This last week...adventures in the city

As My first real post, I'd like to thank Drew for creating this blog, and edumacating me in general about computer stuff - I'd like to thank the rest of my family for their continual support and encouragment, to every supporter - your prayers and donations are highly valued and are working towards making more and more of an impact on me, and through me - I love you all and can't wait to see most of you again! God is gonna bless all of you for your support in various ways - I couldn't be living this adventure without you!Today is a free day for our team of 13 - we have a chance to catch up with communication, laundry, shopping, REST! And going right against the rest part of it, my day started at 5:30 am with a early morning surfing adventure. My friend Cory and I got to the beach by 7 am after several train and bus connections, and found nobody at this usually popular surfing beach. I guess we were early? Or maybe it was the fact that it was freezing, and that the waves looked like something had made it really angry! I wasn't even in the water and My skin was already blue, which hasn't happened for years... but I grabbed the board and jumped into the surprisingly warm water - this was my second time to try surfing, and I had never in my life been in water this chaotic - to me, it sounded fun - and that it was! i got about 15 meters(or yards, thats close enough) out and couldn't get much further due to the waves rhythmically washing over me... so it was about 5 strokes, then grab the board and brace yourself! Get the hair out of your face, and do it again! I wasn't getting very far, so I eventually decided to take the waves right where I was... I didn't need those big 6-7 footers anyways! i got up about twice, and fell with style... and during the whole incident I got a good 1 liter dose of seawater... i then passed the board along to Cory, and he had about the same luck, I sat and prayed for him, as well as read a bit of a book while my legs went numb in the freezing wind. All in all, I honestly think it was a great way to start my day!We made our way back to home, and took the most amazing hot shower ever, and started catching up on emails!
In the past week we've made lots of memories, learned bucket loads about evangelism and prayer, through experience... One of the cool evangelism times we had was with about 20 inner-city youth - all part of a circle of friends known by us as the rave kids... they come from so many varied backgrounds, and have a wide array of beliefs and convictions, literally from Christian, to Satanist, to Atheist. We just bought alot of food, and served them a picnic in a nearby park - the most memorable part was how even the small act of serving them a drink made them look at me a little puzzled, but with a tone of gratitude in their voice... our aim was simply to love them and give them a good experience with Christian youth, to change the Bible-Bashing mentality most had experienced. We accomplished that, and more - they really loved us back, and in spite of their few reservations, they really were stoked to hang out again. It was an afternoon well spent. I felt it was a real eye-opener as well to the mask that so many people put on~ yes they had an "interesting" vocabulary, conversation topics and were getting into things that have, and could really mess up their lives, but they were much like me and my own friends - just normal guys.I really wanted to be able to make some longer term friendships, but we have only 1 week till take-off to Hong Kong on our Journey to Mongolia, so this will have to do...
We have also been helping a cafe run by YWAM, called Kaio - its non-profit and exists solely as a ministry opportunity to primarily youth in the city. For the most part, we have simply been promoting and advertizing different events that will be held this coming week, for Australian National Youth Week... stuff like a photo exibition, recipe contest, art display, hoodie design competition... lots of things to get the kids in this city usuing their gifts, being heard for their opinions, and making relationships with people who want to see them fulfilled in life, through following Jesus... we have handed out flyers, built a mural, gotten donations, and invited people personally to try and make this happen, and we'll see how it goes!