final happenings

Well, here I am at debriefing with the only thing left on the schedule is the worship service tonight and packing up to fly out tomorrow morning!

The last few days in Cleveland were absolutely amazing.

Thursday: WATOTO CHILDREN'S CHOIR

Such an inspiring concert. I totally want an African orphan now! We fed them dinner before the concert and to thank us they sang us a blessing song and then there was this flood of kids coming into the kitchen to give us hugs. It was so precious! I think I cried through the first half of the concert. Each of the kids have gone through such hardships, but you could tell they were truly worshipping God with all that they had even though they had done the same concert so many times before. If you ever get a chance to see them...do it!




Friday: STRADDY TRIP

One of the most beautiful places ever! The waters were crystal clear, the rocks were great, and the whales were even passing by. Polly, Ashley and I spent the day hiking and laying out on the beach getting some sun! That evening was youth service and I spoke on trusting the Bible. I think it went fairly well, but I'm not entirely sure. Afterwards I actually went out and hung out with the leaders at McDonalds. Yeah, totally cool.

Saturday: SAILING!!!

We spent the day with the Heinrich family enjoying the sun and sailing across the bay. It was so much fun to spend a full day with my Australian family and realizing how much I'm going to miss them. They are such a great and beautiful family and I'm going to miss them so much, I already do :(  Polly and I even swam in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean, but hey, now we can say that we swam in Australia!

Sunday was just church and saying good-byes.

Monday: SYDNEY

We arrived into Sydney at about 1 pm. We headed down to the harbor and took the Manly Ferry across. I got to see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. It was all so neat to see something  so iconic in person. The Opera House wasn't very impressive inside though.

I'll probably post a final post once I get home with a final recap of how amazing God is, but for now, so long and I'll see ya'll State-side!!!

almost there

Quick update on the goings on of my last week here...

All the souvenirs and gifts are bought! I'm already starting to pack up some stuff...only three more days until we fly out to Sydney.

Last week, Polly and I helped serve at a community meal. The people were mostly nice, and it was great to serve others. One thing that has struck me here in Australia is that you don't see the homeless populations here like you do in America, even in the big cities. They are obviously around; they just stay hidden. Another think that hit me was the concept of gratefulness. I know that I take so much for granted, and I saw that in some of the people we served. They thought they were entitled to the meal, even if they came late and we had run out.  That just rubbed me the wrong way, but then I wondered about myself and staying with these different families. Have I shown them the appreciation they deserve?

Another deviation from the schedule was going to Wellington Point on Thursday to initiate conversations with people about Jesus. One girl, Christy, seemed keen, but she said she didn't have time. She believes that something is out there, but has never really sat down to think about it. Please pray that God will make her spirit restless, so she questions what she believes, and that He will put Christians in her life who will share with her about Jesus.

We had our last RE classes yesterday. All of the kids told us "bye forever." It was kind of funny because they'll just tell you how it is. It is bye forever.

One of the big tasks I had in the office while here was typing up all of the church contacts into a new pastoral care system. 350 families to be entered. Such a time-consuming task, but I finished on Monday!!!

Tonight the Watoto children's choir is performing. The kids just arrived to the church! I think it is going to be an amazing night!!!

Besides youth tomorrow night, the last three days are just going to be spending time with people and saying good-bye. I'm so excited to go home. Some of the girls were commenting on it last night =D This will probably be the last post until I get to Sydney or even home.

God bless!

aussie animals

Pictures from the zoo trip a while back:

Additionally, a couple prayer requests for this final week:

• That God will give me strength and sustain me. All I want to do now is go home, and it is kind of depressing to think that I still have 9 days until I get on a plane home. Pray that God gives me the strength and joy to persevere through this week and to leave on a high note.
• Youth group this Friday night...I know what the topic is, but I'm not really getting any enlightenment from God on exactly what He wants me to say. Please pray that He will give me the words and information that I need to share. I'm talking about why we can trust the Bible.
• Safe travels and that the flights get off without a hitch. The pilots are still considering strikes, and I would definitely appreciate it if they wouldn't.

Thanks for the prayers and I will try to give a more informative update later!

TWO WEEKS!

There are two weeks left for me in Australia! I am so ready to be home! I've enjoyed my time here, but there is just a since of closure and it is time to move on to what's ahead in my life (a.k.a. figuring out what God wants me to do for the next step in my life - I can't believe I'm a senior in college!).

Well, I'll get my mind off of home and fill you in on what's been happening here. I have taught about five different religion classes over the last week, with two more to teach later this afternoon. While the kids don't always pay attention, I've really enjoyed interacting with them and hearing their answers to my questions. One of the religion teachers told me that I should be a teacher because I have a gift for it. It was nice to hear the compliment, but I told him that I didn't think I could handle a classroom full of kids five days a week!

