this is why I'm here

I thought I would tell a little story about the way I personally have seen God move since coming here. Her name is Marie, a beautiful 18 year old girl from Finland who came to do her DTS because her whole life she has grown up a MK (Missionary Kid) but never really thought she knew God on her own. Coming here with skeletons in her closet and secrets she tries so hard to forget. She wanted to start over; forget her past and start a new life. New friends, new experiences, another chance. My first meeting with her I was blown away. Not just because of her beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes, but just her nature. So kind, so loving, with a smile so big if you werent looking you would think she had everything. But behind her smile and eyes i saw a hurt that was so deep, so real...it almost brought me to tears. Our one on ones were good. Pretty surface level until the Lord led me to ask her about forgiveness and trust. Instantly i saw her walls go up and pre-meditated answers come out. I prayed and prayed and prayed, asking the Lord to help me get in...for her to trust me enough to go deeper than the rough but gentle surface she put up. As time went on Maria and I became good friends. We laughed and talked about life and God and i began to see her open up to the Lord...I began to think maybe i wasnt as discerning as i thought. Maybe she DOES have everything together...
One Saturday i ran into maria at the house. We started talking and she asked if maybe we could go for a walk because there was something she wanted to talk to me about. Assuming it was just some crush on one of the other students or something i thought nothing of it. Once we started walking though i knew something was not right. She started to open up to me...about her past. Her life filled with abuse and rape. Hurts and pains that should leave someone hopeless and angry with God. Not Maria. Through the tears she told me she wanted to see where God was during these times. Repeatedly being misused and abused by men...instead of blaming God, she was seeking out His heart. How did He feel when these things were happening to her? I had to step back for a moment and process what what going on. This girl, only 18 years old had experienced things in her life that i could have never dreamed of. Strength is the first word that came to my mind. Over the course of the school Maria and i met on a regular basis, to pray through this. To ask God for healing, forgiveness, trust, and love...God is bigger and better then we could ever imagine and He shows up sometimes in the most bizarre ways.
As Maria was arriving in Australia she ran into him.I hope you know what i mean by him. THE GUY. The one who hurt her, abused her, treated her like no person should ever be treated...over and over and over again. She ran into him. He asked to see her. said they needed to talk. He had become a Christian and was living in Australia. He wanted reconciliation.
Fast forward 3 months. We are sitting at the beach and she tells me she wants to see Him. She tells me that God has taught her so much she wants to tell him that she forgives him. The she wishes only the best for him. At first i was hesitant. How could i send this girl to go see this guy who had treated this way so many years ago? Despite my fears i let her go. She was going to meet him at another base, with leaders and his mentors around. she was in a safe, controlled environment. I felt like a mother, wondering, staying up at night thinking about how it was going, was she ok? Praying for God to help me let her go...to trust Him with her..
She came back illuminate. You know like in the Bible when Moses comes back from being with God on the mountain and they have to make him a vail to cover his face...because he is glowing that much? Thats how i felt when i saw her. Glowing. I wont go into to much detail but the Lord saved him. He saved her. Re-living the past and giving everything of it to God transformed her. She talked with him about his journey, the abuse that he had faced when he was a kid and from that the out-pouring he put on her. He talked about the road God brought Him on. Of frogiveness and trust and love he himself had been struggling with. Thoughts of suicide. hate towards himself. He had found transformation only in God. I think often times when we pray for people we think "oh, they are too far gone" or "they had their chance"...do we really believe that God can heal and restore people? rapists? theives? murderes? I wish I could go into more detail about the restoration that took place during that meeting. Everyone told her not to go. Dont go see him. But she went. Said she HAD to. She NEEDED to. Do we listen to the word of the Lord and then follow it? Or do we let our reservations hold us back. That guy is now engaged to be married to a wonderful Godly woman who knows all about his skeletons but has first hand seen God change his life. He is living the life of forgiveness. of redemption.
And Maria? Well, she still glows. She still looks like she has just seen Jesus face to face. Who knows, maybe she has. She is off next week to Thailand to work with women who have been sold into the sex-trade. she is going to tell them that there is such thing as hope. such thing as forgiveness. That there is a light at the end of the darkness. Using her skeletons, her thorns to transform lives of thai girls. This is why i'm here, to be a part of this journey with Maria. We are the ones who are blessed to be staffing DTS's. I am forever a part of her story, simply because the Lord allowed me to come and pray and be an ear to hear her. This is why i'm here.

countin' down the days

I'ts been a pretty full on week. A good friend of mine Bryan flew in from the States to speak on Inductive Bible Study...you know those people, who can get you excited about reading Leviticus (or any other book that is a bit tedious to get through), because they tell you so much of the heart and history behind it? Well, thats how this week has been. Finding a passion within myself to learn and study and know, but to encourage and see God reveal Himself through the Word has been...incredible to say the least.

We also had a time for Baptisms which was really cool to be a part of. Justin got to baptize 3 guys and pray over them as they made a public statement to proclaim their faith as a public act of Worship. We are seeing so much growth and maturity come out of these 30 students. Just a desire to know God, to dig deeper and experience Him in a personal, intimate way...this is why we are here.

