Coming home this month!

I have been on this amazing journey here in New Zealand for almost nine months now and am finally making my first trip home to Texas this month!  I am so excited about this visit and look forward to sharing the Christmas holidays with family and friends!! 

The past few months have gone by so quickly and have been filled with new opportunities and challenges. DTS was an awesome experience and time of preparation and growth!  It was truly life changing, and has strengthened my desire to continue serving in missions.  After graduation in July, I was invited to join the staff at the Oxford base to serve full-time as the Hospitality Coordinator, and made a commitment to stay on to serve here in New Zealand for another 6 months - 2yrs.  Check out our website @ ywamoxford.org to see my testimonial and base staff profile.

I am so blessed to have this awesome opportunity to use the gifts and talents the Lord has given me to serve Him and bless this base and the students, guests, and missionaries from all over the world that come through! I am enjoying my new role here and being part of an amazing family, serving and supporting each other and those we are training and sending out from this base to the nations with the gospel of Christ.

In September we sent out DTS teams to Jordan, India, Turkey and Malaysia.  I also moved into the staff apartments on base and am living with five young women. They are such a blessing to me and God gives me opportunities to speak into their lives as we share life together here. I'm also leading and discipling a team of five women from our base staff.  We meet at the apartment weekly for morning tea and to share & pray for one another.

Our base hosted the New Zealand YWAM National Family Gathering in early October.  This was a great initiation into my Hospitality role as I had the privilege of coordinating the welcoming of over 40 guests to our base, and planning & preparing all their accommodation for the event! We had a great weekend together worshiping, praying, and sharing vision for the ministry of YWAM New Zealand.

Prayers were answered, and I was granted my Missionary Work visa at the end of October, which allows me to stay and do voluntary work in New Zealand through February 2013!  This visa allows multiple entry into the country, which will allow me to travel on outreach overseas from here.  This is my desire in the coming year as God has been stirring up a passion in my heart to work with the orphans in Africa.  I may have an opportunity to join a team to Uganda in June-July next year, which will be the first of hopefully many more opportunities to go from here to serve abroad in the mission field.  

In November I celebrated my birthday for the first time in another country, and in the springtime. My friends here made it a special day for me!  My American & Canadian friends on base and I also celebrated Thanksgiving together with an awesome feast and shared thanks for God's many blessings!

God has been SO faithful every step of this journey, and I am trusting Him to continue guiding my path, to open doors AND provide the way! 



Isaiah 41:9-10  "I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.  I said, you are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.  So do not fear, for I am with you!"

Outreach and Graduation news!

We are back from Outreach and have graduated from our CDTS!  It's hard to believe that it is already over...the past five months have been an amazing journey of growth, inner healing, newly found strength and freedom, and many wonderful adventures and new experiences!  

Our team had a great time of outreach while traveling through New Zealands' North Island.  We had opportunities to serve and minister to people in their communities, homes, churches, at youth groups, children's programs, and even while walking on the beach!  God provided many "divine appointments" along the way where we could bless or minister to someone in need, or in many cases, He used them to minister to us just when we needed it!  There were also struggles and challenges as I lead our team, but God is so faithful and always showed up in amazing ways to encourage and pick me up when I was down, and give wisdom and the strength to press on!


The highlight of outreach for me was the 2 weeks we spent on the Island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, working with the staff at the YWAM Base on the island, and serving in the community. We stayed in the dorms on the Base and quickly became like family as we lived in community together, sharing meals, enjoying great fellowship, worship and prayer time with the staff and a family of Mission Builders also there from NZ, who were working at the Base.  We got around the island on scooters, which was a first for me and a blast!  I now have my Cook Islands driver's license...so who knows, maybe one day I will return to the islands  :-)

The YWAM staff arranged for our team to work at a local Christian School helping the children with their reading for several days each week, which was my personal favorite...such precious children to love on with the Father's Love!  We worked with patients at a Disability Center, helping them with art, music, physical fitness, speech therapy and literacy.  I was especially blessed by at patient I worked with, called "Papa John" who told me he could see God in me!  We also had the privilege and blessing to go with the YWAM staff to a weekly local Men's Prison Ministry.  It was such a great experience to spend time singing, sharing testimonies, and even joining in on an interactive game with the amazing group of inmates who have given their lives to Christ while in prison!

