HOME!

Yes, after 27 hours of traveling I am home in Lafayette, Louisiana! I didn't sleep much on the plane rides so I was exhausted when I arrived.  Nevertheless, no one can ever be too tired for Raising Cane's chicken strips and special sauce... yummm! oh yeah, and SWEET TEA!  My mom and grandparents greeted me at the airport.  My mom had flowers, my grandparents brought me bananas!

The Friday before I left Australia was our graduation day!  All of the base staff came together to join us in celebration of the last 5 1/2 months!  We watched recap videos of our outreaches, recieved our grad certificates, and ate heaps of delicious food... including cake! :)  Here are a few pics from that day of people I love to pieces!

 Abby was on the Pacific Discipleship Training School but both schools did almost everything together!  We had many amazing chats that eventually turned into us giggling uncontrollably!

 This is Katie, also known as Miss Kitty.  She was 1 of our school leaders and she is a great example of God's love and patience!

 Krystal has the biggest heart for people and cultures.  It's something you can't fake.  I love listening to her speak of indigenous cultures because her face lights up!

Liz never stopped asking me questions throughout this whole experience.  She challenged me to see God, myself, and the world in a different way!

Of course, this wasn't an exhaustive list of all the people I love at YWAM Townsville... that blog post would be 100's of pages long!  Saying goodbye was difficult although I know I'll see them all sometime in the future.  The journey was amazing... really, there are no words to describe it that would bring it justice... but it was beyong belief, beyond anything I expected or could have imagined!  This part of the journey is complete but it's not the end!  Stay tuned for more!

Allie


I'm creating an online newsletter that will be sent directly to your email address.  This newsletter will be more of the "big picture" news and ministry side of life.  I will keep this blog here that you are reading but it will be more of the "day to day", fun side of life!  Click here to subscribe to my online newsletter!

Major Outreach

Today is Sunday and it's a bittersweet day... 3 of us (including myself) have been hanging out in Newcastle, Australia for the past 2 weeks.  That doesn't sound like a lot of time but 2 weeks in YWAM time is equal to 2 years in normal time.  We ate, slept, worked, evangelized, etc with the same awesome people.  BUT all great things must come to an end!  We are leaving to go to Nowra to join up with the rest of our team and continue reaching out to youth! 

This past week we were helping put on the kids' program at the National Leaders' Meeting.  All the top YWAM leaders of Australia were there!  Here are some pictures!

 This is Max.  He is from our base in Townsville and he is the cutest thing alive!

 slip'n'slide day! The kids LOVED IT!!

 Even leaders need some fun time!!

 The theme of the week for the kids was the creation story!  Each day we added to our "creation masterpiece".  This morning we spent outside looking for grass, sticks, and flowers!

As you can tell, we had heaps of fun!  The venue was beautiful and the kids were a blast!

Short Outreach Review!

Hello friends!  Long time, no chat!
My team got back from our 3 week mission trip safely!  We did AusLife seminars in Gladstone, Queensland, then part of the team went to Gold Coast, Queensland for a super fun youth trip, and the other part of our team took part in Mission Adventures which went to Palm Island!  Our team consists of 5 girls, 4 guys, and technically 4 leaders but 1 was not with us on this trip because his little baby Judah Booker was born!

AusLife are seminars that are presented in high schools all around the country.  The main focus is God and how He relates to youth issues such as relationships, self esteem, or goals & values. We spent a week in Gladstone, went to 3 high schools and presented to 5 different groups! Whew! At the end of each day, the students can anonymously ask questions about anything.  These questions ranged from "Is God real?' to "How can I believe in myself when the one person who is suppose to believe in me doesn't?".  Many students wanted to learn more about Jesus or asked to get in contact with an adult who could help them with other questions and concerns.  Exciting!  Here's a picture of our whole team!