CHALLENGED
We had a meeting a few weeks back to discuss our heart for this upcoming year...if you know Justin and I at all, you would know that this is very unlike us to make plans a year in advance. Over the past few weeks though, God had been teaching us about commitment..not just commiting to a place for 6 months or something but really committing...being RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. We have been challenged to give ourselves wholeheartedly to this base and the vision being cast here. We talked and prayed and felt a peace that truely does transcend all understanding...We have a lot of things still to pray about and God is continuing to challenge us with things to step up and do. If you would like to pray for us or know more about these plans feel free to email us at: ktierney02@gmail.com.

We are so blessed to have your support and love. God is doing so much and i wish i had the time to write down all that He is blowing us away with. You. Me. Us. We are all a part of something so much bigger going on. Gods Kingdom is moving and expanding. THANK YOU!

Evangelism/Covenants

so just wanted to give you all an update on the lectures....last week we had our DTS director Ryan Kirk speaking on evangelism which was sweet cause instead of simply talking about fishing all week we actually went out and fished for ourselves each evening. Schoolies is sort of like spring break meets massive graduation beach party all week long. So every night we took the entire DTS down to the beach to serve and evangelize to the kids. It was such a sweet opportunity as many of the students (as well as staff) had a chance to share Jesus at least a few times, and me and Brent (a DTS student) even got to full on pray for a guy in front of all his friends!! So yeah pretty sweet stuff going on here. This week we have Neville, a pastor and church planter from Byron Bay speaking on Covenants which has been really challenging. Well thats all for now...only a few more weeks and were off to Vanuatu!

"...but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

remember that parable Jesus told about the widow who gave everything even when she had nothing? this morning at base worship we had a time of giving. the needs were presented. slowly, but steadily people started shouting out their need whether it be $500 or $5000. then we waited. we waited to see God move in an impossible way among fifty or so rag-tag ywamers with next to no money. a wave people began to move...and minute after minute the needs written on the white board were wiped away. in less than fifteen minutes over $31,000 exchanged hands. i guess miracles still happen. praise jehovah jira.

"test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." - Mal 3:10

i once heard story about a man who made a few bad investments and before he knew it over $20,ooo of debt had piled up. this man later went to his pastor for some biblically sound financial advice and this what the pastor said, " you have dug yourself into quite a hole thats for sure, i guess your just gonna have to give your way out of it." funny thought.

24/5 prayer week!!!

" Devote yourselves to prayer and thanksgiving..." Every DTS we have an entire week of nothing but prayer and worship. Its amazing. Each of us is given a two-hour time slot, whether it be at four in the afternoon or four in the morning groups of us are praying for anything and everything that God lays on our hearts...so far this week God has really been breaking our hearts for the lost, especially those suffering in impovershed nations. I know God is stirring up many dreams and visions within the students, be praying that they would be moved to action and sent out into the fields...for they are ripe for harvest!!

You are beloved

This photo was taken after one of our night lectures. Students and staff all sat in worship of our God. It was a time to surrender those things that we had been holding onto...those things that had been hindering us from hearing God and really being in communion with Him. Each of us took a piece of paper, wrote down whatever it was that the Lord had placed on our hearts, and then we left them at the cross. Literally nailing them (ok push pin'ng) them. It was just such a good illustration of what posture our hearts were taking...

Every friday we have intercession. Intercession is a time where we stand in the gap for others. Whether that be other countries, un-saved friends and family memebers, or for the Sunshine Coast where we are based. This past week we hiked up to Mount Coolum to worship God and pray for the youth along the coast. My eyes were opened to the need for God in such a beautiful place. There is a real problem with suicide here in Australia. It is actually the #1 killer for teens. We took some time just pray on behalf of the churches here and for the lost people. It was cold and windy up there, but what was cool was that about 5 or 6 of us received the same vision....God taking our words, our prayers with the wind and placing them over every household along the coast. What an encouragment.

This next week is the Fatherheart of God. I am really excited about what God is going to do. A lot of people come through here without a real foundation of who God is and who He says we are in Him...His Beloved. This week is based on His heart. His character. His loving nature, and beginning to break down barriers that we put between ourselves and Him. 30 students sit in that lecture room every day pursuing the Lord. Crying out to Him. Asking for more than this world has to offer. Just imagine what it will be like for every single one of them to walk away with a new understanding of not only who He is...but who they are... And then going into the Nations proclaiming that. To offer hope to the hopeless. Love to the brokenhearted. To set people free from the slavary we put ourselves in. Amen.

If you find yourself wondering

For those of you who have been antsy to see our new beautiful car....here she is!! We are so blessed to have this car. It is a 1987 Holden with less than 100,000 miles on it. It runs like a champ and makes our lives SOOO much easier to get around, and we can actually feel like normal people! Our house is finally getting more furniture in it with a coffee table and we have been given a TV. God loves us so much!

Justin and i will be taking a team back to Vanuatu!! We will be leaving probably the week of Christmas and i couldnt be more excited about it! We will be presenting the outreach locations to the school this week. Justin and I are very excited about this opportunity! Our base is trying to set up a long term relationship with the Vanuatu base, meaning that we would hopefully have contacts long term there and also be sending teams there about twice a year. Vanuatu is such a beautiful place and the people are so willing to hear the gospel. If anyone knows me they will know how excited i am about this!

So thats what has been going on lately. We are having so much fun just being married and getting to know all the students. This week is Hearing Gods voice which is pretty full on. God has been so good to us and we are just so thankful for the opportunity to be here and be doing what we love to do! Thank you so much for everything and we look forward to what God is going to do over the next few weeks of this DTS and on into outreach. Please keep us in your prayers!!