DECEMBER 11

so wow, these last 3 weeks have been CRAZY. we did 3 weeks of the Go Pass It On tour (gopassiton.org). To be honest, going into it, I wasn’t excited at all. 3 weeks in country towns sleeping on the floor and playing with kids did not sound very fun. however, I knew God would build my character, and he certainly did.

WEEK 1
the tour kicked off in beaudesert. all the girls were sleeping in a room about 4 times the size of my bedroom at home. i’m talking about 35 girls, all basically spooning because of how crowded we were. not to mention there was one shower-15 minutes of a walk away, and we weren’t allowed to go after it got dark...i think i showered 2 times that week. my team went into schools and did a lot of “R.E.” classes (religious education). we also had an after school program where we set up a huge inflatable soccer field and painted faces and had coloring played with kids. putting up/taking down the soccer field was super exhausting. we also had different meals to prep/clean up throughout the week. thankfully, we got 1 day off that week and my team all went swimming together and it was just a good day to be able to relax.

WEEK 2
on to boonah. we got there about 1 am saturday night, and we were all sleeping in the floor of a church. we did have more space, but there were also more ants... we had to wake up at about 5 am to get dressed to go to different churches in the morning and to pack up all our stuff and get out of the church we were sleeping in for their own service. oh, and this is where i started to get sick. by this morning, i lost my voice. me and 3 other people went to a church together. on our way, one of the guys we were with jokingly prayed that someone from the church would invite us over to lunch. after that church ended, this family invited us over for lunch! :) they fed us an amazing meal and it was truly SUCH a blessing to be in a home. they also set mattresses out in their living room and just let us lay down and relax for a bit! God not only answers prayers, but answers them in abundance :) we got back to the church and i definitely needed a nap. i was feeling so sick. i definitely caught a cold. i ended up sleeping about 22 hours and even missed monday’s day activities. monday night, we got together to pray for the town. my group was praying for the high schoolers. there was this skatepark not too far from the tent, so we went and prayed in it, and then to the high school. it was really good, we got to declare God over that area and just pray for love and peace for the kids who skate there.

on tuesday, during our after school activities, one of the leaders asked a couple of us to pray for something else that we could do for the activities. God gave me this really great idea to have a “princess” table- a table for little girls to go and have their hair braided and nails painted. also, he gave me the idea to make bracelets with letter beads- and have each kid choose a fruit of the spirit and put that on the bracelet. such a good idea from God and we made it happen!

also, on tuesday, i felt like God was telling me to go over to the skatepark. so i did. i sat there for about 20 minutes, super awkwardly. then i went over and started talking to the kids there and just kind of introduced myself and started building relationships with the kids. they were super friendly and it was awesome to get to know them. throughout the week, different YWAM-ers went over to the skatepark to talk to them and invite them to the tent each night...they were nice, but hardly any of them came.

friday was my birthday! :) in the morning, i woke up, showered, and had a quiet time. during that, i told God that this day is his. my life is not my own, but his. it didnt matter if anyone acknowledged my birthday or not, because i know how much i mean to Him. i went to the kitchen and started cutting some fruit for breakfast. after i had done that, i looked up and Paige Motz (fellow Texan) made me some breakfast tacos and wrote me a letter for my birthday! they were SO GOOD. after breakfast, i went to where my sleeping bag was at and there were so many letters! i started opening them but i couldnt read them without crying...this is why. ever since i was little, i always expected my birthday to be a big deal. i always wanted friends to do things for me, but they never did. i always ended up disappointed on my birthday. on this day, however, i set no expectations but just gave it completely up to God. yet God loves me so freaking much that he did this for me. it’s really cool that in YWAM, none of us have money, so all the presents are letters and things we make and our favorite foods. It’s truly incredible the friends he has blessed me with. It took me so much time to read all the letters because of all the happy tears coming down! SO OVERWHELMING. i’ve seriously never had better friends, EVER. and these are girls i know i can trust my entire life with. SO BLESSED.

on friday night, during worship, i was outside of the tent. these kids from the skate park came up to me and asked what i was doing. i kind of got to share why i worship God and a bit of my testimony, and that was awesome in itself! i’m not too sure how it happened, but me and Jonny (fellow ywam-er) ended up in the skatepark talking to these two guys. it was amazing that God placed Jonny and I together in this situation. me and him were both able to share our testimonies and bounce off one another. we got to share the difference between religion and having a relationship with Christ, and how Christ has worked so evidently in both of our lives. i could definitely tell that these kids were hungry to know more. one started talking about christians healing people and how it was bogus. he then told us about how he had gotten surgery in his knee a little while back and that there are metal pieces in it. his name was casey. he said that with every step, there is cricking and pain. Jonny and I asked if we could pray for it, and he actually let us. we warned him it might be weird, but he let us. we prayed for it, and asked him to get up and walk. no pain, no cricking! we had to go, but HOW FREAKING CRAZY COOL!!!!

