Home Sweet Home in Brisbane

Hello!

We just got back a couple days ago to Brisbane, after an awesome week in Byron Bay. It was actually a bit different than expected. There was a day crew and night crew, and we were the day crew, so we didn't actually stay out until 3 in the morning every night. We visited kids in hotel rooms in the mornings and cooked up delicious pancakes. We also did cleaning for some of them, which they super appreciated. We then would do optional sports down at the beach in the afternoons and would invite people to join us. That was fun as well, except I didn't really know how to play footie.. So I just watched :)

At night we would set up a chai tea and pancake tent down near the beach. We made batter that would cook about a thousand pancakes! It was so much fun, because everyone would be so excited for free food. These nights were my favorite, where we just talked to people and formed relationships. We would usually be out from like 11:30 to 1:30 in the morning, and would then crash and sleep until like 8am.

I learned so much this week. I learned more about humility and selflessness, and the importance of having God's heart for people, and seeing and treating them as He would. I also realized and was challenged by how many opportunities we have everyday to just be an example and light to this world, and treat people with love and respect. 

It was definitely a challenging week, but was so awesome and a big learning experience. So many great things happened this week, and it was awesome to share God's love and truth for people through simply serving them and loving them like God would. 

At the church where we stayed

My team (we had about 5 teams for the day crew)

Where we would set up the tent at night, and also usually where we would set up sports on the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

My lovely team leader!

Update!

Sorry its been so long since I've given an update! Its been very busy, but I'm learning so much :)

We just finished 3 weeks of lectures-1.Character & Nature of God, 2. Hearing God's Voice, and 3. Spiritual Warfare! I have learned so much. All of these were so great, and have helped me grow a lot in my understanding of God as well as myself and who He created me to be.

Character & Nature of God was so good, and really focused on understanding the truth (based on bible) of who God is. It sounds simple, but so many times we can start to believe lies about God's true character, based on circumstances in our life, or just Satan messing with us. We had an activity where we identified one of the lies we had allowed ourselves to believe about God. We prayed and declared that a lie, and asked God to heal our hearts in that issue, and to move on from it. It was really good :)

That week just really focused on tearing down the old foundation of our faith, and allowing God and His truth to build it up so much stronger.

Hearing God's Voice was awesome. Chris Twin (Pastor close by) was our speaker. Sooo good. I took pages and pages of notes :) He just really emphasized how important it is to know God's Word, because in order to understand God's voice you have to understand who He is. The problem is not receiving God's voice, it is recognizing it. He also taught a lot on living by the spirit first, above our mind or body desires.  I learned so many new things that week. I also finally learned to take my head knowledge about this stuff, and fully apply it to my life. 

Spiritual Warfare was also really great. There was an activity I really liked. We learned about gates that we sometimes give Satan keys to. And the main ones are like 1.Mind/Thoughts, 2.Attitudes/Emotions, 3.Relationships, and 4.Words. And we had to pray about a gate we had given Satan authority to come into, and then come up with a practical way of stopping this. This was so good for all of us, and just a cool time to see each of us growing and moving forward in our faith and walk with God. 

On top of all this we do a weekly bible study on Acts, student led worship, and a TON of other stuff :) Every Wednesday there is "Sport in the Park" where we just play soccer or ultimate frisbee that is open to the local community. So much fun! Also, every Friday we go to a school and put on a sports program for the kids. Aww they are precious! 

Also, we are leaving this Friday to be volunteer chaperons at "Schoolies" in Byron Bay. This is kind of like our spring break but much crazier, because it is their graduation and usually when they are 18 (legal drinking age). We went to a training for it the other night, and it sounds like it is just a huge time where kids gather on certain beaches and drink, do drugs, and go crazy. They said we will be visiting rooms and talking and hanging out with the kids.  They said most of the people love us there because we hand out free candy. Kids can also call our help line, in which we will be sent out to tend to a certain situation. This could be anything from hanging out with a lonely kid, to someone who has gotten alcohol poisoning or has been abused. We also will make pancakes for the kids in the mornings and just simply show them love and care. That is the main thing of this week, is to really show them God's love for them. So ya, I leave Friday and get back the following Friday I believe.

I also found out my outreach location.......

Cuzco, PERU!!!!!!!!

hahaha I know, and back across the world again I go :)!

But I prayed a bunch about it and talked with the daughter of the family we will be staying with, and I am so pumped to go. Part of the time we will be staying with a family who has started an orphanage there. They have about 50 kids now, that have been rescued or have been given to them by the government or desperate mothers in hopes for a better life for their child. Also, we will possibly spend some time in the Amazon jungle, because that family is starting another home there, where they will be taking in children that have been affected by sex trafficking. That is a HUGE issue in the jungle and most girls are pregnant by 14. So that is in the works, and we might have an opportunity to work with them setting up that. Also, there is a couple from here actually that is going over to start a YWAM base in Peru so we will be helping them as well. We will be there in the very beginning stages of it, which will be cool to see and contribute to the process of really starting from the ground up. There will probably also be trips into the villages to do evangelism and serve the people in those communities.  They all speak spanish where we will be, except in some of the villages they speak quechua. I am very excited to finally put all of those spanish classes to good use! 

That is all! So much going on and so much to come :)

Thank you all for your prayers. They really have helped. If you could keep praying for:

-time management

-spiritual protection

-protection & wisdom @ Schoolies. & energy b/c they said we will probably be done around 3AM every night.

-Also, healing for one of the guys in our group. He has SEVERE allergies, where he has to sit at the open door when we do classes, and is allergic to like dust and stuff. At this point, unless he is healed, he cannot go on outreach with us :(. We have been praying for him almost daily, and it would mean a lot if you guys could pray too. 

-also, for these poor girls who english is their 2nd language. One of the girls in my small group broke down & started crying when we asked her what she thought about this passage in the bible that we were reading, because she was so frustrated because she couldn't completely understand what we had read. Its sad to see because these are smart girls that just want to learn and grow, and so prayer just to not let this get in the way of that. 

Praise!-I have been doing much better with time management and have felt WAY less overwhelmed with everything. I also have felt way more refreshed. So thank you for praying for those things :)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND ENCOURAGEMENT! It means SOOO much to me. I cannot thank you enough :)

Also, I will attempt to update this more often so these don't have to be epically long!! :)

LOVE YOU ALL!