Prayer Week... a.k.a WOW week

This past week was a mind blower
This past week was prayer week. It was a lot less structured then other weeks, but we still had a lot going on. The leaders kept talking like this is one of the most amazing weeks and i truly wanted to get everything out of it as I could so at the start of the week i decided i was going to give up food and fast for the week. One of the major things we had going on was 24 hour prayer. Throughout the day our class was split up into groups of 4 and we would switch 2 hour shifts in the prayer room. This would go on the whole week.
During this Blog entry it might seem like I'm going kind of off topic at times but God did so so much this week and I'm trying to give away as much details as possible without telling the stuff that I feel isnt to be shared. So bear with me and we will try this out.
Monday morning we woke up and I was hungry but i kept just praying it away and praying that God teach me how to really fast and how to go about it. Once we got to the base we met a New Zealander named Leon. Leon was a big rugby player with a huge heart for prayer. Once he started speaking honestly all i was doing was being pitiful in my head and wanting food but then Leon said some thing, "This week God is going to break us down and ask us to give stuff up. But, God will take care of what you give up". After that I realized that God knows what I'm doing and he'll take care of me and i need to man up and stop complaining if I want God to work through me.
God calls us to an intimate relationship with him, most everyone wants that but with the stories Im about to tell you, you will understand what God taught me and that; in order to have an intimate relationship with him we have to be obedient.
Throughout the whole week we met everyday and Leon would open up the microphone and do harp and bowl type services. This is where we do worship and if someone feels lead to come up and share they can. We did this for hours everyday. People came up who laid down the last of what the enemy was holding against them, and some came up to give words of encouragement. My first shift in the prayer room was on Monday night. When i was in there I started praying for God to bless me and for me to show me things. This prayer didn't last long because i heard God tell me after a while "Bless others and you will see me". Once i heard this i decided to try praying for others. God started putting people from home and people here on my heart. God started giving me words and scriptures for these people that these people needed at that time in their life. God was working in me and i was in awe. This started me being obedient to him during the week.
One story from the week was this: We were in the prayer room and at the base where the room is there was an auto-diesel class taking place in the building next door and the kids were taking a smoke break and could see us praying through a window. When they did they started being disruptive and poking fun at us for being in a room praying. we shrugged it off. But then i felt God tugging on my heart to invite them in if they wanted. I thought that this was ridiculous but God really started pounding my heart so i became obedient and went to ask. around 6 of them came in and i told them we were people who loved the Lord and wanted to just hang out with them. After this they started opening up saying things such as: I'm agnostic, I hate God, God killed my best friend, and not one of them had a good thing to say about God. After this we just started talking in love and the Holy Spirit began to speak to these guys. After a while all of them left except for two guys and one of the two left was on my heart big time. I went up to him and he began to tell me his past and it was a rough one, this guy had been through a lot. God began to break my heart for him and before i knew it this tough tattooed automotive student had tears rolling down his face, and i began to get real emotional. God began to speak through me and say things i didn't even know i knew, but i just told him of how God loves him so much and doesn't care what has happened to him or what hes involved with in his life he wants to meet him where hes at. I felt so convinced that this guy was going to be able to have influence on so many guys that are going through or have gone through what he went through, so i told him that and that I'm 100 percent positive that God wants to use him. I prayed for him and then he went back to class. That night i had 2am-4am prayer session. During this time i prayed with all my might that God would be speaking to him wherever he his right at that moment. The next day we ate lunch and the guys were having their smoke break, so i went to chat with them. They began to grill me with tough questions and i let the spirit do the talking and humbled myself. They eventually had to go into class and i went into the prayer room. About 10 minutes later i heard God say go outside to the water fountain. I did and it wasn't even working so i brushed it off. As i walked back i heard someone say my name. It was the guy from the day before, he began to tell me how the night before he came up with the idea to write a book about what all he had been through and get others to write their stories as well and publish it as a book of testimonies. I have never had a bigger smile in my life so we talked for a bit and i prayed for him on his way back to class. God did this and i went and began to thank him for using a sinner like me to help someone in there life.
As the week progressed we began to see God clearer and clearer and God was speaking to everyone differently but the spirit of God was in full force. Two of my friends here were in a place of doubt with God at the start of the week. You could tell by just looking at them that they were in a frustrating spot with God. One of them was having a rough day and took the day off of lectures. He took a long walk on the beach crying out to God for some sort of sign that he was even real. At that moment there was a dog passing by and he prayed that if God was real he would accept even a dog coming up and showing affection toward him as a sign that God is there. Nothing happened and he was in even more frustration. Meanwhile my other friend had just left lectures and was frustrated as well so she went to the beach for a walk. While she was on her walk she was praying for some sort of sign and out of nowhere a dog came up. She and the dog played with each other for a long while and she said as she played with him she could feel Gods presence and felt like the way the dog was pursuing her is how God is pursuing her. After a while she walked home and the dog followed her all the way home then went on its way. The next day she shared this and my other friend who had no sign the day before began to break down because he realized something that God had been teaching us all week. "When you bless others is when you truly see Christ". His sign he was praying for went to someone else. And when he heard about the story it was a sign to him as well. I began to call God "Jehovah Sneaky" due to his sneaky ways of moving in peoples lives.
I can honestly say that God has spoken to me and moved in my life more this week then any other week of my life. Anyone can feel and see exactly what i experienced this week but you have to surrender, humble yourself, be honest, be wholehearted, and be obedient to his call. Once you began to lay down all of your pride God we will move in ways you have never seen before. So my prayer to anyone reading this is that you lay down your pride and begin to bless others constantly and in doing that God will begin to reveal himself to you.
Here are some things God taught me this week:
- God calls us to surrender so that we may have a full life.
- God will take care of what you give up.
- An honest heart is a humble heart.
- The first step to humility is a humble heart.
- Intimacy calls us to obedience and obedience drives us into intimacy.

