Hi sweet friends and family!

The last 10 weeks of discipleship training school I spent on outreach, in the

beautiful country of Papua New Guinea. I think the best way to sum up what
outreach was like would be with Psalm 23,
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his names sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

We spent time in multiple places all over PNG. Our

first location was for 24 hours in the capital city of
Port Moresby. Our short time there was spent with
the beautiful community of bethel church. We got
to hang out with berry and Margaret who were the
pastors kids. At one point we made grilled cheeses
and asked them if they would like one and Margret
started to tell me that she has a hard time eating
due to an infection in her tooth. I then got a nudge
from the Holy Spirit to pray for her. So I explained
to Margret how I believe God is a healer and that
he could heal her of this infection she has. And she
responded with much belief that God could heal her. So I prayed, and then
she prayed and then in the name of Jesus all the pain was gone and she was
healed.

The next day we flew to Madang to be working beside YWAM medical ships
for the next week. YWAM medical ships reaches the unreached with medical
services that they wouldnt be able to get otherwise. We spent the next
several days folding clothes, cleaning up the boat, cleaning up the dentistry

office and clinic, basically doing anything they needed us to do to help them
prepare for the next outreach they would be taking in a few weeks.
We also were able to do market evangelism. During market evangelism our
team would usually share a testimony of how God has worked in our own
lives, or a message from the bible,
and then we would walk around and
do the best we could to ask if they
had anything we could pray for.
One day I was talking this lady who
has had a broken ankle for over 10
years. She was telling me how much
pain it was causing her. At this time
she then asked me to pray. I started
to pray and felt my hand move and
noticed all the swelling had gone
down, and then I looked up to her
face in shock, and realized God just had healed her ankle, in the name of
Jesus she was able to get up for the first time In 10 years and walk. It was
one of the most humbling moments I have ever experienced. God loves me
that much to allow me to be a vessel to healing his precious daughter.

We then made our way to another part of PNG called Lae. This is part of the
journey where I get sick for the first time due to having an allergic reaction in
the middle of a church service to my malaria prevention medicine that I had
been taking. I then logically stopped taking it, took a week to get it out of my
system and was able to then rejoin my team up in a beautiful village in the
mountains of PNG. During my time there in the beginning I remember really
just battling feeling like I didnt belong here. At moments I felt so
misunderstood, and I realized it was because I was made for another world.
Seeing the overwhelming brokenness of this country just reminded me how I
want to give my life to God to love the unloved radically. How I want to give
my life loving the ones that this world says I as a Christian shouldnt be
associating with. I want to, with God go to the messy, the hard, and the
forgotten and tell them about this hope and love
and joy and peace and purpose that is found in
Jesus. I realized in this village that God created
me with a heart of mercy to be his hands and
feet in the places not many people want to be
his hands and feet, which is okay. Our time in

Upper Bauine was spent visiting schools and churches and

encouraging/telling these people
the importance of not just
believing in Jesus but having a real
and personal relationship with
him. The village we stayed in
loved us in a way that I dont think
I can really explain. They showed
us the tenderness and care of
Jesus in such a real and tangible
way. We laughed a lot. It was
definitely a hard goodbye and a lot
of tears happened.

Then my journey of walking through the valley began. The night when
malaria attacked I felt helpless as I woke up on hard cement floor, freezing
cold with achy bones, to have to pee outside (literally) the door. I felt
helpless as I couldnt warm myself up and needed help from my teammates
Phillip and Kaitlyn to do so. I felt helpless as my friend had to carry me to the
bathroom, as I sweated buckets and squatted in a hole in the ground to go to
the bathroom. I felt helpless the 12 hours I had to lay there on the dirt floor
waiting for the ambulance to come and get me, and I felt helpless as I sat in
the hospital with no answers feeling like I was going to lose my mind. But In
the midst of pain and suffering I was NEVER hopeless, but hopeful
because the king of kings, the
creator of heaven and earth
was carrying and comforting
and assuring me that in Jesus
name everything was going to
be okay. Where was God in the
midst of pain and suffering? He was
in it. The Lord woke up our momma
from a village we just stayed at to
pray for me the night the malaria
attacked, he placed Kaitlyn to be
next to me and care for me, while
she constantly assured me it was
going to be okay, he placed
Mommas in karl marx, the village

where sickness attacked, to take care of me and they were constantly

singing praises and prayers over me. Sisters to wipe me in cold rags when I
was sweating and felt it was never going to end, and he placed unshakable
peace in my soul that never left. And in the process was giving me a heart of
compassion for those who get sick in a third world country. In Mark 8:34 it
says our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that is
going to be revealed in us. Once I made it to the hospital, they ended up
treating me for malaria over the next week. After I ended the treatment, I
still wasnt better. In my gut I knew I needed to go back to Australia and get
medical attention. God confirmed it, and also whispered to my heart that if I
was obedient in this he would get me back to PNG. So I took the step of faith
and headed back to Australia. I trusted God, with my team as I left, with
answers, with my body, with being able to still receive my outreach
certificate, with finances, and with getting me back to PNG. Let me tell you
he was faithful with them all, he never failed me.
In this season of sickness and suffering Ive had to learn to yield to him
every second of everyday, not out of fear but out of wanting to just sit and
be in his peace. Ive
experienced his peace
in a new way and Ive
learned that worshiping
him sets me free from
anxiousness and worry.
Ive learned to drop my
expectation of what
thigs should look like
and trust that he has
something even better.
Ive learned to sing
halleluiah when it feels
like life is falling apart.
Ive learned what it
looks like to rest in Jesus. Ive experienced even more of how loving and
compassionate he is. Ive learned that regardless of what this world throws at
me God can make it good if we just lean in and allow him too. Ive learned
that he is the joy that overflows my cup like nothing else ever will. I learned
that the darkness of this world no longer has a grip on me and Im going to
fight the battles thrown my way hand and hang with the mighty God himself.
I experienced that I AM NEVER ALONE, I lack nothing, I am worthy of being
taken care of, and provided for. I experienced that in all things God works for
the good of those who love him and have been called according to his
purposes. I experienced God in the midst of pain and suffering and learned