I taught at the youth group meeting this week, and it went way better than my lock-in lesson! First, the video I had planned on showing didn't work and then hardly any of the small group leaders had looked over the guides that I had prepared for them. However, God is Sovereign and His plan prevailed. Oddly, the video not working didn't even stress me out. I just prayed and told God this was His lesson now so He'd have to give me the words and have His Spirit move in the small groups. I gave a little lesson on prayer...no idea what I said...but the youth were riveted, and then after the small group sessions, every single leader said that it was one of the best sessions they've ever had.

It was so encouraging to see God move. I've been asking Him to show me a little glimpse of the fruit from this summer, and He has been giving me so much more than I could have ever imagined. With the boys in my Go West group, the youth group, some of the conversations I've had with the adults in the church and then the young adults camp. This summer has been a struggle, but God is greater than all my struggles and I'm so glad that He has brought me through them.

This past weekend was Young Adults Camp with the church. It was fun to meet some people that I haven't really interacted with yet and just see what their take on life is. The speaker did an awesome job even with the three sessions not being joined together under the same topic. He spoke about not wasting your life, homosexual marriage and God's love. All of them were great sessions. During the weekend I also had a chance to be there for a friend through a very difficult time. She has a long road ahead of her, so I just want to ask if you could send a little prayer up for her right now. Just ask that God will remind her of his love and bring healing into her life.

This last week and a half in Cleveland is going to be fairly busy. I'm going to help in a soup kitchen tonight, doing street evangelism tomorrow afternoon, teaching another lesson to the youth, doing a couple more RE classes and Supa clubs at the school. Plus, I need to buy some souveneirs, spend sometime with the friends I've made, and do a little more sight-seeing! Pray that God gives me the time to do all that I need to do.

a much needed update

My team at their favorite activity

I'm in Cleveland and pushing towards the end. Less than three weeks left in the Redlands area and three weeks until I'll get on a plane headed home (hopefully, pilots are threatening strikes so please pray for that!)

Go West was so awesome! The team was fantastic, and we had lots of discussions about spiritual disciplines, the differences between Australian and American faith communities, what's going on in the world, and how not all Americans are completely ignorant. I was glad I could be of service on that one.

I took so many pictures over the week, but I'm only going to post a few here, but I'll give a run-down of the week and then post pictures at the end!

Two Fridays ago was the youth lock-down. For a service project, they cleaned graffiti off of a wall in the park. I was very impressed with the youngest two girls because they were the hardest workers and were definitely living out 1 Timothy 4:12. I did a short talk on living for Christ that evening, but all the youth were wiped out and not paying attention, so I wasn't as intense as I probably should have been.

Saturday - up at the church at 6:30 am to head to Mundubbera. The whole day was spent driving. We stopped at some markets, but other than that, no excitement other than them making fun of my accent the entire time. We even made up a game called Rick, Pepper, Sisters because I apparently say Rock, Paper, Scissors way too odd for the games to be the same.

Sunday - two church services, lunch at the cattle farm where we were having the camp and then we spent the afternoon setting up. We had a campfire that evening and looked at the glorious Southern Hemisphere's stars. It was just breathtaking! I saw the Southern Cross, the milky way, and just marveled out how huge God is, yet He still listens to my prayers and cares for me!!!

Monday - We walked around town handing out some flyers for the camp and then did leader training. That evening the team threw me a surprise July 4th party! It was so great, and it made me feel super special that they'd go through the trouble. They decorated the dining hall with red, white, and blue streamers; we lit sparklers; and a couple of them made sparkler bombs since we couldn't buy fireworks in Australia.

Tuesday - First day of camp! I met my group of five 7-year old boys. They ran me ragged. We hiked all over the area, did some archery, set up a gunna (fort-like thing made of twigs), and rode a flying fox. Two of the boys informed me that Jesus is fake, but God is alright, and I realized that I was just going to have to show them God's love and tell them why I believe in Jesus.

Wednesday - Second day of camp! I kept the boys busy with all sorts of activities. They climbed ropes, went orienteering, did some crafts, did some archery, and went to chapel. State of Origin was on that night. Queensland won, but I fell asleep and missed the ending.

Thursday - Last day of camp! The boys were pretty tired, so we did crafts most of the day. There was a celebration service that night, and the boys put on a puppet show for it since each group was supposed to do something. The boys turned all shy on me when they got in front of people, but they did a good job. The boys were completely captivated by the story in chapel about Jesus, which is so encouraging after what they said on Tuesday

Friday - We went horseback riding and took down all the camp stuff. Then we packed up as much as we could before going to bed.

Saturday - Headed back to Cleveland

I think this week will have definitely been a highlight of my time in Australia. It was so wonderful to stay busy and to actually see the seeds being planted in each of the kids lives.

