Staffing Days 1 & 2

My YWAM Perth staffing career has officially begun. Yesterday was cleaning day and the first day of volunteer staffing for me. We started cleaning at 10:30 AM ish after morning worship - which by the way was awesome.. it sounded like a southern black baptist church it was wonderful! Anyhow so then I cleaned 228 (a massive dorm-style housing building where many students live.. it was loaded with garbage - you should have seen the garbage pile - insanity!) After carrying like 7 layered mattresses back to the base (approx 3 minute walk) and having our hands not only ice cold but also cramping from clinging to the mattress for dear life we were finished for lunch. Then after lunch some went back to 228 and then I stayed and cleaned the classrooms. I had probs one of the most tedious jobs.. scrubbing walls with Jiff. But now I must say that classroom 7 6 5 4 and 1 have the cleanest walls and 1 - 7 have ridiculously clean doors. Kudos to Cazikstan and I for a job well done lol. anyways so that day ended. And after I hung out and Karl and Pandas house with Christian, Sean, and Laura while Panda packed for her Mexico City outreach that she leave on tonight :( sucks. Came home and went to bed. mmm sleep. YAY to the exciting part. I actually did stuff today! After intercession I wondered like a lost kitten with her eyes till shut and legs walbly.. well maybe not that part, but very lost, until I found Landon. He told me that we were going to go shopping for winter camp so I was totally down. After driving around and going to the wrong places and then to more wrong places we finally got to our destination and bought lots of snacks (at discount prices - yay YWAM card) and then headed back and unpacked. After lunch Landon and I planned out how much of every ingredient we would need for 5 days of food with 110 teens and staff. It took us like 4 hours. So imagine pancakes, morning tea, sandwiches, salads, afternoon tea, lasagna, dessert, and snacks and then having to break it down to exactly what you need. so for sandwhiches not just how much bread but how many slices and then how much meat per sandwhich how much lettuce cheese, tomatoe etc..and then convert it all into kgs... "not that easy, not that easy," Anyways we finally finished it and now I'm at home watching How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days which I dont really need advice on since clearly I'm doing a great job at being single. Uhhhh huh! Anyways thats a day in the life... Peace out home skillets.

Just Chillin

So this last week has definitely been one of those up and down weeks. It's definitely picked up though so that's encouraging. This past week was the week when everyone left pretty much. The final 2 are leaving today so that'll be interesting. Friday was my birthday and it was really weird for various reasons. For starters it's always been hot on my birthday except this year because its winter here so its like shoes and coats and gloves and warm things weather. Not used to wanting hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup while wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fire place on my birthday haha. It's weird, but anyways. So Friday morning I invited everyone over to my place and we all my breakfast - pancakes - tasted so good and then just kinda hung out. Eventually the group died down and i thought about just watching a movie or something for the afternoon and relaxing at home but then the guys that were left, Hyun, Quentin and Christian, said they wanted to watch a movie as well so we went next door to Christians house and watched Hancock and then headed to the base for lunch. Never actually ended up eating lunch but we went to the Harbour Town (basically an outlet mall with all sales always), Quentin, Hyun and John and I for the afternoon. pretty relaxed got a few shirts to keep me warmer for the next few weeks and then came back to base to have dinner at my birthday. 7 of my favs joined me and we had cake after dinner then heaaded to karla's house to hang out/little party/get together and had brownies and watched movies and stuff. Friday was a good day. The later part of this week has been really good. Went to the movies saw Transformers 2, hanging out with friends, going shopping, going to a highschool to do a seminar with Nex Wave (ministry I'll be joining this week that works with youth). It's been really good. I'm a little tired still but I'll be chilling most of today and then going to a bridal shower tonight so i'll be able to get all rested up before i start staffing tomorrow. Im excited, should be good.
Thats me in a nut shell right now. Peace out guys, enjoy the weather. :)

