Practically showing Jesus’ love.

For a long time, I struggled with this question: how do you know what you’re meant to do?

That’s a big question!

It would have been much easier if I knew I was called to be a fireman or an astronaut. But it never came that easy or that clearly. Instead, I’ve had to find a few ways to try and work it all out.

I wanted to share some of those ways with you….

First, it wasn’t just one simple solution. I’ve found the best way is to simply try a few things. I shared a little on a previous post about how through a short-term mission trip I found out that I don’t have a passion for kid’s ministry, but what I get super excited about is helping people, more specifically by helping people with their health.

So the first suggestion is :  what do you get super excited about.  (And I’m not thinking your football team winning here – I’m talking about helping others).

My first real encounter of seeing public health in action was in Nepal in 2013. After walking around a hospital and praying and playing with the children, I was overwhelmed by the number of patients who were there  for easily preventable causes: Children with cuts and bruises that had gotten infected because they weren’t treated properly, a young mother (who was about my age at the time, 17), who had just delivered twins, and hadn’t had any prenatal health checks prior to coming to the hospital. Fortunately, both her and her babies were healthy, but it could have been a very different story. And countless burns victims. These were the hardest to see and I wanted to simultaneously vomit and cry. Sadly, children and babies being treated for their burns weren’t uncommon. In order to keep warm overnight, the families sleep next to the fire place and then inevitably roll into it. Writing that down makes me want to weep, seeing it in person made me sick.

Hence the second suggestion:  what stirs you emotionally…

I was overwhelmed with all I saw. It was depressing. I remember sitting down looking over the mountains and begging God to show me where He was, and how any of this was fair.

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  Me and one of the twins.

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  Playing and playing with children in the hospital.

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  The mountains, where I cried out to God.

A couple of days later we were able to go to a community health meeting. Here women from the different towns in the area had walked – some for 2 hours – to meet together to discuss what health problems their communities were facing. Here I saw women being empowered to create a real change in their community. With the help of the hospital, they were able to work out solutions to the needs of the community. The major issue at the time (in 2013) was not enough toilets for the size of the community, an idea that seems crazy to us in the west, especially as many of us have multiple toilets in our own homes!

As this meeting continued, and the conversation was translated to me, I was so encouraged. There was hope after all and it was pretty simple. I returned to Australia with this burning question, what could I do? I was a 17-year-old high school student, with a very small sphere of influence. But I knew that I had to do something. A few months into year 12 I came across the Bachelor of Applied Public Health and Global Studies, and I was motivated to study hard to be accepted into the course.

The community health meeting.

The third idea then:   what brings you hope that you can share with others …

Although I studied for four years, it wasn’t until last October that I was able to see public health in action again. Before arriving in East Timor, I did a little bit of public health research on the country. Call me a nerd, but I find these things fascinating. I wanted to understand what major health issues this country faced. Despite my research, I still wasn’t prepared for what I’d find on the ground. There’s a slum that adjoins the airport as you fly into Dili, and all around the city there are obvious signs that you are in a country that’s been affected by poverty and war for years. Open sewers, unpaved roads, children running barefoot in mud and so much dust and dirt! Whilst the people are very friendly and welcoming, they have not had the easiest past and carry many scars.

I was so excited when the opportunity arose where I was able to see public health in action in East Timor. Maluk Timor is an NGO that “aims to transform healthcare in Timor-Leste’s community health centres, so that people get great quality care, when and where they need it.”
It’s slow work, but it’s transformative work!

Number 4:  what gets you super excited!

East Timor, like many other developing countries, has high rates of TB and HIV. I loved visiting a clinic they were about to open that would do screening, counselling and education about these conditions. They were empowering locals and making a difference in the country. I came back from this short visit feeling alive and so excited! With so much stigma surrounding these issues and a general low level of health literacy, the work of organisations like Maluk Timor is able to create lasting change.

It’s also a way we can show Jesus’ love to these people. What good is it to preach and teach, if we’re not also helping them physically? Jesus has commanded us to love our neighbours (Mark 12:30-31). Furthermore, he tells us that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for him (Matthew 25:31-46). Educating, treating and loving people who are suffering from illness and disease is a way of loving Jesus. And that’s something we can do overseas, but it’s also something we can do wherever we live.

In the months since returning, I’ve wrestled with how I can show God’s love to the people I’m living amongst. And I want to give you the same challenge: how can you practically show love to those around you today?

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!

