I just couldn't be bothered...

I just couldn't be bothered is my favorite Australian phrase. You can use it for anything you don't want to do, and it's okay! Why didn't you clean the house? I couldn't be bothered. Why didn't you hang the washing on the line? I just couldn't be bothered. Why didn't you go to work today? I just couldn't be bothered. Okay, well, sometimes it's not okay, but you can get away with a lot using this one little phrase. So, in answer to your question, "Jenny, why haven't you updated your blog in 2 weeks?" I answer, "I just couldn't be bothered until now!"

Two Saturdays ago, some of the young adults in the Sydney area put on a Teen Only Event, called Only Jesus (OJ). In Australia, most youth groups include students in jr. high, high school, as well as young adults. Camps, area-wide youth worships, and youth activities are for anyone from ages 12 to 30. But every other month, the young adults like to give the teens an opportunity to have an event that is just for them, which is where OJ comes in. The theme of OJ this year has been purity. This particular OJ took place at Marubra Beach in Sydney. It started with soccer and ultimate frisbee on the beach. Then, we joined together for singing and a short talk about purity. The teens, then were divided into boys and girls for discussion groups. We finished the activity off with a sausage sizzle. We had about 8 teens from Gosford, along with 4 young adults to drive and chaperone.

Everyone getting ready to play soccer.

Micah, Me, Jamie, and Amanda spectating.

A good game of ultimate frisbee on a very windy day.

This past weekend, we had another youth event in Warringah (a suburb of Sydney) called Youth and Young at Heart (YAYAH). All the youth, young adults, and not so young adults get together the last Sunday of the month for a worship time led by young Christians. After worship, we have a meal together and a time of fellowship. The church that hosts this event each month has 2 HIM workers working there, also--Jamie and Sammie. Sunday night after YAYAH, I stayed with these girls instead of going back with the Gosford group. We spent the evening chatting about anything and everything, and just catching up on each others' lives and work. The next day Jamie and Sammie showed me around Manly (even though it was rainy and cold) and we went to an aquarium, called OceanWorld. We got to see lots of fish and sharks that are found in the waters of Australia. OceanWorld also has some reptiles and insects. While we were there, we watched a show about lizards, and were able to touch a blue-tongued lizard, a dragon lizard, a turtle, and a snake! We finished the afternoon off with coffee before I caught the train back to Gosford. Spending a night and a day with Jamie and Sammie really encouraged and re-energized me to start another week. I am so blessed to have them so close by!

Holding a boa constrictor at OceanWorld

Shark attack!

Manly Wharf

Saturday Adventures

This past week I had the pleasure of staying with another family from the church--the Moads. I met the Moads when I was on campaign 3 years ago, so I knew them already. Staying with them was such a blessing! Last Saturday, they gave me tour of the Central Coast and showed me some great spots. We started the morning with a HUGE breakfast of eggs, bacon (really ham), English muffins, and hashbrowns. Then we set off north to Norah Head, where there is a gorgeous lighthouse. There, we walked along the beach and watched the waves crash into the rocks. The next stop Crackneck, which is a cliff that over looks the ocean. We also took a 3 km bushwalk along a trail to the top to get another view of the ocean. Along the walk, we say a blue-tongued lizard and tons of beautiful Australian wildflowers. We were starving after all of our walking, so went to a bakery and got meat pies for lunch. Meat pies are exactly what they sound like--little mini pies with different kinds of meat like beef, sausage, or lamb. I had a sausage roll with bacon and cheese with diet coke of course. We dropped everyone else back at home and Sallie Anne and I went for coffee at Terrigal Beach. We ended up at great cafe looking right over the water. We had delicious coffee and split a lime tart, which was similar to key lime pie, so it made my day. I had a wonderful day spending time with the Moad family and getting more acquainted with my new home!

View from the top of Crackneck.

Moad family in front of the light house at Norah Head.

Tim, me, Sallie Anne, and Sara in front of the lighthouse.

Jay, Tim, Me and Sara at Norah Head.