Then 3 team members and I drove 10 hours back to Townsville to lead Mission Adventures!  This is a program for youth 15-17 yrs old.  The group that came was from Melbourne and there were 19 of them!  They spent 4 days on base having fun, learning about God, and how to share their stories.  Then we spent 6 days on Palm Island.  This island is an hour and 45 minute ferry ride northeast and the people are indigenous aboriginals!  During this time, we spoke in the church, played with kids, and served the community!

 Our whole team!

 I gave her a piggy back ride all the way out to where the water was... the tides were crazy!

 It was SO hot! We needed ice cream for our walk home!

 This is Mango! Well, her nickname at least... her name is Martha!  She is so sweet and loving!

Yup, imagine living by this everyday!  God is beautiful!

Now we have 2 weeks of lectures on base.  Then on to our 6-week outreach!  Thanks for all your prayers!



Things to pray for...

On Sunday the 11th, the team and I are headed out at 6 am to start a 3-week long outreach trip.  We will travel 10 hours to Gladstone and put on a week of seminars in local high schools... 3 different schools... 5 different days and age groups.  Yikes!  This seminar focuses on the students' goals and values in their lives and how God can fit into those.  I am a seminar presenter along with Matt, another Texan on my team! Next, the team is splitting up.  One team will lead a week-long camp going to an amusement park, water park, some shopping, learning to surf, and ending the nights with messages of Jesus.  The team that I'm on will participate in a program called Mission Adventures.  We will host students from a high school in Melbourne here on base.  They will spend 4 days in "lectures" learning about God and how to share God with other people.  Then for 6 days we are traveling to a neighboring island called Palm Island.  For this, I'm giving a message on how to share the gospel and I will be a group leader once on Palm Island.  Great responsibilities! 

Whew! Then 1-2 days of rest!  I'm thinking it will be MUCH needed!  Here are some things you can pray for:

• team unity
• swift conflict resolution between team members
• intimacy with God- that we will individually seek God even in the midst of the craziness!
• safe travel/health/physical and emotional rest
• Auslife-
• that Matt and I can memorize our scripts
• program goes off without a hitch
• the students are open and ask questions about God
• Mission Adventures-
• students are open to learn
• students are open to serve
• opportunities to invest in the students lives
• opportunities to learn from the natives on Palm Island
• wisdom, guidance, patience as I lead a group on the island
• we can share God with Palm Island
• safe travel, good health
• opportunities to talk with and serve the people who have opened their homes for us to lodge at

Thank you everyone!  Talk to you in 3 weeks!

"sooo worth it!"

Mark Parker was our guest speaker.  Great man from New Zealand!  He spoke on Lordship and God being King and Lord over our lives.  TONS of information!  This post won't be exhaustive on what he taught... please ask questions if you have any!  He focused on the Old Testament tabernacle and how now that we are New Testament Christians, WE are the tabernacle.  At the end of every week,  we have what's called "ministry time".  It's a time to respond to the topic of the week and take action with what we've learned.  Some weeks ministry time lasts until lunch, some dinner... this week we finished at 10:45pm!  A whole stinkin' day of loving and praising the Lord, offering our lives to Him, praying, encouraging each other, making commitments to full-time ministry, and seeking His truth!  Sooo worth it!  We started out asking ourselves what we wanted out of this day, then the Pacific DTS team performed an island dance for us.  We worshipped next, then everyone shared something they were thankful to God for.  More praising God! Afterwards we gave an offering to God... something we were giving to Him that meant a lot to us to show how much we are committed to Him.  Next was confessing any sins... leaving all shame and guilt at the cross.  Through all this, we are growing closer as a team which is great before our 9 weeks of outreach!  A lot of special bonds were formed on this camping trip!  I love it!  more worship, a time of prayer over each other, lots of encouraging words and pictures given over people.  Lastly, having communion as one huge happy family!

