Ballarat part 4 (One2one Youth Camp)

Friday 19 Feb - Sunday 21 Feb

One2one Youth Camp

Friday: We showed up at around 6:00pm to One2one Church of Christ to a large group of youth and leaders, most of whom we didn't know at all. Sarah and I packed our bags on the bus and began meeting people and being presented with a sea of names and faces we would hopefully remember by the end of the weekend. We proceeded to the destination on the "2 hour bus trip" (yeah right Nick) and were exited at what lay ahead. The camp site was beautiful and best of all, we got our own room with a personal en suite. Needless to say it still wasn't enough to block out the sound of a group of girls chatting and giggling to all hours of the night.

Saturday: I got up early in the morning to go practice the songs I would play and warm up my voice. After breakfast we did a morning session. I played a bunch of songs and taught everyone "Hope in You". I was surprised how well everyone picked it up and seemed to really enjoy it. After the music Nick did a talk and we broke off into groups. Sarah and I both joined various groups. A wonderful thing generally happens after I play, people tend to open up and become a lot easier to get to know and talk to. This was definitely no exception as we proceeded to get to know both youth and leaders really well from that point on. After lunch we did a variety of activities including flying fox, water slide, canoeing and swimming. We really appreciated a long activity time because it enabled us to engage in a number of really good conversations. That night, after dinner, we did a few more games including a really cool new one for us called Hiaki, which involves running, forgetting peoples names and hiding in trees and ditches. We were then treated to a fantastic band called No Greater Sky, all the way from Nashville Tennessee, USA. When we eventually got to bed we were exhausted.

Sunday: Had to get up early again to warm my very worn out vocal chords. After breakfast we did another morning session and I led the worship for the morning including what had now become an old favorite "Hope in You". After the morning festivities, which mostly involved watching a bunch of teenagers attempt to operate on no sleep, we had lunch, packed up and left for the long journey home. We arrived back for the One2one evening service, which we also really enjoyed. We went home and got some much needed rest.

We had an amazing time on this camp, made some wonderful new friends, both youth and leaders, and were touched by a number of people more than they may ever know. Can't wait for more experiences like this.

Ballarat part 3

Friday 11.2.10 - Thursday 18.2.10

Things in Ballarat are going great. As doors are opening for us to serve and play in a variety of different settings, we are beginning to see why we were called to come here.

Friday: This morning I went to meet with a man named Justin Gall. He is the music director of Kardina Christian Fellowship in Geelong as well as the guitarist from the band "Compliments of Gus". We discussed various aspects of the trip and listened briefly to a couple of songs off the album. Justin encouraged us in what we were doing, particularly in the fact that we were supporting ourselves along the way. After listening to some of the songs, Justin stated that he thought they were good but not up to radio standard. As I left he complimented us on what we are doing exclaiming that he believes it will be a difficult but rewarding road. Also, he recommended that we contact a man named Wes Jay, who helped them (Compliments of Gus) get off the ground. I left the meeting encouraged believing even more that our trip will only succeed if God is behind us and what we are doing.

Saturday: Today we went into the city to explore a little. We found a fairtrade cafe called, "The Bean Barn", which to anyone who knows us, this is a very exiting thing for us. We had guilt free hot chocolate and hedgehog slice. Sarah also took some wonderful photos of Ballarat which we have posted on facebook.
That evening we went to Delacombe Uniting Church. It was a small church of maybe about 15 people. We had previously met the pastor of the church earlier in the week. After explaining who we were and what we were doing he asked if we would like to come and teach some new songs to the congregation. At first it was slightly awkward, not knowing the congregation or the musicians choosing a song was quite difficult. I chose Brooke Fraser's "Soon" to introduce, which didn't go down amazingly well. However I played one of mine, "Fall into God", as an item and people seemed to respond a bit to that. It was difficult either way not to feel like I was some random person trying to impose my way of doing things on this church that didn't know me. After the service people left fairly quickly however we had enough time to find out when the next music rehearsal was on and I asked if I could join in. Everyone was very receptive to us but in such a small church it was fairly obvious that we would need to establish a bit more of a relationship and a foundation before we could have any kind of impact. When we got home we proceeded to plan out what churches we would visit for the remainder of our time at Ballarat.

