hi friends!
i'm nearing the end of month #1 here and i cannot believe how fast it has gone. and the weeks only seem to be going faster...i feel like i blink and another one has gone by.
things have been going really well. last week we studied the father heart of God. we had a couple of really heavy prayer times where we went through the entire group laying hands on each person and praying for them individually. of course mine turned out to be as dramatic as possible. it was truly one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life as about fifteen people gathered around me to pray, and throughout the next forty minutes there were many breakthroughs. i cried....a LOT....and truly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room with us. it started raining so hard that we couldn't hear each other pray, people sang, the group prayed individual prayers aloud for me, people spoke in tongues...it was an experience that was so monumental and so spiritual for me, that i'm not even sure how to put it into words for anybody to understand. but i was literally keeled over because it felt like i had been kicked in the stomach -- that's how clearly i felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. by the end of everybody's incredible prayers for me, i fell to my knees with an overwhelming stream of tears. it's been about a week since that happened, and we are all still talking about it and discussing what happened because it was so intense. i will never forget that experience...those are moments to live for.
we're feeling so much love from the church community here. last saturday night a man from the church had our entire group over for dinner at his AMAZING house with an AMAZING view...it was fun to spend some time together in his home playing games (which i dominated....just wanted to throw that part in). jessica and i were invited back to our "adoptive parents" house for dinner this past monday. not only did mandy bake the most incredible lemon meringue pie you could ever even imagine, but we also stayed for a movie and mandy did our laundry. and, the most embarrassing part is that we weren't there for long enough to get all of our laundry done, so she finished it over night and at 7:30am the following morning, her husband pulled up to our house with stacks of our clean, folded laundry to drop off! we are so blessed! he actually just stopped by here again on his way home from work with another tin of homemade cookies! they are SO good to us! they're also loaning us some coats and sleeping bags for our trip this weekend...
soooo we're taking a trip this weekend! our group is going camping on Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world. we drive for about two hours and then take a ferry to the island. we probably won't be able to go into the ocean because there are an abundance of sharks, but there are several freshwater lakes and waterfalls there, so we'll be able to swim in those. it'll be so exciting to see some other parts of australia and go camping (???). dad - don't worry...i'll take pictures of me since i know you can't believe i'm camping outside of a hotel. i can't believe it, either. we'll see how it goes.
i found out that i'll be going with a group to jakarta, indonesia for two months in september. it took me a little while to get excited about the location (the second group is going to burma and cambodia), but now that we're really talking about it and preparing for it i'm so pumped to get there. the perth, australia ywam base has set up an organization called megacities. they target a city in the world each year where they send all of their outreach teams and have staff living there full-time throughout the year. that way, they can focus all of their missions teams and finances on one city, rather than sending out smaller teams to various cities throughout the world. many different ywam bases will send their own outreach teams to the targeted mega-city to help with the outreach, so that's what we'll be doing. the advantage is that they pretty much set up everything for us -- our living arrangements, meals, and even our schedule. we are able to tell them what our passions are as a team -- we are interested in working with orphanages, prostitution outreaches, and working side-by-side with area churches. but as the trip gets closer, we'll receive more details as to what exactly we'll be doing. either way, i'm really looking forward to it and am excited to be going with the people that are in my group. our two leaders, jay and chad, are incredible men of God. it'll be so inspiring to have them leading us in jakarta.
this week we have been studying the nature & character of God. it was really interesting to learn many of the hebrew names of God and really digging in deep to the Bible. we had a lot of awesome discussions about some of those things that nobody will ever know the answer to, but they're fun to talk about, and we spent a lot of time studying the Bible. we had an incredible speaker, tim lovell. i did not hesitate to pick his brain....at all. wednesday night we had a lecture and i spent much of it asking him question after question about the bible and pre-destination and spiritual warfare, etc. he worked as a pastor in colorado for many years before coming back to his home in australia and he has a really honest and intriguing style of teaching that i really admire.
i'm in the middle of deuteronomy right now for my Bible reading and am thankful for free afternoons where i can keep up with that and still have time to go for a run or walk along the beach. i've been getting a little homesick, especially for my little walking nephew, so i'm grateful for the people here that i've really grown close with - particularly rebekah...a texan who i literally roll around the floor laughing with. she's a hoot.
the weather has been gorgeous and i just really feel like i'm soaking all of this in as much as i can - and i am so grateful for that. we're continuing to do weekly evangelising in our area, so that is still challenging, but always brings about some amazing stories. our times of worship are still my favorite. some of the students here have begun playing in the worship band, so it's cool to see them using their gifts here.
well, i gotta go get ready to spread the gospel to the beautiful residents of the sunshine coast! tomorrow we're going hiking up mt. coolum, i will be out of town this weekend and next week is prayer week, which consists of 24 hour prayer times beginning on monday and ending on friday, so i probably won't be able to update this until after that. however, i am so excited to let you know how that goes...i've heard that it is one of the most powerful weeks of the entire school, so i'm REALLY excited about it!
thank you so much for your prayers. love you all.
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