Life on Base.. Alone

Alrighty, so there are like 25 YP'ers left.. of those, many are leaving today. by Thursday there will be like 3 of us left. I'm feeling very alone haha. Especially since January Ive been surrounded by at least 90 people and then April on I have been surrounded by the same 8 - 13 people. Being all alone is a very difficult concept to grasp at this point. The big question is, "What do I do with myself?!" And the answer is yet to be found.
Today I move into a staff house I believe, hopefully close to base or at a house where I know the residence, like Karla and Panda's, but that house is like a 20 minute walk away and conidering the temperature outside and my lack of warm clothing - it'd be difficult to get up in the morning knowing my hair would freeze when I walk outside. But it's cool. If that's where God puts me then I know that thats where I'd be happiest - or that there is a reason for my being there - I'm excited though to live in a houes though, it's been a while so it'll be cool.
The plan right now is that I'm chilling out this week and then starting next Monday I'll be volunteer staffing for a week then staffing the winter camp.
Keep praying. I'm out
Peace!

Last Day of YP '09

So I'm oober bummed because today is the official last day of YP '09. Why in the world did it go so fast? Anyways today is our graduation and it's the first graduation they've ever done so thats exciting - we're starting something new.. again. Hopefully we have a dance party tonight .. I miss those. Anyways after Friday Night Meeting (base church basically) we're having a desert night in the kitchen and all like 90 of us will be in there making food and hanging out. It'll be wonderful.
At this point I'm doing amazing. Yesterday was incredible - YP pizza night.. mmm yes. Slammed some TIm Tams which will always be a good past time memory of YP lol. It was great. We sat around and talked and caught up for a couple hours and just had a good time. Class was wondeful yesterday we pretty much just walked around and encouraged our class on how we've seen them change and it was so cool. I loved that at that moment God would give me a name and when I looked at them I could hear God telling me what to say to them - or while I was talking words just kept coming out of my mouth and I had no idea where from .. until they were like, "oh my goodness.. God speaks through you" or "wow! when did you get so wise!? that was God!?" - I wasnt really really sure how to take that first part but yes it was God lol. It was amazing. I think its something God's really been working on in me and it's cool to practice that and see it get better.
loving life in Australia. miss you all.
Peace

Home Sweet Home ... Ish

Back home in Perth for the next few weeks. It's pretty crazy actually. The last few days have been really up and down. I really miss the YMT being around and always being with the team together. It's crazy how much you adjust to just having certain people and how that affects you when you're thrown into a crowd of people. Even though those 100 people are people I know, it's still so overwhelming. Sunday all the remaining teams got back (I got back Saturday afternoon) and as they were filing out of the buses I didn't know what to do with myself. As everyone was screaming and excited I suddenly just felt so lost and overwhelmed. It was ridiculous. And now that I'm getting used to having everyone back and having so much down time to think - I've started to think about saying goodbye, especially since I've already had to say goodbye to one of the YMT that we were with for the last month. It was so much harder than I thought it would be and now thinking about saying goodbye to people I've known for 6 months and have gone through so much with it just makes it that much harder to literally "embrace the last days."
It's also so weird because I'll be saying goodbye to everyone next week and then for 2 weeks there'll be like 2 of us YPers on base.
Right now the other stress I have is basically how I'm going to afford staying here for 3 weeks with the cost of the camp right now. Really trying to trust God with why He's sending me to this camp. It's hard because it's so close and I still don't know exactly what it entails but ya.. God's got it.. God's got it.
Prayer Requests:
- God will continue to speak about the future and confirm the direction I'm going in.
- wisdome about finances for the winter camp and staying on base

Thanks so much for everything. Keep praying please!
Peace

!FINI!

