Girls in the Tent...SHUT UP!!!

We have so much to catch everybody up on, it's not even remotely funny. Get ready for an annoyingly long blog. I promise to make it less bumpy than our ride in Pedr's truck on the sand dunes. :)

Speaking of Pedr, his family invited all of us over to their house for dinner last week. It was so delightful! Mrs. Rooney made us a chicken and chick pea curry dinner that was probably one of the best things I have had since I've been here. Don't worry people, I made sure to get the recipe! We offered to bring dessert so from the bottom of our NUSA Veggie Crates, we made yet another delectable apple crisp. We spent the evening chatting with his family, laughing about random things, and getting to know some of their other friends from the church who also came.

On another one of our weekdays of no school, (I think this was Friday) we roadtripped up to Nelson Bay to see the beach there. We had heard that it was pretty, and we definitely were not disappointed. The weather was perfect, we sang our lungs out in the car, and enjoyed snorkeling with lots of fish.

And now onto my favorite happening of the trip so far: camping out on Stockton Beach's sand dunes! Pedr, Dan, their friend Jamie, Trenton, Chris, Brian, and all of us girls drove out to Stockton Beach, about an hour away, to hit the sand dunes for a camp out on Saturday night. As we are all practically native Australians now, (ha) we picked up sausages to bbq on the way and also seized the opportunity to introduce s'mores to the real Australians. They had never even heard of them. Or graham crackers. After scouring the grocery store, we came up with the most similar ingredients possible and began another awesome drive.

It's not even really fair to try to describe the sand dunes with words, but I guess we all understand the limitations of language. The thing is: I have never seen such an open, beautiful mass of sand anywhere, not even in pictures. We set up camp in the middle of the sand and settled in for the evening. I got lucky enough to cook the sausages, Brian whipped out his guitar and we had a pretty poor sing-a-long, and then we hit the s'mores. They caught on pretty fast and we were happy to have reversed the roles of culture introductions, if only for a few minutes. At about 9 PM, we all got tired and went to bed. Just kidding. Although we would have if we hadn't felt so lame about going to bed so early. We managed to squeak out a few more hours and then we passed out on the sand. Lindsey, Cam, and Caitlin snuggled themselves into a two man tent. Needless to say, Caitlin was out of there in about twenty minutes.

There is something rejuvenating about sleeping outside next to a smoky bonfire in the middle of nowhere, even if you do wake up to a dewey face and sleeping bag. Before we headed home, we trekked to the top of a dune and had a nice session of sand boarding....

For those of you who have never heard of it, picture sledding on sand. The boys took to sand surfing, I preferred the run-and-slide-on-your-stomach method, and Lindsey and Cameron dominated the two man sit. Bug Lindsey to let you see the video. It will make you laugh, I guarantee it.

As if you couldn't tell, we had a blast on that trip and look forward to doing it as soon as our backs recover from the hard sand. As for everyday life, we spend our time at the hub doing homework, at the beach soaking it up, playing Bananagrams as often as possible, and figuring out other shenanigans to get ourselves into.

On a more personal side note, I feel compelled to share with EVERYONE that God worked two miracles in my life over the past week. I made my first two speeches in 4 years!! To everyone who prayed for me, thank you so much. Jesus has been revealing Himself in so many ways and His faithfulness is consuming me. He has taught me how to trust and I am learning more and more everyday.

Whew! What an amazing life we have. It is going even faster than we thought that it would. We are already about to enter April, which absolutely blows my mind. The girls and Trenton and Chris are planning their Easter break trip to New Zealand, and Elyse and I are working on our June trip to NZ. She and I will be exploring Australia on our own for Easter break. This weekend we all are going to be up in Sydney for the Good Friday service at Hillsong. After that, all of them fly out for the week. Elyse and I will get to go to Hillsong for Easter, and then we are planning on heading over to Ulla Dulla for some exploring, and maybe going up to the lake with some friends.

Well, I think that about does it for today! Time to go pack our eskys for uni in the arvo. (pack our lunches for school in the afternoon) Let's be honest, I just said that so I could sound native :)

Fairy Bread and 4BYN

Its another beautiful week in Australia and we were able to get through this week of school as Laura worked diligently on papers, Cam and Caitlin intricately designed their projects, and I sculpted a masterpiece :)

Our tickets are finalized for our Easter Break. We get to see exciting New Zealand while renting a six man camper-van to drive around/sleep in as we explore pieces of Gods creation. Trenton, Chris, Cameron, Caitlin, Devin, and I will be partaking in this adventure. Laura and Elyse have made plans to explore Australia in depth and will get to see New Zealand in June. We are ready for a break and will hopefully get to spend Easter at Hillsong Church in Sydney :)

St. Patrick's Day is not huge here we have realized. I think we were one of a few sporting green that night but nonetheless we went out to one of our favorite places, the brewery, and sat along the waterfront overlooking the beautiful harbour.

Thursday we retrieved two more crates full of fruits and veggies from our school. We cooked a delicious meal and Pedr brought over sausages, mmmm. After dinner, Pedr took us Lawn Bowling. Its a game similar to Bocce Ball except it has its own court and is a little more classier. After an exciting game of lawn bowling, Pedr and Dan made us FAIRY BREAD. It is white bread, butter, and sprinkles, mmmm. Surprisingly it was good and we were happy to finally have a taste of this magical dessert.