Scenic views of the Australian bush

headed to the bush

So I'm going West! I leave Saturday morning at 7 am and will be back the following Saturday in the afternoon. I'm travelling with the Uniting Church of Cleveland to the bush country to put on a VBS-type program with a partner church they have out there.So I'll be roughing it for a week - sleeping on floors, being in the colder weather without heaters in the buildings, etc. Polly is going to a different camp, so we'll both be on our own and not knowing anyone, so that's a prayer request for the week.

There's a month left to my trip, and I'll just ask that you continue being diligent in your prayers. I'm so looking forward to being away for a week because I know that it'll be a good and different experience plus, but I'm hoping that it'll also be a little bit of a refresher so that I can come back with a renewed sense of purpose for the last three weeks here at CBC.

This last week has been kind of slow since the school is out on holidays. Our host family took Polly and I to the zoo on Tuesday and then to the city for dinner that night. On Wednesday we went to an amusement park with the Heinrichs (minus Doug and Ben) along with some other people from the church. Thursday I finished up the lesson I'm giving tonight at the lockdown...please give a quick prayer for the lesson, it may be a little heavy but I think that is very important and is something God has been laying on my heart. Last night we saw Transformers with some of the young adults from the church (the movie lasted way too long and did not keep me very entertained, though the special effects and computer stuff was pretty cool).

I'll update when I get back and will post pictures soon!

aerial ping-pong

aka - Australian rules football

The Jenkins invited Polly and I to head down to the brand new Metricon stadium to check out some Australian rules football. Now this is nothing like rugby or American rules football. The players punt the ball to get it to each other or punch it, no throwing allowed. A goal is scored when the ball is kicked through the middle two poles on each end. It is played more of a zone sport-like soccer. It is played on an oval. The refs are called kermits, and there's these guys dressed in bright yellow outfits that run out onto the field and give messages to the players (bizarre, right?). This game is more popular in southern Australia, but there are a couple teams in Queensland, the Gold Coast Suns being the newest.

My testimony went very well yesterday, and I had many people come up and say thanks for sharing. The breakfast was also really great. Who knows if God sent me to Australia to find another connection to Africa. Anyway, there was a memorable quote that one of the guys going said when he was talking about the absurdity of taking on the challenge of riding 6000 kilometers around Africa in 27 days, and I thought I would share it:

Take a minute and go out on a limb, because isn't that where the fruit is?

We take risks that may seem stupid to the world around us, but with God, everything can make perfect sense. The services yesterday at church were so good and challenging. The morning service was all about forgiveness and how if we don't forgive others, we don't receive God's forgiveness. We think about how sin separates us from God, but we don't often stop to think about unforgiveness keeping us from fellowship with God. I don't think I had any people that I needed to forgive, but I recalled times when I was harboring bitterness and I remember the relief that came when I finally gave it all over to God. It just brings refreshment to your soul, and many of the congregation responded. During the evening service, Philip (who is from Zimbabwe) spoke. He didn't mince words and called upon the church in Australia to stop being comfortable because all that is doing is leading souls straight to hell. I thought his challenge would apply to the American church as well. Many people walk around with no hope, and the church doesn't want to push any buttons so we just sit back in our comfortable pews and say that our actions will speak...our words have to speak! We have to tell the lost people-the souls headed for eternal damnation-about Christ. Philip visited one of the beaches here and said that he just wanted to climb up on one of the dunes and start preaching. However, his host told him that there were plenty of laws against it. His response, Paul, Peter, and the other apostles were continually jailed and Jesus Christ was crucified! That really hit me because I don't know if I am willing to be jailed in America because I choose to speak the gospel. Another country, maybe...but I need to be willing to shout the gospel from the mountaintops no matter where I am. I'm not sure exactly what God was trying to teach me during that message because I'm still processing, but I know that God is working in my heart along with the hearts of others in the church.

I think I'll sign off for now...we're headed to the zoo tomorrow to pet some kangaroos and koalas, so I'll post pictures soon! Thank you for your prayers and I just ask that you will continue praying, God is at work in my life and I don't want it to stop!

Picture Update

Mt. Coot'tha Lookout over Brisbane - Pictured is Polly, Em, and Beth - Not pictured is Em's mom who took us!

My new room and the sunset on the first night (pictures taken from the balcony!)

Count Your Blessings

It's been a week since I last posted and honestly the week has just flown by. The week was marked with struggles and some heartache, but God has been faithful to reveal Himself to me and comfort me during this time. And throughout the week He has been blessing me with words of encouragement from both people here and those at home along with little glimpses into some of the hearts of the people here.

Here's a quick run down on some of the happenings:

This past weekend was pretty slow, but God spoke to me during my Saturday morning Bible study about being willing to focus on the good and turn a blind eye to the stuff that I'm not happy with. Basically, it was just a reminder that I have to get over myself and being my own stumbling block. Again, God brought up the lesson that I seem to be relearning all the time: while I may have plans, it will be His Purpose that prevails through it all. We've reached the halfway point of the trip, and while I'm excited to be that much closer to being able to see family and friends again, I need to remember to focus on the little time I have left to see what God is doing here. While I had been praying each day for God to use me, I am now praying before each and every time I enter the church, schools, or social event that God will allow me to see what He is doing and that He will give me the opportunity to share my love of Him with others whether through actions or words.

