Christmas is not about the beaches.

I live on tea. I seriously feel like I drink four glasses a day, minimum. It's still been pretty rainy here. Sunday was probably the coldest day we've had. I hope that the weather is just like that on Christmas. It will make me feel more at home. We're doing Secret Santa right now and whoever picked my name is so awesome. They've been sneaking me Mad Libs :) Every time I get a new one, two of my English friends (Kezi and Emma) get together and laugh through the whole entire thing. I forgot what fun simple kid games, like Mad Libs, can be.

Mark Parker. Enough said. haha Two weeks ago, for lectures we had a guy from New Zealand come and talk to us. He was pretty blunt and harsh, but dang he had the love of God in him. He taught on the topic of Lordship. He kept talking about how Jesus is already Lord, but we need to decide daily to make Him Lord of our lives. A lot of the week had to do with surrendering and learning to walk in the freedom that Christ brings. And man, is that freedom empowering or what? We learned all about the structure of the Tent of Meeting in the Old Testament. Then, Mark took that structure and put it into practical New Testament terms and ways. Many of our lectures went on for hours after they were scheduled, but Mark didn't care. Frankly, neither did any of us. He was speaking so many absolute truths that it was all we could do to make ourselves get up and leave the classroom once he was done. At the end of the week, we took what Mark had talked about the Tent of Meeting and actually did it. This consisted of 4 hours of praise and worship Friday night and then 15 hours of praise, worship, prayer, intercession, confession, consecration, tears, laughter, dancing, communion and a lot of freedom on Saturday. To say the least, it was a little bit nuts. God did a lot in my heart throughout that week, including breaking off some ties that I still felt connected to from my past. One of the greatest parts of Mark was his constant looking towards God. People so often focus on their sin. "I need to fix this. I need to get better at that. I need to get control of this. I need to. I need to. I need to." Instead the sin seems to fall away and because much less burdensome when you simply keep your focus and eyes on Christ. When you praise God for who He is and what He is, has and will do, you find that many of your struggles seem petty. I serve a God is excited for breakthrough and excited for wisdom and understanding to come on His children.

Last week, Pastor Grant Windle, from a local church, came and spoke on the Holy Spirit. Even though it was tough to follow up Mark Parker, Grant did an excellent job. God knew exactly what He was doing when He gave us Grant for the following week. When Mark spoke, you listened. When Grant spoke, you had to be hungry for God. It was such a good way for us to continue to devote ourselves to God. I learned that when you allow the Holy Spirit to come in and overflow in your life, God's incomprehensible peace comes in tidal waves.

Friday and Saturday of last week we did "faith days". After they told us we were doing that, I quickly realized that it was simply "As We Go" days. :) It was nice to do something familiar. God worked through these days like crazy. A lot of serving and blessing others went on. Last night, I taught my outreach team how to play Telepictionary (only the best game ever.). It was so fun to play with people who don't speak English as their first language. haha We laughed and laughed and laughed. I was asked if we could play it on the long train ride into Darjeeling. :)

We leave for two weeks of outreach next Monday. We're doing this thing called Impact Summer on Byron Bay. It should be very cool. I don't exactly know what all will be going on (which I never do here haha), but we should be finding out more pretty soon. I'll be excited to come back and share all about it.

Christmas is on Saturday. That's less than five days away from now for me! So weird to be here, while the Holidays are going on back at home. This will definitely be a different Christmas for me, to say the least. I'm excited though. There's been a lot of baking going on around the base. We'll probably spend the day playing games, eating, laughing and enjoying each others company (there's even rumors of a beach trip on Christmas Eve). Even though I miss my family terribly, I'm so happy that I have a new family here to celebrate with.

Merry Christmas!

when it rain, it pours.

