Sooo last night I took a friend that I recently meettk church and they loved it. They are both so curious and they ask so many amazing questions it’s so cool even though sometimes I realize that I have no clue about anything ha but I know what I believe is truth because I never feel lonely and know I have purpose to my life, my life’s purpose is this it’s to show others Him and teach them so they can live with Him in eternity. Anyways, so last night they asked for bibles and I got them each one and then this morning the girl texted me and told me she had a wonderful nigh and that she is reading her bible wow God is toooo good.

I’m honestly ashamed of how bad I have been with my blog. Recently got an iPhone so a new goal of mine is to start this back up again because I’ll appreciate it when I’m old.

So, to catch you up I’m about done with my first year and I have decides to stay and do a second year. I know for certain that God has so much more to teach me here before he releases me to do his work elsewhere. Staying is probably the hardest decision because I am goof to provide this year all by myself but I know it’s time to do that. Well thats just a recap but I’ll be posting more.

I am so thankful that God has sent me here this is where I need to be at this point in my life. I am learning much more than just music or the bible but practical everyday lessons that everyone needs to achieve in life. Its amazing the knowledge God is giving Hillsong and how they have chosen to share it with everyone and wish no gain for themselves. Their sole purpose is to get people to grow stronger in who Jesus is and then to bring others to knowing and loving Jesus Christ.

So far what my life here in Australia has consisted of is school and church. At Hillsong we are expected to get involved right when we get here. My classes here are called Personal Evangelism, Worship Band / Music Excellence, New Testament Intro, Christian Doctrine, Teamwork. For each of these classes I have big lectures with all of the 1^st year students and then also at other times through out the week we have smaller tutorial classes where we talk out the lectures. Instead of having homework every class we have assessments. These are do on Mondays at midnight. Each class has different assessments that all have to do with different things. I recently had to do my first assessment and it asked us to tell them exactly what I wanted my life would look like in 5 years. I was to tell them what I wanted to do and then how I was to achieve this. It was amazing cause I have always thought of what I wanted to do but never truly sat down and wrote it out and then write out how to achieve. How easy is it now for me to do what I want to do. I have it all written out in front of me and know exactly how to go achieve it. Its just that I live in the flesh and its hard for us to stick to what we say but being here I have learned that we must discipline ourselves to decide something and the follow through with it. All the assessments have to do with practical aspects of life and in the worship band assessments they make you think about the instrument you use and help you find ways on your own to improve.

My favorite class is Worship Band because we get to play music and learn how to work as a band. For this class we have 2 performances throughout the semester. In band we have 10 singers, so at the first performance we will do 5 songs and 5 of the singers will pick and lead the song and the other singers will be background vocals. The songs we do are all contemporary songs. I get to lead a song in the first performance which is on September 6. The song I chose was Half of My Heart by John Mayer, im so excited for the performance its going to. be awesome.

Also, for school we have to have so many hours serving in church. We have church life and fieldwork. My church life is choir and kids and then my fieldwork is Backpackers. Backpackers is a ministry that meets on Mondays and we go to hostels in Sydney (so far 2 hostels, just started going to a new one) and we put on a free bbq and just hang out with the people staying there. Usually we will also have some live music going. I love going to it every week and it’s a great opportunity to meet so many new people and bring them to knowing the Lord. Also, for church and I have been helping out with lights I learned how to use the lights in sisterhood, which is when all the girls of the church meet together. My favorite part about helping out at church is fuel. This is the youth program grades 7-9. It is so fun and everyone is so crazy. In fuel I help lead an RDG, which is just like a small group. In a few weeks I will be getting my own RDG to lead, which is going to be a great learning experience for me. Pray so hard that I will be able to lead these girls and will be able to help them grow into Christian women. I love that we get to help out so much at church its teaching me so much discipline and will make me want to get sp involved wherever I go back home.

So this is pretty much my week and life here. I have made tons of friends here and when we aren’t at church we are usually watching movies, going downtown or going to THE BEACH. I can’t wait for it to be summer here because I will be at the beach all the time. I also am hopefully going to learn how to surf cause I got so many friends that already know how and want to teach me.

Well thanks for reading and promise I will do better with keeping you updated. :)

So Australia…….

