God provides as per usual

I went round to my friends Rob and Lauren's house for an Australia Day BBQ yesterday and they offered me their spare room until space becomes available at my new house! So now I'm in a bed that I could sleep sideways on! So awesome. God is awesome, they are awesome.

Lauren, Nikita and Rob

Heels on Wheels starts up again tomorrow night as long as we don't get a storm...

Happy Australia Day!

Phew it's a toasty 32 degrees today and no-one's working because it's Australia Day and on Australia Day you have to have a BBQ. It's the law. I've been back for a week now and things are going great. I'm between houses right now just waiting for a room to become available in a friend's house in Mooloolabah. It's a lovely place to live, about ten minutes closer to work than where I'm staying now so I'm looking forward to moving in. It will cost more than living in YWAM housing but the prospect of sharing a room with three other girls when I come in so late from skating wasn't really ideal and I really wanted to be in a more homely environment rather than a house that always has people coming and going. So for the next few weeks I'm staying in a friend's garage then I'll be moving to my new room with a king size bed! (Thanks Andy you're awesome!)

I had a great two months back home over Christmas, it was precious to spend so much time with my family and to reconnect with my friends and all their new babies (and bumps!). I also appreciated the opportunity to share with many people at Churches and again the support I received had a big impact on me. A massive thank you to everyone who took an interest in the work I'm doing and supported me in prayer and financially. It really does make such a huge difference to my life and it's not something I take for granted.

One Friday Ministry

I've been having good talks with Boris about my role in the ministry and have started working more at the warehouse helping with the admin side of the Boardstores. I'm excited to get stuck in. Whilst I was in the UK the guys built and opened Caloundra Boardstore. I haven't managed to get a camera down there yet but here's a taster that Kodan took on his mobile:

It's smaller than the Maroochy store and has a different almost boutiquey vibe which is cool. I like that they have different identities. Plus all the woodworking done by friends who own a kitchen factory is super steezy.

Heels on Wheels will start up again on Thursday, I'm excited to see everyone again and want to plan a few girl's trips this term so we'll have heaps to talk about.

Last Saturday Skate Church kicked off 2010 with a skate and scooter competition. Mark and his family did such a great job and loads of kids came and heard the impact of the gospel through his talk. Praise God for Skate Church! They've been doing this event for years now, are a constant presence at Coolum skate park and must have seen and talked to so many young people in that time. God is really laying hammers through this amazing family who live by faith and push hard for Him.

Other ministry

Yesterday morning Des took the lecture for the current DTS for the introduction to "Hearing God." He spoke about being wholeheated and and not being double minded and did a great job. He asked me to share with them about surrendering rights and being open to hear God speak about things that involve sacrifice. I spoke to them about being away from my family back home and about surrendering my art to God last year and how much he taught me through those things. It was good to share and I feel God taught me even more about my experiences in those areas just through recapping them. Des and I were tripping out a bit over how this time last year that was us doing our DTS and now we're standing in front of a class teaching. It's awesome to see such a clear indicator of where God has taken you in just a year and it excited me to wonder where He will have taken me a year from now.

Over Christmas I had an email from a lady from the council asking if I would run some skateboard art workshops and a competition as a part of National Youth Week in April. I'm really stoked on the idea and think it'll be great to work with the council and build relationship with them as well as meeting more kids. I'll be giving her a call tomorrow to talk about it further, if you could pray for that I'd appreciate it.

Super cool.

Thanks again everyone, please do let me know if there's anything I can pray into for you. If you feel like you would like to partner with me financially in the work I'm doing please do let me know. Like the loaves and fishes, what seems like a small thing can make a big difference.

In Him with love

Claire

Ready to Roll

The last Create2Skate session last night went so well. The kids were all stoked to take away their boards and those who wanted to ride them added grip tape and transferred their hardware over. Their parents came to pick them up and I took a minute to tell the kids that Boardstore is run and staffed by people who loves Jesus and that God loves them and gave them the option of taking away a free Skaters Bible. They were all excited to take one and alot of them exchanged email addresses and phone numbers with each other. I loved that they had made friends and that the workshops had been a chance to build more relationships. We also invited them to Skate Church in Coolum this Saturday so hopefully some will make it.

I'm so stoked on how these workshops have gone and it's made me really excited about doing it again.

Click on photos for larger views

Liam finishing off his sun rays with oil pastels

Matt's fully stencilled board - he came up with it all himself! Sick!

Mark showing the potential of Posca pens

Like father like son; Jye working on his wave

Josh and Matt making some fancy grip tape

The finished products! L-R Josh, Matt, Jye, Harrison, Jesse, Liam, Marshall and Jesse.

Awesome ay. All the glory goes to God for giving me the idea and making it a success.

Create2Skate

Hey everybody

So the Create2Skate workshops are three weeks in! There are 8 kids taking part and it's been SO GOOD! Super tiring but worth it. Mark who runs skate church has been coming every week to draw and connect with parents that come and Dave Fisher who is head of visual arts at Caloundra Christian College has been coming and showing the kids new techniques. It's been a great opportunity to chat to the kids, encourage them and invite them to skate church and our bbqs.

In the first week the kids spent time coming up with ideas using books and magazines that I brought in. In the second week they experimented with painting techniques on MDF and primed their skateboards and this week they got started on their decks.

Here are some photos:

Everything laid out ready to go on the first session

Marshall, Jesse and Liam's board designs

Liam getting into oil pastels

Jesse using Posca pens for his awesome pirate

Harrison outlining his "Chairman of the Board"

Matt helps Josh spray through some mesh

Matt creating checkers with a stencil he made

I'm so stoked on how they're doing - last week next week!

