How Great is our God

So we just finished watching this DVD called "How Great is our God" from the passion conferance, and all I have to say is WOW, my mind has just been blown at how amazing God really is. To even try to describe what I felt while watching this video would just be utter nonsense compared to how abslutely phenominal and incomparable God really is.

Have you ever got to those points throughout the weeks, months and years where you just get into the grove and everything is comfortable and you think you have a pretty good handle on who God is and how he works. Everything is just "lovely", things may be hard at times, but generally God just comes through and all is well, and everything seems to revolve around how you feel moment by moment?

If you feel like that, get a hold of that video, and let your mind explode as you try to comprehend the vastness and just the plain massiveness yet intimate considerations and immense love of our God.

Grace and Peace to you.

update

We had a great week this week with Dad speaking in the DTS on the whole area of true repentance, and Lordship. There are some very cool things happening in the DTS, and we are thoroughly enjoying being involved.

Josh has been down with the flu for the last 3 days which has been a bummer. He's on the way up though, and should be ok tomorrow.

Drug Arm

Every Friday night we are sending out our DTS students into the city to minister to love on young adults through a ministry called Drug Arm. Here's a story from one of our students who went out on Friday night.

"DRUG ARM: A ministry that travels the city of Tauranga, New Zealand; they travel around in a van and hand out meat pies (similar to pot pies, but way better) and hot coffee or hot chocolate to the wasted youth. After enjoying a bit to eat and a hot drink they then receive the Gospel.

Drug Arm has graciously let us as a DTS come alongside of them on a weekly rotation; last night 4 of us tagged along. Before we went to the streets we all spent 2 hours at the, "Tauranga house of Prayer" interceding for the city of Tauranga. We all were fully amped up for the mission; there are to many stories to go in to, so i think i will just give one for tonight.

We drove down to the beach at around 11pm on Friday night. We came upon a group of youth that ranged from 15-17 years old; they told us that the first thing that came to mind when they thought of God was, "BORING". I felt the Spirit direct me to tell a bit about myself; I also felt that i must look into the eyes of one young man in particularly to preach to him the deep desires of God over his life. The Lord highlighted Psalm 16:11 and John 17:24. Also something worthy of note is that when we had began to talk about Jesus the young kiwi started to play some loud techno music from his cell phone; when i talked with him about the nature of God, and that Jesus desired that he be with Him where He is, and that the desire of God is to set him free from the non-satisfying addictions that ultimately leave him disappointed, and that the creator longed to establish a relationship with him; well this will speak for itself; the 16 year old boy turned off the music, turned to his friends and prompted them all to sit down because this was worthy of listening to. They had traveled an hour to escape the bored routine of life and found themselves coming to this new reality that had never been offered from the church they grew up in; i said to the young boy, "how does this make you feel", he simply replied that, "i feel cheated". We left them that night with the challenge of going to God in prayer; when no one can look or laugh at them, go to God in prayer and seek His truth for yourselves; alongside with the promise that we would pray for them.

From 11pm-4:30am we served and shared with close to 50 young adults; sadly the majority of these were between the age of 13-20 years of age. We watched one of them being arrested for underage drinking.

So please be with us in prayer for the city of Tauranga, New Zealand. Seeds are being planted and we are praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would cause an arresting of the hearts of these weak broken kids who long for an acceptance and deliverance from life as they know it."

DTS Crew...

Well, we thought it would time to introduce you to our crew that we'll be with for the next 4 and 1/2 months. They're an incredible bunch, and we're blessed that God would draw such quality young people from all over the earth to be trained and equipped here with us. As far as we are aware this is the first DTS that has been intentionally run alongside a House of Prayer. Lovin' it so far.

Spring ....well maybe :>

Winter is still hanging around but more and more we are getting beautiful Spring days. These flours and fresh lemons straight from the trees are some of the signs that tell me that summer is on the way. What a great time to be in New Zealand. These trees are right in our line of site from the patio. They are absolutely gorgeous and so fragrant. I love that winter is almost really over, now if only those storm clouds that are building would get blown out to sea!



I LOVE THIS TREE



LOOK AT THE BLOSSOMS



A TIME TO PLANT SUMMER VEGETABLES - THEY TASTE BETTER FRESH!



LEMONS FROM THE TREE!



OUR KIWI FRUIT ORCHARD

into the groove

Well we're into the 2nd week of the DTS here in Tauranga, and it's going great guns so far. Aaron Walsh, the director of Tauranga House of Prayer, is speaking this week, and allready after one session, our minds have been blown to bits as we've dived head first into the subject of "the Nature and Character of God" or in other words, "What is God like". Yeah it's a topic that will take the rest of our lives to search out, but we had a great time with Aaron today.

We have allready fallen in love who God has soveriegnly led to tauranga for this season. It will be a lifechanging experience for all involved, undoubtedly.

On the weekend, I went fishing with Raph and Richard to Lake Rotarua and we ended up landing 7 good sized trout, 6 rainbows and a big brown that weighed between 9-10 lbs. Massive! Raph was stoked with that one. Great to find time for recreation and fun in the midst of business.

iDTS Has Started

Well it is way to late to be writing a blog...but for all those parents who are wondering if their children have made it to Tauranga. All of our students have arrived safe and sound....and we are only missing one piece of luggage! Things got off to great start today, it looks like we are going to have a great time together. Today was a day for orientation and introductions, and tomorrow we are diving into more of the nuts and bolts of what can be expected out this next 5 months.

We love you all. More to come soon!