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. 

So Long Sydney!

So here we are again. Leaving yet another city that has captured a piece of my heart. It's always so bittersweet leaving cities when you travel. You leave for a new adventure but in the back of your head you always think "will I be here again?" I can't stay put for long as it is, so more often that not I assume I'll never see these streets again. But, here's hoping that's not true.

For the past two months, Sydney has been my home. I have gotten to know the streets, picked out my favorite hangouts, joined in the festivities, made amazing friends, got to ring in the New Year, and just lived life. It is hard to look out the window at this magical place unsure whether or not i'll see it again. But, a new adventure awaits! First to Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road and then to the Outback!! But, before I get ahead of myself here's a recap of the past month.

New Years

New Years was AMAZING. I got to join in with a bunch of friends I met through the lovely Shani for an awesome day of shenanigans. We spent the day in Kiribilli almost right underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Got there around noon-ish with some sport balls, snacks, and whatever drinks we could get in. It was a beautiful, albeit a bit cloudy of a day, and so the volleyball, football (soccer), and nerf ball all got an insane amount of use. There were also a few things put on mbefore the fireworks---plane show, people riding around on the water, a random pirate ship went around (that one may have not been part of the show hah). When the fireworks did start we seriously had the most incredible view. We got to see everything at the bridge up close, and then the Opera House was right across the way. In fact the only thign even remotely annoying were the bathroom lines. When we got there they were like oh 5-10 minutes. By the time it ws 10pm you seriously stood in line for like 45 minutes to get there. It was the perfect way to get to know someone hahah. Wanna go to the bathroom? haha anyways, eventuaally we all made our way home down the eerily empty streets of sydney. Although everything I just said does not nearly do it justice, know that it is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

 

                                               

Beaches

There are plenty of beaches around Sydney and I got to experience the top three. Bondi, Coogee and Manly. I do regret that I never got to do any of the beach walks which are supposed to be beautiful. But, i loved living somewhere that allowed me to get to the beach in 30 minutess or less. Manly was probably my favorite beach even though I didn't get there until the day before I left. In order to get there you have to take a 30 minute ferry ride across the harbour. It's so beautiful and I just loved it. Also, some things I should mention about beaches in Australia. Unlike in the US, there are flags on the beach thhat you have to swim between. If you're surfing it's a bit different, but swimmers are to stay between the flags for safety reasons. It was strange to have so many restrictions at beaches when I'm used to the silly East Coast beaches that go on for miles and allow you to swim wherever. Also, Bondi is way smaller than you think it is. Weird.

Blue Mountains

I spent an incredible day wandering around the blue mountains. I started off by heading to this gorgeous waterfall that runs down the side of a cliff, then headed over to the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are a rock formation that in Aboriginal stories were three sisters (shocking!) who after falling in love with three boys from a competing tribe were turned into stone by an elder tribe member in order to "protect" them. Unfortunately, that dude died and no one was ever able to turn them back. So, lesson learned. Make sure if you have a spell cast on you, make sure someone else knows the reversal...just in case. After hitting up the Three Sisters, I headed out to see the Cascades which is a beautiful giant waterfall that starts on the very top of the mountain and then reaches a cliff overhang and just glides down the rest of it pocohantas-style. Although, much smaller.

                                     

                            

                                      

Goodbyes

Sydney was a city of hellos and goodbyes. It is where I made real friends for the first time in Oz, but it is also where I had to watch them leave. Sydney gave me an apt full of awesome girls and a workplace filled with the coolest people. But, slowly but surely I had to say goodbyes as people left for farmwork, new cities or just to new jobs. It was sad, but you sort of become immune togoodbyes after   a while I guess. Plus more often than not goodbyes turned into an awesome night out with people I loved. So there's always that.

Australia Day

This past Sunday was 'STRAYA DAY! It celebrates the landing of the British in Australia. I was blessed enough to have an apartment about 5 minutes walk from Darling Harbour where some of the biggest festivities were going on. So while I didn't spend the day drinking as is the norm---I did get to see one of THE BEST fireworks displays i've ever seen. And i'll have you know that includes New Year's Eve. The two German girls who moved into the apt went with me and we had a great time listening to the live music, watching kids wave flags, and generally enjoyng the excitement that goes along with national pride.

                                    

                                   

 

Random

Some other things I did before I left are:

1. Hit up the Australian Museum

2. Went to the Museum of Modern art

3. Try Harry's Cafe d'Wheels---which is a famous pie shop in Sydney

4. Met a bouncer who had family in Woodbridge. Real life. That happened.

5. Walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge

6. Enjoyed a drink at the Opera Bar

7. Strolled through the Royal Botanic gardens

8. Went to Hillsong for church! WOO! actually though. Super fun.

9. Saw a Doctor Who exhibit....WITH THE TENTH DOCTOR'S SUIT. OMG.

10. Got insanely burnt after spending an entire day at the beach

11. Went bowling! 

12. Had my haircut by a friend---looks SO good.

13. Saw 5 different movies. Two of these were in the worlds biggest IMAX and one of them was at an outdoor cinema FOR FREE courtesy of my girl Shani.

14. Roadtripped to the edge of NSW with work.

15. Went to the ZOO!

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

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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.