you aren't communicating with God the right way if you have a joyous moment with the Lord while everyone else is meditative.. But you should be sensitive to the atmosphere and respectful of others.
If you're a shoutin' praise kind of person, awesome! That's great! But there are certain worship and prayer settings where that isn't going to be a very helpful addition to the worship. Holding back praise in a time of corporately speaking things out isn't uplifting to the body, either, for the record.
It's about being wise in how you act, and being loving towards your brothers and sisters in Christ.

2. We talked more about spiritual warfare, and the authority we have with our identity in Christ. It's powerful, man.
Angel made an excellent point:
The enemy has power, but not authority. There's a difference.
Power can do nothing without authority saying so.

3. When on outreach (and in life), you communicate a lot more with your actions/attitude than with your words.
I could genuinely feel loving toward someone without them ever knowing it if I don't act like it. If I'm too shy or nervous to go talk to them, for instance.
Clothes also have a lot to say. There are certain pairs of shorts that could seriously damage a ministry, and chances are, the offender would have no idea. Because different cultures have different opinions on what is acceptable and what is not. (Although there are some shorts that shouldn't be accepted in any culture, in my opinion) :P
Anyway, we talked a lot about being aware of yourself and what you may be communicating, even if it's not at all what's on your heart.

So those were the main things that I picked up in lectures so far this week.
Of course there was plenty more, but I can't write everything down here, you know.

So that's all for now, folks.
Chelsea