week 1

It does not feel like I've been in Astralia for about 10 days no. It feels more like a month. I've already learnt and experienced so much. I can't believe that I still have 6 months left.

This week we've had Kevin Norris speaking about God's nature and character. Deep, deep stuff. He basicly turned everyone's world upside down by totally destroying some of the ideas about God most of us have lived with our entire lives. But it really made me think how little I've actually questioned people's theologies in the past. I realised that usually I just take what preachers say just like that and not really process their words to see which parts are actually true and which aren't. Kevin said loads of things that made me angry and even scared, but he did back his words up with Bible verses, and he challenged us to look for Bible verses to prove him wrong, if we could. And the things he couldn't prove with the Bible he told us as theories and assumptions, not the truth. It was really cool and I learned a lot, not just about God and His character, but also about myself.

On wednesday Kevin taught us a little about worship. Again, he challenged the things we'd been taught in the past, and again he made lots of sense. I almost felt embarrased about how distorted my picture of worship was. Or that I actually had no clue. One of the things Kevin said about worsip, was that it it not just an "attitude of the heart". In other words, you can't worship God by just doing mundane things with a loving heart. No, worship is an intimate time with God, it's encountering someone that is Holy and it should be something you focus on fully while you're doing it. Cos if worship could be what ever, it wouldn't be anything special. He also challenged us to think about what we sing when we worship. Are we really sincere when we sing "Wherever you go I promise to follow"? Are we actually willing to do that? And what do we mean when we sing "Halleluja to the Lord of Heaven and Earth"? Doesn't Halleluja mean "Praise the Lord". It's a command adressed to people. So what's the point in singing "Praise the Lord to the Lord ... " There's something for you to think about...

On thrusday we started our Music Arts and Dance stuff. Dividing people into different bands was an intresting procedure, but the staff came up with pretty good groups. I am now the lead singer in a band with four guys. It's pretty cool. We have people from 4 different continents; Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. We had a chance to do a bit jamming yesterday but due to technical problems only me and the drummer Izaac were able to hear singing. But it'll get better.

Right now I don't have more time to talk about what's been going on. We've had loads of free time so we've been mostly just hanging out, and there's nothing too intresting to tell about that. Tonight we're having a Halloween party for all the MAD students. We're all gonna dress up and bring loads of sweets. I don't really know what my costume's gonna be, but I'm sure I'll think of something. Should be awesome.

And I just wanna apologize the lack of pictures. This internet is just too slow. Tomorrow we should get the bandwith back, cos it's the first of the month, so I'll try and upload some pics then. Hopefully it works.

INTENSE

This weekend all of us MAD students went to the mountains for two nights. It was cool to finally see the whole crew in one place at the same time. The place where we stayed was so pretty, though the bedrooms looked like they were straight from a horror movie that takes place in an asylum or something... It was creepy. Annnnnyway...

During almost the entire weekend we all shared our life stories. It took a while, as there was almost 40 of us and one story lasted from 5 to 20 minutes. But it was very intresting, and it got pretty intense. When it was my time to share I just cried my eyes out and by the time I was finished with it I was soaking wet. But it was cool and I felt like God really worked through the vulnerability. Later last evening we had a worship session and intercession. It was good. God did some powerful stuff, tho I'm not gonna get into the details.

Althogether the weekend was frikkin amazing. Everyone's so great. I feel like every moment I spend with these people is a party like no other. What's funny is that everybody keeps complementing my clothes. I wore my harem pants (well actually they're Hanna's, but whatever) today and like 10 people said they were awesome. Also my jeans, my scarf, my hat.. All very popular amongst the dts people. And they're all weirded out by my british accent. Some people just can't get over it. One of the staff members named me FB, as in the Finnish Britt. I don't have anything against it, though he keeps mocking me by talking to me in a ridiculous posh british accent. But it's all good fun.

On the way back from the mountains we had a proper rave in the bus. Everybody was singing and dancing to the music and there were times I was actually scared that the bus is gonna roll over... By the time we got back to Brisbane it was raining. I've never seen a thunderstorm like this. I'll post a video on facebook once I'm able to, I really don't know how to describe it. The lightning literally lights up the whole sky and the rain's pouring down so hard that it's impossible to move from a building to another without getting soaked. We haven't been able to unpack the van yet cos it's still raining...

Tomorrow we're starting the actual lectures. Should be awesome, I can't wait.

GDAY MATE

So, I'm finally gonna try to overcome my hate towards this stone age internet they have here and try to write something about the last few days. We have a class starting in half an hour so I'm gonna be reallyquick and just list some stuff...

The journey here was pretty painful cos my knees started to ache like hell on the plane so I couldn't sleep. The food was good tho. And I had company, some other dts people who I met along the way.

The first day in Brisbane was a bit of a blur as I was so tired. Too much information and too little energy. The first night I froze my ass off cos I didnt have a blanket or a sleeping bag, just sheets. And the birds make so much noise at night. But I survived, and one of the students had an extra blanket so the other two nights have been better. Tho I still havent managed to sleep past 5:30 am. I have no idea why, I just wake up really early, it's so annoying.

So far we've basicly just hung around and got to know each other, tho yesterday we had orientation, loads and loads of information, and again too little energy. Everyone here is sooo nice and funny. There's people from all around the world, but the biggest group is definitely the Canadians. They're everywhere!

The school itself hasn't started yet, I think our classes start on tuesday. This weekend us MAD students are going on a retreat to the mountains, about 1 hour 45 minutes from Brisbane. It's gonna be great! Yesterday we had intercession in the morning and a worship thing in the evening, and both events were so amazing. I can't wait to see what God has in store for all of us.

I'm running out of time.. I just want to say that I'm sooo happy here, everything's great and I already feel like God's really taking care of me. I'll try to upload some photos at some point, so you too can see how beautiful this place is. But now I really gotta go. Byes!

x

HERE GOES...

So, this is it... After months of waiting, I'm finally about to leave for Australia. Less than 6 hours till my plane leaves. Crazy. My brain still refuses to wrap itself around the fact. Yesterday I spent the whole day just packing my stuff and organizing my room and still I managed to forget that I'm going. TODAY. I don't know why it's so hard for me to understand that this is actually happening to me! I have to tell myself to believe it, over and over again. Unbelievable...

For those who don't know who I am or what this blog is about, here's some info:

My name is Sonja (pronounced like Sonia) and I'm a 19-year-old christian girl from Helsinki Finland. For some time now I've had a dream of taking a gap year and leaving Finland after graduating from hichschool. I was introduced to a christian organisation called Youth With A Mission that organises Dicipleship Training Schools around the world, and I thought that a 6-month-long DTS would be the perfect way to spend my gap year. A friend of mine told me about a special DTS in Brisbane, Australia, called Music Arts and Dance DTS, or MAD DTS. As I love music and everything that has something to do with it I instantly felt like this was the place for me to be.

And that's also where I'm going now, and here in this blog I'll try to write about what's happening in my life in Brisbane. From what I've heard from my friends who've done dts it's gonna be a life-changing experience. It's gonna be absolutely amazing, but really tough too, so I'm gonna need all your prayers!

I guess there's nothing more to add at this point. See you on the other side...

To learn more about YWAM Brisbane visit http://www.goywam.com/