pb&j toast :)

Is my new favorite thing! :) haha We get free bread here (like more than we can eat) and so toast is the popular thing haha Anyways.... wow, what a week!! Lectures this week were beyond incredible. "Hearing/Recognizing the voice of God" was the topic, and Chris Twin was our speaker. It's hard to explain what we learned really, me and another girl were talking about how it would be hard to explain it to others, partially just because it was SO MUCH! I will try to explain a few things we did to see if it makes a bit of sense. After the week of lectures, we did an excercise to put what we learned into practice. We were given 5 minutes, and were told to ask God what He thought about us, and then to listen to what He told us, then to write it down. After 5 minutes was up, we came back together and a few people shared what they got. One friend in particular, wasn't sure if what she had heard was just her own thoughts, or if it was from God. Some of what it said was "You are beautiful, I love you how you are, you are my daughter" and along those lines. The next excercise we chose from a basket a piece of paper, each with a name of someone in the class (leaders included). We weren't allowed to look at at it, and were instructed to do the same thing; ask God what He thought about this person, write down what we saw, or felt, or heard, also for five minutes. After that five minutes we were brought back together, and one by one, read what we had gotten from listening to God, and then opened the piece of paper to see who it was about. It was SPOT ON for everyone! For one of our leaders, she had been asking God something about her mom, and was doubting what He was telling her; the first thing on the paper that was written for her was "stop questioning Me"! I hope this is making sense to you all how this worked... Now came time for my friend who had earlier doubted what she had heard. She read off what she had gotten from God about her person, and it was a message of God loves you how you are, you are beautiful, and you are His daugther; part of what she got was Stevie Wonder's song "Isn't she lovely." Guess who's name was in the little piece of paper when she opened it up?? Hers!! It was so cool to see that God really wanted her to know what He though of her, plus He wanted her to know she really COULD hear Him!. It brought tears to many of our eyes. It was so awesome to go around and see how everyone's was so specific to them, and that God was the one that spoke to someone else to write about about that person! Because HE was the only one who knew who's name was on the papers!

Now on to outreach locations!! We found out this week!!! The sports DTS is going to South Africa during the World Cup, but the Frontiers were given 2 options, of which we were to pray about and ask God where He wanted us (perfect for just after the week of lectures on Hearing God!). The options presented before us were India, and a Russia/China trip. For me, it wasn't even a question. We find out tomorow what the teams will look like (we told our leaders yesterday where we wanted to go, and they are to pray about it to make sure its all good), so then I can tell you positively for surely :) But I'll just tell you that I knew where I was supposed to go BEFORE the locations were revealed! How awesome is God?!!

Some other things that happend this week; Thursday night some of us when to dinner over at Romishes house. He is a guy that lives nearby that the base has been ministering to for years. He is an older man, now in a wheelchair, from India. Let's just say, that was a funny night haha Romish is a character! But it was fun, no doubt :) Friday night Forts had a birthday party for Stewert (Sports team), who's bday was actually last weekend, so we were a bit late lol But it was alot of fun! I think it brought us closer together as a group.

And last but not least, tomorow we leave for a little country town called Stanthorpe for an fruit festival, I can't remember the name of it... Anyways, the deal is that this little town gets a ton of backpackers, especially this time of year. The backpackers generally are short on money so they stay in this town for a bit and pick fruit to earn some cash. There is a church in Stanthorpe, mostly of the older generation, who really wants to start ministering to them; how awesome is that?! So they decided they wanted to run a month long ministry, starting the week of this festival. They asked us to come alongside them and parter with them in evangelism and other ministries (not sure quite yet what they are). So we will be headed over there for the week to kick off this month long ministry! We get back Saturday, so hopefully I will be able to write of some awesome stuff that happened :)

OH! I almost forgot... I cut my hair!!!! haha I generally decide these kind of things spur of the moment, as in this morning coming back from church. So seven hours later, its short! My friend Laila (Denmark) did an awesome job! Yes, I do miss my hair :( but! this hair is more appropriate for the weather, and for the humidity, and for all the traveling we will be doing lol

Super long post

So it's been a little while since I've had a post, eh?! I'm sitting in the community room and the guys are playing ping pong and playing the song "Girls just wanna have fun." Hmm..... hahaha So in the mornings we have this thing called "Morning tea," we get it every morning, and I love it. It's cut up fruit and cut up pastries-YES!! We look forward to it, as it happens during a little break between lectures. That was just a random little tidbit. So Friday night, the "Forts" team (Sports and Frontiers teams combined) went into Brisbane for a scavenger hunt; we had to get things like "something purple, a red yellow and white straw, toilet paper that has been signed by someone, a newspaper, an empty soday can, a postcard, a religious tract" and a few other things, and we weren't allowed. OH NO MATHEW"S HERE! im taken over by mathew he's now typing stuff that makes no sense, like giant pink banana's and miniature yellow monkey's. to buy anything either. We also had to do a few things, like count all of the seats in the ferris wheel; there were 42.

