she said yes!!

Hello my friends,

I just wanted to let you know about some recent developments in my life.  I actually don't have a girlfriend anymore.  It's kind of been in the works for awhile now but it is now official and I just wanted to let all of you know.  On a positive note though another recent development that happened at roughly the same is that I do now have a fiancee'...

I'M ENGAGED!  On Thursday October 8, 2009 at about 6:15pm I was down on bended knee on a rock pier at the beach asking the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me.  And she said yes!!  Corey and I are officially going to get married!! 

I'm sure most people will want to know the story of the proposal so allow me to share:

It was Thursday.  Just another normal workday for Corey...or so she thought.  She went to her early morning pilates class as normal and when she returned to her room to get ready for the day, there was a strange note on her bedside table with her name on it.  As she read it she was informed that she indeed had the day off (cleared by the base directors wife!) and that she was cordially invited to her boyfriends house at 8am..and to come hungry.  Upon her arrival at my house (me being the boyfriend after all) she walked up the stairs (that had candles on them of course) and was greeted with a lovely little breakfast.  Candles, flowers, music playing and nice plates including a red one that said "You are special today"...and then she was served up "heart shaped" waffles with her favorite fruits, whip cream, and even authentic Canadian maple syrup.  Ok the syrup was from Australia but it definitely had a Canadian Maple leaf on the bottle.  Hey I tried. 

After breakfast we watched one of her favorite chick flicks and then she was given another letter.  This one said to prepare to hit the town!  We went dress shopping. And 3 hours and 3 malls later....we found one!  A nice white sundress that is quite flowy and almost reaches her feet and is very pretty.  After that we then went down to the beach and had some fish and chips while we fed a few crazy seagulls that were far more interested in our fries than in the tangible feeling of burning love that was in the air..

Then another letter.  It was pampering time.  Corey was driven by her good looking boyfriend (once again..that's me) to a nice day spa on the edge of the ocean and was treated to an hour long massage by a petite woman with fingers of iron.  I then picked her up and drove her back to her house...

Upon entering her house she was given another note.  This one informed her that her job was to get ready and look good.  She was to be ready by 5:45pm and was under strict orders to wait for a knock on the door before she went out front.  The knock finally came and one my friends who was dressed up nice escorted Corey (who looked absolutely incredible at this point) into a white stretch limousine.  Inside the limo was my laptop that had a slideshow (set to music of course) of my life since I was a baby and then the transition of MY memories to OUR memories as our paths have intertwined over the last year or so.  The limo then dropped her off at a remote beach....

...where she received another note.  She was greeted by another one of my friends and given a candle in a glass vase as well as my ipod set to a certain song.  Her instructions were to get to the sand, turn left, and find me....because I was waiting for her. 

After a long walk down the beach she eventually found me.  I was up on an old rock pier surrounded by candles and standing next to a chair and a guitar on a stand.  I helped her up onto the pier and then sat on the chair and sang and played her a song I had written for her.  Then it was down on one knee where I said a few things (and may or may not have gotten a bit choked up...don't' judge me), pulled out a ring and asked her if she would marry me...

And she said yes!! 

So we are both quite excited and are really looking forward to what the future is bringing.  It is gonna be quite the little adventure coming up in the next few months.  Not only is there the obvious transition into married life...but there is also a transition in the area of location and ministry that I will be sharing soon as well.  So stay tuned!  Things are getting shook up in my life in many different areas! 

Thanks again for all of your continued support and prayers.  Things are going so well and God is so good!  I'm getting married!!! 

Love you guys and you will hear more soon!!

Aaron

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And the silence ends!

Yep...This is the July DTS staff!!

The long period of silence is over! I was trying to wait until I sent out my official newsletter..but after over a month of technical difficulties I am just gonna go ahead and write to you all!

Things are flying here! The July DTS 2009 has been going for 3 weeks now and is in full swing! I am once again staffing the school just like last year. We have 22 students (compared to 12 last year!!) from all over including Australia, U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, New Zealand, and Fiji! I have moved houses so I live with the 8 boys and they are an amazing group of guys who just want to stand up and be men of God. They are all walking through different stuff and are wrestling and struggling to fully grasp what this means (not unlike their staff!) but it is so evident that they just want to walk as men of strength and men of integrity. I'm excited to see where God is going to take this school because they have an amazing capacity to make a serious impact for the kingdom. Full speed ahead!

