Small Group

Today was the first day of small group, so naturally, we had small group. I believe theres like 8 of us? Maybe.. maybe not? I don't know. My one on one with Aggie (staff/leader) was good too, just shared more about me and what's going on.. nothing huge.

It was good, when everyone got together tonght, we went to the river and snacked on yummy junk food for a little while - which is a good break from random vegetables.. and undercooked potatoes :) .. just kidding. We just shared our stories of how we got here and what God's been tellinng us this week. So it was good. Nice and Simple. Pretty much got attacked by sea gulls and I realized how much more forceful Aussie seagulls are than Canadian ones.. little demon chip eaters.

Good Idea

Okay so we had our 7 pm class tonight (like all Monday nights) and we ended with worship randomly and we were planning on going to bed early taking that we have to wake up at 5:40 everyday for exercise but anyways. So the worship was fabulous and the lecture was also equally as great. So of course we sang this one song with a line about dancing in it, so buddy talked about it and inspired us all to dance just like God dances for us in Zepheniah. (and he was saying that when we feel like dancing, it's God moving through us because He dances around us -- he explained it better but anyways) So we all jumped around and danced and praised God for a while and then they expect us to go to sleep? Like really? anyways. I'm pooched.
Dance away everyone! God does it for us!

Snap Shots

So this is just us chilling before it got dark watching people grass slide. Landon's holding the guitar and Caitlyn's in the purple shirt, Daves holding the other guitar (in the white and grey Tshirt) beside Caitlyn.

Haha so this was Sunday night, at the River. Caitlyn and I were sliding down a grass hill on cardboard. Once we got sliding I somehow got rolled over by Caitlyn and got my back all scratched up from the dry grass.

This is Gingin? Maybe? haha I dunno, But the dark blue and grey water closest to the bottom is a fresh water lake and then the water in the background is the Indian ocean, how sick is that!?

Me and Caitlyn at City Beach. It was our Young People Day last Tuesday - a lot of fun. Great waves!

Character of God - Day 1

So we had class this morning at around 10 and last week I was a bit discouraged to say the least about the speaking situation; however, it was totally redeemed today.

So our topic right now is the Character of God and knowing God better. It was awesome. To start off the day we had base worship, so all the schools/staff etc gets together for worship. haha omg it was so much fun. The songs were so upbeat everyone was dancing and jumping and singing and no one cared. There was on song that I guess was Africa, so Richard, the leader of worship this morning, called up all the African people oon base up to the front to show us how to move like Africans to this one song. It was hilarious - we all just laughed and danced and had fun - it was amazing. So then the next song they were like, "So we do things a little differently here" and I was like, "uh oh" so they started singing this Banana song, and basically you repeat peel the banana (and shake your arms down, then squash the banana and clap, then shake the banana and shake your folded hands, and then go bananas. Haha so basically it was awesome SO fun. I loved it. We were all so hot and so sweaty after words. Richard was like, "if you're not sweating you're not doing it right" so we all just went crazy.

Okay so THEN we had class and our speaker this week is Cliff Wiener (sp?). It's really funny and very visual so it made it super simple to understand and get what he was saying. So many analogies and things I've never heard before. The class went by so fast and I couldn't not listen. He made a few points about how we have a built up representation of God based on our authority figures that lead us to falsly accuse God of being a "bad guy" or whatever, which really hit me, and that He's just waiting for us to open up so He can tell us all the secrets He wants us to know. One of the analogies he gave was of a child giving a crumpled weed to his mother as a gift and the mom responding by saying, "I love it, it's beautiful, thank you!" just because her child took time to get it. And so basically he said, that our worship to God is like that. It'll never be good enough but that doesn't matter because God loves it because it's coming from us. And then another one of my favs was the basketball analogy. That we need to talk on the court, or in the relationship, because there will always be a defender, a distraction, that clouds our view, so we need to be able to hear God clearly by making sure to have a clear and open relationship. Anyways, so I know this was long, but today was really exciting for me and I'm looking forward to my 7 pm class tonight.

Keep praying guys.

Oh ps. If you think about it theres a Bible for the Nations class waiting for $5000 funds for the their outreach still so they were trying to do that by the end of today - so if you think about it give a quick prayer that could would provide more than necessary to help out all those students.

