Ruined for the ordinary

After 5 life-changing months in Australia and Papua New Guinea, I'm coming home. What an incredible ride it's been. This past week has been a roller coaster of hellos and goodbyes, smiles and tears. It blows my mind when I think back on all the experiences I had here and all the people who became my family, some of the most genuinely good people I will ever know. What were the most important things I learned during my time here? Most importantly is that God is good, all the time. The end. That's the truth; regardless of any circumstance that comes, He is always good. I also learned that it's not about me. At all. God has given me this beautiful life to love Him with all my heart and to love others as I love myself. It's really quite simple. I discovered the joy in serving others, putting aside what I thought was best or right or important in order to work with those around me for something that's much, much bigger than all of us. What else is there to say really? Whoever is reading this right now, let me tell you something. YOU ARE BLESSED!!!! YOU ARE IMPORTANT!!!! You better believe it!!! God has an incredible plan for your life, whether you believe in Him or not. Don't miss the opportunity for the adventure of a lifetime.
Well, I'm out to mentally prepare myself for a very long flight ahead of me. YWAMers, I'll see you when I see you. Thanks for the memories, and never forget what God has done for you in this time. Friends and family, I will be seeing you soon :)

PNG

6 weeks spent in Papua New Guinea. It won’t be possible to capture in full the absolute incredible time I had there, the amazing people I met, and the things I learned. It was a fantastic and eye-opening 6 weeks, with a lot of tough times, a lot of laughs, and a whole lot of hand shakes and bananas.

We spent the first week sleeping on the bottom floor of a church in Port Moresby, the capital city of PNG. We put on some programs in the open-air market place and at the church we were staying at. There were a lot of kids from the church around our age and just a bit younger that came around a lot and we got to know some of them pretty well. Our times together consisted of a lot of guitar playing and singing, with some games of cricket thrown in there. One night, we held a human trafficking seminar at the church. A man was there who was heavily involved with the government of PNG and was really moved by the things he heard. In PNG, there are no laws against human trafficking, therefore no kind of enforcement or prosecution happening. He wanted to get a report consisting of the things we had talked about that night so he could present it to the government and petition to get the laws changed. It was so cool to see people stepping up to see real change!

After a week in the city, we flew up to Lae, which is a bit more rural than Moresby. We stayed for a few days at a YWAM base there. During our stay, we did some market programs and I got to do a prison ministry, which was super awesome and something I’ve always wanted to do!

From there, we all squished ourselves and our bags into the back of a big open air truck and headed to a village called Wampit, which was about an hour outside Lae. It was our first real village experience and it was incredible!! We stayed in a hut and our days were filled to the brim with people, people, and more people. We had our fair share of socializing. It was fun though, there were heaps of kids in the village who were eager to hold our hands and teach us songs in Pidgin or Wampar, their native languages. The guys we stayed with were beyond hospitable and generous to us. During the day, we would do programs, hang out and bathe in the river, and help peel unripen bananas with the village mamas. Most nights, we would have fellowship time with people from the village. They would have massive worship times and I have never in my life heard singing like that before. Papua New Guineans just have a knack for music and singing. There would be hundreds of them all singing together in strong, rich voices with many harmonies in between, it was so beautiful!!! It was a great week where we made lots of good friends and ate lots of papaya.

The second village we went to was called Zumangurum. This week was quite the adventure. We slept on a tarp in a hut that had no walls which would flood whenever it rained. The man who was looking after us had 8 daughters and also called the 10 girls on our team his daughters as well. Half our team got really sick the whole time, so it was a pretty rough week trying to hold ourselves together for programs and such. But it was super beautiful and it taught me a lot about patience and keeping up a good attitude despite not so good circumstances.

After Zumangurum, we went up to the highlands of PNG to a place called Yonki. We stayed at a YWAM base there and it was absolutely beautiful. There was a massive lake right down the hill from our hut with greens hills in the background and trees everywhere. It was a smaller base with only a few staff and students and it had such a family atmosphere to it. It was so fun getting to know the base leader, his family, and the students on DTS. At night, we could see so many stars and we spent a lot of time laying on the grass staring at them and talking about life. Either that or sitting in the little kitchen hut around the fire, learning about the culture and life of PNG. We stayed at the Yonki base for almost 2 weeks, but spent 3 days village hopping. In one village, we stayed in this huge hut with a family. After our night program, there were about 40 villagers who came and just chilled in the hut literally all night as we slept, singing, playing guitar, and giving sermons in unknown languages at all hours of the night/morning. Quite the experience. Those 3 days blurred together because we were constantly on the move, but it was a fun time. We walked from village to village and our group was quite a sight to see. Barefoot and slipping on the muddy road with 30 pound packs on out backs singing songs and staring in awe at the scenery. We had a few more days in Yonki after our village hopping trip before we began our trip home.