Sunday: This was the day that God would show us that He had His own plans for us despite what we thought we were going to do.
In the morning we went to York Street Church of Christ. It is apparently the biggest church in Ballarat. We really enjoyed the service and found the teaching to be very profound and confronting (in a good way). After the service they asked if I could play at their 2nd morning and evening services the following fortnight. We were both pretty excited about being asked to play at the biggest church in Ballarat, not to mention a church we had developed a lot of respect for.
That night we went to One2One Church of Christ, another good service. After that service the Youth Pastor asked if I would be able to play at their youth camp the following weekend. This was another really exiting opportunity and another example that we could only plan so much and beyond that we just follow God's lead.

Monday: Sarah's Birthday!!! We spent the day chilling out and having fun, it was great. I took Sarah out for lunch at the Pancake Kitchen. This much must be said, the pancakes were deliciously evil and we were left feeling very bloated. Sarah really enjoyed the day, as did I.

Tuesday: In the morning I went to the music rehearsal for Delacombe Uniting. It was an excellent opportunity to get to know some of the team better and learn more about the church. We made some music together, had coffee and learned some new songs. Also I offered to give one of their musos some guitar lessons. Later that day I got a phone call from someone from Ballarat Christian College. We met up and talked for a bit about what Sarah and I were doing. He asked if I could come and play at the school the following day. It was a bit short notice but fortunately I like to improvise so I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

Wednesday: Today I played at Ballarat Christian College. It was a fantastic experience both teachers and students were friendly from the moment I set foot in the college. I set up and played for 30min for their Chapel service. The song to receive the biggest response of course was my arrangement of "The Climb". All of my originals were also really well received and I gave away a number of CD's. Afterward a number of students came up and chatted. I really enjoyed meeting them all, although I probably shouldn't have been encouraging them to be late to class. One of the students I met was named Steve and he invited me to play at Ballarat Christian Fellowship Youth Group's once a month open night service.


Thursday: In the morning we went down to Bunninyong Uniting Church and helped out with a working bee. The work we did revolved around helping to make a Prayer Labyrinth. The Prayer Labyrinth is a pathway that moves around in circles gradually bringing you into the center. At the center of the labyrinth is a large circle with a cross in the middle. The idea is that you pray as you follow the pathway and at all times you can see the cross at the center. It is designed to create a more meditative style of prayer. It is a very beautiful sight and I would highly recommend anyone in the area check it out, it's visible from the road. We helped out by digging through a dirt mound for rocks and moving those rocks into place in order to create a rock wall on one side of the Labyrinth. In the process of helping I cut a log of oak wood from an overhanging branch that was cut down. It is my intention to see if I can make some kind of artwork from the log for the church to use with the Labyrinth.

Later that day Sarah received her exam results. This was quite a momentous occasion as nearly 12 months of work had gone towards her course and these results would determine whether or not Sarah would be able to get work in the near future. This was obviously a crucial element to our trip and ministry. Sarah needed 85% or higher to pass (no pressure). I am proud to announce that she passed with honors 93% on one section and a staggering 98% on the other section. She was contacted almost immediately by the organization in order to send there congratulations and explain the further steps to acquiring work as a medical transcriptionist. I have to say that Sarah worked extremely hard to make this happen and I am so proud of her!!

The day didn't end there (it was a good day). After much effort and many attempts to fix our water tank we were finally able to get running water in our camper. We were so exited we made little boats in the sink. The tank still leaks a little but it's a big step in the right direction.

Ballarat part 2

Thursday 4th Feb to Thursday 11th Feb

Matt and I came back to Ballarat on Thursday 4th Feb. After a brief navigational error we found our way to Adrian and Aimee's house. They are so hospitable and nice. It is such a blessing to be staying at their house.

So we still didn't have much idea why we were here or what we were going to do. I had been struggling a lot with this, but Matt said that he really felt like God had something for us to do here, so I chose to trust and follow my husband, but truthfully, I didn't have the best attitude. Matt kept trying to contact people and churches, and we both started settling back in to life in the camper. We still didn't have running water, which is a bit of a bummer, and our attempts to fix that kept failing. Also, our car's boot wouldn't unlock, but these were all minor trivial things compared to the the constant overhanging question "why are we here?" We prayed about this and Matt really started feeling like we were hear to help unite the churches of Ballarat. I was like "Wow! That's a bit more than what we were expecting to do," so I was a little skeptical.

