Hello, friends and family! Well its the beginning of April and like me I am sure that your first few months of 2008 have been full on, and at this stage there is isn’t a change of pass in sight. Anyway So there is heaps of what God is doing that I would love to catch you up on, and share some of the awesome things God has done here. REEF TO OUTBACK DIRECTOR GIVEN AWARD First of all, it has been really awesome to see God opening up new doors of influence for us in Townsville and North Queensland. Our director (Ken Mulligan) was named Citizen of the Year by the Townsville City Council on Australia day this year, which is awesome following receiving the Organization of the Year award in Townsville Last year. It's amazing to see them get behind us, knowing full well that we are a Christian organization focused on releasing young people into missions. In both of those cases it isn’t that the award is as cool as the fact that we are now able to be involved in so much more and people all around Townsville are starting to know who we are and through that there are many great stories of the Gospel being spread further and deeper in this region.
THE DTS As for the DTS, I must first start off by boasting in the Lord that I am blessed as a new school leader with a great group of students who desire to grow in God and see him more in their lives so that they can impact nations. Already we have had teaching on Clear Conscience and Repentance, Hearing God’s Voice, The Nature and Character of God, Lordship, Evangelism and a bunch more, all with the focus of not just giving head knowledge but applying it to our lives. Camping We also spend two weeks camping in the Australian bush, It's a bit of a tradition with every school to take them out into the the wild for a few weeks, away from all the distractions of life to really set some time aside for God to speak to us. The first week I spoke for my first time on 2 of the days really calling the school to an exchanged life looking at Gods grace in leading us if we give ourselves to him fully. We ended the first week with a Celebration Night to honor God for everything He had done within the school for the first six weeks. It's been such a privilege to be involved in watching the students grow to know God more and watch them get excited about a future in serving Him. I really couldn't imagine myself anywhere else right now. We started out the Celebration Night at the beach worshipping and thanking God and then headed back to camp for a huge feast and chocolate cake. It was a great night! The second week of camping we looked at the the subject of Lordship and where challenged, loved and encouraged to give Jesus all of our lives and live solely for Him. It was a special week and we ended it baptizing some of the students who had never been baptized. Again it was such a privilege after talking with their churches back home to be able to be a part of such a significant time in their lives.
Evangelism We have been going down to the clubbing area of Townsville every Friday night to do evangelism as part of not just wanting to learn a bunch of stuff but wanting it to be used to impact lives around us. Its been great to see people that have never talked with someone about the Lord before going out to what I would consider a pretty hard place and approaching people to talk with them about the Love of God. Last week one group in particular meet a guy who is here with the army and found out that he used to go to church but had different things that had happened and he hasn’t been in a couple of years. Even the reason for him joining the army was a means to get away from all that had happened, anyway he emailed them the next day and ended up coming to church with us. He hasn’t made any huge changes in his life yet but again we are praying and believing that God is going to show himself to this guy and see him rededicate his life to the Lord.
OUTBACK OUTREACH The lecture phase is almost over on the DTS and our outreach phase is upcoming actually we only have 2 weeks left. I’m so excited as I LOVE OUTREACH! It’s such a great time to apply everything that the students have learned on the school. Also I have seen again and again how much God is able to use even short mission trips to really effect peoples lives. We are sending 2 teams from our school one to Vanuatu and the other which I will be leading into Outback Australia. I’ll be co-leading a team of 10 students with Mindy, focusing on bringing life and passion through a relationship with Jesus to the isolated outback towns and sharing the good news with them. Our school had a giving time towards outreach fees that we still owe and saw an amazing $10,000 given from within the school. Which is an awesome level of generosity from people that have already paid a lot to be here. Its so great to see how God moves to show himself faithful. Other Updates For those of you that knew about my arm that was injured during some fun with the school. I spent overnight in hospital and had a number of doctors appointments where it was finally decided that I had ruptured a Vein which caused a large hematoma around my elbow. But Thankfully it is all fine now after 5 weeks waiting for the swelling to subside and restoration of full movement. So thank you for your prayers in that time.
Well, that's just a couple of things going on around here. I'd love to hear what's going on in your lives as well. You can check out all of our outreach updates from our website at www.reeftooutback.com Also as this is my first mail out for the year I am also giving an update for this years finances and a summary of last years spending. Thank you so much for your involvement in my live and ministry. I pray that God continues to lead and Guide you, showing His faithfulness out of the overflow of His love for you. Regards
Nathaniel Baldock January DTS School Leader
Monthly Expenses
2007 - 2008 Financial Summary
Rent $186
2007 Av. Monthly Income
$400
Monthly Expenses
$501
Total One Time Gifts
$8,385
Additional Expenses *
$9,170
Phone $30 Toiletries $25 Fun $50
* This includes Outreach fees as well as overseas trips to Slingshot, IHOP, as well as my friends wedding in Canada.
Food $150
Communications $30 Interest Charges $30
As you can see the Lord was incredibly faithful to provide the majority of my need for 2007, Including an amazing amount of one time Gifts. Just blowing me away by peoples generosity towards me and what God is calling me to be part of. Budget for 2008 Av. Monthly Income
$1000
Monthly Expenses
$690
Faith Projects
$9,500
Rent $190
2008 Faith Projects Expenditure
Toiletries Fun 2008 Phone $40 $50 $30 Communications $50
Month
Tithe $100
Amount
DTS Outreach
April
$2,000
Overseas Trip
July
$4,500
Upgrade Computer Software
November
$150
Trip Home for Christmas
December
$600
Total: $9,400
Hospitality $30 Food $200
My Goal My prayer and Goal is to this year see my monthly Support increase from $400/ month, in 2007, which wasn’t sufficient to cover my monthly expenses, to $1000 a month which is only $250 a week income. As I have been looking at it and praying about it I am amazing to see how much more effective that would enable me to be as I am moving into more involvement and responsibility within the Reef to Outback. To see this Accomplished I am looking for people that would partner with me financially to see an additional $600 a month raised which when broken up would look something like this.
3 x $100 a month 6 x $50 a month
$600 Prayer Would you pray and consider if you are to be involved further in partnering with me either financially or through prayer. Both are absolutely essential and through the structure of YWAM I love that it is not just me involved here but also through relationship you are all very much a part of God’s work here as well. How cool is that. Anyway I would Love your feedback and am open for any comments you have. You are able to donate either through the website www.reeftooutback.com or directly into my account if you are in either NZ, or Australia.
Thank you for your involvement with my life and ministry !!!!!