Chapter II

(the first post was Chapter I promise)

A Bit of Helpful FAQs:

If you ever want to make 100+ friends in one month… come to Hillsong Bible College.  Meeting this many awesome Christian men and women has been an adventure within itself.

Skinny jeans – Not only are they worn on a daily basis by 95% of the population (no exaggeration), but this trendy craze has proven to be successful amongst men of ALL ages.  By the way things appear to be going there’s no doubt in my mind skinny thigh-high jean shorts will be equally as popular, but we won’t get to enjoy those until the summer/spring days find there way here – should be a few more weeks.

The U.S. isn’t the only country that has controversial political elections where the news and radio fill the ears of everyone with the flaws and nonsense about each candidate. No one seems to be remotely excited about any of the future prime ministers.   Makes me miss Obama… sike.

Exciting news:

So after being here over a month our flat (apartment) just got a refrigerator about a week ago.  We have the world’s smallest refrigerator without it being considered a mini fridge. Like if mini fridges were little people and there were a maximum height to be classified as a little person, our refrigerator just missed the cut.   Keep in mind we have 4 guys in our flat and one mini fridge that just missed the cut, this refrigerator is going to be used in way’s it never saw coming. Do the math, 4 guys in a two bedroom flat. That’s 2 people per room.  Despite how horrible sharing a room sounds it really isn’t bad at all.  In a way it can be fun… or maybe that’s just me trying to remain positive.  

Opened a savings account with a 6% APY - anyone who might not understand my excitement just know this is unheard of in the US.

Found a cool little skate bowl in the middle of a random neighborhood.  Will probably get a chance to do some witnessing to other skaters while we’re over there.

In a way I’m a leader of a connect group of about 8 kids in the youth.  But that’s not the exciting part.  The exciting part is that these are some of the worst kids in the youth.  They’re the ones that never found themselves in other connect groups because they were too bad. So now it’s like the dream team of bad kids.  Two reasons I chose them:
1. I love a challenge.
2. I remember my days of being a nightmare of a kid for our youth pastor. These kids usually have a tough life and a past full of hurt.  It’s all about respect with these kids. They don’t give any because they aren’t used to getting any. That’s where I come in. Hopefully I can show them it’s possible to be respected amidst a world that’s seemingly out to get them.  This will require large amounts of prayer and patience on my part. But nevertheless, God’s glorious power will prevail and I’m confident there will be a significant change in the hearts of these kids despite whether it happens during my time at Hillsong or years later.

To be continued…

8882 Miles Later...

To all who are interested:

Because I know my attempts of consistency will fail, I'll say now, these blogs will be random.

What is it like out here?
Plenty of cool beaches.  They drive on the left side of the road - finally got used to looking right instead of left when crossing the road.  Customer service out here is pathetic.  We take for granted how good it actually is in America.  I'm not sure if the no tipping is a result of that or if bad customer service is the result of no tipping.  But either way we don't have to tip.  And the price you see is the exact price you pay at the register.  No more of having to calculate the tax before hand to see if you'll have enough money to buy it.  That's pretty sweet.

What is church/school like?
To say the least Hillsong/Sydney is AWESOME!  The leaders and pastors and teachers are all phenomenal  - or as they would say out here - legends!!  I go through gum 4x faster than back home.  It appears this is the result of sitting in about 6 services a week, not including all the classes I attend in the church throughout the week. With that said, you can imagine how many times we get to listen to the same worship songs.  It's a good thing Hillsong arguably puts out some of the best worship music in the world, otherwise I couldn't imagine having to listen to songs I don't enjoy that much over and over.

The classes I'm taking are Intro to New Testament, Christine Doctrine, Church History, and Personal Evangelism, and World Religions.  All so far seem tremendously interesting and I can't wait to get deeper into them.  I was never a big fan of kids and never saw myself working them, but it seems as though God has a different mindset than me - who'd a thought huh?  For the next year or so I'll be working with the youth in the city campus - ages 13-15.  And based off the way things have started I can see myself thoroughly enjoying working with these youth.

What's the most helpful thing I've learned so far? 
We ALL have an enormous amount of untapped potential inside of us and it's a shame it took a bunch of strangers to point it out to me.  Potential I can't see or touch or even imagine but I know it's there.  God has a journey already laid out before all of us and the more we tap into God the more we tap into His journey.  And I for one fully believe God's journey for my life will bring more joy, excitement, satisfaction, fulfillment, friends, and blessings than any other journey I can create for myself.  And what's awesome about this untapped potential is that it's waiting for us.  It's waiting for us to turn the "possible" into the "actual."  But it gets even better.  Whatever we feel like is the best possible outcome for our lives isn't enough for God.  God has something in store for us that will exceed what we can ask, think, or imagine.  We aren't meant to just be average.  We aren't meant to just scrape through life hoping we turn out to be someone of significance.  We are meant to experience the unimaginable Godly blessings throughout life by tapping into our Godly potential.  This school will help me see and develop this potential into the actual.  And without having to mention others, for that reason alone, I know I'm in the right place.

More to come in the near future...