5 weeks down !!

dear friends !!

wow. just wow. these last few weeks at YWAM Perth have been absolutely amazing. I came into this trip praying for a deeper relationship with the Father, friendships that push me towards Christ, and clarity for the future and oh man I've seen prayers answered! Each day is packed full but each one filled with life changing content that empowers young people to take their faith to the next level. I decided it would be nice to share with you guys what each day at YWAM Perth looks like and then later i'll share some testimonies from the lectures thus far.

Mondays are powerful days. We wake up at about 5:30 am and we come together as a team to do morning exercise. This usually entails a game of some sort, a circuit of workouts, or a run by the river. After that we have time to eat breakfast and have our quiet time with the Lord. We then have morning chores starting at 8:00, where we are split up in groups around the base to clean the things God has provided. We are so thankful for all that God has given us so its our responsibility to then value it by caring for it. Then at 8:30 we all come together to have base worship, this includes every person apart of YWAM Perth as a base. This is honestly one of the best times of the week!! Seeing people from all over the world come together to praise our Father is incredibly beautiful. People are praying out in their native tongue, others are dancing and shouting, all of which give me such excitement for what worship in heaven will look like. After this we have lectures, which I'll share more about later on. After lectures is lunch time, which is much needed after being awake for about 7 hours at this point. After lunch, each school has work duties from 1:30 to 3:30. My team does the lunch cleanup and dinner prep. My job specifically is to wash all the pans that don't fit in the dishwasher. It is a job that gets my clothes soaked, my hands incredibly wrinkly, and my arms sore but this is honestly one of my favorite parts of the day. I love getting to serve with my team in such a little way. We have so much fun singing to music and it gives me time to process the things I had just heard an hour prior. After this we have free time until dinner. I usually take this time to sit by the river or make a quick trip into the city. After dinner we have lectures for another two hours!! This is the only day of the week that we have night lectures and it was added in because there is so much content the speakers have to go through. After lectures we are free for the rest of the night!!

Tuesdays start at 6 am with bible study as a school. We split up into small groups with our leaders and we go through a chapter a week from the book of John. As we read, we are looking for things the passage tells us about Jesus and then how we can practically apply what we read. I love getting to hear what other people got from the passage that I may have missed when reading it myself. After we are finished sharing back, we spend some time in prayer. After this we have time for brekkie (the Australian way to say breakfast lol) and our quiet time. Similar to Monday, we have morning chores starting at 8 and then we meet in the classroom at 8:30. The first hour together we take part in what's called intercessory prayer. This is a time spent praying for specific nations and people all around the world. We start by praying through five steps that help us focus our minds: thanksgiving, repentance, casting off distractions, rebuking the enemy, and inviting the Holy Spirit. After we go through the steps we sit and allow time for God to speak and reveal to us who or what He wants us to focus on. There have been so many times God has laid something on multiple people in the group's heart, just showing that He does speak and He does want us to intercede for the salvation of others. The rest of the afternoon looks just like that of Monday including lectures, lunch, work duties, free time and then dinner. At night time we have small groups which is one of the most refreshing times of the week. Each group has a leader and about 5 other people from the YP team! My small group is all girls and we spend lots of time baking, swimming, laughing, and talking about all the things we are reading in our assigned books. It's so fun to hang out in a small group after being with about 20 people all day long. I am so thankful to have this group of girls to talk with and I can't imagine not getting to meet with them every week. After small group we have the rest of the night off, as they usually end around 8:30.

Wednesdays start off once again with morning exercise!! As hard as it is to get going so early, its nice to get moving and work off some of the junk food we ate the night prior. After morning workout is showers, brekkie, and quiet time. Morning chores start at 8 per usual and then we meet in the classroom at 8:30. For this first hour, we as a class enter into a time of worship. So I know I said base worship is one of the best times of the week, but this is actually my favorite. I am much more of a small group person, so getting to worship in this intimate setting is so powerful for me. I have had times where I am rejoicing in the great power of our God and other mornings I am in left in tears thinking about what Jesus did on the cross for me. We are lead by someone from the Island Breeze ministry on base and he facilitates our time and helps us enter in to those special moments with the Father. These are the times I especially grateful for our leaders as they are alongside of us praying out and worshipping wholeheartedly. After this amazing time, we dive into yet another session of lectures. Our afternoon follows the same schedule as the days prior but on Wednesday we are free after dinner, not having any obligations. These are the nights I spend either reading, journaling, or just bonding with my team. Wednesdays are very enjoyable days for me!!

