Things are going well here in Oxford. We have just finished week three of the lecture phase, and I am settled into the "normal" routine of the school. Lecture in the morning, activities in the afternoon, meeting with my small group, and one-on-ones to check in with the girls. I love being here. I love getting to know the girls and watching them experience God in a more powerful way for the first time. I have another stellar small group; Teresa, Annemieke, and Nicole. It’s a diverse group, but that makes for interesting conversation.
Tonight, another staff and I took six of our students into Christchurch to do prostitute ministry. This is not an easy ministry in any country, but something about being in a Western country makes it harder. With the earthquakes that have recently taken place, we know that most people in Christchurch are still having a rough time so we decided to make care packages to offer the women. We were all a little unsure about how to start conversation, but once we got out there things just seemed to flow naturally. We gave out six or seven of our care packages and most of the students got to talk with the girls for a good twenty minutes or so. My team found things a little more difficult. The first woman we approached would have nothing to do with us. We tried to offer our care package assuring her that we had no other agenda, but to no avail. So, we walked down the street a little way until we came across another woman. We could tell she had been crying and we talked with her for a few minutes. She was very kind and thanked us for the gift. She told us of her three children and even let us pray for her, but in the end we could tell that she wanted us to go so she could get back to work. It would be so easy to get down on our selves for not talking to her for very long. However, I know that God is proud of the deeper motives in our hearts and of our effort in going out there to do something uncomfortable for the kingdom of God.
In other news, we were finally able to announce outreach teams yestereday. I’m co-leading at team of five students to Nepal! I’m super excited. The contact we will be working with there is a YWAM Oxford DTS graduate. She visited Nepal on her outreach a couple of years ago and has since gone back full time to start a safe house for women brought out of sex trafficking. As a base, we have been praying for her regularly, and it will be an honor to work with her for three months. We leave the beginning of December and return to Oxford near the end of March.
I guess the biggest thing that God has been showing me lately is how proud He is of the little things that I do. Wether it’s praying for a student, talking to someone on the street, or just serving behind the scenes when no one is looking. I am so grateful to be back here serving in this mission. God has moved powerfully in my life in the last year and if I weren’t here pouring out again, I probably wouldn’t have realized the greatness of what He’s done.