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!