hey guys...today i guess was when we officially began lectures and stuff....omgsh! its gonna take getting used to. the day was sooooo long. today we got up at like 7am and then we went to a leadership meeting for hillsong women which was ace and got us all pumped for what God was gonna do :) then we went to serve and me and my housemates pretty much got put on the pamper section which is where ladies can get their nails done or whatever for free during mingle time in the foyer before service begins...
hillsong women was great, andi andrews spoke and oh gosh she is so funny! she reminds me of you lydia! but her message was so powerful i felt tears on my face without realising...
then we had our first class with this guy called alan myers who actually was preaching at city campus but video-linked the message live with us at hills. cool huh.
that was 2 hours long and it was about the "search for life" which was re

ally interesting but yeah takes willpower to sit still that long in one position....we only got 15mins break and then had another 2 hours...wow i felt so tired...but God was so understanding and was giving me strength so i think i made it...!!! we then had to dash for a quick dinner and went to leadership vision night in the evening and got back at like 10pm....phew what a day! and this is only the beginning...

ok so we got these cool t shirts and backpacks...although not many people use the backpacks lol. they're a bit manly but there you go...enjoy! thats hannah and me

hey guys...this is my room and this is where i am pondering and catching up on lots of emails!!! i dyed my hair...im not sure if you really noticed but i had really awful roots a not long ago and yeah its not as coppery as it was before thank God. this is my room....can you see the mirror and pictures in the background??? thats what reminds me of you and give me fond memories of how much you all mean to me!!
thank you for all your encouraging emails and comments, phone calls and text messages...!!! :)
keep sending...

i love you i love you i love and miss you all so much...!!

hey everyone. church is so great at the moment. here they have so much going on throughout the week and as student we are involved in serving there and things. we have even got really involved before college started helping in some major areas which has been really good and getting us stuck in with what is happening in this place. hillsong men and hillsong women run on thursday mornings and they are so good! when you walk into the foyer they serve you with fruit toast and melon and tea and wow. yeah its pretty good hey! ok so lets not just think about the food...its great teaching...this girl katerina gave such a great message on how important it is getting into the word...i reckon im gonna get the CD because it really pumped me up! :)

powerhouse runs every friday night (18-25yrs) as well as wildlife (year 9-12) and fuel (year 6-8) the youth programs here are phenomenal and really up and going!

one thing i really like about this place is the great atmosphere, the amazing cultural range of people and that they play really cool jazz improvisations in the service intervals! how sweet is that...

the picture is church at night :o

hey guys. hope you're all going good. today i started college and it was full on busy with tons of admin things like signing forms and getting ID cards and my overseas health cover card and receiving our schedules and timetables blah blah....phew it was real busy and went kinda slowly but we all went for some happy chill times in gloria jeans (australia's version of starbucks...) and omgsh its lovely and soooo cheap! yey :)

ok so basically it has been a really great but rocky first couple of weeks...making friends was really okay because everyone is so friendly and things but i guess it was just things like differences and stuff...the fact im in australia! and not england...
here are a few pictures of when we did some typical sydney-sightseeing! enjoy...

hey everybody. today im going to put a few pictures up from the day we hit bondi beach for a bit of tourism blah! it was so beautiful though...it was relatively cold according to australians but i thought the day was really great....although granted it did get pretty chilly quickly! the food places nearby were really pricey though! i think thats because of the fact it was bondi beach though! wow...God is so gracious. He has been so good this past couple of weeks. Isn't He great? He's helped me in every way :)

these seagulls kept sitting around us because mayra and me had chips which were obviously very tempting...a lot of the birds had one leg...which was weird. and in case any of you were asking, they actually had one leg.it wasn't just hidden in their body haha. right well...it was interesting trying to shoo them away....i think they wanted to really eat mayra!

in the picture with some friends from the top left clockwise: candice and david (married couple from alaska), mayra, amy, hannah, jess, me and a new person to arrive, jonathan from wisconsin.

hey everybody. on monday we had an "apres ski" themed party...which was really fun. something for all the new students we put on at our place so that everyone could get to know some more first years...

we spent all afternoon cutting at snowflakes for the wall and crumbling polystyrene to make it look snowy on the floor! it was kinda funny! this is all the people that came that evening...it was pretty cool getting to know new people before term starts.

on tuesday all the girls had a lazy day and mayra and i had a pillow fight whilst hannah watched bemused. she enjoyed a night in of burger and star wars...
its been nice having a breather today before enrolment on wednesday. so we chilled out and let the day roll by...

on the 27th it was sunday night live. they have been doing this series of multimedia presentation nights with drama, dance, videos and music for the last month on sunday nights. pretty sweet stuff! there are like hundreds of salvations per week with all the services and things they do here at church..its wild! :)

i love going to the services here, everything is done with such effort for excellence to really reach out to people. the heart behind it and all the church's vision is really touching. its a great place. and i love that God is the cornerstone of it all...happy days :) God is SUCH a good GOD!

omgsh. everybody i miss you so much. even though i was so excited about coming here its been challenging already. not so much because it's bad here but only because it's different and taken some getting used to! to all i love and know: you know who you are and i miss you freaking loads!

hey everyone. here i am in australia. this is something to let you know whats going down in this place and what life is like on this very different continent!
i've been here two weeks now and its been really insightful and renewing in many ways as i've been getting used to so many different cultures and environments. what can i say!
here is a photo of my new house...its very beautiful and is practically the smallest house on the street...can you believe that? the others are huge..but this is huge to me.
there are five girls that live here. me, mayra (18 yrs, mexican but raised in texas...shes a dude) hannah, (18yrs, from the gold coast in queensland...shes a lot of fun) jen, (2o yrs, from wales...yieeww!! :D shes hilarious) and jess (23 yrs from michigan...whos really sweet :)
here is a picture of all my housemates plus a few extra gatecrashers...just kidding. they're all great :) From the top left: charlotte (from home yey!), me, amy (another brit) jen, candice...Bottom row from left: jess, hannah and mayra with the gas lighter!