Polly and I are helping to plan a lock-in for the youth next weekend, so we've been doing quite a bit of work on that. The forms all went out yesterday and hopefully we'll get some good return on them. None of these kids have ever been involved in a service project in the community, which we have planned for on Friday, so I hope that the experience will be a bit eye-opening to them to see that there is stuff here they can do to help out.

The kids all go on holidays next week, so no one has been focused. The RE classes and Supa Clubs were crazy this week with fighting and discord, but on Tuesday, we went to Grade 1 RE classes, and it was such a blessing to interact with those kids. They were all so sweet and one even asked the teacher "Can these lovely ladies come back?" It is remarkable to know that in February most of these kids knew nothing about God, and now they are keen on it and love singing the Christian songs! Also, we talked to a Grade 7 class about knowing God, and they asked some really good questions about religion and what we believed, so it really is all about planting those seeds.

The 15+ Bible Study was over Ephesians 4:1-16, and I think we taught a little over their heads. They asked some good questions, including a couple of controversial ones...which the only way I could answer is this is what God has lead me to believe, but you have to investigate for yourself and find peace with God in what you decide. They didn't seem to want to debate (I'm not sure if they even felt equipped to debate if they wanted to)...I really think they just need to be challenged to really look into what they believe and why they believe it instead of just taking everything people say as fact when it comes to Christianity. The lesson ended up focusing on that point as we went through the verses, so I'm praying that God starts working in some of their hearts to spend more time in His Word truly studying it.

We've moved again, and the family we're staying with is nice and their house is super nice. It is on the water again, and I have a room (with a balcony!) that overlooks the canal. As Will says, I'm living the high life on my mission trip!

This weekend includes a birthday get-together tonight, a breakfast for a team going to Africa tomorrow morning, an Australian football game tomorrow afternoon, and then I'm giving my testimony in the services on Sunday.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that God will give me the opportunity to really invest in at least one person's life here. There are a few people that God has already placed on my heart, but I haven't really had a chance to speak to them on a more personal level.
• Continue to pray for the lessons that I will be leading during July. Two children's church lessons have been added to that list, which I'm planning on doing over a couple of the stories in Daniel.
• Pray for acceptance on both my part and the Aussies' part. I have felt a little out of place this entire time so far just because I feel like they treat me like a horse of a different color sometimes, but I know that I'm not the most compassionate and accepting person either. However, acceptance is so vital to allowing relationships to grow closer.

Thank you again for your prayers and encouragement throughout the past half of this trip, and in eager expectation and hope I am waiting to see what God does with the second part of it!

This isn't easy

Brisbane from Kangaroo Point 

Another pic of the city at night

The Heinrichs, Polly, and I at the wedding

The Mangroves

So I know it is time for an update, but I'm having a horrible day and feeling quite under the weather so I'm just going to list a few prayer requests that I really need right now!

• That God will give me His eyes when I look at the church and the people here. I'll be honest. It has been really hard for me to not be critical of the church and the people just because there never seems to be much depth to anything, but I can't compare here to home. Australia has a completely different personality than America. While many will say that the culture in America is secular, there are still a lot of Christian undercurrents; that is not the case in Australia.
• I need a purpose. They say that our purpose here is to help direct people towards God, but I don't really feel like I'm being given much of an opportunity to do that other than living by example. But really, I feel like I had more of a ministry at Monsanto last year by always having a good attitude and coming ready to work than living by example here. I just need God to at least show me where He is working so I can join in.
• I'm leading a Bible study next week for youth aged 15+. I'm kind of scared that I'll give them too much meat, but I also don't want to water God's Word down. Please pray that God will give me the words to say or even more, that God will speak through me and through the discussions that the group has.
• During July, I'm teaching at the Friday night services on Prayer and Why you should believe the Bible. Please pray that God will start speaking to me about what points I should cover in both of those lessons.
• I'm really having a hard time here if you haven't figured that out from the prayer requests above. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, and Mandy has even commented that I seem to get sadder and sadder as the days go by. Please ask God to fill me with His joy and His comfort. I don't want to walk away from this trip feeling like it was a waste of time, and right now that is what it seems.

Thank you for praying for me. I really need God to work in my life right now.

Queen's Birthday Update

A gorgeous sunset at Wellington Point

Things have been going better since my last posts. I've been praying that God changes my mindset and attitude when it comes to socializing. While I do believe being an introvert is in my character, I believe that God can change me and make me all things to all people in order to glorify Him more. Today is the Queen's Birthday holiday, so it's been mentioned that we might go to the Australian zoo later to see some animals! 

