Melbourne draws me back.

Ah so I should have done this blog ages ago I feel. But, I'm glad I waited in the end. Because the story is constantly evolving, and oh a story it is. Remember that time when I talked about the touché God theory? How God definitely has a sense of humor and you can see it best when you take a step back? Yeah welcome to the story of my time in melbourne. 

When I got to melbourne in late august, I was desperately searching for jobs (as you do when you arrive in a large city with close to no money to your name). Unfortunately not much was coming up until I stumbled upon an ad for a telemarketing company. Now, let's be fair. I realize that sounds utterly horrific. I would later discover that it , in fact, was. However, at the time the only things I knew about telemarketing was that it was good money and it was easy. So, when I got offered the job almost immediately....I was on it. Now the people were wonderful and fun, and the job was in fact, easy and paid well. But, having not taken into account how ridiculously soul draining selling people electricity via the phone would be, I soon started to seriously doubt my decision. And so began the week of stress.

After having reaffirmed that I am in no way meant for sales (due primarily to it's requirement that you ignore a persons humanity and instead manipulate them to their core) I began to apply to every possible job available on gumtree and praying like my life depended on it. For those of out I who don't know what that looks like it goes something like this:

What is going on God. I am so freaking frustrated with this stupid job. I literally don't know what to do at this point. I thought I had such a good deal with this job since it came up so quickly, but i really can't do this. If this is where you want me then, fine. Be I'm going to need you to help me make some sales or somehow get through these days. Otherwise I need out. I will take anything else. I just need out. I can't handle the stress and how much I hate life when I get home each day. Fix this....please.

----

This went on for about 3 days of torture. Until one night while hanging out with some lovely people I got a call from an unknown number. It was a woman asking me to come in for an interview at  German Brauhaus. Now before I explain what happened next I need you all to know...if you don't already...that I love Germany. I took German for ages, have been a few times and just utterly love all things German. So you'll understand why having forgotten what jobs I had applied for...since there were a gajillion....I immediately thought this was a joke. One of yay friends must be calling knowing I was looking for a job and thinking this was funny. So, while I wasn't rude on the phone...I more likely than not sounded as though I wasn't taking the poor woman seriously until I asked where it was and she gave me a legitimate address. 

Well, surprise surprise, the job was in fact real...and not only I did the interview go well...I got a trial shift which really just ended up being my first shift, which ended up being a double shift. And I loved it. It is stressful at times, to be sure, but it is exciting, fun, constantly keeps you on your toes and forces you to actually think as well as chat and have fun with people! Woooo! And so I began to picture the smile. 

Not my smile, of course. Mine was definitely visible. But God's smile. That little smirk/laugh one that I assume He gets whenever he pulls something like this. That 'hah, you thought I forgot about you didn't you?' Smile. He didn't. He never does. Exodus 14:14 says ' The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.' And fight he did. Because let's compare my original checklist to this current job:

1. Customer service oriented...check.

2. Good hours....check

3. Good pay...check....oh wait BETTER pay than the other job what?!

Bonuses! 

1. Something unlike anything i will ever do again

2. Get to speak German

3. Get to wear (somewhat...okay it's a stretch) traditional Bayerisch outfits

4. Meet people from all over the world

5. Utilizes my customer service and organizational skills

6. Free food

7. Don't have to pay for a tram/train to get to work anymore

8. Amazing coworkers

What's that? Oh yeah. Fine God. Touché. You do in fact know what's best and constantly guide me to exactly where I'm supposed to be. Now on to the next adventure. I'll try and trust ya a bit more readily this time round.

Road Trip Rules

Road trips in the outback teach you a lot. So here are some of the things we've learned along the way.

