Stopping Over Across The Pond

So, I've been meeting a bunch of cool people on facebook who are also going to Hillsong College in January.  One particular person whom I've been talking with most is a young man from Winchester, England named Tim Vaine.  Tim and I have much in common and have good, funny, strange, and ever interesting chats!  One of the cheapest options for me to fly to Sydney is to stop over in Jolly Old London.  I mentioned this to him and discussed perhaps visiting for a couple days (he's not far outside of London), and we've been making plans since!

It's going to be a lot of fun, and from the sounds of it, I will be doing a lot of eating!  Real English fish and chips, an all you can eat Pizza Hut dinner apparently, and what Tim says is the best Chinese food outside of China (though he's never been to China, so when we stop there, we'll see).  

We decided to do a two day trip where he will show me around his town of Winchester, and then we head for London early the next day for fun around town.  The next day we leave for Sydney together!  

Our flight plan to Sydney includes a one and a half hour stop in Hong Kong, so hopefully we'll be able to roam the airport and listen in on lots of Chinese conversations!  Who knows!?

I'm still waiting on the funds in some ways, but I'm hoping to book my ticket by halfway through October, we'll say the 15th!

On that note, I've sent a document to Hillsong that the government requires to be filled out by the educational institution before giving me money and I am hoping that they've filled it out already and have sent it to them!  I guess I will find out soon.  

I hope I will.

I think that's it, so cheers and such!

Dying To Yourself Sucks

Dying to yourself sucks, but God requires it, and facilitates it, and I think he enjoys it a little too...  As you may, and should, know by now, I am pursuing a call of becoming a worship pastor in the future and am working at becoming a worship leader now.  I play guitar and sing, and love to see people encounter God in worship.  I'm enrolled to study at the Hillsong International Leadership College next year for Worship music for a couple years, and have big hopes, dreams, plans, and destiny!  Now, with big things like, comes big trials to get there and a lot of death to yourself.  If you want to give God glory with your life, you have to remove your pride, your stubbornness, you ideas about what is best for you, and etc..  It's hard, and it sucks.  It even hurts.  But it's necessary so that God can use us.  He needs us to have good character, to be devoted and pure and to put him first. 

 Look at Joseph, he had HUGE dreams and an even BIGGER destiny!  He was thrown in a pit and sold into slavery and in jail for years before he could be released into his destiny and become second in command over all of Egypt!  But he needed to go through some things to learn some things about life and God.  Moses had to wander around a desert in his own life, and then all of Israel had to die through a generation for them to learn and go into their promised land.  David was a shepherd and worked his butt off fighting off beasts and tending to the flock for his entire childhood, and I believe much of his teens, before he was even selected and trained by Samuel before we was made king.  Jonah was eaten by a freaking whale!  

There is a recurring theme in many of the stories of the great leaders of the Bible, you need to die to yourself to live for God.  Now here's a personal story that just happened to illustrate this...

As I have noted in previous blogs, I have been going to TACF Central, a young adult church in the heart of Downtown Toronto since like late April, early May.  A couple months ago, Brett, one of the worship leaders, and an intern at the church, asked me if I would like to play guitar with the band sometime.  I was flattered to be asked.  I said I'd think it over and stuff and get back to him.  I did, and I did.  So Brett says, "Cool man, we'll get together sometime and jam so I can get a feel for you and we'll work it out."

Well, Brett's a busy guy, and I didn't hear from him for quite a while.  Eventually, like a week or two ago, he says, "we'll do it this week, I'll call you to confirm."  I didn't hear from him.  He sends me a message apologizing, he's been really busy (he's a full-time intern at the church). So I figure, heck, I guess it's not meant to be, oh well. So, I'm at my friend Mark and Beths' house for a get together the night before, and mark goes, "Hey man you know we're playing together tomorrow on acoustic guitar!" I was like, "Uhm, no, no one told me." It turns out I was accidentally skipped on the list to receive the worship schedule email! So, I'm like, well, okay, I'll be there.

