Outreach!

Here is a bit about this last outreach, many of you heard about it while I was home this last July but  I will summarize the highlights for you!

 I met my team and co-leader in Iceland and we had a great time working with the base there in the capitol city of Reykjavik. The YWAMers there run a cafe with a youth center open all day for teenagers who have no place to go other than the streets where they can and often do get into trouble.  We did as much as we could with the youth from Zumba dance class lead by another outreach team, movie nights, playing music on the streets, giving art out in cafes and of course hitting the cold windy streets with free prayer signs! It was quite and adventure doing outreach in a western nation, so one day we went on a photo scavenger hunt looking for a people with purple shoes and such things, it was a great conversation starter and was definitely one of our favorite days. We also spent about a week helping a church put on a conference where we enjoyed Icelandic worship. In many western nations one of the best ways to minister is by relationship which is hard to build in 3 weeks but through the events that we held and participated in the base was able to connect with more youth and churches in the city. Iceland was a great first taste of Europe for many of us and a very friendly place to invest for part of outreach. When our time was up in Iceland we headed back to Perth.

Once back in Perth we had a couple days to wash our clothes and pack ourselves in to a van and a trailer for the next month of outreach to drive all the way up the west coast of Australia to reach the west Kimberly, a large indigenous area filled with lots of different small communities. There were eight different teams that went up so we drove as one big convoy for most of the time, stopping a few different places along the five day journey. We divided our time between two different communities called Looma and Mownjum, each were very different and had their own opportunities. Between the two communities we had two movie nights, Vacation Bible School afternoon sessions, cleaned out a house, helped at a feeding program, lead two church services, prayed for around a hundred people, and made so many friends especially between the ages of three to eighteen. We saw two people give their lives to the Lord and right now there is a team in those same locations following up.This was completely different to Iceland and even China where my team had gone before Iceland.

We quite enjoyed getting to spend a couple long weeks living in tents and taking cold showers without any internet, because there were fewer distractions from focusing on people within the community and with each other. We definitely learned a lot about laying down our comforts at the same time as looking forward to what God had for us after DTS. All of our students are on to other things at home like jobs and school, a few are even being called back to join staff.

Next I'll send an update of life in Perth!

April!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful spring; it’s just turned into autumn here that means maybe a scarf if there’s a breeze and eventually long pants.  Lectures have ended and outreach has commenced!  A lot has been happening and it’s all felt a bit like a whirlwind.  Now I’m in the eye of the storm because I know that it will only speed up again as soon as I hit Iceland!

Lectures ended on the 1^st of April and then teams left that weekend! It wrapped up pretty quick and they were off to Nepal, China, South Africa, Mozambique, and Indonesia.  All is going well, every outreach comes with it’s challenges of going in to a new country, doing full time ministry, and being with a group of people 24/7; but once the team learns how to function together it is incredible what can happen.

I’m still in Perth, due to ongoing health reasons and not finding solutions just yet.  Actually on Tuesday, during the 11^th week of the school or the 22^nd of March, our school had a prayer and giving night and a few other staff members prayed for me and trusted for healing again.  It was not the first time that they had prayed for healing, but I have not had any stabbing pain since, which has been such a relief and has allowed me to be a bit more active.  Healing?  I think so…  Even though I am not having anymore stabbing pain, the doctors would still like to run tests to figure out what the other symptoms are all about, which has been good but are starting to incur quite the medical bill.  This last Tuesday I had a laparoscopy, just to continue the elimination process of any other reasons for the pain.  It’s been quite the process but it will soon be coming to an end.

I told you in my previous e-mail that the team that I’m co-leading is going to China, Iceland and far up north in Australia.  Well, they are in China at this very moment! Which is so exciting, but I felt, as did my doctor, that it would be better for me to rest for the first month of outreach and meet my team in Iceland.  So, on the 28^th of April, I’ll fly up to Iceland a few days earlier than my team to set things up and get things ready for my team to join soon after.  For the last two weeks I’ve been here in Perth working on setting up the Australian portion of our outreach and getting in communication with churches and schools.  It’s been so fun and interesting getting to know a few more Aussie’s from all up and down the west coast.

So, these last two weeks I’ve been sleeping soooo much, I’ve never been this tired in my life!  It’s been so good to be able to rest and take it a bit slower.  I’ve been finishing up an odd job or two, getting things ready for our teams to go up to Northern Australia in June and answering emails of people who are interested in doing the Young People Discipleship Training School (YPDTS) next year.  It has been a good time filled with e-mails, doctor visits and making new friends on base with people I usually don’t get a lot of time to hang out with.

A few things that you can be praying for:

-I want to be able to give 100% to my team, so that my health improves in the next week.

-The two financial mountains sitting in front of me doctor bills and a plane ticket to go home this July/August.

-For my team, as they are doing a lot of traveling and they have to be careful for security reasons.

If you would like to partner with me financially, the easiest way to do that is to send a check with my name attached to:

ECC

3600 S. 9th Street


Lafayette, IN 47909

Please let me know how you are and if there is anything that I can be praying for you.

Love,

Christi

March Time!