One thing I've been struggling with is hearing God's voice.  I didn't really know what that meant before I came to YWAM.  At the beginning, I didn't know if God was speaking to me or if I was only making things up in my head.  After this camping trip, I know for sure that God speaks to me.  Through visions during worship, dreams at night, or through words for individuals... I can hear Him!  God is awesome!!

More pictures! These are not all from camping.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 1 Corinthians 10:15

We held an auction to raise money for Sophie... these guys paid $60-something to throw a pie at her face!

This is Violet and I eating a delicious and fresh loaf of bread.  One of our friends on staff gets loads of bread delivered to their house for free every Friday! Yumm!

This is Hajeong (Ha-Jong)!  She is from South Korea!  This is us at the creek behind our campsite at Hidden Valley.

Breakfast time around the fire! 

Camping at Hidden Valley

We only had to travel 2 hours away from Townsville to reach our campsite out in the Australian outback.  The road up the mountain was insanely twisty and I got nauseous on the way up and the way down.  Here are some pictures!

This is only a teeny tiny fraction of stuff we brought with us.  We had 2 fridges, 1 freezer, 2 huge grills, a generator, enough food to last 30 people for 14 days, sound equipment, plus all our camping gear.  It took 3 trailors and a truck to bring all our stuff back... crazy!

Not such a great view out the van window.  I was too sick to look out the window so Johnny was my photographer.  Plus with the road being so twisty, you couldn't keep a great view for too long.

 The lecture/hang out area is on the left.  Kitchen is on the right behind the big blue tent.  The tent is for Levi and his toys... to meet Levi, scroll down to the next picture!

 This is Levi Booker!  He is the son of one of our leaders, Ryan.  His wife is the beautiful Adriel.  Levi is 18 months old and he loves spaghetti... so much so he saves it on his face for later!  Later in the week, Levi coordinated and led a sweet dance party for us!

 Picture of the campground from our cross that we put up.  Tents are on the right, Big shed on the left.

People have recorded previous flood heights (from hurricanes) on this door.  Cyclone Yasi hit Townsville in Feb. 2011.  It was massive and not many people actually thought it would come.  (Due to surrounding islands and the coral reef (they call it the Great BARRIER Reef for a reason), most hurricanes fade out before hitting land.)  The mark above the door is from this hurricane... about 7-8 feet above the ground.

Next post will be more in depth about what God spoke to me in these 10 days.  I didn't want to make a super long post and bore you guys!

Geography lesson!

Now, in America I know that geography is taught in almost every grade level.  I also know that the South Pacific region is not really emphasized... we all know where Australia is because we're taught the 7 continents but nothing else.  How many children know where Indonesia is? How about Papua New Guinea? Solomon Islands? Tonga?  Yup, that's right.  I couldn't locate any of those places 6 weeks ago.  The South Pacific region spans roughly 3 million square miles, has a population of 35 million, and has 28 official languages! 

How many of these islands have heard the gospel?  Who will go and bring the Kingdom to these places?  It could be you!  Whether that's you physically going or maybe you supporting a missionary in prayer or money... everyone is commanded to fulfill the Great Commission!  God has been filling my heart with ABUNDANT love for the South Pacific!  Funny thing is that when you pray for people, you start to fall in love with them! 

Each of these islands have a rich history and culture!  Last week, a few of us went to the Culture Fest here in Townsville.  There were traditional dances and songs performed... lots of great food of course!!

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I (Jesus) came that they may have life and have it abundantly."  John 10:10

5 week recap!

The main chunk of lessons are done!  We will be going camping starting next week too! (August 24- Sep. 5)  This is the start of transitioning to our outreach phase where we will be on the road going to a different location every week!  We will be traveling from Northeastern Queensland- Townsville, Australia- to NewCastle in southeast New South Wales.  That’s 1,948 kilometers or 1,210.5 miles!

 

 Here’s a recap of what I’ve been learning the past 5 weeks!

