2024 (Part 1 of 2)

Hi guys! For this first 2024 update we’ll be covering a fair bit! Here’s it in bullet points …

• Schools and growth in Whangārei

• Pioneering in Indonesia

• Vanuatu & Fiji

• A testimony from Barry’s time in Indo

• Family news

Happy reading!!

…..

In July, YWAM Zion completed our first Whangarei-based DTS. 22 students joined us from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, and Paraguay. Barry and Lasini were the school leaders and most of our staff team were first-timers. We were blown away with how well the team stewarded a school with all those students and just 10 staff, in a new location, having 2 weeks of no Barry at all while he was on maternity leave, followed by a sleep-deprived Barry even upon his return.

It was exciting to see the number of open doors and opportunities our staff and students had since we made the big move to the city mid-last year. We now frequent a local high school each month with students and staff sharing and interacting with seniors over lunch breaks. We partner with Pregnancy Choice, Salvation Army, Whangarei Youth Space, the City Council, and are really just at the ready for anything that springs up. This ongoing presence in the city is something we’ve longed for over the previous years, and that longing has definitely been met.

INDONESIA

At the end of May and into June, Barry had what YWAM calls a “pastoral visit” to one of our teams in Bali, Indonesia, and met the people hosting the crew for the first time. Pastorals require Barry (or any other ministry/school leader chosen for the task) slotting in with the team’s routines, watching how relations with locals and one another are going, being a support to staff and students, seeing what further training and resources may be required for fruitful outreaches in those locations, and having one on one’s with every team member.

The team moved about over 6 weeks, staying in the jungle, the mountains, and in the heart of Bali. Their time was marked by a lot of “firsts” concerning how a foreigner is perceived and received in both touristy and remote parts of Indonesia, understanding how ministry rolls over there, and genuinely seeking to receive more of the Lord's heart for Indonesia.

Indonesia has been on our hearts since Barry and I first staffed with YWAM in our early 20’s and after a great first trip, we’re continually praying into ongoing partnership with locals and ministries, and discerning what more we need in the way of preparing teams to live and move about well in that context.

VANUATU & FIJI

Jared and Joyce with V2Life in Vanuatu are absolute legends and we’ve had the privilege of sending our teams there two years running. We had a couple of school teachers in the mix of this DTS, so they frequented the primary school connected to V2Life, teaching in classes, building beautiful friendships, and sharing resources with the local teachers. Our crew put their hands to whatever was required of them whether evangelism, church services, youth groups, physical labour, prayer or worship.

Who could have guessed that the main airline to Vanuatu would go into recession and our team’s return and internal flights would be lost. At week 3 of the outreach, our Pacific team had to suddenly raise $11,200 for new flights out of the country. We lost all of our old ones and won’t see a refund for it, but God is GOOD and the full amount was raised by generous donors, friends and family, over just ONE WEEK! The team spontaneously went to Fiji for 2 weeks on the way home to NZ and had an amazing time with YWAM Nadi serving in villages and ministering in a new context.

Barry had just booked his pastoral flights to our team in the Pacific only to lose his flights with no chance of a full refund. Thankfully, we pushed for a refund on at least one leg of his trip with Qantas and he was able to switch up his flights with him leaving for Indonesia sooner instead. It was a real loss for the Vanuatu team and team leaders as it meant no in-person check-in from Barry part-way through their first outreach. We’re thankful for video calling these days at the very least. We changed course and instead Barry spent time with the team in Tauranga for a few days at the end of their outreach so that he could debrief with them individually before they debriefed as a team.

I’m in awe of Barry's ability to sit with 27 people in such short amounts of time, giving them his absolute attention, discipling, problem solving, and all in such a lighthearted way.

INDO TESTIMONY

Due to Indonesia’s religious and political climate, the team had to be careful about how they shared the good news of Jesus. Despite barriers to openly speaking about him, the team saw a woman's eyesight healed through prayer, a man who had been unable to walk become fully healed (it's odd writing this so casually, so I think we need to take a moment here and praise Jesus!), encouraged the believers in their locations, and had many impactful conversations with Hindus.

Barry sat with a Hindu teacher and while discussing faith, asked if he’d ever had a spiritual encounter with his gods. The man considered it for a bit, then mentioned that he had a spiritual encounter once as a young boy with “a man in white” at the top of a mountain who called him his “son”. The man had assumed the "man in white" must have been the spirit of his father, so when Barry explained to him our belief in “the man in white” who calls us “sons and daughters” the man was naturally very intrigued. His response was simply “This has given me much to think about” and the conversation shifted to other things as is typical. In Indonesia, converting to Christianity or attempting to convert someone can result in social exclusion, family rejection, and physical punishment in some areas. We are respectful of where they are comfortable to go in conversation.

FAMILY NEWS

Our newest addition, Judah, joined us 2 weeks earlier than his due date in Feb. We celebrated Mau’s 2nd birthday and welcomed Judah 11 days later. We were ridiculously blessed to have family and friends either in our house or nearby for Judah’s first 9 weeks. Our school was only 10 days in and Barry had 2 weeks off to be with us at home as we adjusted to life with 2 kids.

We sold up our trusty Nissan Qashqai and bought a 7-seater Kia Sorento so that we can have passengers with us and fit our luggage in much better. It's so nice to all fit in one car and be able to take our staff or students around too.

We were blessed with a lump-sum donation which meant we could take 3 very intentional days off as a family between schools. We stayed in Waipu Cove across from the beach and loooved it. I can't remember the last time I didn't work for at least one part of a day, so it was a much-needed break and I was banned from emails and whatsapp, haha. It took until the 3rd night for us to actually relax and enjoy the moment.

That's it for Part 1 of 2024 :)

Much love from the Gagers x