I am doing well and continue to be challenged in many areas of my life and my walk with Christ. I am learning that this thing called life is an amazing journey if we are just willing to put our hand up and say "yep God, I'm willing!" God and I have been working through a lot of "life direction" stuff lately and He continues to surprise me by the path He is leading me along. Through it all, God continues to show himself faithful and reveal that He really is a good God. He is for us and not against us. What does it look like to have the God of the universe on “our side” in life. He is not a God who causes pain but a God who desires to see us fully grasp who we are as HIS children and who desires to see us walk fully into the inheritance He has for us and His sons and daughters. That is easy to say...it's another thing to believe that with all your heart and have your life reflect that. This is the lesson I am learning and continue to get revelation on. It's causing quite a shift in a lot of areas in my life...


And Corey's home!! She went home at the beginning of May to visit family and do a LOT of support raising. She had no supporters at all and was basically starting from scratch to see money come in. She had no idea when she would be able to come back (didn't even have money for a plane ticket) but through a few series of events it has all worked out! The only thing was she didn't tell me she was coming home...


Two of my friends wanted to take me out early for my birthday dinner and as the three of us were sitting at the restaurant they handed me a letter from Corey. It happened to be our 7 month anniversary and they said she wanted them to give it to me on that day. They wanted me to read it right then and as I got to the end of the letter, the last line was “why are you still reading this? Turn around!” And after slight confusion I peeked a look behind me and there she was! I had no idea at all that she was even capable of coming back..much less that she had traveled half-way around the world! So yeah...that was quite the good surprise. To put it mildly.


And thank to everyone who wrote me a card for my bday (you know who you are!)...and especially by church family! My parents sent me a package in the mail and it was FULL of cards from seemingly just about every person at the church! Thank you so much! It was great going through and reading them all and it really meant a lot that you all took the time to do that. Thank you!


Alright well I'm sure there are more stories to come now that DTS is rockin' along....I won't be silent anymore!! Thanks for everything and talk to you all soon!!

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DEEPER!

"Deeper" was awesome! 12 Youth Street teens (and 4 non-stop staff) spent 8 days at a Christian music festival and then a wilderness survival camp with the sole intent of developing these kids relationships with God. The festival was fun with the highlight being able to see Audio Adrenaline play a reunion show which also proved to be their last ever...but the epic time of the camp was definitely the survivor camp. I was expecting things like rope courses and maybe some canoeing with other outdoor adventure type of things....I was wrong. First our bags got stripped of everything but the bare essentials. No pillow, no deodorant, no toothpaste, no soap, no etc. We were supposed to be out for 4 days but we could only bring 3 shorts/pants and 3 shirts. So up at 4;30am on the first day, we hiked in the pouring rain for about an hour until we were a long way away from anything....and then it began. They gave us a milk crate full of non-perishable food (that of course had no labels) with sardines being the best surprise of all. That food had to last us the entire time we were there. We had to ration. For our shelter, they gave us 2 tarps and 3 pieces of small rope. They said they would provide one dinner for us...so on that first night they brought us our dinner. Chicken. The only thing was....they were still alive. You better believe we ate chicken that night though...

Throughout the course we had different leadership challenges with each person having the chance to lead a small group for an extended period of time. They presented different obstacles that we had to overcome, different competitive games, a 12 kilometer hike with challenges along the way...all in all a very challenging time for the teens (and possibly the staff as well!) but a time that saw enormous amounts of growth as well. Life lessons as well as God lessons were implemented throughout each activity/challenge and we saw the kids grow a lot in character as well as spiritually. One of the teens was a Christian but didn't know how to listen to God...and left hearing God's voice on a daily basis. He didn't know any of the books of the Bible but he felt several times like God was laying verses on his heart so he would get out his Bible and look until he found them. We also had another girl give her life to God for the first time. Really cool.

So yes, Deeper was intense for sure but it ended up being so good. Incredibly tough at times...but God really showed up and some amazing things happened in these kids lives that will last much longer than the 8 days we were gone. Thank you for all your prayers!

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Jeep and IPHC!

Hello! It has been a wild year so far down under..and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Nature was the sad big story and I hear it even made news back in the States. Wildfires (most unfortunately set by arson) ravaged Victoria, Australia and the devastation included around 300 people losing their lives. A lot of the towns down there are quite small and isolated and the fires would quickly block off the one or two exits of the town leaving the people with nowhere to escape. It was an incredibly tragic time but even in the midst of disaster came story after story of good people giving time, money, shelter, and aid to those who were hurting. Even in the pain....God was moving. Where I am in Queensland, floods were the culprit. At one point over 62% of our HUGE state was underwater! Again, many cool stories have come out of the struggles...including when one of the skateboarding teams in Youth Street gave up their Saturday of skating to travel about an hour away so they could help clean up one of the worst hit towns. They were able to really help some people in their time of need...and two of the Youth Street kids even gave their lives to the Lord that day!

