After six months of becoming part of each others lives, this dts school has come to an end and all the students have gone home. It was an adventure that only God could have put together and ended with an epic road trip that only God could have orchestrated.
We spent the last three and a half weeks traveling from Perth to an area called the Kimberleys. It was a road trip like I have never done before. Traveling with a convoy of 8 buses, all hauling trailers, with at least 10 people in each van! It took my team 5 days of driving 10-12 hour days to get to the first city that we would be living in. All 8 vans were schedule to go to different aboriginal communities and cities around the Kimberley area. The Kimberley's are comparable in size to California but unlike California this area only has 40,000 people.
The first city that I lived in was an actual city. It had a gas station, grocery store, and a few other things that made it "big city" in standard. (Most other communities we were in didn't have any of this.) We were the first set of teams that ywam perth has sent up to the Kimberleys. We have contacts and had been invited in the communities but we did not know really anybody. So after we arrived, and with my co-leader and I looking at our blank day planners, we prayed and really ask God to open the doors in the area for us. We had a short list of people that we could call and introduce ourselves too. Mainly the pastors of the city. After our first phone call, we had someone stop by to meet us and just welcome us to the neighborhood. He immediately called up all his friends and family and from that point on we were never without anything to do. We lived in the middle of town right across the street from a tourist look out point on a hill. It was amazing to be able to spend every morning at the top of the hill, over looking the city, and praying and worshiping Jesus. We were able to make good mates with the local believers and really hear what God is doing through them in their city and amongst the aboriginal people. We saw God answer our prayer and connect us and open doors to many more teams to be able to come and serve this area.
The next week we were able to travel down to a small community of about 100 people. It was much different than our "big city" experience but was still just as blessed. We were able to really connect with the aboriginal people and became friends with them. Every day we continued to seek God in prayer and worship, and also were able to go to the local school and run youth and kids programs for them in the afternoon. On the last day doing the youth program we were able to do a drama for them and share the gospel. After talking about what knowing Jesus means we saw several young girls give their lives to Jesus! At night the local church let us set up our projector and we were able to show two different DVD's to the community. After one of the videos we were able to be apart of one man in the community giving His life to Jesus! It was a beautiful night!
We lived a bit more rustic in the second community, which wasn't bad but meant camping, no showers, and camp fires every night! The girls found themselves chopping down a tree one day for fire wood and the boys enjoyed building and sustaining our fires every night. It was cold!
On our long travels back home we took a day for holiday! We met back up with the rest of the teams and spent one day in a place called Exmouth. It is a beautiful beach city on a reef called ningaloo. Some of the locals told us that the reef is actually nicer than the great barrier reef. Guess one day I will have to go to compare! We spent a whole day at a place called turquoise bay. With a name like that, I don't have to tell you how beautiful it was! We had amazing weather and snorkeled all day long! I did see lots of amazing fish and one shark! Don't worry it was just a reef shark but it still had me swimming in the opposite direction!
Now I am back at Perth and the students have all moved on to what God has called them into. I couldn't have been more amazed by what God did in every single one of their lives. It was such a privilege to be apart of that school. I will jump back into "base life" now. That will mean helping the base function on a day to day basis. I will join the kitchen to feed the multitudes a few days a week and then I will begin to work with a ministry that will allow me to volunteer in a christian pregnancy help center. This is something that I am extremely excited about it. It is a new relationship that is being built between ywam and this center and lots of opportunity are on the horizon from this new partnership.
Well I will post some pic's below.
ALL my driving! We clocked the total sum of our driving at 7,100 Kilometer! This converts over to 4,411 miles!
So I looked on google map directions and if you were to start in San Francisco and drive straight across the United States you could get all to Indiana and then turn around and drive back. That is how far I drove! Crazy...
The sunsets were so amazing! Every night a different array of colors and clouds. breathtaking!
We were taking one day to kayak by one of the pastors we worked with! Don't worry - only fresh water croc's in this water!