The best part was that this was all on my birthday! that i didnt expect anything great for my birthday, but just told God that my life is his and he can do whatever he wants with it. yet he loves me enough to bless me in the morning and make me feel so loved, yet also at night he let me be a light to share the love of Jesus as well as heal casey!

on saturday night, i went over to the skatepark and invited everyone over to the tent again. i saw casey there and asked him how his knee was. he said there was no pain at all, and no cricking! PRAISE JESUS! Jonny asked him to come hang out at the tent, but he said he was about to be going to a party so he couldnt.

later that night, i was so frustrated. i wanted to talk to more people from the skatepark, but i didnt want to be annoying and go over there AGAIN. so i prayed that God would send them over to the tent. that they would come and have questions and that God would give me all the answers, and that my words would not be my own but would come directly from Him. not even 30 seconds after praying, i look over and 2 of the skater kids were standing a couple feet away. i went up and started talking to them. they said that casey told them about his knee and wanted to know more about it. i sat down with them two and started answering all their questions! just then, casey walks up!!! he wasn’t even supposed to be there, he was supposed to be at a party yet God sent him over! i asked him if he wanted to know more about the God who healed his knee and he said no. he didn’t care about God at all but was just happy he was healed and didnt have pain anymore. he sat down next to the two boys and listened. i also got to share my testimony and how God has worked in my life! it was so cool because i didnt know a lot of answers to all their different questions, but the holy spirit just spoke through me and answered them all! i got to share about God’s crazy amounts of love and the difference between religion and christianity. it was almost time to go, so i asked them if they wanted to receive Christ and experience the joy i have in my heart that comes from God and accept the forgiveness that Jesus offers us through the cross. they all 3 said yes and became saved, even casey! cool thing is, right when we prayed with them to receive Christ, a Christian girl from the community walked up. i was able to connect them so that they would have a church to go to and other Christians to lean on. they were so excited and we got to give them Bibles and contact details and they want to hang out in Brisbane with us and skype and have so many more questions to ask! praise Jesus that he used that one healing to bring people to the kingdom! and if just those 3 stay on fire for God, they will impact all their friends and it will be a revolution!

WEEK 3 we physically ran from Boonah to Warwick (80 km). we would drop off a runner, drive 4 km and then wait for them to get to the bus...this took about 8 hours but it’s all part of what the pass it on tour stands for. those 8 hours were filled with heat, and flies. we had a lot of R.E. classes again, and no free time at all. we also had after school care everyday. I actually got to meet this girl. she is about 7 months pregnant, and stuck in a really terrible situation with a man who treats her terribly and no family to run to. i met her monday night, and on tuesday morning i felt like God was telling me to write her a letter. so i did, and finally saw her on wednesday evening. she said she had been looking for me and wanting to hang out. that night she told me about her situation she was in, and i gave her the letter. it was crazy because the letter was about how valuable and beautiful she is and how much worth she has in God. we hung out the next day, and i got to buy her lunch and just share so much more about who God is and the love he has for her and that she can find strength in Him even if theres nothing else to hold on to. it was a really great opportunity to speak truth to her and plant a seed in her life. Warwick was really hard in the living areas, and the fact that the shower was again, about a 15 minute walk away. the flies there would also swarm you. they were super co-dependent, and were obsessed with trying to get in your mouth, eyes, nose, and ears. it was terrible.

these 3 weeks were the roughest of my entire life, but it was definitely worth it. God did some absolutely amazing things, and these are only MY stories. there were about 50 of us, so imagine all the other crazy things he did! it was amazing to see that God is actually using ME, to bring HIM glory. i never thought i was a good enough person to do any of this for God, but he doesn’t care. he loves me just as i am and it’s amazing to see what he’s going to do with me in the future in order to bring others to his kingdom!