Hey from Oz!

Hello folks! I made it safe and sound to Toowoomba! I almost missed a couple flights and I had to figure out how to get to the greyhound via train and many directions from lots of Aussie’s, BUT it all worked out and I made it there right on time 🙂 I got to meet some awesome peeps along the way too! The first few days were settling in and doing a bit of sightseeing 🙂

Ah! So beautiful eh??

My first week of training has been great!! We’ve been doing intensive leadership training all day and then at night we get to hang out get to know each other! The training has included subjects such as characteristics of a leader, conflict/resolution, small group leading, public speaking, cross-cultural servanthood, time-management, delegation, boundaries and many more! Some really great sharing and testimony times have been had. Also, worship each morning has been legit! The Lord has really shown up and we’ve had some sweet moments with Him 🙂 These people are amazing musicians and full of Jesus. My roommate and I also have been sharing our testimonies and life stories, and showing each other family pics and stuff before we go to bed at night. It’s been great fun!

I saw a possum close up but they are much cuter here! And not like the psycho ones from back home. I haven’t seen any crazy poisonous frogs or too many spiders. The weather has been pretty epic too. Not ridiculously hot or humid, which is nice 🙂 It’s really neat, I’ve been waking up every morning around 5 to all these different animal noises too! I’ve got to challenge my ‘cooking for the masses’ skills as well,  as the staff are taking turns doing all the chores and cooking. It wasn’t too shabby, either! 😀

We have 29 students arriving on Friday! Super stoked about this! I’ll also be heading up a small group during the lecture phase, and along with the rest of the staff, basically be DTS pastoral care. I’ll have 4 one-on-ones (basically I will be mentoring them one-on-one while they are here on their DTS). We are here to help equip, train, serve and send out these students. It’s going to be awesome! We as staff will be leading base intercession times and help students with our worship times as well. Our heart is to see these students hearts and minds transformed so that they can be effective in sharing Christ with the nations. We have 3 months of ‘lecture’ phase and then a 2 month ‘missions’ phase. I just found out that myself and another staffer named Hannah will be leading a team on their missions phase! Super stoked about this! This means we will be planning the entire outreach phase for our team (which will most likely be about 10 students). We are not sure yet which country we are going to yet for the last month, but the first month we’ll be working with the Easterfest crew in preparation, set-up, musical aspects, and the inner-workings of it. It is a 3 day music festival that is actually the largest alcohol and drug free festival in all of Australia. This should be super fun and a great experience in Worship and Music for the students (and myself)!

I’m so excited to be able to be apart of this base and the vision it has for Toowoomba, Australia, South East Asia, and the rest of the world! We are actually also in the process of starting up a House of Prayer which will be awesome, and as a base we are very involved with the community and the local ministries already established. A couple of the ones we work closely with are The Base (very similar to a Dream Center, in heart and purpose) and City Women (a ministry that focuses on young at-risk girls and women involved in the local sex trade)

Oh! And several of you mentioned you were interested in supporting me and I said I’d get back to you on exactly how! Turns out I was able to connect with YWAM Canada and they can and will issue Canadian tax receipts. All you have to do is click on the link below and there are three options 🙂 If you choose the sending a cheque option, please make it payable to Youth With A Mission and put a separate note on the cheque (such as a sticky note) saying “Hannah Macuzzi, serving with YWAM Toowoomba”. They do not want anything written in the memo section of the cheque 🙂

http://www.ywamcanada.org/donations.html

Prayer Requests-

–>That our staff team, despite all just meeting each other, would continue to grow in strength and unity in Jesus!

–> That this coming week we would be able to accomplish all our preparations for the coming students!

–> Several of the staff are struggling with visas, so if you guys could pray that the Lord’s will would happen and faith would grow! 🙂

–> And of course, that these students would get ROCKED by the Holy Spirit and in turn will be able to rock the nations with His love and power.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! I pray you are blessed and your life enriched by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. If you have any questions feel free to email me!! hannah.macuzzi@gmail.com

I will keep the updates coming!

Much Love,

Hannah ❤