A general update since the last day-to-day post: Most stuff has been the same. We've done a couple of RE classes and Supa Clubs. During two of the RE classes with the grade seven-ers, Mrs. Jenkins asked Polly and I all sorts of questions about our faith and why we chose to believe in God. It took us a bit off guard because she didn't tell us she was going to do that, but it was neat to be able to share with them. The teacher asked us to explain the Trinity...um do we have a couple hours or more to go into the deep theology of it and just confuse them more...we just explained the gist of it and that it is a complicated thing that is just part of the mystery of God. Other than that we worked in the office. I put together the registration forms for Young Adults Camp and am working on redoing a brochure that goes in the visitor packets. They figured out that I'm good with computers, so I think they'll be having me doing a lot of publication stuff while I am here...which is perfectly fine with me.

Polly and I attended an Australian wedding ceremony on Saturday. It is a bit different than an American wedding, and everyone was asking if it made me want to have my wedding...I'm ready to have mine, but I don't want to plan it though I'm realizing that I will have to start at some point. We changed homes yesterday. It was kind of sad because I felt like I was basically part of the Heinrich family, but we don't want to burden them...plus it is good to get to know other families in the church and to see their dynamic. 

That's all for now, hopefully there will be some cool pictures up later from the zoo!

To live is Christ

God is so good! While I still have many of the thoughts that I expressed yesterday, it was such a blessing to hear that people are praying for me and that my eyes will remain open.

Today we went to work at two different Supa Clubs and did a question and answer session with two grade seven classes for RE. The picture on the left is one that Cassia and I completed together. The time I spent with her at Birkdale Supa Club opened my eyes that just being a young Christian influence in these kids lives may have amazing results down the road. Also, during our RE time with the grade seven-ers, they asked so many different questions, and Polly and I shared about our God stories and our plans for the future (one class applauded when Mrs. Eileen said that I was engaged...I've never had that happen before!). They listened intently as each of us talked about how God has impacted our lives, and I'll probably never know who took something away from the class, but maybe one day something will trigger a memory about the American students who came and talked to them about Christ.

God truly is the Provider, and I'm so glad that I serve a God who loves me and knows what I need. Thank you for the prayers, and I hope they continue!

Less of Me

After a boring post about day-to-day activities and since I have a little extra time I thought I'd share a post about  some thoughts that have been plaguing me lately.

I've been wondering a lot about the impact I'm going to have here because I feel like I am completely inadequate and it will be probably close to zero. My goal is obviously to leave and have them thinking about God and His awesomeness and not about myself; however, I don't see how this is going to happen when it seems like I've had zero opportunity to share about God. None of the conversations I've had with people in the church have centered on Christ and I haven't interacted much with people outside of the church. There are the kids at school and the opportunities I have to teach and give my testimony, but beyond that, I have no idea what God is doing. Maybe I'm not supposed to know what He is doing, but I wish I did.

I know that God has me here for a reason, but I'm just so scared I'll miss it. However, I don't want to be paralyzed by fear, and I really don't think I am. I try to make the most of every opportunity and I've been praying that God will give me someone to relate to and reach out to. Someone that I can edify and share my love for Him with. It doesn't have to be a non-Christian, but maybe it will be. I don't want to limit God in what He can do. He's the Creator of the universe, the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father; He can do whatever He wants! Maybe I'm just trying to shove my expectations on Him and He is just preparing to blow my mind later in the summer...I don't know.

What I do know:

• God shut the door to several missions opportunities that my heart was set upon, and opened the door here
• God provided the funds for me to actually go on the trip
• God put me in a situation that I am not exactly comfortable in even if it is so much like America
• God has a plan
• God is going to do something or what would be the point of placing me here

I just have to ask myself if I am going to be okay if I never know exactly what He did. Am I going to be okay if the only growth I see is the growth within myself? Am I going to be okay if I never feel like I fit in here and never feel like I relate well with the people? Am I going to be okay if people so easily forget that I was here? Am I going to be okay if the only impact I know about is that I talked with some kids and did some administrative work?

I would like to say the answer is yes because God knows best, but honestly right now, the answer is no. I could've done that in America. I want God to do something amazing through me. I want Him to shine through me, and I want to know that He did work through me. I want to know that He used me as a vessel. In my head, I realize that this is selfish and prideful and God definitely doesn't owe me anything.

I just wanted to share this struggle with whoever chooses to read my blog, so you'll have a better idea about how to pray for me. Pray that I will have an impact, but also pray that God will give me peace in my heart to allow Him to work through me in whatever way He wishes. That He will make less of me and more of Him.

Too much chocolate!

A quick overview of what's been happening in my life as a social butterfly in Australia! (Have I mentioned that I'm not keen on socializing and would much rather be home alone or in a small group?)

