Every Surf we are on Mission!

Just last week i made a decision to drive to yorke peninsula for a surf in the middle of the week. So 5am i awoke the next morning and began my journey, which would take 3.5 hours. Joining me on the trip was a surfer that i had baptised a few years ago and had been discipling ever since. What better way is there to disciple than just going on a journey and just doing life together on a road trip to a beautiful part of God's creation. It amazing what conversations, prayer and laughs you can have when your sitting next to someone for 3.5 hours.

 

So as we journeyed we were greeted with God in all his Glory as we passed through Port Wakefield at Dawn with an amazing sunrise. I just had to stop and take a photo. The journey continued and by 8:30am we had arrived in Innes National Park and there was not a breath of wind! A really Good sign for us surfers. We begun the search for waves, cos ultimately thats what we had just driven 3.5 hours for. I hadn't checked any reports, but i though i had a good chance of scoring some waves. And after 3 weeks not hitting the water i needed to break the fast. We searched all these amazing surf spots, chatted to surfers and finally arrived at our destination and where God would teach me a lesson that every surf is His.

At this stage we were frothing to get out in the surf and when you see surfers coming back with smiles on their faces and stoked you know you in for a good day. As we walked the 500 metres i came across a surfer that i met a few weeks earlier. The irony was that i was just chatting about him moments earlier. He was stoked and said there were some great waves. So as we approached the final boardwalk our eyes where captured by this

Once you see that kind of set up as a surfer you cast aside any worry about the weather, how cold the water is and whether there are any fish that will be joining you. You just want to get out there and get into the action. All you can be is thankful to the one who gives us the waves. Praise God just comes naturally out of the soul. Before we knew it we traded in our clothes for our wetsuits, booties and boards!

As i paddle out i prayed and said thanks for the scene that was before me. Which saw only about 10 surfers out and pumping 4 foot sets (10 ft faces). Pondalowie bay is a great beach cos it allows you to be able to just paddle past the surfers and what them carve up the open faces. My mate that join me kicked off the action with a beautiful wave and when he kicked off he was a picture of happiness. while we waited for the sets i struck conversation after conversation with the crew out there. It's amazing how open, free from stress and happy people can be when in the surf. A parent once told me that the surf was the Holy Spirit because every time here sons came out of the water they were refreshed and happy! there might be some truth to this.

Any way as we surfed one particular guy in the water was more open that others. Everyone was friendly, but this guy was all interested in deeper things. We just started chatting and before i knew it i was sharing about who Jesus was and what it actually meant to follow him. We talked about Church stereotypes and theology. We even talked about if we were to follow Jesus ways of life the world would be a better place. He agreed. Two surfers getting a bit deep! Any way as the hours passed and we hooted each other into waves the stoke level was at an all time high! My mate and i scored a few to write home about was in no regret that we had spent 3.5 hours in a car.

As time passed the guy i was going to get contact details from finished a little earlier. he paddled in and waved good bye. Throwing a little prayer up i ask God to create another opportunity in the future with me or another Jesus guy. I finally paddled in 3 hours later from when the session began.

My surfer mate then went and hit up some lunch before heading out to find another wave. As we pulled up to a spot that might be working i noticed a few surfers also checking out the action. As i approached the them i realised that God had answered my prayer because that surfer i was chatting to in the water was one of the guys on the cliff. He said to me "Justin, right" i said "yep" we always look different when we in clothes and our eyes are masked by sunnies. I exchanged numbers and he said he wanted to catch up sometime and maybe come out to Christian Surfers.

As they day sun set on the horizon i realized that God gives us opportunity where ever we may go. even 3.5 hours away in the middle of the week i was able to minister to those i knew, those i had just met and to people that i would become friends with. This is what i believe it is to be a surf missionary. One that every time you enter the water your an ambassador for Jesus. Christian Surfers is characterized by this kind of mission thinking. While we run events with a specific Christian Surfers banner most of the time we are undercover incarnating into breaks all over SA.

Bless ya heaps!

Justin Monaghan

A Season in the Desert!

Hey faithful supporters,

Well, its been awhile since i last posted and i guess its because it has been a season that really has been one that i would describe as a desert. A few months ago our prayer intercessor Amy said to Liana and i that we are going into a desert season and that it was going to be harder. A word that strikes fear into the heart as it's the last thing you want to hear! At the time i felt its all good will get there, but nothing has prepared me for what it has actually meant to walk in this desert. 

The desert is a place that is not that foreign to us believers because we read in Exodus a story about a man that lead his people into a desert for 40 years. A desert which saw people turn on each other, be pushed to the limit, to give up and to even turn on that very leader that took this people out of slavery which would be far worse than the desert. Over this past few months i have found myself more like those people who lost faith in the greater story that they were being written into. a story that is about the greater purpose of God and his partnership with us to bring about that purpose. I think when you look down all you can see is the dry, desolate and hopeless situation before you.

Liana and i have found to see the greater purpose of God for our lives to be a little confusing at times, frustrating as anything and down right hard. Sometimes thoughts have gone through my mind i'm just going to give up and live a normal life! We have been pushed and stretched beyond what we could even think we were capable of. It has meant that we have struggled financially, emotionally, spiritually and practically. The only thing that has got me through it has been to realize that once you taste the life God has given you there is nothing that will compare and that conviction, that calling will see you through the toughest, driest times.

The other part of that word from Amy was that although we were heading to desert times that there would be blessings in the desert along the way! God grace will continue to extend to us in the driest of times. And to finish off this blog entry i just want to finish off with a story of a blessing in the desert that happened just a matter of days ago!

Last week on a wednesday i was having a day where i was literally feeling very frustrated with life and its direction and what made it even worse was that Liana came home and it all just got too much to handle for her as well. we were sitting on our bed and i was supposed to be at a meeting and i just bailed it. I didn't feel at all like spending the next four days in the lions den that is a pro junior event. Just as we were low we received an invitation to a families house that wanted to bless us with dinner. We decided to go.

We got to this families house and walked in and just began to feel like we could see goodness in the world. We sat, we ate, we laughed and we were just really real with this family and one particular guy who had been invited to dinner also. After dinner we were led into a time that truly was divine. the reason being that a movie night soon became a night of this guy sharing visions and pictures about each of the people in the room. That included Liana and i. The pictures that were given by this complete stranger to us was truly a sign that God was with us, he knew us and that he loved us.

The blessing in the desert didn't just end there. It continued as we drove away to our home Liana received a phone call from the family and direction to open Liana's handbag to find a sealed envelope. As we opened this envelope we discovered six one hundred dollar bills. enough to take our breath away. But there was another mystery in this gift and that was that the currency we were looking at was the old Australian one hundred dollar bill depicting the famous explorer Douglas Mawson who pioneered Antarctica. Unsure if it this currency would still work in banks Liana was told that God had told the mother to give this envelope to us. It had been sitting in an old book for over 10 years and they had never been prompted prior to this in what to do with it. At that stage God just hit me and pierced my heart with a thought that brought tears to eyes and healing to my soul. And that was that God had prepared this gift for us even before we knew Him, even before we started to serve him in Christian Surfers and ministry. He had purposed it for us! God does walk before us into any situation and he has purposed us for little desert blessings. 

An amazing story and hope it brings you real encouragement of a great God we all serve and love. He gave me one last thought after reflecting on this whole desert experience and that is that even though its easier to await that next blessing in the desert, he does not want us to do that! what he does want is for us to look to Him and only him! for he is the source, he is the river of life and the one that does not make us thirst anymore. John 7:37-38 says "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! anyone who believes in me may come and drink for the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from His heart"

Blessing to you all!

Justin Monaghan