Last week

I know I haven't posted in a while, so here's a post about what I've been doing this past week. The week was pretty normal, we had chores and class and work duties every day and then on Thursday night we had evangelism. My evangelism team goes to the city and just walks around praying for people and sharing the gospel and stuff like that. It's such a cool opportunity because there are a lot of hurting people in the city and lots of homeless people.

This weeks teaching was on forgiveness and repentance. It was super convicting and made me realize how much my sin really hurts God. On Friday we had a repentance and forgiveness day; we spent the day repenting of our sins and forgiving the people in our lives that have hurt us, it took about 10 hours. We then had Friday night meeting which is basically like church for the entire base. It was extremely hard to focus after an entire day of sitting in a classroom, but the worship and teaching are super powerful.

The weekend was so much fun and so relaxing! Almost my whole school and some of the other schools went to the beach on Saturday and the weather was perfect! And we ended the night with cookies and a movie at my house which is pretty much what we do every weekend night!

And then on Sunday a couple of my friends and I went to the beach AGAIN which was really nice because the weather was even nicer then on Saturday (I haven't gotten sun burnt yet by the way)! But we only stayed for a little bit because we had a soccer game to get to. The Perth Glory soccer stadium is right by our base so some of my friends and I went to the season opener! It was a blast, but it was extremely hot sitting in the stadium. And then we finished the night off with the Dark Knight Rises. 

It was such a good weekend and I can't wait to see what this week will bring! 

I miss everyone at home!

Xo, Helen 

Teaching

In case you are wondering about what I'm learning here at YWAM, I will tell you right now. Last week the teaching was on hearing God's voice. The teaching was awesome, I learned so much. I knew that God speaks to his children, but I didn't really realize that he is always talking to us. He constantly wants to be in conversation with us because he wants a relationship with us and you can't have a relationship with out communicating. It just really makes you realize how loving God really is. How he pursues us continually and desires us, how he initiates the relationship with us despite our rebellious hearts, it just truly amazes me and makes me fall even more in love with God.

The topic that we are learning about this week is the nature and character of God. We are only two days into it but I already know that I am going to learn so much! We have learned that the difference between the nature of God and his character is that his nature is what he is, it is unchangeable. For example, by nature God is almighty, he is omniscient, he is omnipresent, he is infinite. But his character is what he chooses to be. He does not have to be good or loving, but that is what he chooses to be. He chooses to be merciful and gracious and holy,  and he chooses to love us even though we don't deserve it at all, which makes him so much more awesome. And because he chooses to be loving he also gives us the choice to love him back, he doesn't force us into a relationship with him because that wouldn't really be love. 

I'm learning so much and it hasn't even been two weeks! God is truly amazing.

Xo, Helen 

Kangaroo Island

I came to Australia thinking that I would be seeing kangaroos roaming the streets, fortunately that is not the case. In fact I didn't actually see a kangaroo until Sunday. In Perth there is an "island" called Kangaroo Island where the kangaroos are kept behind a gate to keep them from roaming the city. There weren't even a lot of kangaroos on kangaroo, but I managed to see three. Several people that I went with wee able to go up and pet them, but I was wearing a dress and I didn't really feel like walking through swampy marsh just to pet a kangaroo. Who knows, maybe I will go back before I leave to get a picture with one, but we'll see. Anyways, here are some pictures that I took at Kangaraoo Island.

It was pretty exciting, but I think I liked the beach better :)

Xo, Helen 

The beach!

On Saturday my dts went to the beach! Although it was only about 68 degrees, we still had so much fun! The waves were amazing, they were enormous. I'm so excited to actually go swimming in the ocean once it gets a little bit warmer. Oceans are one of my most favorite things, it's amazing how enormous the ocean is and how powerful it is, and it is crazy to think that compared to God, the ocean is tiny, it's not even comparable to the awesome power of God. Here are some pictures from our day at the beach :)

We all piled into a bus to get over there because unfortunately it's too far away to walk :/ but at least bus rides are fun!

We also played beach volleyball which was incredibly fun.

No, I have not seen any sharks yet in case you are wondering, but I'm sure I will be going back to the beach almost every weekend so I will let you know as soon as I see one.. If I see one haha.

Xo, Helen 

Work duties

I promised I would post about my awesome work duties, so here it goes. Every afternoon, every student has two hours of work duties, most of the, are cleaning or getting dinner ready, but somehow I was given the work duty of managing the café on base! I am so thankful for this job because I am actually learning how to make top notch coffee drinks, and owning a coffee shop/bakery is what I want to do with my life eventually. Daniel, the guy in charge of the café is awesome! He is a chef and he knows basically everything there is to know about coffee, I'm trying to learn as much as I can from him. He is also a pro at latte art, here is a picture of the flat white that he made me on the first day of work duties.

