I can hear the fall leaves rolling in

As this new season is opening it's door, I've been going through a time of reflection on this past year and all that has happened. I can't seem to sum up everything, coming to the realization that each week God has been teaching me something new; stirring up something fresh in my heart and bringing weaknesses to the surface. It almost can get overwhelming because there is just so much more to improve on, so many branches protruding from me to allow pruning, but the reminder I hold onto is that I just want to be more like God. I want to see more of his face, I want to become more like Him; to become more satisfied in Him alone, more familiar with His voice, more peaceful in His silence. I want to go deeper in this more. This season is going to be one of rest; of learning how to rest and be satisfied just being His daughter, regardless of who he even made me and where my place is in His plan, among all of His other children. School just rolled around the corner and since I'm commuting, I take the bus to campus. This gives me a LOT of extra time here and there, a lot of waiting around really. The first day, I was so restless. I had all this time and didn't have anything to work on, since it was the first day of class! I'm so used to getting things done and always finding something to do, to be productive, or check off something else on the to-do list. It made me uncomfortable to just sit and rest. I found myself putting in my headphones and soon I was in a coffee shop reading the Bible, journalling and spending time with God. It wasn't the usual routine of restricted time-conscious time with God, but instead it was a freeing, relaxing time. I don't even remember the last time I had that. I had made my daily time with God an obligatory task because I knew it is important, but it had lost life. This past year has been a period of learning how to choose God, no matter what I feel. If I'm tired or sick or just plain in a bad mood, I still have the choice to worship God, to honor Him, and to be a light. That was an amazing lesson I learned, and still am learning. But after a year of growing in faithfulness to God, despite myself, it was SO AMAZING to just be at peace in God's presence; to find rest without even seeking it. By just going to the papa, my soul settled in peace. With that, I know this season will be a time of stepping back, of stripping back. I don't know exactly how that looks yet, but I anticipate it being a season of rest with God. How intimate is that? Just being real, being vulnerable, being myself with Him. And I know that this past season brought me to this place because there's a whole new perspective on the world that I never had before; a perspective and truth resounding in my heart that God is absolutely everywhere. He is Lord of this world, thank you Jesus! I have no doubt in my mind of that; unlike ever before. That no matter what I do or believe, God is still God. That no matter what I do or leave undone, Jesus still died on the Cross for me. That I could yell and scream and believe in my heart that there is no God or that I refuse to be His child, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a true God and I am His child; no matter what. Man, talk about humbling. And through this perspective shift, I've been brought into rest.

Outreach Update for YOU to Read :)

We arrived at the orphanage in Indonesia! We left Kuching on Tuesday morning, arriving that night at the village. Our last day in Kuching was a wonderful end to our stay there; it was Chinese New Year so we went on house visits with the youth group all day long. It was amazing to fellowship with them and experience an extravagant holiday as that. The tradition is that each house is open, so we went around to eight houses, spending time together at each one and then at night, fireworks were crazy and went off everywhere. God blessed us with an amazing cultural experience that we will never forget! As for the days leading up to Chinese New year, we continued our involvement with the youth group and church by attending their meetings and services. Some of us shared our testimonies and performed songs during those times, which was such an opportunity to connect even more with the youth. It's amazing because we, being a team passionate for music and the arts, got ot use our gifts and personal stories to relate with the youth, because they too love music and share similar stories. We were sad to leave them after building such good relationships with them, but look forward to reuniting for a short while before we leave back to Australia.

