You are welcome here...

Social media is like the comment card of today. There`s no need to fill out a piece of paper anymore with thoughts, compliments or complaints. All one needs to do now is simply snap a photo and post it on Instagram. Or write thoughts on Facebook and Twitter.

I`m lucky enough to get to read some of the comments students, staff and guest speakers leave after having stayed at YWAM Brisbane. Because I oversee the Hospitality Ministry at the base, I sometimes get a note card (yup, people do still do those things) with a word of thanks or even as an encouragement for the ministry here.

Just check out some of the photos I've included from different people who've stayed at YWAM Brisbane in the last few months. I'm regularly impressed to know that little things do indeed make a difference. A smile. Offering to make a cup of tea or coffee. Getting to know someone. A freshly cleaned room. Those things and many more go a long way in making people feel welcome.

For nearly two years now I've been overseeing the Hospitality Ministry at YWAM Brisbane - a ministry that seeks to be an extension of God's love and generosity to others. That means making this base a welcoming and value-instilling environment for people who call it home - or a place to lay their heads for a few nights - or just a spot to hang out after school. I've been fortunate to use my natural strengths as a nurturer, relater and love for people to 'spur one another on toward love and good deeds' (Hebrews 10:24).

We all play a part in making people feel welcome. That`s true for here at a YWAM centre in Australia, and it`s true for the way I`ll hopefully one day run my own home. And it`s true for wherever you call home too. We can do the smallest and simplest things to show others they matter...they have value...they are a child of God.

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You are welcome at my house...let me supply whatever you need.
Judges 19:20 (NIV)

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10 (NIV)

Practice hospitality.
Romans 12:13 (NIV)

...beginning to look like Christmas

There’s a great joy in seeing other people glowing with excitement over getting to celebrate a simple Christmas activity. This evening as a YWAM base we had a decorating party, organized by yours truly!

It’s just the start of Christmas activities that I’m planning around the base for the Discipleship Training School students (45 in total), plus the staff working here. Tonight we put up a Christmas tree (lights and lovely, new, colourful ornaments I bought for $9 at Kmart). But I was also able to sort through some of he older decorations we have, and rarely use, and come up with colour-coordinated decoration sets for different areas around the base. I'm totally Martha Stewart at Christmas time, and I love it!

The young people living here right now got really excited to eat cookies, drink hot chocolate, dance and listen to Christmas songs, hang ornaments, and just feel at home even though they’re all away from their loved ones this holiday. The best thing for me was realizing that this was a Christmas many of them would never forget – their first and only Christmas in Australia. How amazing that I could help create a fun, family event for them to remember it by!

As part of my role as hospitality coordinator, I’m to create family events for the base. So Christmas is a perfect time to do just that. On top of the decorating party, I’ve also planned gingerbread decorating, an outdoor movie night with a big screen which I’m hoping will also be attended by some neighbourhood kids.

It’s really encouraging that all these international students are building into a new type of family for this holiday season. It’s a family that many of us never think we’ll experience. I know having grown up in a smaller family, the idea of spending the holidays with 80+ people never crossed my mind. But I don’t think I’d have it any other way!

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And they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. Matthew 1:23 (NIV) 

Love has come For the world to know As the wise men knew Such a long time ago
Love Has Come, Amy Grant

Who's in your corner?

A hectic week.

We all have those times when we look down the barrel of the week ahead and think there’s no way we’ll make it to the end. There is a never ending to-do list. A mountain of tasks to finish. And usually very little energy to do it all.  Not to mention the if-I-just-don’t-do-anything-maybe-it-will-take-care-of-itself fantasy that builds up in the mind.

I was faced with that monster of a week last Monday: rooms to clean, a graduation dinner to plan for about 70 people, loads of laundry, baking, running a morning discussion group, babysitting (twice), and new guest rooms to fix up in a recently-rented house off-base.

Luckily, early in the week I remembered that I didn’t have to do it on my own. I have the Creator of the entire universe in my corner. The only way I’d make it through the week was because God would give me what I needed: strength, energy and focus.

By the time Saturday rolled around my body, and brain for that matter, was totally beat. I'd been going all week, barely able to catch my breath. But I'd done it all. More than reaching the end of the week, my real satisfaction was in knowing that I'd rested and relied on God to get me through it.

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I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)