Monday (5/30): Fitness class in the morning (boxing!). As mentioned before, we met with Jase, Chris and Mandy. That evening we went to a small group made of up of the "older" young adults. It was neat to meet people we hadn't seen before, and it looks like this group goes fairly deep into the Scriptures and theology, which is totally exciting cause I love the deep stuff!

Tuesday (5/31): A busy day! We started by helping at a breakfast club at one of the state primary schools. School here doesn't start until around 9 a.m., so the chaplain at the school along with some others serve any children who want to come breakfast on Tuesday mornings and then we played a game with them. The group was mostly girls and they were fairly shy, but a couple of them talked to us. After brekky, we visited Vienna Woods to help with a Supa Club and a couple RE classes. It still is weird that they're allowed to teach religion in the schools, but it was cool to see the students retaining some of the lessons that the teacher had been teaching them. They have been learning about creation and other stories in Genesis. We grabbed a quick lunch then headed to Birkdale schools to do RE and Supa Clubs there. The RE teachers at Birkdale (the Jenkins) attend CBC and they invited us over for afternoon tea and we then went down to Wellington Point with them to walk around. They are such a sweet couple and they were missionaries in Africa for twenty years, so I'm probably going to be picking their brains while I'm here! We were invited to tea (dinner) at the Pounders and attended the Bible study group they have at their house for young leaders in the church.

Wednesday (6/1): More RE classes at Birkdale and Vienna Woods. Also, we hung out with the Jenkins some more. During the evening we attended the 15+ Bible study at church. Many of the people in the study didn't talk much so it was kind of hard to guage whether they were actually interested or not, but the leaders (who I think are around the age of 20 or 21) did a great job of trying to get a discussion going and asking relevant questions, but it seemed that Polly and I answered most of them.

Thursday (6/2): Fitness class nearly killed me with all the weights and running. The rest of the day was spent at the office answering phones and helping out Chris with various tasks. That night a lot of the youth went over to a girl's house to hang out and just watch television. I'm not sure about some of the shows they watch, but it's the same in America...there are plenty of shows with horrible morals that many people who call themselves Christians enjoy watching. We had an interesting discussion about cussing and how there are many words that the Aussies say on a regular basis that are curse words in America. It is something I have to try to ignore because I'm so not used to hearing that type of language, even in my classes and around school.

Friday (6/3): More work at the church in the morning and then shopping for the men's breakfast in the afternoon. Polly and I bought a bunch of Australian packaged cookies that were on sale to bring home for people to try! Friday Night Live, which is their youth service, was that night. I don't think that it went quite as planned, but most of the youth seemed to enjoy it. I think it's just hard to have a relevant Bible study and small groups on a Friday evening along with entertaining the kids through a game. You really have to have youth who are keen on it. Like Secret Church where we studied God's Word for six hours, and that was completely amazing; not worrying about entertainment or even singing and small groups, but just delving into the Word. But that type of study isn't for everybody and I don't think it would hold the attention of the majority of 13 year olds. I think that will be part of my struggle while here. I keep comparing CBC to Eastwood and home, and it isn't home and I can't expect it to be. I've been blessed with always being surrounded by at least a core group who wants to go deep and truly know God and that's basically all I've known. But people aren't going to be me, and that's a good thing (even if I don't always actually believe that).

Saturday (6/4): An early wake-up (5 a.m.) to help Mandy with cooking the men's breakfast! It was fun to actually be put to work, but it still wore me out a little. After a short nap, Polly and I headed out with two of the girls to do some shopping at some of the shops near Cleveland. By the end of that excursion, I was tuckered out and spent the night in while Polly went up to West End in Brisbane for dessert after dinner.

Sunday (6/5): During the morning service, I helped with the grade 5/6 girls Sunday school class. I'm kind of disappointed that I don't get to attend morning services because I enjoy the worship during that service more than evening services, but this summer is not about me, it's about God (just like my life should be), and I hope that I'm able to get to know some of the kids during the Sunday School time. There was a church picnic after service and then a group of us headed up to South Bank (Brisbane) to eat at Max Brenner's, a chocolate place. We waited in line there for like an hour, and I don't think it was worth the wait or the price we paid, but it was an experience. Church was that evening and then I went out with some of the young people afterwards while Polly went home to sleep (a role reversal).

Well, that brings us to today! I'm just hanging out at the church today working on stuff for Young Adults camp in July and answering phones. We're going to Bible study tonight (the same group we went to last week). And I think I'll sign off and conclude this long post of lots of information you probably didn't want to know! God bless!

Heaps of work

We met with Jase and Chris (two of the staff at the church) on Monday to discuss what's going on while we are here. They emphasized that the main purpose of our work is to build relationships with the young people and to guide them on their path towards God and an intimate knowing of him and his heart. Too many times people believe God and know about him, but they don't know him because they are not obeying him and following him to absolutely anywhere he requires.