Beautiful, isn't it.

This is the café and where I work 2 hours a day :)

It is so much fun, I'm really loving everything. (I made the cappuccino in that photo by the way :)

Xo, Helen 

Friends! And McDonalds..

I have met so many new people here at YWAM, and it's really awesome because they are from all over the world. In my dts alone there are people from 16 different nations. I love getting to know everyone and what there culture is like, it is just such a cool experience for me. Here are a couple pictures of my friends and I.

And also we went to McDonalds yesterday and I discovered that it was a little different than back in the US, their café actually had real treats that I would actually enjoy eating!

Oh and McDonalds has 30¢ ice cream cones :)

That's all for now, later I will blog about my awesome work duty!

Xo, Helen 

Class!

Yesterday was our first day of class. It was really good, it's nice to finally be in a routine. The speaker was Claire Jones and she taught/ is teaching on hearing God's voice. We also started our homework last night. Each week we have a series of journal questions that we have to reflect on and answer. We also have to read a book each month and do a "book report" on each book. When we first recieved all the homework I was so overwhelmed and I was wondering if I was going to be able to do everything, but now that I've started I'm realizing that it's not that bad at all. 

This is Luke (our dts leader) yesterday in class

And this is me and a few friends working on our journals!

And then this is a really really cute baby that lives on base, I don't know his name yet.

Alright that's all for now! We start work duties today so that should be interesting!

Xo, Helen

What we eat.

Just in case you were all wondering what I have been eating while here in Perth, here are a couple of the meals that we have had.

The pictures are not that great, but it's mostly just some sort of meat and potatoes. Every meal has been so delicious! I'm not sure if it's because I'm hungry all the time or if it's just because the cooks are amazing. Sometimes I'm not even quite sure what everything is, but I like to try everything. Lunch is always leftovers from the night before baked into some sort of casserole, my dad would be so happy. I'm hoping that when I get assigned work duties I get to work in the kitchen because it's what I like to do! Anyway, now you know what we eat here in Australia. Apparently meat pies are really popular, but I haven't tried one yet. 

Classes officially start tomorrow! I'm excited to get into a regular routine, before I know it I will be on my way home! But till then I'm going to try to have the best experience of my life!

Xo, Helen 

Perth lifestyle

One difference between Perth and Chicago is that there are parks everywhere! On every street there is at least one park, and most of them re gorgeous! The trees here are huge and I have seen several different trees that I had never seen before, for example: a lemon tree, a lime tree, and a pomegranate tree. This tree species is all over, I'm not quite sure what it is but it is beautiful.

Also all the parks have excercising equipment, so anyone can walk to the park and do some light excercises, I think America should learn something and do the same. 

 

They look funny, but there are rowing machines and bicycle machines and others of the sort. Anyway, just thought I would show you how beautiful Australia is.

Xo, Helen

Mt. Lawley

Kaitlyn and I headed down to Mt. Lawley today which is the little town by our house. We wanted to go to the store to get some snacks because for some reason I'm always hungry. The walk to Mt. Lawley is lovely, there are flowers everywhere and it is such a gorgeous day today!

And the town itself is so cute. It was quite  busy there this morning because there are several cafés and breakfast places and naturally people love to go to breakfast places on Sunday mornings.

The super markets are full of plenty of "snacks", Kaitlin really likes candy so we took a while looking at all the different candy options.

These were what I decided on

Both excellent choices. I can't wait to see what the rest of the day will bring!

Xo. Helen

Perth

I made it safely to Perth! It's so amazing, I love it here. I'm still getting used to everything because it's all a lot different than home. The base here is beautiful. Things are different than I expected though, I was expecting to live in the base in dorms but instead, my friend Kaitlin and I and a few other girls live in a separate house that is a 15 minute walk from the base. It's nice though, I'm glad I live in the house rather than the dorms because I have a full kitchen and a really nice backyard. Here's a picture of my room and the hangout room in my house.

Yesterday my friends and I went I this cute little town called Mt. Lawley and went to this cafe, everything is a little bit more expensive in Australia but when I saw that an iced coffee was $6 I was quite surprised, until I saw what the iced coffee looked like.

There is ice cream in te iced coffee, it was a sweet surprise.

Anyways the people here are incredibly nice, they are so so friendly and make me feel right at home. I am confidant that I am going to have the best time of my life these next 6 months!

Xo, Helen

Bon Voyage

Left for Australia today! It feels completely unreal. Even though I'm sitting at LAX I still feel like I'm going to go back home tonight and sleep in my own bed, but I'm not! I cannot believe the day is actually here! I'm not too excited for my 16 hour flight, but I'll make it! 

This is all of my life for the next 6 months, I have no idea how I was able to fit everything.

At the airport!

Beautiful view :)

Prayers apreciated!

Xo. Helen