AIMing For Him

My time has now come to an end in Blacktown, Australia. It has been a growing and changing experience for me to be on the other side of the world, being away from family and familiar friends but being able to make new friends and develop family like relationships with people is great.

Jonathan and I cleaning up of our apartment.

As some of you may already know I will unfortunately not be coming back to Florida as early as I thought in coming to Australia. My now fiancé Elisha and I will be getting married here in Australia and thus I will be staying here for at least another year. I would like you to know though that I will still continue to work with the church here in Australia, especially the church in Gosford, Australia where Elisha and I will be going to, but I would also like to work with the other churches in the Sydney area on a broader scale.

Although my time in Blacktown has come to a close, this past month I took part in many events and activities. First of all was the Blacktown Youth Day, which brought together at least three other church families besides Blacktown do have a BBQ, play sports together, and then afterwards have a time of singing and praising God. This was an awesome event in which many of the youth in Blacktown were able to bring along their friends and neighbors. Speaking of people coming Jonathan and I were able to get Colin, the guy we are studying with at the University of New South Wales, to come along the Youth Day as well. I believe this was a great experience for him to be able to meet fellow Christians and really see how we treat each other. Please continue to pray for him, his studying and University but especially his bible studies. Unfortunately since moving from Blacktown I will not be able to be going much to the bible studies these next few weeks but hopefully I will be able to being studying with Colin again and spend some time hanging out with him.

It is so encouraging and amazing to me to see people learn the truth of God’s word, coming to grips with the fundamental teaches of the bible and then experiencing it for themselves. I believe there is no other feeling or emotion quite like that of when you are teaching the word to someone and they just get it and understand it. I realize though that it is not by my understanding or impeccable speak that people, like Colin, come to a knowledge of Christ and what He has done for us, no it is the power that is in work with me and all of us as Christians. I also have begun to realize that the only way we can tap into that power that Christ gives us is to go out and preach and teach what God has revealed to us in His word. We just need to live the life that Christ lived and be as He was to all others around us, that is testimony enough to the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.

In conclusion since I will not technically be in the AIM program anymore I was thinking of changing me blog name to something more to do with my life in general here in Australia. I’m not what I will change it to yet but I will be sure to inform everyone was I have made that change. Thank you as always those who read this, the prayers that you give me and the support of being here. You are truly a blessing to me and I pray that God will bless all of you as well.

In Him,

Zachary W.

It is both interesting and amazing thinking of how the seasons work and how it is the middle of July here in Australia and I am bundled up with at least 2 or 3 layers on at all times. For those of you who do not know Australia’s seasons are the opposite of the states, so when it is summer there it is winter here.

In recent news of happenings at Blacktown we have been involved in many different events with different congregations lately. One of event that was particular great was the World Wide Youth Rally, where youth from all over the world came together in the Sydney area and worked together doing service projects for the community and worked with different churches. It was tons of fun and I’m glad that we were able to get involved.

Another event that has been going on is the Macquarie Lectureship in which the theme was “Light of the world”. Several speakers came from the states and other well known speakers from the churches here in Australia spoke and had some powerful lessons.

Our work with the University of New South Wales has been on hold for a few weeks now because of winter break but will be picking back up again soon. Please keep that in your prayers and our studies with the students at the school.

Only a couple of months now and my time will be ending here in Blacktown, Australia. Thank you all again and again for the love and support that you have given me while I have been here in Australia. I hope and pray that God blesses you in all ways as you have blessed me.

Just to end out this post I thought I would show all of yous landscape pictures of some beautiful spots in Australia that I have seen.

Three Sisters at the Blue Mountains

Dee Why Beach

Pearl Beach

In Him,

Zachary W.

Oh how time goes by, this past month has been eventful here in Blacktown, Australia and I am glad to be apart of it.

Beginning a few weeks ago my teammate and I have begun evangelism work at a nearby University working with preacher from a nearby congregation. This evangelism work has been insightful and a growing experience because I have not done much work in the way of campus ministry. Since we have been going to the University we have made any contacts and have been able to start a study with one student that looks very promising. Please pray for this ministry and our work in it that God blesses us.

In other news the rest of our studies with people in the congregation here at Blacktown have been going well. In one study we are going over the book of Luke specifically looking at Jesus’ life and digging in deep. We have made it to chapter 8 and I believe that what we have studied thus far has grown all of us in our knowledge of Christ. Please also continue to pray for the spiritual growth of the church in Blacktown, in Australia and all over the world.

My teammate and I have also been able to take part in not just events in Blacktown but all over the Sydney area, which has been very good for us because it has allowed us to meet so many more Christians in the area and be apart of their lives. We also try to encourage our youth and the church in Blacktown to be apart of these events as to further promote the idea of unity and togetherness of the church worldwide.

Some other important news, or at least for me I guess, is that on June 13^th I would be turning 20 years old. I would have never thought 2 or so years ago that I would be spending a birthday in a foreign country, especially not Australia. It’s amazing how God works like that isn’t it? Thanks to all of you who have helped me come to this point in my life and especially helping me to be here in Australia and continuing the Lord’s work here. I pray for all of you, that God blesses you and keeps you safe.

In Him,

Zachary W.

It’s been awhile so I’ve last posted on this blog and I’m very sorry for that but the good news is that I have been quite busy since I’ve been back from being home for a short time.

Shortly after I got back home I was able to speak at a church called Warringah in an event they have own once a month called Youth and Young at Heart. This is a great time of fellowship between many, if not all, the churches in the Sydney area of Australia. I was told that my lesson went well and I felt like it was great to be able to speak to everyone there.

