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Hey all!

I just want to apologize for the lack of updates. Things here had been very busy, and I am now just catching up on things, and am able to breathe.

For those of you that have forgotten what I am doing here in YWAM Newcastle, I'm here to remind you! I am apart of the hospitality department, which means that we do a lot of the "behind the scenes" sort of things. We clean the house, the offices, bless the community by baking and preparing snacks for them, preparing rooms for guests who are staying here, and set up the ceremony for students who have just finished their "Discipleship Training School" (DTS). During December, we had to set up a ceremony for a DTS that finished, and helped prepare things for the holidays around the corner. It took us quite a while to catch up, with very few of us in the department, but we are all caught up now.

It has been about 4 months now that I have been on staff here, and it has been very different to what I imagined it to be. My time here has been very challenging and stretching, which has caused me to grow in ways that I really hadn't expected to grow in. I felt very unsettled when I first arrived, as I mentioned in my previous update, and that started to seep into other parts of me. I became angry and upset, and I directed that anger towards YWAM Newcastle. I was mad at them for the situation that I was in, that I volunteered to enter into. I was the one that decided to come here and join them, so who was I to be mad at them. No organization, business, or anything is perfect but I chose to just stare at the imperfections. It took up until this last month to realize that I'm not mad at YWAM, I'm mad at God. I felt like He had just placed me here, dropped me off and left me to fend for myself. As I started to realize that I was angry at God, He started to show me more things within myself that I needed to work on. This past month has been difficult seeing the imperfections and pride that I carry, and I am now allowing God to take it and move me along. It hasn't been easy, but each day is a new journey, and I am continuously trusting that joy and freedom are on the other side for me.

With all of that heaviness being said, I have had the awesome opportunity to be doing all of this with my girlfriend, Anika. As we did 8 months long distance, this is has been long time coming. As we live in the same house, and work in the same building, it can be challenging, but we are learning so much at the same time! We have been able to find a church that we enjoy going to, have built great relationships with the people in the organization and outside of it, and we've been blessed by one of our friends allowing us to borrow her car for a month. Life is always going to be hard, but its up to us to choose what we are going to stare at. Are we going to stare at the hardships and pain, or are we going to look at little victories, the memories and the joys that come out of it?

With all of that being said, the good and the bad, Anika and I have been praying about the length of our time here in Australia. We find the idea of going home to Vancouver in August very hard to comprehend and reach. As we prayed about it, we felt that God opened up a door for us, and we are going to take it. We are going to come home in June rather, as we feel that God is giving us that opportunity. As exciting and soon as it is, it is going to be incredibly hard to say goodbye to the friends that we have, the church we are involved in, and the life we have created here. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as that day comes, and the goodbyes have to start.

I would also really appreciate if you would consider to partner and pray for a few other things. Please pray that Anika and I continue to step into and accept the joy that God wants to share with us.
Pray that I continue to live in the now, and not the future, as exciting things sometimes block my mind, and I don't live in the "now".

I would also appreciate if you could pray for Anika and me again, for a renewed mind and energy, so we can give these last few months our all, and really pour into the people, and organization here.
If you would like to partner with me while I'm here, and to support me financially, please do not hesitate to email me and ask me how to. I am also able to provide a tax receipt for those who would like!

Thank you all so much for you prayers, and continued messages of encouragement. It means so much to me, it does not go unnoticed. I look forward to seeing you all in the summer, and I'll make sure to be more diligent in sending updates!

Chris