 Hello Friends and Family,

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for eight months already.  It’s flown by so fast it seems, but then again lots has been happening. Most recently I found out where I’m going to be leading a team too, started organizing fundraisers with the school and soaking in the DTS (Discipleship Training School) lectures for a second time.

I’m going to be co-leading a team with Glory, a girl on our school staff who has been around for about a year and a half and is staffing this school for the second time. We are going to start by taking our team of five guys and four girls to China for a month. I never thought that I’d be going to China so soon if at all, I’m so pumped to see what is going to happen up there. From there we are heading over to Iceland that isn’t super close but we’ll get there. A newer base there is starting with a coffee shop and running a DTS right in the heart of Rekyvik. After a chilly month on the island of ice we will come back to Perth wash our clothes, have a good meal with friends and then pack ourselves up in buses and drive all across Western Australia to work in Indigenous communities and/or running seminars in high schools. So as you can see we are doing three continents in three months, this is because as a base we feel called to support ministries in Europe, to reconnect with the locations that we have been to before in Africa and Asia, while also feeling a strong call to our own home here in Australia.

So generally outreach costs a bit for the traveling, food, and accommodation, especially this year with going to three continents in three months. As a school we have already started fundraising, here in the city there is a children’s triathlon that we work at every year, and we are having car washes on the weekends all over the city. Also we are all doing lots of individual fundraising by e-mailing and blogging about what is happening here in Perth. For my team the cost of the entire three months per person will be right around $5,900. So far I have $1,200 set aside for this, but I’m still in need of $4, 800.  All of our outreach fees are due by Mar. 16^th just two weeks before we head off to China! The other day I was praying about how in the world this is all going to come in and then someone pointed out that if 48 people gave $100 it would all come in no problem. So I felt to ask you if you could pray about whether you are able to be one of those 48? If you are able to support me in any capacity that would be a great help and encouragement!

During this last week, week 8 the lectures were all about putting God as Lord in our lives. This week our speaker pointed out that we don’t make Christ Lord he already is… This week areas in my life where I am still giving God full control have definitely come up. In particular the mind set that life is divided up into “sacred” and “secular”. By this I mean holding one job, object or thing in a higher regard than another. Ezra and Nehemiah are great examples of having different skills but both are needed and are of great value. For me learning this and applying it to my life means whatever it is that God calls me to throughout my life and whatever skills that he gives me whether they are “secular” or “sacred” realizing that they are just as holy or important as any thing else that he could ask of me. So now being submitted to hearing Gods heart on things and agreeing with what he’s saying is what I’m challenged with.

Thank you so much for reading up on what has been happening in my life recently. If you would like to support me you can send a check with my name attached to:

Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC)

 3600 S. 9th Street
Lafayette, IN,  U.S.A.

Please let me know if you would like prayer for anything or if you have any questions.

Bless you,

Christi

Hello Everyone!

Recently I was thinking about how many of you might not be sure exactly what a Discipleship Training School (DTS) is, so let me tell you a little bit more about DTS’s at YWAM Perth. Below is some of the information that we send to potential students and a bit about what I'm doing as well…

DTS is a 6-month school – the first 3 months are spent here in Perth and then the second 3 months is the Outreach Phase.  The first 3 months of the school is the Lecture Phase.  Each week we have a different teacher speaking on a different topic including the Character of God, Repentance and Forgiveness, Relationships, Father Heart of God, Missions and Evangelism.  The focus of DTS is on Christian character and living and the structure of the school reflects this.  There is some weekly written work but we gear the school more towards personal application and response rather than on just acquiring knowledge.  The daily schedule includes morning exercise, morning chores, intercession or worship, teaching, eating, work duties (2 hours per day – in the kitchen or on the property or in the office – part of our live-learn approach to training), more eating and then different activities every night including lectures, small groups, evangelism time etc.  Sounds pretty intense…. And it is…  YWAM is all a live-learn approach so the classroom isn’t the only learning environment… but its all of it – living, eating, working together. 

I staff the Young Peoples Discipleship Training School (YPDTS) focuses on equipping and mobilizing young people into missions. It all happens with a whole lot of energy, which comes from a large group of 17-25 year olds gathered together from all over the world to seek and follow Jesus into the nations! God has huge dreams for this generation and we want to see them encounter God personally and be able to present Him clearly to the nations.  It’s high energy, dynamic, and adventurous…

Week 5 of the DTS just finished, and we looked at relationships a pretty interesting topic for young people. We didn’t just look at romantic relationships though; we were created for a relationship with God and others in all different contexts. Now is the challenging part of taking what we’ve learned to God and asking him how we apply what we’ve learned to our lives. Next week we are going to be looking at Evangelism!

And then there’s the Outreach Phase.  We head out in teams for 3 months to make God known in the nations of the earth.  Its about getting out there and finding opportunities to be involved in evangelism and discipleship.  This could include all kinds of strategies – working in churches, community development, construction, orphanage work, photography, art, personal evangelism, youth groups, out on the streets in huge overflowing cities, hiking into remote villages, music, dance , prayer and worship… anything at all that in some way will communicate Jesus to people. 

