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 :)