After a few long bus rides, we arrived here at the village and were so very excited; ready to jump into life here. The first day, we took a tour around the village and it is amazing how after only ten years, God has created this beautiful village in the middle of the jungle with amazing vision and plans for the future. We are so thankful and in awe that we can be a part of it. Each day we've had a set schedule of prayer meeting at sunrise, work projects during the day, and either a prayer meeting at night or homework night for the kids. We have also been involved in teaching the English class each Friday, which has been an awesome opportunity. Our work duties each day have varied amongst us; cleaning various buildings, shoveling away dirt to build a wall and walkway for the new Sunday school building, and painting the newly built houses around the village. There are other longer-term volunteers working here, so we've had the opportunity to get to know them and hear their stories as well. During the working hours, we have been able to have conversations about God and been able to witness to them. Since there is a language barrier between us and the kids, it has been incredible to be able to really go into deeper conversations with the other volunteers. We know that there is such a specific purpose for God bringing us here and while we've been able to love on the kids and spend time with them, God has also opened doors for us to really share the Gospel as well. Overall, it has been a wonderful time building relationships, working hard, and serving this amazing ministry here. At the Tuesday prayer meeting, we got the chance to perform the song that we wrote in preparation for this trip. It speaks of the heart that God has for the people of Indonesia and Malaysia, encouraging them to step into the love that God has for them and afterwards, shared a testimony. That was a highlight, and we will also be involved in the next Tuesday prayer meeting, where we will build upon our theme from the previous week.

Overall, we've had an unbelievable time serving the people here, getting to know the kids and playing with them; sharing God's unfailing love with them. God has been teaching us so much individually and it has been a blessing and exciting time getting to share personal revelations; being able to build each other up and grow immensely together. We will be travelling to the third and final time of our outreach on Wednesday morning-heading to Pontianak to serve there at the villages. We aren't sure if we will have any internet access, but will keep in contact whenever possible. Thank you again for all of the support and prayer, we appreciate it greatly and are thinking of you often.

Love, Team Mindolay

(Cory, Kat, Sarah, Paige, Dan, Lesley, and Elyssa)

Outreach Update

On Sunday we arrived here in Kuching, Malaysia and have had an incredible journey so far! Since YWAM is in a process of building a relationship with Malaysia, our time these first two weeks are basically continuing to grow relationships with the church and people here. That being said, we have been mostly involved with the youth group and have been blessed so much with their friendship. We had the pleasure of being a part of their youth meeting, performing a skit we prepared and sharing testimonies and getting to know them on a deeper level. What a gift it has been to have these opportunities to share life together; even though we are in another part of the world, our God is the same and we have been able to share our stories with that common bond. We also went to a primary school and highschool to teach religion classes, which was so much fun. At the primary school, we had a class of ten year olds and got to lead worship, play games, share a Bible story, and spend time with them. In the highschool, we performed a dance that we created, which shares a message of God's faithful and enduring love. We had the opportunity to share a short sermon and then break off into small groups afterwords. It was awesome how hungry they were for God and their attention was captivated by the sharing of His love. It was amazing!

Also, we have been able to finish the process of buying a house for YWAM so that we can have a place for our permanent missionaries here, praise God! So, with that we have been cleaning the house and beginning to get it ready to be lived in.

Another exciting event coming up is Chinese New Year! That will be later on this week and we have been invited to celebrate with our friend from the youth group. The tradition is to go around to all of the houses nearby, the doors are open to all! So that will be an amazing night to have some fun but most of all be able to continue relationship with the people here. Our biggest focus being here has been to share God's love with everyone we see, whether that means smiling at everyone we pass by, or reaching out- really sharing the joy of the Lord. Although that might not sound like much, we have found that it is evident the impact it has since we stand out as foreigners. During the times we haven't had much going on, we've taken the chance to go to the local mall and pray as we walk through it and also made Happy Chinese New Year cards with encouraging messages inside and bible verses. As we walked around praying, we gave them to certain people. Since we haven't always had things planned regularly, we have spent time dedicated to praising God and lifting prayer and intercession up to Him, which has been an amazing blessing.

Our hearts have definitely grown in this time for the people of Borneo and we are amazed at how much God has blessed us with each other and the people here. As a team we have grown close into a family and are so excited for what God has planned for the rest of this week here and then for the weeks ahead in Indonesia. Thank you so much for the support and your prayers, they mean so much and we have already seen the fruit of those prayers! Praise God! We would appreciate it so much if you could keep praying for us for good health, renewed energy, and servant hearted endurance for the weeks coming up. Again thank you so much and we hope you're encouraged by the update.