Sara and I

The lighthouse.

Goodbye September

I have been so bad about blogging the last few weeks, please forgive me. But somewhere between going to Camp Revive and housesitting and surviving a dust storm, September ended and October came!

I was fortunate to attend Camp Revive in Melbourne. Camps in Australia are not just for teens, but also for young adults, so I was a participant at the camp. Because students here go to school all year long and summer is only about 6 weeks in December and January, lots of camps happen throughout the year on weekends. Five of us went to this camp from the Gosford—three young adults and two teens. We drove down to Melbourne in a massive road trip of two 10-seater buses and a minivan filled with 25 teens and young adults from the Sydney area. We arrived at the camp after spending 12 hours in the car on Friday evening. The camp was extremely uplifting and encouraging, even though it rained all weekend long. The theme was “Here I am to Worship,” which focused on how we can worship God with our every day lives and not just on Sunday mornings. There were excellent speakers, times of singing, and lots of fellowship. I was fortunate to meet and get to know many teens and young adults from all over Australia. I also was able to spend time with Jamie Canham and Sammie Marshall, two HIM workers in Sydney who also went to OC. The camp lasted until Sunday afternoon, then we got back in the bus and headed home. We arrived back to Gosford at 2 am Monday morning. Despite the long drive and the bad weather, I really enjoyed Revive and learned how to better worship God on a daily basis.

Spending 24 hours in a bus and loving it.

Me, Cam, and Emma representing Trek Youth.

My new Melbourne best friend, Amber.

Craft time with Jen, Allison, and Jamie (another HIM worker from Sydney).

A few weeks go, I woke up to very red and hazy sky. A freak dust storm had blown In the night before. Everything was coated in dust and the sky was foggy until late afternoon. I have been told I this never happens and it won’t happen again while I am here! Even after the air cleared, a fine layer of red dust covered everything including my freshly washed clothes! I ended up washing them twice and just using the dryer. The good thing was I felt right at home seeing all that red dirt along the street and on my car—just like being in Oklahoma!

I'll leave you with some of the signs that Spring is in full swing here on the Central Coast! These are all in my backyard!

Night Hike

Monday, I was invited to go on a night hike by the Krause family. The hike was organized by the Cub Scouts, which Jacque (Cub) and Sebastian (Joey) are both members of. So, Mel and I loaded up the two boys (ages 10 and 6), Tanesha (4), and baby Phoenix (4 months) to hike from Rumbalara across town to the Ridgeway in the dark! The kids were so excited to bundle up in their jumpers (jackets) and bring their own torches (flashlights). We also packed a back pack of fruit and water to for the long journey. The group of about 50 kids and parents departed at 7:00 and finished the hike 2 hours later. The kids did great, even little Phoenix who stayed awake almost the whole time enjoying the ride on his Mum's tummy. Tanesha made it almost the whole way on her own, and only had to be carried the last 15 or 20 minutes. By the time we got in the van to head home, all the food was gone and half the kids were asleep! It was a great way to spend time with some of my favorite kids!

Sebby, Tanesha, and I excited to start hiking!

The Jrs.

The whole Krause crew--Tanesha, Seb, Mum Mel, baby Phoenix, and Jacques

Open-Mic Night

Every other month, the Trek (the Gosford Youth Group) hosts an open-mic night at the ministry center. Evan, the youth minister, advertises it in coffee shops and has the teens take fliers to school to pass out. The purpose of the event is for the teens to invite their friends and bring in people from the community. Local musicans and the musicans within our group are invited to play at this event. Usually there are also skits, comedy acts, and videos. Last Saturday was the open-mic night for September. It started at 6:30 pm with a bbq dinner, and the music kicked off about 7:30. This open-mic night was mainly a hip-hop/rap music, featuring music preformed by 4 different Christian rappers, including the youth minister Evan. The evening wrapped up with Evan giving a short devo on Hope and concert ended at 9:30 pm. The teens really love these nights because it's a cool event to invite their friends to and a fun atmosphere to hang out in. The best part is that the music is uplifting and has Christian messages. We had over 50 teens/young adults there from our group, other congregations in the area, and the community. I can't wait to see how many more people we have in November!

