End Act 1 . . . it's time for a scene change!

Well you heard it folks my time in Australia has now come to a close. It is all very sad since I don’t know if I will ever make it back here again and I would sure love to. It’s weird to be in a place for 4 months and then suddenly it’s time to leave. Perth has really felt like home and it is strange to be leaving it behind and knowing that I will never walk to the train station with the lovely skyline in the background, or go to Mount Lawley for a 50 cent ice cream cone from Hungry Jacks. Four months is a long time to be somewhere, but now that time is over and it is taking some getting used to for sure! Luckily I have the excitement for Mexico to tide me over and help take the edge off the sadness. And I am very excited for Mexico . . . the city is supposed to be super pretty and I think it will be a ton of fun! Plus we get to fly again! There was a time when I first got here when I didn’t think I would ever want to fly again, but I am super excited again and pretty much am ready to go right now! I don’t want to wait another few hours . . . it is currently 1:30am right now and I am just staying up all night since I have to leave for the airport at 3:45am. I am the only one up here and don’t actually have internet access and am just writing a draft of this blog, so life is pretty boring and boring is not good for staying awake! Oh well, just another 2 hours before I should get my stuff together to bring to the base . . . I can manage that!

Okay now for blog entry part 2! I am no longer in Aussieland! It is crazy! I have been sitting in the LA airport for about 4 and a half hours now and I still have another 4 to go. However the biggest part of the journey is over now that I am back in North America. It seems so odd knowing I am on the same time zone as everyone at home right now. I have been 16 hours ahead for so long that it is going to be weird to actually be only 2 hours ahead for the next 7 weeks. And then of course after that it is time to head for home where I will defintiely be on the same time zone as everyone at home, but entirely different time zone from many of my new friends! However, yet again it is something I will have to get used to. Life goes on and changes come so all I can do about it simply adapt.

Now for a recap of the past week and a bit! It was the 50th and 25th celebration week which means it was a week like no other. We had lots of teaching and worship, but also a lot of free time which was quite a shock as we have no had much free time at all since outreach started. We received a lot of teaching from Loren and Darlene Cunningham which was quite a treat since they are so famous in YWAM circles, and I know many of received very valuable insights and revelations from God during those times. The 50th celebration only lasted from Sunday night until Tuesday afternoon and then we spent Tuesday evening down at Swan River to watch the fireworks for Australia Day. Then starting Wednesday is when I found the real fun began. I loved the 50th celebration stuff, but sometimes it got repetitive and difficult to listen to for too long, but with the 25 celebration of YWAM Perth they told lots of stories, did skits, showed videos and pictures, etc. There was a lot more to keep people captivated so it was easier to enjoy which then made it easier to listen! On Friday afternoon they even had a fashion show demonstrating how fashion has changes since the founding of YWAM Perth 25 years ago. It was so funny! The clothing from the 80's was obviously hilarious, but I also love the stuff from the 90's because I could remembering wearing those clothes but they looked so odd! Another great part of the week is some of the entertainment we received during the different evening sessions. I took videos of this amazing didgeridoo player, the Island Breeze team performing Polynesian dances, and even the fireworks for Australia Day and I will post them as soon as possible because they are pretty spectacular, but it isn't working right now.

So yes, that's what life looked like last week, and I have been travelling for nearly 30 hours receiving no sleep the night before I left and only about 4 or 5 hours during that time. I still have another 10 hours before we land in Mexico and then we still need to go through customs and immigration there, so it will be ages still before we get to go to bed, but definitely the hardest part of the trip is over and I am looking forward to finally being in Mexico. For the first week we are there we don't actually do much (if any) ministry. For the first 3 days in Mexico we will be alternating between people in our team and spending 72 hours straight of reading the entire bible aloud in a public place. I'm looking forward to this part because I think it will be really cool! Then for the 3 days after that we spend a lot of time walking through our area and praying for it asking God for strategies to reach the area. So there is a lot of bible and prayer for the first week which I think will be amazing! Then we do a lot of our youth group work and street evangelism after that. It is hard to say exactly what life will look like once we reach Mexico, but I am excited to find out!

Moving onto prayer points for this week I would ask for continued prayer for health and definitely for strength and energy for everyone as we try to recover from our 40 hours of travelling! There have been bad colds and even a stomach bug travelling around my team so we really do need a lot of prayer for health! Also just pray for safety while we are in Mexico City and for open hearts in the city. Now for some exciting news regarding prayer! Thank you to everyone who joined with us in prayer for our Asians to get into Mexico. We received word on Friday morning that the visas had been approved! We sent a representative over to Canberra with all the passports on Sunday morning so he could get the visa stamps on them all Monday morning and the Asians could all leave on time on February 2! It really was a true answer to prayer as we didn't want our teams to be separated for a week as it was looking like might happen. Also it would have cost about $1000 per person to change the tickets to the week later so it was also an answer to prayer financially as well! It is very exciting news because we weren't just fighting for our Asians to get in, we were fighting for missionaries from any country to be able to get in to Mexico. Mexico is a very closed country especially to South America, Asia, and Africa, because it is considered an easy entry point into the States, but now the country has said any missionary from any country can come into the country for the year 2010 (which is the duration of Megacities). So it really was amazing news and we were all very grateful to God! So thank you for standing with us in prayer and lifting us up in all our travels and ministry.