A recap of the past two weeks: Lordship & Holy Spirit

It's been a fast and hectic two weeks - sorry in advance if this is a long read!

On December 7th, we started our week of lectures on Lordship with Mark Parker. It was such a blessing to have him speaking to us! I must admit, he was one of the most blunt and intimidating speakers I've ever heard... but nonetheless, he has made one of the biggest impacts on my experience here so far.

It's hard to put the whole week into a few paragraphs. The amount of information that I took in could be made into a book. I really enjoyed the whole week- it got to the point where we'd be 1- 1 1/2 hours late for lunch and I would be disappointed to end. We had a lot of our teaching on the Temple and the idea of our bodies being a temple. There were three parts to who we are : the body (food, defense, reproduction: seeing), soul (mind, will , emotions: understanding) and the spirit (intuition, communication, conscious: knowing). A lot of times, our body and soul are open to God but we don't trust enough to open our spirit to really experience Him and His goodness. We are made in the image of God in that we can CHOOSE to be like His personality- Personality is God's gift to us. Character is our gift to God. Whoever rules our soul, rules everything. What do we hold onto more than God? What have we made idols?

These were the main things that we discussed for the week... we were encouraged to think of things that we've put above God. On Friday night, we met together at 7:30 for worship and to get a jump start on our ministry day (Saturday). We didn't get far, but rather spent the entire evening in worship- worship more powerful than I've ever experienced before. We started by giving thanks to God for the things that He has been doing in our lives since we got here. For me, I was thankful for: When I came to YWAM, I had no idea who I really was. I could see what was "cool" around me and I would change myself to be that way. During worship, God's been slowly chipping away at those layers and I can just feel Him working in me, telling me that my identity is in Him and that He loves me just how I am because I am His beautiful baby girl that He created. We ended up staying there in worship until after 11:30... No one wanted to leave.

The next morning, we started at 8:30 with ministry day. We all gathered together and started out with a shortened version of the night before. Then we dove right into what made up the rest of the day- a time of confession/sacrifice. We all brought things that we've been holding onto too tightly; things that we've put before God or things that have been holding us back from experiencing God. What I took to the cross: selfishness, jealousy, judgment and pride. I gave Him my art- because I don't want to enjoy it for myself anymore. I want it to be through Him. I gave Him my photography because for so long, I've been hiding behind my camera. When I was uncomfortable somewhere or felt out of place, that's what I would run to. I gave Him my family and friends- the people who I would run to for everything instead of going to Him. I gave him myself: because I don't want to hold myself back from what He wants for my future- I want to go where He leads me. Lastly, I gave Him the anger/frustration that I've kept inside since 8th grade with my first experience of death. We finished at 12:30 that night and I felt more free than I ever have. God is so good.

Things haven't been a breeze since then. I've had to force myself to worship on days that I just didn't feel like it. But God has been teaching me so much through that. Worship is a choice, not a feeling.

This past week of lectures was the Holy Spirit. A lot of what we learned was like what we learned the week before. Our speaker was a local pastor named Grant Windle. Something that really hit me was when he said that: We always ask God to be here- for us to feel Him with us. But He was here... He was on earth, visiting us- like a guest at your house for the week. And when he came for us, we nailed Him to a tree. That totally blew my mind to think of it in that way. I was shocked but it made so much sense!

So, God is really moving here in Brisbane :) We've all grown so much and have been growing together too. I've been so blessed to have my YWAM family. Even though lately it's been tough, knowing that I'm missing Christmas at home, it's comforting to know that I'm still surrounded by amazing people who love me here :)

Some things to pray for:

1. We had a meeting with our outreach team (11 students, 3 staff and 2 children) and discussed finances. We've decided that we're going to try to raise our funds that everyone needs before the end of January when we need to buy our plane tickets. But in order to do that, we need to raise about $30,000. I'm ready to see God do miracles! It's going to be a challenge but we trust that God is holding our team in His hands and He will provide.