Every saturday afternoon is called "Go Day." We chose from a list of ministries what we wanted to do every Saturday. I chose going to the "Murray House" which is basically a mental hospital, mostly with elderly though. We went for the first time this Saturday. I met a lady named Davey, from the Phillipeans. She called me "lady Jessica" which was sweet :) And I also met Veronica Margeret. I talked to her for most of the time. She made me laugh because she was kind of a rebellious lady. I asked her if she liked to play games and she replied with "mind games." haha She asked me when I got my hair cut last, where I got my shoes, who was my boyfriend, if I liked another ladies dress, and basically alot of girly things. So next week I am going to bring some nail polish and see if maybe she will let me paint her nails! I could tell that she had some bitterness in her though, and that made me sad. Another lady that I briefly talked to, well I'm not sure what her name is. I asked her a few times, but never could understand. The closest thing that she said that sounded like her name was Chrysanthemum, so until I know her real name, that is what I am going to call her :) The majority of the people there were old, except for one guy who was in his twenties. I can't wait to go back next week! It was really incredible there!!

Last night a few of us girls took a little walk up to a nearby cemetery/church which you could see alot of the city from. It was beautiful! The church was really pretty too, and we took a few pictures. This was my favorite one, Kirstin from Denmark is on the right and I am on the left.

As we were sitting and talking, we heard loud music and sounded maybe like a little concert, in a coffee shop or restaurant or something. So I suggested we try and go find it. So we went in search of this random music. haha needless to say, we did not find it, but we did find a Catholic College, and guessed that maybe the music was coming from dorms somewhere. We almost got lost coming back, almost being we weren't sure if we were going the right way, but ended up back at base! We saw a big (ok, big to us, not to the Aussies) spider on the way home which had woven its web RIGHT next to the sidewalk!!! I think it's called a Huntsman Spider? Here is a picture of it.


On another random note, crossing the street here is fun. At home, you look one way (knowing which way to look because you know which way the cars are coming) and then the other, etc. But here, I get SOO confused as to which way to look! (they drive the opposite ways) So I just make sure to look both ways and book it accross the street as fast as I can because I have no idea where the cars are gonna come from and if I'm gonna get hit or not. haha

A second entry and revalation.

Just a bit of what we are learning (I have my notebook with me now :]).
~The things we do in our lives are acts of worship to God; every little thing we do, do in worship of God. Obedience is worship!

And another thing we discussed earlier in class, but it didn't actually hit me until another girl brought it up during eveing lecture how it impacted her. Psalm 139:14 says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I never really thought about that word 'fearfully' in this context before. In other words, we are made with awe and respect. We are made in God's image, in his likeness. Every single part of us God made after His image, He looks at every part of us in awe and with respect, because we are wonderfully made! Those things you wish weren't there, or those parts you wish were different, God made you in His image! I am wonderfully made! You are wonderfully made! Think about that for a bit :)


