the beginning of the end

The National team, we travelled all up and down east and west through this amazing country and now? Well we're finished travelling. We arrived back in Brisbane, where this journey all began. We arrived few days ago and we will stay here (with the exception of going to Peregian for debrief) until we leave to go back to our respective countries. It's weird, I never had the ability to feel particularly settled here in Aussie considering we were always on the move but I really do feel like I'm preparing to say goodbye to my home, or at least to my family, my team, which will break my heart but that's okay because For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecc 3:1). I know I was here for a time and that is quickly coming to an end but all is well because I served my purpose and learnt so much along the way.

We have a week left of retreats here in Brisbane, which will be super busy and full on but also so good. We recently had an overnight retreat in a place called Harrietville with a group of year 10 students and it was possibly one of my favourite retreats EVER. The students were so open and happy to be there and it was truly beautiful to watch the students respond to God during the quite time of pray and reflection. I always feel so very privileged to play a part and be a witness to students responding to God, it is my favourite aspect of what we do here. A random little story for you all, on the retreat I was just talking about one of the girls there started fainting and got pretty sick. The first day everyone thought oh shell be fine but it kept happening and she started passing out more frequently so on the second day the teachers called an ambulance for her. We naturally agreed to move all the other young people into a different hall on site so the girl and the paramedics could have some space. We were all gathered and settled in the second hall and I was giving a talk to the group when the girl who was sick walked into the room and promptly passed out, in front of everyone. Talk about a distraction....

I am doing well, recently I had been getting pretty sick so I was told to cut gluten out of my diet so that has been an interesting adjustment to make but it was improved my health dramatically so that's good. Please pray for my during this time as I prepare to leave these people that I have come to call my family but also that I would be fully present and alive in every aspect of ministry we have left this year.

AMDG

Church is Boring?

Jesus, God, Father, Holy Spirit, Church, Christianity, Catholicism, are so often described as boring, out dated, an institution for those who are not free. Clearly myself along with about 1000 other young people missed this memo. Over the last few days IGNITE (the largest Catholic Youth Conference in Australia) has been taking place. The National team, along with 3 other teams had the privilege of being able to volunteer, help out and attend the conference with varying level of involvement. The conference ran from Thursday 27 – Sunday 30^th. The theme for Ignite was “Awaken” – Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Ehp 5:14. First off the whole thing was A-MA-ZING!! For the Kiwi’s reading this it’s sort of like Setfree but WAY bigger and on steroids.
 

The National team was responsible for running the “blaze” stream, which were grades 8-10. Basically what that means is that every day we ran and 1½ session with them and we were the small group leaders for that age gap. Other than that we had to do various odd jobs, like being an usher, or manning the NET ministries stand. With that said we also got to attend the conference and WOW it was crazy good. Every morning we kicked the day of with a rally, which consisted of praise and worship, a fabulous speaker, prayer and more praise and worship. All of the music was led by Emmanuel Worship, so obviously it was epic. Throughout the day, we were fed copious amounts of food, had workshops, listened to talks, small groups, did some random stuff and ended each night with a rally, similar to the morning rally. So much goodness, so much God, so much joy.
 

Church is boring. The statement is so flippantly thrown around but for me the  only way to make the statement true is “Church is boring?” it has to be a question, a shock, a surprise, because God is anything but dull and the Church is certainly alive and overflowing with joy. Ignite Conference 2012 was so good and for many people it was life changing, God was truly present and he alone is responsible for changing lives.

 

AMDG