we just completed our first week here, although it feels like i've been here for about 2394823 years - it seems like i've known these people for lifetimes. wednesday we went out to point cartwright (which is inbetween the beach and the lake) and spent the morning there sharing our testimonies...which ran into the afternoon...which ran into the evening...we finally finished sharing at around 930pm that night. the whole day was really cool, and i'm glad that it's something we did so early on, because we all felt so much closer to each other by the end of the night. it's hard to believe the things some people overcame before we all ended up here at the same place, at the same time: alcohol abuse, drug dealing, sudden deaths...even a failed marriage. it was cool to have everybody share their lives up until now in a completely trusting environment.
we've had an insane amount of free time this past week, and so i went for a run with one of the girls in my house (she is officially the first person i've ever allowed to run with me. i'm still not really a fan of the whole "working out with others" idea, but it's good bonding). her and i ran down to the beach, and then hiked a little bit until we found a mass of rocks over the ocean that we could sit on. we sat there and talked for over three hours. she lost her older sister in a really tragic car accident not long ago...it's something she shared in her testimony but went into no detail about. but as her and i got to talking, she told me about everything that happened, from the last conversation she had with her sister to the day it happened, to the funeral, and the days of grief beyond that. i barely even said a word - but just let her sit there and talk about it and it was incredible to hear how her and her family survived that - their faith was all they had left...which worked out well, because that's all they really needed.
on thursday we also had information overload about the history of ywam. mom, i think you'd be pretty proud to know that i happened to choose the only ywam base in the entire world that doesn't have any rules. yeah. thanks. instead, they hold values - and they prefer to uphold the values rather than obsess over rules, make us feel like we're four years old, or even run the risk of hurting or insulting someone who believes their behavior is 'normal' because of the vastly different cultures that we're all coming from. i happen to think it's borderline brilliant. of course they don't encourage us to fill our free time with certain activities or to have romantic relationships within the organization or whatever, but they definitely adopted a very australian way of running their base. i guess i'm okay with that.
i'm reading the entire Bible, so that's taking up a bit of time. actually, they've typed out a plan for us, and i read a certain number of chapters each day (about seven) and by my last week here i'll have read the entire Bible. the five days that i've accomplished so far have been super interesting, so hopefully i can stay on top of it. we're holding each other accountable, so that helps! we have four book reports and weekly journals to do throughout our eleven or twelve weeks here, so i spend a LOT of time reading. which is such a blessing because i never had much time to do that at home. i've missed it!
tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Noosa, which has really good beaches - really good hiking - and really good shopping. so i'll be pretty much set for the day - couldnt' ask for much more than that! we take our classes at Maroochy Baptist Church, which is about five minutes away. our ywam base has an awesome relationship with that church, so we meet there (we have the entire upstairs - a big meeting room, offices, kitchen, lounge, computers, library, blah blah blah), eat lunch and dinner there (we have dinner every night on an outdoor patio) and we attend church there. on sunday, the pastors are introducing us to the church, and several families will be "adopting" two or three of us to make us dinner once a week, which is aaaaaaamazing!! the food they make us on a daily basis here is actually pretty good, but meeting with a family each week will be so nice.
i don't think this post really said anything at all, but i had fun writing it anyway, so cheers to that! i hope you guys are doing well...thank you SO MUCH for all of your emails...i love hearing about your lives. love and miss you all and i'll write again after the weekend when i maybe actually have something halfway interesting to say.
love love love!
i haven't had time to upload any pictures, so this is pretty much all i've got so far - it's not mine. this is on the beach at point cartwright - it's not the beach by my house, but one we drove to, about 15 minutes away. that's nathalie, rebekah, leanne and i...taking it all in on one of our first sunny days!
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