Matt Short

Time flies when your having fun!

And participating in the Lord’s good work is FUN!!!

Seeing God work through the 24 individuals I’ve spent the past 4 months discipling has a reward which I have not found words to describe yet. Since my last blog I’ve finished my pastoral visits, returning to NZ on January 28th and spent time with the New Zealand Trekking Team. After a couple weeks on the North island with Nicki and her team I then hitch hiked back to Oxford.

Throughout January and February I spent hours upon hours in deep conversation with non-believers discussing everying from sex and drugs to the complexity of who God is as our Father. Many poored out their hearts, some were stuborn while others simply wanted the conversation to end. I learned what it ment to be looked down on for my faith as well as commended. Yet through it all, I looked forward MOST to when I could encourage, challenge or exort one of my own. Ministering to my teams, staff and students was my greatest passion.

We now begin our final week of the DTS being our Debrief and Re-entry week. Please keep the students as well as myself in your prayers. There’s already SOOOO much I’ve put into this week but I all I want is to depend on God for STRENGTH and WISDOM as this school draws to a close. I want the students to be able to take everything they’ve learned from this time and run all the harder for Christ, but that’s SO much easier to say than do.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I see everyday how they shake the spiritual around us.

Bless yah -Matt

Quick, catch-up-update as internet is ridiculously expensive here. I’m in Thailand visiting one of the outreach teams from my school. They’re doing well, working through their own struggles. However that’s fine, struggles are expected on outreach. =)

I’m on an island in South Thailand called Koh Tao. It’s a stinkin amazing super tropical island and I’ve had some amazing conversations with people. Last night over dinner I had a girl open up to me about how she’d had an abortion this past year and was feeling horible about it. Joel, one of the students and I shared with her how God loves her unconditionally and though His heart is broken over such a choice that He wishes to bring healing in her life and show her how much he loves her. We then prayed for her and are continuing our relationship. I am praying that through our love and genuine friendship with her she’ll be open and receptive to salvation and beginning a relationship with the Lord.

Then even more, the night before I had another GREAT conversation with two others. They were super open to hearing what I had to say and had tons of questions about my faith. They’d be raised very traditional/religiously but had little expirience with WHY Christianity was such a big deal. They didn’t fully understand the concept of salvation but God provided my friends and I with the words we needed to answer all their questions.

We have been SOOO rediculously blessed here with ministry as well as physically. I got to go snorkling with sharks for the first time yesterday. It was AMAZING!!! Thank you for all your prayers and support. I can’t wait to share all the other incredible testimonies with you when I get home.

God Bless and Take care

Matt Short

LOTS has happened within the past week and a half so this is the short and sweet of what has happened.

I found out on the 28th’ish that my passport was still at the imigration office and that I wouldn’t be able to retreave it until the 5th of January. That blew because it meant that I had to change my flight to Australia, so I rescheduled a flight for the 8th of January instead. I am really bummed that my time with the Aus team is being cut short but maby I can catch up with them later if I need to, so no worries. On a more possitive note, I was able to go in and retreave my passport the other day, despite the madness of public offices such as this one. I also payed off the amount for my flight change… so I’m well on my way.

In saying all that, God is good and he works in odd ways sometimes; me not leaving for Australia was of some benefit this past week. I received news on the 31st that Henrika, a student on the NZ Climbing outreach team has a sister in need of open heart surgery sometime within the coming week. So Henrika will be returning home to be with her. She’ll be flying home on the 13th of January, please keep her and her family in your prayers. On receiving this news I drove up to see the NZ Climbing team in Takaka and after spending time one-on-one, worshiping, and interceding with the team I can see that they are doing very well, but sad to lose Henrika. I really enjoyed my time with the team up in Takaka and felt it was very helpful for me to visit them. I am now back at the base preparing to leave for Australia tomorrow.

I am sad to lose Henrika. She’s had such a rough DTS, braking her leg the first week, then she got scabies and now this… but I met with her while up in Takaka and I was excited to hear that she seems to have learned the most over these past two weeks on outreach. I can definitely understand her longing to be home during this time to support her sister and nieces. Her sister has two daughters which Henrika will come live with and take care of while their mother recovers. I am praying that the Lord will continue to bring her further understanding and faith through what she’s learned on this DTS as she returns home to serve her family.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. May the Lord Bless you with abundant intimacy with His Holy Spirit in 2009 and may your faith be built imessurably as you walk with Him every day.