God is not distant in pain and suffering, hes in it. I experienced more of Gods
grace and faithfulness. Man, I can really trust him with my whole life. I
physically experienced how deep and wide and high his love is for his
children. I learned that he is more than worthy of giving more of myself to
every single day. I would never change what happened that first half of
outreach, because I know God in a way now that I didnt before. Im in love.
After this dark valley, I then made if back to PNG, to the top of
the mountain to a beautiful village called Gouno. Our time in Gouno
consisted of visiting many churches, starting a youth group for teens and
young adults, helping build
a library, helping with a
womens conference,
visiting schools, market
evangelism, and youth
ministry every day for
kids. But I think the
biggest thing that we
watched God do in us
throughout this village is
watching kids starting to
believe in themselves and
in who God tells them they
are. Every day from 3-5 I
taught English class. The
first day of English class I
realized none of the kids were making eye contact with me, and there
confidence was not there. It broke my heart in pieces, because I could see
that they have been hurt by this world. After that first class I asked the lord
what he wanted to do in these next couple of weeks, and he spoke father
heart of God, self-worth and identity, and for me to hug everyone and
anyone he places in front of me in this class room. He did all three of those
things.
During our first teen/young adult hangout, we asked everyone to write
down a question they had about life, God, us and that over those next couple
of weeks we would answer them. As our team looked through the
questions our hearts began to break as questions kept coming up
like Why does my dad beat my mom? or Why did my mom or dad
leave me? or Why dont my mom or and my dad love me? or Is
God my father? we recognized really quickly that these teens
didnt know who they were or whose they were. So we prayed and
decided I should speak on the father heart of God during our next meeting.

So I did and in moments I had kids all around the room weeping. Weeping
with sorrow, anger, confusion, and joy that they are not alone and relief that
regardless of what there earthly mother and father had done, they have a
heavenly father who has adopted them and is madly in love with them. After
speaking I invited anyone who this impacted to come and speak and pray
with me. I had 4 girls come up to me and my wonderful translator. Then I had
the honor of sitting there and
listing to their stories. Man, just
thinking about it brings me to
tears. These girls have been
beaten, abandoned, one of them
was so confused on why her
parents dont love her, one of
them is a slave and was angry at
her parents for leaving her with
her uncles family, one was sad
because she wants her dad to
stop getting drunk and beating
her mom. As I looked in these
precious ones eyes, and I
sat there holding them tight
as we all just cried over the
hurt theyve experienced, I
was absolutely overwhelmed
by the love of Jesus for these
four girls. I was

overwhelmed by the thought of a holy

God sitting here and weeping with us, I
was overwhelmed by how heart-broken
God must be to see his little girls hurting,
I was overwhelmed by how out of control
I felt, how helpless I felt in that moment,
that all I could do was cry out to God with
these girls and ask him to come and
redeem relationships, redeem households, and heal wounds. We then asked him
to continue to send armies of angels to guard
and protect each one of these girls and any
other child who lives day to day similar to this,
we forgave parents and thanked God for never

leaving. In that moment my heart was completely broken, but at the same
time I felt fully alive and at peace, because God was sitting right beside me.
Those four girls reminded me that I want to spend my life filled with
holding the broken hearted in my arms and reminding them how
loving of a heavenly father they have and pointing them back to the
one who will forever leave them. I want to tell the hopeless of a hope
found in Jesus. I want to tell children from a broken family that in Christ they
have a family that is whole. I want to tell them of a love that will never run
out, leave or abandon them. Because if not me, then who will? Maybe
someone else, but I dont want to take the chance, when I am perfectly
capable of devoting my life to this with the lord. It will be a life of being
constantly uncomfortable, but filled with unquenchable joy.

So during English class I realized that there were many who knew very
little but few who knew a lot. In fact I noticed that some of the girls could
read and comprehend English. So I took that small group and challenged
them to read a book and write
summaries in English and then
the next day we would talk about
it. They did, we did and slowly I
watched as they came in the
classroom looking extremely
upset to walking in the classroom
every single day with a smile on
their face as I embraced them
with a big hug. I watched them go
from speaking in pigeon with each
other to peaking in English with
each other. I watched them very
timidly speak English with me to
them confidently, while looking
me in the eyes communicate with
me in English. I had a front row
seat of God transforming these
young girls to believe they were
enough. My sweet friend Ruthie
was one of the gals in the
advanced reading group. Her
English was so good. During
school evangelism we didnt have
a translator, and I noticed that
Ruthie was in the class, so I asked Ruthie would you translate for me? she
timidly looked away and I then said Ruthie, look at me. I know you can do
this. I believe in you. Would you translate for me? and she looked me
straight in the eyes and said Yes. She got up in front of all of her peers
which is a huge deal in PNG and translated with her head held high. I kind of
felt like a proud momma in that moment as I watched this girl blossom in
front of my eyes. She believed in herself, she knew her worth because
she knew whose she was, and she stood in front of that group of
people in a way she never has before, confidently. I remember
thinking in that moment if this is all I did in PNG it is worth it all.
I couldnt have done any of these things will out your prayers,
encouragements and financial support, so THANK YOU. Thank you for
believing in me and going on this crazy journey with God with me. I cant
wait to tell you all about what is next very very soon.

All my love,
Makenzie McAndrews