Much love,
Team Mindolay

Meet Our Team!

LEADERS:

Katrina Amy McDougall
from: Western Australia
track: fashion design staff
birthday: October 8th
fun fact: "I'm writing a novel involving time travel!"

Cory Stephen Bailey
from: Arizona
track: music staff
birthday: May 24th
fun fact: "I once competed with Lance Armstrong."






STUDENTS:

Sarah Michelle Burki
from: Switzerland
track: dance
birthday: July 5th
fun fact: "I am deathly afraid of birds..."


















Lesley Anne Andricks
from: Pennsylvania
track: music
birthday: May 5th
fun fact: "I enjoy randomly bursting out 'I LOVE YOU GUYS' to our team."

Paige Elizabeth Becker
from: Minnesota
track: music
birthday: February 21st
fun fact: "I wanted to be a lion farmer when I grew up."

Elyssa Buhl
from: Minnesota
track: music
birthday: November 2nd
fun fact: "I have both eaten and been stung by jellyfish."
















Daniel Paulo Will Moreira
from: New Zealand
track: music
birthday: August 10th
fun fact: "I worked as a bee keeper in New Zealand."

Here it goes... finally a blog post!

I'm so sorry for the lengthy hiatus from blog posting.. it has been daunting since there has been so much happening and even thinking about tackling it all makes me shy away. But, here I am, attempting to cover the past couple of months, bear with me :)

For three weeks, we participated in the "Go Pass It On Tour" in a different town each week: Beaudesert, Boonah, and finally Warrick. The Brisbane base director Dave Neibling has had a vision growing over the past few years of a tour that spreads across the western world, "passing on knowledge and wisdom to the next generation". What this means, in a nutshell, is that they put teams together to literally run from town to town across the western world. For us, we had the 9,10, and 11th town track, so we were split up and assigned for a day on the weekend where we would run baton-style 4K each. What this looked like was all of us on the bus wearing our matching runner shirts, dropping off one person to start off the journey, driving 4K, waiting there in the bus for that person to arrive, who then passed the baton off to the next person stationed at the finish line; this continuing for the whole day until we victoriously arrived in our destinational town. It sounds crazy, because it definitely is. But it was incredible, as I ran it was amazing when I took a look around at the beautiful scenery and seeing God so clearly through his creation; praying over the land as I ran through it... taking it over by declaring it God's land. I consider it a privilege to have participated in that. Overall, each week's skeleton looked pretty much the same, but each week didn't get monotonous because God's heartbeat for each town was different, so that was amazing also. Throughout the week, we had a giant tent that we set up every week which held different events each night to involve the community. During the day, we worked in our outreach teams doing different service projects around the community and also religious educational classes in schools throughout the area. Because the mentality of the tour is to serve the communities, we went in with a servant heart and honestly it was the most exhausting three weeks of my life, but also one of the most rewarding times also. The tour will be going through the rest of Australia and eventually into the Norwegian area of Europe and then finally to the United States and Canada; it's a huge project but so necessary and exciting to see such a large-scale sweep of God's hand across the western globe!

As for the weeks following, we had lectures again and that was also an incredible time; I'm still learning so much and growing immensely. In the weeks before Christmas break, we had lectures on Spiritual Warfare, Relationships and Lordship. They were all amazing in each of their own ways and the biggest thing I've taken from lectures is how the world makes more and more sense as it's being taught in a Kingdom perspective; I'm learning how it's all practical and life changing.

Over Christmas Break, I am the luckiest girl around because I got the amazing pleasure of seeing my FAMILY! On the last day of Lordship week, I rushed to the airport and headed onto a flight to Sydney to meet my wonderful momma, papa, and sister there. We spent those four days together there and it was so amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better time. The day after Christmas, we all flew together to Brisbane, so I got a chance to show them around the base and let them into what my life has been like for the past few months. Then, a few days before New Year's, half of our DTS went to Airlie Beach, and the other half went to Byron Bay (which was where I went), and my family also drove down to Byron for the day to spend time there and enjoy the amazing beach city with us.