-Matt Short

My teams are off and running on their own!!! It’s crazy to think that the lecture phase of the DTS has already come to a close. It went so FAST but it’s been good… full of challenges, struggles, but plenty of growth. The four outreach teams left last Saturday on December 20th for their respective locations/ministries (Thailand, Australia, NZ/Climbing, and NZ/Hiking) and are doing well.

I, myself, have a bit of time to get my feet beneath me before I run off to provide the teams with pastoral visits and I’m trying my hardest to use it wisely. On that note, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!! I hope you’ve all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with your families and taken time to rejoice on this day celebrated as our Lord and Savior’s Birthday. I am partially writing this update to rejoice in the Lord for the testimony He has given me through my travels over his birthday, but first more info on my travel plans these next couple months. So my plans look something like this as of right now:

January 1^st - Fly to Australia and visit Steven and Jessica’s outreach team for 10 days

January 12^th – Fly to Thailand to visit Kieran’s outreach team for a couple weeks

January 27^th – Fly back to New Zealand to catch up with the two NZ outreach teams (Denver and Nicki’s)

February 14^th -20^th – Teams return to base for Debrief week. I’ll work along side the base director to help the students draw together all they’ve learned over this time and sort out how they can use it in their lives. I’m REALLY excited for this week. I feel this week can be one of the most crucial weeks of an entire DTS.

February 20^th – GRADUATION!!!

February 23^rd -26^th – Staff Debrief

March 2^nd – I fly HOME!!!

Alright, now for all of you who are still with me. Here’s a bit of something to build your faith:

I left this past Tuesday with plans to travel to Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in NZ, for Christmas but God needed to get my attention about a few things. That morning I sat reading my Bible and praying when the Lord specifically lead me to Matthew 6:33 which basically states, “Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness and all these things I will give to you as well.” All these things being, all the worldly cares and concerns that man kind values.

Now to level with you, I’ve been quite sick of simply running a program lately. I naturally revert to it and so easily can try to do things by my own strength instead of looking for and trusting in the Lord’s guidance. And God was really trying to grab my attention with this verse. So I took this as a challenge and felt lead specifically to leave on my trip “ill-prepared” in a way of trusting in the Lord’s provision. Thus I removed my cooking utensils, extra supply of food, and warm clothing from my pack. I also felt clear guidance to skip breakfast and get out to the road because the Lord was going to provide a ride to prove his faithfulness. With nothing more than an empty grumbling stomach to lose, I headed out to the main road in Oxford and popped out my thumb.

God is SOOOO GOOD! Of course He provided. Within minutes I was in a car with a gentleman named Sam who took me out to coffee. It wasn’t till half way through our 3 hour drive that I opened up and shared how grateful I was for the coffee and how God was using him to build my faith. I don’t know if Sam was a Christian or not but I’ll tell you this, I challenged him to reconsider his faith in an all powerful God who loves us enough to care about the stupid little silly things.

To shorten things so that this isn’t like reading a book… I wound up in Timaru where I was blessed to be taken out by a pastor I knew. Pastor Gordon Rosewall spoke on this DTS so it was great to catch up with him and share how the school’s been doing. However, Timaru was a bit out of my way and I initially didn’t plan on going there, but that’s just where God lead me.

By around 6pm I was in a small town named Fairlie, well on my way but beginning to lose hope of ever getting to Mt. Cook by night fall. I had just decided to bed down for the night when a car pulled over and offered me a ride all the way through to Wanaka, where Nicki’s outreach team was, if I wanted. That was REALLY cool since the way to Wanaka passed directly past the Mt. Cook turn off. I took this ride with Peter, a plastic surgeon from Christchurch who had done a fair bit of hitching of his own in younger days. Once more, I had great conversations with Peter and got to share a bit of my testimony with him… but that’s not what I’m writing about.

This is a good time for an intermission. If you need a re-fill of pop corn or need to go take a leak. Now would be the best time… you won’t want to miss this next bit.

