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!