It is now Saturday evening and I am just getting ready to go to bed. The past two days have been such a blessing and full of fun.
Friday, Paulina (the youth minister) and I went up to the church and I worked on finishing up preparing the bible study for the evening. Then after, I went with her to her house where we made pizza with her younger sister and watched T.V. until it was time to go to youth. We met two of the other youth leaders at Mcdonalds right before. The Mcdonalds! Let me just say I was super impressed. Not only was it super clean, the food looked a whole lot better, and they have whole menu of coffee drinks and baked goods. I got a coffee and it was quite delicious. They also don't have your regular M&M and oreo mcflurrys. They have bubblegum, mint-chocolate chip, caramel cookie, etc. It was so strange. Then we went to youth where I met the other youth leaders. We went through how youth was going to run that night with all of the different games and then the bible study. I love the youth leaders! They are so much fun and they all love the Lord and the students. The students arrived and I met each one as they walked in. It was so funny because they would exclaim "Oh- you are the American!", its so weird being the person who gets looked at for talking in a different accent everywhere. There were 30 students who came which was a new record for this term! Holllllllla! We went around a circle where all of us told our names. Then we played three different games. One was kind of like baseball, one was attempting to shave the shaving cream off a balloon without it popping, and the last game was "bang". Then the students pulled out chairs and I set up the projector. I started the lesson with showing a clip from the Lion King. It was where Simba and Nala entered the Hiena area where Mufasa had told them not to go. Mufasa ends up coming and saving them and is quite angry at Simba. He ends up forgiving Simba for what he did and then continued to show him love. The students were sad when I stopped the clip, but were attentive to the lesson. We talked about how God, just like Mufasa forgives us when we disobey him. We talked about how God is not happy with us, but still loves us. We then went through different scripture that expresses the need for us to forgive and love just like Christ does. Then, I passed each student a sheet of colored paper and a writing utensil. I told them to think of something on their heart that they either need to forgive someone for or need forgiveness for themselves. They were to write it down, take a few moments for prayer, and then rip up the paper expressing that the issue is over with. The students, for the most part, took this seriously it seemed-which was encouraging. I enjoyed my first youth thoroughly. After youth I went with three of the youth leader girls- Emily ( daughter of the pastor I am currently staying with), Emma, and another Emily! We got a coke and then they took me for a drive around the city of Melbourne- it was too much fun.
This morning, I awoke and got ready. I was able to skype my family which was great! Then Pastor Greg, Kathy, and Emily and I head to the "Queen Victoria Market". It was a large outside market place filled with clothes, shoes, souveniers, fresh produce, pretty much anything you could think of. I started the task of getting souveniers for friends and family. We grabbed a coffee and then lunch later on. After the market we went down to a pier a little way from the city. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was so calm. There were numerous sail boats in the water. It was a lovely day. We then went home for several hours just relaxing. Then we went up to church for a quick dinner for a reunion of sorts for the pastor. Then the pastors kids, a family friend and I went to Max Brenner chocolate bar. I was unfortunately, not hungry. I ate a couple strawberries with chocolate. But- someday I will go back hungry to try some of those chocolate treats. We then went back to the house and played some games.
This was an extremely long post. This weekend was a blessing. I was starting to feel kind of homesick yesterday morning, but He blessed me with friends, fun, and encouragement. God is good. I can not say that enough. Church tomorrow morning!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment