The Internship has begun!

Hey Everyone!

So I have just finished the first 2 weeks of my staff leadership internship here in Australia. The past 2 weeks, my typical week day has started at about 8 am with

lectures ranging on topics from leadership skills and stress management to fire safety and

food handling. These lectures went until lunch time, then after lunch I would work in the Youthstreet office. I have many responsibilities in the Youthstreet office, for example, I enter data into the computer about how many youth attended Youthstreet the past

Saturday, as well as information about new crew (thats what we call the youth) into a general

database system so we have emergency contact information and

general phone numbers and things for each of the crew. I am also responsible for leading a small discipleship training group of 3 guys who attend Youthstreet. I plan a schedule for every wednesday that coincides with the curriculum we are going through. The purpose of it is to challenge these young men in their faith and encourage them to be active in their faith as well. I am also in charge of school programs that we do every Friday. We visit several schools and do a program that usually consists of games, social time, and a "God Message". It's like a small homegroup or biblestudy at the school. It really cool because we

are doing these programs in public schools. Public schools here have a Christian chaplain, which is such a good resource for us because we can partner with them to reach these youth in

a deeper way. I also lead a girls biblestudy on saturdays during Youthstreet. Its been encouraging because I don't feel qualified to lead a biblestudy and have just been having doubts about my ability to lead but God has been confirming my role as a biblestudy leader.

For example, I had been reading in Hosea during the week, and randomly decided to read

a small devotional from one of my books for Biblestudy. Guess what? The devotion for that day just so happened to be in Hosea!! Coincidence?

I think not. And then this past week, I was planning on showing a video by Louie Giglio called How Great is Our God. That night our speaker during

Youthstreet was talking about the greatness of

God and mentioned that exact video! It was exciting

because God was using others to confirm what I had planned for my Biblestudy girls. So thats what I have been doing the past two weeks.

http://www.ywamrto.org/profile/YouthStreetTownsville

I'd appreciate prayer for

-close friendships for myself

- more youth to come to Youthstreet

-Wisdom when giving advice and mentoring my biblestudy girls

-The medical ship heading to Papua New Guinea

-Change in the hearts of the Youth caught up in drugs, alcohol, and depression

Thank you all for your prayers and support!!!! If you would like to send me a letter please feel free!! I love receiving snail mail!! And, I'll send ya a postcard in return!!!

My address is:

Lexi Dyksterhouse

PO Box 6221

Townsville, QLD Australia 4810

God Bless!!

Hello

Hey everyone, Camping was great. It was such a refreshment to get away for a while and spend time with God in His creation. I found out last Friday that I am going to be working in the Youthsreet ministry area!! This is the youth ministry that I was praying and hoping to get involved with so I am so excited for this answer to prayer!! I start working on Tuesday! This week I have been continuing my work in Community Life. I helped clean out the storage shed the past 2 days and bugsprayed around the apartments of the staff members on base. Tomorrow is my last day working in Community life and then I will start Youthstreet on Tuesday!!!! We are taking the sports team to play ultimate frisbee this saturday then having a gameshow night for the kids.

I am still trying to find my place here in Australia but am being challenged to trust God that this is where He wants me. I am excited for the internship to officially start this Sunday and so excited to see what God has in store. I'd appreciate your prayers as I continue to adjust to this new lifestyle and as I begin working in the Youth ministry. Please pray for diligence in spending time with God daily and staying focused on Him. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. If you are interested in helping support me financially please send me an email at ldyksterhouse@cox.net. Thanks everyone!!