         

We arrived back after 2 months of being on the road and overseas to winter weather in Oxford and snow on the mountains...very COLD, but beautiful! 

We finished our last week of school and had our Graduation ceremony July 15th.  For graduation, our school staff prepared and served us a lovely dinner and each team shared and presented a slide show of their outreach.  Afterwards we were treated to an evening of Square Dancing with a DJ, which was as Kiwi's say..."heaps of fun"!  It was a great evening and final time together as a school family! 

Over the last few days everyone has packed up and left Oxford to return to their home countries and to the new journeys God has set before them...it was hard for us all to say goodbye to such dear friends that we have journeyed together with as a family these past five months!  I will especially miss my dear friend and roommate Karen from New Zealand, who I do plan to see more of while I am here in NZ, and my friend Grace from Malaysia....who I hope to one day have the opportunity to travel to Malaysia to see again!

Thank you all who have partnered with me through your prayers and financial support!  I will be staying on as staff here with YWAM Oxford for the next 5 weeks, serving in hospitality and spending time waiting on the Lord to reveal His plans for me.  I have been warmly welcomed into the YWAM family here, and would love to stay and serve long-term (1-2yrs) if the Lord opens this door and provides for my financial needs to cover expenses while serving Him here in New Zealand.

I would greatly appreciate your continued prayers over the next few weeks, and would also be so grateful for anyone who would prayerfully consider continuing to partner with me through a One-time gift or your Monthly financial support to help make it possible to continue serving through missions!

So excited to see what God has in store next!!

Blessings to all!

Outreach news!

Our first two weeks of outreach in Christchurch has been amazing!  We had many opportunities to meet and share with people as we spent time in the beachfront community of New Brighton, which was severly affected by the earthquakes here.  God provided many "divine encounters" as we walked along the beach and sang, prayed and wrote scriptures in the sand.  As we walked along the outdoor mall I also had several opportunities to share and pray with some women that I met and was SO blessed by how much they appreciated us being there to bring hope to their community!  I even stepped way "out of the box" by singing in a couple cafe's and a pub with one of my fellow students and then sharing my testimony and chatting with the patrons!  We also went to the porthills above Christchurch one afternoon and all prayed over the city...that was way cool! (see photos)

The days were long and sometimes a bit challenging, but it was so awesome to see how God worked and stretched us in the process!

Today we leave for the North Island for the next 4 weeks, and then my team will be flying overseas to the Cook Islands for the last 2 weeks of outreach to work with the YWAM base there helping them serve the community.  I'm quite excited about this opportunity to serve while enjoying a nice warm tropical climate after all the cold weather here in New Zealand! God is good!!

I am leading an awesome team of 5 including myself.  My teammates are Mark from Holland, Richard and Carol from New Zealand, Grace from Malaysia.  Please keep us all in your prayers as we embark on this faith journey with God!

Blessings,
Cindy

More awesome teaching, growth and adventure!

We've had another great month of AWESOME teaching, growth AND adventure, and even experienced a few aftershocks and an earthquake here in Oxford!  As we live, eat, learn and serve together here in community on the base, we are growing closer as a "family", supporting and encouraging one another as the Lord works in each of our lives.  I am especially enjoying my hospitality assignments for our school, welcoming and taking care of our guest speakers and their accomodations, and blessing my fellow students on their birthdays and anniversaries (two couples in our school have celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary while here). 


God has provided amazing speakers for our school!  We've had speakers from Malaysia and New Zealand speaking on The Father's Love, and YWAM Oxford's former base leaders came from Turkey to share with us one week about missions, and challenged us to be prepared to go and serve the least, the last, and reach the lost with the gospel of Christ.  I really enjoyed meeting them and was inspired to visit their YWAM base in Turkey, and possibly attend a School of Strategic Missions DTS they are hosting there in October.