I hope you find this blog to be uplifting and confirming that God is real. I also hope that it challenges you in your walk. I hope this challenges you to laid down things in your life and give them to God, and i encourage you to fast from things that is a top priority in your life and let God take care of them for a while because if you do i promise God will move in your life. But most importantly laid down your pride, there is nothing good that comes from pride and there is no room from it in anyones life so lay it down at the cross.
Anyway if there anything you need as far as prayer or anything you want to say, ask, or send to me my email is thetfordaw@mail.lipsocmb.edu and I'm always up to hear from anyone. And if possible i would love to have prayer for the guy in the first story because that story is just beginning and God is still putting him in my life. Also prayer for my upcoming trip to India and Nepal and pray for our teams unity and our time while we are there. Thank you so much for everything. I can still feel your prayers halfway around the world.
In christ,
Andrew Thetford

Fear of God

Last week was amazing. I feel like every week here just gets better and better. It probably is because every week we are digging deeper and deeper into Gods heart. Last week we had a speaker come in named Glen Vines who is an Assembly of God minister who lived in Tibet for 10 years doing mission work. Glen was an amazing man of God who had a huge gift of prophecy.

The week started out with Glen telling us of how God wants us to fear Him enough to make good decisions. When God speaks to you, mainly through your conscience, the fear of making the wrong choice often makes you do the right thing. God spoke through Glen so much to us and he laid so many prophecies on our group and people in our group. I am kind of upset and unable to go in depth about his lectures because i lost my notes from the lectures.

But.... anyway God is moving in amazing ways. Last week the September DTS came into town from their outreaches for a week of debrief before heading home. This gave me an opportunity to just get a grasp on what all outreach is going to entail. The other group had their graduation on friday night and seeing all of them breaking down and so anxious/excited/sad to go home made me want to make sure i put everything i have into the rest of my time here.

Once Saturday came some of us went to a local national park with a waterfall(that we jumped off of), and it was absolutely beautiful. Some of us took a long walk in the park, which was a tropical rain forrest and it blew my mind with all i saw there. Sunday came and i chilled out most of the day then church came and there was a guest spaker but his message was amazing.

Sorry about the short blog this week but i can assure you that my next blog is going to be amazing, because this week is prayer week and there is already some amazing stuff happening here.

Thank you again to everyone for all yalls prayers, i can still feel them in my life. Also continue to pray for my upcoming trip to India and Nepal and the 5 others going with me, i believe God is going to show up big time.

Love,

Andrew Thetford

Evangelism- Byron Bay

This week was crazy/amazing/draining. We left Sunday morning for Byron Bay. When we finally got there after the 4 hour ride we arrived in a pretty heavily hippie influenced town. The people here were very laid back and chill. Once we got there we met up with the YWAM Byron Bay base leaders ones name was Ian who is originally from Florida and he was going to be in charge of our evangelism for the week. The other was Kevin who was the base founder and would be teaching our lectures during the day. The church we were having lectures at during the day was an Assembly of God near the beech and the guys would be sleeping there during the nights and the girls in local houses.

The first night we all went to the Sunday night church service at the church and afterward went to the grocery to get some food, then came back and went to sleep.