1. Don't get the mechanic drunk the night before he looks over your car

2. Make sure you ALWAYS have at least one iPod charged and ready

3. Know where the fuel stations are and fuel up as OFTEN as possible

4. Buy snacks before long journeys

5. Have water--you never know where you might break down

6.Squash makes warm water taste way better

7. Sunglasses are a MUST

8. Don't break your thermos. You WILL want tea. (RIP Mitch)

9. Amuse yourselves by laughing at the ridiculously empty giant river beds that occur ialong the way in dry season

10. Check Bushfire warning signs--make sure the conditions are not catastrophic (you think i'm joking. it's been on that twice)

11. If you see TWO cars with flashing "oversize" signs PULL OVER. They are NOT joking.

12. If you struggle with your tent, ask a grey nomad

13. If you struggle with your car, ask a grey nomad

14. Collect as many leaflets from info booths as you can. They WILL come in handy.

15. Hard boiled sweets don't last longer than normal sweets, no matter what you think.

16. When you find a stray animal sign, try not to write an "a" after the Stray to make it Straya Animals.

17. Beware of wandering cattle in the early morning--and kangaroos if you're in Queensland

18. If you have windows down and smell something terrible, it's fine. It's just a decaying animal.

19. Wave at oncoming cars. They're just as happy to see another human as you are.

20. Random signs with letters and countdown numbers are NOT just random signs. They're counting down to the next major stop.

21. Stay at free campsites whenever possible--some have free WiFi!

22. Careful! Rocks may look like cows, and cows may look like rocks.

23. If cows surround your tent at night....just let them do they're thing. They'll leave you alone.

Goodbye Barcy, Hello Road

ahhh it's happening. We're headed out. And it doesn't feel real yet...at all. We've bought maps, planned itineraries, started making to-do lists, bought a car and yet....it hasn't fully hit. Barcy has become home, and leaving just seems surreal. This is our family. These are people that have seen us at our best and worst and even on the roughest days we come back home knowing things will be fine. I have been here for the past 3 months and leaving seems so strange. In many ways this feels like leaving home all over again; except this tie we probably won't be back. Meg and I have talked over and over about how even if we do visit it will be off because they won't be in the same town or around the same people. The boys would be older and Mitch would be off elsewhere. It breaks my heart to think that this little family we have become---Mick, Sharon, the boys, Will, Mitch, Miia, Meg and me--will never be reproduced. We've had our time. It's been phenomenal but it's coming to a close. No more runs around town, no more freshly killed meat, no more laughing/dancing/being ridiculous with drunks on a Saturday night work shift, no more casual horseback rides, or water fights in the backyard. We have one more full day and then we're off. Goodbye Barcy. Hello Roadtrip.

Things that have happened in our last few weeks:

1. Found baby chicks wandering around while watering the horses. Had to gather them up in our shirts and put them in a bucket until we had a place to keep them.

2. Watched sheep get skinned and prepared...then had them for dinner.

         

                

                                                  A kidney....followed by a uterus.

3. Went out riding on young horses, saw a train was coming, had a brief freak-out moment and decided we'd trot up to the end and avoid the train whistle.

4. Watched puppies being born! Ended up being 12 in total and FRICK are they cute.

5. Saw baby guinea pigs hours after they were born. HUGE. I would not envy the mother.

6. BOUGHT A CAR!! WOOT WOOT!! But really. It's an older car, but Mick and a friend have checked it out to make sure it will get us there and it's got a SWEET sound system. boom baby.

7. Watched Captain America in a theatre built in the 1920s. It was basically a steel shed. Super cool albeit uncomfortable chairs though.

8. Dyed our hair purple briefly. I unfortunately don't have pics to prove this.

9. Watched Gabe (a baby palomino) get halter broken

10. In an attempt to register our car... Found out the court was closed and we might have to delay which we can't do. Panic set in but then we became adults figure out what to do and saved our butts. Long story. 

Set a Fire Down in my Soul that I can't Contain, that I can't Control...

SO much has happened in the past week that I've wanted to put out there for ya'll, but I just haven't been able to  figure out how I'd put it all into words. Well, I still haven't figured that out but I've decided I should at least attempt, so here we are. So I'll just a list a few of the awesome things that happened...

Women's Retreat
Last weekend we had men and women's retreats. So traditionally, when the guys leave the girls do somemthing fun for them as they return and then the gents reciprocate. So, the guys left on thursday and came back friday night to banners, food, letters of encouragement and just an absurd amount of decoration in Man-Land (where the boys live here at project).

