After our three and a half week road trip, life has finally settled a wee bit! Just a bit of a recap: AIRLIE BEACH! Fun fact, the movie "Fool's Gold" was filmed at the Whitehaven beaches in Airlie!
During this week we had a a friend, Jay Hach speak about Holy Spirit. A lot of the students had questions about what the function of Holy Spirit is and how he fits into our daily lives. We had a worship time one evening and we sang and some danced. We also prayed for healing, either emotional or physical. During the evening, two people were healed of allergies, one guy was healed of a boil, and one guy had major breakthrough with hurt and anger from his past. He was crying for the first time since he was a little kid and then he started laughing because he was so happy he was crying! You could feel the Lord working!!
A little rewind...before we left for Airlie beach we announced the outreach locations for the school. They were; Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, India, and Indonesia/Malaysia. The students had the deadline of Airlie beach to tell us where they felt God wanted them to go. Fast forward to Airlie...Too many people were going to Vanuatu and there was more behind the scenes logistics that complicated some things. Because of this we gathered as a whole school to pray and figure out God's heart for the whole thing. During this night we forgot all about where we wanted to go, where our friends were going, or where we felt previously to go. During that night people felt convicted of being here for the wrong reasons and one girl shared the reasons she was distant. In the end God worked out the whole thing and the teams are almost evenly split!
drum roll pleeeeeeeeeeeease...... I'm co-leading a team to Indonesia/Malaysia!!!
After a week in the beautiful Whitsundays we traveled to Springsure. Some good friends to our school leader and amazing servants of the Lord. Scott and Annie have 35,000 acres of property and they are ranches through and through! They go to rodeos and have bible studies among the normal drinking and partying. The battle of health and normal season worries that farmers have doesn't seem to phase this amazing Godly family. After a few days of fellowship and service at the ranch we moved about an hour into town to Emerald!
Emerald is a small, adorable, quaint, country town. This was the first location for us to reach out. We stayed in a former YWAMer's front yard in our tents! We did some prayer walks, practical work,and Religious Instruction classes. A few other opportunities we had was an evening church service, a youth rave, a morning church service, and an aboriginal youth gathering. During a prayer walk a team felt they should fight against apathy by worshiping in the park. As they were doing this a man approached them and of course asked what they were doing. They shared a bit and he then asked for prayer for his hurting back. They prayed and he was healed! Thank you, Jesus. We also had the opportunity to listen to a christian aboriginal man and some strongholds that exist in the community and how exactly we should assist, which, just like any people group, is to NOT come in with a plan but just partner and encourage what is already going on! It was a very humbling and eye opening talk.
Carnarvan Gorge was phenomenal! God moved so much by us simply taking time out of our days and being with him. It was very very cold at night time! We all had to cuddle up in our tents to stay warm.
Roma was the last destination for our adventure. We got to run 4 different church services, we ran a 2day kids camp, and visited two aged care facilities. We helped facilitate a race for the elementary school's holiday party. I hung out with 30 five year old little boys! Talk about a day!!!
Six hours of driving to Brisbane we unpacked and rested for the evening. Unbeknownst to the students relaxation wasn't the plan quite yet. Because we got home on a Wednesday we still had two days of "activities". Thursday afternoon we started outreach prep. We broke into groups and simulated going to our different locations, shopping at the markets, finding accommodation, and preparing church services in 15 minutes. We do this so we can bond, have fun, and get a taste of a different culture. It was a blast!
Relaxation finally was in sight for two days!!!! The following Monday started Bible Study lectures! (I had been looking forward to this for weeks!) We had five different methods of studying the bible. One of the most exciting ones was homiletic. Which is apparently was pastors use to prepare sermons. Exciting fact! We had nightly homework to read a chapter of Colossians and do homiletics on each one. It was extremely challenging and fantastic. After bible study we had Lordship...
Lordship is a scary word. Do not fear...it's just being of one mind with Christ. The entire week was reading different places in the bible talking about being one with Jesus. Thursday we walked through the different areas and steps and details of the Old Testament tabernacle. These areas being outer gates, inner courts,alter (burnt and sin offerings), brazen laver, candle sticks, Holy of Holies. On Friday we had a ministry day and walked through each step. Which without sounding crazy basically means we praised God for a bit, then shared thanksgiving stories, then we told all of our school what we needed to lay down so that we could follow God with our whole hearts, bodies, souls, and strength. We also talked about things we needed to ask for forgiveness for. We then worshiped our hearts out! Communion was in the evening and we just shared stories from the day and loved on Jesus. It was a full day but it was well worth it and God made some major breakthrough!!!
This is the middle of the lecture week titled "how you relate with others". Which as you may have guessed is about relationships between us and God, us and others, us and ourselves, and boy/girl relationships. One of the most interesting points brought up thus far is "Every problem is a relationship problem." Think about it. Tell me what you think about it. (seriously, email me and tell me your opinion)
Next week, our school leader in training is doing a week long topic on "Fearing the Lord". It's interesting to see people's opinions on issues such as speeding, texting and driving, and being content with how God made us.
24 October is when we leave for a four week road trip to Byron Bay, Stradbroke Island, Toowoomba, and Chinchilla. These four weeks will be a mix between lectures, outreach, and team building.
A few requests of prayer would be:
-Hearts during relationship week. That all of us (staff/students) may be able to work through past hurt and find true relationship with God and how to love others 100%.
-Nico (school leader in training) will be Holy Spirit lead.
-Outreach logistics will continue to fall into place. (tickets, budget, accommodation, contacts, etc)
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read about the adventure God currently is taking me on! Please feel free to ask questions and write me letters! (:
Shannon Baxter
671 Samford Road
Mitchelton, QLD 4053
Australia
To donate;
Cash mail to: 58 Arrowhead Drive Stafford VA 22556
Check make out to "Image Church" post-it note "Shannon Baxter" and mail to: 58 Arrowhead Drive Stafford VA 22556
HIGHLIGHT in Airlie... we had a BBQ for any backpackers. About an hour into it, Matt (staff member) started talking to a backpacker. The backpacker's name was Andrew and he happened to be writing a letter to his dad working a lot of hurt out from the past. After a little bit of the boys talking Matt lead Andrew to a relationship with Jesus. Andrew grew up going to church but wanted to make it personal. Matt prayed for Andrew and explained that life and hurt wasn't going to go away, that relationship with Jesus is a process. Then Andrew came and joined us for lunch!
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