Get Ready, Get Set...

It's been about two weeks since I said goodbye to close friends, family, my home.
But what a journey it's been so far.

After a three hour flight to Los Angeles, a ten hour lay over at a boring international airport, a long fourteen hour flight to Sydney, a two hour flight to Brisbane...phew... and an hour flight to Townsville;
I am FINALLY in Australia.
and get this...
with all the money (yes all $10,000) raised to do Youth With A Mission.
Can I get an amen?!
I am so blessed to have people in my life willing to support me in this great adventure of being led and used by God.  I really can't thank you enough!

Although it's been only a few days ago since I left my small, little, Minnesota town; it might as well have been a few years.
Becuase I've really jam packed years of experiences into this short time.
some of these things include:

• eating kangaroo
• climbing a huge, mountenous hill in the rain.
• doing hands on work on a medical ship to prepare for its journey to Papua New Guinea later this year.  (It's mission is to bring medical supplies over to clean the mouths and teeth of these people with no expense to them; but not only that to show the love of Jesus in a very real, and practical way)
• seeing a three foot long lizard walk casually in the streets of Townsville
• fishing without a fishing rod
• sharing a small, little living space with fifty other girls (in which there are only two bathrooms and two showers-yes please pray)
• my whole body getting burnt so bad that I could hardly walk without cringing...apparently American sunscreen isn't strong enough
• finding cockroaches in the shower and on the walls beside my bed, and enduring the screams of the girls when they are found and eventually killed. 
• have met some pretty awesome people, one of them in which I can already call one of my best friends. 

I wish I could tell you everything that's happened, but the space that it would take up would take one remarkable attention span.

But by far, the best thing about these two weeks has been the whole reason I came to Australia; to learn, to grow, to be challenged, and to be broken all for the sake of the one who died on the cross for my sins. 

I'm not going to lie it's been a rough couple of weeks.  Motivation has been a struggle, learning to live with a bunch of people with different personalities and backgrounds a real challenge, and being on my own for the first time in my life is both refreshing and terrifying. 

But God is bigger than my burdens, bigger than my fears, bigger than how I feel , and He reminds me every day that I'm here for a reason.

Through it all it's been amazing to see all these people here, these people that are just like me in that they also heard the call to be here and trusted in God to provide.  These people that yearn to see His face, that are stepping outside of their comfort zones to step into "God's zone,"
We are just ordinary, common people wanting to be used by God...and I believe He'll meet us right where we're at.

   We have come here from all over the world. 
   Different in so many ways but united in Christ
   whether we're ready or not
   God is saying, "Get ready, get set..."
  "GO"

challenged.
mariah