Challenges, Blessings and the Nullarbor.

This past week has been filled with challenges and blessings. As I mentioned way back in the beginning of this experience… Way back when teams were announced… a typical NET National Team has 10-12 people. Ideally, 12. We had 9. Last week we lost one of our members, so we are currently a team of 8. Besides the obvious sadness at losing one of our closest friends and team mates, there is the challenge of there being only 8 of us. But God has been AMAZING. Truly. Just 3 days after our teammate departed, we had 3 retreats in a row. One with 150 year 12 girls and then two in a row with 180 year 11 coeds. On some of those retreats, just due to sheer numbers, even crowd control can be a challenge. But, as always, these kids were WONDERFUL. And God was amazing. Anything that is normally a challenge he simply stepped in and took care of. Even with little sleep and several of us sick (myself included), we had the energy and enthusiasm to get through the day and many victory stories to share. This seems to be the theme for this whole year. Jesus continuing to reveal his AWESOME power. And it seems like the times when we fall the shortest are the very times He steps in, as if to remind us… DUH! It’s SO not about YOU!


Of all my lessons learned so far this year, the absolute POWER of Jesus to do ANYTHING has been the top. And when I say this, I truly mean that my faith has grown so much. I honestly believe that if God wanted to turn me into a frog, he could. And that is a silly comparison of course, but what I mean is that I truly believe, with all my heart, that God can do ANYTHING. We are the only thing that limit his power. In my experience, I will question and doubt until the cows come home. So when I say he could turn me into a frog… my hope this year is that he WILL transform me. Fully and completely. Hopefully not into a frog, but if that was his will, I would take it. My prayer has been that he transform me into a person who ALWAYS acts out of selflessness and love. In my life, I have lived far from this ideal. I find that the more I try to live that way, the more I realize how selfish I was and could be. But, every time I realize that, I do my best to make progress towards changing. We cannot change our past, but we can ask forgiveness and do our best to move forward. So that is what I am working on.


On an up note, we had an incredible time traveling the Nullarbor. Granted, this trip was only about 3 days, and when we return, it will be 7, but still, it was actually quite nice. I went to the store and we loaded up a cooler, our trailer and our van and took off. If you want to check out a map, we went from Port Lincoln to Streaky Bay, where a beautiful couple from Adelaide shouted us (paid for) a Bed and Breakfast stay. They also hooked us up with some friends of theirs from Streaky who gave us the most delicious bbq of lamb and king whiting. SOOOO good! We hung out at their place and played pool as the night came in. The stars were AMAZING!!! Streaky Bay is a fishing town with little light pollution, so you could really see the milky way.


We got up early and left Streaky for Eucla. There we stayed at a caravan park. But before we got there, we had to cross the Western Australia border. Because WA is on a fruit and veggie quarantine due to an infestation of fruit flies, they have check points at the border where they confiscate your raw food. So we got there and they patted down our trailer. Since so much of our dinner for that night was raw veggies, they told us we could turn back and go to the gas station right before you cross the border and cook it on the public barbies. So we did. We went and built a camp fire and cooked a delicious meal of meat, potatoes and carrots on an open fire (thank you Girl Scouts for the training…). Since we had so many apples that we were going to have to surrender anyway, we chucked those on as well. YUM! Then we sat out by the campfire and laughed. We had team prayer in a small chapel there. Yes, who knows why, but there was a small chapel at this gas station/caravan park. God provides. It was a beautiful prayer where we spent time in prayer with each other for whatever our needs were.


Gas stations, and really any civilization, are few and far between on the Nullarbor. So when you get to a petrol station (aka gas station), most of them had showers and beds there. You drop in a dollar coin (Oz dollars and two dollars are coins) and you get a 3 minute shower. Just a bit of info… It is pretty sparse. But honestly, our biggest fear on the Nullarbor is the wetting of pants. We laugh so hard and the toilets are so few and far between. And since there are no trees on the Nullarbor (null-no / arbor=trees), hiding behind a bush is pretty much a no go. So this is an ongoing joke with the team.