Philippines update

Hey everyone... here's some PRAISE HAMMERS! Our friends in the Philippines just sent us through photos of the new kitchen in the home for the blind that we stayed in during our trip there earlier this year. Look how big God is! And Pastor Pat did an amazing job, you are anointed!

Before:

After:

God is so good.

OPEN SESAME

Thanks to Derek and Melissa for the photos

September Hammers

Things have been super hectic down here for the last month, sorry for the wait!

One Friday Ministry News

Heels on Wheels continues to grow and I've connected with quite a few new girls at the park. We've started a new bible study for skaters every Tuesday evening at Boardstore and the format; Pizza-Nooma-Study-Skate, is going really well.

Rob and Des had a successful trip to LA and San Diego for a trade show where they met new companies, a few pro riders and caught up with companies that we distribute. When they left Australia they had no place to stay in LA as their previous contact fell through. I connected them with my good friends Willsy and Liel who live there and they ended up staying with them and spoke at Willsy's church. Willsy and Liel are both from the Philippines so Des in particular connected with them telling them about our outreach to the Phillies earlier in the year. It turned out to be a really God appointed meeting and I was super stoked (and a little weirded out) that they were hanging out and blessing each other. I was also not at all jealous that they got to meet Willsy's new baby girl and hung out with his son Jet. Yep. Praise God that the trip went really well.

Boardstore Art Gallery

I wanted to do a series of art workshops for the kids before I head home for Christmas so I pushed ahead with an official opening of the gallery. More and more artwork flooded in and it took a long time to arrange it all and get it ready. I wrote a press release and a lovely lady in PR, Chrissy, who I know through the cable park sent it out to all her contacts. Here's a link to one article online:

Viewnews.com.au

The opening was last night and it went really well. So many people came and we had positive comments flying all over the place. Derek and our new mission builder Jamie spent all afternoon indoors on a lush day making 500 canapés and Melissa had the great idea to serve them on skateboard platters. Kodan spent ages stripping back skateboard decks which meant that as part of the evening Des, Mark and two graffiti artists Gavin and Adam spent their time painting the decks and talking to people about their art. Fabi spun tunes all evening, Shannon mixed up a massive punch and Chelsea and Holly helped hand out food as people came in.

It was really awesome and it took me a while after closing to sit down, settle my thoughts and realise it had been a total success. I really couldn't have done it without the grace of God and the help of those people on the night, everyone was so keen to support the venture and it was really encouraging to have so many people come, particularly people that I didn't know as that meant word was spreading!

Below are some pictures of the gallery and artwork that's gone in recently. Derek had his snazzy camera out at the opening so I'll ask him if I can put up some of his pictures for you to see too.

Photos by Mat Hardingham, surfboard by Mark Geltch

Day Dreamin' by Mark Geltch

Koi by Des Rountree

Isha and Richard, photos by Derek Ellens

Drawn decks by me

Pro model decks signed by Christian Hosoi when Rob and Des met him in LA

Pro model decks signed by Chris Cole in LA and Steve Caballero in Bondi

Pro model decks signed by Jamie Thomas in LA

Skate photography and art books

So now it's onto the workshops. I'll be running 4 sessions in the gallery on Wednesday nights starting in two weeks for people to design and create their own skateboards. I'm only charging $30 for the four sessions including the board and materials because I really want all kids to be able to come it they want and I totally see it as ministry not a money maker. I have no idea how many kids will show, I've encouraged them to register in advance but you know what it's like. Dave Fisher is Head of Visual Arts at Caloundra Christian College and he's been a big help with the gallery, exhibiting and offering advice and expertise. He told me last night that he has Wednesday nights free and will come to help which is a real relief especially if I end up with 40 kids.

God and Claire

I still feel like I need to come to God and ask Him to teach me about rest and balance in my life. I work work work, get exhausted and then find it hard to switch off and rest. Part of the problem is because I genuinely enjoy the work I'm doing I'm less inclined to step back from it and take time to rejuvenate. I didn't have anything planned today but still I've found it difficult to stop and let God bring peace into my heart, instead still feeling restless and like I need to be doing something productive.

I have always had the tendency to heap pressure on myself in anything I do and I struggle working out a timetable that includes time to rest. I'm used to a 9-5 job that has clear boundaries but ministry isn't like that. Ministry things can be all day and then in the evening too. The relationships I'm building don't just exist between 9 and 5. This has been a constant struggle since coming back into full time ministry and something God is still teaching me about.

Sunny Coast YWAM News

The July DTS are on outreach now in India and Indonesia and the September DTS schools started two weeks ago. Daniel Marks from Wales who was on my DTS is back as staff on the Waves DTS which is really great. It's so good having him back here, he is someone who really listens to God, speaks His word and carves a mean line on a skateboard so I'm super chuffed he's back. The other school is the Surfers DTS which is a new concept being run by Christie and Phil who staffed my school and Aaron who staffed a school last year. Already the students in both schools are pressing into God and on their evangelism walks in Mooloolaba have led 4 people to Christ. Praise God I'm so excited to see what else He has in store for them.

Tonight is our weekly Boardstore Bangers BBQ at Alex skatepark so I'm off to buy snags (ozzy hotdogs - I MISS English sausages... pork and apple... mmmmm)

Hope you're all well and please let me know if I can pray for you about anything!

In Him

Claire