I had Peter drop me off at the Mt. Cook turn off because I still had a peace about going there, even though by this point I had decided to go visit Nicki’s team in Wanaka instead of hike up to the hut at Mt. Cook for Christmas. It was as if there was still something I needed to do but I didn’t know what. So I got out, FLIPPIN STOKED to be within sight of Mt. Cook by this time of day. I got out my i-pod and had a nice little worship session of my own out in the middle of no where as cars drove by. Once more, GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD!

A lovely 30 something year old woman then pulled over and picked me up. It was sort of ironic because automatically I recognized her as a Department of Conservation Officer who had helped us previously at Mt. Cook. Thus she also recognized me as a YWAMer and Christian as she said, “Ahhh, good a Christian. I have some things to discuss with you.” Haha, I took a deep breath and went for my spiritual work gloves. Just kidding but I did regret having put my bags in her car at that moment. Joanne is a born again Christian with a wonderful heart. She shared with me some of the struggles she’d been experienced lately and simply opened her heart to me about some serious stuff her friend is going through. I loved being a sounding board. I probably didn’t offer her much consolation but I do believe I helped her process these issues.

An hour and some later we were in Mt. Cook Village and Joanne offered me dinner, the “privilege” of helping her rap presents , and a backyard to sleep in…. so I took it. I was greatly blessed to have a sister in Christ that I could be open with and enjoy some good Christmas spirit with. I loved it! The next morning I got up well refreshed, had a good quiet time, rapped a small present of gratitude for Joanne which I left in her flat while she ran off to work, and jumped back out on the road.

Chapter 2

haha, jk… but thanks for sticking with me if you have. I pray you’re being encouraged by this. Don’t worry there isn’t TOO much left.

Christmas Eve I finally made it to Wanaka where I surprised Nicki’s team and joined them for some Wake boarding and tubing. That was a delightful surprise for all of us but they’d met a hitch hiker who had the hook ups, I guess. I DEFINITELY didn’t complain seeing how I REALLY enjoy wakeboarding! The two nights I spent in Wanaka I slept in the team’s van in order to save money for outreach, so once again, God provided.

Christmas the team and I spent with the backpackers and owners of the hostel having a barbeque which was great! I LOVE my school! It was super refreshing to spend that time with Nicki’s team. I really enjoyed it.

Here’s where the stark contrast that I’m still contemplating begins. My hitch hiking home became SUPER ANNOYING when I got stuck in the stupid town of Methven, an hours drive from Oxford. I couldn’t get a ride out of it for the life of me! It was ridiculous, but I’m still tying to sort out why God provided all those amazing things and then challenged me in this way. None the less, He is good and after staying the night in a hostel I hitched home this morning and am STOKED to sleep in my own bed.

God Bless and be encouraged this New Year, for our God is our great and mighty provider! He is faithful to the end! Amen

With only one week left of lectures and the teams leaving for outreach nerves are tense and anxiety high. Everyone’s stoked for a change of pace but unsure of what will come of the next two months. And though for the most part I am describe my own feelings there I know that at least 80% of the school’s in the same boat.

The students are in a season of shaking right now. The past three weeks have revealed many things to them. The most obvious things are poor attitudes and spiritual struggles, however many good things have also become evident. There was a word spoken by this past week’s speaker referring to “God shakes what can be shaken, that afterwards only what is unshakable will remain” and this describes exactly what is needed among the school right now.

Last week we had a rather eccentric local pastor speak on the Holy Spirit which raddled peoples cages a bit. Nothing “crazy” or “weird” happened the entire week, even though we may have needed it, but that was more due to the reluctance of the school. Then after the last lecture on Friday Bobby, a student who’s carried a hematoma in his leg since the second week of lectures, tripped tearing the hematoma. Everyone gathered around and began to pray, but soon it became evident that this time wasn’t needed for Bobby’s sake but the school’s. The floor was opened up for people to share, confess things, and ask for forgiveness… and let me tell you, we needed it! The school needed to experience a bit of deeper unity and we found it there, being humble, being open, and straight forward with each other.