 Hearing God’s Voice:  this was only for a couple days… wished it had been longer!  God loves to communicate with us!  Who knew?!  And He uses all of our senses to get our attention!  God doesn’t talk to us all the same either… He knows some of us are better with pictures, or words, or Scripture verses.  We have to be in tune with his medium of talking, ask Him to communicate more, and LISTEN to every small thing!

 Clear Conscience:  this week was about knowing what you believe in, knowing your convictions, and knowing WHY you stand for them.  We want lasting fruit that multiplies which means we need to know the rules of God’s game.  We need to minister and love people in a way that is unique to them.  Again, no one fits the cookie cutter mold!  I also learned not to make absolutes out of amoral issues (ex: tattoos, smoking, certain styles of dress). 

 Identity:  “God is about diversity not conformity!”  That statement brings me so much freedom!  This week I really realized that I was defining myself by everyone else’s words and standards.  Satan knows God’s children are valuable and he seeks to plant counterfeit ideas that give us a false identity.  Huge revelation and breakthrough this week! 

 Father Heart of God:  Having an intimate relationship with God will give us confidence to MOVE FORWARD!  Even with God, we cannot evade pain and fear.  God is personal, He loves me, I am his beautiful princess!

 Relationships:  This week we learned about relationship with God and other people.  We looked at what love looks like, what having a growing and flourishing friendship with God looks like, and how pride affects all relationships. 

heaps & stacks & loads!

There's some Aussie lingo for you! Instead of saying "a lot" they say heaps, loads, or stacks... sometimes a couple in 1 sentence.  crazy Aussies.

Last week our lecture topic was the Father heart of God.  The main theme was understanding that God is personal and He loves us as a father loves his children.  Of course God is awesome and perfect so that makes His love for us awesome and perfect!  We also talked about pride and how that could affect our relationship with our Father.

Last week was Keevy's (staff member) and Abby's (fellow DTS-er) birthday!  I helped Krystal and Sophie make a movie for Keevy.  We were searching all over Townsville to "find" her.  No one's ever made anything that special for me... I felt special just helping with the video!  It was a huge hit!  There were tears, laughter... tears from laughter!

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to the beach to watch one of our crew (YouthStreet student) get baptized!  A year ago she did not believe in God. Now, she's a beautifully redeemed young lady that exemplifies great character! 

This week in lectures we are talking about relationships.  God and man, man and man, & man and self.  "Every problem is a relationship problem"- Dean Sherman.  "The keys to relationships are love and holiness" -Adriel (our current speaker & beautiful wife of our DTS leader).  This should be a great week!

Billabong Sanctuary

This past Sunday we went to a zoo of sorts... some animals were caged, the kangaroos weren't!  It was so amazing!  The kangaroos were just walking around freely and you could pet them or feed them!  We also had a private tour guide to show us around and teach us facts about the animals!  Here are some pictures!!

Pictures of Friends... part 1!

These are a few pictures of everyone here in Townsville, Australia!  More to come... ENJOY!!

Above- game night one of the 1st days here... (left to right) Jess, Krystal, Hannah

Above- Katie Fisher!

Above- Hannah, Violet, Felicity... these girls are on my DTS with me!

Above- Cherie!

Above- Holly (the best interpretive dancer ever), Katie, & I at YouthStreet!

Above- Amanda, Sophie

Mena, Brenden, & Greg (DTS leaders) grilling some awesome tasting food!

G'day mates!

Ha! just kidding! I haven't said that yet... I will stick to my Texan roots! Australian accents are hard to pick up anyway.

For Saturday's YouthStreet teams (2:30p-5:30p), I am on the art team. I am not creative... which means I contribute next to nothing to the administrative/planning part. But I do get to hang out and chat with the kids which is all I want to do anyway! 180 Hour is 6:30p-7:30p. This is worship time, a short bible message, and any announcements. Then after that until 10p, the kids have free time to do whatever. There are big group games to participate in or some kids bring their instruments and amps and play rock music ALL night. :) Each of us also have another youth activity that we work on during the week. Mine is AusLife. It's a school program that runs a full day in each high school. It's a day full of games, small group chats, and messages on goals, values, self-esteem, etc and we challenge the kids on how God works in to all of that. that may have been a bad explanation!

