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.