God has set quite an adventure before me!

      Was it just yesterday?  No hold on, that was four months ago that I got home to Minnesota from Australia and India.  Anyway, point being said-time just flys by way to fast and I am thankful to God for every moment I have gotten to be home. It has been such a learning curve or experience for my family and I!

     During the Dicsipleship Training School (DTS) there was a lecture week called Lordship.  During this week I spent time learning what it means to make Jesus Lord of my life in everything I do. To me this means trying everyday to live like Jesus did in everything I do and in a way that is respectful and honorable to him.  It was also then when I felt God so clearly calling me to come back to Australia and do a Basic Leadership School (BLS).  When this happened God was simply saying that he was going to be using me to help fullfill The Great Commission for the next year and about seven months.

The Great Commission is from the book of Matthew and in verse 19 Jesus says 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Hold Spirit.'  I will be "GOING" to two seperate nations apart from Australia with the intention of making followers of Christ Jesus!  In verse 20 the word continues to say 'teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  This is such an exciting thing to teach people who have never had the chance to hear this before.  

      So here I am, this week we have officially started our Basic Leader School!  The team of us consists of people from all over the world, that being places like Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Finland, and Australia.  We are spending time in lectures learning the fundimentals of how to properly lead young people in the way they were called to go.  It is such an exciting time in my life right now and I thank you to all who are in partnership with me in finances and through your prayer support!  Could I ask that in your day, when you take time to pray; that you would also lift up my fellow participants as well in prayer support. 

     God bless each and every one of you who read my blog and follow what is going on in my life.  Please keep reading my updates as I hope to keep up with everything God is doing in my life and the lives around me! Get ready for excitement because it'll be here, when your doing work for The Lord, there is bound to be happiness and joy which brings excitement.

Thank you, Michael Norris

Here In India

    
   Well we arrived in India late Sunday night.  The airport went really well we thought we were ready for everything we would see.  I prayed time and time again that God would set my heart right for the Shock of a whole new culture.  He does not fail to do so when you ask of him, it was very difficult but I was able to handle it.  The things I have seen and experienced the last few days just in Calcutta are indescribable to say the least.  Not only did God help me throughout every sticky situation but he allowed for me to see the light in every situation as well.  God is Great!
    So when we arrived in Calcutta we went and took a crazy ride in an Indian taxi, lets just say you have not lived until you've ridden in one!!! We got brought to a hotel that we made reservations at, when we got dropped off the driver said to "be careful, don't go outside because it is a Muslim only area."  That was not fun to here, so we went in and went straight to bed, got up the next morning and fled away to the train station quickly. 
    In the train station we went to get our tickets but came to find out that we couldn't get tickets and had to go to a different place for foreigners to get the tickets.  When we got there we met some Americans and they were able to help us along.  A little while before meeting them, a guy on my team prayed we would meet some Americans to help us, God answered that prayer as well.  So this time we found a nice hotel and we burnt that day up with things like the Mother Theresa House and exploring a bit.  That night we finally had our tickets for 10:05 p.m.
    So we were off at last, the train ended up being over 10 hours long.  We arrived in a village this morning, and got in a jeep for 4 hours.  It  brought us to Darjeeling where we are now preparing for what we will do here. Thank you for your paryers, Sorry for lack of words...didnt have much time.

God Bless!

India here I come!

    With the lack of time I have, I'm sorry but this blog will be pretty short.  But I found it important to let you all know what I will be doing for the next 7 weeks and where I will be in that time.  The past two weeks have been packed with a running tour to different country towns in Australia and with lectures and getting things ready for the next 7 weeks on outreach.

    Starting tomorrow morning at 6:30 we will head to the airport here in Brisbane, AU.  My team that includes seven of us will be taking off at 9:00 a.m and will head to Singapore on an 8 hr. flight.  When we get to Singapore we have a six hour layover in a luxury airport with massages, swimming pool, gardens and everything!  From there we take off to Calcutta, India for the biggest culture change a Westerner can get. When we land we will get on a train and head up the Himalaya Mountains for approx. 10 hours and then hop in a Jeep and go further up the range to beautiful Darjeeling India.

   In Darjeeling we will connect with the YWAM base there and start to figure out exactly what we will do for the next couple weeks.  We have a basic idea of what that looks like, so far we know will have a lot of children's ministry, we may teach a mini-DTS(Discipleship Training School), service projects, and also teach at a Bible college. The first week or so we will definitely be just getting used to everything, can't show foot bottoms while always sitting on the ground, don't grab anything with left hand, curry and everything else.

   My team and I would really appreciate it if you could all partner with us in prayer while we are in India for this time.  As you could imagine this is not the safest place to be.  A few prayer points would be, weather as it is Monsoon season, safety on roads both driving and during ministry, our time trekking to villages in the mountains, health with bacteria increase and food (CURRY), and also pray that our team would just be able to stay unified like a family in hard times.  Please commit to keeping us in your prayers.