I’ll admit, I hardly knew what to do at the time, but as I’ve said before, “I am SO grateful for my staff!” I didn’t want to nor felt the need to “lead” that time. Even though I did share some things the Lord lead me to say, I mostly allowed my staff to run things. They stepped up to the plate and proved their maturity in that time, leading as they felt the Lord’s guidance.

My staff and I later met to share our feelings on what happened that afternoon and that too was a great time. We spent a good couple hours just hanging out, praying for each other, and discussing how to lead the rest of the school in this humility and unity. I LOVE IT! I am going to miss my staff GREATLY when they leave for outreach but have COMPLETE faith in them.

In conclusion, the school has one final week of lectures taught by Graeme and Sabrina Walsh on “Healing and Deliverance” then they’ll clean up the base and leave on the 20th. There are four teams: one going to Thailand, one going to Australia, and two others remaining in NZ reaching out to two different genres of backpackers. My role during these next two months is to provide the teams with pastoral help. I’ll be visiting each team at some point, but I’m not there to lead. I’ll be there to support them, challenge them, encourage them or deal with any major problems if they arise.

Please keep me in your prayers as I attempt to walk in the Lords wisdom and challenge these young adults to move by faith. I am SO grateful for your prayers. Our God has blessed me greatly with a wonderful support group. May the Lord bless you for your commitment and support of this ministry. And glory be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as these twenty students take the good news into this practically unreached people group, defined by the name Global Nomadic Youth (more commonly known as Backpackers). May the Lord bless them with safe travels and grace as they speak.

Amen

Following the theme of my last post, this past week I met another man during our Friday night in Christchurch who was very open and willing to talk. Dave was a older gentleman who had grown up in Colorado, lived in Alaska for many years and now moved his family out to NZ. He said that he had been raised Catholic, born again but had recently renounced his faith. At first I went digging, finding out that he believed that he’d been wronged by leaders of a church and couldn’t believe in that faith anymore. However, soon I felt a check in my spirit that said, “SHUT UP and listen”. Everything I said and encouraged him with went in one ear and out the other so I shut up and listened. Quickly I learned that Dave was a very broken and sad man who lacked a healthy relationship with his father. At the conclusion of our conversation Dave admitted to me that he was honestly lost without his faith, and though still struggling, wanted to regain his faith in the Lord.

This became a cool testimony that I used to prove our speakers point this week. Our speaker, Mike Dodge spoke on Evangelism these past two days and outlined a few different ways we can evangelize and to some students surprise one of his points was “Being Silent”. That’s exactly what Dave needed that night, someone to be silent and lovingly listen to him as he processed why he’d given up his faith. So I shared that testimony and were able to encourage the students to be attentive to the Holy Spirit’s leading in evangelism. One day I may need to yell in someone’s face to get them to where God can speak with them, and may God give me grace on that day, but that wasn’t what Dave needed and the Lord knew that.
Last week we had Dean Sherman’s “Love, Sex and Relationships” video series for lectures which sorta dragged since there was no lecturer there to interact with, but I enjoyed facilitating and running discussion times. I was also able to liven things up with what I deemed our “Communication and Care Egg-xercise”. For the egg-xercise the students were paired off and given an egg to look after the entire week. The only stipulation was that one of the two must have their egg on them at ALL times. I wish I were a scientist because I feel like I would have recorded some very interestingly comical data about communication break downs within relationships.

The week before that Patrick Dodson taught on “Vision and Calling”. Even though I’ve heard his teaching before I feel like I’m finally in a place where I can begin to build longer term goals, where as before I don’t feel like I had the platform of experience as I do now. Patrick’s goal throughout the week is to help you discover the gifts God has created you with and then explore all the possibilities that could come from them. His lectures are INCREDIBLE and something I’d recommend anyone to look into. I’ve added his website to my blog role on the left. Click on the picture/link and it will take you to his website where you can find his materials, podcasts or get in touch with him.

The school is doing well. Outreach is approaching quickly and everyone’s getting excited. We have four teams: Thailand, Australia, and two NZ teams. One student has decided not to go on outreach which is a disappointment but I won’t burden a team with someone who doesn’t want to be there. So in the end, I’m left sad yet knowing it’s better for the sake of the team, even if it isn’t for him.