The highlight of the month was our one week adventure to Kaiteriteri Beach and Nelson on the north eastern coast of the South Island! We loaded up four vans, and took a six hour drive through some of the most beautiful scenery with mountains in every direction, rivers, lakes and waterfalls! We enjoyed a weekend holiday in Kaiteriteri which included a boat ride up the coast that dropped us off at a beach for a 7.5K "tramp" through the mountains along the coast... the trail or "track" as they call it here in New Zealand was a bit challenging at times, but the beautiful views made it well worth it!  God has really been speaking to our school through the beauty of His creation! We also had some awesome teaching and prayer over us during our week in Nelson.  The Holy Spirit moved in a powerful way, and we all came back changed!


I've posted some great photos on facebook of our trip! 


Only two more weeks of classes and outreach preparation, then two months of outreach before our DTS graduation on the 16th of July!  Most of our team, including myself, are feeling called to stay in New Zealand for outreach to minister and bring The Father's love and the hope of Christ to the people of this country, especially those affected by the earthquakes.  Small teams will also be going to Turkey and possibly to China and we will all meet back here in Oxford for our final week of classes and graduation. 


Will post another update with more details before we leave on outreach....

Blessings to all!


This is a photo taken today of our Father's Love Crossroads DTS.

Amazing first month here!

Even after being in New Zealand for a month now, I still find myself looking up into the vastness of the black sky at night here filled with the most incredible amount of stars I've ever seen, so amazed that I am really here on the other side of the world!  New Zealand is a land so full of incredible natural beauty, and I am reminded more each day how blessed I am to be here preparing for missions!

It's been fun learning to understand all the "Kiwi" terms the locals use, and trying to figure out what they are saying through their thick accents...it's funny that they think we are the ones with the accent and strange words! 

During our first five weeks here we have been learning a lot about living in community, intercession, and hearing God's voice. We also had an amazing two weeks of teaching and ministry with a team from Father Heart Ministries in Malaysia, who shared on the Father Heart of God. This teaching had such an impact on all of us and brought healing and freedom in such an incredible way!  It's so exciting to see God working in all of our lives here, preparing us to go and share His love with others!

Our school leaders are also making sure that we have plenty of time just to rest in The Father's Love here and enjoy the beauty around us.  Every weekend we have opportunities to take day trips to explore and experience more of the beauty of the South Island of NZ.  I've taken some great photos and have posted them on my facebook page!

We have been spending time the past two weeks planning and praying about where we are going for our outreach in May. We would like to send two teams into China, and a team to Japan if the doors are open for us to go there in the wake of all the devastion from the earthquake and tsunami.  There is a possibility of a team going to Turkey if we are unable to go to Japan.

I would appreciate your prayers for God to guide me where He wants me to go, and for provision for the remainder of the necessary funds in the next few weeks!  I still need about $1,500 for outreach fees.

I am trusting that God will provide, and looking forward to an awesome time of outreach next month!

First week here in New Zealand

Wow, it's hard to believe I've been here in New Zealand for a whole week already!

We've been busy this week settling in and getting oriented to life here at YWAM. God has brought together a wonderful group of people from all over the world for our school. We have students from New Zealand, Germany, Malasia, Holland, Denmark, Africa, and two of us are from the U.S. We have spent this week learning about each other, sharing our testimonies, and getting to know one another and our staff. We are already becoming like family as we live in community together here. We are also enjoying getting to know the younger students that are here doing an Around The World In 80 Days DTS.

After all the students arrived last Sunday, the staff put on a Welcome Party and barbeque for us. The staff shared about the history of the Oxford base and where each of them were from, and where they did their DTS. The base facilities here are really nice with beautiful grounds and views of the mtns. We have some good cooks here too...the food is great and quite healthy!
The scenery is absolutely beautiful in Oxford, and life goes at a much slower pace in this small farming community. The locals live a much simpler life, and It's a little like stepping back in time here at the farmhouse that 11 of us students are staying at. Our hosts, Nigel and Josie are very kind and have made us feel quite at home. I think I could get used to this way of life quite easily....except for the lack of central heating! My "hottie", as they call it, that warms my bed is quickly becoming my best friend on the cold nights here!

