Monday, July 25, 2011

Prayers and Praise!!! Part 2 New Zealand


…Now to expound upon that subject I brought up in my very first post of this blog. New Zealand! It became a place of interest for me last year when I started brain storming about ways to go traveling again in order to hopefully regain that joy and happiness I felt I had lost. There were tons of work abroad programs to choose from like working in vineyards, sheep farms, or organic farms. But before I would commit to anything like that I chose to visit my family in Tennessee and North Carolina as you all know. Then I think sometime around April I got contacted by a girl named Lindsey who works with the missionary program I was involved with in 2006 called Youth With a Mission (Ywam). She started sharing with me a vision and a plan for the school she is going to be leading next year at the Ywam base in Oxford, New Zealand. Crazy! I know! It’s the same discipleship training school that I was apart of in Maui but instead of being about surfing its focused on sustainable living, organic farming, and general care for the earth through a biblical approach. And through many conversations with Lyndsey and hearing her heart and vision for the school, along with a lot of prayer I have decided to help her and the base in Oxford make that vision for the school a reality. The next school doesn’t start until March or October next year, but there is a trip taking place this October to do a bunch of work on the base in preparation for the schools next year. The objectives of this trip are to make the base more self-sustainable by building a garden, possibly a green house or 2, a shed made from re-claimed wood for gardening tools, chicken coups made out of re-clamed wood and, to begin the process of composting, and also just brainstorming about ideas for the base and how to make it more self sustained and functional by the time the school started next year.

I know some of you may be thinking that its an awfully long way to travel to just do a few building projects, but another objective that’s more specific to me is to meet everyone on base, help and serve them, and to see if I would be interested in being a member of the school’s staff next year… Well, I should say that I am already interested in joining the staff but I feel that I need to go there and meet everyone and see the base for myself before I commit to staffing it. That makes sense right…? Haha! If I do feel led to becoming a member of the staff it will be at least a year commitment, and not only will I be staffing the Earth Care Discipleship School, I will also taking leadership courses through the base as well.

So to kind of summarize all of this, I am going to finish out the summer here in Hatteras and then in October try and get to New Zealand to work on those projects on the base. I’m not sure how long I will be there for but I’m guessing as long as God wants me there. “My” tentative plan is to be there for a month or 2, and hopefully get a feeling for joining staff next year. Then somehow make it back to Cali for Christmas so I can spend it with my family. And if I decide return to New Zealand in March I will spend a good amount of the time I am back in the states spreading the word about what I’m doing and getting prayer and support. It’s going to be kind of a whirlwind of events and it’s going to take a good amount prayer and support for it to happen but as long as I am seeking out God first in all of this I have no worries. There will be specifics on how to pray for and ways to support me hopefully soon. But you are welcome to contact me at any time at Matt.Pollastrini@gmail.com.

I love and thank you all for taking the time to read this!

1 comment:

  1. Wow matt.... that sounds awesome!!! How does one get involved in this incredible opportunity of service and spreading the love of God locally and globally? Haha.

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