2. That Christmas isn't too rough for me and missing family

3. That I would continue to strive for God and find passion when I don't feel like it.

Missing you all at home! Stay warm :) God bless!

Relationships

Last week, we did lectures a little bit differently. We had the privilege of hearing from Dean Sherman, who started the first YWAM base in Australia. But we didn't actually get to have him with us. Instead, we watched a video teaching. I was disappointed at first because I didn't want to sit and watch a movie all day. But it ended up being an amazing teaching and something that I really needed to hear. God is so good!

Some things that suck with me:

1. You can't say that you truly love God if you don't love the person next to you and the people around you.

2. Our society tells us that love is a thing- love is not a thing, love is an action. It is a decision that you have to make to show love for the people around you.

3. I am selfish.

4. If you love someone, you need to ask yourself, "is this loving for them? is this a good time?"

5. Actions speak louder than words.

There is so much that I could list about the teaching but that would just get boring. We spent the last three days learning about relationships... "romantic relationships." It was so interesting to see how much society tells us what's right and wrong when the Bible says so much about what God made right and acceptable!

On the last day, we learned about forgiveness for ourselves and that was really big for me. Some of forgiveness is admitting your wrongs to God- but the other part is accepting the forgiveness that He offers us and receiving the cleansing that He has for us. I've been praying a lot about having a passion for God and asking Him to reveal to me what is holding me back and I think this is part of what it was so I'm really excited about having this taught!

This upcoming week, we're going to be having lectures on Lordship with Mark Parker. The staff told us it's a really intense week so I'm really excited/anxious about what's to come!

Prayer Requests:

1. For my ear infection and swollen gland to be healed soon so the pain goes away.

2. We had a meeting with our outreach team for the first time this past week and there are a lot of people on our team who still need to raise funds for outreach- so prayers that we come up with successful fundraising ideas and that God provides!

3. That it's not too hard for me to spend Christmas away from home...

Thanks for everything :)

Schoolies Week in Airlie Beach

This past week was such an adventure! It was a really long and stressful week, but I know that God used that to shape me even more than he already has. We had the opportunity to take a 17 hour drive (over a 2 day period) to Airlie Beach, just up the coast, for an event called Schoolies.

So, what is schoolies?

Seniors who just graduated from high school pay to come to Airlie Beach and some other beaches along the coast for a week of partying. It's a registered event, so it's like a government-run senior week with more kids, more parties and tons more alcohol because the drinking age is 18. There are tons of fights, sex, drugs, rape and even suicides that happen every year at schoolies.

What did our YWAM team do?

We had a tent set up on the beach- we call it the Chai Tent. Our locations is right beside the Red Frogs stand- which is a group who runs large dance parties that are alcohol free. They also help any kids who need it or who are too drunk to know what they need. When kids get too hot over at the party or too tired, they like to come to us. We give them free Chai and slushies. Our tent is really cool- we set up a small kitchen and stage and we have a huge carpet in the center of the room with tables and candles with pillows for them to sit with on the floor. Kids can get their drink and just chill. We have different crews. It changes every night. But we have Tent Welcome, Tent Floor, and Tent Kitchen. Welcome: basically security for the tent, checking IDs to make sure they are schoolies and not backpackers or toolies (older kids or backpackers who come back to take advantage of drunk kids). Floor: hanging out with kids, talking and hopefully, eventually sharing God with them. Kitchen: making the drinks and welcoming the kids into the tent.

My week:

The drive was long and it was hot and sticky. Our bus was packed with no A/C... our first outreach experiences! We finally got there and it was a raining, muddy mess. My attitude was off and my heart was in the wrong place. We stayed at the Whitsundays YWAM base. They had such a beautiful house but unfortunately, their school of 4 students couldn't accommodate 50 extra kids, so the majority of us slept in tents that were either set up in the garage or out in the back yard. Almost all of the boys slept inside and a few of the girls and staff were able to be inside as well. I was in the tent out in the backyard... which I would've been more open to if they wouldn't had just told us about the poisonous frogs, snakes and spiders that they had seen around base. I was a little bitter about that but I did an attitude check and was much better after that. We slept and woke up to rain pounding over the tent.

