my life over that last little while.... Since ive been gone....

It's been a long time since I've blogged. My life has experienced a lot of changes recently.

Last year I really struggled with study and life, it got the better of me and I ended up spending a lot of time curled up in a ball crying. One thing I really learnt in that time was that I really did wanna trust God wholeheartedly and follow all He had planned for my life. I also realised that I had a wider support network and friends than I thought and that these people were prepared to stay with me no matter what I faced. 

The biggest thing in my life probably ever was that I got a job as a youth pastor and moved out of home and 400kms away from where I had spent my whole life so far. I moved to the country.  The story isn't as easy as that though, God totally blew my mind with the way He revealed himself to me and its kinda been a crazy adventure. - I'll give you the whole story in my next post!

Also over the summer i was involved in CE Camp as a leader as well as Beach mission in Pt Vincent with the Scripture Union team.  Both these experiences were unique and challenging and totally taught me a bunch about leadership and myself.  

CE Camp is the best youth camp I've ever been on, seriously, i don't know if i can think of another camp which competes.  This there was one of the largest CE Camps in recent history with 180 campers coming along. This made for a lot of fun.  One of the biggest things i was challenged with this CE Camp was about interaction as a young adult with other young adults.  My life is pretty focused on my ministry and i sometimes think i lack the ability to make friends because of that.  On CE Camp i was reminded that friendships are made through joint experiences and laughter, there are some of South Australia's best young adults who serve on CE and they are so funny, and loving and friendly.  I also learnt about leading leaders and making personal space while leading for yourself.  This year i was asked to be a super leader which basically means i had to check up on a group of leaders and troubleshoot any questions to the committee - helpful with a leadership team of about 80 people. I was really nervous about this role as i didn't think i was suitable and good enough to do something like that but i was encouraged by many people and think i did pretty good.

I also learnt that it was good to make time on camp for personal reflection time.  I made a daily habit of going to the showers late at night usually with one of the other leaders and we would chat about life while in the shower (its not weird at all) i also learnt that writing stuff down and pulling another leader aside later on at times was necessary and also appropriate in order to challenge yourself and work through things which are coming up in the talks etc.  One day i got quite sick, i just had a headache and thought i would vomit. I really wanted to keep going and hang with young people but i knew if i did that i would be sick and therefore out of action for the whole of camp. Instead i took a couple of hours in free time and slept, this refreshed me and also provided me with an opportunity to chat to a few lonely campers sitting in the dorm when i woke up.  

Beach mission was crazy, i was really stressed about it because i felt really unorganised and unprepared and the other five on my team had never been before so i knew there would be things they wouldn't understand.  We got to mission and set up was a bit messy, it was tricky to get organised and with members of the team arriving late it made it hard to gather and focus.  We got through though and ended up interacting with 15 junior teenagers  (12-15y/o) each day in our programs.  One thing i learnt during our week at mission was the value in building good relationships with those you are leading.  I had built a good reputation with some of the girls from previous times at mission and this meant i could easier connect with them and where necessary tell them off.  but mainly it meant i had a great opportunity to chat with them about life and the faith i had.  Next year for mission i would love to be able to share to gospel in a clearer and more effective way, but I'm just not quite sure how that would be done. i know relationships work, but its also a lot of personal effort that needs to go into relationships and you have to give a lot of yourself to make that happen.  

I'm thankful for each of these experiences no matter how challenging they were at the time and I'm thankful for the things i learnt while getting to serve God and young people in various communities.