praying Mantis, reindeer and not a lot else...

Christmas is coming!
This means that everything I am excited for is yet to be done.
there's an ugly sweater contest, a Christmas party for the base, AND... I'm going camping on some remote island with a bunch of friends for Christmas holidays!
Beach to bush is on their way to Saipan, Guam, India and some other place I don't remember for Outreach phase, so the base is crazy with prep and cleaning lately.
One of the girls from MAD is also going home... Prayers for safety are on my mind.
As for me, I still love it here, but often try to dissapear into the Cafe for the sole reason of Air conditioning.
Yesterday I was in Brisbane city and saw live Reindeer, and I caught a praying mantis who then refused to get off my arm. What else? uhm... Lectures are about relationships and then we had conflict management . It was good, and kinda funny to realise that we, as the human race, are immature. you don't see animals holding grudges or trying to get revenge!
And then art focus afternoons. wow. Kalli, the teacher is amazing at gauging what I can handle, and brings me to just before that. Live model large scale drawing, live model painting, surreal story art, (both also large scale, she loves challenging me) it's amazing. I didn't know how powerful art could be!
yeah, so not much else. sorry guys!

so much!

Authority and submission,Worship and sneaking out of a partially my own party.

      Yep. That’s what I have been up to.

        Cory, my team leader and a man who has earned my respect from both the orangutan dance and his Godly leadership (yes, it’s possible to do both) was teaching on this topic for Friday. Thursday and Wednesday, we had a 24 hour worship session. Not many people get to praise God crazier and more genuinely than an insanely hard partyer. I felt like I should stay for the whole thing, so I did the math and it turns out I went about 50 hours without sleep. And yet, having my heart in that position, I wasn’t tired.  We later on went to the graveyard to watch the sunrise. It’s beautiful!

        Maggie has been matchmaking, and or likening people to movies, and she claims I am Meg from the Disney Hercules, and keeps telling me who my Hercules is.  Uh, no. And don’t worry, there are no red headed British guitarists who make good coffee here, so you have no chance to tease me with that either. XD

   The past few days I have been doing a lot of learning. I got history lessons from the Norwegians, Colombians and Aussies, and I was taught how to shoot hoops (mostly laughed at but that's OK.)  The next thing that happened is the December Pyjama birthday party! There's at least 7 of us born this month.  In this time I realised that large amounts of unwanted/ unexpected touch scares me. Yeah, slumber party games. In said game they kicked the players out of the room, decided what we were going to be, brought us back into the room, and then I was immediately bombarded with large amounts of being petted. Turns out they thought I was a fluffy kitten. I… Kinda ended up in the fetal position in the corner. So as soon as that was done, I disappeared to the coffee shop where I chilled with the film guys and talked about sound people and white balance, and which celebs we would date. Unfortunately, at least three people decided to play with my hair. And Ben kept playing with my feet so I decided he wanted to be a footstool. Yeah… this happens. YWAM is also likely the only place where it’s acceptable to Limbo in worship.

I woke up around three today, I couldn’t sleep. so I prayed.  Good news though, Grandpa is out of the worst, and is arranging wheelchair races with the nurses. 

     It turns out I have a spiritual gift. When I draw, I look in the person and often know what they truly are. So I drew myself. I can’t do anyone else’s honestly without knowing myself. My soul and personality is a bit contradicting. I have so much joy it almost drowns out the depression, so many thoughts it almost drowns out the foolishness, so much to say that I’m not saying. A childlikeness, and an ancientness. It’s like quiet and noise are warring in my soul. God and darkness. And yet I have come so far. 

oh, 18.

      It seems as if people want to know if life is different now that I am legal. It isn't. if anything, it's more boring cuz I don't get the thrill of doing something illegal if I have a drink or something. But since I am not a big drinker anyways, nothing has changed except my facebook privacy settings.
Anyways. At that time I was recuperating from my schoolies volunteer week, so on my 18th I did homework, laundry, took a nap, and one of the awesome people here made gluten free cake for me and the girl who shares my birthday! (there always seems to be someone :P ) I also opened part of my package from home. (the one with 106 stamps) It included socks, poppycock, Kraft Dinner, and the most amazing artwork ever done! 'twas made personally for me by the kids I used to look after.
     this week lectures are by our school leader, Hannah. Topic is worship. first she played screamo, which made me happy, because she seems so sweet, but she loves the passion and honesty in it. me too.
then we got talking about thankfulness, passion, and how God's greatest demonstration of love was not comfort, it's pain. he not only came full circle to the tree in the garden, he not only took our pain, but every feeling that resulted from sin, He felt that. all the guilt anyone ever carried, He took that. all the things you or anyone else had or will ever do, he paid for that. And since he was all human, there was no getting away from it. But since He was also all God, he loved us enough to keep on. And die.
just think! if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you were thankful for today, what would you have?  I would have a mostly clean Tshirt, my team, a box of KD, and the ability to learn. It made me realise how much we truly take for granted. Including Jesus' death. wow.
        I have been learning so much lately! I have also been doing a lot of praying for you all.
I miss you! feel free to you know... comment or message me. I don't have a lot of time to chat, but I try to write back. and if you come to the Cafe it may one day be possible for me to make you a shake!