So for the last two weeks I have been without an internet connection, thus I need to tell you about two weeks in one post, which is gonna be exhausting, but I'll try.
So our MAD school went to a town called Byron Bay, which is a small beach town that's very popular amongst backpackers. During our time there it was also a scene for this massive event called Schoolies. Schoolies are basically highschool graduates who head to various beach locations after graduation to party hard. For the first week of our stay we were doing Red Frogs which is basically a christian voluntary organisation that takes care of Schoolies by walking them back to their hotel rooms, baking them pancakes and cleaning up their hotels. And through all that we try to communicate God's love for them and also to talk to them about Jesus, or in other words evangelize. I was really excited to just get there and talk to people and see what God was gonna do through me, but once we got there and started doing our thing the reality wasn't quite what I expected. Our team didn't really function that well and there was a lot of confusion and I often found myself totally lost in all of the logistical mess. It was also way harder than I had imagined to just go for it and start talking about God, even when the kids were drunk out of their minds and actually really open to conversation. I don't know if it was just spiritual attacks, sleeping on a carpet floor without a matress, or eating nothing but bread all the time that got to me, but a lot of the time with the schoolies I felt helpless and lost. During that week I only had one good conversation where I actually got to share the gospel with someone. So by the end of the week I felt like an absolute failure and just so dissapointed in myself, questioning God's faithfulness and my ability to hear His voice. But fortunately a week earlier I had started to journal and write down what I felt that God was saying to me and through that God really revealed Himself to me and I learned so much about His character and the way He sees me. In spite of all my self-doubt he was saying that He wasn't mad or even dissapointed, that I couldn't know the consequences of my actions and words or see the whole scale of things that had happened in the spiritual world that week by just me being there, and that He doesn't appreciate me any less even though I didn't bring anyone to Christ. It was my first mission trip ever and I guess I expected too much of myself and God made me realize that everything's a journey and I can't expect myself to be amazing right away. Maybe I'm not called to be a street evangelist. Maybe I am called to tell people about Christ through my songs or just my life. He has great plans for me and I just need to be susceptible to them and stop trying so hard to be something I think I should be. So all in all the schoolies week was a good experience and it definitely brought me closer to God, and stepping into other outreaches it's good to have a little perspective on my purpose and my part in building His Kingdom.
The second week was way more relaxed, though we were short on money for food and had way worse breakfast than during the first week. Not having milk for coffe really tested my nerves and during the whole 2 weeks I actually ended up spending about 50 bucks on coffee alone. It's ridiculous, I know, but what can I say... Anyway. We spent almost every afternoon on the beach and because of the modesty rules that us girls had I now have a ridiculous shorts tan on my thighs. The beach in Byron was amazing and I swam in the Pacific ocean for the first time. I also tried surfing, which didn't go so well. I mainly just lied on the board and floated on the waves, I didn't even try to stand up. It was a lot of fun though. There were still Schoolies around during the second week and we baked them pancakes a couple of times in the evenings even though we weren't red frogs anymore. I felt better about the whole evangelism thing though I still didn't manage to get into any good conversations. All of us were starting to get really tired. Most of us hadn't had a proper sleep since we came, and everybody was starting to get really sick of eating sandwiches every day. On tuesday we'd also climbed a mountain, 8,8 km altogether up and down, and some of us had caught a cold. The whole climb was a very ridiculous thing. It took about 2 hours to climb up and when we finaly reached the summit it was so foggy we couldn't even see the view. It started to rain and after having lunch we descended in the rain. I was one of the people who got sick and am actually still pretty ill as I'm writing this, and it's sunday now. But I'm still very proud of myself for doing it. Just going down took about an hour and while doing it I kept wondering where I'd ever get the strength to up in the first place. On saturday morning some of us went to the Byron Bay lighthouse to see the sunrise. That took strength as well but I am so happy I went. It was so amazing to see the sun rise from the ocean, all red and huge. It was the perfect ending to the Byron Bay experience.
Coming back to Brisbane was amazing. That's all I can say. This base feels so much more like home now. I'm so thankful for my bed, our room, our bathroom, our kitchen, our slow internet connection. I can't wait to start lectures again, to get back to the routine. Right now I'm ill and I'm just gonna relax and enjoy the weekend. Soon I gotta start thinking about christmas... It does not feel like december in this 35 degree weather and sunshine. People are listening to christmas songs and decorating places and it just feels weird. But the truth is that it's gonna be christmas in less than 3 weeks... If you wanna send me a card or a present for christmas my address is 671 Samford Road Mitchelton 4053 QLD Australia. Also any kind of financial support is more than welcome!
So this is how I'm doing at the moment. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing, a lot has happened and I'm not the best storyteller in the world. I probably forgot many things but that's ok. Peace out.