Have a good week!

Thank Goodness It's Friday

So this week has gone by so fast but the days are really long. I get up around 6 - 6:30 AM every day to shower and get ready before doing the morning chores, then going to class right after they are done, then going to lunch right after that. An hour after lunch I do lunch clean up for 2 hours and all the kitchen duties to clean up and help prep for dinner. It's a really busy morning and afternoon. By 3:30 I have 2 hours before dinner (on some days) and then usually 1-2 hours after dinner we either have class, small group, one on ones, study breaks, or friday night meetings (which is pretty much church for the community). It's awesome though. I can hear them practicing right now for worship tonight - definitely stoked for that!

I still can't believe I'm here. Every day it sinks in a little more. I've been a little frustrated with the classes but they can only get better right? So I'm looking forward to that. We're really busy this weeked. Quenton and Landry (our school leaders) told us yesterday that we're going on a YP (my school) beach trip tomorrow to hang out and chill for the day so I'm really stoked for that too - it'll be awesome. I love the beaches here. Haha get this - Yesterday one of the girls in my room, Iban, busted into the room in a hype and said "guys guess what! all over the news in Australia they are talking about a shark at Scarbrough (sp?) (it's a beach we go to pretty often) and it was massve. Seriously guys it was huge! they could see it from the beach! they had to get the lifeguards and helicopters to try and scare it away! it was so crazy!" We all just laughed becuase it had happened last weekend as well. Only it wasn't all over the news.. and no one left the water except one of the guys here lol. Anyways. so that was the excitment of last night.

So I have homework to do and a lot of reading to catch up on for not doing it this week :S Im a slacker. Have a good weekend everyone. I'll write more in the upcoming few days.

First Week in Australia

It's still so unreal that I'm actually here, and with internet since it took so long. I'm glad that I can now keep in touch with everyone so easily.
My roommates are the coolest people. We have a lot of fun together.
We had worship for the first time as a base on Monday and it was ... amazing. I have never felt God closer that at the moment. It was unreal. All the staff and leaders are awesome - so much fun. We do a lot as a school. very family oriented.
Today we went to the City Beach - beautiful. The waves were massive. I still can't believe how strong the tide was omgosh. As soon as you step in you find yourself 20 metres down the beach with a mouth full of sand and burning eye balls haha. But it's definitely worth it :).
Im so glad Im here and didnt chicken out or anything. I got all my registration done today and all the books I need for class, so I guess I'm all set for everything to get started.

ps My tan rocks :)

Journals From The Air

Dec 31. 2008
So I'm now OFFICIALLY on my way to Australia. Im Sitting in the Pearson Airport hoping that everything goes as planned. Mom cried at the cried and I'm pretty sure Mikayla was on the brink of tears :) haha. Ya thats right Mik, I noticed. Ive been reading a lot and somehow still have 1 1/2 hours to go. ARG

January 1
Why anyone would want to fly extensive distances is beyong me. So no one met me in London. I somehow managed to get my way to the shuttle - no one was on it so I thought I was definitely on the wrong one. It took about 20 minutes taking up.. well 20 minutes of the 5 hours I had to waste in the Heathrow Airport. Everytime I even thought about asking for help, I wanted to cry.. or jump off a cliff .. either one.

So at this moment I am no somewhere between London and Singapore.
The sky is so dark. I have no idea how long I've been flying, but I do know that it was 10 AM when we boarded so the fact that it;s now dark is very STRANGE. It feels like Ive been sitting here for years. I don't want to bother the people next to me - they're sick - I better not catch it. It took everything in me to stay seated.

Its weird because everytime I look outside, It so dark but then as my eyes adjust I can see how the moon and stars lightly light up the land and water below us. It's amazing. The stars look like a hallow over the half moon right now. I love it. It doesnt look real. Not a cloud in the sky, at least not that I can see on the right side of the plane.

The sky is really dark now. It just looks like a hole we're flying throught.

Still unaware of the time.

January 2nd

Singapore is breath taking. Omgoodness. Flying in, we flew over a golf resort. I swear the country is made of 3 colours. Dark green, Light green and a mossy gray green. Its so beautiful. There are so many boats in the water -- it looks like a scene out of Troy haha.