Beautiful Things

Fun fact: Australia is roughly the size of the contiguous United States and has less than one tenth the population. I now have a strong urge to visit the vastly unpopulated outback region.

This week has really started off in God's direction. The worship band that I'm in has continued to impress me with their growth and response to challenges. It is an incredible feeling to see people making leaps and bounds on their instruments and voices with the extra work required. More importantly though, I can also see that my bandmates are growing in their relationship with Christ. As we sit in classes and participate in tutorials together, I have felt the atmosphere definitely change as we share our testimonies and pray for one another. As a band, we've come together to pray for healing and to encourage each other with the word of God. Memorizing scripture with other people is incredibly rewarding as well.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, housemate Dave must leave the country for the rest of the semester. He will be visiting with Junior for a short time in California before heading to his hometown of Dallas to work in production and hang out with his family for awhile. He is planning to come back in January, however, he is unsure whether he will be coming back to this house or not. According to him, it actually is a blessing to be able to go back to his family for awhile. He said that his job at Hillsong Music had actually caused him to stop singing for awhile to focus more on the production part of his job and that this break will allow him to once again sing his heart out for the Lord. Although I am sad to see him go, I'm excited to see what God has for him. In about a month, Junior should be returning from California.

For our chapel service today, the team put together a series of hymns and other old songs to sing. From time to time, they like to worship in this way to prove that Who we worship is much more important than How we worship. I'm not sure if there was a message planned or not, but after 15 minutes of "I Surrender All" at the top of our lungs, it was pretty clear that God wanted the praise and worship to continue. It was also the first chance that I've had to see the Dance stream participate in the chapel service. Until the service, I had never understood how motions of the body could communicate a message of praise. Now, I have seen and I understand.

Yesterday, I was able to see my Aunt Renee and Uncle Ken who are pastors from New Zealand. It was awesome to be able to pray and meet with family once again. I also had the privilege of participating in a time of prophecy in the church where they were speaking in Sydney. My uncle Ken, the same man who baptized me in crystal lake, was now being led by the spirit to speak encouragement into my life about my future and the plans that God has for me. How awesome is that? They also invited me to come and stay with them in New Zealand for a week over Christmas break to have a great time of fellowship and growth. I'll definitely be praying for God's will there. I also was able to meet Jason and Amy, the pastors of the Every Nation Church in Sydney. I am very thankful that God has moved me into great friendships here and I am hoping for even more to come.