I am in a small town of 18,000 called Piratininga, in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.  I would imagine that 99% of the people that read this have never heard of this place.  It is a quaint little town that happens to be the home of the headquarters for one of the most influential worship music labels in modern worship…Vineyard Music.  The leaders of this organization for Brazil live here.  I’ve had a wonderful time getting to know one of their producers, Raphael Costa, a talented guitar player and producer with an amazing heart for the Lord.  There are too many amazing people to list them all, but this has truly been a wonderful time of outreach.  And over the last two weeks the Lord has been feeding me daily through a scripture from Colossians. Continue Reading

June 24th I embarked on an amazing journey with 8 of my dear friends and 2 beautiful children! Ronda, Jacob, Ariel, and Hailey will be joining me in approximately 12 days, 12 hours, 27 minutes, and 25 seconds…not that I’m counting!

We have met some of the most amazing people in the last 5 days and have hit the ground running as usual. After arriving in Sao Paulo, Brazil, we were picked up by our new Portuguese friend Ruben who handed us a sheet of paper with some useful Portuguese phrases like, “We’re hungry for food,” and, “We need to stop for the bathroom,” and my favorite, “We need to stop and puke.” We all laughed together at the choice of phrases to welcome us to the beautiful nation of Brazil…and hoped we didn’t need to use all of them. Continue Reading

My wife wrote the most incredible blog about 18 months entitled Thursdays…it was her favorite day of the week in Australia (you can find it in the archives at www.aaronandronda.com)…but now I have my own favorite day. Each day holds a special event here in Kona. For instance, Fridays I lead worship for the Learning Center School on the base here. I get to worship the Lord with about 15 first and second graders. We sing all my favorite songs, dancing around on our rainbow colored carpet and shouting as loud as possible without completely losing control.  Then we close our time often learning to sing in a round to “Father I Adore You”, the first song I learned on the guitar, and also the first song Jacob learned on the guitar in Cambodia. Continue Reading

Well, Ronda and I have traveled very extensively for the past 18 months and now we have a chance to settle…not the type of settling that makes you bored and wish you had something to do…not the type of settling that means you are giving up on the big dreams and visions God has put on your heart…and not the type of settling that means this is as good as it gets. This is the type of settling that allows your feet to get planted in preparation for the next big dream and vision. As I’m writing I realize that your success at the beginning of a race is dependent upon your starting position. If your position is lazy and unengaged, then your start will be the same. If you start a race exhausted and worn out then your race will be ran exhausted and worn out. Continue Reading

Well after 78 days of travel and outreach in Southeast Asia I’ve finally arrived back in the United States! It is so wonderful to be reunited with my family after being apart for 17 days. It was the best sight to pull up to the YWAM base here in Kona with and see my three beautiful children jumping up and down and screaming because “daddy’s home!” Ahh…to be loved! It’s amazing what kind of impact that has on you. When you are loved it brings so much significance to your life. Continue Reading

This past weekend as part of our Call2All DTS Outreach we attended the U of N Cambodia Staff retreat as a team. We were able to participate in the weekend as temporary staff and what a privilege it was to hear what God is doing in this nation in and through the U of N here. I had the honor of leading worship for the event and had so much fun as the presence of the Lord was heavy as 160 Khmer worshipped the Lord with passion for Jesus! There were celebrations of 50 years of YWAM internationally and 10 years of the U of N Cambodia. 3 years ago there were only a small handful of YWAMers in Cambodia and now there are over 150 staff and the number is growing all the time! What a miracle! Many of these YWAMers are Khmer people which is so great to raise up local leaders to reach this nation and the surrounding nations. Continue Reading

I have had the privilege this past week of leading worship for the DTS Regional Workshop for Cambodia and the surrounding nations. It is so beautiful when you have voices from Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and more all singing the praises of Jesus! Each morning’s worship session was unique in how the Holy Spirit led and each was just as special. We had a morning inspired by my son Jacob’s worship as I used his child sized guitar and led us in some fun loving children’s worship songs. The group got right into the mood and danced before the Lord with great joy as God touched our hearts! Continue Reading

Friday was a great day of salvation in the Cambodian village we are ministering in. We have been teaching English and Bible to about 120 young people since the middle of July in this beautiful village. There are two Christian families in the entire village and the rest are Buddhist families. They are primarily Buddhist only by culture, not necessarily by practice or conviction. However, “To be Cambodian is to be Buddhist.” Continue Reading

Our team has begun to see fulfillment of many of the hopes we had for our outreach in Cambodia. Just this past weekend we were able to lead 7 young people to a commitment to Christ! These young people have been so excited about their new life in Jesus and it has been wonderful to walk with them as they start this new journey. We arrived here in Battambang on July 14th and began teaching the following day. We wondered if this would be an effective means of sharing the Good News and we are now discovering that it is probably the most effective method of evangelism in this part of the world! Continue Reading

In 2003 I wrote two songs to help our church learn the books of the Bible and also how Christ is portrayed in each book.  Click here to download these songs on iTunes! Continue Reading

We are pleased to announce that Aaron’s album “Rise Up” is available to purchase on iTunes. You can buy individual songs, or the whole album.  Click here to go straight to iTunes.

Rise Up, the studio album by Aaron Barker has been released. It is available to purchase at live events, or online at CD Baby. Continue Reading