With love,
Amber

How do you know what you’re meant to do?

I want to know what I should be doing with my life, and to be able to do it right now, without making mistakes or doing things that aren’t my ultimate purpose.  I wonder if you’re as impatient as I am. Lately I’ve been learning that to know what you like, sometimes you must try a few things. And that’s totally ok! It can take time to work out where your right fit is and there is always time to try something else. I have not seen a clearer picture of this in my life than when I was serving God in East Timor.

With 40% of the population below the age of 15 in East Timor, it’s no surprise that WEC has several children’s ministry programs. My good friend Lauren and I have both done different children’s ministries over the years and so before we left Melbourne, we prepared some crafts and simple games and activities for this purpose.

Most of these ideas went out the window when we met with the team and saw their program. The children were a lot younger than I was expecting, and their English levels were a lot lower than I’d experienced before.

Three days a week WEC runs a children’s program called ‘Esperanca’ meaning hope.  When we arrived, we were told they’d been learning the significance of the cross and so if we had a craft that would fit the theme that would be great. Through some quick online searching, we found a cross making craft that was easy to demonstrate to the children.

I loved watching the 30 children sit down and help one another make the craft. It was beautiful seeing them draw things they were thankful for as well as write prayers and the scriptures they’d been memorising in the program. One boy simply drew a picture of Jesus on his cross with the words ‘thank Jesus’ on the top. This brought tears to my eyes that he grasped the concept of the cross at such a young age.

Then the balloons came out and laughter and squeals of delight filled the atmosphere. I’ve never seen children so delighted by balloons before.

After being successful with the Esperanca program I was feeling confident that we’d have success with the Petra Kids ministry too. I thought that even though some of the children were younger, we’d be able to entertain the handful of children for a couple of hours with games and songs.

Well you could imagine my shock when we suddenly found ourselves leading 50+ children, who spoke very little English. Fortunately, we had some help from the WEC ladies, and were able to entertain them with crafts and activities for the 2hour program. By the time it ended I was exhausted! 

It was at this point that I realised children’s ministry is not for me. Whilst I love and adore children, and will gladly play with them, doing this all the time is not my cup of tea.
Lauren on the other hand thrived in this situation. She was in her element and will make an amazing pre-school teacher (so glad it’s her, not me.)

For a while I felt guilty about this. I felt like to be a “good Christian” I should love kids ministry and doing this sort of thing. I don’t know where I picked up this idea but writing it down, I know it’s not true. I believe God gives us unique dreams and passions. Children’s ministry is not where I came alive and flourished, in fact I felt the opposite way. But I’m so glad that I went. We live in a time where we are saturated with options, and that’s can be overwhelming and exhausting! ‘Where do I even start, and what if I make the wrong move?’ Slowly I’m learning that sometimes you’ve just got to try something like I did with children’s ministry, because I can see that for now it’s not where I’m meant to be. So I encourage you today to give something new a try. You might find that you absolutely love it, or it might not be right for you and that’s ok too. But you won’t know that until you try.

How cute is this smile!

Another time I want to share with you what did get me super excited, health work! If you know me or have read my “About me” page, you’ll know that I studied public health at university and loved it! So, stay tuned.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!

With love,
Amber

Church planting in East Timor

WEC’s vision is ‘to see Christ known, loved and worshiped by the unreached peoples of the world.’ In a nutshell … to reach people & plant churches.

Today I want to share a powerful story with you about a family who is doing just that – despite pressures and criticism from the world. This family are helped and supported by a church that WEC helped plant.

The story begins on a day during my East Timor trip, one that became a favourite as we got to see a new national church that had been established with WEC’s help.
We had to drive 2 and half hours out of the city along some very bumpy roads, suitable only for 4WDs. I’m told that this was previously a 4-6 hour trip, and the roads are much better now (makes me wonder what they were like before!) When we arrived I noticed straight away how different it was to the city. Life is much slower paced and far more relaxed.

The pastor of the local church hosted us for lunch, which was cooked in their outside kitchen. He showed us where his small congregation meets each week, in the local school that adjoins his property. Although we weren’t there for a church service I could imagine families coming here to this building each week to hear life giving messages in their own language, by their own people. What a beautiful illustration of the church.

Then we drove about ten minutes further out of town and walked another fifteen minutes up a hill to meet a young family from this small church. As we listened to their story and their testimony I was so encouraged by their faith and perseverance. Despite great pressure from their family and home community, they are choosing to live their lives for Christ and reject the ways of their ancestors, which is a mix of Catholicism and animism.

