its HEAPS GOOD eh?

I'm so... I don't know. 'Happy' isn't the right word. It doesn't express either the depth of despair or the ultimate joy that I feel.

Big Week Out.

Big Week Out has been my saving grace this week. An opportunity to get together with a bunch of kids about our age, all from various different churches and worship and serve God. And I know, you're all thinking it sounds lame. But, for me, this week has been an amazing experience, and one that I desperately needed.

A break from every day life, just to spend a week with God, and other Christians all of whom want to share your joys and your pains, your experiences and reall, your life. People I met three days ago, are now close friends. Friends who have shared, and will continue to share an amazing part of my life, and the lives of those around me.

BWO started on Monday night. At 5pm a whole bunch of us got together at Marion Church of Christ to have a bit of a get-to-know-you night. Well, sort of. We had a service, and worship, and then got into our small groups, which were the small groups we have found ourselves in after each service for the remainder of the week so far, in order to discuss the sermon.

Monday night, James spoke to us. James was talking about how we all have dreams in life. And how God has dreams for each of us. And how they don't always match up. What could I say? 'Story of my Life'. But, it was a really great message in the end. The message of our "Brand New Dream" or so to speak, and of how things work out for the best when we are following God's Plan for our life, rather than muddling along on our own.

Tuesday was the first official day of service. Again we met at Marion CC, this time at about 10 am, for another worship service. This time Kate was speaking. She was talking about how we can have faith as small as a mustard seed and still be able to do huge amazing things.

Tuesday afternoon, myself, simone, one of our leaders - Kristen, another leader - Lincoln, Josh, Hayden and a bunch of other people, went to the house of a 25 year old couple. In the car on the way there, Kristen explained to us that both Jane and Aaron have Cerebal Palsy. In their case, they both have incredibly fluent speach however they have very limited ability to move their body.

We arrived at their house and as they were not home yet, let ourselves into the backyard and got straight to work. Not long later, Jane arrived home and a bunch of us went to help out inside. There was just so much to do. And this, was probably one of the best experiences of my week so far. Jane and her service dog, Holly, explained to us the things that needed to be done and sat and talked to us as we worked.

So many things that we were doing were as simple and basic as sweeping, vaccuuming, washing dishes, dusting and cleaning their bathroom. As Holly is a service dog, she is a Labrodour and there was dog fur EVERYWHERE. For instance, as a couple of the girls attemted to clean the bathroom, they discovered that they could not remove the dog hair from the walls, as the people who had painted it had not bothered to clean the fur off before painting.

Jane and Aaron get six hours of proffessional care each day. The paint and fur thing, is just one example of how that is just not enough. And I suppose it isnt even really the fault of the people who care for them, as they all help out for about an hour each day. and that cannot be long enough to do all that needs to be done.

Simone and I had the job of cleaning out their crockery cabnets and wiping all the dirt and dust out. However, we discovered that a lot of their plates and bowls and mugs and such were filthy. Looking at them I just thought, 'I wouldn't want to have to eat off these'. So basically we spent hours going through all three cupboards, wiping them out properly and washing everything.

It was great to help them out though, and we've had teams going back to their house each day this week to continue work on their backyard.

One of the most amazing things about that day was sitting there, in the kitchen talking to Jane when we were on our break. She just sounded completely amazed and overwhelmed and she just said 'I've never had this many people working in my house before, caring enough to do this.' and she seemed completely amazed that of anyone who could have volunteered to help her out, that it was us, a bunch of teenagers. And even more so, the fact that we were paying money to clean for her was completely overwhelming for her.

Wednesday, we began again at 10 am at Marion. And my activity for the day was clowning down at Mosely Square at Glenelg. Me and Joel were in a group with Amanda and another girl called steph. Our leader was Ian (he spoke today, but i'll get to that soon) and we had such an awesome time. It was so much fun, just the group of us standing around in Mosely Square making balloon animals and swords and things for little kids and trying to explain to their parents why the hell a bunch of teenagers are paying to spend the last week of our holidays doing community service stuff.

As stupid as it was for us, Lauren, Simone and I decided to hang out at Lauren's place and go in her pool afterwards. And the stupid part? Sleepover.

LOL. Hanging out im Lauren's pool, bitching about people and things and life in general before calling our 'rents, and opting to sleepover. At 9.30ish we started watching Summer Heights High, of which neither Simone nor I had seen any of. It was so funny lol. But we watched the entire season so it wasnt over until like 1.30ish. And then we had to be up by 7 in order to be at our school by 8.30ish.

Suffice it to say, the ice coffee/tea/V beforehand was incredibly INCREDIBLY necessary for us to stay awake during the duration of the day.

We had to be at school in order to serve our teachers morning tea on their first day back. And again, they were rather amazed and impressed that we had opted to pay to spend the last week of our holidays participating in community service, and most of those that we know were actually rather proud of us for it.

Somehow, we still made it to the church by 10am, in time for the service today. Ian was talking about how we're on a boat. Well, Jesus is on the boat, and if we want to follow Jesus, then we have to get on the boat too. I don't really know how to explain what he was saying, but it was just a massively powerful talk. And it really worked with me. I'd spent my life on this 'boat', but a little while ago, i'd decided it was time to jump off. That the 'boat' wasn't where i really wanted to be. I wanted to be elsewhere. And to be honest, I still want to be elsewhere a bit... But today, i 'climbed back on to the boat' so to speak. I mean I guess I've been back on the boat for a while, but today, i promised myself, and God, that that is where I will stay.

So looking forward to tomorrow, although I'm also not because its our last day :'(

So that shall be sad, yes it shall. And it's going to be so weird going back to normal everyday life.

Anyway... Finishing this now lol cos its excessively long.

Leish xox

we lose our footing but still try to stand