Dear (Enter whatever you call me here), I _____ you. You have a nice______. You make me _______. You should _______. Someday I will ______. You + me =________. If I saw you now I’d __________. Remember that time when _______? I would build a _______ just for you…

G’day, mates!!!

Did you know that explorer who discovered Australia in 1606 named it “The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”? What a blessed name for a country! And here I am, THREE MONTHS into my DTS. Where has the time gone? Life has been pretty crazy here “Down Under,” but sooo rewarding!!! Three weeks ago, we finished our lecture phase and split into our Outreach teams. My team, which you might have seen on the video blurb I sent out forever ago (here), visited small towns along the western coast of Australia, where we went into schools and basically demonstrated the love of Christ to kids. I love my team!!! I cannot imagine myself in any of the other groups and know that God definitely was in it. I’ve attached a photo of all of us just before we left for the minor outreach.

God has been speaking to me so much these past weeks through speakers and through my quiet times. I have gained such a heard for evangelism and missions. God has such a heart for everyone to walk in a dynamic, loving relationship with Him, and He has called us to go into all the world and share the Gospel with them all! I have been learning so much about Christ’s lordship over my life, and giving it fully over to Him. It’s hard, I so often want to rely on myself and my own two feet, rather than listening to what the God of the Universe is directing me to do. So I have been working on submitting myself to Him, as well walking in what He tells me to do in faith that He is speaking to me.

Minor outreach went really well. We had amazing team unity—we really respected, listened to, encouraged, and just enjoyed one another and they all feel like my “Outreach Family” now. Although were originally an “AusLife” team, we only ended up doing two of these all-day school programs: one on Goal’s & Values for the year 10&11’s, and Relationships for year 12’s. The second one was especially challenging for me because not only were they closer to my age, but there were also a lot more of them (I was a leader to 13 agnostic seventeen and eighteen year olds!) and I really had to rely on God’s direction and speak with His authority, rather than from my own. Although I was really discouraged because they didn’t talk very much and there were several awkward silences, I did my best to keep things rolling and at the end of the day they wrote that they appreciated me as a leader and the way I shared my testimony with them. Later in the week, at a youth hang out spot called the YacShack, a girl named Caitlin (in one of the pictures I’ve attached), after talking with us about our faith, gave her heart to Christ!!!

Because our other scheduled AusLife’s fell through, we ended up doing a hodgepodge of ministry, involving school lunchtime activities where we hung out with and loved on kids, performing skits and leading Religious Education classes (Australia allows us the amazing opportunity to share Christ in primary schools as one of their school subjects!), pulling vines and cleaning homes, and sharing our testimonies at cell groups. One time we had to teach a drama class… apparently they had somehow heard we were a “drama team”. We prayed about it and felt like we needed to do a skit on identity and then one of the girls, Megan, shared her testimony. Everything fit together perfectly–we really connected with the kids and the teachers were so touched, they cried! The kids then asked us how long we had been actors. Hurrah!

It’s been a little hard not seeing the effect we were having a lot of the time, but God has been showing me not to grow weary of doing good works, but to work in confidence, knowing that we don’t work in vain! One verse that has been encouraging me is 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, which states that we each play a part in building the Kingdom: some plant seeds, some water, but God is the one who grows. What an honour—to be co-labourers with Christ!!! So I’ve been learning to trust Christ, waiting on His guidance and listening to Him, pressing on towards to the prize He has set before me. Another verse that has been encouraging me are, “Those who look to the Lord are radiant,” (Psalm 34:5a) He is our reward! And He is sooo good!!! I have been finding Him so faithful in meeting me where I am at and helping me through everything, good and bad. And life has been good!

During outreach I found myself becoming very self-focused, self-conscious. I was so concerned about how I appeared, that I didn’t prefer others as I should have and I definitely feel like I could have demonstrated the love of Christ so much more. I didn’t contribute to my team planning much, because I didn’t think my ideas were good enough. It’s true: my ideas aren’t good enough, but I needed to listen to God’s ideas and what His plan was. God really convicted me of this during that last few days of outreach. He probably was telling me earlier, but I wasn’t listening!!! I’m frustrated with myself that I didn’t begin changing this in myself until outreach was nearly over. God could have been using me all this time! However, I definitely want to work on this in our next outreach. However, I am really encouraged by 2 Corinthians 4:7 which says,”But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” When I rely on God, I don’t have to worry about doing things on my own, and that truly is so freeing!