Basically each week will look something like this. We will be doing RE and Supa Clubs at a couple of the schools, along with doing a brekky club on Tuesday mornings. For RE classes, we go into each class fortnightly for thirty minutes and teach a little lesson from a book they have and then help them complete a worksheet. We are doing eight of these classes. Supa Club is during the kids' play time at school, so they choose a group to participate in during this period of the day. At these we normally play a game and then do a little lesson or memory verse. We are doing two of these each week. We are expected to be at the church office two or three days a week to help with administrative work and any other projects they may come up with for us to do. On Sundays, I'll be teaching a Sunday school class in the morning and then just attending the evening service. We also will be attending different small groups throughout our time here and helping out with the different youth activities, such as Friday night services every two weeks and a Bible study for the older youth every other week on Wednesday evenings.

I'm going to be teaching in three different large group youth settings during this summer, so that is a definite prayer request. My first opportunity will be near the end of June and the other two will be in July. There is also a young adults camp that Polly and I will be attending, and we're going to be planning a couple events for the youth during their school holidays at the end of June and beginning of July. There is obviously other stuff throughout the summer, and they'll let us know about it as it crops up. Thank you for your prayers; this summer has already been challenging just with being patient and the people always wanting to be super social. I've always been a task-oriented person instead of people oriented, and this mission is about reaching the people, not accomplishing certain tasks.

The Coast and the City

With this post, I want to promise you that I am still on a mission trip! Mandy has been telling us to take it easy and get over our jet lag, so we've just been tagging along with people from the church as they do different things.

First I'll give you a picture of Polly and I so you have an idea of who she is.

We are complete opposites. She is outgoing and energetic, a night-owl, a procrastinator and slow to get around. She is super-sweet and we've been getting along great. She is always on skype talking to someone, so she's much better at keeping in touch with everyone back home compared to me, but oh well. I'm used to being away for extended periods while she is not.

This next picture is a collage from Gold Coast. This is the main tourist attraction in Brisbane (except the Great Barrier Reef). Emily took Polly and I here on Friday, and we just walked around for three hours along the beach and the shops at Surfer's Point. Apparently, this area has some good surfing. We saw a few guys surfing even though the waves weren't great and our first topless sunbathers - oh the joy of an Australian beach. The day was gorgeous, and we had a lot of fun just getting to know Emily and each other. And by the way, their KFC here is way better than the KFC at home; however, everything is way more expensive here because of their labor costs and food standards.

Saturday, we went with Mandy and Mikaela Heinrich, along with some other girls to Brisbane to formal dress shop for Mikaela. The other girls that tagged along got bored, so they took Polly and I to the river to see where the flooding occurred, the art galleries, and the South Bank market. There were so many people! You could see where stuff still needed to be repaired since the floods in January, and Mandy has mentioned that we might go up in a couple weeks to another area that suffered from flooding to help out because they're in desperate need of volunteers. Below are some pictures from South Bank!

That brings us to Sunday (today)! Church this morning was really great. A missionary from Portugal spoke from Psalm 73 and the importance of having God's perspective instead of man's. He used it in relation to not getting discouraged when the wicked prosper and the followers of God do not, but God spoke to me through the text about how I don't need to look down on the social events that have been happening. It has been somewhat discouraging because I came here to do missions, not relax and enjoy myself, but I realized that is my perspective on these past couple of days. God may see them differently. I'm starting to build relationships with the Aussies, and they are starting to become mates with me. This is important in any ministry. I know once tomorrow starts, I'll be busy, so I should be cherishing this time to relax and just focus on the people around me instead of tasks (even if I am a task-driven person).

After church, a group of the young adults went to get coffee before returning to the Heinrich's for lunch. I truly was able to enjoy chatting with a different group of people and getting to know them instead of feeling guilty about just hanging out. Polly and I were giving the guys a hard time about not being gentlemen (they just aren't here, they aren't raised to be) and respectful towards women. But after that, two of the guys went and bought Polly and I a burn phone so we could stay in touch with people. I didn't want to hurt their feelings and tell them I never pay attention to my phone!

Wow, this is a long post...the rest of the day contains church and then a welcome social afterwards for Polly and I. Tomorrow we're meeting with the church staff to get our assignments for the summer! I'm excited and just itching to get to work and see what God is going to do this summer!

Wollongong Beach

A faint, but pretty rainbow

Pictures from Orientation!

LAX - travelling to Sydney!

The group chilling out and getting to know one another...

Finally - we made it through customs and are officially in Australia!

Driving to Kiah Ridge - on the left side of the road!

First stamp on my passport, hopefully many more to come!

Kangaroos!

State of Origin - Go Maroons!

I am officially in Cleveland!

