Airlie Beach-Chai Tent

Hello once again!
Wow, do I ever have a lot to tell you about these last couple of weeks so I am going to separate them into two blogs to chop it up a bit. Well on Thursday, May 17Th both our Beach 2 Bush and Frontiers DTS (except China who left early)went on 2 of our buses and one van at 4 a.m. to go to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is around a 15 hour drive from Brisbane so one of our longest road trips we have taken so far and man was it squished. Our van had a lot of the luggage and the tent equipment so there was no floor to our bus. But it was also sweet because we could lay on the luggage and tent poles so we each had our basic bed on the bus. We arrived around 10 p.m. so 18 hours later in Airley Beach where we went to the rented guys house and dropped everything off then headed to the girls house which the base owned in Airley Beach. The next morning we went to the beach area of Airlie Beach and set up the tent (almost like a circus tent except a bit smaller) and decorated it. While the guys set up the hard stuff us girls gathered around and had a time of worship and intercession for the upcoming week on the beach. After setting we all had free time so we went and shopped around and checked out the town. That whole day we just hung out until around 5:30p.m. which was supper time. After supper we all gathered back in the tent at 7 to have a time of worship. We took our sound system up there so two of our guys lead us in worship then Joy lead intercession. Afterwards the two organizers Jordan (Joys husband) and Justin (Nicole our hospitality organizer's husband) and explained the week. So basically our week in Airlie Beach was a outreach week. We set up our Chai tent and what was to happen is each morning around 11a.m. we would go have worship and intercession then the afternoon was free until around 2p.m. where we had sports out on the beach. So we would set up our volleyball net and some guys would kick around the soccer ball and along the way we would ask the backpackers around us to come join which many of them did. Then at 5:30 was supper and 7 was worship and intercession then at around 8 we started our main outreach. At 8 we would start serving free Chai (its tea) and have some music going, then backpackers would just come in and sit down at our tables and chill. We were to go sit with them and talk to them while they came and our purpose was to direct our conversations toward God. We had free backpacker Bibles that we could give out as well, so our major purpose for the week was evangelism which is what we did. On our first night which was Friday we didn't get a lot of backpackers and it was sort of discouraging. Airlie Beach has a lot of backpackers and a lot of bars, pubs, and clubs. So that night they had the wet t-shirt contest etc so there was hardly anyone who showed up. But as the week went on many more came to the tent, some nights were packed. Our afternoon sports was a success as many backpackers who were alone would come to play. There were many backpackers from Germany, Israel, and England in Airley and it was neat to talk to them about the differences between Australia and their countries. A lot of the people who went to sports usually showed up at the Chai Tent as well which was awesome. During the week we all got one day off either Monday or Tuesday so on those days we had trips going to the Whitsunday Islands to go snorkel ling with one of the local companies. So on Monday me and seven others went for the trip. The Whitsunday Islands have some of the world's best beaches. A lot of the islands there haven't been touched by tourism so they are completely natural which is awesome. So on Monday we got up and arrived at the dock for Ocean Rafting (name of company). We all got our wetsuits and climbed on board of this ocean raft which was a very fast unit. We stopped at Daydream Island and picked up some others from there then headed off to Whitehaven Beach. The beach is made up of quartz crystals so it was absolutely beautiful. It was impossible for the beach to ever get hot and the sand was good for cleaning jewelry and to exfoliate. It was so nice! We stayed there for about a hour then we went to one of the islands to go snorkel. It was so amazing! I had never been snorkeling before so it was so awesome to go and see so many beautiful fish and coral. One of the girls had a underwater camera so the pictures are posted on photobucket. After snorkeling we went to another island to go for a short hike. They took us to some caves where the aboriginals live and painted things on the wall of the cave to end off the trip. Throughout the week I didn't get into any intense conversations with backpackers about God but I did get a chance to talk to four people from Israel and ask them questions about their faith. In our lectures we learned that a lot of people believe things but they don't know why they actually believe them. Its more of religion where they think that its true but theirs no depth to their beliefs or understanding. I also got to meet some awesome couples who came in. They both grew up in the church but all of them just wanted to live their own life for now. They both just graduated and believe there's a God but they don't want any restrictions. It was so interesting to talk to them and just hang out and show them that God doesn't restrict you He loves you and He wants you to have fun without being hurt or opening a door to get hurt. One of the girls from Germany got into a really good discussion with one of the guys I invited to the tent and she actually prayed for him and afterward he started asking "whats happening". He told her that he felt such a peace come after she prayed and that he wants to know more. Unfortunately the next morning he had a bus ride to another town but she got his contact information. The week was really good overall, the town committee has been very welcoming as they let us set the tent up right on Airlie Beach which is insane. So we actually got to drive the bus and vans on the main beach there to set up. So it has been good to have these connections with these towns and influence them by being there (our Brisbane base goes there a few times a year). So we stayed there all week then we all took off toward Hervey Bay.