My feet clean during the week :) note: the lovely keen tan

our chai tent

my favorite place in australia so far: hervey bay :)

Schoolies was intense. like literally. It was a seventeen hour drive there. We stopped and stay in this place called Hervey Bay. It was the first time I'd seen the ocean in a couple of years. haha You should have seen me. My friend, Erica, just kept laughing at me and my giddiness. I woke up around 4:15 the next morning and went to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely gorgeous. One of the best mornings I've had in a long time. I sat and just worshipped and praised God for a couple of hours. I wish I was better with my words so I could give Him a small portion of the justice He deserves. haha I should probably actually be apologizing for my whole entire blog. Writing is not my strongest suit and this whole entire experience and everything that God is doing in my life can't be described through my mediocre writing. So, I'm sorry, but hey, something is better than nothing, right? :)

Saturday through Wednesday night we had the Chai Tent set up in Airlie Beach. The Schoolies would come in from 8pm-1am and get free chai and slushies. Our main ministry was just being a place of peace and of the Holy Spirit. You could feel a physical difference inside and outside the tent. I was on the tent floor four of the nights. I was able to create a really good relationship with these Schoolies, Brittany, Sam and Hannah, mainly Brittany though. She came back every night and we hung out for hours. God was so evidently working in her life. Now, she's my friend on facebook and we've continued to talk since I've been back. :) What a blessing. During the week, a lot of people talked to different kids who really broke down about their emptiness and brokenness. So many of the Schoolies talked about how immediately when they walked into the tent they could feel themselves sobering up due to the complete change in atmosphere. haha I drank a lot of the chai. :)

Other than the tent, we had a 24 hour prayer and worship going on back at the house we stayed at. People were always there doing all sorts of prayer and worship. During the hours of the tent, we had constant communication with the prayer room and had a white board at both places, sharing prayer requests and encouragement. The power of the 24 hour prayer and worship blew us all away! It was amazing how much God was leading the whole ordeal. Everyone's sleep schedule was all over the place, but God definitely provided. We also had to have 24 security at the tent and did Sport in the Park every afternoon for the Schoolies. It was a week full of lots of spiritual warfare, exhaustion, but also full of the Spirit moving in ways I had never seen. It rained almost the whole time we were in Airlie Beach. We all got used to living with mud just covering our feet almost up to our shins. We also didn't really shower much. haha We slept in tents and all of our clothes smelled like mold by the time we went home. But man, none of that really matter! God was so good and worked in so many lives!

The Airlie Beach base house that we stayed in was incredible. I felt like we were living in a jungle. There were SO many bugs and different types of wildlife! I loved it so much. It was something I had never even remotely experienced. I loved waking up every morning and going and having breakfast on the huge wrap around deck, spending time with God, and watching the rain just POUR down. Words can't express how much I love rain. God used the rain in really fascinating ways throughout the week. There was no doubt about it that He sent it. :)

Thanksgiving was a definitely different, considering they don't celebrate it. haha But my friends were really good about the whole thing. Last week truly was a week of thanksgiving in my life. Looking back through my journals, I feel like I spent the whole week just thanking God for what He has and is doing in my life. Thanksgiving still remains my favorite holiday, even if I didn't get to celebrate it this year!

I'm starting to think that God is going to do a lot in my heart involving discipline while I'm here. I know that sounds negative or unpleasant, but He is doing in a way that is making me passionate and just excited to create these habits! It's taking a lot of failure and time, but I know that this is truly changing the way that I will live the rest of my life. This week's topic is relationships. We're doing through a video series by Dean Sherman, the guy who started YWAM in Australia. He's SO animated and a little ridiculous, but man, he speaking straight truth. Here are some idea's that he's caused me to think about this week:

True forgiveness is relating according to value, not behavior.

Perfection is when you are committed enough to the truth that when you screw up you acknowledge and apologize.

Humility is the knowledge and understanding of TRUTH.

People have value. This knowledge brings a responsibility of LOVING.

Grace not only relates us to God, but to one another. It washes away not only our sin between us and God, but the sin between each of us.

Acts 20:35

I'm very passionate about all of these things right now, so if you'd like to talk to me more about any of it, let me know. :)

I've learned a new game, called Bang! I love it :) :) haha It's the best!

Drumroll please.

We leave for Schoolies on Wednesday. We'll be gone for about nine or ten days roughly. Schoolies is basically an Australian version of American spring break. All the kids in Australia when they finish school rent hotels for a week on the beach and just party fiercely with all of their friends. A lot of kids that do this have fun for the first couple of days, but the rest of the trip because horrible. They start regretting things they've allowed themselves to do, go into severe depressions and feel utterly broken and alone. We go and set up this thing called a Chai Tent. We will serve free chai tea (mmm, delicious :)) and have entertainment for them (bands, dances, etc.). There is a lot of prayer ministry and evangelism that goes on. Apparently, we will sleep very little and complete exhaust ourselves. We'll take kids who are too drunk to find their way home back to their hotels and just try our best to keep them safe. I'm very excited because I know God is going to do a lot in this next week. Kind of a bummer because it's over Thanksgiving which means I won't get to talk to my family at all, but hey, God will take care of it. (Family: make sure to eat lots of mashed potatoes for me!) I can't wait to come back and be able to blog about all that He does up at Airlie Beach!!

