Lane Cooke (Fall 2024)

1 Peter 4:11

Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Summer Team

This past summer I had a great time leading the Teen Missions team to the Dominican Republic. I had a team of four leaders,18 team members and the head male leader’s wife and two kids. Boot Camp (our time of training) was a very good, but challenging time. Our team learned to lay brick, paint, dig, do dramas and puppet presentations. We also put together a presentation to use while overseas to share the Gospel. Boot Camp is a time for the team members and leaders to become a unified team and learn the skills we will need when we are overseas. 

After 10 days of training, we flew out of Florida and arrived that same day in the Dominican Republic. Our team was very excited to be there and experience a different culture. A lot of my team members had not been out of the country before, so it was fun seeing them experience a different culture for the first time. 

I feel like this year the Lord really made me learn what being “fluid and flexible” really means. Our project changed, so the first week we mostly focused on perfecting our presentations and we had a few opportunities to present them and run a few kids programs where we shared the Gospel with them, played games. My team members enjoyed trying to cross the language barrier to have some “conversations” with the kids. The second and third week we had a good mix of going out into the community to share the Gospel through our presentations and working at the camp where we stayed. The team enjoyed getting to paint the property and build some window screens for the dorms. 

Every year I am amazed at how big the God of the Nations is and how He makes an impact in each of our lives and the lives of the people around us. How God has impacted the lives of my team members and leaders this past summer is incredible. As a leader, one of my biggest ministries is my team members, and it is always so encouraging to see them grow and become confident in sharing their faith with those around them even when they have had hard lives. I am so thankful to have these opportunities to serve God and to continue growing while I serve Him! 

Moving to Australia

After the summer team I had two weeks off, so I went home to visit my family, went to California to visit Eli’s family and then flew back to Florida to be there for my friends’ Tim and Ellie Petersen’s wedding. It was a very full, but good two weeks. 

The next week Abigail (my friend that moved to Australia with me) and I finished packing, said our goodbyes and left on our 30-hour journey to Brisbane, Australia!

The first week in Australia was a week of getting used to the time change, getting over colds we had gotten from traveling, meeting new people and learning about what we will be doing while here. The second week we went on a spiritual retreat with the staff and students where we went into the mountains without our phones or any distractions around us and had a few days of reflecting on what God is doing in our lives and how He has blessed us in so many ways. It was a very personal time, and I grew a lot throughout that week. The next few weeks we started working on the projects we are here to do.

It has been a lot of fun experiencing this culture, learning about Australia and getting to see how beautiful this country is. Our Teen Missions base is on a pretty big property with a lot of nature around it so it is not rare to see kangaroos, goannas and many birds including the kookaburra. The people here have been very kind, and it has been fun getting to meet people and create friendships with them. I am really enjoying my time serving here.

The Ministry

There are many aspects to the ministry here, but I am mostly helping with their missionary training Bible college, “The Journey”. I’m helping with promoting it both in person and online, updating paperwork and documents, encouraging the students, coming up with new ideas about how we can improve the missionary training program and leading travel teams around Australia. 

Another aspect of the ministry I am helping with is getting things ready for Australia’s summer teams. Since Australia is actually coming out of their winter and going into their summer, their teams are during December-January time. During their summer program, I have been given the opportunity to serve as a leader on a team going to Malawi. I am excited to lead again this year and to share the Gospel in Malawi. Right now we have five leaders and 13 team members. I am blessed to have the opportunity to go back to Africa to serve in Malawi for a month with my team!

A Big Blessing

Abigail and I had been looking for a cheap car that we could purchase while here so that we can get around, use it for the ministry and also see the beautiful country of Australia. At the beginning of September we found a good affordable car (Australia actually has quite a few good, but really cheap cars). It has been a big blessing for us, and we are very thankful that God provided a car for us and for the support we have both received to be able to get it!

What God has been teaching me 

These past months God has been teaching me to be present in the moment. My mind tends to be a future thinker. I find myself a lot of the time looking forward to things I will be doing in the future or looking ahead and planning things for the future so much that I forget to just be still and enjoy the time that God has me in. I feel like moving to Australia has especially been teaching me that I need to live in the now and enjoy the things I am doing now. I can be excited for the future, but still live in the now because this is where God has me and I need to make the most of it. God has so many plans for each of our lives and that is a very exciting thing to think about, but we need to live it day by day finding joy and living out our purpose to honor God in everything that we do. 

God bless you, 

Lane Cooke

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