Claire, Amanda, me, Tim and Hannah enjoying the music.

Jamming out.

Hanging out with the adults at the back.

Tim, Me, and Amanda

The audience.

Two of the rappers performing.

The one on the left is the Profit, aka Evan the youth minister.

Cameron, Chloe, Hannah, and Laura enjoying the bbq before the show.

Bushwalking

I had my first experience in the wilds of Australia! Okay, maybe it wasn't that wild and dangerous, but I did go on my first bush walk. Bushwalking is what we would call hiking in the States. Yesterday (Mondays are my days-off), Amanda and I invited Jamie and Sammie, who are the 2 HIM workers in Warringah (a suburb of Sydney), to come up for some bushwalking and lunch. We woke up Monday morning to cloudy, overcast skies, which looked ready to downpour at any moment, but we decided to brave the elements. We decided to go hiking at the Rumbalara Reserve, which is actually in Gosford. Okay, so maybe we weren't as hardcore as we thought we were! We pulled up to the empty car park, looked at the map, and headed down a trail--first Amanda, then Sammie, followed by me, and Jamie brought up the end. We started hiking on along the trail and were met with tall trees and enormous rock faces, shaped by the elements. As we were walking, we were chatting about what was going on in our lives. We were talking and having such a good time, we lost the trail! We had to retraced our steps and went down another path. This path led us over a boulder and surfing down a hill of loose dirt. We continued along our walk up steps of packed dirt and logs. At one point, I placed my leg on one of these steps and the log went rolling down the hill, luckily Jamie moved out of the way. We finally reached the end of our trail, where we were met with orange, plastic construction fence blocking our way--never a good sign. We stepped over the fence and were met with a sign that said "Trail Closed." We went down a trail that was supposed to be closed due to erosion, which explains the unstable steps and the disappearing path! The view from the top was well worth it, though! We could see Brisbane waters and lots of little suburbs. After resting, we walked along the road back to where the car was parked. There, off, to the side was a piece of caution tape blocking off the entrance to the trail--we missed it because we were looking at the map earlier! After our exciting bushwalking experience, we decided one trail was enough and headed back to Amanda's apartment for lunch. We had a lovely afternoon chatting and catching up. I am so blessed to have fellow HIM workers so close to me.

The view from the top of Rumbalara.

McFellowship

Here I am at week 2 and still loving every minute of it. The members of the church family are all still looking after me and helping me settle in! I have just moved in with the Mowdays for about 2 weeks, then I will go back to the Grittens to housesit.

One of my favorite parts of my week in Gosford is Wednesday night. Like most churches, they have their mid-week bible study on Wednesday nights at 7:30 pm. There is an adult class that meets at the community center, a teen class that meets at the ministry center (church building), and a few kids classes that meet in homes. I have been going to the teen class on Wednesday nights to get to know the kids better and become a part of the youth ministry. We usually hang out for about 30 minutes--listen to music, play ping pong and pool, just hang out and catch up. Then, we have some singing and a devo by Evan, the youth minister. Last night after the devo, we finished working on Twitter inboxes. They are basically envelopes all the kids are decorating so we can send each other encouragement notes. Around 9 pm, the parents start showing up to pick up their kids.

Some of the jr high girls and me.

Playing ping-pong and hanging out.

Making Twitter inboxes

Then the church joins up at McDonalds (a.k.a. Maccas) for a cup of coffee or a snack, hence McFellowship. Older members and adults come from their class and the teens come from their class, and we just have a nice time of getting together and catching up with each other. You know I love it because they have diet coke and it's a self-serve fountain, so I can get free refills!!!I don't usually get home until 10:30 pm, but it so worth it to fellowship with the church.

Loving diet coke. PS: that's a large...

I was reminded again last night how thankful I am to be working here with this congregation!