So our MAD school went to a town called Byron Bay, which is a small beach town that's very popular amongst backpackers. During our time there it was also a scene for this massive event called Schoolies. Schoolies are basically highschool graduates who head to various beach locations after graduation to party hard. For the first week of our stay we were doing Red Frogs which is basically a christian voluntary organisation that takes care of Schoolies by walking them back to their hotel rooms, baking them pancakes and cleaning up their hotels. And through all that we try to communicate God's love for them and also to talk to them about Jesus, or in other words evangelize. I was really excited to just get there and talk to people and see what God was gonna do through me, but once we got there and started doing our thing the reality wasn't quite what I expected. Our team didn't really function that well and there was a lot of confusion and I often found myself totally lost in all of the logistical mess. It was also way harder than I had imagined to just go for it and start talking about God, even when the kids were drunk out of their minds and actually really open to conversation. I don't know if it was just spiritual attacks, sleeping on a carpet floor without a matress, or eating nothing but bread all the time that got to me, but a lot of the time with the schoolies I felt helpless and lost. During that week I only had one good conversation where I actually got to share the gospel with someone. So by the end of the week I felt like an absolute failure and just so dissapointed in myself, questioning God's faithfulness and my ability to hear His voice. But fortunately a week earlier I had started to journal and write down what I felt that God was saying to me and through that God really revealed Himself to me and I learned so much about His character and the way He sees me. In spite of all my self-doubt he was saying that He wasn't mad or even dissapointed, that I couldn't know the consequences of my actions and words or see the whole scale of things that had happened in the spiritual world that week by just me being there, and that He doesn't appreciate me any less even though I didn't bring anyone to Christ. It was my first mission trip ever and I guess I expected too much of myself and God made me realize that everything's a journey and I can't expect myself to be amazing right away. Maybe I'm not called to be a street evangelist. Maybe I am called to tell people about Christ through my songs or just my life. He has great plans for me and I just need to be susceptible to them and stop trying so hard to be something I think I should be. So all in all the schoolies week was a good experience and it definitely brought me closer to God, and stepping into other outreaches it's good to have a little perspective on my purpose and my part in building His Kingdom.
The second week was way more relaxed, though we were short on money for food and had way worse breakfast than during the first week. Not having milk for coffe really tested my nerves and during the whole 2 weeks I actually ended up spending about 50 bucks on coffee alone. It's ridiculous, I know, but what can I say... Anyway. We spent almost every afternoon on the beach and because of the modesty rules that us girls had I now have a ridiculous shorts tan on my thighs. The beach in Byron was amazing and I swam in the Pacific ocean for the first time. I also tried surfing, which didn't go so well. I mainly just lied on the board and floated on the waves, I didn't even try to stand up. It was a lot of fun though. There were still Schoolies around during the second week and we baked them pancakes a couple of times in the evenings even though we weren't red frogs anymore. I felt better about the whole evangelism thing though I still didn't manage to get into any good conversations. All of us were starting to get really tired. Most of us hadn't had a proper sleep since we came, and everybody was starting to get really sick of eating sandwiches every day. On tuesday we'd also climbed a mountain, 8,8 km altogether up and down, and some of us had caught a cold. The whole climb was a very ridiculous thing. It took about 2 hours to climb up and when we finaly reached the summit it was so foggy we couldn't even see the view. It started to rain and after having lunch we descended in the rain. I was one of the people who got sick and am actually still pretty ill as I'm writing this, and it's sunday now. But I'm still very proud of myself for doing it. Just going down took about an hour and while doing it I kept wondering where I'd ever get the strength to up in the first place. On saturday morning some of us went to the Byron Bay lighthouse to see the sunrise. That took strength as well but I am so happy I went. It was so amazing to see the sun rise from the ocean, all red and huge. It was the perfect ending to the Byron Bay experience.
Coming back to Brisbane was amazing. That's all I can say. This base feels so much more like home now. I'm so thankful for my bed, our room, our bathroom, our kitchen, our slow internet connection. I can't wait to start lectures again, to get back to the routine. Right now I'm ill and I'm just gonna relax and enjoy the weekend. Soon I gotta start thinking about christmas... It does not feel like december in this 35 degree weather and sunshine. People are listening to christmas songs and decorating places and it just feels weird. But the truth is that it's gonna be christmas in less than 3 weeks... If you wanna send me a card or a present for christmas my address is 671 Samford Road Mitchelton 4053 QLD Australia. Also any kind of financial support is more than welcome!
So this is how I'm doing at the moment. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing, a lot has happened and I'm not the best storyteller in the world. I probably forgot many things but that's ok. Peace out.
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