And a mini-revalation I had today while in lectures. The Israelites saw God perform many miracles, yet still they had doubt, still they made other idols in place of God. They had every reason to keep their faith in God, simple by all of the things they had seen Him do! but they let their faith in Him fall to the wayside. I was thinking about my journey on getting here to YWAM. For those of you who don't know, I'll try and explain it a bit. Most of you will know that money was slow to come in, and I still don't actually have even close to all of the money I need. Throughout the last few weeks before DTS, I was wondering if maybe God didn't want me to go afterall. I was going to be sad if that was the case, but I knew that God had my best interest at heart, and that He knew what was best, so that I was going to be happy no matter what happened. However, I was still trying to know from God if it was His will for me to go, in order that I still try and raise all of the support. It was about a week and half (maybe a week?) before I was about to leave, and my mom told me this story. She said that she had been praying while making dinner that night, that God would just make it clear for us if I was to keep fundraising and preparing to go to YWAM. She asked that if it was His will, He would just take care of the money. Within 2 minutes, a family friend came to the door with a check! It wasn't a large check no, but it was God at work! This encouraged me like no other! Ok so flashforward to one day before I was supposed to leave. I was short about $1700, with no plane ticket. Getting a little desperate, I went around town with my mom and Bethany, asking businesses if they would want to donate to the cause. 2/3 of the day had passed, and I had made probably a little over a hundred dollars-ish. We thought "hey, we haven't prayed about this!" So all three of us prayed and asked God that He would provide if it was His will, and that He might be able to make it clear to us if I was to go. After praying, I had to make a phone call to someone to talk about support money. Before I could finish dialing, a doctors office called me back saying they would support me! A SECOND time where God answered right away! I knew that I was supposed to go, but I just had absolutely NO idea how it was going to work out. Flashforward to that night. I was torn. I was sitting in my room, broken, asking God what all of this was about. I didn't have enough money for YWAM/plane ticket, and I was supposed to leave the next day. I was possibly the most confused I had ever been in my life. I was questioning God wondering why He would tell me to go when He didn't provide the money like I expected Him to! But as I sat there, I realized that I could not doubt God and what He had showed me through answered prayer. I had my answer already: I was to go to YWAM and He would provide. I had to plan to go in faith, that the rest of the money would come in! So I called up Jenna, my school leader, and explained the situation. She told me to use the school money that I had and buy a plane ticket, and come in faith. And that's exactly what I did! I bought a ticket the next day, and flew out the day after that for Brisbane. I ended up coming a day late, but everyone who knows me knows thats the only way I roll anyways!! hahaha :) Hey, I showed up late to the last day of school, to graduation, and to my own little going away shin-dig to name a few, haha it couldn't have been any other way!
The revelation was this: I was so very glad that I kept my faith in God and the little things He had shown me, unlike the Israelites! I was so tempted to just forget about the answered prayers/signs, but instead I followed God's guidance, and here I am now at YWAM! God is good, eh?!

Stinging ants

So today was another day with lectures, we've been studing the nature and character of God. If i had brought my notes up here with me I could have written a bit of what we are learning...but alas, I didn't think about it until now! hmm some guys just walked by and said "what happened?" and "they don't even know about it yet." wonder what that's about.... hahaha so one of these days Miriam (a girl from New Zealand/Australia) and I are going to record a mini-quick tour of the base and put it online so you guys can see it! yay :) the weather today wasn't rainy alot *sad face* but at least it wasn't killer hot! I got assigned my "work duty" yesterday; We all have a job that we are to do each day (except weekends) for the remainder of the time we are here. I got lunch cleanup, which actually, I like! We get to listen to music too *bowchickabowow* It's actually a rather easy job and only takes us about an hour.... Hmm who's all on my team for that: Miriam(on Frontiers), Taylor(on Frontiers and from the states), Jake (on B2B and from the states), Nick (on Sports and from AU), and I'm totally not gonna spell her name right, Solveight (on B2B and from Denmark I think). Cool stuff....
Yeah so today we had "sport in the park" or whatever, so some of us played volleyball and some played soccer for about an hour and a half. That's where the title "stinging ants" is from. Like 5 of the girls were barefoot and got this painful sting in their foot and then made it go numb! Horrible, eh?! Glad I wore shoes! oh yeah, and 2 of the girls in my dorm (Laila and Kim) have been getting bit like crazy! They discovered today that their bunk has bed bugs. How pleasant! Not. So it took them like 4 hours to take care of it I guess :( Oh what else... Oh! I got to talk to Choi and Anna on skype for like 20 min each today! and yesterday I talked to my family... well I think it was yesterday? haha and I got to text Beth, that was pretty sweet.... Oh yes, and we had this apple crisp stuff for dessert yippeee yay. I think ants are crawling all over me... don't worry, not the stinging ones!
Ok, well I've probably rambled long enough now... I always have cool stuff to say but can't remember once I get on here! :(
chow for now

Sun burned

Hey everyone! This last weekend was spent away from the base. We actually went and stayed at a Teen Mission's International base a few hours north of here; which was kind of awesome because a few years ago I had seriously looked into TMI! I am glad I chose YWAM, TMI was a bit primitive ;) haha BUT, we got to see kangaroos! They were everywhere at that base, most often in the morning and evening. I got probably about 30 feet (maybe closer I'm terrible with measurements) away from a few to take pictures! The sun here is MUCH stronger; I was in the sun maybe 15/20 minutes playing some volleyball and I ended up with a nasty sunburn on the backs of my legs and my arms and my feet! Then today we spend the day at the beach (so much fun!) and got the rest of myself burnt XD I wore 50 spf even!! haha eveyone else is burned as well; we went and got aloe plants and rubbed it all over ourselves. It is so very hot here; around 6 and 7 in the morning its probably around 70/80 degrees WITH humidity :S I dont know the exact temp because it is in Celcius but I will try and pay better attention :) haha
Tomoro morning we start classes!! I'm excited. This weekend while we were away we all shared testimonies, and hearing our leaders/teachers testimonies made me so excited to start classes! I can tell I am going to learn a lot while I am here :)
My Frontiers team has 8 people, and we are combining with the Sports DTS which has 7. By combined I mean going to the same lectures and going away for weekends together, etc. We won't however go on outreach together, which I think will be a bit hard after growing close to them as well! So combined with the 2 DTS, there are people from USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway (I think), and a few from Australia. It is awesome how well we all get along so well already!
Oh yeah, besides the sun, the "mozzies" ore biting us also! so if we itch, it hurts to scratch now :( haha Im not quite sure how people get climatized to this weather! I love the afternoon/evenings tho, because they at least are cooler!!!
Right now... err last time I was outside there was a big thunder storm! But it was weird, because I never heard any thunder! Well, there's a movie on right now, so I'm gonna actually watch it now :) haha
chow for now!

