Celebrate Good Times...Come on!!

This week was celebrations week here in Perth! We had a week long conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of YWAM International and the 25th anniversary of YWAM Perth! I am really thrilled that this happened to fall during the time that I am here for the DTS. It is defintely a once in a lifetime event and I am so glad I was able to be a part of such a neat time.

The week started out with three days devoted to the 50th anniversary of YWAM International. Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of YWAM (see picture), came and taught most of the sessions. It was great to hear from them about where YWAM has come from and their hope and vision for YWAM in the future. Over and over again they talked about how they believe the best is yet to come. They shared the goals for YWAM so that the "flame goes forward" (the theme of the conference). One of the goals that Loren talked about was to see a Bible in every home in the world. He talked about people doing that in their cities and the fruit that they have seen from that! I loved that idea and think that is definitely a God-sized assignment!

In the middle of the celebrations was Australia Day. It's a day kind of like our forth of July. There were all kinds of celebrations through out the city. There was an airshow (no blue angels!), a parade of jet skis and carnival type attractions. There were even helicopters toting huge Australian flags (see pic). At the end of the day there were fireworks over the river in downtown Perth. It was an incredible fireworks display, probably one of the best I've ever seen (see video below)! Very fun to experience that while here in Perth.

The last half of the conference focused on YWAM Perth and the 25 years it has been going. There were a lot of stories told of what they went through in planting the base and all the growth they have seen. It was really neat to hear all that they have accomplished. Shirley Brownhill, the base director, ended the conference talking about how God is calling us to the harvest of the world by finishing the Great Commission. At the end she invited anyone up to the front to state to the whole group what they believe God is calling them to specifically. It was neat to see the diversity in people's call and how they want to do their part. Overall, it was a great week. We were spoiled with good food and a lot of people around. A lot of students left over the weekend for Mexico City to start the first wave of outreach there. We are now heading into week 5 and it will be nice to get back into the routine of school. Monday is the YWAM Perth Golf Classic. I will write more about that once we're done! Thanks everyone for reading!!