The first few weeks of being back home I was taking part in a wedding as a groomsman. Here are some photos from the event:

Elisha, Me and the groom (Dan)

The groom (Dan) and the bride (Mel, Elisha's Sister)

Elisha and I again

After that great event I was able to get back into the swing of things in Blacktown and was able to preach for the second Sunday I was back and also lead morning bible class the week after. This past week I spoke on Sunday night about David and Goliath, on the subject of how we are to face our giants like David did and not back down and be afraid like Saul and the men of Israel were. I’m very grateful for the heaps of opportunities that I have been given here in Blacktown to preach, teach and share The Word to so many people in so many places in Australia.

Another event I was able to take part in about two weeks ago was a lock-in with the Gosford Church of Christ. It was a great time of fun and games with many youth attending but more importantly we were able to have some awesome worship time together. I enjoy so much the times of worship with the youth here in Australia.

Thank you again all of you who support me both financially and with prayer, know that I could not be doing what I am doing here in Australia without your help. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue my work here as I will keep you in my prayers that the Lord blesses you for your generosity and kind hearts.

In Him,

Zachary W.

The past month and beginnings of this year have been very eventful for me here in Blacktown. Two days after Christmas till New Years Day I attended a Family Bible Camp called Camp Challenge. This was a great time of Christian fellowship and I was also able to make many new contacts with churches all around the Sydney area and outside of it as well. My teammate Jonathan and I were asked to lead a discussion each during the week and I was very grateful to be able to teach.

Another event that we had just this past weekend was a pirate themed party here at the church building for the youth group. It was heaps of fun and everyone really got into it by dressing up and participating in all the “pirate games”.

As I mentioned before have really being enjoying lately the visitations with members of the church this past month. Many people have opened up their homes for us and it has been great to get to know the members of the church here in Blacktown through meals and just fellowship with each other.

Christmas is coming and this will be the first Christmas away from home, away from my family, I know that I’ll be ok but it does make me miss home when I think about it for to long. I’ll be going to a Bible camp that is here in Sydney area two days after Christmas till New Years, I know that it will be a great time to spend with fellow Christians, some that I will probably meet while there. I ask that you please continue to pray for me and my work here in Australia.

In Him,

Zachary W.

G'day everyone, just wanted to report some of the awesome things that are going on right now here in Blacktown and all other Sydney area with the church.

One of the most recent events that I have been able to take part in was a Youth Day at a park reserve. (It’s an aboriginal name which is really hard to spell so I won't try to spell it) We had about 12 youth come out from our church and other neighboring churches for a fun day of sports, a barbeque, singing (which was lead by me) and a short devo talk done by my teammate Jonathan. It was really a great day and I had loads of fun, we played soccer, cricket, Frisbee, jump rope and of course the ever popular football, which in Australia is actually rugby but they have about 2-3 different leagues of it so football is the sports general name.

Another event that I have taken part of recently is a Games night where the church here in Blacktown and a church in a neighboring suburb were able to get together for the night, play games and enjoy the fellowship of each other and in the process getting to know one another. My teammate Jonathan and I were in charge of Youth and Young adult each group and we had heaps of fun playing all kinds of games with them. We even played the card game called Mafia which everyone enjoyed greatly, something that I thought only the Youth group at Metro thoroughly enjoyed. We are hoping to start up another Games night soon, probably within the next few months or so and possible have some other events that we will be doing with other churches to bring about more fellowship and unity with the church here in Blacktown and other churches in the area.

Remember how I made mention about the Internet Cafe that my teammate Jonathan and I have been going to as a form of evangelism and getting to know the people there? Well unfortunately God had other plans for the guys at the internet cafe because they have to close up shop at the end of this week. Their rent was bumped up 500 dollars and that was just too much for them. There is a ray of hope though because Jonathan and I have really become good mates with the owner of the internet cafe and we have exchanged numbers with him to hopefully spend time with him and still have the possibility and studying with him. We have had much discussion that could be considered biblical discussion with him and we have also explained what we are doing here in Australia and Blacktown specifically and he has been very open to what we have to say. I ask that you pray that God can use us to share His message with Drew, who was the owner of the internet cafe.

Another awesome contact that we have made that I want to ask your prayers for is a guy at the Kebab place that Jonathan and I tend to eat at if we ever go out to eat. He is a really nice guy and is interested in why we are here and what we are doing. One day while we were sitting down eating he came up to us, gave us deserts and asked that we pray for him. This was huge for us because, like I said, we had talked to him about why we are here and what we are doing and he sees us pray before eat and I guess he figured why not. He hasn't told us specifically what he wanted us to pray for him about but I ask your prayers for him and that God opens his heart to us to be able to listen to what we say, also pray that God gives us the words and courage to talk to him about God.

In other news, our studies have been going well. I was able to teach last week on the subject of which is the "right church", speaking about how we really shouldn't say whether this church or that church is the right church because there is only one universal church which is God's and it is made up of people not various church groups. It was very enlightening for me and I think it was for the guy from our church and his mom that we study with. It's really been great having so many opportunities to teach, lead and work with the church here in Blacktown.

I'd also like to inform you of an awesome opportunity that my teammate Jonathan and I are going to be able to take part of. We have joined a commitee recently to start up a soup kitchen here in Blacktown. Everything is still in the works but I ask for your prayers that we can get this off the ground and start serving the community through this outreach.

I hope all is well with you, I pray for your safety and that you each grow more like Christ each day.

In Him,
Zachary W.