I have been working in our registrar department where I spend a lot of time on the phone and writing emails to people who are looking at coming...specifically to the July DTS that I will again be staffing this year. As of now we have 7 accepted students..and we want more! Keep the school in your prayers and that people will come...not for the sake of big numbers....but because I have seen first hand how a DTS can affect someone's life. People experience God in a real way on DTS...and their lives are forever changed. God has a real desire to meet people and renew them from the inside out...and DTS is a great avenue for this to happen in an amazing way! So I'd love it if you keep the DTS in your prayers even now before it begins!

Next week I leave to go on "Deeper"...it's a 8 day camp I staffed last year that is for Youth Street kids who really want to grow deeper in relationship with God. This year we will driving about 18 hours south where we will go to a Christian music festival for 2 days, and then travelling another bunch of miles east where we are going on a "NIKO" camp. It's one of those survivalist camps out in the middle of nowhere that is meant to challenge kids (and staff!) to persevere when times get tough. Teamwork and character are two things that will be stressed as well as tested! The leaders of this camp are very trustworthy but even us as staff do not know the details of exactly what we be doing! I will be sure and let you know what happens! The one thing I do know is that I will be driving the bus for hours and hours as we go to and from the camp! Ha!

Yes I did say "driving the bus"...you see I got my Queensland bus license a few weeks ago. I will use it quite a bit hauling kids around during Youth Street...but it also happened that I was able to get it about 2 days before Corey arrived back from PNG. So for a little surprise I was able to drive the 4 1/2 hours to pick up her and her team (I may or may not have had flowers too)! She had no idea and the secret was able to be kept..so it was really fun. Their Primary Health care team had an amazing time and have some incredible stories upon their return. Their team was able to rescue a little baby whose mother had been raped and then died during childbirth. Because of the circumstances surrounding the birth of this child, the village had deemed it cursed and had left it to die. One family in the village had mercy on this baby and had tried to help it but then that ENTIRE family was viewed as having a curse. The father heard about missionaries nearby (Corey's team) and traveled over 3 hours by foot to share his story. Corey's team was able to visit the village, speak about the sanctity of life, tell them the baby was not cursed and that it should be cared for. Upon hearing this..the village had an entire change of heart and mothers were lining up to nurse the "cursed" baby. Not only that...but the team was able to set up a way to be able to support this family financially for at least the next 5 years which will allow medical care, food, and schooling for this child! So they had an amazing time and were able to provide healthcare, teaching, prayer, etc. for around 2,000 people in PNG! Incredible.

So yes things are good around here. It is definitely good having Corey back around again. And I sold my Jeep! After over 14 months on the market...it's sold! Although it's maybe a bit sad to see it go.... but I know it is right. Thanks to all of you who I know prayed for months that it would finally sell.

Well that is about it for now! I'll let you all know how Deeper goes. Talk to you soon!

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Transition

The pic is of warriors in Papua New Guinea...where Corey is! Kinda cool huh? Anyways...

Back down under! Things have been good albeit full of transition. I changed jobs, moved houses, changed from snow to intense heat...and came back to a girlfriend-less base.

For the next six months I will be working in our registrar office. I’m answering phones, writing emails, and doing whatever else it takes to get our students here safe and sound and ready to rock 'n roll. There are four of us in the office…and I am the only guy. Which leads to more than one joke about “Aaron the Registrar girl.” I know….cute.

I also moved into a long but narrow flat/apartment that is off base property. It’s “off” by about ½ a block. Me and two other guys (Ivan and Buddy: an Aussie and a Kiwi respectively) live there and we had nothing….no plates, silverware, shower curtain etc. I was living out of my suitcase. Someone did give us a 12inch tv and Ivan already had a really nice surround sound system…so we had a small screen that could go really loud. What else do we need right?

We have now acquired a few more things…don’t worry about us. The bathroom floor appreciated the shower curtain.

While it is quite hot and really humid….it is also SUPER rainy. We had cyclone warnings (a hurricane that spins the opposite way) but it broke up right before it hit land. We have only had two dry days since Christmas and we are talking tropical downpours. Flooding is really bad…one of our base houses got flooded, roads are shut all over the place, and some towns are totally isolated with no one able to get in or out. There has been a LOT of rain. I did take advantage of it last night though…after work we went and played rugby. Footy shorts in the rain….what could be better?

And I still have not heard my incredible girlfriends voice…now over 5 weeks. Her team leader traveled 2 hours to a satellite phone the other day so we could know that their team is alright. She said they held a small seminar about malaria under a tree for a few people….and 350 people ended us sitting around the tree! I’m sure she is gonna have some stories when she gets home. I look forward to those….and her getting home. :)

I think that is all for now. Hope everyone is doing well. It was great to be home!

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