Jon's posterous

Update

I got an email from a co-worker about not updating my blog for a
while. Sorry about that! I have been pretty busy with little
internet but things have been going really well. We were in Bali for
a month and after that spent a week at various ports promoting mission
work to high school and college age Kiwis. We spent the days going
into town talking to people wherever or doing various projects around
town and tried to talk at churches or youth groups when we were
invited. On the weekend we showed the public around our boat doing
ship tours and had a jump rally for the youth where we discussed
various mission opportunities. It was a good time to visit various
parts of New Zealand. I have now been to: Timura, New Plymouth,
and Nelson. We sailed from each location to the next. I got sea
sick the first sail 4 times. But gathered myself for the other
sails and even survived the 3 day sail from Nelson back to Tauranga.

Class ends this week and I will spend 5 days in Christchurch traveling
around and seeing my tennis coach from high school. AFter that, back
to Indy for Christmas and then back to Phoenix.

Couple concerns coming up, I still need to find a roommate for our
house in PHoenix. Also, I will need to find a job when I return back
to Phoenix. Other than that, things are going well.

Here are some pictures.

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Leaving for Bali October 14th

Hey just a quick update.    I will be leaving Late Wednesday Night/ Early Thursday Morning for Bali, Indonesia.   

While in Bali, there will be a team of 11 people looking to help share the Gospel and helping Bali however possible.    We will be looking to reach people through prison, hospital, and children ministries.    The next couple days will be jam packed with classes, packing, and getting ready to leave.

Please if you can be praying for us while we are there.    We will get back to New Zealand around November 12th.   Feel free to email me anything that you prayed about.    I will try to update some but not sure how often I will have internet while in Bali.   

Thanks so much!

Week 5 through 8 update

Here is the second official update from DTS.

Since the last update we have:
  •       Moved aboard Pacific Link
  •       Gone a to All Blacks Rugby Game
  •       Luged (is that a word) down a mountain
  •       Guys have not shaved since start of September
  •       I celebrated my 27th Birthday
  •       Helped at a wedding.   
  •       And learned a lot specifics below

Week 5 was on Relationships.    Matt Dawson came to speak to us and shared his life about how relationships were for him throughout high school and changes he made after DTS.   He is now happily married and it was awesome to learn from him on both his current victories and his failures while growing up.   He also focused on how God is relational Himself within the Trinity and he designed us for a relationship with Himself and with others. 

Week 6  Split Week.    First part of the week focused on Authority and Submittion.    The second part of the week focused on works and aspects of the Holy Spirit.   Some of the key points from the week included:   
  • Being a Christian does not make you a rightful authority figure.   (Many people struggled with someone in authority who was a Christian just as some people struggled with those who were not.)   You should not feel entitled to a leadership role because you are a Christian or justify actions because you are a Christian.    The reverse of that, nonchristians are able to possess rightful leadership over people just as Christians can as well.    
  • Another good point was that it is ok to appropriately challenge authority.   You should do so with the right heart and attitude and in order to see fruit and not just to challenge to be a jerk or prove you are right.   Jesus did challenge authority throughout his life.   
  • God places people in authority over us.   It is not the authority that we should have a problem with but often times the actual person in that authority.   Still, there is nothing wrong with the idea of authority. 
Holy Spirit Talk:
  • Christianity is super natural.
  • We either receive all the gifts of the Holy Spirit or we have none.   He does not slowly give gifts throughout our lives.   (It may take us realizing we have or learning about them but we are given them when we first receive Christ.
  • Another key point was how much do we know vs. how much do you love.    Head knowledge vs. Heart Knowledge.

Week 7 Cheyne talked on the Word of God.   He mentioned similar to the head vs heart knowledge as what do you know from the Bible and what do we really believe.   He discussed reading the Bible more for transformation than just information.   Also, we should not read the Bible just out of obligation.   

Week 8 Catherine discussed Fear of God.   One of the main points was that our fear of Man often hinders are Fear of God.   Fear means more a respect for or obedience to instead of afraid of.   Catherine also talked about God's character in that His Holiness perfects all his other attributes.   Some benefits to Fearing God include, Intimate Relationship with Him, Reveals His Heart to you, Shares his Plans.  

Outside of class, we have been very busy as well.    We helped out at a wedding with catering and I was the camera guy for the wedding.   It was for Dahvede Wood, the person who goes to the church that I go to in Phoenix and told me about this program.   It was nice to get to help out at his wedding.

Birthday went well in NZ.   Had dessert and people sang to me probably 3 times that day.   (Having birthday song sung to you is always awkward because there is nothing you can really do during it.

I put up a couple posts about the All Blacks game.   Good times.  We also had a 30s and 40s dance and swing party the Friday before the game.    I took lots of pictures and video and made a 15 minute video of the dancing.   I wont post it on facebook on because its really long and two no one really cares to see people they dont know dancing.    But its a good video anyway!

I went luging this weekend.    We drive about an hour south and went up ski lifts to use gravity propelled go carts to go down a hill.    I included a couple pictures.    Good times.  

That is pretty much all for now.    Sorry for the length major props if you made it to the end of this and read the whole thing.   

Couple notes,  I posted several things on facebook including a video tour of the ship.   
   

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Rugby Game

Went to an All Blacks Rugby Game last night.   Look up All Blacks on wikipedia.    Here are some pics from the game and a video of the haka.    Video is zoomed in and the quality is not great but you can see it.    

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More Pics

I posted these on Facebook but some people do not have facebook so here is another round of pictures.    

These are pictures from :

--Hiking up the Mount in Tauranga
--Going in a Prop Plane over Tauranga
--Eating exotic meat at a restaurant where you cook the food on volcanic stones at your table.
--The ship that I am staying on.

I plan to post a couple videos once I edit them and shrink them to appropriate size to post online.   

Feel free to email me anytime I will try to reply soon as possible.

One thing to mention, we just found out our outreach location.    We have two teams one going to Papa New Gueni (PNG) and another going to Bali, Indonesia.   I am on the Bali, Indonesia one.    We will be there for 4 weeks and then sail with the ship around New Zealand for 4 weeks.     That will start in mid October.    I will post more info later.  

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Four weeks In

We just finished our fourth week of classes.   Things have been pretty intense and interesting at times learning from the speakers.   Here is a recap of each week:

Week 1:  Orientation and over all vision casting.   We then all sat in a circle and shared everything about our lives (past wounds or sins)   It was a great time to be vulnerable and open up while learning what people are going through or coming from.    Learned very few people come from picture perfect homes that everyone often leads you to believe.   Great way to start!
Week 2:  Learned about importance of Prayer and about Hearing from God.    We learned several scripture passages on prayer and practiced praying for others and really trying to listen for God. It was amazing to see several people hear from God or have various visions or pictures that related to other people in the class.   Very powerful stuff.
Week 3:  Theme was Father Heart of God.   The speaker stressed the importance of knowing God the Father to learn His plan in our life.   The only way to really know God the Father is through his Son Jesus Christ.   We had several great conversations and lessons on Theology and really getting into Scripture.   Very Educational and challenging.
Week 4:  Theme was Repentance.   We learned the importance of repenting and turning away from sin.  We also heard several stories about how God is working in Australia.    Good challenging stuff.

Time for pretty pictures.   Two from the awesome rocks by the beach and one of a dead penguin washed onto the shore.    

I will try to post some videos soon!  

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