Another school got back to base. Beach to Bush was on a month long road trip and just finally made it back. There are SO many people here. haha Meal times are crazy, but it's fun. I'm enjoying meeting new people and creating even more friendships. I've spent A LOT of time playing games and just getting to know people around here. Lots of Dutch Blitz, Bananagrams, Steal a Word, Farkle, etc. :) I've been working out with this guy Trevor and that's been a lot of fun. I've spent a lot of time with God and processing all I've been learning. haha Oh yes, and I've laughed a lot. :)

The rest of my week with Ken was wonderful. He didn't exactly lecture, but instead was just an example for us. He spent a lot of the class time speaking to us one by one. He prayed over our pictures two weeks before arriving and then just listened to God to see what we needed to hear. It was so cool watching him encourage, love and challenge everyone. He left the base, but his vibes of passion for purity and desperation for Christ stayed here. Last week, Jason Solari, our school leader for MAD, spoke on "Hearing the Voice of God". I learned so much about communication. Only 7% of what is being communicated is verbal. It makes you wonder where the other 93% is coming from. I've been a lot more aware of things around me. We fill our lives with so much noise that I've found it difficult to still my mind. I definitely will continue to work on learning to hear the voice of God. It's funny because in all actuality, our Father wants to talk to us way more than we want to listen to Him. We just need to give Him the chance. We say "God, tell me what to do! Why is this happening?", but how much time to we spend clearing our minds and simply giving God the chance to speak to us!

I heard God speak in a pretty big way this week. On Tuesday, we found out the outreach locations for our school. We had six to chose from: Peru, Canada, Japan, Australia/New Zealand, India, and Germany/Czech Republic. We were told not to discuss where we thought we might go with our friends or really with anyone and to simply listen to God and see where He wanted us. I spent a lot of time over the next few days by myself. I would spend hours on walks, etc. just trying to listen and hear God's direction for where I should go for my outreach. It was difficult to not get caught up in my own selfish desires. There were certain places that I knew would be 'cooler' than others and places I knew I would struggle with a lot. On Friday, we had to turn in a piece of paper to Jason saying where we felt God was leading us and why. Saturday night, we all gathered and ended up waiting for FOREVER to be let into our classroom. We were all very anxious because we knew we'd be finding out our destination and team. (Just a side note: because I'm in a school that is based on music, art and dance a lot of the way we do things is creative haha) We were let into the room and found ourselves in Hogwarts. :) A lot of the staff had dressed up and we all sat on the floor, waiting to be 'sorted'. haha If you know me at all, you know that this was one of the most exciting moments in my life. I was ecstatic. Like couldn't contain myself. I love Harry Potter. So, all of the first years were sorted into their houses. haha One at a time we would walk up to the front where this floating hat and voice (this guy, Nick, behind a curtain) would tell us what house we were put in. :) It was wonderful. I couldn't stop smiling! And... by the grace of God, I was placed into the house of India.

I will be spending two months in Darjeeling, India. My team is made up of twelve people and one leader. (Kezi, Kody, Emily, Sarah, Katherin, Brandon, Bec, Lauren, Chelsie, Brittany, Jonatan, me and our leader Steven) I'm sure I will tell you more about outreach and everything that it will entail at a later time. :) Just know that I'm VERY excited, yet VERY nervous. God is going to do a lot of cool things in Darjeeling!

Done. Ok, I'll be back with another update after Schoolies :)

Four rows back.

I forgot to blog about this originally, but it kept coming up in my mind, so I figured I should write about it! On my flight to Australia, God did something awesome. For some reason Lauren and I ended up not sitting together on our flight from Denver to San Fran. I'm not going to lie, I was a little upset. I had just left everything that I had known in my life and now the one person I was relying on was taken away from me (well, like four seats behind me...haha and yes, that was kind of exaggerating). Little did I know, God was working in huge ways already and I hadn't even left the country. I sat next to this lady named Ruth-Anne, but she told me I could call her Rat. haha She was headed home.

