Orientation

To fill you in from my last post, the ATM machine worked and I was able to withdraw Australian money from my account. Orientation began on Monday at 9am. We were told to pack certain things and to be ready to leave at 9. We had no idea what was planned for the day. They ended up driving all of us to a park and explained that we would be participating in an "amazing race" activity to better our understanding of Australia and to grow closer as a group. One of our objectives during the amazing race was to create and eat an Australian delicacy, vegemite. Vegemite is a spread that Australians put on their bread. It tastes like salty tar. The race took us all around the area we'd be staying in Australia including Surfers Paradise where we were able to check out the beach! The water was blue, clear and clean and the sand was white! Such a difference from the dirty green Jersey shore. Everything is so expensive in Australia! It would cost me 20 bucks for a 4 pack of gatorade and a box of  pop tarts. I opted to try less expensive, new food. Any American food packages would be great! Australian peanut butter is just not the same. I was able to eat wild Australian boar monday night. It was pretty good. We also visited the Q1 tower in Surfers Paradise which is the tallest residential tower in the world. Tuesday consisted of introducing to us ywams beginnings and such. I also was introduced to Australias "morning tea". Morning tea happens every day at 10AM and goes for a half hour. Whether youre working or at school, during morning tea you stop what ever youre doing and drink tea and eat food. I think the U.S. should adopt this tradition. Some of the ywam staff shared their testimonies later on that night. We were told that we were going to be sharing our testimonies with the group later on in the week. Wednesday was fairly similar to Tuesday. We were introduced to our individual jobs we'd be performing every morning. My personal job is to take out the trash and to clean the student lounge. We also had a really good worship service. I could physically feel God in the room. It was really neat. Thursday was quite the adventure. We had an amazing bible study and learned different ways to study what we read to understand scripture to its fullest. I also shared my testimony. Every thursday night our ywam base performs an outreach known as "Coffee Van". Basically, we head down to Surfers Paradise and offer free coffee, tea, and water to people walking around. Its a way to show kindness to the city and when they ask why we're giving it out for free, its the perfect opportunity for us to share Christ. This week it was optional to attend Coffee Van so a bunch of us skipped out so we could walk to a nearby mall (which ended up being not so nearby). Today we learned about intercession and had a lecture on worship. The last of the students shared their testimonies tonight and the guys and myself did some grocery shopping. Ive really enjoyed getting to know the ywam dts guys along with the guy staff. We all get along great. Every other saturday I will be participating in an outreach for kids where we'll go to a local school and hang out and play games with grade school kids. It will feel a lot like camp working with kids again :) Im not all exactly sure whats going to happen tomorrow during the day but at night we're going to have a guy hangout night and drink ginger beer, eat tim tams, and watch TV on one of the staffs big screen. The group of guys is great and it will be a good fellowship time. Our weekend during ywam is actually Sunday and Monday rather than Saturday and Sunday. A group of us are planning on going to the beach on Sunday. Hopefully it doesn't rain.We havent figured out our outreach locations yet but I do know Ill be leaving for outreach in mid January. Please continue to pray for my team as we grow closer to God, each other, and as we try to adjust to a new culture. Also, please pray for my financial status. I currently don't have the money to pay for outreach. Ill try to update again as soon possible! Next week ends orientation and begins the actual lectures!!