We spent a night in Lae and nearly missed our flight the next morning to Port Moresby. I’ve never arrived at an airport 10 minutes before the plane is scheduled to take off. But we made it. In Port Moresby, we were reunited with the guys that were on the medical ship and the trekking team. I can’t even explain how good it was to see everyone again!!! We celebrated our reunion with pizza and ice cream and nearly barfed because all the unfamiliar food. But it was great. The next morning, very early, we headed home to Townsville.

And there you have it. Well, just a little bit of it. But I assure you, it’s a time I will never forget. The people I met during my stay there have some of the most beautiful hearts I’ve ever encountered and such a genuine joy. I learned that it’s more than possible to be absolutely content in whatever situation you’re in. Joy doesn’t come from things, but from people and relationships. Things suck sometimes, but it all comes down to the attitude you have in each situation. Life is good, God is good and He never fails us. I am beyond blessed to have experienced Papua New Guinea. Thank you to everyone at home and all over the world who have been supporting me along the way, you guys are great!! See a lot of you in a week!!

Papua New Guinea!

These two weeks we have been back on base have absolutely flown by and yet again we are saying our goodbyes, but for a month and a half this time! :( In about 48 hours time, my team will be heading to the airport to fly to Papua New Guinea. Even now, we're not quite sure what we are going to be doing, but I'm positive it will be nothing short of an adventure. Please be praying for our safety and that God does some great things in the time we are there! We won't have computers or internet, so I'll be talking to you guys in 6 weeks!

Hope, it is a glorious certainty

OUTREACH!!! Man oh man, wow oh wow. What an experience!! Outreach was incredible, but it's also so great and refreshing to be back on base and not have to pack our things up every other day. The second two weeks that I haven't gotten the chance to write about were fantastic. We left the little town of Middlemount on Sunday afternoon and had a full day of driving. We stopped for the night in a town called Gympie and crashed at one of our girl's sister's house. The next morning we finished our drive and ended up in Brisbane. That whole week, we stayed on another YWAM base called Island Breeze. The vast majority of the people there were from the Pacific islands like Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, etc. I don't think I've ever been exposed to that amount of culture all at once and it was so much fun. All the islanders were so kind and hospitable to us the whole time we were there. Their base had so much open space with trees and nature everywhere and they even had sheep, pigs, and cows, with the occasional kangaroo hopping past. The whole week was really relaxing and such a nice contrast to the chaotic first week. Throughout the week, we spoke at a few different schools and youth groups and met some awesome kids. It was encouraging to see how excited the kids got. After one of the programs, a group of girls ran up to us, spilling over with ideas of fundraisers they could do to raise money for Not For Sale against human trafficking! So cool. This week was also really important for us as a team. I felt like we became a lot more unified and I got a lot closer to everyone as a whole. We had some great life talks and in my opinion, there are few things that are better than that. It was just fantastic. We made some great friends there and had a lot of laughs. I miss them already! For our final week, our original plans fell through so we ended up driving even further south into New South Wales to a little town called Wauchope (pronounced War-hope), stopping in Byron Bay on the way, where we stayed at the same girl's parent's house! We did one church and school program, and the rest of the time, we spent in a town called Port Macquarie. We didn't have plans, but we would just walk around and talk to people and see how we could bless individuals or the whole town. We bought people coffee, gave out free hugs, picked up trash, and had good conversation. It was awesome to see that the second we became available and actually stepped out of our comfort zone and were open to conversation, people completely received it and were willing to be open to us too. Another highlight was having home cooked meals for that week, so delicious :) We finally began our drive home on Friday and drove all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, stopping to sleep in a hostel in Brisbane and a rest stop in the absolute middle of nowhere and arrived last night! All in all, it was quite the adventure, exhausting, amazing and rewarding. It was great to actually be out doing hands on stuff instead of just sitting in lectures, as beneficial as those all were. Now, we have 2 weeks on base before we head out to Papua New Guinea and I couldn't be more excited!!

