Land Down Under Post 3

Life has been crazy lately!! I wasn't expecting there to be homework, or amazing alleys to explore, or the crazy Uber drivers, or beautiful pythons, or the best iced chais there ever was. I love Toowoomba. It is the biggest inland city, yet it still has a small town feel. I'll separate a few of my experiences into sections again for your convenience. :)

Outreach Location!!!

I found out where I am going for outreach last week! I will be headed to East Timor, a little island near the north part of Australia. You may have never heard of it before; I hadn't. It's still very 3rd world, and is partly jungle, partly farmland. It looks beautiful. We're going to be there for 6 weeks, then for the last 2, we will be in Darwin, Australia. Darwin is basically the OUTBACK outback of Australia. It is filled with the aboriginals of Oz and has many problems with drug and alcohol abuse along with homelessness. Both places will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm extremely excited. I'll give more information on both of them when I'm actually there so I don't give any false information. 

Week of Fasting

This past week, a few of my friends and I decided to fast our lunches and fast makeup. It was much harder than I thought it would be. I really wanted to focus on intentionally filling myself with God everyday and loving myself and viewing myself the way God does. Everyday during lunch time, we would go out and do a Bible study on the lawn and discuss our lectures and what God has been telling us. He really spoke to me during this time of fasting. God challenged me with the 1 Corinthians 13 definition of love, but with myself. Do I love myself? Am I patient with myself when I don't get something right away? Do I keep a record of my own wrongs and not forgive myself? Am I kind to myself and with the way I look? I realized that if I want to love my neighbor as I love myself, then I should love myself the right way first. I also got breakthrough in my relationships. I feel completely released from any ties that have held onto me from past friendships, relationships, and family members. It was so incredible, and I'm pretty jacked about my first experience with fasting. 

Unexpected Calling

I have always believed that one day I would be a lawyer... I've literally planned on it for 7 years. But lately God has just put on my heart that I don't have a "fighter's" spirit anymore. I just don't like conflict now, for many reasons. So when I came here to YWAM, I was hoping that I would get a miraculous calling on my life that would tell me I'd be a social worker or maybe like a counselor or something. Something steady that I can do 40 hours a week. And, God being God, decided to surprise me with something that would really challenge me. I felt like he was calling me to be a musician... in some shape or form. I didn't tell almost anyone because I was hoping he would take it back, because even though I love music, musician is not necessarily the most steady career. So I was hoping that I had heard wrong, or maybe had gotten the calling to tell someone else to be a musician... but then today during worship I realized that that was not the case. I was worshipping when the school director, Paige, came up and told me that she had a picture for me. It was of me standing on a piece of land, but there was another piece of land that God wanted to bring me to, so I needed to step out and let God take me there. I thought that maybe it had to do with God wanting me to really take music and go for it. But I shook it off and kept worshipping because I was too nervous of what people would think if I tried to do that and I didn't think that I was really talented enough or qualified to go into the music setting. Then my leader came over to me during the next song. She said that God told her to tell me, "You are not disqualified." So after that, I kinda knew what he was trying to say (even though I kinda knew all along...). But I was still not feeling positive that I was interpreting it right, that surely God would give me some sturdy, sound, prosperous, calling. So I just prayed, God, if you want me to do this, to commit to being a musician in some way... have just one more person just come up to me... Ladies and gentlemen! Do not test God! Less than a minute later, one of the people who was literally leading worship came over to me in the audience and just hugged me. And then left. So, thanks God, for making it loud and clear for me, even when I'm ridiculous and stubborn. I think I might be making an album when I get home or something, so be on the lookout! I'm working on my songwriting... Here we go!