If you’ve read this far THANK YOU… this is the third time I’ve typed this update because twice my computer froze on me losing my work. God Bless and take care

-Matt Short

WOOOOOHOOOO!!! I figured out how to post pics on my blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, I wish I had more time to write these blogs! I feel like I’m HARDLY doing the Lord justice. He’s doing so many incredible things that he should be glorified for but I just can’t write them all out. My hope rests in some day sharing these stories with you all in person. But for the moment, one more:

Two Friday’s ago I was blessed to join the Friday night evangelism team that does their ministry in the Christchurch city square. It was great to be back in this setting seeing how this was the ministry I lead last year but wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The square in Christchurch is a pretty cool place. Tons of people just hang around and a couple churches come down every Friday night to do free sausage sizzles and play worship. In the Square Ministry we occasionally will have something planned such as skits, activities or other creative presentations that the students can use to share the Gospel. However, more commonly we just hang around the square and talk with people about faith, love, relationships, God, the Gospel or anything else as we feel lead. So that’s what I did.
I was just hanging out with a few of my students, throwing around a frisbee, when I noticed a kid sitting on a bench near me that had a similar bag as I do, so used that as my door and asked him about it. Nathan was a 20 year old Kiwi dude that had grown up in Auckland but had recently moved down to Christchurch because of some rough living situations at home.

And may I put the story on pause for a moment. The 2nd as well as 3rd comment he ever made to me was, “F’ off”. So let me use that as an example to say, “Don’t ever let someone’s demeanor put you off in evangelism”. By the time we were finished chatting he was glad that I had sat down with him and offered me a bear as a gesture of friendship (that I obviously couldn’t accept, but that’s beside the point).

Ok, sorry…. little bunny trail, but we’re back. Nathan was a bit hacked that I was the same age as him and traveling just as he really hoped to soon, but I was able to use that to encourage him. Referring to Nepal, where I got the bag previously mentioned, I told him that I had been seeking out God and that I’ve been blown away to discover how much he truly loves us. It was comical to hear him claim that he was “sort of an agnostic” while at the same time admit that, “there has to have been SOMETHING that created all this”. So I went on to share with him how much I was blown away by God’s love and my respect for the church members who come down every Friday night to simply love on people. And he could understand that.

Now this isn’t a salvation story but I want to encourage you all with this. Nathan would still be completely ignorant to the fact that there is a God out there who LOVES him unconditionally if it weren’t for that simple conversation. Just LOVE people, that’s what I charge you with today. LOVE is the route of EVERYONE’s calling in life. I’m terrible at it most of the time but I hope and pray that Nathan may have experienced a glimpse of God’s love for him that night.

Glory to God

Anyways, besides that things are going well. I’m SUPER busy now with Outreach teams chosen, but God is good and he’s helping me keep my head. Speaking of, two weeks ago I finalized Outreach teams. One’s going to Thailand, one to Australia and the other two are remaining in New Zealand. Sadly we don’t have an outreach coordinator at the base so that job falls on the staff members leading each team as well as myself so we’ve got quite a bit of work ahead of us. Please be praying things go smoothly and that planning is easy.

Well, I feel like that’s plenty for now. God Bless, and thank you for reading.

-Matt Short

Last night was a crucial night for the school and I feel its important for me to share it with you. To give you some background, the school is in its third week of lectures and we as staff have felt the enemy’s attack, withholding the students from receiving all that the Lord has for them the past two weeks. We feel like it’s been very difficult for many of them to engage, to hear God’s voice, and act on it. And last night I was sick of it! I wanted nothing to do with it. My spirit was raging within me and my heart was burning within me, longing to see the Holy Spirit move.

Now as we would any Wednesday night we entered into worship last night around 7:30pm. But this night my heart rate was up, as was my blood pressure probably and I couldn’t stop shaking. Not rediculously or convulsing or anything but I just shook uncontrolably with anticipation. I’d never expirienced it before and don’t know how else to explain it so we’ll leave it at that. We started with a Hillsong worship song which I felt was quite ironic because I struggle with Hillsong music. Whenever I sing they’re music I typically feel like I’m just trying so hard with my flesh and seeing no results in my spirit, so yeah, IRONIC. The next few songs weren’t much, and the whole school struggled through them as if we were climbing some never ending cliff that had little to no hand holds, but then came a new song. The song, “This is our God” I heard for the first time on staff training a few weeks ago and I asked my worship leader to learn it so we could sing it. As we stood there singing this beautiful song I couldn’t shake two words the Lord layed on my heart, “Sweet Release”.