A water fall we were able to hike to one day.
My driving buddy and I !
I learned a lot about camping and took on the title Queen camper!
I found I have a talent for axing...=)
These girls could survive in the outback...
Playing with the youth after school.... I am a terrible Basketball player! haha...
We spent the last three and a half weeks traveling from Perth to an area called the Kimberleys. It was a road trip like I have never done before. Traveling with a convoy of 8 buses, all hauling trailers, with at least 10 people in each van! It took my team 5 days of driving 10-12 hour days to get to the first city that we would be living in. All 8 vans were schedule to go to different aboriginal communities and cities around the Kimberley area. The Kimberley's are comparable in size to California but unlike California this area only has 40,000 people.
The first city that I lived in was an actual city. It had a gas station, grocery store, and a few other things that made it "big city" in standard. (Most other communities we were in didn't have any of this.) We were the first set of teams that ywam perth has sent up to the Kimberleys. We have contacts and had been invited in the communities but we did not know really anybody. So after we arrived, and with my co-leader and I looking at our blank day planners, we prayed and really ask God to open the doors in the area for us. We had a short list of people that we could call and introduce ourselves too. Mainly the pastors of the city. After our first phone call, we had someone stop by to meet us and just welcome us to the neighborhood. He immediately called up all his friends and family and from that point on we were never without anything to do. We lived in the middle of town right across the street from a tourist look out point on a hill. It was amazing to be able to spend every morning at the top of the hill, over looking the city, and praying and worshiping Jesus. We were able to make good mates with the local believers and really hear what God is doing through them in their city and amongst the aboriginal people. We saw God answer our prayer and connect us and open doors to many more teams to be able to come and serve this area.
The next week we were able to travel down to a small community of about 100 people. It was much different than our "big city" experience but was still just as blessed. We were able to really connect with the aboriginal people and became friends with them. Every day we continued to seek God in prayer and worship, and also were able to go to the local school and run youth and kids programs for them in the afternoon. On the last day doing the youth program we were able to do a drama for them and share the gospel. After talking about what knowing Jesus means we saw several young girls give their lives to Jesus! At night the local church let us set up our projector and we were able to show two different DVD's to the community. After one of the videos we were able to be apart of one man in the community giving His life to Jesus! It was a beautiful night!
We lived a bit more rustic in the second community, which wasn't bad but meant camping, no showers, and camp fires every night! The girls found themselves chopping down a tree one day for fire wood and the boys enjoyed building and sustaining our fires every night. It was cold!
On our long travels back home we took a day for holiday! We met back up with the rest of the teams and spent one day in a place called Exmouth. It is a beautiful beach city on a reef called ningaloo. Some of the locals told us that the reef is actually nicer than the great barrier reef. Guess one day I will have to go to compare! We spent a whole day at a place called turquoise bay. With a name like that, I don't have to tell you how beautiful it was! We had amazing weather and snorkeled all day long! I did see lots of amazing fish and one shark! Don't worry it was just a reef shark but it still had me swimming in the opposite direction!
Now I am back at Perth and the students have all moved on to what God has called them into. I couldn't have been more amazed by what God did in every single one of their lives. It was such a privilege to be apart of that school. I will jump back into "base life" now. That will mean helping the base function on a day to day basis. I will join the kitchen to feed the multitudes a few days a week and then I will begin to work with a ministry that will allow me to volunteer in a christian pregnancy help center. This is something that I am extremely excited about it. It is a new relationship that is being built between ywam and this center and lots of opportunity are on the horizon from this new partnership.
Well I will post some pic's below.
ALL my driving! We clocked the total sum of our driving at 7,100 Kilometer! This converts over to 4,411 miles!
So I looked on google map directions and if you were to start in San Francisco and drive straight across the United States you could get all to Indiana and then turn around and drive back. That is how far I drove! Crazy...
how did i miss that you were blogging?!?! i'm so excited.
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