We spent the first day just setting up and that night, started off with worship and prayer over the Chai Tent. It was a really good time for me to get my heart right. Things weren't completely ready for the event, so the next day I helped from 8:30-5:30 setting up. After dinner, we had a short time of worship before we opened the tent at 8. I was on the floor the first night and it was so nerve-racking! I was terrified to just walk up to a random stranger and make small talk and then possibly plunge into a deep and meaningful talk! But it was the first night, so kids were crazy and just ready to get in and out so it was a night of small talk.

Throughout the week, we kept in prayer. There was a room at the house for prayer and worship. Each team was scheduled for it- some from 2am-8am, so there was 24hr prayer and worship the entire week. Prayer was so essential throughout the week and the teams that were in the prayer room the most were key to the success that we had! I had the opportunity to be in there 3 days in the week in the morning and then be at the tent ever night on either floor, welcome or kitchen.

The one night, I was in my tent with Lisa, a girl on my team, and we were just talking and then started discussing spiritual warfare. After a few minutes of the conversation, we were both completely filled with fear and anxiousness. We were considering just trying to sleep but there was no chance that we'd actually fall asleep- I don't remember the last time I was that terrified. We grabbed my flashlight and sprinted out of the tent to the prayer room. The team prayed for us for 30 minutes (which felt like 5) and we walked back to our tent completely filled with joy and security, surrounded by God's presence. I don't remember ever sleeping so well in my life! Prayer is so powerful!

One last small story: The one night, we were at the Tent and all the sudden, it was pouring and so windy. The tent was going crazy! Then the power went out and we had to ask all the kids to leave until we could get things up and running again. As the men frantically worked outside with the tent and the electricity, the girls huddled up in the back room of the tent and prayed. One of our leaders, Olivia, came running to the back room yelling about seeing angles out by the poles in the middles of the room. We all hurried out and walked around the room, praying and singing out. It was such a moving time! The lights came back on and the spiritual heaviness of the room was gone! Ahhh what an experience!

I know this is a long post- sorry! There's just so much to tell about! Long story short, it was an intense week but God was so there! So many kids would comment on the feeling and mood of the tent- it had a totally different atmosphere and God was the reason. I struggled a lot with the fear of man but I asked God to help me through that and even though it was a challenge, I overcame it and was able to sit and talk with kids. It was such a blessing to have the opportunity to go and bless those kids!

We're back at the base now and just starting a new lecture phase: Relationships :)

Your prayers have meant so much! God is really working in me and I'm so excited about how He is using me :)

ps. I was also privileged with the opportunity to take a boat out to see the coral reef! Oh, God is so good and His creation is breathtaking! I was just blown away by the beauty of his artwork :)

God... is that you?

This week as been a stressful one. On Tuesday, they gave us our options for outreach and gave us until Friday morning to hear from God about where we should go. No pressure, right? I spent every morning sitting on the swings, eating my breakfast and talking to God. There wasn’t a time that I heard God’s voice, but we learned this week during our lectures with our base leader, Jason Solari, that only 7% of all communication is verbal and if we expect to hear God’s voice, we’re limiting our communication with Him. Sometimes he speaks in pictures, through other people, or just as that voice in your own head. It’s been so interesting to hear about how we communicate with God.

We talked a lot about Genesis and the creation of man. When God created Adam, He said, “it is not good for man to be alone.” God created us for relationships. Because of that, He also wants a relationship with us. And in relationship, it’s a two way thing- we talk and He listens... BUT ALSO, He talks and we need to be quiet and listen because regardless of what we think, God is always there and always speaking in a still small voice.

