It's been much too long...

Hey everyone!! Sorry it has been so long- things have been super busy, as always!
We finally moved into the new base, and we actually all get to eat together now! Before, we ate in these little groups called clusters at different people's houses, but now we eat in a big, beautiful dining hall. It's almost like being at summer camp, and I love itt!
Our cafe opened up on Monday night, so now we can get thickshakes (milkshakes), coffee, tea, and snacks right on base. We had an open mic night on Monday. There are a lot of good singers here!
This week, the topic is evangelism and the speaker is Paul Childers from the Kona base. He's a very good speaker- very passionate about spreading the good news! This is good, because it's something I am not very good at and would like to improve at. I guess it's mostly just about having faith and trusting that God will come through for you if you actually step out and obey him in telling someone about him.
The weeks seem to be speeding by more and more quickly. It's only about four weeks until I will be in the Philippines on outreach! I'm quite excited. Our team is really small. There are seven of us in total: Elena from Switzerland, Zury from Mexico, Nathan from Australia, Tiare from Canada, Tirza from Indonesia, Hannah from Australia, and of course me. Hannah and Tirza are our leaders.
We have also been having a lot of fun times! A couple of weeks ago, a group of us went out to Heirison Island to pet some tame kangaroos. Then, we home and made kangaroo steaks and hamburgers. It was actually really delicious! We had a baptism last Sunday (which I missed because a friend and I fell behind the group and got lost on the beach. We walked all the way to one end of the beach before finally realizing that they must be on the other end.) and then a few of us decided to walk up to this place called Fremantle. They have really good fish and chips there, and the place kind of reminds me of Courtenay. Unfortunately, we also got lost on the way there and ended up in a maze of shipping yards.
I spent this weekend doing homework mostly. I had a book report to finish, and also a journal which we do weekly. It was actually a pretty nice weekend though- we had a girls' night on Sunday with a movie, ice cream, and Timtams.
Love you all!

Camping Trip/Week Four

It's been a really good week, although the internet has been down a lot. We are moving into our new base soon though, so I should be able to get on more often!

Before I start talking about this week, I guess I should say something of last week... It was Repentance and Forgiveness week, which was really hard but really good. It was all about turning from sin and to God. We prayed about what God wanted us to repent of, and then on Friday, we spent all day repenting together. One of us went up at a time and just talked to God about it and left it at his feet. At first I didn't feel any different- in fact, I didn't feel anything so I started to kind of stress out a bit. I mean, some people are so emotional and so I kind of felt like there was something wrong with me since I didn't- that it wasn't meaningful or something. But I know that no matter how I feel, the truth is that I repented of that sin and God forgave me of it. It's more about making the choice, not about how you feel after. Now that I've realized that, I do feel like a lot of fear and shame has been lifted from me. I'm still processing a lot though- repentance and forgiveness is a lifestyle, not just a one day thing.

This week was all about worship and intercession, which was also really cool. It is kind of neat to realize that your prayers are actually effective- since God is a relational God, he wants to involve us in his decisions and in what he is doing on Earth. One way we can do that is to intercede for people- to pray for them! As for worship, it is a choice to honour God in everything you do. I am also still processing this stuff, so if anything isn't super clear, I hope you'll forgive me!

We left to go camping at around 11:30 AM on Friday. The place we went camping (somewhere south of Perth) was almost like Vancouver Island (but not quite). There were lots of trees and there was a river... the weather was kind of similar as well (it was pretty chilly- under 30 all weekend! I think I'm going to be really cold in London... I feel like I'm sort of acclimatizing to Perth weather). Anyways, on Saturday, the staff brought canoe/kayak-like boats in and we got to paddle down the river as far as we could. We had a relay race in the afternoon, which involved running with someone else on your back; eating Oreos, peanut butter, and Vegemite; swimming; canoeing; and eating the baton (a cucumber). I did the last stretch of canoeing and the eating of the cucumber with three other team members. We almost won- we were like 10 seconds away! Our team name was the Brave Watermelons, and I feel we had a pretty genius cheer.

I slept under the stars that night, though I was feeling a little sick so I kind of went to sleep before I could admire the stars much. Still, despite the cold and hard ground, it was really nice!

I've been learning a lot about doing things full-heartedly lately. I guess it's sort of something God has been speaking to me, and it is something I have troubles with. But I have decided not to allow fear or insecurity hold me back anymore- I want to fully trust God and be fully involved in this DTS.

Love you all, and hopefully I will write again soon!