Day 2

I live in a house with about 60 other people. I'm not sure about the final count, because the number changes nightly. I have about 25 students in my DTS and 6 to 8 staff members, but the staff members from the Oct. and April DTS also live here. So do their families. Some of the youth from Youth Street, called "the crew" stay here too sometimes. The hostel I live in is a home to children, youth, elderly, and missionaries from all over the world who needs a place to crash for a few weeks. I have met people from England, Canada, Germany, Fiji and New Zealand, so, naturally the base is full of different kinds of accents. Every next person you talk to has a different accent-- this can be confusing and also amusing. Although there are lots of Aussie's and Kiwi's (New Zealanders) around, it doesn't feel like I'm in an Australian culture, but a unique sub-culture. We eat dinner and mock each other's way of speaking and the lingo used.I'm really starting to like it here.

It's so crazy how intentional God is about every aspect of life. Today I realized that being a Young Life leader has prepared me so well for this specific YWAM base. We put on Youth Street, which is just like the Australian version of Young Life on steroids. Every Saturday from noon to 9pm we cater to the youth of Newcastle, we have activities for them, dinner, worship, lesson, bible studies and small groups. For some of the youth, the older ones called "the crew", we will help equip them for a short outreach of their own. There are five teams that serve these youth, a surf team, sports team, music, art, skateboarding and dance team. My first choice would to be on the music team. I don't really know why I want this, because I can't sing, or play the guitar well enough to assist in leading worship, however, I want to grow in the musical area of my life. I just do! So I hope I get on that team. If not, I'd be fine with surf (cause I could just play on the beach) or sports team. I don't really know what to expect from Youth Street, I'm already ahead of a lot of my fellow students, because all of the training of how to deal with minors I had gone through with Young Life, so I'm glad God has prepared me for this role! Just hearing about Youth Street made me feel tired... I hope it won't actually be like that! Every morning I wake up at 6:00am because the sun shines through my window, and tomorrow morning I have a prayer meeting. Not sure what that is-- but I figure I should get some sleep tonight. :)