BYRON BAY! Seriously that will go down as one of the best weeks of my life! To give a brief description of the town, it's a small super laid back beach town with incredible beaches and incredible people. It's a huge backpacker/hippie hub and especially around this time of year, the influx of people grows quite a bit, so there are people from all over the world with all different kinds of views and beliefs, a lot of New Age beliefs and yeah basically people from all walks of life coming together. So I had many great conversations because most everyone is so open to listen and share; seeking something deeper in life. Our days there were very relaxed, but it taught me to be active and intentional with my time and coaxed me into living a life that revolves around keeping my ears open for God's voice and for who he wants to talk to and who he wants me to reach out to in each moment. What we were actually participating in at Byron Bay is called Impact Summer, which they put on every year and there are different bases who come together in that one location, so this year we were together with a base from New Zealand, one from Tasmania, and the other from Byron. In the mornings, we would have worship and a big meeting toghether, then have lunch around noon and after that, we headed to the main beach to participate in "Creative Evangelism" which for us meant playing beach volleyball at the ocean and connecting with people; inviting them to play and building relationships with them. For some of the days, I chose to sit up in the grassy area a bit up the hill from the beach and a few of us would take a guitar and keep it open for others to come sit down with us, which was so cool how easy it was to meet and get to know people by just being open and simply reaching out. In the evenings, we either set up a barbeque in the park or other nights pancakes and chai; paired with a sound system where we'd perform different songs and connect with the people who came to sit down and hang around the area. On New Year's Eve, we went to the main park of the town, where it was PACKED with people because they had a few different carnival rides and vendors and such and we set up a sign that read "Spiritual Blessings" where we had our artists ready to do prophetic art for the people and yeah basically some of us stayed by the sign and people would pass by seeing the sign and immediately wanting a spiritual blessing! They were so excited that it was free and we were so excited that they were so interested! A couple of us would go to each person and get to know them a bit and pray for them and basically ask God what His heart for them was and got to speak life into them. We had incredible conversations and it was awesome because God would tell us things about that person and when we'd share it with them, it would catch their attention and amongst the complete drunkenness and the chaos, they would begin to sober up within minutes just by the presence of God in our area and it was amazing to literally see God touch them and open their hearts and eyes. Right before midnight, we headed down to the beach and worshipped in the new year; thinking about it, it couldn't get more picturesque, and that's because God put it together for us.

So, there's a run down of what the past month or two has been like for me; it has been crazy, but so amazing. In about three weeks we leave for outreach and during that time, we still have lectures each week. Although we still don't graduate until April 12th, it all seems to be going by so quickly, but I can't help but be overwhelmed with thankfulness whenever I think about where I am, who I'm with, and that I have this privilege to focus on God and find Him during this time. I'm learning so much and I think that the reason why this past week in Byron has been so impactful for me is because of a tangible revelation I had during that week: There was a day where I woke up and don't even remember what I was doing, but I felt a shift in my eyes, my perspective and outlook literally changed because I felt my eyes soften. Since then, it's still a choice to see the world with soft eyes and loving eyes, but I've never been more joyful and more hopeful for life and more compassionate for the life of others. I'm not exactly one who has in the past loved to reach out to other people, especially strangers, but once we have the eyes of our Father, it's impossible not to be flooded with hope by seeing them how God sees them. All I want to do is spread this joy and through the passage in Luke 11, which speaks about how we aren't to hide our light under a blanket, it then proceeds to speak of how the lamp is our eyes and I've been able to take that literally. There's a difference in my outlook because I've been allowing Christ's light to shine through my eyes onto others', and I can't tell you what an encouraging response I've gotten just by genuinely caring for others' and living a life of love. It's something I wouldn't trade for the world and I've been able to tangibly see God through these people. What an honor, hey?

Well, if you made it through reading alllll of that, kudos to you and a great big thank you again for being involved in my life. You mean heaps to me and if you have any questions or want to talk more specifically, you can totally email me! buhlface@gmail.com :)