Week 1 & 2

Something about growing up is learning to take initiative. Somedays it can seem like my childhood is slipping away and other days life can be immensely exciting.

God blessed me with the opportunity to go home to my family for 2 1/2 months and it was spent watching the sunset with Maycee on occasional nights, connecting with Nathanael after we both got back from missional schools, letting Michaela tend to my hair as she pleased, showing appreciation to my parents for being amazing, seeing extended family, and sharing my newfound love for Jesus with my coworkers at Kwik Trip.

It was during my DTS that I believed God would call me back to New Zealand to staff. I got to jump into a DBS right after outreach and it was in Australia when I was invited to join a team from New Zealand going to Paris for the Olympics to share Jesus on the tourist-infested streets alongside 20,000 other YWAMers. I prayed about bringing my mom with me and got to watch her do YWAM which included handing out virtual Bibles, sharing the gospel to hungry hearts, and speaking and worshiping in the open air. While I was home, I felt a need for more young adult ministry in Saint Cloud. I believe God gave me a vision of a YWAM base in central Minnesota that is deep-rooted and equips people to hit the streets sharing Jesus with the Muslim community, break strongholds in Western culture, and make the YWAM movement more well-known and accessible to people in the area of whom I grew up with, went to school with, and pass by in town.

Letting this vision fuel my time here in Queenstown, I am prepared to commit 3 years to this base for visa reasons (unless God says otherwise). I am currently on a visa waiver visitor visa that'll last me 3 months until I get the working holiday visa (as an American that'll last me a year). YWAM looks for staff that can commit at least 2 years so then I would apply for a religious working visa that has more requirements and causes me to stay an additional 2 years. As of now, my duty on base is maintenance as well as being involved in the Discipleship Bible School that'll be running alongside the DTS starting Oct 1st. I'm very excited about how God can use me here and some of the ways I'd hope to have an impact is through meeting with locals in Queenstown and doing discipleship that way, but also helping with transportation and running errands for base which all require a car. I'm looking towards getting a monthly income from supporters to have enough to put aside for outreaches in the future as well as to bless other missionaries. Some additional expenses that I believe God will provide for are ways to take care of myself such as weekend meals that aren't included by base and a gym membership.

I've already learned so much in these first weeks. We live our life to the glory of our God where the things we do everyday matter (Matt 5:8, Luke 1:38 & 45, Col 3:23). Jesus and His Lordship are at the center, and then freedom in the Spirit, spiritual eldership, and relationship surround that. We can get revelation from God to interpret and then apply! I know I can't do it... God will do it... and I want to obey. Read through John 17 slowly and think about this, if there are 20 people in a room and each one is focused on themselves then they all only have one person helping them, but if all 20 people are focused on each other then they would all have 20 people helping them. Doing things on your own strength puts a ceiling on your capabilities. Ask yourself how can you stay humble even when you think you're right (Rom 9:1-3). No greater love than to lay down your life for a friend. Humility is willing to be known by your core, confidence in what you're good at, and knowledge of what you can grow in. To be teachable is to learn from every claim even if it's false.

The goal is to spend time with God and know Him rightly. Be moved by God into the place you're meant to be. Be a follower of good people, not cool people. God knows what each of us needs in each of our seasons. It's not about fixing ourselves, it's about allowing God to continually transform us (1 Pet 2). As Christians, we don't wage war as the world does. Once we try to do it on our own we will fail. To be blunt if I only do what I feel like doing I will only inherit death. Your posture of worship is revealed through your work. It's the lowly jobs where God cultivates a servant's heart. Work refines character and reveals the true nature of your heart.

In conflict resolution, separate your emotions from the conflict. Keep asking God what nerve is being hit and share that. A lot of conflicts erupt from one person's insecurities rubbing on someone else's insecurities. A deep personal need is often at the core of a problem. Think about the opposing needs of a toddler and a parent where the toddler's need is exploration but the parent's need is to keep the child safe. Some patterns of communication are "passive" where they try to keep the peace by saying "you count" not "we count". Short-term this will result in relief and avoidance of conflict but long-term guilt, fear, and frustration. There's also "aggressive" that's manipulative and says "I count" where the short term would result in control and reduction of conflict but long-term anger and poor relationships. "Indirect" ignores the truth to avoid conflict where the short-term result will maintain pride but long-term no intimacy or respect. Finally speaking truth in/and love says "I count AND you count" with short-term explosion or tension and with long-term either breakdown OR deeper intimacy. Having grace for people is the opposite of believing people shouldn't make mistakes. Speaking the truth in love is a context thing not a tone of voice thing.

Missions are for the church but also the church is for missions. Stay in the Word otherwise, you'll lose the heart. The more on fire for God I can be the more I can encourage others to be on fire for God. "Be more like Jesus"... Jesus LET people honor Him (read that again). Jesus accepted love from others, He didn't get embarrassed or self-conscious so we shouldn't either. There's humility in receiving love, you have to lay down pride and be vulnerable. Take up your cross and die. It's humbling to be loved. The Bible is about life and death, not good behavior and bad behavior. It's not new paint on an old car, it's dying and being buried like a seed to grow into new life.

I write these letters in hopes of getting more people involved in what I believe God is leading me to do to be an encouragement to others who can also be led by God. I hope to keep my supporters as involved in what I'm doing as I can. To learn even more about stuff and such, I'll provide some links below.

This is YWAM Queenstown https://www.ywamqueenstown.com/about-us

To do a DTS anywhere in the world https://ywam.org/explore?lang=en-gb

If you want to support me https://give.ywamtyler.org/s/login/SelfRegister

Upcoming events are the hui https://oceaniahui.com and the send https://thesend.org.nz/details/

Kudos to Kristy, Jahmon, Sophie, and Amy for sharing on staff orientation