I'm so sorry for the lengthy hiatus from blog posting.. it has been daunting since there has been so much happening and even thinking about tackling it all makes me shy away. But, here I am, attempting to cover the past couple of months, bear with me :)
For three weeks, we participated in the "Go Pass It On Tour" in a different town each week: Beaudesert, Boonah, and finally Warrick. The Brisbane base director Dave Neibling has had a vision growing over the past few years of a tour that spreads across the western world, "passing on knowledge and wisdom to the next generation". What this means, in a nutshell, is that they put teams together to literally run from town to town across the western world. For us, we had the 9,10, and 11th town track, so we were split up and assigned for a day on the weekend where we would run baton-style 4K each. What this looked like was all of us on the bus wearing our matching runner shirts, dropping off one person to start off the journey, driving 4K, waiting there in the bus for that person to arrive, who then passed the baton off to the next person stationed at the finish line; this continuing for the whole day until we victoriously arrived in our destinational town. It sounds crazy, because it definitely is. But it was incredible, as I ran it was amazing when I took a look around at the beautiful scenery and seeing God so clearly through his creation; praying over the land as I ran through it... taking it over by declaring it God's land. I consider it a privilege to have participated in that. Overall, each week's skeleton looked pretty much the same, but each week didn't get monotonous because God's heartbeat for each town was different, so that was amazing also. Throughout the week, we had a giant tent that we set up every week which held different events each night to involve the community. During the day, we worked in our outreach teams doing different service projects around the community and also religious educational classes in schools throughout the area. Because the mentality of the tour is to serve the communities, we went in with a servant heart and honestly it was the most exhausting three weeks of my life, but also one of the most rewarding times also. The tour will be going through the rest of Australia and eventually into the Norwegian area of Europe and then finally to the United States and Canada; it's a huge project but so necessary and exciting to see such a large-scale sweep of God's hand across the western globe!
As for the weeks following, we had lectures again and that was also an incredible time; I'm still learning so much and growing immensely. In the weeks before Christmas break, we had lectures on Spiritual Warfare, Relationships and Lordship. They were all amazing in each of their own ways and the biggest thing I've taken from lectures is how the world makes more and more sense as it's being taught in a Kingdom perspective; I'm learning how it's all practical and life changing.
Over Christmas Break, I am the luckiest girl around because I got the amazing pleasure of seeing my FAMILY! On the last day of Lordship week, I rushed to the airport and headed onto a flight to Sydney to meet my wonderful momma, papa, and sister there. We spent those four days together there and it was so amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better time. The day after Christmas, we all flew together to Brisbane, so I got a chance to show them around the base and let them into what my life has been like for the past few months. Then, a few days before New Year's, half of our DTS went to Airlie Beach, and the other half went to Byron Bay (which was where I went), and my family also drove down to Byron for the day to spend time there and enjoy the amazing beach city with us.
BYRON BAY! Seriously that will go down as one of the best weeks of my life! To give a brief description of the town, it's a small super laid back beach town with incredible beaches and incredible people. It's a huge backpacker/hippie hub and especially around this time of year, the influx of people grows quite a bit, so there are people from all over the world with all different kinds of views and beliefs, a lot of New Age beliefs and yeah basically people from all walks of life coming together. So I had many great conversations because most everyone is so open to listen and share; seeking something deeper in life. Our days there were very relaxed, but it taught me to be active and intentional with my time and coaxed me into living a life that revolves around keeping my ears open for God's voice and for who he wants to talk to and who he wants me to reach out to in each moment. What we were actually participating in at Byron Bay is called Impact Summer, which they put on every year and there are different bases who come together in that one location, so this year we were together with a base from New Zealand, one from Tasmania, and the other from Byron. In the mornings, we would have worship and a big meeting toghether, then have lunch around noon and after that, we headed to the main beach to participate in "Creative Evangelism" which for us meant playing beach volleyball at the ocean and connecting with people; inviting them to play and building relationships with them. For some of the days, I chose to sit up in the grassy area a bit up the hill from the beach and a few of us would take a guitar and keep it open for others to come sit down with us, which was so cool how easy it was to meet and get to know people by just being open and simply reaching out. In the evenings, we either set up a barbeque in the park or other nights pancakes and chai; paired with a sound system where we'd perform different songs and connect with the people who came to sit down and hang around the area. On New Year's Eve, we went to the main park of the town, where it was PACKED with people because they had a few different carnival rides and vendors and such and we set up a sign that read "Spiritual Blessings" where we had our artists ready to do prophetic art for the people and yeah basically some of us stayed by the sign and people would pass by seeing the sign and immediately wanting a spiritual blessing! They were so excited that it was free and we were so excited that they were so interested! A couple of us would go to each person and get to know them a bit and pray for them and basically ask God what His heart for them was and got to speak life into them. We had incredible conversations and it was awesome because God would tell us things about that person and when we'd share it with them, it would catch their attention and amongst the complete drunkenness and the chaos, they would begin to sober up within minutes just by the presence of God in our area and it was amazing to literally see God touch them and open their hearts and eyes. Right before midnight, we headed down to the beach and worshipped in the new year; thinking about it, it couldn't get more picturesque, and that's because God put it together for us.
So, there's a run down of what the past month or two has been like for me; it has been crazy, but so amazing. In about three weeks we leave for outreach and during that time, we still have lectures each week. Although we still don't graduate until April 12th, it all seems to be going by so quickly, but I can't help but be overwhelmed with thankfulness whenever I think about where I am, who I'm with, and that I have this privilege to focus on God and find Him during this time. I'm learning so much and I think that the reason why this past week in Byron has been so impactful for me is because of a tangible revelation I had during that week: There was a day where I woke up and don't even remember what I was doing, but I felt a shift in my eyes, my perspective and outlook literally changed because I felt my eyes soften. Since then, it's still a choice to see the world with soft eyes and loving eyes, but I've never been more joyful and more hopeful for life and more compassionate for the life of others. I'm not exactly one who has in the past loved to reach out to other people, especially strangers, but once we have the eyes of our Father, it's impossible not to be flooded with hope by seeing them how God sees them. All I want to do is spread this joy and through the passage in Luke 11, which speaks about how we aren't to hide our light under a blanket, it then proceeds to speak of how the lamp is our eyes and I've been able to take that literally. There's a difference in my outlook because I've been allowing Christ's light to shine through my eyes onto others', and I can't tell you what an encouraging response I've gotten just by genuinely caring for others' and living a life of love. It's something I wouldn't trade for the world and I've been able to tangibly see God through these people. What an honor, hey?
Well, if you made it through reading alllll of that, kudos to you and a great big thank you again for being involved in my life. You mean heaps to me and if you have any questions or want to talk more specifically, you can totally email me! buhlface@gmail.com :)
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