Week one of outreach

What a week it has been. Our original plan was to depart from Townsville last Sunday, but it rained so heavily that many of the roads were closed and we were delayed. I thought we would be stuck on base all week, but we somehow managed to leave the next morning with the rain still pouring. With 12 of us piled in a van and a car of 3 following, we made our way to Mackay, spending about 8 hours on the road. We had a lot of laughs, crocheted and knitted some headbands, ate lots of granola bars and went a little stir-crazy by the end of it. Our home for the next few nights was the floor of New Life City Church in Mackay. The best part? They had a children's center that had a McDonald's-like playground, but twice the size with some giant slides!!!! Needless to say, we had a lot of fun with it. During our time in Mackay, it rained a lot. On Tuesday, we got to go to a few schools and hang out with kids, play games with them, and talk to them about what it means to stand up for themselves. It was pretty sweet. On Wednesday, we went to a mental health choir, which was awesome. We got to sing 'Stand By Me' and 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' for them and they sang us some songs that they wrote. That afternoon, we hung out at a youth group and got to talk to the kdis about human trafficking. It was amazing to see how little they knew about slavery and the fact that it still exists. Back at the church that night, we attended a service led by a Ughandan preacher and his wife, which was just incredible. The next morning, we said our goodbyes and hit the road again. The drive from
Mackay to Middlemount is normally about a 3 and a half hour drive. Of course, us being the chaotic, unexpected group that we are, managed to take almost 12 hours to get there!! We had to take a massive detour because more roads were closed due to flooding. At one point, we almost had to turn back because the road was about to close the road right in front of us. I've never driven in/experienced rain like that before, it was crazy!! I can;t even explain how hectic but how absolutely hilarious that entire drive was. So much went wrong, and then worked itself out, it was just fantastic!! We ended up arriving in Middlemount past 11. Middlemount is a tiny coal mining town in the outback that takes all of 5 minutes to drive around the whole thing. My friend Rose and I ended up staying with a nice lady named Claire. It was so nice to sleep in a real bed again!! As I write this, our last night in Middlemount is coming to a close, but the 48 hours we have been here have been absolutely incredible. We went to a school and put on a couple programs about human trafficking and really got to bond with the kids. On Friday nights, they have this thing at the youth center where the kids just show up and you just hang out and play games with them all night. It was so great, I got to play some pool, ping pong, and teach someone to juggle!! I guess the kids really liked us, because we spent about 6 hours today picking weeds from the playgrounds at the school and some of them came to join us and brought us some candy and soda!! It's so cool because this town is so small and they've never really had a group like YWAM come in before and it was so great to just see how we could come in and become friends with them, even if it was just for a few days. I really like this place. Oh and we also saw 5 kangaroos just chillin on the side of the road. Normal I guess. So yeah, that's it so far. I could right 3 and a half novels about everything that has actually happened and all the good conversations I've had and the amount of times I thought I was going to pass out from laughing so hard or from extreme lack of sleep. But it's allll goood :) We head out tomorrow morning for a week in Brisbane and I'm not totally sure what we'll be doing there, but I'm sure it will be great!! I hope you all are great and I'll be talking to you soon!!

Roadtrip!

In 24 hours, our group will be leaving for our first outreach!! We will be traveling around Queensland for 3 weeks, helping out and serving wherever we're needed and putting on programs in schools and churches. I won't have my computer, so I will be talking to you all when I get back! Keep my teams in your prayers please! God bless :)

The great outdoors and etc.

So I just came back yesterday afternoon from a 2 week camping trip at a place called Hidden Valley. And let me just tell you. It was amazing!!! The first week passed by in a blur of torrential downpours of rain. Taking everything out of the tent to dry and draining it was almost an everyday occurrence. You just had to get used to feeling damp 24/7. Gooood times. Already looking back I can laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. There was one point where the river completely flooded over the road and we were unsure if we would be able to get through to get us food for the next day! But overall, it was awesome. Our days consisted of lectures in the morning and then we were pretty much free the rest of the day. We could play a plethora of sports in the meadow (which was sometimes occupied by cows), swim in the creek, or explore the wilderness! A few times, we got to walk to the gorge, which was this beautiful area with a river and rapids and waterfalls and rocks!! It was so awesome and I would just be sitting there on a rock thinking to myself, "What the heck am I doing here? I'm in the middle of the Australian bush, sitting in the middle of this random river with these people from all over the world. How awesome!" It blew my mind to say the least. Nighttime was probably my favorite part. We had a camp fire every night and would just sit around for hours, throwing logs on the fire, playing the guitar and singing, trying to catch pademelons (Australian versions of rabbits, kind of a cross between a mouse and a kangaroo), talking, talking, and talking. It was so great. We were camping with the other school as well and it was great bonding time with them, I made some great new friends! Every night when it wasn't cloudy, we could see the Milky Way and some shooting stars!! God's creation is absolutely beautiful!!! Lectures were absolutely fantastic. God lovingly punched me in the face multiple times and I just realized a whole lot of stuff about Him and about myself. We learned a lot about faith and surrendering our whole lives to Him. It was challenging for sure, but a great week of learning and growing. :)
It was a great two weeks camping and we are now back on base for one busy week before we go on our first outreach!! I'm still a little unsure of the details, but my group and I will be on the road for three weeks traveling around Queensland. We'll be spending some time in the outback at a church and then from there, we'll probably be going to Brisbane. We'll be going to lots of schools and churches, putting on programs and spreading the word about the horrors of human trafficking. I have no idea what to expect and I couldn't be more excited about it!! Lots of love to you all :)