So after Eucla, we headed to Norseman. On the way there, we stopped at the Great Australian Bight. It’s where the cliffs of Oz drop off into this incredible blue water and you can walk right up to the edge. One of the most beautiful places I have ever had the privilege to see. I will try to add pictures. When we got to Norseman, we stayed at another caravan park. The girls had a small bunk area with a kitchen and so did the guys. We cooked quesadillas. Which only one of the Ozzie’s had tasted before. Mexican food is not nearly as prevalent here… for obvious reasons I suppose. They are a good bit away from Mexico. Even when I bought the stuff at the store, they didn’t even sell hard taco shells. But they do have tons of Asian food… which again would make sense. Also, where most of our students learn Spanish or French, most of their students learn Indonesian, Japanese or Italian. And most of their kids who have been overseas have either been to Japan or Bali or one of the areas near here, while many of our students will do the European jaunt. It’s also funny because most Ozzie’s who have been to the states go to LA, Los Vegas, and occasionally NY or Disney. So if you can imagine, that is there impression of the states. VERY different than Tally town, eh?


Anyway, after Norseman, we rode into Perth. Each day was about 8-9 hours travel. We arrived in Perth just as the sun was setting. If you can imagine, a West Coast sunset on the Indian Ocean. Amazing!! But I suppose in Florida we are blessed that we can see the sun set on West Coast as well. But it was quite beautiful how the colors exploded in the sky. The Linkin Park song, Shadow of the Day was playing. There is a line in there that says, “And the sun will set for you.” We all agreed this sunset was God’s gift to us.


So, I was just looking through the pictures I want to upload and I will share with you some other random things I remembered… We had a girl’s time when our supervisor was here. Seeing as we have little money, we are always getting creative on stuff to do. So she took us to the mall and we picked out outfits for each other and had each other try them on. It was tons of fun because we got to dress each other up. You had to try the outfit on… no complaining. So you’ll see some of the pictures from that experience.


I’ll also post some of the goofiness from across the Nullarbor. Such as the signs requesting that you don’t ask for water because “refusal often leads to offense.” Also just a shot of us, the van and pretty much nothing for 500 km. Some of the directional signs. And of course, the Road Trains, which are essentially HUGE semis with 3-6 trailers being hauled behind them. Another blessing but bit of weirdness was the time changes as we traveled West. So, we passed through a few time zone changes, but their daylight savings time is not done on the hour… so one time we went back 30 minutes. Another 45. So you’ll see some of the clocks there that show the times in different places. You’ll also see a post office from one of the small towns. Each box represents a household in that area. Can we say, “small town”?


And of course a shot from the longest straight road in Australia. 90 miles without a curve. The heat was rising off the ground in the distance and kept playing tricks on your eyes. And we played “Count the carcass” as we saw literally hundreds of kangaroo carcasses. And the person in the front was on “Womroo” or “Kangabat” watch… aka Roos or Wombats. Apparently, if they jump in front of you, you are to speed up and hit them head on. If you try to swerve, they will jump into you and roll your car. So, I spent most of the time watching the sides of the road to make sure they didn’t slam into the side of our car.


You’ll see a picture of my first attempt at surfing, which occurred right outside of Adelaide. With the help of my host dad, I was able to catch a wave. And when I say with his help, I mean I lay down on the board and he pulled me onto a wave. But it was so awesome. I went probably 50 m. AMAZING! I was actually riding the water.


You’ll find a picture from Melbourne’s beach. We stopped in for a night, literally one night and half of a day. We stayed with the local team there. They took us to the beach, but you will see the jelly that was in the water. I didn’t swim for too long.


So anyway, that is a bit about how things have been. We are headed out today to Bunbury, then to Dawesville, then back to Perth. Then we go to Pemberton for several days and back here for our second supe visit. So love to all of you and I miss you sooo much.


Check out these pics…

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2413707&l=9789f&id=5214104