Next up is Thursday! Thursday is very similar to Tuesdays! We have free time until morning chores at 8 and then we meet in the classroom at 8:30 for intercession. After intercession is lectures, lunch, and then work duties. On Thursday's after work duties I have my one on one with my small group leader Julia. We spend this time talking through things I may be dealing with or wrestling through from the lectures. I love getting this chance to really process through things verbally. I always thought I was not a verbal person but it seems I am a little more of a verbal processor than I care to believe. One week with Julia I was talking through my week and all the times Gos spoke to me and after saying it all out loud I realized God was clearly giving me a common theme of laying down my pride and taking on an attitude of humility. I totally didn't realize that all these things went together until I shared them with Julia. This is a time of accountability and growth and I'm so grateful for all Julia does for me through this time!! After my one on one its time for dinner as a base. After dinner we have another night off to do homework or just rest. Thursdays usually go by quick!!

Friday is the busiest day of the week! We start with morning exercise and follow the usually schedule of brekkie and quiet time. Morning chores at 8 and then we meet in class at 8:30 for morning worship. Mornings can look different on Fridays because some days are application days for lectures which i'll talk more about later. I love when we have worship but sometimes we don't always have time for it. If its not an application day, lectures go as normal and then we have lunch. After lunch, the whole base comes together to do all the dishes so we can get them done extra quick to move into evangelism. We meet in our classrooms around 2:30 to split into partners and head out for evangelism. During evangelism we go into the heart of the city of Perth to share the gospel and pray with people. You and your partner will spend time praying and asking God to reveal a focus for your time of evangelism. Sometimes its a specific person, place, or scripture but if not you just head out and look for people to pray with. Its definitely uncomfortable at first but once you talk to the first person it gets a lot easier!! I love getting to talk to the local people and see if there is anything God wants me to share with them. One day in paticular my friend Melody and I felt God leading us to tell a young person in an addias shirt that they are beautiful. We thought this was so random but we were determined to find this person. Low and behold a teenage girl walked past in an Adidas shirt and we knew she was the one. We tried awkwardly to land in her path, trying so hard not to look like stalkers. After a while of trying we kinda moved on and thought maybe she wasn't the one. As we walked down a different hallway she all of a sudden was walking towards us with her friend and we knew we had to talk to her. When she got close we stopped her and her friend and just shared with them that God laid them on our hearts and to share how beautiful they are and how much Jesus loves them. When we said this, their faces just lit up with a bright smile. We then got to pray over them and just encourage them. It was so cool to have gotten such a specific image and then seeing God actually lay that exact person on our path. We tried to back out of it because we got nervous but there she came again. I am so excited to see all the people that receive prayer or salvation in our times of evangelism. After evangelism we are free to get dinner in the city and just roam about. My friends and I usually grab sushi and go grocery shopping for breakfast and snacks. At 7:30 we then have what's called Friday Night Meeting at the YWAM base. This is structured very much like a church service: starts with worship, then someone preaches for about 45 minutes, and then usually we close with worship or prayer. This meeting is open to anyone in the community, which is so cool because we can invite the people we meet during evangelism to join us. After Friday night meeting we are done for the day and usually exhausted from the week as a whole.

The weekends here at YWAM Perth are such a blessing!! Saturdays are either free of filled with a fun school activity. I have spent Saturdays at the beach, urban parks, in the city, or really anything fun! My favorite Saturday event was the day we drove about an hour to spend the day at Coogee Beach. There is a pier you can do flips off of and also a big net that keeps the big fish out of the calm waters which I appreciate. After swimming for a while we walked to a park just off the beach and played spike ball, volleyball, and soccer. While we played games, some were grilling sausage sizzlers which is just like an American hot dog but soooo much better. It was so fun getting to relax and bond as a team all day. This is one of the days I would love to relive all over again. Sundays are also very relaxing as we have no obligations other than to give our weekly journals to our small group leader. I usually go to church in the morning and then if possible go to the beach in the afternoon. I am so grateful for the weekends because without them I don't think I could make it through the week.

So I mentioned lectures and said I was going to talk about them in more detail. Lectures are basically set up like a class: there is a main speaker and they focus all there messages around one topic all week and we sit and take notes and ask questions. We really pick apart a certain topic just understanding what it means, what scripture says about it, and how we can practically apply it. The topics we have done thus far are hearing God's voice, the nature and character of God, repentance and forgiveness, worship and intercession, and the Father Heart of God. Each one has wrecked my thoughts and attitudes in numerous ways. I am going to record videos, one for each lecture topic, sharing a personal testimony. There is so much God has taught me and honestly it will be easier to speak out verbally rather than type it all out. So stay tuned for that!!

I just want to close by saying thank you to all who made this journey possible for me. I have heard God speak more in the past 5 weeks than ever before. I can't wait to share the personal testimonies with you, especially about how I decided to go to Africa for the second three months of my time with YWAM!! If you have any questions specifically or want to connect please reach out!! thanks for reading and can't wait to share more about my time here in Perth!!

-jos :)