Friday we went snorkeling and saw exotic fishes along with a giant STING RAY! It was exciting exploring in the vast sea :) We spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun and relaxing on the beach.

Today we went 4-byn (off-roading) with our friends in the Bush. It was exciting and adventurous until we had to pull our mate out of the deep pool of mud :)

We love you all,

Lindsey, Laura, Cameron, Caitlin

Consider Us Coloured...

No, I didn't misspell that. They spell things differently here...but anyways!!!!!!!

Wow, so much to catch you guys up on. Things have been hectic with school kicking off and being suddenly pounded with thousands of assignments. We are just starting to feel like we can actually find our classes on campus without getting lost. The campus is really large, looks like a jungle or rainforest, is literally filled with mosquitoes (mossies), and they don't space your classes out, so you have to run from one to the next. Hopefully you aren't a little dumb like me and have 4 classes back to back on opposite sides of campus. I guess it's a good workout, leaving 5 minutes early from class and arriving 10 minutes late to the next one simply because you just can't run fast enough. That and the fact that sometimes trains get delayed for 40 minutes while you are sitting on them is about all the cool stuff I can think about when it comes to classes.

So, on to the fun/important/interesting stuff! (I just knew that moms love hearing about school, so YES, we do actually go.) We just got back from Sydney and Hillsong's Colour Conference. For all you out there who are interested in seeing what it was kind of like, you can check out the website here. It's not really fair to try to describe it in a short post, but I'll see what my limited vocabulary can do...

Day 1: Lindsey, Caitlin, Cameron, and I pack up the car and set off for an adventurous drive to Sydney. I'm driving, Caitlin is navigating, and all is well with the world. It is 2:30 PM and we are driving to the house we are staying at, all timed to arrive around 4:45. Our first session is at 6:00, so we think we have plenty of time...

OK, let's be realistic. With me driving? Of course we would get lost...so, 6 or 7 u-turns, many frustrated stops for directions, and 4 hungry stomachs later, we just decide to park the car and get some food. Hopefully we will make it to tomorrow's session, since we give up on today's. Jesus wanted us at that session though, so it just happened that we had parked across the street from the Sydney Entertainment Centre (where the conference was being held) and we had the time wrong and it actually started at 7:30. Amazing. The rest of the night went well, if you call "well" getting lost again and not getting to the house until midnight, declaring our idea of hell to be driving in Sydney, and switching drivers as each one got more and more discouraged. But hey, we made it, had a place to stay, and were so thankful just to have made it.

Day 2: 3 sessions throughout the day, and it started with a bang! Priscilla Shirer was our first speaker of the day, and man did she bring it! I have never been so engrossed with what a speaker had to say. She was passionate, fiery, inspiring, anointed, and the Lord just had things to share through her. I think I learned more in that first session than I ever have in my life. I mean, I came looking for God, but He didn't just meet us there...He overwhelmed us there.

Elyse and I got to meet Bobbie Houston, which was a special treat. She hosted the conference and is the wife of Brian, head pastor of Hillsong.

We had a few breaks throughout the day where we got the chance to explore Sydney. There is a mall called Market City where it feels like you have been dropped directly into Asia. It's great unless you want anything to eat besides Asian. No joke, the entire food court was Asian. That's all I have to say about that.

Day 3: I'm getting my days confused, but I'm going to pretend like I'm not and just keep talking like this is 100% accurate. We had more sessions today, which were still indescribably tailored to me. :) Just kidding, everybody felt like that. But seriously, God wanted us there. He told us some pretty awesome stuff. After the sessions, we headed to Darling Harbour for dinner and just to chill. We were enthralled with some unexpected fireworks, dazzled by the lights across the harbour, entertained by the interesting clothes some people were wearing, sustained by some yummy food :), and rejuvenated by just getting to be with each other.

P.S. Elyse did come the day after us on the train due to her class schedule, so she was with us this entire time.

Day 4: We went to Hillsong for church, which was a continuation of our wonderful conference, since Priscilla spoke again. I could still listen to her all day...

Caitlin and Cameron learned from some Finland girls that Kelly Slater was to be at Bondi Beach that day, so we hastily rearranged our schedule so they could get a little glimpse of him. I'm glad we made it though, because it was such an experience. Bondi was packed, the surfers were out, and it was a beautiful day. We spent a few hours there, we all got to see the Kelly Slater, and we drove home happy. This time, I didn't get us lost and we played games the whole way home. You should ask to hear our awesome Australian accents that we perfected int he car. Guaranteed to confuse even the most native Australian of our actual origin. Exhausted but refueled, we are excited about this week, although it's a busy one.

If you want to read another really funny account of the weekend, click here to check out Elyse's blog. She's pretty funny, you might just laugh the whole time. Plus, she likes to make fun of me, which is always entertaining :)

To wrap it up, all I can say is that the Lord revealed Himself to us this weekend. We are so thankful for the opportunities we have had, we still like each other, and we have many more memories of Australia to add to our already-bursting brains.

Thanks for the prayers, we love them and we are praying for our friends and family back at home too! Praising Jesus for another fine day in Newcastle...

Love,

The Sheilas