Gracious Blessings

This weekend was fantastic! Probably one of the best i have yet to have! I was able to minister through serving, fellowship with amazing Aussie friends and have a bit of fun in the process.
Where to start.... well on friday morning i went to a weekly Bible Study which was very enlightening. I have been going to this study for several weeks now and we are going through the book of Colossians with which we have just finished with chapter one. I have never been through a study that focuses on every word and its meaning, so though at times it can be quite a headache to think that deeply on a friday morning, the rewards of new found understanding are so magnificent.
Friday night my friend and I were picked up to go up to Lake Tinaroo where we would join in on a "working bee". We had a camp over that night which included, a little pick up game of soccer,a campfire, and staying up super late. Saturday morning we woke up, had a leisurely breakfast, and started to paint the boys "toliets and showers" at the camp.
A little background: Camp tinaroo is owned by the church and they use it for all their camps as well as rent it out to other churches. There are a few families in the church that have taken it upon themselves to care after the camp for the most part and occasionally have members of the church volunteer to help fix it up. This weekend was the young adults turn to help. And as i have learned, Aussies work hard, but they play much harder...
So with that philosophy, we did our few hrs of work, had a terrific lunch and went down to the lake to go tubing, skiing, wakeboarding, jetskiing and some sunbaking for the rest of the afternoon....Watching the sun set on the water is so beautiful! A wonderful reminder of God's Greatness and creativity.
The best part of the afternoon was jetskiing...i got to drive some which is always fun ...But the real task was trying to stay on the jetski when Gary was driving. Gary in a nutshell....the stereotypical australian. Including Accent, sense of humor, interests and job. He works at the mines in the north and gets months off at a time for holiday...apparently he grew up with Joel and his family (caretakers of camp tinaroo) and has been on the lake his whole life, so he was not shy with doing things with the jetski....hence having to hold on for dear-life....
Later that afternoon we all went over to a different part of the lake where there was a slalom course...but to get us all over there, 4 people had to be on the jetski, and 4 on the boat and 2 in tubes pulled by the boat...i was in one of the tubes and gary was in the other and he thought it would be hilarious to try and knock me off my while the boat was still on its way to the new site...very fast might i add..
someone on the boat documented this which looks really funny..but i was pleading with him not to knock me off and resisting with all my might....

Funny enough, he was the one who ended up flying off so i thought that was Awesome and of course everyone on the boat thought so too....

As the sun began to set we had to go back and pack up but the fun wasn't over yet, after some quick showers we all went to a local drive-in in the Tablelands. It was only 9$ for 2movies which i thought was pretty good. However, the movies were G-Force, and Hannah Montana of all things....hahaha G-force was ridiculous, and hannah montana was cute but very cheesy at the same time...Despite that it was a really cool experience, literally...the tablelands get really cold at night and i had to wear my trackies and jumper (sweatpants and jacket :) ) as well as a blanket. I have to say it was quite refreshing to be cold ...these days its so hot and humid but at the same time mostly pleasant.

Sunday, was excellent and adventure packed as well. I directed a photoshoot as a project for my photography class with the help of my australian friends as my subjects. I took like 500 pics and i really only need 3 for my class...That's the best thing about digital cameras, especially if you are trigger happy :) The pictures came out really well and my subjects were such great sports about the whole thing. After several hrs of shooting pics, we went to a late lunch at a great new restaurant called Nandos. One of my favs for sure! then we went to church followed by many of us going to the Night Markets for dinner. after that i went to a friends house to watch "She's the Man" of which we all had seen multiple times and thus were all able to quote the entire movie which was much fun!
So it was three late nights in a row but So totally and completely worth it...and nothing coffee can't help me with later. I am going to miss my aussie friends so much...God has blessed me with their immediate acceptance and friendship and i feel completely blessed to be apart of their lives even if it is only for 5 months. They will probably be the best 5 months of my life, atleast internationally :)

Well, i suppose that was quite a long post, however it was quite a fantastic weekend and i just couldn't wait to share with everyone!
Cheers!