After orientation for the first few days, we had our first ministry opportunity to go into New Brighton, an area that was affected by the earthquake near Christchurch, to help out a local church that some of our staff attend with the relief effort, distributing food and water and visiting people who's homes were damaged to offer any help we could. It was quite sobbering to see all the damage and devastation the earthquake has caused to this city! All of the staff for our school and many of the students, including my roomate, are locals from Oxford and Christchurch, so the earthquake has had a great impact on many lives here at YWAM! I'm sure we will have many more opportunities to go serve in the city as the months go on.

I'm looking forward to what God has in store as classes begin this week!
　
　　

Arrived safely in Oxford, New Zealand!

Greetings from Oxford, New Zealand!

I have arrived safely here in Oxford!  Had a long, yet great flight overseas and had no problems with connecting flights into Christchurch, and arrived on schedule. 

It is absolutely beautiful here in New Zealand, beyond what I ever imagined!  The views from the air were breathtaking!!  Oxford is a small farming community in the countryside, with rolling hills and beautiful mountain views. I am getting settled into my room at a lovely host home just down the road from the YWAM Base. There will be eleven of us from the school housed there.  I have very nice accommodations and will have a roommate, a local from Christchurch, that will be arriving tonight.  I have met some wonderful people that have already made me feel at home on my first evening and day here!  One thing that will take some getting used to is the lack of central heating in the homes here ( I was warned, but not quite prepared!).  It can get pretty chilly here at night, and I was very relieved to find my bed had been warmed up for me with a hot water bottle by my hosts! 

Many more students will be arriving today, and our CDTS school starts tomorrow. 

I am having some difficulty getting a wireless connection on my laptop, they say possibly due to the earthquake, so for now I will be using the computers available at the base until this problem is corrected. 

I will keep you all updated and send photos as soon as I am able.

I am anticipating that God has some amazing things in store for all of us, and am so excited to be here and begin this journey with Him!!

Blessings to all,
Cindy

Arrived safely in Sydney, Australia!

Arrived safely in Sydney this morning!  Had a great flight overseas and met new friends during the 15hr flight.  Am at the airport waiting to board my connecting flight to Aucklund, NZ and then on to Christchurch.  What an amazing view as we descended into Sydney! I know this is going to be an awesome adventure as I anticipate all that awaits in New Zealand!

Leaving today!

Bags are packed and I am ready to catch my flight for New Zealand today!  After hearing the news about the earthquake that hit Christchurch there was some question as to whether or not my flight would be delayed, but we have the "GO" from the YWAM base in Oxford to leave as scheduled...so I am on my way!!

My next post......from NEW ZEALAND!!

"Blessing People"

Today I enjoyed my last Sunday service at Chase Oaks Church here in Plano TX, before leaving for New Zealand.  Heard an awesome message by guest speaker, Reggie McNeal about our call to be "People of  Blessing".
What appropriate words to hear as I prepare to leave my home, family, and country on this mission journey! 

My prayer is that God will use me as an instrument of His love, and make me a blessing to the world....

Genesis 12:1-2
" Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing."

Counting Down

Greetings everyone,

I am counting down the days with only one week left until I leave for New Zealand!

I enjoyed a wonderful send-off party last weekend with some very dear friends and family, who shared many words of encouragement and prayers for me.  I had a chance to spend time with daughter, Shannon and my grandson, Braydon a couple of weeks ago, and look forward to a visit with daughter, Rachel and son, Josh this weekend before I leave on the 23rd.

This week is busy with final preparations and packing.  Hoping I can meet the challenge of packing everything I need for 5 months into one suitcase and a backpack! (not and easy task for those who know me best!) 

I have been so blessed by all the responses of encouragement, prayer, and support from everyone!  Since my last update, I have received many generous donations, including a sleeping bag and travel supplies. 

I still have need of approximately $2,500 to cover the balance of outreach fees, which are due a few weeks after I arrive in NZ.  If anyone would still like the opportunity to help and donate, please let me know, and please make checks payable to YWAM with note: for Cindy Gross.

My prayer requests are- for this week of final preparation and packing to go smoothly, for peace, safe travel, and for God to prepare my heart for the journey before me!

Thanks and Blessings,

Cindy