I am finally meeting people here that I have been Facebook friends with for several years. I feel like I need to pinch each person, including myself, to be sure that this is really happening! I'm jet lagged a bit, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
Here are some highlights of what I have been up to upon my arrival...
On Saturday, we had dinner and joined in with a program that YWAM runs on Saturdays, called Youth Street. It was a blast! Met a lot of teens (which we call "crew"), and had fun getting to know them, fellow DTS Students, and Staffers here. The youth had a program including a vocal performance, games, relationship talk, and a closing band that performed a Mumford and Sons song. People were singing dancing and having a blast!
Here's a picture...
On Sunday, there is a church that rents out the YWAM property to hold their services. I joined in on their worship service, followed by our official welcome cookout that afternoon. The food here has been delicious! We had kebabs (chicken, and kangaroo). The kangaroo kebabs were tasty! I think it tasted like beef. For dessert, we had Tim Tam Slams.
So what is a Tim Tam Slam, you might ask?
A Tim Tam is basically a chocolate cookie covered in more chocolate. (Cookies are called biscuits here.) So you bite a corner off of the top and bottom of a Tim Tam, place it in your mouth, then dip it into hot chocolate. The goal is to suck the hot chocolate into the biscuit until it's about ready to melt apart, then you quickly tip it back into your mouth and eat the whole biscuit. It's delicious (like everything else I've had so far.)
Here's a pic...
The ladies in our Pacific DTS decided to also wear their Lava lavas (skirts) to our first cookout. We also got beautiful necklaces and wore those too.
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| Left to Right: Ana, Grace, Hajeong, Myself, and Eunice |
Altogether there are 9 students and 4 staff in my DTS, representing Korea, New Zealand, America, Figi, Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, so we are a really diverse group. But it's been really neat in these first few days to hear more about the work we will be doing on our outreach. For years, our leaders have had a passion for the islands and helping the islanders find restoration and redemption in their cultures, and to once again walk freely in the culture that God has given them. There is a lot of turmoil and pain from what some of these nations and people groups have gone through. It's been so touching to hear what my friends' people have gone through, and we all have an overwhelming sense that God will be using our group in very specific ways for outreach. Please keep us in prayer as we seek out how to go about that in the future, as this is actually a Pioneer DTS for this specific focus.
Our school really feels like family already, and we have been told that as a group, we have a lot of joy to offer and share. If you know me, you know I laugh a lot and I laugh loudly...WELL...so do the rest of my DTS. haha! It's quite fun to just enjoy each other's company and to just be silly together.
Worship here has been so inspiring, because everyone just does whatever they feel led to do. There is an openness and freedom and I get chills, cry, and laugh with joy all at some point during each worship session.
I just have this overwhelming peace that I am finally here (6 years later), and God has never been more on time than ever. I'm reminded that sometimes God changes things because he has his best for us. As I see things unfold here at Reef to Outback, I continue to find so many small and large ways that God is showing me that this time and place was in his plans all along. 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus!
I have a lot more to share, but the rest will have to wait for a later time.
Thanks so much for all of the prayers and encouragement. It has meant so much to me. If you can pray for my finances, or feel led to give, I still have quite a large amount of fundraising to do. I believe and trust that God will be faithful throughout this entire experience.
G'day!
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