3 month mark

Today marks 3 months since I left Greenville to come here! I can't believe it's been that long..I feel like I'm in such a different life now, though. 1/2 way done! Lecture phase is finally over..we had our last lecture on Friday! I am so excited about local outreach and outreach to India. We did find out a little more of what we will be doing in India; they told us we'll be working with a lot of street children and orphans as well as old folks and people with leprosy. We bought our plane tickets the other day, and we'll be leaving on January 10, 2007. Prayer needs: people who haven't gotten all of their money in yet for outreach, unity in our team, safety
I'm reading Crime and Punishment right now and loving it. I miss home a lot. It took me 30 minutes to get on this page just to post the blog! The past 2 weeks of lectures were on Spiritual Warfare and Evangelism...we did a lot of evangelism in the city this week and I met so many new people! I guess I've been disillusioned with the typical form of evangelism...you know, the pastor yelling at passersby on the street, telling them they're going to Hell. I think the most effective way of evangelism is just to get to know people and love them like Jesus loves. "I don't set out to do great things, but small things with a great deal of love" -Mother Theresa.
These are my thoughts for the week. I don't know when I'll be able to get on here again since this blog takes so long! Merry Christmas to everyone...wish I could be home with the family, but I'm making the most of it...not many people I know have gotten to be on a beautiful Australian beach for Christmas! Miss you all....

This was taken, as I mentioned earlier, at Byron Bay...closest to home for awhile!

thoughts

The past week has been good. We learned about relationships and boundaries within them. A key thing I learned is that attitude is a choice and that I do have control over my attitude. I've noticed that so many days I wake up and no one even says or does anything to me and I am just in a bad mood for no reason! It's cool to see the results of just forcing yourself to smile and telling yourself that it will be a good day...it's crazy how well it works. I'm really glad I figured this out sooner than later. Saturday our team went to Coochiemudlow Island (about 20 minutes away) and I had the best time because I got to go off and be by myself! I guess I hadn't really realized how much I miss having my own space and just being able to be alone. It was also cool just being able to spend time with God without having an agenda or any distractions.

I've really been learning to trust God with my future too because I've been really worried about college decisions and just choices in general. I want to be wise and seek God to show me what to do...I know if I don't do that, hypothetically I could still have a good life…great memories and great times, but I want more. I want this life to be lived absolutely to the fullest...and I don't want to settle for anything less. I see that so many people waste their lives by not even considering a greater purpose and not even caring about their Creator. If He created me, and I believe He did, then He must know the essence of me, and He must understand more than I do…so I reckon it’s high time for me to seek Him for what His perfect will is for me! I’m also finding that it’s a lot easier to say I trust God than to actually live it out. One more thing, honesty with God is healthy and vital to a good relationship with God. I used to just pray such cliché prayers but they really had no depth or meaning…so I guess I’ve been learning to treat God like a real person and talk to Him like I would talk to anyone else. Purpose Driven Life has had such an impact on my thinking. So that’s my personal spiritual stuff I’ve been facing.

Well, there are 2 more regular weeks of lectures and then we leave for local outreach which will be for 3 weeks. We leave for India on January 8! I'm looking forward to my 1st hot Christmas with my new YWAM family! BUT I will definitely miss picking names with the sisters and being with my family..and of course waking up to find Jennie has already gone through all the stockings and chosen what she wants...haha, just kidding. It's also sad that I don't get to see my Grandpa. One of the best parts of Christmas at home is Grandpa's famous scrambled eggs! Well, I better get to work duties now!