   As some of you already know, God has called me to come back here to Australia and be on staff at YWAM for a year and a half 4 months after I return home in August.  So with this I have been asking God, how am I going to get the money for this?  I found that the best thing I can do is pray about it, so with all of this said, will you also partner with me in prayer that God would provide for me financially and that I would be supplied with a good job when I get home.

YWAM- Week 12-God is Good

     DTS has sure been cruising by faster than I would like it to, same with most things enjoyed in life; like camping trips or summer camps.  In the past weeks I have had amazing opportunities to experience many new things.  For those who have read my last blog I have now indeed saw a kangaroo, in fact close to 25 of them along with some emu and many other interesting creatures of God.  Along with that I was able to experience life on a 9,000 acre cotton farm volunteering for a few days during harvest, a bit different than a corn harvest I must say.

     During my most recent weeks in lecture time, the biggest thing I took out of it was surrender to God.  We had a week about missions and giving up our plans that we had in life and doing with our lives what God desires us to do.  Matthew 6:25, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  It can be hard to do, but I've found it to be so relieving.  I know that God alone knows the best way and I know I can trust him over myself to set up my life path.  It is definitally a huge leap of faith but I believe that God will move.  

     When we surrender to God we need to look at it as an awesome thing; rather than dreading it and thinking that we have to give everything up.  When you get married I don't think as your getting married that you think awe man now I have to surrender to her. Your most likely happy to surrender to your best friend. When we surrender our old nature to the Lord we kill our old things in life and God gives us new life.  When you do this, you put peace into your life and you no longer need to worry about things in life; instead you can have rest and know that God will sheppard you, he will guide you.  

     After my time at the cotton farm Scott Armstrong the farm owner offered me to come back and work for him anywhere from 6-12 months through a program called Agriventure for a good wage.  I have also been thinking about the possibility of continuing in YWAM for a while as a staff member.  If I were to choose either of these opportunities that have been laid upon me I would like for God to help me with this choice.  Could you please partner with me in prayer with this decision and also that God would provide for me financially.  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, God Bless!!

Just A few Pictures from Australia thus far.

Ywam-7 Weeks in a Nutshell

YWAM- 7 Weeks in a Nutshell

            Hello friends and family, I apologize for not making time to blog sooner.  My time in Australia has been packed with excitement. We have gone to many different places and have seen many cool things, but shockingly have not yet saw a kangaroo! A few of the places we have been to are Chinchilla, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Byron Bay and Nimbin.  We did things like volunteer, evangelism and lectures while away from base which is in Brisbane. All of these things have helped me in my growth with God so much.

          From Monday to Friday our day consists of things like worship, intersession, lectures and community meetings. During lectures we go deep into specific topics such as the character and nature of God, hearing the voice of God, intersession, father heart of God, the Bible, Evangelism and this week missions and our destiny.  No offense to my school teachers, but I have never thoroughly enjoyed going to class as much as I do here.  We have new lecturers every week and each one speaks through Gods direction and lead, they speak what God puts on their heart and it is powerful.

            During the 2^nd week here we were told where our outreach locations would be.  The options were Japan, Guam and Sapan, Indonesia and Darjeeling, India.  Once we were told the locations we were told to pray and see were God calls us to go.  That night I went on a long walk through Brisbane and did just that and then continued to do so for an hour or so, on my bed back at base.  I was nearly asleep and suddenly I had this crazy urge to read my required book.  As many of you know I don’t like to read, but at that moment I did. When I did so, the first thing on the page was Darjeeling, India.  God spoke so clear to me in that moment and I had a peace about it.  So on June 17^th, seven of us will make our way to India and be there for 7 weeks.

            During Easter we were in Toowoomba at a Christian music festival called Easterfest. All of us students were assigned work tasks that we would do during the week, I was placed in a team of five people to go out into the city during the festival and evangelize.  It was a great experience and God moved.  One thing that stuck out in particular during the week was a woman we prayed for.  When we saw her, she had a leg that was clearly shorter than the other one and walked with an incredible limp.  We talked to her for a while and eventually asked her if we could pray for her, she agreed.  So we did and we asked her to lie down on the ground, we prayed and let God begin to move.  Before this I did not know what I thought about healing, but after watching this woman’s leg grow to the same length as her other leg I will never doubt it again.  She got up after and walked without the slightest limp after having lived with it since a small child. There is no unanswered prayer, it’s either Yes, No or later.  God is always Faithfull!!

            If you are someone who really wants to grow in God, Discipleship Training School (DTS) is the place to be.  I have never been this close to God before, but now that I have, I will never go back.  We need to think of God as the loving Father that he is, rather than a ruling Master, he is so loving!  John 15:13, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 

By: Michael G Norris

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

    Only 5 days left until I leave for Australia.  I leave Sunday the 10th and will arrive there on Tuesday the 12th.  Please keep me in your prayers as i make my way!:)