Today was officially our last day of ministry = our last day of outreach!! I can't believe it's over as of today. We have a BBQ tonight and then tomorrow morning at like 7 we leave for like a 15 + hour drive to Geraldton its gunna be crazy long omgosh. And then the next day we leave around 10 and arrive in Perth, on base, sometimes in the late afternoon ish.. Anyways it'll be fun because like 12 of my favourite people are gunna be packed into a 14 seater. That's right we have 1 empty seat and thats the seat in the very back that is an optional seat.. so every seat is taken.. (shaking head).
So its been great. Outreach has been incredible so many good things so many times God's ridiculously shown Himself over and over and that alone is amazing. So many new friendships that I pray last for the rest of my life. The people I'm with have aided in changing my life and I can't thank God more for putting me on this team and allowing me to work along side these amazing individuals.
Just one request that you pray for us as we start report back and for adjusting back into western society and for going home that the transition wouldn't be too shocking and for safety driving the next like 2 days straight.
thanks guys.. pics will be coming in the next 2 weeks or so for sure. :) I'm stoked. awwwwww yaaaaa PEACE

Internet day!

So today is our day off.. well afternoon evening off because we had church and lunch stuff and then a BBQ tonight.. which technically is pretty chill and not really ministry focussed.. although it is debatable considering the circumstances but anyhow. 

We've been doing a lot of youth ministry of course, because that's what my team is focussed on for this leg of outreach, and so we hang out at high schools during lunch and build relationships there, run youth events have hang out nights and just basically chill and make friends.. make the gospel available but ultimately live out life the way Jesus did with them at our sides I guess. We've also been able to just bless this city by simply being here apparently. We're told by the church that Karla, Quentin, Pablo, Andy and I went to, that they prayed for 9 years for YWAM to come to Port Hedland and last year was the first time they showed up so that was really really cool. 

I'm definitely still alive and still searching out for what the future holds and what God has in store but for now I'm staffing a winter youth camp in July, south of Perth, for 5 days then heading back home at the 13th most likely.. so is the plan at this point anyways.  

Anyways I hope everyone's doing well.

peace out homes

What's that black smoke? The Engine Dying? Wonderful

Okay so we were suppose to leave for Port Hedland, 10 ish hours from Carnarvon on Saturday morning.. yes last Saturday. We arrived Thursday night. And now its story time.
So last Friday night we packed up and then the next morning we cleaned and took off. Carnarvon is litterally 6 hours from the nearest big city .. when I say that I mean still smaller than St. Thomas. So like 2-3 kms outside the city Karla (leader) turns around and it like.. crap whats that then the bus dies and we roll of the road. "Andy! get up here" Karla yells.. so obedient young Andy makes his way from the back of the bus to the front where Karla and I are. He lifts the latch the engine (he's all good with cars and stuff, hense the importance of him coming up) and the bus filled up with black smoke so we evacuated. So then for a while we're throwing a foot ball around int he middle of no where on the side of the road waiting for the verdict from mechanic / car doctor Andy... ding ding ding - cracked radiator.. wonderful. So we get picked up by the family that was helping us out during our stay and thats a long story so they took us back eventually. So lots of phone calls and stuff adn then we find out no chance of leaving for 4 days.. ya that wasnt fun. We already lost a few people because the went up early on a greyhound to work a church camp while the rest of us stayed back. so we were a smaller team now.. YMT and YP DTS joined then mingled and divided in a mix of both again. So we waited and packed up again Monday night .. cleaned up the church again tuesday morning adn then we get the phone call that there is something else wrong and its taking longer to fix the radiator than they thought because well the town of 7000 is limited in resources.. and people.. and then the next day we get confirmations that there is something wrong with the gasket head or something car like in the engine that cant get fixed for a few weeks. So we wait.. and we wait.. THEN FINALLY wednesday.. the base sends a bus up for us.. and we got to leave this morning.. thursday.. at 7:30 am ish.. to actually get to Port Hedland.. oh happy day.
Dont get me wrong.. the days we spent bus less and waiting in Carnarvon were amazing.. shark fishing, snorkeling, seeing the blow holes (missionary work is rough haha jk.. it actually is.. this was our day off) were incredible, playing soccer and teaching skills at the highschool, basketball practice at the school, hanging out and watching movies, chilling with the youth from the school it was amazing. Some of the best days.. and God really showed Himself faithful to get us here so it was really cool, long wait with very little knowledge actually passing through our heads each day but it was good. Lots of bonding and we're finally here.
Only a week and half left of outreach! Can't believe it.
Thanks everyone for everything
PEACE