Then, all of us ladies got to leave that evening and we returned on Sunday. We like to assume that the reason our retreat was longer was to give the guys more time to think about what they'd do for us=] I'll be honest, when we left for the retreat I wasn't super excited. I tend to have a lot more fun hanging out with guys than I do with girls and even though I ADORE all the amazing women i've met here at project it was hard to convince myself that it was going to be all that fun. WRONG. Women's retreat was AMAZING. I got to know so many more of the girls here and made some great new girlfriends. They took us to a campground in the middle of the desert with a sweet playground (fastest slide i've ever been on), an obstacle course and a pool. I can't talk about everything that went on, but suffice it to say that it was an incredible retreat and by the end I wished we could stay longer. However, as soon as we got home we couldn't have been happier o be back=] The boys had cleaned the main rooms of our apartments, left us flowers and a big bowl of chocolates. Then,  to top it off they had invited us to a formal, "Welcome Home Dinner". So, that evening we all got to dress up, be escorted to tables, served Stromboli (made from scratch might I add), salad and dessert by the lovely gents. It was such a fun evening and definitely a wonderful welcome home=]

At the Women's retreat

One of our servers=]

Leadership Roles
One of the coolest things about Summer Project is the fact that half way through the summer, the staff leave. The idea is that much like Jesus did to his disciples, the staff teach us what we need to know about how to lead and do things on our own here and then leave us to go out and live it. So, at the beginning of project we are split up into different ministry teams. Each team is led by 2 staff members--one guy and one girl. Then we have 4 people that are head of the project overall. So, when the staff leave others have to fill those roles and students take on those leadership positions and become the summer project leadership team. I'm on the Prayer and World Vision ministry team. Which, is already God giving me a second chance since I was asked to think about leading the Prayer Group at school and ended up deciding not to. God has an amazing sense of humor. Well, about a week ago my DNA (small group) leader, Beth, came up to me and asked me whether i'd like to accept the role of the female head of the Prayer and World Vision Team. It was SUCH an incredible, humbling and encouraging blessing to know that they felt like i was someone who would do well in that position. I was ridiculously excited but that pretty much fell to pieces that evening. Every sunday we have a project-wide meeting where we all get together and go over some announcements and whatnot and then end it with prayer. Well, I had previously signed up to run the prayer time at the end of the meeting not realizing that i was going to be announced as the female head of the prayer team right before that. GAH. I was sitting in my chair FLIPPING OUT as I was waiting to go up. I don't mind talking in front of people but this was my first time doing it here and RIGHT after being announced as a leader. I was feeling the pressure (which of course no one else actually was thinking much the less worrying about). But, it went well and it was so encouraging afterwards to have a few friends that i really respect come up and tell me how well I did and how excited they were that i'd gotten that position. It was just such an amazing God moment.

Our Head Leadership Team=]

Incredible Night of Reflection
Every week we have a NOR or a Night of Reflection where we just spend a couple hours with God. When I first got here this summer, one of my main struggles had, in all honesty just been completely taken from me. It was incredible. But in the past week and a half it's come up a lot and i've been having a really hard time understanding why I can't just let it go. But this last tuesday I got the chance to sit out on the beach and truly talk with God. If you've never had the chance to just tell God everything you feel and cry and laugh with Him. I highly suggest it. I don't do it often as I wish I did, but every time it is an incredible reminder of HOW GREAT our God is. Especially given my ability here to just sit and enjoy God's creation. Heck, a DOLPHIN swam by as I was doing this, AT SUNSET. Yeah. God is incredible. Anyways, to wrap up this little section, i'll just say that while i'm still struggling with some things I know that God is with me though it and that as it says in Isaiah 41:10--


Do not fear, for i am with you. Do not dismay for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you. i will uphold you with my righteous right hand.


And, so, I won't

.

Staff Farewell Banquet/Departure
The other evening was the staff farewell banquet. It was just a fun time to get dressed up and honor the people who have been pouring into us over the past 4 weeks. They have been such a blessing in our lives. But, knowing the people that have been picked to replace them i'm REALLY excited to see where God takes this project. We have so many incredible leaders among us and even more who are beginning to see and make use of their leadership potential. I truly believe that God gives everyone a gift to use for the his Kingdom, and in the past week as our leaders have stepped up and begun running things on their own god's hand has been incredibly evident. I cannot wait to see where the rest of this summer takes us.=]

During the Staff hunt.

                                              Set a Fire--AWESOME song.