We ended up talking the whole entire three hours of the flight. At one point she told me she felt bad for continually talking and told me I could do something else. The time that we weren't talking lasted maybe five minutes before we headed straight into our conversation again. If I had to guess, she was probably in her mid-sixties. She had a lot of connections with YWAM in her life and was very excited for all of the adventures that God had in store for me. She kept talking about how her calling was to help others figure out their spiritual gifts and encourage people to use them. She worked very closely with her church and was very, very involved.

We talked a lot about her family too. Her love for her family was so evident in the way she spoke about them. It was beautiful. I could so clearly see how much God was just poured into every inch of their family. haha At one point, she was trying to remember a certain worship song. She knew the words "amazing love" were in it. We ended up singing almost the whole song together... on the plane. God knew exactly what He was doing by sitting me by her. "Amazing love, how can it be? That you my King would die for me. Amazing love and I know it's true. It's my joy to honor You. In all I do, let me honor You."

She talked a lot about her grandkids. She reminded me a lot of my Grandma Bud. :) You could tell she loved and lived for these kids. After a while, I talked to her about my G'ma Bud. She reassured me that she would be so proud of me and all that I'm doing to dedicate my life to Christ. It was exactly what I needed to hear.

God truly provides in unexpected ways. :)

Bike rides make life sweeter.

I'm in a band. haha Kind of a crazy idea... never would have pictured myself here, but it's pretty awesome! I feel pretty lame because I'm still going to bed really early here! It's almost ten pm now and it's pushing it! But I don't remember the last day I was up after seven am. I've gotten lost in Brisbane by myself twice already. I always thought I had a good sense of direction in the States. Well, apparently not here. One of the times, I was on a run and all the sudden something hit me HARD on the head. I looked up only in time to see it coming back at me and it hit me again. The magpies in Australia are apparently rather territorial and therefore had flown down and hit me on the head. One of the strangest experiences I've had the pleasure of calling mine. The most awkward part was that I was by myself and therefore I didn't know what to do, but just keep running. haha Don't worry, no blood, just a good headache for the morning. :)

My first weekend at the base was pretty enjoyable! I hung out a lot and tried to get some time by myself. Living on a base with around one hundred other people and in a room with eleven makes it a little bit harder to just be by yourself. I've realized how much I have taken for granted my time by myself in the morning just getting ready or things of that sort. But it's fun. There's always a friend around to talk to. This morning this guy Brandon from Korea came and sat next to me at breakfast and just started talking (we hadn't talked previously) and before I knew it I got to try this delicious Korean tea he went and got me. I love the kindness and selflessness of everyone here. I'm supposed to learn guitar from one of my other friends, hopefully that will happen soon! Monday, I was able to go on a bike ride with three other girls. Except one couldn't ride a bike, so we stuck her on the back. haha It was the most ridiculous experience! We just laughed and laughed and laughed. :) I checked off one of my items on my bucket list Monday. I'd definitely consider it a good day.

What a loser am I? I love lectures. So much. haha Last week the director of the YWAM base, Dave, spoke on the topic of "The Character and Nature of God". I learned SO much. He talked a lot about how the glory of God is simply the goodness of God (or His character) manifested in different things in life. It was such a different approach because we focused on how we can be that representation of who God is. And no, we don't do a very good job of it, but it sure changed my perspective of God's character. We also discussed how different fields in our society are made to represent different parts of who God is when functioning as God set it up to. This week a man named Ken from North Carolina is here and talking about "The Father Heart of God". Ken is an excellent father. :) I've never met someone who is so intent on listening to and being in intimate relation with God. He has been quite the inspiration.

I am obsessed with being in a room full of people praying in different languages. I hope everyone gets to do that at some point in their life. This morning during worship I went and opened the door and sat on the ledge and worshipped there. It was pouring rain all morning. Amazing worship time, let me tell you!

We leave in about two weeks for this thing called Schoolies... I'll explain more about what that is at a later date.

Continue the prayers my friends! God is good.

I have a friend in scotland.

