Back to Australia!

After being in the foothills of the Himalayas, hiking 12 km to see the 3rd tallest mountain in the world, visiting about 20 villages, passing out over 2,000 tracks, leading 5 church services, going to almost 20 house meetings and seeing God heal and bring people into His kingdom, we're heading back to Australia. We're patiently waiting for our flight from Singapore to Brisbane to start boarding. We are all very tired and ready to, hopefully, get some rest on the plane. We can't wait to be back and hear the stories of our other teams. I'll post again when I get back to Australia about the outreach a bit more. I have an awesome story to share. Be on the lookout for it. Much Love.

Radical

After spending four days in Salu, an Indian village outside of Darjeeling, I now understand what the word radical means.  I had the opportunity to be a part of the village's church service this past Sunday. And it was amazing! We had the service in a small classroom of a school. We had about 35 people, including our team, squeezed into this small classroom. It was a good bonding time with the village people to say the least. If any of you have read Radical by David Platt, his story about the house church with one lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, no chairs, and no sound system, pretty much summed up this service! For the first time in my life, I saw what raw worship looks like. And it was incredible to be able to join (even though I couldn't understand the words haha). I realized that all the nonsense we try to place in the way, to "help" us get a better worship experience, most of the time actually doesn't do that. It is when we have nothing left, that it is easiest to worship God, not ourselves. 

God also presented me with an opportunity to bless a brother. Sunday afternoon, he asked me to give my guitar to Barnabas, a 21 year old teacher and worship leader in the village. I knew it was God speaking so yesterday evening, I presented Barnabas with a beautiful western guitar. He told me that for 3 years he has been asking God to provide him a quality western guitar to lead worship with and that I was the answer to his prayer! Man what an amazing feeling. It made it so much easier to give it up after hearing that. It was definitely hard but I knew it was Gods plan. 

After showing me what it looked like to be radical, He wanted me to put it into action. And all I want is to be completely obedient to His instructions. God is good. India is amazing. Thank you guys so much for your support and encouragement. Merry Christmas! 

We made it to Darjeeling!

So we're here! We made to Darjeeling yesterday around 2:00 pm. We started in Calcutta. We took an overnight train ride to Siliguri. We left at 10:00 pm and arrived in Siligury at 10:00 am. It was a decent ride. We took a jeep from Siligury up to Darjeeling next. It was about a 3 hour ride but we finally made it. The ride was pretty scary at times but we made it safely. We got to see Mt. Kangchenjunga on the way up to. It's the 3rd tallest mountain in the world! It's pretty awesome! Check out the pic! So far I'm loving if here. It's so different but the people are amazing. And the food is awesome too. Haha I'm excited to see what this week holds. I'm ready to start some ministry. We'll see what God has in store! 

India!

Made it to Calcutta last night around 9 pm. Took a taxi to Hotel Trimoorti. We stayed here last night. It's a very nice hotel. The taxi ride was crazy. The things I saw, heard, and smelled were just so different and shocking. Today we're taking a train up to Siligry (I think that's how you spell it) Well ride through the night and get on a jeep and head to Darjeeling. We should arrive in Darj around 3:00 pm. Keep praying for our team. Much love.

SINGAPORE!

We're in Singapore! Our flight landed about an hour ago. We're relaxing for a few hours in this amazing airport before we leave at 7 for Calcutta! When we land in Calcutta, we'll check into our hotel, stay a night, then get up the next day and hop on a train. We will ride 12 hours north, then hop in a cargo Jeep and head 3 more hours north and arrive in Darjeeling. We're so excited and ready to see God move! Keep praying! I'll keep you guys updated! 

I survived Survivor Week!

Well, I'm back at YWAM Brisbane. We spent a week at Stradbroke Island. It's an island about 30 minutes off the coast of Brisbane. We camped about 100 yards from the beach and had lectures on Spiritual Warfare. Man, were they good! Totally changed my perspective on what I thought was spiritual warfare. As lectures were going on we were in an intense outreach team battle! We began on Tuesday night at 1 am with Mission Impossible. We were timed from one o'clock until we finished a forest/swamp obstacle course! It was increadibly fun! Over the last few days of Staddie (Stradbroke) we played close to 40 survivor (the show) games against outreach teams. They were all team building games and were so fun! We had incredible time! Our team got 1st and so much closer! (I had to add the fact that we won ;) ) we're back at base now getting ready for outreach. Only a few more days until we hop on a plane and head to India! Keep praying for safety and smooth travels! Much love! God is good!

Back in Brisbane... For a day.

Well after 3 weeks on the road, I'm back at YWAM Brisbane for a day. We were in Airlie Beach for two weeks, as I shared before, and in a small town about seven hours inland called Roma. It's definitely a country town. It reminded me a lot of Texas. The town is known for its cattle sales. It hosts the largest cattle sale in the Southern Hemisphere. Pretty impressive. Even though I didn't get to witness the exciting cattle sale, I did get to do some pretty amazing things last week. We stayed at the small Church of Christ in Roma and worked out of the church all week. We did some door to door surveys for the churches in Roma. We asked questions like, "What is the greatest need in this community?" And "How can new churches help grow the community?" We talked to some amazing people and got some very helpful answers. We gave these surveys to the town pastors to use as try continue to bless Roma. We went to some schools and led some Religious Education classes, which was so fun! The kids are always so fascinated that we are from all over the world. It's pretty funny. We taught our class on Joy. And what joy looks like in everyday life. I think the kids got a lot out of it! It was a great day. We led two youth groups on Friday night as well. It went great too! I led worship, which went good. Then we got to pray for the kids, which was a powerful time. Overall, it was a great night! We arrived back yesterday, around noon, and we leave tomorrow morning at 8:00. We're heading to Stratbroke Island. It's off the coast of Brisbane. We'll be having lectures on Spiritual Warfare and roughing it as well. From what I hear it's a pretty memorable week. We'll find out what that means! I'm excited. I won't have my computer or phone all week, so I'll let you guys know how it goes when I return next weekend. Thank you so much for supporting me. I wouldn't be here without everyone supporting me! It's a true blessing. Much love! Oh and by the way, Happy Late Thanksgiving! Haha!