So, I'm rushing home from Hillstreams, my morning church, on Sunday (which is far away in Markham, so far that I have to get a ride to get to the subway) because the service went a little late and everyone's sticking around and I'm waiting for someone to give me a ride. It sucks not having a car in Toronto.
I'm running about an hour late, I have to be home before 2:30 so that I can pack up my guitar and maybe grab a little lunch and have time to make rehearsal. And there is no way this is going to happen without divine intervention! So I call my dad at home and ask if he would drive me halfway to Central, luckily he said yes and the traffic was good! Praise Jesus! I get there 5 minutes late, which is no deal because most of the band was stuck in traffic. Did I mention that I was freaking out all day because I had left my wallet at Mark's house and was desperately hoping he would find it and bring it that night? He did, Thank God! So yes, we're all setting up the equipment and stuff, running super late. We didn't start sound check till like 5, sound check is normally done by 4:30 I am told. So first of all, the battery in my tuner pedal is dead, so I borrow a spare battery. I plug into my tuner, but the tuner isn't displaying anything! So I bang it around and press a couple buttons and try everything, all this time thinking that the battery in my guitar is still good because I just changed it like three weeks ago! Then I realize it's probably my guitar's battery, so I borrow more batteries! (A typical musician, I am) Then I tune and all. Now, I only knew half the songs that I was given. But I managed to pick up the other two just fine. 
So, we're doing sound check and monitors, and my guitar is totally distorting! The sound guy is like "I think it's your guitar cables." I'm like "Nuh, uh! These are good quality cables, I highly doubt it's them." So maybe it's my tuner, we try bypassing the tuner, same thing, still distorting. Maybe it's the guitar they try and say, but heck no, this is a high quality guitar I say! I play it live all the time!  (I didn't actually say "Nuh uh!" by the way)
So we figure out it's the XLR (microphone) cable from the direct box which I spent like five minutes just untangling! So I go and get a new XLR. Now we're fine. We're rehearsing, everyone's happy.

In a very short amount of time the number of people in the church exploded and all the sudden it was full.  It made me a little nervous, I'd never played to that many people before really.  It was six o'clock. GO time! So, the drummer counts us in. The first song was Happy Day by Tim Hughes, an AWESOME song if you haven't heard it. Now, I could more or less hear myself in rehearsal without about two hundred singing, screaming twentysomething worshippers, but I couldn't hear AT ALL with them. About thirty seconds into this first of the songs, I broke my D string. Yes, that's right, I broke the D string. I also didn't have any replacements. I was like, "aaaaah!" 
So, I briefly thought about putting my guitar down and going to stand in the back and sulk, but then I thought, "no, as long as I'm wanted on this stage, I will stay. If the worship leaders decide they don't want a D string-less guitar, then they will tell me to put it down and go worship, but they're not, so I will play, 5 strings or nought! The worship leader, Andrew, whom I think is super awesome, keeps signalling me to play bigger and I'm like whispering, "I can't, I broke a string!" I'd lost 1/7th of my resonance!
So, I say to myself, "I can either be a bum, or I can worship God and enjoy and learn from this experience and be a part of this team of amazing musicians and lead these people into worship!"
So I did, and I had lots of fun. I went and sat at the back during the message and sulked a little as I listened, asking God, "Why? Why did I have to break that string God? WHY?" And he said, "Matt I was testing you, and you passed! Why are you so unhappy?" And of course he knew why, because dying to yourself hurts, but in the end, it's worth it. I went to Brett afterwards and asked him how I did and he said that he was impressed and that I did really well especially with a broken string! When I asked if there was anything he thought I needed work on, he just said that it's hard to get use to the (P.A.) system and that I was standing in a bad spot for that and that I did really well because people are giving me signals I don't know yet and different people are queuing me differently within the band. I was just thinking, "Yay! He says I'm good!" He's a better guitar player than I am, so I was a little flattered. Then I talked to Andrew, who is also in charge of the worship as an overseer for the entire youth network of TACF (which is the size of three small to medium churches). He is an AMAZING singer, musician, and well trained and experienced worship leader.  And he had only the best to say about me!!! He said that I took direction well and worked well with the members of the band and that he really enjoyed it and was happy to have me and that I play my instrument very well. I'll be honest, I was almost in tears. I asked him if he thought there was anything he'd like to see improvement in or anything and he said, "No, not this time, there may be in future times, but I thought you did great." Then he reached around my shoulder in a side-hugish motion and said, "Are you sure you want to go to Australia?" I laughed and told him yes. He smiled and said, "Well, just know that there's always an open door for you here."  I was MELTED inside a litte. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Thank you, really, that means a lot."

