Hi everyone!
So I promised you I would write a blog to let you know what is happening in Australia, and well ... here it is....
My first week of Australia was like a holiday and we were doing all of the touristy things, like going to the local theme parks, chilling at the beach, feeding kangaroos, holding koalas, theres some pretty good pictures.
I'm really having a great time out here. The team are great, we've been here just over a week and we already all really know each other and get on really well together. There are 11 of us - 6 guys and 5 girls.
For the first few days we were doing 'orientation' where they just told us a bit about what we are going to do over the next 6 months. Then we each shared our testimonies as a group, but we had to do this over a few days because there are so many of us, then we prayed for each of the people that shared.
Each morning we had some worship to start of the day, then a time of fellowship together, its was a really good way to start off the day.
Our house is really cool, its pretty massive and it has an amazing view, you can see the ocean! I will try to get some pictures for you all to see.
On thursday we had a scavenger hunt where we had different challenges to do around byron bay like take a picture of you with someone in dreads, take someone's trolley back then get in it, give a bible to someone, take a pictures of you up a tree, sing to someone (that was very amusing), and more random things like that. It was cool because they teamed us up with someone that we wouldn't nesseceraly team up with, it was a good bonding session, and we had a lot of great laughs, as you can probaably tell by some of the things we had to do.
One of the things we are going to be doing each Friday is a free bbq in the park. We had our 1st one on 12th, there was a big crowd of us, we played some music, some sports, etc, its a great way to attract people.
So anyway, to start of with i just played football with a few people because i really didn't know how to start of the conversation with a complete stranger. But then, I noticed this women that came in with her girl and they came in and sat down by themselves, and i felt God say to me .... ' that is the person i want you to talk to' .... so i went over and just started talking to her and the conversation just started to flow ..... i told her a bit about what the bbq was in aid of and why we were here , then she told me a bit about her life ... she said she had started to go to an alcoholics anonymous class and through that she had started to pray and she does believe that there is a god out there ...... anyway .... i told her that we are going to do these on a weekly basis if she wanted to come back for a chat and she said that she would probably come again... it was so encouraging because i really felt that i'd made a difference in her life, and it was so easy to speak to her once God had put me in that situation, and she was just so open to hear what i was saying... it was awesome .... I was also able to share a bit of my testimony with her, which was cool.
We have two vans here to get us from a-b and today (saturday) i took one for a test drive, because they need another female driver, so i was thought i might as well give it a go, i passed the test and then drove some people to the beach when we went earlier this afternoon. it was really good fun, i made it without stalling 2 !! bonus!! it was so weird because i am so used to driving a small car, not a big mini bus van thing. was good though.
I had an awesome day at the beach, it was beautiful, golden sand for miles, clear blue water, took a surf board out and had a great time, i was in there most of the day, so much fun. caught some massive waves, and some of the guys were teaching me what to do. then had a pretty good game of footy, there's a girl here that playes (soccer) she is from california so i have to call it soccer or she thinks im talking bout rugby!
Went to a local church on Sunday, it was awesome, the worship was really good, felt so welcomed and part of the family.
The school started properly on monday, we had our first set of lectures on the charater and nature of God, there were really good. Kevin Stickl is one of the leaders here at Byron and he is such a good speaker. He has such a gentle spirit when he speaks.
On Thursday we started a session of DVDs on relationships by Dean Sherman (AKA 'Sherminator') He is really good at bringing across the message, although it is really distracting because he looks a lot like Ned Flanders!
I have been having some really bad pains in my left knee over the last few days, so much so that it has been difficult to walk and put pressure on it. I get a sharp pain up the back left of the knee and the knee cap feels like it is being compressed and the pressure is so much that it feels like it could give way. Then every now and again it feels like it is being twisted. Please pray that this pain will disappear and i can continue doing what i need to do and can continue surfing because that is so much fun.
I have decided to go to Indonesia and Aboriginal Australia for my outreach, please pray about the provision for this trip.
We have a workbook that we have to do each week that we have to hand in each tuesday, so I should probably go and do a bit of that, u can also pray that i know what to put down for the answers and that i hand it in on time.
Also, im still praying about the finances, I still need to cover the cost of the tuition then also the cost of the outreach, not sure how much the outreach is, but i need $4,180 to cover the tuition, which is just over 2000 pounds, so there is another prayer point for you.
