Letter 9

Hello Everyone,

I am sitting here on a rainy Sunday. It is starting to look like spring here now. I hear that the weather has been cooler in Minnesota. Its funny being exactly opposite in seasons. We have spent this week learning about the Holy Spirit from two women, Lia and Sally, both belong to a church in Christchurch and travel frequently as missionaries and teachers. I learned more about the Trinity and learned to respect the Holy Spirit in understanding that he is part of the Trinity and is our Lord.

Monday we started off with worship and went right into lectures about the Holy Spirit. After lectures we went off to our respective service locations. I went to help finish and build a work bench and garden box for the man and woman I have been working with every week. They have been teaching me quite a lot about woodwork, I've learned the importance of measurement and angles in building, :) the hard way. I have been able to share my testimony with them both. They are not believers and I hope that I have had an influence on them. After our service on Monday we had one more evening lecture.

Tuesday morning we woke and had intercession for the C-hina team. The C-hina outreach is going to be one focused on skateboard ministry and will be very successful as long as they focus their energies. The team members have many different personalities, but if they work together they will influence many people. I am excited for them. I think their team will be great in sport specific evangelism. After we finished prayer we went into another lecture. After our lecture we finished our weekly assignments and spent time preparing for our angel and mortal game. We each had a name and someone else had our name. We gave gifts and other nice things to the person we had and received from a different person. I sent my “mortal” on a treasure hunt for candy and had her solve riddles for a big candy bar at the end. I received lots of candy and my “angel” also waxed my skis for me. Tuesday evening we celebrated our small groups because Tuesday was the last day we would meet. My group went to the Rosie's household and had homemade treats and played video games, everyone was really happy.

Wednesday morning we found out that we would not be skiing because it was too windy. Instead we got to take a trip to Castle Hill. The place that they filmed the Chronicles of Narnia. Needless to say my friends and I posed as Aslan and had a really good time playing a game of Sardines (like hide-an-seek, but you hide with the person when you find them.) Castle Hill is one of the best climbing/bouldering places in the world. One of my friends fell about 20 feet, but walked away. I know that some people here are not responsible when it comes to staying safe before outreach. After we got back from Castle Hill we had the night to ourselves.

Thursday morning we woke up and spent time in prayer for the unevangelized people in our world. Afterward we had a lecture and then spent the afternoon preparing for our different outreaches. Thursday night we had a yearly event called a “love feast” our cook made a great three course meal!! And then we all gave short speeches about what our angel did for us. It was a very nice night and to conclude the evening we had a very wild dance. I practiced playing the saxophone and mostly watched everyone else. :) it was really fun.

Friday we worshiped and then had our last lecture on the Holy Spirit. We left for Christchurch and went on to do our respective street ministry for the night. I chose to go rock climbing and spent time talking with my friend. I think the next Y-WAM school will be going to this climbing place frequently to witness.

Saturday we all went to Mount Hutt and skied in some warm weather. I was able to ski with my friend from M-ethven for awhile. After our skiing on Saturday we returned to the base and I found out my T-urkey Travel team had a surprise trip for the night. We went to a families house (they spoke at our base and also support Y-WAM) and had a nice Kiwi dinner of Fish and Chips (french fries). We then sat around the fire and spoke about our plans for T-urkey and just talked with each other. I introduced the banana s'more that I learned to cook in Boyscouts. Everyone liked it. Sunday morning I made french toast and Alison Lam our new leader made eggs. Everyone was really happy and it was a good time for our team. We finished our trip with worship and prayer.

My team: A-lison, J-onathon, E-line, J-esse, C-layton L., C-layton N.

We needed this time together because our other leader Lauren hurt her ankle and is unable to go on outreach so it was really good to spend time with our new leader Alison. We also roughly planned our trip to T-urkey we will be spending most of our time on the Western Coast down to the southern coast and possible farther east before we head back to I-stanbul for our departure. I will give more detail later. And my team will continue a blog when we are on our trip.

The Lecture notes from this week.

The Person of the Holy Spirit
Qualities of personhood:
A will (1 Cor. 12:11)
Emotions (Eph. 4:30)
Knowledge (John 16:13)
Self Awareness (Acts 3:12)
Ability to Speak (Acts 3:12)
His Divinity. The Bible declares that the Holy Spirit is divine (Acts 5:3,4) and therefore has all of the attributes of God.
Psalm 139:7-10
1 Cor. 2:11
Luke 1:34,35
Hebrews 9:14
Romans 1:4
John 16:13
Romans 8:2
Hebrews 10:29
2 Tim. 1:7
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Creation
Gen. 1:1-5
Gen. 1:26; 2:7 & Job 33:4 *Psalm 33:6 (breath = Spirit)
Empowering for Leadership
Othniel (Judges 3:10), Gideon (Judges 6:34), Jephthah (Judges 11:29), Samson (Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14), Saul (1 Sam. 10:6), David ( 1 Sam 16:13).
Equipping for service
Exodus 35:30-36:1
Inspiring Prophesy
David (2 Sam.23:2), Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1-8), Jahaziel (2nd Chronicles 20:14, 15), Balaam (Numbers 24:1-4)
The Holy Spirit in Jesus' Life
Luke 1:35 (Birth)
Luke 3:22; John 1:32-34; 3:34; Luke 4:1 (Baptism)
Luke 4:14; 6:19 (Ministry)
Hebrews 9:14 (Death)
Romans 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18 (Resurrection)
Acts 1:2,3
The Teachings of Jesus about the Holy Spirit
Agent of New Birth (John 3:1-8, 2-:21,22)
Comforter (John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7)
Spirit of Truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13)
Teacher (John 14:16)
Testifier of Jesus (John 15:16)
Convicter (John 16: 8--11)
Revealer (John 16:13, 15)
Glorifier of Jesus (John 16:14)
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Jesus the Baptiser
Matt. 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33
Acts 1:4,5
John 20: 21,22, John 3:5
The purpose
John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-4
Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8
Initial evidence
Acts 1:4
Acts 10:44-48; 11:15-17
Acts 19:1-7
Acts 8:14-19
Acts 9:17-19; 1 Cor. 14:18
1 Cor. 14:1-19
1 Cor. 12:7, 10
Acts 2:38
John 7:37-39
Thirst
Come
Believe
The Spirit-filled Life
Acts 4:8, 31; 6:3,5,8; 7:55,60; 11:24; 13:9-11, 52; 19:6
Eph. 5:18
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Nine separate gifts that can be divided into three natural groupings
1 Cor. 12:8-10
Gifts of Revelation, Demonstration, and Inspiration.
The Fruit of the Spirit
Galations 5

In Christ's Love,

Travis