When God's plan is better once again

It’s 10 a.m. and we’re on our way to the international church. Two weeks ago, we were warmly welcomed there, so we’re all looking forward to a good sermon and maybe a preaching opportunity on our last day in Fiji. Arun, our taxi driver, stops in front of the hotel where the service is going to take place, and I tell him when to pick us up again.

We step into the hotel lobby, but aside from a few receptionists, there’s no one there. After a brief conversation with a staff member and a phone call to our contact person, it quickly becomes clear that there was a misunderstanding — the service doesn’t start until 3 p.m. today.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened to us, so, as good YWAMers do, we sit down and pray about what we should do. As many times before on this outreach, God gives us pretty clear instructions: we’re supposed to have our own service at the hotel and take communion together as a group.

It feels a bit too “normal” for our last day. I would have loved to see our students preach one more time. But hey, God spoke, so it will be good.

So off we go to the hotel rooftop — a place the hotel kindly makes available to us. Next to the pool, we spot a cozy sofa corner, but before I can sit down, I see Laura approaching with a young Fijian man. He introduces himself as Eliah and asks if he can join our service.

"Okay God, what are you doing?"

He tells us his story, and we share testimonies from our own lives. We also take communion together and pray as a group. Afterward, the conversation gets a bit deeper, and Eliah tells us that he’s not really sure whether he’ll go to heaven or not. Since he’s already familiar with the Bible, we explain the Gospel to him again with as much clarity as we can and pray for him.

Just a few moments later, he gives his life back to Jesus! What a wonderful day!

What would have happened if we had just turned around in the lobby and went home?

Thank you, Jesus! 🎉

Hey friends👋🏻

As you can probably tell from my delayed newsletter — a lot has happened. You know what they say: when you hear the least from me, I’m usually doing the most 😁 (I don't actually know if they say that)

Those of you in my prayer-chat have already gotten a few small updates here and there. That’s why I’ve split the text into several sections — so it’s easier for you to find what interests you most.

Enjoy the read!

Final Weeks of Lecture Phase 📖

Before we headed out on outreach in early May, we still had some teaching:

• Relationships – Eric Byrd (Founder of the “Ring of Fire” DTS, our friends from Hawaii)

• Cross-Cultural Missions – Ray Totorewa & Letitia Gager

• Spiritual Authority – Barry Gager

• Bible Overview – Bill Rokandau

• Apologetics and Outreach Prep – Staff team (that’s us!)

Too many things happened during that time to share everything here. But there’s one week I just have to tell you about:

Our Waitangi Week,

also known as Cross-Cultural Missions Week. You might notice a pattern here — I always have something to say about this week 😁 Anyways, the plan this time was to stay overnight at a Marae. A Marae is a property with specific buildings on it, used by the entire tribe, mainly for community gatherings and cultural ceremonies. So, it was the perfect setting for our intercultural week.

If it hadn’t been for a funeral. In less than 24 hours we had to find a new place to sleep 50 people… Yay! 😅In the end, we were able to stay in a church, which turned out to be great.

During that week, the power went out for nearly a whole day because a cyclone had more or less shut down the entire region. It was very dark in the church — and very adventurous the moment you stepped outside. The schedule changed by the hour, but we had a great time!

Outreach

Vanuatu

We spent the first two weeks in Vanuatu on the YWAM base. We did a lot of street evangelism and helped out at the base — doing repairs, gardening, teaching at the primary school, cleaning out containers, etc. — to help prepare the property and staff for the next DTS. They started their first DTS in years at the beginning of July, with a very small team.

We helped wherever we could, and Jared, our host, was really thankful. For many of our team members, though, it was a bit tough, since we were doing a lot of practical work and didn’t have many chances to share the Gospel.

But that changed in week 3: We spent a week living in a village in the bush, and our only assignment was to share the Gospel.

We ate, played, cooked, danced, chatted… in short: we lived with the people and had a ton of fun. Closer toward the end, we got to share testimonies and the Gospel more frequently — and when we left the village after Sunday church, there were tears on both sides.

We then spent one more week at the base, where we renovated the prayer house and completed a well project. And just like that, we were on our way to…

Fiji

Our first week in Fiji was very busy. From morning till night we were out — at schools, youth groups, churches, on the streets, in the hospital, in nightclubs, and many other places.

We were properly exhausted at night, but we definitely had a lot of fun, and God was clearly moving. Nico and Bri from our leadership team were there for one week with their daughter Alora, which was really special and gave us some helpful feedback as well.

We spent the second (and final) Fiji-week in Malolo — the island I had already visited during the last outreach. We spent lots of time with the pastor’s family again and were able to do many things in the village and on the island.

On the final night, we got to hold our own service in the church. Our students basically took over and ran the whole evening while my co-leader Debora was sick in bed. I was so proud of everyone that night!

And the cherry on top: a young woman gave her life to Jesus!

What a beautiful week. Hopefully see you again soon, Malolo 👋🏻

On our last day, the story from the intro happened. And just like that, our time in the islands came to an end. But I know it wasn’t my last time there😊

Tauranga

Since New Zealand is also very close to our base’s heart, we wrapped up our outreach with two weeks in Tauranga.

There, we mainly worked in a community garden, helped with meals for the homeless, and got involved in youth groups.

For me, a major testimony happened during this time:

A few weeks before we even flew to Vanuatu, we prayed for our time in New Zealand. I was the only one who felt like I heard something from God: “To the Māori first.”  Even then, I wasn’t totally sure it was from God.

At that point we didn’t even know we’d be going to Tauranga — we only decided that later while in the village in Vanuatu.

But once we got to Tauranga, we saw that almost everywhere we went, there were lots of Māori. For example, we were able to be part of two youth groups from two different towns — both made up mostly of Māori youth.

The crazy part? The two towns are controlled by two different gangs, and just six weeks before we arrived, some of the youth had gotten into an armed fight… at the youth group!

So what a privilege that we got to be in both places — totally independently of each other!

After three beautiful days of unwinding and processing in an Airbnb, we drove back to base.

Debrief & What’s Next

After outreach, we had one more week of teaching — this time on Re-Entry. The goal of this week is to prepare the students for returning to “normal” life. Going home is often the hardest part of a DTS, because suddenly all the structure and close-knit community are gone, and you’re left figuring out how to re-enter life at home without falling back into old patterns. Really what it is is we don't want people to go back home, but to go forward to home.

Since my own re-entry last time wasn’t necessarily that great either, this week is very important in my eyes. We also had our graduation and a reflection night that week.

Once all the students had left (not without plenty of tears), us staff had one more week of debrief — and I took a bunch of notes for the next school.

Yes, you heard that right — I’ll be leading another school starting in September 😅

This last one was a blast, and apparently I did a decent job. When the leadership team asked me about the September school, I was hesitant at first — it’s a lot of work, after all. But in the end, a mix of excitement, a bit of responsibility, the encouraging feedback, and a little nudge from God Himself convinced me to say yes. And I'm so excited for it!🎉 We’re already deep into prep mode — and it’s gonna be great!

I’ll be spending the next few weeks in Switzerland — seeing my family, catching up with friends, resting, doing a bit of fundraising, and celebrating four of my best friends at their weddings. I’d also love to work for a week or two, but not sure if that’ll work out yet.

To get this post out to you quicker, I haven’t included any photos yet — but stay tuned for a second newsletter packed with pics and videos from the outreach.

Take care, be blessed, and see you soon!

P.S. If you’re not already getting notifications when my newsletters drop, make sure to enter your email address on the homepage — or just send it to me some other way.