My “sweet release”. I didn’t know what it meant but I wanted it! Something! Anything to shake the dull, dragging existence I felt stuck in at the moment. That’s when the words, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty” came to my heart and I sang them. I sang them with everything I had in me. I LOVE that phrase because as referred to in Revelations, the seraphim sing them night and day, NEVER ENDING, and they never grow old or become less true. Now it took a few times before others chimed in but not before long the whole room was singing this simple phrase. And as we sang with the seraphim these wonderfully uplifting yet simple words the presence of the Holy Spirit was finally released. People began pressing in, singing out what the Lord laid on their hearts and finally began worshiping Him as He deserves.

We later opened things up for ministering to one another and the students, for the most part, dove in. An hour and a half later, the Spirit was still moving, still speaking and people were (hopefully) finally beginning to understand. It was AMAZING to finally expirience such a release amongst the students and GLORY to God for all that He did last night!

Thank you all for your prayers, I greatly appreciate them!

God Bless,

-Matt

I am beginning this blog by saying that I am SO blessed to have the staff that I do! And God has blessed me with one incredible bunch of students. Please see my Photo Gallery for pictures of me and my staff as well as the school photo. You can see a larger version of the photos if you follow the link that says “View flickr photo page”. Then you can see an even larger version if you click on “All Sizes” at the top left corner of the photo.

This past week was our first week of the BDTS and I feel like the students got a lot out of it. I spoke on “Unity within the Body of Christ” while others on my staff team spoke on “Bible Studies”, “Worship”, “Intercession”, “Devotions” and “Hearing God’s Voice”. Teaching for an entire hour was slightly stretching for some of my staff but that’s good. They’re here to be stretched and challenged probably more than the students will be. I know I have been! They pushed in and delivered messages that I feel like were right on what the students needed to hear.

I have been absolutely blown away by their commitment to serving as leaders. Being that this is my first time leading a DTS its pretty obvious that there will be things that I will overlook or forget to plan, but anytime that happens I know I have my staff to fall back on. Such as, last Sunday night was our welcome BBQ for the students and I had no one scheduled to help clean up afterwards. Without even a word my staff were in there cleaning dishes and helping put away food. It’s those simple things that help me SO much! I don’t know how to express to you how much I really appreciate these guys… I wish you could meet them.

I have been very impressed by the student’s hunger for the word too. I suppose it shouldn’t be much of a surprise though. While praying for them before the school I felt like God was saying this would be a school that really dug deep into the word and pressed into his presence in worship. They have done exactly that. God has SOOOO much for these guys and I’m STOKED to have a front row seat in watching the hand of God!

A “quick” story:

At the beginning of the week my mind was cluttered with all sorts of odds and ends. No longer were the students simply pictures, they had become tangeable, touchable beings that I needed to actually do something with now, haha. And though it sounds quite strange I was rather overwhelmed by this thought. On Monday my staff and I shared our Testimonies. I kicked us off and ran through mine real quickly, missing very crucial points of my life and not really glorifying God as much as He deserves for where I am now and what I’ve been through. Afterwards I took my seat and listened in on all that my staff had to say. Almost immediately I began to be grieved by my pathetic presentation of all that God has done for me. I HAD to say something about it! After my staff had finished, I stood up before the class and apologized for giving the students probably the worst testimony that I had ever given. It SUCKED to stand there and admit my stupidity! Humbled and looking quite silly in front of a room of twenty some odd individuals that I am to lead these next five months, I knew it was right. Later I looked back on it and realized that though my testimony wasn’t used to bring him glory my humility was. That’s good enough for me seeing how that’s the most important thing to me. I pray that God uses this to help the students know that they can be open and vulnerable in this place. I am not here to judge them, but to help them grow closer to our Lord and Saviour despite their downfalls and struggles. And I am right along side them in this journey.

I pray this testimony builds your faith as well, and challenges you to be humble even though it may suck.

God Bless

-Matt Short