The other night, we went to our leader's house to have waffles and ice cream. ya'll should try it... delicious!! It was a great time to chat and bond with everyone! Houses here are slightly different. No bricks, no decorative architecture really. houses are pretty square/box-y. there is usually 1 house on the bottom level and another seperate house on the 2nd floor. many families rent out whichever one they are not living in. the insides are significantly smaller too. Americans like very spacious homes... here they are just the necessities.

Thursday we started lectures. Joanne spoke on hearing God's voice. It's really great that we get to go through these lectures and learn together as a group because we have the opportunity to be open with each other and be encouraging.

I've had a few good 1 on 1 chats with a couple people here. That's where the magic happens! Finding out what makes each person ticks is what ministry is all about. You can't have only one way to reach out to people. Everyone learns and relates different. For some (such as youth), its best to physically do something with them- dance, sports, craft programs. Others its just sitting and talking... long story short, I love chatting 1 on 1 with people to learn about their lives.

Another different thing here is that no one uses dryers to dry their clothes. It's always so warm and sunny in this region of the Pacific that its normal to hang all your clothes on the clothes line! Weird at first because this means undies, socks, ALL the unmentionables! haha! but you get over it quick if you want clean, dry undergarments!

Our first, full YouthStreet was yesterday (Saturday). My team (Art) cooked the meal for everyone. Then I spent a few different moments with 1 girl because she always seemed to be sitting alone. She is an amazing artist! At 8:30p, I started working the gate to sign out kids. The temperature decided to drop about 10 degrees to maybe 55*-60*. Krystal and I had to snuggle up close to each other for heat! She had shorts on, I had no jacket... we were a perfect pair!

If I'm not satisfying all your curiosities about me being here, feel free to ask any questions!

Orientation

This will be another post without pics or video... sorry to disappoint! :)

So I can't remember if I've told ya'll about the open windows in the shower stalls yet. They are pretty great... until you're showering when the sun isn't out, then its cold lol. It's winter time here though so maybe in the warmer months it will get better! Still love the fact that it's like taking a shower outside! Every window and door is open during the day and we eat lunch and dinner outside on the big patio... I already know that I'll miss being outside so much when I go home.

On Sunday, there are 2 different churches that rent out the YWAM auditorium and hold services. I went to both just to check them out. The morning service was great and I think I'll be going to that church every Sunday! I was sort of worried about not going to a church here and being under a preacher/pastor. Although I am surrounded by prayer, worship music, and the Bible here... it's always good to sit under good gospel-centered preaching with a body of believers. That night we had a base bbq. It was more of a meet & greet for us students and the staff. I also tried kangaroo. It tastes like a wild meat. People said it tasted sort of like deer. It was good! Felicity, Sophie, and I (ya'll will see them in videos later) went to the mall here. It's like American malls but it has a grocery store, meat markets, Target, & their version of Walmart connected to it (as well as clothing, shoes, jewelry stores). Minimum wage here is $15... which means everything costs more here. Bedsheets are $40-$60, clothes average around $40- many hundreds of dollars, juice and milk $10. And the big kicker... mascara is $15-20!!!! It's crazy!

Today (Tuesday) is our 2nd day of orientation. We've been going over standards and expectations. We talked about specific things relating to working with minors. Tonight we'll talk about our specific youth teams, our duties, and where we'll be serving... woohoo! can't wait!

I promise pics and video soon!

1st post from Aussie land!