As a majority Catholic nation, with animistic practices, the East Timorese know of Jesus, but very few know Him personally.

Praying with this young family and reading scripture together was definitely a highlight of the trip. By worldly standards this family had very little, but they understood what Jesus said when he said ‘What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’ (Matthew 16:26). The things of this world, the practices of their family and the relatively easy life they could live if they moved back to their village would seem enticing. And yet, here they are, living away from everyone they know. I don’t even understand how they have water or food on the table. But despite all this their smiles were contagious, and their joy and faithfulness in Christ continue to inspire me.

How beautiful is her smile!

Less than 3% of East Timorese are evangelical Christians. The majority of this people group are living in spiritual darkness and don’t even know it. Years of bondage to the spiritual world has left them vulnerable and they so desperately need the light of Christ to break through into their lives.

Whilst there are more Christians in the world today than ever before, the Joshua Project states that “81% of all Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists do not know a Christian“. That’s crazy! It can be so overwhelming that at times I want to put my head in the sand and not think about it. It can be so scary, but it’s also so important to step out of our comfort zone into the space God wants us to move.

There are so many people around the world who are in desperate need for the hope of the gospel. Perhaps that’s your neighbour, friend, colleague, family member or a people group abroad. Time is precious, but people are more precious. A moment of awkwardness is worth it if someone’s life is changed for eternity as a result.

My prayer is that each of us would be willing to share the gospel with those around us who need to hear. I know it’s scary, but it’s worth it!

Please join with me in praying for those who are facing the challenge of being Christ followers in difficult situations of persecution and hardship around the world.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!

With love,
Amber

Whoah, that’s not what I thought.

I wonder if you have someone you’d love to travel with? Someone to whom you often say ‘it would be so amazing to visit *insert place* together’?  It’s been a dream of mine for a while to travel overseas with Lauren, one of my closest friends. In October that dream came true as we were privileged to join an amazing group of people headed to East Timor. But a few shocks were in store for both of us. I’ll come back to that in a moment …

Why East Timor? Read about it here. The rest of the team comprised of Steve and Chris, both long term missionaries with WEC , as well as Adriana, a lovely Brazilian Australian from Sydney.

Our team. How cute is Lauren’s little squat in the middle.

The five of us touched down in Timor-Leste’s capital, Dili just after 4pm and excitedly made our way out to meet the East Timor WEC Leaders. By this point I was absolutely bouncing with excitement. The first shock was the heat. The humidity hit us straight away, and even in the evening we managed to work up a sweat from doing absolutely nothing.

Apart from the heat, one of the first things I noticed was how lovely the people are. One of the first stops we made was to the children’s program. Even though we were only there for five minutes we met so many new faces – lovely people who wanted to know our story, but I felt so awkward and inadequate because I didn’t know any of the language. I was desperate for a knowledge and understanding of the language so that we could share our stories with one another.  

Wait, we’re staying where?!

Now a big shock hit.
We spoke about culture shock before leaving Australia, and being an experienced traveller I thought I’d be ok. But I was alarmed when I arrived at the place we would be staying and realised that not only did the place not have any air conditioning (a real struggle when it doesn’t get below 28 overnight) but there also wasn’t a flushing toilet or running shower! For the first hour Lauren didn’t really say anything. She was so overwhelmed and wondering what she had gotten herself into. Lauren is one of my favourite people, however unlike me has had limited overseas travel experience. She is also quite introverted and quite gentle and sensitive to new situations – unless you’re watching ‘High School Musical’ with her! Through this experience God powerfully demonstrated to Lauren that He was more powerful than her personally, gifts and struggles, and in fact was able to use them to further the Kingdom. Her quiet and gentle nature meant it was easy for her to connect with children and love them.

I had a friend ask me the other day- what do you do when you get culture shock?

I think the strange thing about culture shock is that it doesn’t always look the same, and can occur at the most random of times. I remember once experiencing culture shock walking through the high-end fashion stores of Japan. Not a place you commonly think of to experience culture shock.

So what did I do?

I prayed about it, a lot! I complained to God about things that I didn’t like and questioned Him about why He wanted me on this trip. And I vented to Lauren too. This is something we’re both so thankful to God about, that we experienced this together. It is so helpful if you can find someone on your trip who you can share with how you’re really going. It’s likely they’re also struggling too and going through it with someone else is so much easier than alone!