I love it here to start off with, I have made so many friends and have been so busy since i got off the plane. Sydney is beautiful, has the best coffee and everyone is Asian. It is still hard to believe that I am actually here and am actually going to Hillsong. God is so cool, I was so nervous about coming here and did not know what to expect but know that I have been here for only 2 weeks I know this is where I am suppose to be. Over these two weeks I have never once felt lonely or afraid and I just thank God for that.

OK. So here is what I have been doing these past two weeks….

When I first got to Sydney I went straight to the Hillsong conference and went all day and volunteered in JAM, which is the youth part of conference and they go crazy with everything, it was so much fun and am kinda of thinking of helping out for part of my schooling. After conference I moved in with my roommate Joy who is amazing. I am so happy that she is my roommate we get along so well and are the same size, which is always sweet. Downtown Sydney is like a 5 min bus ride or about a 15 minute walk and is pretty much where we go everyday. I have been to the Harbour a few times and it is so cool. Today I went to the Bondi Beach with all the new students and we walked over to a beach called Bronte. All I have to say is that summer here is going to be Awesome, will be spnding everyday at the beach.

Riley has been helping me get everything set up and just get used to everything. He has been such a great help and I am going to miss him. He left this morning for home which is kinda sad but I know thats where he needs to be. I have got everything set up in my flat which is so nice an I dont have to worry about any of that anymore. I love my flat

Now there are some pretty different things in sydney and here is just some that I have learned…

Everyone says cheers or ta. If you do something good they say Good on ya ( but in an australian accent). They roads and cars are different. The toliets are super wierd they like to conserve water so there is a half and a whole flush on every toliet and the toliets are a circle and really deep. The light swtiches are different and are upside down i would say. The phones ringer is different and most message machines that the services give you are hilarious. I love Australian TV, it makes me laugh. OH… are grocery is called Coles and silly me didnt think that the brands of EVERYTHING would be different but they are. Eating out is super expensive nothing is under $10. They only have white cheese here not mexican cheese. There is NO AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FOOD :( the only mexican is like chipotle ( not blue coast either) this is prolly because there are no mexicans but there are Asians and lots of amazing thai places and they are pretty cheap. A baby stroller here is called a pram??? And if you ever come here dont two fingers up ( not like peace but opposite) cause its like flicking someone off here, still dont really believe thats what it means but everyone tells me that. Well I’m sure there is tons I have missed but I’lll post them later. Thanks for the prayers. Love you all

Today I left for Australia. It actually happened its real now. I have been hoping and thinking about this day for about a year and know I’m actually doing it. I can’t express how good it feels to really being doing something that I have wanted to do and know that I am suppose to be doing. Today could have been one of the most stressful and sad days of life but I have been so excited today and have so much peace about everything. I left this afternoon at 3:35. I’m sitting in LAX right now, my flight here was great talked with some cool people and then when I got here everything went smooth. I have only had one problem so far and it was that my bags were too heavy haha how great is that? I have so much peace about this and know with everything that I am on the right path. I can’t wait to get there and start what God has for me. Even though I’m really tired right now and still have a lot of travel to do I am SOOOO excited and thank God so much for giving me this opportunity and helping actually go through with it. I thank you all so much for all the prayers and I can feel all of them because there is no way I would be this at peace unless I had tons of people praying for me, thank you.  

Read More

Soooo, I’m Moving to AUSTRALIA……….

Today it just hit me that I am really movig to Australia, even though at the same time I still feels surreal. I also realized that I’m super excited. I’m really excited because I have a roommate. Riley, who is my friend in Australia if you didnt know, set me and his friend Joy up to be roommates and today I found out that we most likely are roommates. Well I still have so much to do in this next week pray that I do not get stressed. Still can’t believe that I leave in a week. 

less than two weeks away. i cannot believe how fast time can go. it feels like only yesterday that I heard of Hillsong and knew that I wanted to go there. now im about to step on a plane to . part of me feels like it isn’t real but the closer july 5th comes the more i realize that i’m leaving. yesterday i packed the very first part of my bag and that made everything so much more real. i have to say that i am not near as nervous as i was when i left for UT. i think the reason is because i know this is where i am suppose to be and i’m more excited than nervous. i’m sure on the day before i leave i will be super nervous but maybe not. i believe that i am to excited to be nervous. please pray that my flights are safe and that my travel goes smooth. thanks for the prayers and can’t wait to tell you about all the great things i am about to do:)