Outreach for the 2011 YPDTS will involve options in Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia.  As a base we have a vision called 97 Nations, which aims to send teams into every nation in Asia and Africa.  This vision was running over the last few years and now we are sending teams to reconnect with the contacts we have made in these nations.  YWAM Perth also has a vision to support YWAM ministries in Europe as well as assist in pioneering bases in this region.  Finally, teams may involve a component of focused youth ministry in regional Australian towns in partnership with our youth ministry on base.  I will be co-leading a team with Glory a Californian girl that has just spent 6 months in Mexico leading outreach teams and connecting teams with churches. In April we will head out to China working with different contacts, then in May we will move on to Iceland and work with a newer YWAM base right in the center of Reykjavik. For the last month of outreach we will be back in Western Australia running seminars in high schools.

Prayer points:


-For personal health as I’m having trouble with ovarian cysts that are causing lots of pain and are keeping me from being able to participate in all the school events. This has been going on for over a year but have been getting steadily worse over the past few months. 
-For the students to continue to engage in lectures and respond to what God is saying to them.

-For financial provision for doctor bills and fast approaching outreach!

Thank you for reading, let me know if there is anything that I can pray for you about!
Christi


Just a couple pics, My lovely sister came to visit over Christmas!!

This is a picture of Christmas Morning :)

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends and good times of celebrating Jesus! This month I used a different program to create a newsletter that is a bit more colorful and has some pictures of the past six months. It is a PDF file so I will need to e-mail it to you, if you would like me to send it to you please let me know. My e-mail address is christi.r.hawkins@gmail.com.

An Australian Spring..

Heres a bit of an update on life. Things have been moving right along, it's already November!!

A couple of weekends ago some friends and i went down south and got to enjoy the beautiful south west of Australia. We spent lots of time in the surf, visiting the tourist spots, enjoyed the sunsets over the ocean with the dolphins and used the grill as much as possible. Here are a few pictures from our adventures.

This last week I went with our youth ministry to a Christian high school to teach seminars on Identity and Relationships. Most of the students are from non-christian families, so it was great to have the opportunity to come in and share God's heart for them. We had some great small group times, open and honest on both sides. Great conversations about God and each of us on the team got to share some stories from our high school years. We did a few skits and during lunch each day we were able to chat with the students, which was heaps of fun. I never thought that I would enjoy going back to high school that much, it was great to get off base and meet some true australian kids face to face.

This week I'm back in the registrars office e-mailing away to potential students. Today we had a birthday party and celebrated with some home made apple pie!! It's good to be back but the e-mails have definitely pilled up! Most of my time is spent e-mailing and deciphering e-mails that aren't English, but every once in a while I will get a phone call. Like the other day I got to talk with a potential student for about an hour. As they were asking loads of questions, sharing their fears, future plans and what God has been speaking to them about going into missions I was able to answer questions and share a bit of my own story of trusting for things to all work out and to see finances provided. It's always fun to look back at what God has done and be able to encourage someone else with the testimonies that God has given me!!

In January begins the Young Peoples Discipleship Training School (YPDTS) 2011! As YPDTS staff we have started our recruiting and weekly prayer times! We are excited to see things starting to come together, we are trusting for heaps more students to join us.

Overall things are going well, I'm learning more about intercession as I lead prayer times about once a week. I'm running 12KM  in a week to help raise finance for my roommate who is going back to Canada for her best friends wedding in January. The weather is warming up and that means so is the ocean! Also my sister  Johanna is going to be visiting me over Christmas which is such a blessing, I was kind of dreading being away from home during christmas for the first time. I still am having a hard time imagining christmas on the beach in 100 degree weather...

A few prayer requests:
For health as allergies and other sickness have definitely slowed me down.
For creative ways to get the word out about the Young Peoples DTS.
Perseverance as I help practically by answering e-mails and phone calls.

Thank you for your support and prayers, Love to you all,

Christi

September!

Wow so much is happening all the time. It's so good to be a part of such a big family. Such a full couple last months, and they are just going to get busier! 


This quarter the Christian Missions class that I'm taking is all about keeping the big picture of world wide missions in mind and knowing where I fit.  Last week we looked at how God has called us to be whole hearted in everything that we do, whether that be loving our family, cleaning the bathroom or sharing our testimony. This week we listened to John Bills share with us that when we prayerfully intercede we can change the world! Talk about empowerment! The key to praying for the world to change is to be ready and willing to be the answer.

During the majority of my day I work in the registrars office e-mailing people all over the world about our training programs. I have a pretty cool job of being the initial point of contact with anyone inquiring about our base. It has been challenging to work on a computer all day, but what you learn from dying to self is irreplaceable!  Every time I have to stop and refocus he is there reminding me that he is God and he knows what is best for me.  Pushing through all of the tedious details as I work towards getting students here, the biggest thing that I'm realizing about myself is that i need Jesus more everyday. That even when I'm doing something that is maybe not what I'm particularly gifted at, God is using it to refine me, check my motives and make me understand what I am called to later on that much clearer.  


One of the biggest blessings that God has given me here is some amazing friends!  Some I've known since last year and some I've just met, but there is just something that is impressive about their love for Jesus. 


More soon!