Michelle's YWAM Journey: The latest news..

Wow! I am extremely terrible at blogging. The creative genes must have gone all to my sister, and I don't know how she's so good at keeping up with it. Speaking of my sister, I miss that lady.
I'm just going to tell ya'll a few stories about my past few weeks. And since being here, I've started to say "ya'll" a lot. Going back to my roots, trying to preserve my culture I suppose.

Tasmania was absolutely amazing! I could not believe how beautiful that island was! Florida has nice beaches, but everything around it is flat. In Tasmania, there are mountains all around the beaches, making it so stinkin' pretty! When we told people we were going to Tasmania, we got weird looks, and sarcastic comments like, "have fun" and "why are you going there?" We were a little nervous, thinking that the place would be horrible; however, we were thoroughly surprised when we got there. The people were all SO nice! We stayed at the YWAM base which was located on top a hill- amazing! We drove around the island most of the time, going on "treasure hunts". We would have worship and pray every morning and ask the Holy Spirit what he wants to happen during the day. We would write down what we heard, pack a lunch, hop in the car and drive around the island. It was amazing to see how God showed up and answered our prayers. One girl got "lemur" when she prayed, how random? But when we stopped at a church to pray, a car in the car park (parking lot) had a little stuffed lemur hanging from the rear-view mirror. We then knew that we were there for a reason, and our faith grew so much! On the weekend, we drove to a town and held a youth service on Friday night, worked at the church on Saturday, and helped out with the church service on Sunday morning. The town was so small and it was so neat to see the sense of community that those people had! We even got the chance to see snow! We drove to the top of the highest mountain in the area and got to see some gorgeous views and some snow! So awesome!

Last Thursday is when we got back from Cunnamulla, a little mainly-aboriginal community in Queensland. It was such an awesome experience, and we got to hang out with so many teenagers from 12-18 years old. We could literally walk to everything in the town. When we did, we would see so many kids, and end up hanging out with them the whole night. We held a few services at the local indoor basketball court where all the kids hung out. One night we had a question and answer time and let the kids ask us any questions about God that they wanted. I was amazed at the interaction! I was expecting questions like "what's your favorite color" or "do you like puppies". Instead, we got some amazing heart-felt questions! It was so awesome to be able to speak into their lives. Most of those kids come from pretty rough backgrounds, so when we told them that God loves them SO much, the look on their faces was priceless.
On our day off, the two guys on our team hung out with some 13 year old boys who, at the end of the day, accepted Christ! It was awesome! Our day off was even used to glorify God! It really pumped us up!Before arriving in Cunnamulla, we asked God to give us a heart for the people there, and he did. We loved those kids so much, and surprisingly, they loved us in return.

This weekend was the 20th anniversary celebration for YWAM Newcastle! We spent the weekend helping out at the warehouse, listening in on some great speakers, and having some awesome worship times. We were all pretty exhausted, but it was a great weekend!
Yesterday morning we spent some time praying for Tahiti, and asking God for a heart for the people there. I couldn't help but get excited for the stuff that God is going to do in that country! Tonight we're going to take a train to the Sydney airport where we will spend the night in the international terminal. Our flight leaves early tomorrow morning with a layover in Auckland, NZ, and then finally Tahiti! We leave the 25th of Oct. and arrive the 24th in Tahiti. It'll be like going back in time! Our team is extremely close, and we are all so excited to arrive in Tahiti and start some ministry! Please pray for us as we go!