Jen Troelstra at Reef to Outback

Auslife...Massive Road Factor...All Access... a short recap!

2006-06-12T15:08:00.000+10:00

April 25th - 28th: Auslife in Mackay
-What is Auslife? An all day seminar that presents topics such as goals and values, Peer Management, and Relationships and relates them to God.
-This is a picture of myself facilitatiing a seminar about Goals and Values.
-During this specific seminar we saw about 40% of students write down that discovering more about Jesus was important to them and 25% of students wrote that they wanted to know more about having a relationship with Jesus!!!
- This info is then given directly to the school Chaplain who then follows up with each of the interested students.

May 13th: Massive Road Factor
-What is Massive Road Factor (MRF)? It's an event we run in All Access once each term that is meant to be BIG!!
- We had about 76 Crew (Youth) come to the event
- to the left is a picture of my friend Fiona and myself decked out in Disco gear ready some Disco Bowling!!!
-After some Disco Bowling we headed on a Big Charter Bus to a camp about 30 minutes out of town for a MASSIVE outdoor concert. It was really Cool! I love planning events such as this one so that's a good thing since we often have large events to plan.

Every Saturday 2:00 - 10:00pm: All Access and Backstage
-What is All Access and Backstage? All Access is a program we run every Saturday with 4 teams; Skate, Sports, Music and Dance. Backstage is after All Access and it is more of a hangout time with xbox, basketball, pool, etc... and for about 1 hour of that we have a program where we present some sort of God message.
-To the left is a picture of some boys playing Footy(Rugby). They are part of a Sports team I help lead.
- We are looking at starting a Youth Alpha program during Backstage which is VERY exciting!

So that's a Short Recap of the past few months. Things are going well and I find myself continually busy looking at what more we can do to affect the Youth of this region! It's really cool to be able to do something with the Passions God has already given me! Anyways if you want any more information let me know and I would love to get it to you!! Thanks for reading this!!!!

New Role to Fill...

2006-04-17T09:13:00.000+10:00

Well it's time to take on a new role at Reef to Outback. As many of you know I have been servng o the Youth Ministries Team (YMT). It has been stretching... amazing... faith building... really a whole lot of different things... and Now I am continung on in YMT. But I have been named the new leader of All Access as well as one of the leaders of YMT. One of the reasons for this change is that the previous leader of All Access is having some health problems and feels it's right to step down for a time. It's only by the grace of God that i can say Yes to this new role. On my own I know that this would be far to much to take on. Sometimes I look back on how far God has taken me and it's NUTS... seriously a few years ago I would cry if I needed to pray in public... maybe not cry all the time but i wasn't very happy to do it. Now I find myself leading prayer meetings of 20+ people... many of which are those people that just know how to pray. Or at least I feel like if there were a rating they would definitely get a 10! So I hold in my pride and i lead on... and sometimes i DON'T feel like it... but that's just it... I can see my growth cause I still do it... Saying God... if this is what you want then fine... I'll do it... Which I think is what he wants anyways... a willing vessel to work through.. and again I fully understand that even that willingness to trust God is because HE has been faithful in everything...He has proven time and time again that He will never give up on me. So I could really use your prayers in this time. Sometimes the stress is very evident as we figure out how to continue to grow All Access and YMT and everything that entails. This really is a battle and I would love anybody who is able to fight with me. That I would never loose the reason as to why i do what i do and that is to see Young People come to know Him.

The above picture is me working in my office!
ALSO check out www.allaccessyouthstreet.org.au for weekly updates on All Access!

Cyclone Larry....

2006-04-17T08:40:00.000+10:00

So as many of you may have heard a few weeks ago now a Cyclone was headed the the Queensland Coast. We weren't sure exactly where it was going to hit so we took all the proper precautions like... tapeing up windows, Buying canned food, having our candles ready to go... it was quite the ordeal.... Kinda exciting.... Then we waited... slept the night waiting for the Cyclone to hit in the morning.... and we waited... and we waited... and yup... it really didn't hit us... we got some fairly strong winds.... and VERY little rain for all you Vancouverites that know what real rain is. So this picture was what we felt we should have been feeling... due to the the warnings etc... It was kinda funny really... we made some funny news report videos standing in the "Cyclone." We still weren't allowed to leave our house till the afternoon so we had to do something productive with our time!!! But ya so it was a good time for sure... A bit of an exciting time. But really praise God that we weren't hit despite my yearning for some great stories. Innisfail which is about 3 hours north was hit really bad. We have been sending outreach teams up to help clean the debri... One thing to Praise God for is that there were NO deaths. NONE....it's a miracle.... and that no major cities were hit such as Cairns and Townsville because they say it would have been Catastrophic... The first two pics are of my flat in preparation for the Cyclone. We have slats as windows so we had to cover them with garbage bags!!! The Shelf is full of all the emergency supplies... canned food, matches, Camping stove etc...!

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!

2006-03-13T18:33:00.000+10:00

This past weekend Reef to Outback hosted an evangelistic event alongside many of the local churches. We didn't know how many people would show up and I was personally shocked at the huge turn out of over 600 people. This has been something we have wanted to happen for a long time as it is a great way to have kids we know from All Access (the youth program I help run every saturday for non-christian kids) hear the gospel message. I was a counsellor at the event and the two girls I counselled are both a part of All Access. For one of the girls it was a first time commitment to Jesus. I know it's all about follow up from here on in. I am so excited to have this as a starting point. God has been so faithful and I can see that He is shattering my expectations and going so beyond what I could imagine! I have to admit I was definitely not in my comfort zone as I led these two girls through what it means to be a Christian. But it is SO cool to be used despite my shortcomings and the fact that I felt so inadequate. I know God used my words despite the fact that they were nowhere near elequant... So I am excited to see these two girls discipled... I will continue to keep you posted on how it all goes... I hope all is well wherever you are... and I will continue to use this site to keep you updated! Prayers would be greatly appreciated as this busy season continues... Thanks for reading this!!! I would like to hear from you as well! You can e-mail me or leave a comment on this post!
Blessings -Jen Troelstra-

Back in Townsville...

2006-03-06T09:46:00.000+10:00

I have been back in Townville for just over a month now. Time is flying by. I just wanted to let everyone at home know how much I valued and appreciated my time there. It was great to be refreshed as well as catch up with many of you. Only yesturday I was attending church with Summar, a girl that has only recently become a Christian. In this particular service they were celebrating the Lord's Supper. I was reminded of the first time I took communion when I was 10 years old. My parents sat me down and made sure I understood what i was doing. What a blessing! It was great be able to share in Summars first Lord's Supper but at the same time I felt somewhat broken that her parents weren't there to share with her. I pray that through her they may also someday know the hope that she has found! I just wanted to share that story because times like those continue to stir faith in me for what I am doing here and I hope they stir faith in you as well. I will continue to update this blog with things that are going on here. Thank you for your prayers!
- Jen -