Sunday
Apart from that, nothing much really happened until Sunday. We went to Ballarat City Church (BCC) in the morning. The sermon was on having a vision. It was really relevant to us and what we were doing. Matt had actually met up with the pastor a few days before, and he mentioned what we were doing in his sermon. I really thought about what he said and thought about different people and events in the bible and how they related to our situation now. Often when people followed God things didn't turn out quite the way they expect (funnily enough I was expecting that because I know that's how God works, but I wasn't expecting it to be different in this way, so technically I still wasn't expecting it :P). I also thought about (and this was one of the Pastors points) how the people of God in the old testament had God rescue them from Egypt. God did everything for them, and then when they came to the land of Canaan it was their turn to actually do something and fight the people there, but they bailed out. They didn't trust that God would do a miracle, just like He had been doing this whole time. The start of this trip wasn't what I thought it would be, but God had brought us here, and even if it wasn't what I thought it would be, it didn't mean He wouldn't use us. Also, God seems to be calling us to do more in Ballarat than I thought we could ever possibly do, uniting churches...what? But nothing is too big for God, and if He wants to use us to be part of that then what an honor. I guess we will see what happens.

That night we went to York Street Church again. The sermon there was really great too, and I felt really encouraged. We met some more great people. When Matt and I prayed that night we really did feel like God was wanting to use us for something different than we thought. It seems like we're not here long enough for anything of any real significance to happen, but God has shown me time and time again that He can do a lot in a short amount of time.

Tuesday
I went to a woman's bible study, and Matt and I went to a prayer meeting at BCC. We got the opportunity to get to know some people a bit better, which we are feeling is a very vital part of what we're here to do. It had been hot for the past few days and we were both having a really hard time dealing with it. It gets SO hot in our camper, so there is no escape from the heat. We found ourselves down at Maccas in the air-conditioning eating 50cent cones. Then when we felt like we'd been there for long enough we went down town to find out about getting some work. Air-conditioning everywhere :). And we just happened to park outside the Anglican Diocese for Ballarat, so we went in there and got heaps of info about churches we can visit and potentially help. How randomly helpful.

Wednesday
Wednesday turned out to be more interesting than we'd first thought. On the way to get silicon, to attempt to fix our water tank and get running water, we walked past a Uniting church that advertised a free lunch for anyone who wanted to come. We thought that might be a good way to meet people in the church, so we went along. I was really nervous going in, I guess because I didn't know what to expect or if we were the sort of people the lunch was designed for, but in we went. We met the Reverend (named Adam) who was super friendly. He's trying something really different with the church. They've gone a bit alternative with their worship and the way they do church, they are really big on hospitality and different ways of reaching/helping people in the community, and they promoted fairtrade stuff. Basically, first impressions, I thought they were great. They have a church service on Saturday evening, and Adam invited Matt to come along to play and teach some stuff to the team -they only have a small team of musicians who are still learning, perfect setting for someone like Matt to come into. I'm going to be helping them with their lunches on Wednesday. I am really excited about this church, just as a church and about what we can do to be a blessing to them. So after that Matt dropped me off at the library and I went about my various things. I was enjoying looking outside at the heavy rain, wind, and lightning, what a blessing the rain was to our country. About 1 1/2 hrs later I'm on the phone to Matt who is informing me that our annex is falling down, things are getting flooded, our camper is leaking, and everything is wet. So Matt comes and picks me up and we do the best we can to save our annex and put collecting devices under all the leaks in our camper. It was nice in a way, being out in the rain bashing away and tent pegs and straightening polls; we had been so hot for so long. It was a relief from the heat. Our washing was hanging up everywhere and there were containers filled with water all over the place. Our bedding was all wet, everything looked cluttered and messy, and things were a bit difficult in general, but nothing too bad had happened. Things would dry, and all would be ok. We had a good laugh about a few things which made all the difference. We had dinner and headed off to a bible study at BCC. It was about marriage, really good. It was the pick-me-up we needed after such a hectic and wet afternoon.

Thursday
Today we've been mostly looking for work. Nothing yet, but we're not stressed. If God wants us to work while we are in Ballarat then we will, if not then we wont.

A lot has happened this week, and we are looking forward to seeing what else will come of our time here. We've connected with 4 churches, 3 denominations, and this is just our first week back.

Prayer points
-Coping with the heat
-Running water
-Continued understanding for what God wants us to do here
-Work (doors to be opened if that's what God wants)