UPDATE

July 2012

Tim Derrington:
Tim is working with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) at Island Breeze Sydney where he is currently a staff member

LIFE IS A ROLLER COASTER.........

Life is a roller coaster, or at least mine is. From spiritual highs of the Glory of God and His amazing grace, to lows of a self-centered lifestyle, bad decisions and making my own plans. I think that best sums up my year, if not my life. This year has been incredible. I have been greatly blessed by God to have had quality time with my family, holidays to Tasmania, road trips with friends and even a bit of building work renovating a property owned by YWAM Island Breeze Sydney. I would love to tell you more about all of these but there is a more pressing point to this update. Before I rush into the where and what, I want to set the scene with a testimony of Gods grace. During all the events I mentioned above, I have slowly moved my focus from God to my life. I have been distracted by the beauties of this world, from simple things of food and friends to more sinful desires and actions. With this wayward thinking and decision-making I seemed to be getting further and further from God. It all came to a crashing low about a month ago. I was in a park drinking a beer after a hard days work and a thought came to me. your bad at being good your good at being bad. As I pondered this thought some truth resounded in it. Everything good I do I have bad behind it I see a lot clearer now. The enemy can so easily plant lies in our minds, particularly at a stage when I wasnt spending time in the word of God. So I ran with these thoughts and came to the conclusion, Ill just be bad and try do some good. With this attitude as well as the challenges of living in community of 40+ people and the nancial debt I was in, bankruptcy seemed a viable option with all my accounts massively overdrawn. The decision to quit and return home seemed obvious. So I began making plans, nding a place to live, a job, a motive for coming home (save money) I spoke to family, friends, mentors and the leaders here in Sydney and everything was falling into place must be God I thought. So it was ofcial I was leaving at the end of July. I was only a day away from announcing it to the staff and students but that night I could hardly sleep, something just wasnt right but everything seemed organized, I had it all planned out. I woke up in the morning so confused, not sure which way was up or down, not sure whether to go or stay and in the midst of my confusion ten minutes before our staff meeting I heard a loud truth in my heart YOUR LEAVING GOD! As much as in my head I had planned a Christian lifestyle back home, with good intentions of saving money to get back into missions, in my heart, I was really leaving God behind. I went and found our base Director and honestly told him how I was feeling confused and maybe not to announce anything to the staff and I asked him to pray with me. He prayed a simple prayer stating that God is not a God of confusion and then he prayed that there is no condemnation in Christ. I cant explain what happened in that room, only that those truths of God hit me God hit me! The grace of God was poured out as the thought of your bad at being good your good at being bad was broken. Im not good but Christ is! Because He died on the cross my bad isnt seen by God, only the goodness of Christ which he put in me by faith, is seen. God sees me, He knows me, He made me, He understands in my confusion exactly what is going on. I cant explain how it happened but I went from being at the end of a lonely dark path to right back where I started on the road of Calvary. With this amazing grace, I let go of everything, all confusion, all worries, all lies and just sat in awe of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Not only had this change taken place in my heart and mind but over the next few days it became physical. The bad in my life was becoming less and less and God and his glory was becoming more and more of a reality.

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One day as I was driving to the house, singing along to a worship song one of the girls turned the music down and with a puzzled look on her face asked me what happened to you? Its like Gods radiating from you. I just looked at her with a smile and said I honestly dont know, its all God and his grace. I wasnt trying to do good by singing a worship song. I was still just being me, but instead of looking at my life and situations, my eyes were focused on Him. Currently I am reading a book by John Piper called Dont waste your life and there is an extract from a C. S. Lewis book that I think explains what God has done. I was standing today in the dark tool shed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust oating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it. Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, ninetyodd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.

I think I found myself in a tool shed, looking around (making plans) but the beam of light stood out amongst all the darkness and then the most glorious thing happened. Stepping into the light, I looked up the beam to see Jesus, who makes all else disappear. Time has passed since that time of prayer but I havent yet come out from the beam, God is still working on my bad, it will probably take a life time to x but it doesnt hold me, God holds me is his hands, and all I want to do is share and display the greatness of our God. I pray that this truth of Gods grace encourages you and I pray that if you dont know this grace that God would pour it out on you. I deeply pray that if you are like me and God has called you and made you his child but you need a refreshment of his grace and love that this testimony will stir your spirit and the Holy Spirit will be you comfort. May you behold Christ in his Glory and never take your eyes of Him. This brings me to the now. I was asked to join our performing arts tour team as they head to Europe for a few months of olympic outreach, which means putting my dancing shoes back on (or in this case taking of most my clothes and getting covered in paint) It is actually funny as I had no desire to dance again, but another thought came to me, that through this dancing I will be put in front of hundreds of people, people who dont know God and after the

dance I will have the privilege to speak to them and share the gospel of grace. I strongly believe you cant teach or speak about something if you havent experienced it and truly believe it. For this I am so thankful for the past few months of struggles as it has been for this purpose of experiencing the grace of God in a real and life changing way. I know there are many Christians in the places we will visit who struggle in the same way I have. Whatever their situations, Christ is bigger and I would love you to partner with our team. We are all in the family of Christ, it is one family and there are brothers and sisters who need simple prayers and encouragements, as I did. Please if the grace of God has impacted you in reading this or you already know His amazing grace and the Glory of God join us in sharing the truth. Share it at work, share it at home, share it with friends and family. If you can go to Europe as I am then share it in the streets, if you cant then I ask you to consider supporting those who can, both with prayer and nances. Let us see the name of Jesus lifted up and watch him draw all men unto Him! THANK YOU! God bless you and continually renew and refresh you by his Grace, Love and Mercy.

Tim Derrington

I ask for your prayerful support. I have 2 days to come up with $1530 for plane tickets and then still a further $1000 for accommodation fees. If you can help in anyway it would be greatly appreciated. Please pray with us for each country as we are there (dates and countries below) pray that ears and hearts may be open to the message and pray that Gods name will be gloried in all things.

PERFORMING ARTS TOUR DATES

Switzerland 7th august 18th France 19th 26th England 27th 18th September Scotland 19th -26th

For donations:
Account Name: MR T W DERRINGTON BSB: 06 5125 Account number: 1013 7030

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