I've almost been here for a whole week. It's unbelievable. I have been doing so much each and every day. On my first day me and the six other girls who were here went into the city of Brisbane and ventured. It was very fun! We got rained on and everything! Most of everyone arrived the following two days. I live in a room with twelve girls. There are 5 Americans, 3 Swiss, 2 English, 1 Norwegian, and 1 German. haha There are a lot of people in a very small amount of space, but so far so good. Everyone seems to get along very well, but then again we haven't spent very much time in our rooms yet. I'm not too worried. Thursday night we had our welcome dinner and then worship afterwards. I loved it! Friday we had orientation most of the day. Saturday, we had service project type things in the morning and then left for our weekend retreat. The point of the retreat was to get to know everyone better in the school (almost 50) and why they ended up here, now. We shared testimonies most of the weekend. (haha they can take a long time, let me tell you.) But it's wonderful. Lots of tears and lots of laughs. I can already tell how much closer it has brought us all. It's funny how much time I find myself just being with people. Multiple times I have ended up just sitting at a table with a group of people and before we know it four hours have past. The rest of the retreat just consisted of meals, hanging out and lots of jam sessions (that's what you get when you put loads of artistic people in a room together for an extended amount of time together). And before I knew it, I was here, on Monday evening!

It is amazing to me how big God is. I have loved watching all these different cultures come together. At the moment, a lot of our conversations consist of us all just talking about accents and different words that we all use for certain things. But I love that what it comes down to is that we are all here simply because of our passion for Christ. Can you comprehend how amazing that is? Me and a boy from Sweden who have nothing in common can be together and celebrate the beauty of God. I love it. I have loved the testimonies. It is so bonding to hear about someone who lives thousands of miles away going through the same struggles as you. Or hearing about how someone has seen God work miracles and turn their life around. We serve a God who is so much bigger than us. Praise Jesus for that.

I haven't had much time to process much of what I've been thinking, but hopefully by next week it will be better. I've just been provided with SO much information and knowledge and so many changes. I definitely need some more me and God time to work through it all in my head. I love the people and know that some of these people will become my dear friends for the rest of my life. God is going to do great things... I can't wait to see what those are.

PreAussie

My word, five more days until I leave!! I can't believe it! As of now, I have taken over the guest room trying to pack. I have all of my clothes laid out on the bed...I need to go through and narrow it down to the ones I can actually take. I think I'm going to be taking my huge backpacking backpack (Thank you Aunt Julie and Uncle Kyle) and a suitcase. I'm getting pretty anxious about leaving. I've kept myself extremely busy up until now, so now I have a million different things I have to get done! I need to finish my Christmas shopping (and it's only October!), tie dye some shirts, oh yes, and I'm sewing myself some pillowcases for the trip :) I like the fabric a lot!

I decided that I should post a blog before I leave for Australia because there has been a lot that has gone on in the past couple of months. God has blessed me SO immensely!! I have already made a friend :) Her name is Lauren Tercero. She lives in Colorado Springs, graduated from Air Academy High School in May, and happens to be absolutely amazing! We met up at the end of August in Castle Rock for some coffee so we could have a chance to talk. Going into it I was so nervous, but oh my word. I just love her! We are going to be traveling together both to and from Australia! It is so nice to know that I have someone that I love to travel with. It will make the whole experience much more pleasant. We have been talking a lot. So far, since I haven't met anyone else going with me, Lauren has been the person that I can best connect with and talk to about everything that I'm feeling because almost all the time she is going through the same thing! :) We met up another time down in the springs for lunch and then went hiking through Garden of the Gods (which is beautiful by the way).

That's Lauren :). She's wonderful! I am so

excited to see where God takes our friendship over these next six months. I'm

sure we'll have a lot of crazy adventures and stories together. I have also

been blessed like crazy financially. I am so thankful for the response that I

received with my letters. It absolutely blew me away. Thank you to everyone who

is supporting me over these next six months with both money and prayers! I am

so grateful!

My plane takes off Sunday night at 6:50. I connect in both San Fran and Sydney.

Lauren and I will land on Tuesday, October 19th in Brisbane at 9:30am. haha Oh

how the time change shall turn my life upside down. :) Brisbane is 16 hours

ahead of Mountain Standard Time. Ah! I'm so excited and so nervous!!! I know that

God is going to do some amazing things and I am so excited that I have no idea what

those things are going to be. :) I'm sure I'll be updating you guys as soon as I get to Australia!

And yes, I do understand that something has gone drastically wrong with the whole

typing like a normal person. I don't know what happened. Guess I'll just have to get

used to this whole blogging thing. Sorry :)