I don't think anyone can be prepared for the travel here. It was a full 26 hours of being in airports, flying, layovers, etc. Then add the 16 hour time difference. But we flew at night so sleeping wasnt hard & got here in the morning (a day ahead though) so jet lag hasn't been a big deal. The flight back to the States will be a WAY different story. Anyway, got to Townsville around 1:30 pm on Saturday which would be 10:30 pm Friday for you guys. There are 10 people in my DTS (Discipleship Training School) and 10-11 people in another DTS that will be island hopping essentially around the Pacific. They will be doing different lectures and things than us but we do everything else together. Yesterday YouthStreet was going on 2p-10p so there were tons of teenagers around. From 2-5, they have groups such as dance, music, drama. So its just something focused for them to work on. Every so often they perform for the whole place... which was last night! The music group sang from Les Miserables, then there was lots of random acts lol.

We live in flats (apartments) right behind the main base. There are 2 rooms each with 5 girls. 2 showers, 1 toilet... hasn't been a problem yet! :) The showers each have a window... I feel like I'm taking a shower out in the jungle or something. The doors and windows are always open here... which it feels amazing no matter what time of day it is. Bugs haven't been a big problem either. They have these little ants but they're so small you can barely see them! Anyway, I'll post video soon so you can actually see all this!

Orientation is this afternoon so I'll know more soon!

Leaving Lubbock...

Hello everyone!

I left Lubbock on July 2nd and it was a very sad day. I definitely cried while driving to DFW. Most people leave a place because of something negative… I left Lubbock even though everything was going great! Great church, great job, awesome friends and coworkers. I’m learning a lot about the actual act of following Christ. His apostles and followers had to drop everything… their family, friends, maybe even a profitable job… all to live a nomadic, homeless, & humble life. That day I drove to my nursing school friend, Holly’s house in Sachse, TX. We met with another nsg school friend, Shannon and caught up on life!

On Sunday, I drove to Ft. Worth to visit my former youth pastor’s church, CityView. They are always gospel-centered and Kingdom-focused! Great message from Romans! Sunday and Monday I spent at their home. There’s never a dull moment with 4 kids under the age of 10!

Monday evening I ventured to McKinney, TX to visit 2 friends from my high school days. Drew and I have been friends since we were about 15. Shelley and I have been friends since we were 18 and 19. They finally decided to get married (well, Drew FINALLY popped the question I should say) and they were hitched this past March. Anyway, Shelley insisted, and I mean insisted, that I try In-N-Out burgers. It was really good!

Tuesday, I drove to Lafayette, Louisiana. Once in LA, it rained about half of my drive. I drove through more rain in 2 hours than I’ve seen in 6 months in Lubbock. And it’s rained every day since then. Mother Nature is pretty unpredictable! Once here, I realized that I have no place to call my own. That’s another thing I’m learning… following Christ means literally living like Him… like having no home. The call to serve is more important than the “American dream”. So since then, I’ve been hanging out with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece. Nothing interesting.

I leave for Australia on Thursday! That’s just 5 days!

Australia!

As most of you know, I will be going to Townsville, Australia July 17- Dec 9. I'll be working with the local people and mainly the youth of the city. Every Saturday will be a youth "hang out" day ending with corporate worship in the evening.

If you want to send me mail while I'm gone, here's how:

Allison Meaux
C/O YWAM Reef to Outback
PO Box 6221
Townsville, QLD 4810
Australia

Label packages as "gift" on the customs declaration card

Please check www.aqis.gov.au/ "What can't I mail to Australia?" for restrictions! If the package contains FOOD, please please check the above website also... it will save you time & money! And I'll be sure to get whatever yummy treats you're sending me!!

If you would like to donate financially to make this mission trip happen, here's how!

1) send me a check... my address is 6112 B 79th St., Lubbock, TX 79424
2) you can route my account directly... send me an email for that information... allie.meaux@gmail.com
3) go to www.ywamrto.com/payment/Webform-new.php this is the organization's website & any money donated goes to my account... payment type is "student", I am in the "DTS", and then include my full name in the recipient box

If you want ME to send YOU sweet postcards & letters from Aussie... email or txt me your address!

you guys are awesome! Thanks so much!