I realize it's been a while since I have written anything meaty, so here you go! I have a bit of time as I am at an internet cafe. We have had a free day most of today so we took two vanloads to the beach. It's absolutely gorgeous here today. But the sun here is HOT. And hot in a way much different than Florida. There is a hole in the ozone layer over AUS and NZ apparantly, and the rays here will fry you up in no time flat. Hence, the sunburned country. I know it sounds wierd, but I have noticed the difference in my eyes. I can get by without sunglasses in FL, but man, I can't even open my eyes outside without sunglasses here. So they say, slop, slip, slap, wrap. Slop on some sunscreen, slip on a shirt, slap on a hat, wrap on some sunglasses. :) And I have been!

Right now, this is all kind of surreal. We are on the Sunshine Coast. I started in Brisbane, and we drove about 90 km eastish to the beachy areas. We have been going to the beach about every other day for our free time during training. If you want to find me on the map, we have been at Noosa Beach, now I am at Coolum beach, and yesterday night we went to Mooloolabah Beach for a special ceremony.

I think its all surreal because we have beaches in FL, so its similar but also very different. The waves here are 3-4m high and the rip (pulls you out into the water) and pull (pulls you sideways in the water) are full on (means intense here). Seriously, you cannot hardly fight them and swimming is a MAJOR workout. Plus, all around the beach are mountains with pine trees, but not like ours. The pine needles grow up out of the bark in little patches. They grow up towards the sky. There are lifegaurds here and they have signs up that say, "messy seas, possibly blue bottles (jelly fish), strong rip, etc) and you have to stay between these two flags to be rescued. Leave the flagged area and you are on your own. And you want to stay in the flags because about 1m on either side of them a wave will hit you and pull you 5m out to sea before you can even find your footing. One day, there was waves crashing in from the left and right and when it hit it pulled me under and it felt like a washing machine. Wicked wierd!

Other things... they have no stop lights in these smaller towns. Only roundabouts. So all 4 roads come to a round about and they slow to about 40 while whipping around these roundabouts. And bigger intersections have several connected roundabouts, so you'll be lean to the left, left, left, then to the right, right, right. Praise God I am not carsick yet! The vans we are in are very old (165,oookm on them), have no AC (it's about 80-100 degrees F here right now), and are manuals. So it makes for a wild ride. Not to mention there are 12 young people in them and they are being driven by 18 and 19 year olds. Let me just say, the singing and dancing are lovely and I have some video I will share when I can. :)

Other things... we are staying in a campground of sorts, almost like girl scout camp. I am sleeping in a bunk bed and we have community showers. We have an awesome cook who prepares us meals. They eat a LOT here... Brekkie (breakfast), morning tea (around 11 a.m.), Lunch, Dinner (the evening meal at 6 p.m.) and then Supper (an evening snack of biscuits at 9 p.m.). It's been very structured which has been nice, but they have also given us a good bit of free time to get to know each other and spend in prayer. This first week has been a retreat for us, and the upcoming 2 weeks will be training on how to do ministry/their format of ministry for the upcoming year. This week, we get up, go to mass, have breakfast, do an hour of personal prayer, have a session (teachings, etc.), Morning tea, another session, small group, Lunch, a bit of free time, two more sessions, then dinner, then some free time and a session or evening prayer, then supper. Then do it all over again. :)

This week has been amazing. I am not a live in the moment person. I am a planner. And I have really enjoyed everything being planned for me and me truly having NO IDEA what comes after this week, or even after the next three weeks, as I don't yet know which team I will be on. God has really been using this time for me to be fully focused on him and where he wants me. The retreat has focused on God and his incredible love for us. How he designed each of us. He created us perfect in his eyes, and we are the ones who he has to convince to allow him to love us. That is our struggle. So a focus on his love for us, and then on the gift and relationship we have with Jesus, and finally a day on the Holy Spirit and how he is sent to change us and bring us closer to the Father and Son. Let me just say that the gifts and healings from those three days were incredible. I thank you all for your prayers for me, and please know I have been lifting you up, as a group and as individuals as well.

So after the Father, Son and Holy Spirit days, we spent 2.5 days in Sisterhood and Brotherhood. The girls and guys separate discussing how God made us different but equal and celebrating the gifts of our femininity and masculinity. It was beautiful. And we discussed that much of the challenge of this year will come from having to live and love in community. So we committed to our sisterhood to love unconditionally and always be honest and to serve and honor each other this year. Today we joined back with the guys and it is beautiful to appreciate the gifts God gave us as men and women. He is truly the perfect designer. :)

Other random things about Australia...truly, almost everything here is poisonous. The toads, spiders and snakes at our camps are poisonous. The kangaroos are very similar to deer. They come out and graze at dawn and dusk. Crazy! The majority of the trees here shed their bark, NOT their leaves. There are lots and lots of lizards here, including LARGE ones called Johannas that look like snakes when you see them in the grass. The birds (kookaburra in particular) are LOUD. And they have this laugh that sounds like tribal worship going on. And they make it all night. It hasn't bugged me, but some of the folks have been having a hard time sleeping. Praise God it has actually rained a good bit the past week, as they are on water restrictions here. It's their summer, so we have eaten a lot of fruit similar to FL. The land around here is beautiful. I think Jurassic Park was filmed here, and if it wasn't, well, it looks similar to the land from that movie.

So, I hope that this brings you a little bit up to date as to what all we have been doing. Can't remember if I told you or not, but our team is 3 short this year, so we are 29 large... 4 americans (me, one from Massachucetts and two from Texas), 2 NZers, 8 Canadians, 1 Nigerian, and 14 Aussies. I love the diversity. :) So please keep praying for me. Right now I don't have internet access, but I have been writing a lot of letters. It takes 10 days for them to arrive, but hopefully I will get to send them soon. Thank you Alexis-- I got your letter and it totally made my day! :) I can use the phone some, but the hours are 15 different, so it makes it hard to call when its not the middle of the night.

Love you all and miss you so much. :) Please let me know how you are doing and if you have any special intentions. You are in my heart! MLC