So this week, we’ve been working on hearing from God. We spent about fifteen minutes yesterday waiting on God to give us words for someone in the group- but we didn’t know who it would be for. We all waited and wrote down what we were hearing and then we passed a basket around and pulled names from it. It was so cool to see how God can work through people when we don’t even know who we’re saying it to... but God knew before we drew the names. It was hard to be confident in what I heard in my mind. It’s a very vulnerable thing to do- to just be still and listen and believe that the thoughts in my mind are from God and then also to actually tell someone what I thought. But it was a really good time and it was so encouraging to know that God is really there and He is really speaking. We just need to pay more attention to Him.

I waited on the Lord and felt called to a location for outreach. It was hard to trust that it was His prompting.. so I waited a little longer than everyone else to hand it my paper with my top two options on it. It was a really frustrating experience because it’s hard to determine whether it was God or just my mind. So I handed in the paper and we find out locations and teams tonight! I’m really anxious but I’m confident that God is in control. My school leader handed my paper back to me and asked me to pray about it again. I must admit, I was really upset about it and I struggled with God a lot. But a half hour before we were supposed to find out what the teams were, I heard :) And I am pleased to announce that in February, I will be heading to the mountains AND jungle of Cusco, Peru! I’m so excited! We have three staff with us- Joy and Jordan (a married couple with two [[adorable]] kids) and Hannah (who lived in Peru- her parents are missionaries there and we’ll be with them for some of the time). There are also 11 students on the outreach team... I’m really really excited about it!

Something to pray for:

Next wednesday, our entire team (nearly 60 people) will be traveling for 16 hours in a bus and two vans to a beach for a little over a week. We’ll be there hanging out and talking to kids who are on “schoolies” (aka spring break or senior week). There’s going to be a lot of drunk kids and we’re just going to be there to help out. So prayer for safety as we’re there as well as really breaking through to these kids would be great. Also, there is a bug going around on base- everyone is getting headaches and throwing up. Well, I shouldn’t say everyone- but there are already a few that have gotten it. Our leaders think it’s spiritual warfare going on here and we’re praying that we can get a cap on it before we venture on this long journey (16 hours with kids throwing up wouldn’t be too cool). So again, just prayer for protection and an end to this sickness going around would mean so much! I’m really looking forward to this next week and we don’t want anything that holds us back from speaking truth into these kids’ lives!

Thanks again for prayers :)

OUTREACH OPTIONS!

I don't have much time... but I just wanted to let everyone know asap what my outreach options were... because I need so much prayer for this. I was hoping to go to South Africa... but obviously, God has other plans for me. Prayer for guidance would be so incredible right now. I have to let our leader know what I've decided by Friday morning! (less than three days!) This is going to be a stressful week! These are my options:

1. japan

2. germany/czech republic

3. india

4. canada

5. australia/new zealand

6. peru

I'm so nervous- prayers would mean more than I can say!

Let God love you.

I wish I could replay last week over and over and over again. Ken was so amazing and he just made me want the heart and passion for Christ like he had. There was so much that went on during the entire week that it's so hard to explain all the things that happened. There are two stories/analogies that he gave us that I will probably remember for the rest of my life.