I'll never forget it, it was the worst and best time of playing of worship I've had so far. The passion in this congregation when they go for it, it's amazing, and seeing it from the front and getting to be a part of the facilitation of it was a great honour and privilege. 
I love Central.
God had to really break me and teach me to let go of performance and perfection in worship so that I was free to just do it and lead people.  I had to put myself in his hands and not be deterred by circumstance and just push through.  He had to teach me what it's really about, and I think that's what the worship leadership at Central saw. 
Afterwards at dinner at Pogue Mahones (which is Irish for "Kiss My Butt"), the local pub near Central, I met and talked to one of Central's amazing cell leaders and shared this all with her and she shared with me her vision and calling and how she's been going through death to her will also.  It was a great meet!  We were both blessed by each other's testimonies and likenesses.  Good times!
Only when we die to ourselves, can we really, fully, live for God.

'Cause You Gotta Have Faith

"The Lord your God Who goes before you will Himself fight for you. He did this for you in Egypt in front of your eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way you have walked until you came to this place.'
Deuteronomy 1:30-31 (NLV)
"But now that you're here, you won't trust God, your God— this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go." 32-33 (The Message)

I have, recently, decided to read the Bible front to back again and in doing so have just come upon a juicy little tidbit in the studious book of Deuteronomy.

"No," you might say, "not in Deuteronomy!"

But, "Yes!" I reply, "in Deuteronomy!"

I can very much relate to this scripture. You see, in preparations for my departure to Australia to go to Bible college in the new year, there have been doubts, fears, worries, anxieties, frustrations, and, well, you get the picture.

God has brought me through so, so much, and he has always been good to me. He has always followed through, and he's redeemed to me all the things that I have lost, and in his typical fashion, when he redeems, he does it and then some.

I have come to a place where God is trying to bring me into a greater level in my life, and I am saying "Are you sure about this God? This is scary, what if I can't pull it off? What if you can't pull it off?"  I like how The Message puts verses 32 and 33 in a present tense, whereas most other translations do it in the past tense. It just sticks to me better.

Check this out:

"God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?"
Numbers 23:19 (NLT)

God is not going to put a promise in my heart, a fire in my belly, an unyielding desire to do this, without following through for me. The Bible says also that he will give us the desires of our heart:

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

I believe in this, I really do! And I believe that he enjoys giving us those desires! I also believe that God often puts desires into our hearts for things. Now, obviously, not every desire in our heart is from God, as our hearts are prone to corruption and to bend to the desires of our flesh, but I do believe that God made every part of us for a reason. He knows what our hearts want, and he knows what he wants for our lives and the way that we tend to live our lives based on the desires of our hearts. Wouldn't it make sense for him to put certain desires there for us to find so that we live the life he plans for us to live? I think so!

I encourage anyone reading this who is struggling with faith, or just needs some encouragement to remember the words of this blog tonight, and also to remember this verse:

"And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed"
Deuteronomy 31:8 (NKJV)

Transition to another Matt - Transition to another blog

This is just a post, to all and any who read this blog, that I am discontinuing this blog, as my life in Toronto is coming to a close, and my life in Australia is soon to start.  I will no longer be posting updates on my life here.  I will be posting thought blogs and things like that, however.

I leave in four months, and this shift in my life is my forefront focus.

As this is such, a new blog is in order!

Come visit my new blog, I pray you, to learn about the wondrous and wacky life of...

 Matt in the Outback

I have their acceptance, they have my deposit, we have much to do...

So... As it stands today, I am officially enrolled at the Hillsong International Leadership College for the Diploma of Ministry in Worship & Creative Arts.  It is a two year program, which starts in February of next year, and which I will finish in December of 09.

I have sent them the money sufficient enough to pay for my first semester of schooling and the necessary health insurance for two years of stay in Australia as an overseas student.  

Now, it's real...

There is still much to do, oh...  so much to do!

I am working with OSAP and need to send them some documents, one of them being a document that...  I need to fill out half of and send to Australia for them to fill out the rest.

I also need to:

• Get my passport
• After obtaining my passport, apply for my Australian VISA
• Save some money
• Apply for accommodation
• Write up and send out fundraising letters
• Pray...  A LOT!
• Plan a going away party at the end of the year, or possibly at the beginning of next
• Book my plain ticket
• Get rid of my cell phone and remaining contract time (any takers?)
• Make the appropriate doctors' appointments
• Get my G2 before leaving the country
• Buy a bunch of stuff that I will need for life in Sydney

And who knows what else I've forgotten...  

*Oh right, pack up my entire life and fly away to the land down under!

So, to wrap it up, pray for me and read this blog often.  I will post pictures, videos?, anecdotes, and all things me in Australia in this blog, so keep on reading.  Same Matt-Time, same Matt-Channel!