Matt Short

Well, today I arrived at the Oxford, NZ YWAM base and got settled in. Oxford is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I feel like I’ve hardly left home seeing how my mental picture of “home” has always been graced by CO’s luming Rockies and well it’s not much different here. The mountains are within hiking distance, the caps of which are glazed with fresh pouder and a cool breeze slips through the small town of Oxford. A breeze that brings the crisp expectancy of fresh snow and is highlighted by the smell of a nearby chimney’s smoke.

The highlight of my flight had to have been when a gentleman approached me in the LA airport to evangelize to me. He asked me, “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would go?” as he handed me a tract that I knew very well. I had handed out the exact same tracts out on my DTS, so I couldn’t help but chuckle. I was actually in a bit of a run when he stopped me so I quickly stated I was a missionary on my way to New Zealand and that I had passed out that exact same tract. His face lit up as I told him to pray for me, he yelled back, seeing how I had moved a bit past him by this point, “What’s your name?!” So I told him and it wasn’t till later that I should have stopped and prayed for him in his work. I ran back but couldn’t find him, but may that man be blessed to know that I am praying for him.

God has blessed me with many great leaders at this base. Without a doubt, I will learn plenty and grow closer to him. I got to see a couple people from my last visit, Mark Parker, Ben, Ben and Natalie which made my day. It’s made it quite a bit easier to feel at home seeing how I know a few people already. In other words, I’m not constantly stuck with the basic “what’s your name?” ” and where are you from?” conversations that take forever to go anywhere interesting.

I have my own bedroom here on base which is more than I’d expected, it’s rather nice. Being just about a fourth of the size of my room at home it’d be a bit cramped if someone did live in there with me. Tomorrow will be my first full day at the base and it starts bright and early with a morning intern devotional meeting. I have no doubt I’ll sleep GREAT tonight in this cool weather. PRAISE GOD! I’ve gotten maby 4 hours of very uncomfortable sleep in the past 36+ hrs.

 Thank you for your prayers, they mean more to me than you know! May God bless you and be with you in all you do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 1:37 pm and is filed under BDTS '07 Staffing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.