An update

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas, and are gearing up for a roaring new year. I return to you with a quick overview of how the outreach portion of my missions is going, as I haven't the time (nor internet) for anything more in depth, and I likely won't until I'm back in Norway or England! I've been in Australia for the last three weeks, staying at the YWAM Townsville base. We spent the first week helping strip wood, dig, and lay turf at YWAM townsvilles new youth precinct. We also began preparing a performance of singing, dancing, and acting for The Stable On The Strand taking place the next week. Stable on the strand is an annual event, which was started 18 years ago, and is run by all the local churches. It's a cross between an in depth nativity play (complete with Roman soldiers and baby goats), a fun fair, and an outdoor performance. Its sponsored by many local businesses, and attracts up to 40,000 people a year. Over the second week we helped set up the stable on the strand, from putting out tables and chairs to creating the actual replica of the stable Jesus was born in (complete with real baby Jesus), and volunteered across the event. We took to tasks such as food vendors, face painters, acted as beggars in the streets of the constructed Bethlehem and much more. We also took to the stage a grand total of 7 times, 5 times with our own set, and twice as part of the YWAM Townsville team's own show. In our third week we spent time with our friends here in Townsville, celebrating Christmas and getting ready for our journey to Papua New Guinea. Over these weeks we also learnt a lot about Papua New Guinean culture, both from previous missionaries to the country, and from a lot of Papua New guineans themselves! We've been taught some language, customs, songs, and so many other things. Through becoming close friends with the people from PNG here in australia, we also made connections with their families in the town's we will be visiting. There will now be someone waiting to meet and look after us in every town we go to, from the families of our friends in PNG. In one town we'll even get to see our friend Fraser again, because he'll be home by then! It's awesome how God provides 😊😊 As for our plans in Papua New Guinea, we will be spending one week on the YWAM Townsville ship docked in Lae, where we will be helping our base leaders Jan (the ship's captain) and Randi (his wife and a nurse) to carry out maintenance on the ship. We will also be attending church in town and celebrating new years! After that, we will spend two weeks in the city of Lae helping out a local church and running a children's, youth, and youth leaders program. Following this, we will be teaching the CAP program (Community Activation and Participation) in Gaire, a village an hour or two East of port Moresby, and we will be helping them start projects to develop the community of their village. After that we will be in vobukuri, a suburb just West of Port Moresby, where we will help them set up a new YWAM base right along the coast!! Once again I bid you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, and ask for your prayers for me and my team as we embark on this new journey. Speak to you soon guys!