So what's happened in the last two weeks? (Well I have been in Australia for a month so that's a pretty big deal!)
Well, we did week three of repentance & forgiveness, and it was an emotional up and down for everyone in the class. Friday rolled around,..... application day. We spent 14-15 hours confessing to God, each one of us going up, with our class mates as witnesses, and confessing all the sin in our lives. Then our leaders would pray and minister to us, and help us get to the root of some of the things in our lives that had born the sin that we had repented of. Then after more prayer we'd take time to publicly speak out our forgiveness of those who had hurt us, letting go of the past, and leaving it in God's hands. After all that, we'd go and pray at the foot of the cross (physically, not metaphorically speaking) and then we'd take a nail and put it through the list of everything we had confessed of, and nailed it to the cross. The whole process of each one of us doing that really took courage for each person, and it really made a unity between all of us.
After it all ended, we had a time of worship. When it all ended, half of us went to bed and the other half was tired and starving so we went to get pizza. When we were less than half way there, we met a lady who had just been beaten up pretty badly. We took care of her for about an hour while waiting for the police and ambulance to arrive. It was pretty cool watching people who had only known each other less than three weeks, and who had just spent the last fifteen hours praying and supporting each other. And their first reaction was to work in unity, pray and do what ever they could to be useful in whatever area it was. We got home around 11:30 and realized we still hadn't gotten pizza.
(End of story, lady went to the hospital, the police put a pending file in, but couldn't do anything about it unless the lady went and actually filed it.)
After Friday in week three, everyone started hanging out a lot more and being more open and ready to ask each other to keep them accountable.
Saturday night some of us played cards till 1am (let's just say some of them can't multitask, talking and playing cards is too hard. Also said person doesn't exactly think very clearly late a night and end up throwing the the cards around to end the game, and then realized it was their cards and they had to pick them all up before they could leave.) Sunday night a few of us just tossed around the frisbee and talked about our homes and got a general idea of what each one came from. Tuesday night they had an actual frisbee game. It was slightly ridiculous to watch half the time.
Friday end of week four was application day for worship, it was fantastic! Afterwards we had lunch, a break, and then went out for evangelism. I had dinner + ice cream with my one-on-one partner, and just hung out with her for a while, and then we got ready for Friday night meeting. Everyone didn't leave from the meeting till 10, (get the body of Christ together, in a big building, with food/coffee and they won't leave unless they have to.)
Saturday we rested, packed for the camping trip, and finished up our journals/news letters. We also had an extreme bingo night (first time ever for YWAM Perth). I ended up taking care of a friend who had been pretty badly sunburned, but I'll find out later this morning (it's Sunday) how fun everything was from everyone else I'm sure.
Sunday, heading out this morning, we're all packed and loaded up, ready for three weeks of camping.
-Personal Break Through-
I've always struggled with being loved, accepted, wanted, and feeling alone. Being here away from friends and family, basically no one to drop back on to when I didn't make friends it was even worse. The first day of intercession teaching our teacher said, "We choose God over what our emotions and what they "feel" like, and when we make that choice our feelings will follow." And I wrestled with that for a couple days, before I really realized and admitted to myself that in a way, I was choosing loneliness and being alone over God & displaying Him in my actions. When I realized that, I knew I had to make a choice. So I chose God over the loneliness and I could almost instantly feel the same lightness and joy that I had had after going through repentance and forgiveness.
Thursday night some of us went to get pizza, we got pizza (yay), and on our way back we passed a lady just sitting dejectedly on the foot of the stairs. I was slightly ahead so I watched as my team mates asked if she was okay or needed any help. She said she was fine and just wanted them to leave her alone, after trying a few times we went to finish walking back home. As I tried to leave I knew God was telling me to pray for her, so I handed my stuff to my friends and back tracked to the lady, I asked if I could pray for her but she didn't what prayer, she didn't believe in anything, and she just wanted to be left alone. After I asked a few more times and got the same response I went to leave and in all honestly I just felt a fraction of God's sorrow for her and how he must have felt when we kept spitting in his face. (Me and my team mates ended up praying for her, just a little way away.) It kept making my sad, her refusal, till I realized as much as that opportunity was for that lady, it was for me too. A week ago I wouldn't have realized that was God's voice, I wouldn't have gone up to a complete stranger and talk to them (much less at night, after they had clearly said they didn't want anything), much less asked said stranger if I could pray for them, or even gone into prayer with my team mates for them. Knowing that I could hear God's voice and obey even when it takes me pretty far out of my comfort zone was really amazing for me.
-Praise-
I have all my money for outreach!
That's all for now, thank you so much for your prayers and financial support, y'all will hear from me when I get back from camping, love and miss you guys.
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