George's shirt: Ken and his wife, Linda, go to this big church camp every year. It's a camp for high school age kids but there is a boy there with down syndrome named George who they let come every year even though he's older. George loves Ken and Linda (and really, who doesn't?). So the one summer, it was really hot. There were a few days in a row where it was over 100 degrees. During worship on the third day of this stretch of heat, Ken noticed that George was the only one in the front row and everyone else was a few rows away from him. He wondered why on earth that was the case. Everyone loved George but he didn't know why they were all sitting so far away from him. Ken looked a little closer and noticed that George was wearing the same shirt that he had on for the past three days. He could see the mustard, ketchup and other stains on his shirt from every meal that they had eaten those past few days. He was drenched with sweat- no wonder no one was around him... he probably smelled horrible. So Ken had this idea. He thought to himself, I'll pull George aside and take his messy shirt and have Linda wash it for him. But Ken heard God speaking to him. And He said, "no, Ken, I want you to give George your shirt." Ken said he tried to argue with God... but that never works out. So he walked over to the side of the building and called George outside. The smell of George was horrible. Ken said, "George, can I have your shirt?" George held his shirt tight and said, "no. my shirt. George shirt." And Ken said again, "George, would you like my shirt?" George's eyes lit up and he agreed. So Ken pulled the shirt off George's back- the shirt stuck to him because of the sweat. Then he took off his own shirt and gave it to George. George walked back into the room- beaming and saying "Pastor gave George his shirt. I have Pastor's shirt!" Ken smiled and looked down at his own self and said, "Okay God, what now?" God replied, "Wear his shirt." He tried to argue again but he knew it was pointless. So he picked up the dirty, smelly, sweaty shirt and put it on. And when he put it on, he heard the voice of God saying to him, "Just like this, I took your dirty, messy shirt and gave you my pure, clean robe. And I wore your sins and your guilt and shame." I thought this was such an amazing story and it spoke so much to me. I love the picture that it put in my mind.

The Heart Transplant: When someone gets a heart transplant, that means that someone has to die in order for another person to get their heart. In the first heart transplant, a 70 year old man got a 19 year old's heart. It was a successful procedure, however, three months afterwards, the man died- not because the heart failed. The heart was working fine. He died because his BODY rejected the new heart. The same thing goes for our heart with God. When we accept Christ, we get a new heart. But will we let our old ways tear down our body and destroy our new heart of God? For women, it's more difficult for a heart transplant to work because they have had children and their immunity is more complex because they carry the immunity of the children that they have had. In the same way, we "sleep with" the world- we follow the world's patterns and such- and the more we do that, the greater immunity we build and the more likely we are to attack the new heart that God has given us. When you get a heart transplant, you have to change your lifestyle. You can't go the places you used to go. You can't do the things you used to do and you have to take your medication everyday... because if you don't, the body will react against your new heart. The same way goes for God. When we get our new heart, we can't do the things we used to do and we can't go to the places we used to go. And we need our daily dose of God everyday so that we don't fall back into the pattern of the world and reject the new heart God has given us.

I'm not sure that I've explained that well or not. It's hard to type. But I hope you got the point. the concept was so interesting and it made so much sense when he was talking about it.

Anyway, all in all, it was an amazing week and I wish Ken and Linda could stay with us longer. They completely changed everything for me and I'm so grateful that they took the time to come and speak to us.

Tomorrow we start our new lectures on Hearing the voice of God with our school leader, Jason Solari. I'm pretty excited about it! We're also going to find out what our outreach options are! If you could keep me in your prayers that God will speak to me and I will go wherever He leads me, that would be amazing. I'm very apprehensive about it!... And SO excited!

ps. WOOHOO BLAZERS BOYS SOCCER! you are awesome.

breakfast with my Daddy :)

*** i just realized that i had been writing on two different posts! no wonder everyone was yelling at me for not updating!

there are two posts here to catch everyone up! sorry!

Well, it's friday morning here in Australia. This week has gone by so incredibly fast. Last night I was laying in my bed thinking about it and I couldn't believe that it was going to be friday already! Even though it's been fast, this week I think I've grown and learned the most.

Our speaker for the week was Ken Helser. He is such an amazing speaker. Before we had lectures on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to have a small conversation with him. I told him that I had heard he does really good lectures on "The Father heart of God." He looked at me and said, "I don't teach the father heart of God." And my heart kind of dropped a bit because I had been looking forward to this week since we got here and heard about it. But he continued... "People always say that I teach that... and to be honest, I haven't taught a specific thing all my life. God shows me what I need to say... and I guess it just comes out that way."

