1 Month?! No way!

I cannot believe I've already been in Australia a month now!

I've been in Melbourne a week now with the team and we've just been exploring different ministries to get ideas of stuff that we can start in Adelaide. We've done soup runs for the homeless, after school care programs for kids (most refugees), helping out on the ywam base (I've been able to lead worship several times here on base), helping with a local church and their healing services, and checking out a church plant. I'm really excited to get back to Adelaide and start scheming up how we can apply some of the stuff we've seen where we live.

Being on another base has brought a lot of contrast to Adelaide and made me see things I love and appreciate about my base and it's made it feel a lot more like home. I've only been here in Melbourne a week and I already miss Adelaide and am ready to be back. I feel like God is slowly giving those feelings I talked about missing in my last blog post; the more I press on to not be ruled by emotions but rather by truth, the more the feelings come. Even here in Melbourne, there have been so many confirmations that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. I really feel like He's just got so much up His sleeve and He's just enjoying surprising me. When you really think about it, we don't enjoy a gift as much if we already know what's under the wrapping paper.

A lot of my ministry right now is just filling in and serving where there is a need. In November there will be a kind of meeting for staff where all of us will come together and there will be the assigning of roles on the base. My major role will be with the music ministry that me and some other staff members are starting. When we finish with our outreaches, in 2 months, it will be practice, practice, practice. So like I said, until all of that I'm just doing whatever I can.

I was so ready to hit the ground running after being home in the States with not much to do, but God has made me walk at a different pace. It was frustrating at first; I was definitely feeling the weight of it, as you read from my last post, but if it wasn't for God making me slow down, I really think I'd be blind to so much right now. A Scripture the Lord gave me this morning was Psalm 123 and it just talks about looking to the Lord as a servant looks to the hand of his master. And when I thought about why a servant would be looking to his master's hand I figured that it is because the servant is waiting for his master's signal, his motion, his gesture, his direction for what to do; and this is how we are to look to the Lord.

1 month in. Do I miss my family? Of course. Do I regret my decision to come here? No, but sometimes I get that outsiders perspective and wonder how I got here and why. Am I confident that I'm where He wants me? Absolutely!

Funny story that has nothing to do with anything I've been talking about: On our way over from Adelaide to Melbourne we stopped at McDonalds and they had this breakfast sandwich thing called a "brekkie" so I ordered that but I asked for just the sandwich. The lady responds, "So you want just the roll." "Noooo" I reply, "I want the sandwich." "Yeah so you want the roll." "No" I tell her, starting to get frustrated, "I want everything that comes on the sandwich not just the roll!" Finally she gave up and just placed my order. I swear I'm not too sure Australians and I speak the same language sometimes.

Now that we got that out of the way..lol...Thanks family for all your support, encouragement and prayers!!!!!! Talk to you again soon!