And then I tried to find the beauty in the place I was, however big or small. The delicious fruit we ate, or the beautiful sunset, or just the smile in the children’s faces.  
And then I took it one day at a time, one movement at a time. Knowing that the itinerary we received was more of a guideline, but I could trust God was in control in it all.

The beautiful part was that after our first meal and talking with Thelly, an Indonesian WEC missionary in East Timor, who’s home we were staying in, we both felt so much more comfortable- well as comfortable as you can be in 33-degree heat and 80% humidity! We realised that we were capable of getting through this time, and even enjoying it.

Much of the time culture shock or fears set in because of preconceived ideas or expectations. So when our experience doesn’t match what we had in our mind we can be startled.
Understanding more about their culture was so helpful in understanding the people and gradually reducing the culture shock. It’s why long-term missionaries will spend the first two years doing cultural and language learning.

We didn’t have two years on this trip, but we did spend the first morning in Dili learning more about this interesting country. They have such a bloody and intense history of struggling to finally have freedom. The Museum of Independence tells the story of decades of fighting for a place to call their own. The videos were overwhelming to watch, but what hit me hard was these are real lives and real people, fighting for a greater future for their country.

During the next ten days we were able to see some really beautiful things that God is doing in East Timor, like children’s programs, church plants and health work. I’ll share more with you in my next post. In the meantime, if you haven’t read my first STOMP post you can do so here .

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!

With love,
Amber

Stomping in East Timor

It’s been about 3 months now since I got back from a STOMP in East Timor. What in the world is a STOMP?!? They are WEC’s Short Term Overseas Mission Programs, through going on one of these trips it gives you a taste of what mission is like in the field. They can be for a few weeks, like mine, or up to two years. Here’s a link for 2019’s trips.

One of the common questions I got asked leading up to the trip and then after is, So why East Timor?

As part of being a WEC Mission Intern you have the chance to be part of one of the STOMP trips. In March 2018 when I got the list of STOMP trips I was looking at going to a different country. But as He often does, throughout the year God revealed He had other plans. One of the major reasons for going was that more and more God was convicting me of serving long-term as a missionary and East Timor was a potential place to do this. Missions has been on my heart ever since my first overseas trip (I share a little bit about that here), but I thought it was something I’d do in about five years’ time. Over the course of the year God revealed that He was actually putting it into progress now. And going to East Timor was my next step of obedience.

To learn more about this beautiful country, head over to Operation World.

There were two more major things that really interested me about East Timor. Firstly, the country is filled with young people – I’m talking 40% of the population under the age of fifteen. And do you know what one of the favourite parts of my week is in Australia? Youth Group. Well, here is a country that is overflowing with young people who desperately need to be shown Christ’s love.

Secondly, there is a great need for health care. As one of the poorest and youngest countries in the area, communicable diseases such as TB and HIV are extremely prevalent. There is a need for better health care, health education and policies. As this is my area of interest and study, the realities of their health needs struck my heart.

I’ve heard it said that you find your purpose where your passions and your skills line up, and I experienced that for myself in East Timor.

But I didn’t go into the trip thinking we’d be saving these people.
At university we studied and discussed whether volunteer short term trips were beneficial or not. I’ve heard numerous accounts of voluntourism causing more problems than help, and more than ever I was cautious about signing up for the trip.

On Sunday 14th of October, Lauren and I boarded a plane to Sydney to meet up with the rest of the team, before flying out early the next morning. During the flight, I spent time with God voicing my concerns with Him and praying that this wouldn’t be the dreaded terrible short-term trip. He led me to this passage that Paul quotes in Romans 10:15 from Isaiah 52:7. “How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news”. My prayer was that we would be a blessing to the team and locals and be bearers of joy. I felt convicted, and finally at peace, that we’d been sent out by God and our communities for this time to bring good news, the best news. And what a joy that is!

More and more God is revealing to me that obedience is what He desires from us. That to simply follow is the greatest thing we can do for His Kingdom. For me that looked like listening to His voice and getting on a plane to East Timor, but for you it might look completely different depending on what God has placed in your heart. Imagine how beautiful your life would look if you were daily stepping out in obedience in every area of your life!

“… in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires.” – 1 Peter 4:2

Like to know more? I’d love to be able to answer any questions about STOMPs, East Timor or cross cultural mission. Click here for more.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!

With Love,
Amber