Ken has a huge heart for God. You can practically see his joy spilling out of him... I just love to watch :) He mixes laughter and fun into his teachings and they're so interesting... I just want to stay and listen all day. Sometimes I'm a little disappointed that it's lunch. Throughout his teaching, he throws in words for people. For the past few months, he's been praying for us each individually and then he writes down things that God speaks to us. It's been so awesome to hear what he has to say to people because he has totally nailed some people. We've all heard each other's testimonies but he hasn't. A lot of what he says are things that people struggle with. There was one cool story... There's a girl on our DTS, her name is Jo. When it came time for Ken to give her words, he said... "Jo, I want you to read this book (I forget the name of it.) and I want you to read for these two specific days..." Jo looked at him... kind of teary eyed and said... "that book is in my bag right now. And those two days have really important meaning in my life." I was blown away. And then it came time for him to say mine... and this is what he said...

""no one can paint into a picture that which is not in oneself. Nor is there any use in painting a picture if one is not filled with the inner beauty of life. Those who paint merely in order to express their own turmoil and confusion commit an outrage against art and against life.. the determination to do what God wants one to do, insofar as possible, is the most important value of all..." This is my heart for you, that you find during your DTS what you were created for and what makes you come alive and you do that! Are you going to make art your career? that's not the right question to ask, but rather, are you going to let the Lord direct your every path? This is His heart for you: Pslam 16:11

-don't be afraid to allow art to be your career.

At first I was a little bummed about what he said because I wanted him to call me out on something like he did for the ones who were before me. But I felt something in me saying, "go back and read it again... really read it." My roommate wrote everything down for me (which I am grateful for) and so I read it again. And it really hit me. I really felt like God was saying these things to me.

Each student has a one on one- someone who is on staff is "assigned" to a student and you have a weekly meeting with them and just discuss and process what you're learning. My one on one is Hannah and when I was talking to her, she challenged me to do something different to spend time with God. She said to go on walks with Him or just sit and talk or just sit and let my mind wander. Because it's just like hanging out with your best friend. Spending time with God doesn't mean trying to read your Bible for a hour. That part comes with time. But making a conscious effort to just sit with God is what we need to be doing. So this morning, I got up and got my breakfast. I went to sit down with some friends to eat... but then I thought of what Hannah said. So I picked up my bowl and walked out to the swing and sat and ate my breakfast with my Daddy. And what a good time I had :)

Time for intercession.. I want to share some stories that Ken has told us because they've been so impacting for me. But I'll put them all up at another time. There's just so much that God is doing and not enough time to type it all out!

Thanks for your prayers :)

Erica

Lectures Week One

This past week has been so stretching. I can already feel God moving in me and pushing me in ways i never would've expected. We got together on Wednesday, we got together as a base and talked about ways to get the most out of our YWAM experience. It was an extremely hard decision, but I chose to give up facebook during the week. Sometimes I still take the time to check before I go to bed. But I gave up talking to people on Skype and having conversations on facebook. It was so hard because before that, my computer was my comfort- like my security blanket. It's what I'd run to if I felt alone or out of place. But I don't need to run to a material thing. I need to run to my Father. I'm so amazed by the peace that He's given me about it and the strength He's backed me up with.

Wednesday, we also started our first week of lectures. Our base leader, Dave Neibling, spoke on the Character and Nature of God. He was so good at making things easy to understand and also with showing us what things WE as Christians can do.

Some interesting insights:

As Christians, we feel like anger is bad. But God created anger and it it's handled the right way, anger can be so good. The thing is, we should be angry. If we're living our life and we don't get angry with the way things are in the world, we have a problem. Anger pushes us to do something about the wrong- we can't be comfortable.

We also talked about families and broken homes... how a child's parents can effect their view of who God is. We all have a warped view of who God is (well, most of us). I don't think we can understand in entirety how great and powerful He is. We all chose something that we felt we didn't really believe or understand about God and we prayed about that specific thing. For myself: unconditional love.

