Saying goodbye to Australia for a bit

Tomorrow morning I leave for Vanuatu for 6 weeks on outreach. We will be doing building projects and village ministry. The third week we are there we have the opportunity to go to a mountain village. It is a 2-3 day hike up the mountain and 2-3 day hike down. That makes me a little nervous, but I know God will take care of us. Please keep us in your prayers, especially for the hike, for the people we come in contact with, and all the building that we will be doing (that we will get lots accomplished and for safety in that). My team has 6 people and then after 3 weeks another team will join us that has 5 people. Vanuatu is supposedly very beautiful and we will get to see some amazing sights, but it is remote and we will not have access to lots of things-no running water, no electricity, no internet (except maybe in town that is a 30 minute boat ride away). I'm excited about living a simple lifestyle for a little while! The picture below is from a girl who went last year. This is one of the buildings at the YWAM base there with the ocean in the background.

The past few weeks here have been good and relaxing, but at the same time still getting things ready for leaving. All the other outreach teams that went to other locations have already left. It was interesting to have all your friends that you've been around everyday for the past 4 months to leave. I've also been thinking about all the things that I've learned while I've been here. I've learned so much. It is hard to think about just the major things, but all the little things make it something major. One big thing I think I've realized more of is the power of prayer. I've learned to pray about everything big or tiny. Also, the big things that we think we can do nothing about, it so powerful to pray for those things, like praying for our world leaders, praying against poverty and disease, praying for world issues. Yes, those are huge things, but when we pray we stand in the gap for those things. Of course, we can do more than just pray, but when the situation seems overwhelming why not intercede for it until we know what else we can do. That has been something God has challenged me with to pray for the issues that break God's heart even when I feel like I can do nothing else. I've been challenged by so many things while I have been here and God has helped my realize more of His provision and how much He cares for me.

I may have internet again, but I don't know when. I'll try and keep people updated as much as possible!

Crazy Colors

We are starting our last week of our road trip. There has been so many great things that have happened on our trip to different places. I finally feel like I have really experienced the Australia I had in my mind and it really shows God's creativity. It is amazing how one different shade of color can make something so beautiful and how the sun can just bring it all together. I've learned lots about God's creation and how it is all made to glorify him. We've had weeks of lectures and weeks of ministry outreach.

I'll start from the first week of traveling. We spent our first week doing a mission's simulation. We were with our whole school, but we were divided up into our outreach teams. We were on Stradbroke Island. We played lots of team building games and even some extremely stretching games for me...We had one night of "mission impossible" where in the middle of the night we had to go through a swamp and do team challenges. That was incredibly challenging and made me realize how to fully rely on God in walking out daily against anxiety and worry about lots of things. It also was good team building with the people I'll be spending 6 weeks with in Vanuatu.

The next week we went to Byron Bay. I loved it there. Byron Bay is really hippie and everyone is very "spiritual." It also has a ton of backpackers. It is really interesting to be around people who are so open-minded and willing to talk about spiritual things. It is a great place to tell people about Jesus there because people from all over the world come to Byron Bay, so if they get to know Jesus then they can take Him back to all their home countries. It was fun just introducing ourselves to new people and having significant conversations. We also got to hang out with the YWAM Byron Bay people and their school leader is from San Angelo. I was so excited! It was great to be around someone who knew about home. While we were there we had lectures with their school over relationships. It was really good to hear more information about Godly design for relationships. I also got to try surfing for the first time...definitely something I want to try again and get better at! It was a great week!

Our third week was in Chinchilla. Chinchilla reminded me of Texas. It was amazing! It is a town that is more inland Australia. Its a bush town and it was so great! I was able to see flat land and red dirt it reminded me of somewhat home. It was a country town, so it was small and friendly. We had lectures over Spiritual Warfare. We also talked a lot about walking in the opposite spirit, which for example if there is a negative attitude somewhere do something that is purposefully positive in that area. That is a simple thing, but really it goes against the bad and helps build up the good. It was really cool because we walked in the opposite spirit for the town...to help build unity and focus in the town we did things as a group that made us had to focus. We talked about praying for areas that we know we are weak in so that devil cannot have a hold in those things and also praying for authorities, nations, families, and communities so we can pray against anything that the devil could and does use and praying for Godly things in those areas. We were able to help the church and youth group out by doing things in the community, as well. It was fun!

Last week we came to Airlie Beach. We did evangelism in the community here. It is a backpacker/traveler community. It was really challenging to go out into the town and try to just start conversations with people. We went out one day just walking around and then sat down not knowing what to do, but then people actually came up and talked to us. It was really cool. I'm learning lots on how to be bold and start relationships with people in everyday life in order that they could have a relationship with God. It's been good! At the end of the week some of us went out to the islands and to snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef area. It was so beautiful and really shows God's artistry, the water, the land, the fish, the coral - the colors were all amazing!!! We are here for one more week. This week we have lectures over the Holy Spirit. It is good being here where it is warm and so beautiful. I'm hoping to learn even more this week!