Random vocab words>> Heaps=alot, Mozzies=Mosquitos, Torch=Flashlight

I'm not gonna be able to think of enough titles...

So!! its just shy of 8 o'clock in the morning here... and Ive been up for an hour and a half. surprise! I think I'm going to become a reluctant early bird haha it was 6:30 in the morning, 70 degrees out, super sunny, and birds were chirping... it was beautiful! maybe I will just become a happy early bird :)
There are 9 other girls in my dorm room, so 10 of us total. They are so awesome!! In my room there are girl(s) from canada, denmark, the netherlands, switzerland, australia, new zealand, mexico, and 2 other americans. There is actually a girl on the Beach to Bush team (dorm room next door) who is from the Corvalis/Albany area! Crazy stuff!
Last night a van of us went downtown Brisbane to go shopping; my group of 4 only found the stores that were advertised "under $200!" and "sale $199!" , but some others found some sweet deals!
Well I have to go now, we are going to go to Tim's house, the Sports team leader, for a special breakfast, and then we are heading out somewhere unknown for the weekend. They gave us a list of things to pack and that's all we know!
Write more later!

What's the date again?

So pretty much... I'm sitting in LAX right now, still on my nine hour layover... and farely incoherant. Oh I just noticed it got dark outside! I've been awake for about 33 hours now... because I spent all last night packing.. I wanted to write here, about how today went. But I can't remember what I wanted to write... at all. Well hopefully I'll be able to remember later.... I can't wait for my 14 hour flight in 4 hours so I can SLEEEP!!!!
Here, a pic that I was actually here...
I like to travel in color :)

Everyone sitting around me is speaking with Aussie accents :)

Why Brissie?

So I've been asked many times, "why Australia?", so I decided to write it for everyone to know :)
A friend that has done a DTS before suggested that I get the "Go Manual", a booklet which YWAM produces that lists and gives a little bit of info about all of their bases around the world. This 150 page booklet was very daunting at first! After spending much time going through the lists, I narrowed it down to about 30 bases which fit my time frame (I was taking fall term at RCC and want to go back to college fall of '10 as well) and had programs which seemed fitting to me. I started the task of going to every single one of those bases web sites to find more information on them, costs, and just the general, more detailed information. The Go Centre in Brisbane was actually the first one on my list that I looked up! I fell in love with what the website said about the Frontiers program; I felt touched with the answer that THIS base was the one I was supposed to go to. I was filled with joy that came from the excitement I had for this base and Frontiers DTS! But I wanted to make sure that this one was actually the one. So I continued to go through the long list of other bases. When I tried to visit the next about 10 websites, something was wrong with them. Either they were under contruction, had been moved to another address that I did not have, or had absolutely no program information on it. I felt like this was a sign from God that I already knew the base I needed to go to! I did continue the last portion of the list, and none of them grabbed me in any way like the base in Brisbane did. I was so thrilled that I didn't have to make a decision over which base I was supposed to go to(as some of you may know I am terrible at making decisions)and that God made it perfectly clear and easy!
Now another question I have been asked a few times is something along the lines of "Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier if you went to a base stateside?" The answer is probably yes. The actual cost of the DTS/outreach would be about the same, but I am having to pay more for airfare and Visa costs. I even personally was wanting to go to one MUCH closer to home. I had been considering a base in San Fransisco for a long time. It was not my desire to go so far away, as I have mentioned before, it honestly scares me! But I think that is part of the reason God wanted me so far away from home-to learn trust Him even more and to grow in faith. I have gone on mission trips before, to Mexico for example. For many, the whole trip/living situation/ministry was a stretching experience for them. I'll be honest; I loved it, but I was totally in my comfort zone! But this DTS in Australia, simply because it is SO very far away, has put me out of my comfort zone already! God wants to stretch me and make me His servant, and I am growing and following Him.

If anyon has any questions about anything I said or anything else, feel free to ask!
<3Jessica