Rugby is huge in Queensland! Last night was the first game of the State of Origin, which is a huge rivalry between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues! Basically this is America's Super Bowl spread out over three different games, and it is always Queensland vs. New South Wales. The rest of the country doesn't pay much attention to rugby, instead they focus on Australian rules football. Anyway, last night, a huge group of people from the church came over to watch the game and eat a lot of food. I think I kind of catched on to what was happening, but I was so jet-lagged and overwhelmed by so many people being loud and talking at once, that I excused myself at half-time and went to bed. The Maroons won, so that means that Queensland will be happy until the next game at least!

Before the game, Polly and I went to the church to meet the pastor. He is also jet-lagged because he just got back from Israel, so we're going to all take it easy until Sunday, but I think I'm going to head up to the church today and see if there is anything I can do; I just hate sitting around! It makes me miss home. This weekend we're going to head back to the city to shop and the Aussies want to show Polly and I Brisbane. The girls that we hung out with yesterday seem to already have our social calendar planned out for the whole summer, so if the church doesn't keep us busy, they will!

MY MINISTRY
I'll go ahead and enlighten ya'll on what I know so far. From orientation they told us that our mission is three-fold:

1. Evangelism - this is the main goal - while this used to be a Christian society, many people today have no concept of God. Also, Aussies are stand-offish, so the main way to be able to reach them is to listen and express an interest in them. Please pray that I will have opportunities and that I will be prepared for them.
2. Equip - discipleship - During my two months here, I'll be working with the youth group and young adults. Thus, it is so important that I develop relationships with them and help them grow in their relationship with Christ. I know this is going to be a bit harder for me because Polly instantly connected with the girls yesterday while I seemed to fade a bit in the background. I definitely need prayers for boldness to put myself out there! Additionally, the relationships need to be focused on Jesus!
3. Establish - don't limit God to what He can do! This is more of a small group thing while discipleship is individually. However, the same stuff goes for here as discipleship.

The specifics so far are

• Working in lunch-time groups at the school - in Australia there is much more freedom to talk about Jesus in the schools, so we'll be going with some of the teachers from the church to help them out in their programs
• Youth group - the church has a fairly large youth group, so we'll be involved in that in some way - I haven't gotten much information on that yet
• Young adults - also, there is a good sized group of young adults, so Polly and I will be involved in that ministry in some way - again specifics have not been received.

I should get all pertinent information next Monday when Polly and I meet with our supervisor, Mandy, and the rest of the church pastoral staff.

As promised, pictures will be coming in the next post!

Flying out to Brisbane

This morning is the last time we'll be together as a full team until August 1. We are all heading out to our respective locations, with Polly and I flying to Brisbane where we will meet our supervisor and then head to Cleveland. It has been a blast getting to know everyone and experiencing a little bit of Australia.

The first day I was able to see some kangaroos, though that's fairly common in Australia. The next morning at breakfast I tried a distinctly Australian dish of VegeMite on toast with butter. It tasted like soy sauce, which is definitely something I don't want on my toast. Yesterday morning consisted of learning about the Aussie culture and our basic assignments (I'll write a post about that later when I hear what Mandy says about our responsibilities). One of the most interesting things from our sessions yesterday was learning that Australia is a post-Christian society. While most of the older generations would call themselves Christians, the younger does not identify themselves as that. Most of the churches only have 25-30 people and much of the congregation is over 60. Now I know that all of our assignments involve children and young people, so I think this is the main struggle for the Australian church. The parents don't care about church and God, so therefore, their children do not either. I think this is where America will end up in just a few years, which means that we need to get our butts in gear to learn how to make sure that the communities see Jesus as relevant.

After the morning sessions, we headed to Wollongong beach. It was chilly and rainy, but it was still great to walk down the beach climb on some rocks and walk around the city. Pictures will be posted when I get to Cleveland. I think that's all for now, it's time for brekky (breakfast).

Arrival in Sydney

So, I've decided to do a blog instead of writing weekly email updates. I should be better at updating this instead of composing lengthy emails periodically.

After 3 flights, I finally made it to Sydney. None of the flights were horrible; I did read Radical by David Platt in its entirety on the flight from DFW to LAX. It is such a challenging book, and I recommend it to every Christian, though be prepared to have your world turned upside down if you truly think about the truth of what Dr. Platt says. On the flight from LAX to Sydney, it was completely dark and there wasn't much to see, so I just slept and watched a couple movies. It wasn't terrible though I don't think I'd want to have flights that long very often.

Arrival in Sydney was frustrating, it definitely made me realize that I need to learn to be patient and not to quickly lay blame on others even if it is technically their fault. We had trouble with our visas because the travel agent forgot to put our middle names on them, and then the rental car didn't have the car ready, so we got to spend an extra three hours sitting around the international terminal at Sydney. Eventually we made it to Kiah Ridge, which is where we are having orientation. We didn't get to see any of Sydney, but during debriefing we are going to have an opportunity. I'll elaborate more in my next post because now we are heading back to some more orienting and then a trip to the beach!