Outreach has begun!

Outreach has begun! The first week our ministry began and instead of it being in Russia it started where I had been living for 3 months, Australia. My team, minus one of my leaders, left for Wollongong (about 5 hours by train from Newcastle) and stayed at the YWAM base there. We didn't necessarily have much ministry set up for us there so we prayed and asked God what He wanted us to do! 

The street that the Wollongong base is on is known for it's bad reputation of prostitution and being a bad area to live, so we did some prayer walks, it was amazing! We walked up and down these streets fighting over them, over the girls, the pimps, those addicted to alcohol, the store owners, and over a psychic store. As boring as that may sound, to "just pray" it was something that got me even more excited to be apart of the Kingdom of God. We also went to the Beach and talked to people as well prayed over some and we were able to bless the Wollongong base with words of encouragement. 

After those 4 days our second leader joined us and we went to Bondi Beach which is in Sydney, and stayed with one of our quarters outreach teams who was doing ministry there before hey left for Mexico. During our two day stay we took part in street and mall evangelism. 

While doing street evangelism I met a guy named Mario. Mario was from what I could tell homeless and a little bit confused. The leader from the Mexico team had actually told me earlier that day to look out for this guy and if I saw him to talk to him. He began our time wanting no part in the conversation and after one of my team members prayed he immediately began talking to us. He told us his name was "Anywhere" and that he was from Italy and Switzerland. As the conversation went on he opened up and he told us his real name, Mario. I could tell this guy longed for people not to think he is crazy just cause of how he looks, that he needed someone to just listen and want to get to know the real him, he simply needed to know that someone cared about Him. The two other girls and I got to pray for Mario and give him the New Testament, he was so excited and immediately began to read it as we left. 

During mall evangelism my friend Paige and had the opportunity to talk to another guy carrying a guitar, a musician from Ireland. I started by asking him if he knew where a guitar store was and from there we talked for an hour. He told  us about his music dreams and accomplishments so far, and as his face lit up at all we were talking about, he even took his guitar out and showed me his insane talent as well as let me play a little! Paige and I asked to pray for him at the end and he opens up about his struggle with alcohol and we got to tell him the beauty of Jesus what He does for us and what music does for us in broken times. He was so happy to talk and pray with us that he gave us all his info and a CD with his songs recorded on it. It was an amazing time I got to share with one of my teammates, I got to use my gift to talk to someone about Jesus and Paige got to use her story as a testimony to this guy!

After Australia, we were off to Russia! We made it safely and now as I type this I watch the snow fall on the already white covered ground getting ready to fight for this country. I'm excited to see what He is going to teach me in my time here and how He will use me to impact eternity.

I ask you to join me in prayer. To be completely honest, I don't like the cold at all, would much rather be in a hot place sweating, but this is where The Lord has called me to go, so He has something to show me here and I want to be fully attentive and excited to see it. Pray for my team, that we grow closer in unity and that we constantly listen to what The Lord wants us to do during our time here. 

Love you all, I'm thankful every day more and more for your support.

More updates about Russia to come!