(From left: With Amelie, Elli teaching in our 2023 July Discipleship Training School, Acksios with Mara (left) and Amelie.)
We are heading into summer over here in Western Australia, and it's promising to be a hot one! It sounds like the hot summers of you in the Northern Hemisphere will be making their way down to us. I'm not sure how I feel about that! :D
I wanted to share a recent story with you guys. One of the things that has been strongly on my heart is the training of our staff and students in their communication with ministry partners and supporters. It has been a while since we have been able to offer more intensive training in this area that is available to all staff, and I can see the effects of it.
As part of my hope to see things change, I had the opportunity to share with our July Discipleship Training School students on communication. My heart was to help them see how they could use the season they are in, where they are learning about God, growing in their relationship with Him, and learning about missions, to take others along on this journey with them. It's a privilege to be able to set aside six months to just seek God and invest in our relationship with Him. Many people around them don't have this opportunity! My hope was to help them see that there are people that made this privilege possible. Most of us have had youth leaders and pastors who have taught us, invested in us, walked with us; not even talking about our parents who have invested years into our growth. These, along with our friends and other acquaintances, are often deeply blessed by hearing what God is doing, they gain new revelation alongside us, and deeper understanding of God.
Amelie was one of the students in this class and Acksios and I have both loved seeing her flourish throughout the lecture phase of her training school. She is such a joy to watch, loving God and her classmates so well. Her team now went off to Nepal for their outreach, and while there she sent me a message. She shared how a friend of hers, who was an atheist, wanted to know God the same way as she (A) did! Throughout her training, A had written newsletters on what she was learning and what she saw God do, and this friend said that she wanted to know God in this same way as A did. What a beautiful story!!
Please pray now:
For Acksios' work in the IT team at YWAM Perth. Over the last months, Acksios has worked hard on updating and streamlining the IT infrastructure of our missions center here in Perth. While he had two staff working with him before, he has been mostly on his own since March this year. This has added pressure for us as a family, but obviously also for him personally. As I am working full-time as part of our visa process, a lot of his work had to happen in the evening or night, so he could still be with the girls when they got home from school. We would love your prayers for this as he is researching options and solutions to outsource the work he is doing.
We are ready to apply for Permanent Residence (PR) in Australia! After years of trusting, God has opened the door for us to be able to apply for PR next year. This is huge, as it was meant to take at least another 4 years with two more visa applications in between before we would be able to do this. But in May, the Australian Government changed some immigration rules, which means we will be eligible to apply in February 2024! Please pray for a smooth application process and favour with immigration, especially related to Liana's medical costs.