This might take you 8 years to read...

Hello all!!

It's been a while! (Well, two days to me is like an eternity...) I'm sorry if I threw off the balance of the earth by not updating yesterday! I was unaware so many people followed me!! :)

Well, let me just start off by clearing up a few things! I am here in Sydney attending what is called a DTS, it stands for Discipleship Training School. Well, actually I'm attending a PADTS which is a Performing Arts Discipleship Training School. It is through an organization called YWAM, which stands for Youth With a Mission (it really should stand for "yeah, we acronym most everything"(I'm aware I added an "e"). Which is a missionary organization whose focus is on raising up the next generation into fabulous evangelists!

Now, let me tell you why I have failed to update recently. First off, the internet has been down at our base since Tuesday (which made my internet fast incredibly easy!) So, I am at a local coffee shop at a nearby mall using their free wifi. Secondly, our base fasts on Wednesdays so LaChelle and I decided that it would be a good idea to fast the internet as well on Wednesdays. We're really seeking God's answers in our life about a few things so we thought it'd be a good break from all outside distractions. And, it was wonderful! I was a little bored, but I ended up going to bed an hour early AND reading a book! :)

Okay, so on to my day!!

WEDNESDAY:

We skipped breakfast (because of fasting) which meant I got to sleep in (God's blessing for fasting ALREADY!!) Then we had our devotion and quiet time. Normally our quiet time is until 8:25 then we go to morning work duties but, I signed up for an hour long shift in what we call "His Dwelling Place". What it is is a room in our base where there is 24/7 worship. There's a place to sit on the couch and just rest, some musical instruments, paints and canvases, worship DVD's, and a bunch of other stuff and we all sign up for 1 or 3 hour long shifts and what you have to do is go in there and be with God. So....honestly when they told me about it I was like "are you kidding me? I'm going to be stuck in a room by myself for an hour?!? I don't care WHO's dwelling here, I'm going to hate it!!" Well....I LOVED IT!!! It was great b/c it meant that I got an extra long quiet time! (wow, if I would have said that to myself a month ago I would have thought I was crazy!!)The time absolutely FLEW by! I couldn't believe that I had already spent an hour and a half in that room, I didn't want to leave!!

But, I had to leave to go to "intercession". Since we were fasting we didn't have morning tea, instead we got together to watch of video about muslims and then we prayed for all of the muslims in Sydney as well as the floods in Pakistan. After which we had a three hour long lecture, which actually went by really quickly. They gave all of us play-dough to play with during it so if there were any calisthenic learners or anyone with ADD in the room then they'd be able to pay attention and get a lot out of the lecture too. Of course, being on a fast, I made a play-dough hotdog and donut...

Then we had another intercession time instead of lunch, and honestly...I'm not totally in love with intercession yet. I feel really disconnected from what we're praying for. Usually we pray for all the nations, and then for Australia specifically and it just feels like my prayers are super shallow. I'd much rather pray for someone I know or someone right in front of me. But, hey, maybe I'll learn to love it! Or maybe not!

By 2:00 my stomach was growling pretty hard. And guess what?! My work duty was to cook dinner!! So, I got to smell all of the delicious things I was cooking but I couldn't even taste it for another 3 1/2 hours!! Then we had another intercession time but this was more of a "thanksgiving" to break our fast! We told got what we were thankful for and then broke up into groups of three and spoke words of life into each other! I LOVED IT!!! It was SO easy because the two girls I had in my group are DELIGHTFUL! I'm absolutely sure they're God's favorite people.

I was asked to pray for the food, (it was probably the fastest prayer I've ever uttered) then we ATE!!!!!! I ate like a Fijian rugby player! Following my feast I had the night off! So, I called my mom (unkowingly waking her up at 4:45 in the morning) and talked with her for about a half an hour then knocked out early!

Yikes...I'll have to give a QUICK overview of today! I don't want you to be reading all night! :)

THURSDAY:

This morning I woke up early because my team (GO BLUE TEAM!!) was in charge of "breakfast club" at the local primary school. We were up cooking eggs and bacon by 6:30 and over at the school by 7:30. Then came a flood of little kiddos! (Interesting fact, all of the public schools in Australia are required to wear uniforms! Weird!!) I was in charge of handing out cereal...and when given the choice of bacon or rice crispies pretty much every single kid chose bacon... :( But they were adorable so it was worth it!

After breakfast we had morning tea and I got to eat the donuts that I saw the day before while on the fast!! If that's not God's blessing then I don't know what is!
Another three hour long lecture followed (we're still learning about discerning God's voice) then off to lunch. After lunch I got go catch up with my beau back at home and my momma too! Then my team headed out to an indigenous youth group to play games! Apparently I look indigenous because all of the kids thought I was?! I was like a little kid magnet!! They were absolutely adorable and incredibly talented at playing handball (which is like American foursquare but with a tiny ball).

We rushed home to catch the last bit of dinner and my team was on clean up duty, which was super fun!! We blasted music in the kitchen and got the Fijians to dance with us! :)

Now I'm at the coffee shop waiting for my "one-on-one" with one of the staff! I'm SO excited! I love talking about myself (as you can probably see) :)

Tomorrow is a relatively easy day, all I have planned is brekkie (breakfast), work duty, tea, lecture and then I'm off for the day until 7 PM! We're having our first performing arts workshop tomorrow!

G'Night all!!