Finally--INTERNET!

Be prepared for the longest blog post ever……

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. We moved into our new building last week and have just gotten our internet hooked up. It was pretty hysterical—we got done with lectures tonight, they announced that the internet was working, and everybody raced downstairs to start checking e-mail. The internet has been moving super slow because literally every single person at the base is online right now. Moving to this building was intense, but we’re finally getting settled, and it’s totally worth it. Our new digs are pretty sweet—lots of space to stretch out and move around, which we definitely didn’t have at our old base.

Forgive me if there are inconsistencies in grammar or tense—I have been writing this blog post in Word over the last week and a half, so it might not all match up. I have lots to catch you up on, so here we go!

Last week, we spent our two days off moving and then went straight into classes, so everybody was pretty wiped out. Our lecture topic was on worship. Our speaker, Cynthia, was completely amazing and brought some really challenging words to us. God has really been showing us how important worship is to him. We had a chance to do some more performing arts stuff this week—playing, singing, dancing for and with each other. It’s been cool to see the talents God has gifted us with start to emerge. We also had a guitar/songwriting workshop with Cynthia on Tuesday and she taught us some sweet new guitar chords that I’m really excited to start experimenting with!

The big exciting thing that happened last week is we found out the locations for outreach! Right now, the options are France (Paris and then south), parts of Northern Africa or Tahiti and maybe another island in the South Pacific or some extra time in Australia with indigenous cultures. SO EXCITING! As of right now, they’re looking to send a max of 8 people to each location, but everything is subject to change. Be praying for me—that God will give me wisdom and discernment about where he wants me to go. We have to turn in our choices by Saturday the 7th, so I’ll let you know after then where I felt like God was leading me. After we turn in our choices, the staff and leadership prays about it, and then we get our final answer.

On Saturday, we went to this really cool Arabic-speaking church that is about 30 minutes from our base. It was fun to worship in a new style—the music they sang was so beautiful. All of their songs were in minor mode, which is very different than your average western church, but I enjoyed it heaps. Before the meeting, they had food for us to eat—SO YUMMY!!!! I’m pretty sure I ate more sweets at that church than I have had all together over the last three weeks!

We had our first day off in two weeks on Sunday, so we all decided to go into the city. They were doing work on the train tracks, so we had to catch a bus to another station and then get on the train to the city. One of our brilliant copmpadres managed to get us on the wrong bus, so we spent an hour going the wrong direction. Then we had to get on another bus to take us back to the train station we were supposed to go to in the first place. We had quite the adventure, but the company made it bearable. Once we finally got to the city, me and three of my other classmates went to a huge indoor market called Paddy’s in Sydney’s Chinatown. It was SO much fun!!! We had a blast looking around the shops and being goofy. After we were done with the market, we went to the harbor to catch a ferry to Manly Beach and spend some time in the waves. While we were waiting for the ferry, a street performer pulled one of the guys in our group, Brian, into his act. It was pretty hysterical and made for some great pictures that I’ll have to post as soon as I get a chance.

The beach was SO beautiful! And yes, my Washingtonian friends, the water was about 70 degrees! OCEAN WATER YOU CAN SWIM IN?!?!?!?! ;-} We chilled at the beach for a bit, then met up with the rest of the gang and headed home, and this time, we got on the right bus!

This week, our base leader, Etienne is speaking on the Character and Nature of God and Hearing God’s Voice. It’s been really good so far, but be praying for us, because as a base, we’re experiencing some intense spiritual warfare right now. Pray that God will strengthen us and fill us up with his love!

We’re so busy that I feel like everything is going by so fast! It’s March already! When did that happen??? Our group has gotten really tight so far, and it’s been awesome getting to know everyone on the school. ALL of the students are completely amazing, and I am constantly in awe of the way God specifically put this school together with exactly the right people.

I think that’s all I have for now. Like I said, I’ll post pictures as soon as I have a spare moment. I have a TON of them from our city adventure this weekend! Know that I miss you all bunches and I think about you and pray for you all the time. Love you heaps!!!!

~Maggie

P.S.
Thank you to all of the people who wrote in “the book” before I left. I read it every morning and think of my amazing friends back home every day!