Settling in

How are you going mates? Hope you are all well and at peace. Life here is really good. Homesickness comes and goes, but I know that's normal. After all I did just up and move to the other side of the world! But anyway, God knew I could handle it. So here I am enjoying the moment. My new friends here, Megan and Matt from Florida, are wonderful people. I feel so blessed to have met them and they really helped me to get settled. I so appreciate their kindness! Oh and their little daughter Kenzie is seriously one of the cutest kids ever! If you saw her, you would agree...she's precious.

Wednesday night I was blessed to be able to attend powerhouse thanks to Matt, who was kind enough to drive me. Powerhouse is the church service for 18-25yr olds. It was incredible! I loved every minute. During worship, I just had a sense that I belong here and I felt so at home. Before the offering Acts 17:26-27 was read aloud. "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." Those verses really spoke to me and I felt God saying "You are here for a reason!" It was a God encounter :) The message was really good as well. Pastor Thomas Hansen was preaching about how it's your responsibilty to protect your passion for God and for His word. Distractions will come, but it's your choice to be distracted. Yeah that's it in a very small nutshell. I took a lot of notes. Maybe I will post them sometime.

A few days ago our new housemate Raquel arrived. She is such a cool kiwi! We've been exchanging our cultures and hanging out a lot since she arrived. We made dinner together her first night, but she did most of the work. It was very good and then we chatted for hours.

Saturday night we went to church and it was really good! I loved it! Jad Gillies was leading worship. It's kinda funny how I will be seeing the faces of Hillsong United all the time. Afterwords we went to a party for new students at a house. We met so many people from all over the world! It was really cool and we laughed...a lot.

I went to my first Sunday service yesterday! Worship was lead by Reuben Morgan and it was fantastic! Then Pastor Brian Houston came out onstage with the new hillsong cd and dvd. He asked if there were any new college students. Raquel and I stood up and our seats were on the 2nd row so he looked right at us. He cam over and asked where I was from. Then he called me an "okie" lol! And then he gave me the cd. Raquel got the dvd. Was very cool and such a blessing! After the service we went up to him and said "thank you."

Later we went to the Sunday night service. There's a lot of college students in that service. So we went up front and praised God with everything. Was incredible!! Pastor Brian's been preaching about the significance of a God encounter. It has so much potential for fruitfulness that the enemy will try and undermine in any way he can. So hold on to your God encounter and listen to what God is telling you.

Today I'm going to the city with some other students. I'm so excited to see it!!! Will take lots of pics!!