So, we’re all back on base for two weeks… it’s been really disorienting having soooo many people all around me after three weeks with just my outreach team. It’s been difficult to connect with everyone, and to decide how I relate to everyone else, now that I’m so close to my own team–especially since I don’t want to share them! I’m really excited to see my other friends again though!!! In the meantime, we are slipping back into some more lectures and prepping for PNG.

So in just a little over a week we will be boarding a plane and heading to Papua New Guinea! Wow!!! While meeting tonight, our team was just amazed when the reality hit us that we will actually be going so soon. So much still needs to be done before we leave. We will be praying, getting shots, planning and practicing dramas, shopping for cultural sensitive clothing, and packing, on top of our regular DTS schedule! Please pray that we will be able to complete all the loose ends and that God would show us what direction to take with dramas, testimonies, ets. Also, I’d like to fill you in a bit on what we will be dealing with there! Despite being a primarily “Christian” nation, most are under an extreme amount of confusion. Although the people of PNG have been evangelized, they haven’t really been discipled and most continue to believe in traditional native religion and superstitions. There is varying degrees of Christian understanding and very few have an actual relationship with Christ.

I have a lot more to share about PNG, but I don’t know how to express it through text. I will try to follow this letter with a little video note about it as soon as possible. Some of the things you can pray against are AIDS (it is as bad here as it is in Africa), violence between villages, fatalism (the belief that God does not care about they’re physical needs and that they are stuck within horrible living conditions, so they don’t hope or try for anything better), superstition and lack of discipleship, and low life expectancy.

Ooo, another huge thing that God is doing here!!! Reef to Outback, the YWAM base that I am staying at here in Australia, has been given a ship! A BIG ship. The base leaders feel like God is calling them to use it to call 100,000 young Australians to missions, so they will be entering schools in many of the major cities along the eastern border (Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, etc) next year before heading to PNG to provide health care onboard their “floating hospital” to those who otherwise would not be able to reach, much less afford, it. In preparation for this, a girl from the base’s communication department, Joanna, will be joining our team to document the ministry needs we find in PNG and to create a video that may then be shared in the schools that the ship tour visits next year. This was all only just confirmed on Tuesday, so she has only about 10 days to raise the funds necessary for the trip. We all are amazed, excited, and blessed to be having her with us! Please pray that God will provide the finances for her to come. Thank you!

I cannot believe it is only 2 more months before I board the plane and head home–only roughly 2 more weeks actually in Australia. Although I am saddened by the thought, I am excited about the future God has planned for me, whatever it may hold. I have grown show much in my relationship with Him and trust that whatever He calls me to do, whether challenging or not, with be totally rewarding. I’m not sure what’s next but am feeling called to full-time missions in the future, possibly with YWAM, but He has not given me any clear direction yet–other than telling me to go home!!! I can’t wait to share my stories face to face with you!

Sorry for how long it’s been since since my last update and how LONG this letter now is, because of that! Thanks for reading it! It is so difficult to convey all that has been happening through text–it feels so stagnant, but it really has been so exciting, encouraging, and rewarding. If you have any questions about anything, please write me and I would love to share more!

God bless you all and thank you so much for your prayers!

Love, Tabi

I’m back from camping. I cannot believe how quickly those two weeks flew by!!! Although I am glad to be back at the base, I was also really sad to leave Hidden Valley! Ok, so Hidden Valley isn’t actually that exciting. It is, essentially, a field, with a shed. Cows walk by periodically and there are some normal-looking trees all around. Oh, there are some special things about the place, such as the nearby creek which was nice to swim in and the friendly neighborhood bilbies which visited us in the evening.

Time really flies, doesn’t it? I cannot believe we are all leaving for out first outreaches in just the next few days! While I’m a little sad that our DTS is going to be split up for these next 3 weeks, my excitement over being about to minister to the youth of Australia FAR outways everything. I am SO excited about what God is going to work through us. During worship today, I really felt God’s heart to reclaim this generation–MY generation–for Him, and my heart totally broke for them. It is NOT ok that they don’t know Him, that they hope in Him, that they don’t have a relationship with Him. I am so excited about my team being about to go into schools and really make a difference and be the change. That we can BE Christ for the kids, and show His Light. I love my team and I am so excited to work together with them. We are such a unified group and all have been given so many gifts. Now is our chance to step out in them through Him. Australia, here we come!