Monday was our first full day in Byron Bay. We began the day with lectures from Kevin, the topic was obviously evangelism. Kevin is one of the most amazing men i had ever been around, he's one of those people who you can just see the face of Christ in. During the lectures he would tell us ways to reach the people of Byron and he instilled in us a heart for the people there. Once lectures were over we had lunch then we walked down and got our first glimpse of the beautiful beach of Byron. This place was beautiful, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson both apparently have houses here and have been known to give random unscheduled concerts around the town, but we weren't lucky enough to see any of them. Anyway we sat on the beach for a bit then came back for dinner then Ian came in and then a group from the mission organization called the World Racers(a group of 30 Americans who are going to 11 nations in 11 months preaching the gospel) joined us, and Ian began to tell us about how we were about to go into the streets of Byron with cardboard signs with some sort of words on them that would somehow spark a conversation with people so that we could tell them about Christ. We were all a bit intimidated, but after some worship and encouragement we hit the streets. My friend Cheets and I took my guitar and his drum because we wanted to simply encourage people with music that would bless people. Once we played for a good while we packed up and started to walk off. Once we did i bumped into a guy named Andrew and began to just talk and make sure he knew i wasn't a bible beater and let him know why i was here and what i was doing. He was very interested and i feel our talk really showed him what Christ was really about and how much Christ truly loved him. After that i saw a group of Aboriginal people in an argument (aboriginals in Australia are very oppressed people, very similar to Native Americans they turn to alcohol most of the time to rid the hurt and pain they have experienced all there life) and i felt like i was to go over there. When I did I met yet another man named Andrew, this Andrew was an aboriginal who has lived in Byron all his life and the Argument was because he wanted to go and beat up a white man who had called Andrews girlfriend a racist name. Through their drunken rage i feel God really gave them a sense of peace when we prayed over them. After this emotionally draining night we went back and feel asleep, but not until i had an egg cheese and ketchup sandwich which i have become very god at making.

Tuesday began bright and early with a a cup or two of coffee and lectures beginning at 8. We talked all about evangelism again and began to hit on the 7 spheres of Evangelism: 1. Home- Family, 2. Church- Religion, 3. School- Education, 4. Media- Communication, 5. Celebration- Arts and Entertainment, 6. Economy- Business, and 7. Government- Judicial. Once lectures ended headed inland about 2 hours to a town called Nimbin, Nimbin is the Amsterdam of Australia with hippies all over and any kind of drug you can think of. We went and felt the best way to bless these people would be by having a barbecue because they would all more then likely want some munchies after there visit to the cannabis cafe.

we were right about the cookout, they came in large numbers. We had live music in the central park and hot dogs and chips for free. The people here were very chill and open to here about what we had to say, we had many many good conversations here. When the sun began to drop we headed back to Byron for a group meeting. Our meeting was called because our leader Mallory felt like our group needed a time to just let God move. People then began to say things of how they think God wants to move and then one girl stood up and felt like we were to pray over another girl in our group who has scoliosis. We all surrounded her and prayed as hard as we could for healing because we knew the pain she had been going through on the trip and we all wanted her healed. Once e finished praying Bryan, one of our leaders, felt like she was to sit in a chair with her legs lifted up so we could see the difference in the size of her legs. When she did we could all see where her scoliosis had caused one of her legs to be an inch and a half shorter then the other. Bryan said lets pray again. And unbelievably her leg began to grow once we started praying and grew to be even with the other. We were all amazed at the healing that just occurred. We didn't know what to do other then praise God for what he had done. Others came up that night and other healings occurred and the Holy Spirit was so strong that you couldn't deny it.

The next day we began with more cups of coffee and a spirit of excitement for what had happened the night before. During lectures we had some great conversations about what to say when people ask certain questions about the gospel. Questions ranged from creationism to eternity. We all learned so much form these conversations. After this me and a couple guys went to the Byron lighthouse which is the most eastern point in all of Australia. This lighthouse was up on a mountain overlooking all of the coast and was amazing. After this and a beech chill session we went back to the church for church then Ian came in and got us ready for yet another night of evangelism. This night we were going to go into the central park of Byron and set up live music to draw people in and have free pizza and good conversation on the side. I played a set of songs then went to the sides and met two guys from Sydney who were in Byron on a summer trip with some friends, we then began to talk about faith for 3 hours. At the start of the conversation their hearts were very hard towards Christ and his teachings. They had grown up in a catholic school and felt like faith was forced down their throats and felt like they had come to the conclusion that there is nothing out there as far as a God. By the end of the conversation the guys hearts were so broken before the lord and the spirit had touched them so deeply. Once I showed them how real and down to earth God really is it really began to speak to them. I then prayed for them and they went on their way. I am still praying for them to this moment and I'm certain God is going to use them to further his kingdom. When we got back to the church we had some people in our group who had come in contact with some spiritual warfare and needed prayers for protection and we really felt an attack from the enemy and needed to get rid of that spirit in our group. We ended up staying up till 3:30 am praying and encouraging each other. God moved in amazing ways that night.

Thursday marked our last day in Byron. We had our last bit of lectures. Once lectures ended, we went down to the beach to host a beach volleyball tournament. We went around the beach and had locals, tourist, and anyone else come join. It was teams of four and got pretty intense, but it was a blast and a great way to bless the community. Once the tournament ended we had another cookout on the beach and invited anyone on the beach to come. We had yet another chance to speak of how amazing God to these amazing people. After the cookout we went back and all passed out due to exhaustion.

Friday we woke up, packed up and headed out. Byron Bay was an amazing week and i grew in my faith so much. We finally arrived back home to the Sunny Coast and now we are chilling out and recharging for a week of lectures focusing on "The Fear of God".

God is moving here and stirring and growing in me as well as everyone in our group. Continue the prayers because they are working. Thank you so much for the intercession!