Later that night, we had worship. Worship here is funny. I never would've imagined spending 2 hours worshipping but only singing 3 songs. But the worship is so amazing. Sixty people can sound like 300. It gets so loud and it's truly amazing. We were singing "Beautiful" by Phil Wickham and I was just overcome with emotion and I broke down and cried on the floor. It was so powerful and I never do things like that. It was so amazing :)

Today was a really powerful day. We pretty much had a day of confessions for... 6 and a half hours. It was such an amazing day and God is doing so much in our school. I can't wait to see what He also does in me :D

Time to go pray for the cities in Brisbane :)

Thanks for your prayers!

Love, Erica

The power of a testimony.

Week one has come to an end. It feels like I just got here yesterday. Things are going so well. Adjusting to a new place is really difficult for me but I know it's all part of growing :)

This weekend, we drove two hours out of Brisbane to a camp on the top of a mountain called Camp Toowoomba. It was so beautiful and the view was incredible. It was such a good opportunity for our team to grow together and learn about each other. We spent the entire weekend hanging out and sharing testimonies. It's so incredible to hear the testimonies of the people who will soon become like my family :) They've all been through so so soooo much and I'm blown away by the strength they had through all of the challenges in their lives.

As I was sitting and listening to the lives of my teammates, I was just so struck by how thankful I should be for the life that God has blessed me with. There are so many times that I take the things and the people in my life for granted and this weekend was such an eye-opening time. Our team is really starting to bond together and I'm really excited to see what will happen :)

(sorry, I know this is a short post... but hearing testimonies is the only thing that's been happening lately. We start lectures tomorrow so more will come :))

Well, I made it :)

I never thought it would be so incredibly hard to leave my family and friends for so long. I won't forget my last wave to my parents before heading to my gate. However, the tears soon subsided and excitement coursed through me as I got on my flight (window seat, woohoo!). It was a small plane, three seats to a row... an isle separating the first and second. I made small talk but then kept to myself. For some reason, all those first emotions came back when I reached the Chicago airport. But I was, again, blessed with the window seat and as I sat there and cried quietly (the man beside me was probably so confused), I prayed for strength. When I was praying, I looked out the window and down on the ground, the small lights of the city made the shape of a cross. It was so weird that I even noticed it... but that's what brought me the most comfort, and after that, I was alright :)

My flight from LA to Brisbane was a long one... fourteen hours. I never really flew for a long time before, so this was a whole new experience. The ladies that I was squished between were quite nice. The one to my right was and older lady... she was talking to me about YWAM and the church I attend. The lady to my right was very nice as well... she explained things to me about Australia that I wouldn't have known. I got some sleep but it wasn't very comfortable on the plane so I didn't sleep much.

I arrived at the airport around 6:30am where I met Nick, a leader at our base. We then met up with five other girls in my dts who also happen to be my roommates. They're all so nice! Katrina- Scotland, Jillian- Canada, Allie- Canada, and Kyla-Oregon. I spent most of the day with them and mingled with the rest of our team. I can't get over how different everyone's culture is! It's fascinating! I got my first Australian dollar bill too :)

We had a welcoming dinner... the food here is pretty much the same as at home. I almost fell asleep during dinner... this time changing stuff is totally messing with my head!

After dinner, we had a time of worship... it was so incredible. I love that everyone wants to be here and chose to be here... it just makes the worship so much stronger and it is so awesome! We start really getting into things tomorrow... I'm so excited!

Here are some things I've learned from the people around me:

kirby grip- bobby pin (scotland)

root- bad word (australia)

fanny- bad word (australia)

waistcoat- vest (scotland)

nickers- underwear (scotland)

trousers-pants (scotland)

panties- underwear (canada)

pants-underwear (scotland)

fannies in a bucket- for goodness sakes (scotland)

haha I absolutely LOVE the different cultures here... it's so awesome :)

I'm still missing home but it's not so bad here :) Thanks for your prayers!