For our final week of outreach we went to 1770 on Monday July 14th. 1770 is supposed to be a hippie town that isn't commercialized so everything’s cheap. But it is supposed to be a "must see" place. So instead of going to Bundaberg like we had planned we went to 1770 (also because we were told we had to cut our outreach short by 2 days and be back on Friday because they needed the van for airport runs). So we headed off to 1770 and found the Bananas Backpackers hostel. We unloaded our stuff, ate and hung out for awhile then dozed off. On Tuesday we woke up semi early and started to make pancakes for all of the backpackers. So we bought the stuff and for the whole morning we were busy getting them ready. The backpackers would crawl out of bed and come to the kitchen and we would feed them. Most of them were shy in taking them but near the end they were chowing down. It was a great conversation starter. Corina was in a discussion with 3 other guys about the Bible so I joined her while we ate. One of the guys was from Israel and he told us that God had made a commandment that no one could keep "Thou shall not covet". So we got into a discussion about the issue and a lot of the things I learned from DTS really came out and made sense. It was awesome to have answers to questions like that and have explanations that anyone could understand. After our conversation that touched on a few different issues we invited them out for volleyball for the afternoon. So all of us made our way to the beach to play. We had 2 teams so we played some volleyball together. There was a guy named Dominique who was in the conversation that morning who came as well. It was a really good time. A lot of the backpackers love sports so it was a good attention getter especially because most of the activities start in mid-afternoon. After awhile we went back to the hostel and had lunch then our team went to go on a Scooteroo Tour. It was one of the "must sees" in 1770. So we went there and met up with a guy named Mitch who we had met in Byron Bay at the beginning of the outreach. We were picked up by the owner in a troopie and we all went to the Scooteroo store. There was around 30 of us altogether and we all got our own Choppa's to ride. It was so cool! So from 2-6:30 we drove around on these Choppa's (the 1st turn I had to take I went into the grass lol) and got to see the town and surrounding area. You didn't need your license to go because it was such a small town and we stayed together for all of it. We got to see Kangaroo's (for those who haven't seen the hundreds around) and Wallabies which was cool. Then at the end we got to go see the sunset. We got back from our 60km tour and went back to the hostel. We got to talk to a lot of the people who we made breakfast for which was awesome. Later on that night Will and I started a game of poker (not for cash) with some of the backpackers. That's what we did for the rest of the night which was good. When we had finished, Michi (One of the guys from Switzerland who had played the whole night) and I started walking back to our rooms and on the way saw Corina. We stopped and they started to talk in Swiss-German and then we all got to talk in English. He asked what we were doing here in Australia and we said a Bible School. He started talking again in Swiss-German about God and how he doesn't believe in God. Eventually I left them to talk and went to bed and when I was downstairs in my room I could hear Corina reading Genesis 2-3 in English to him. I fell asleep praying for their conversation. The next day we woke up and made pancakes for the backpackers again. I talked to Corina and apparently her and Michi stayed up for 2 hours talking only about God and the Bible. He was into evolution and she was explaining creation. At the end of the conversation Michi came to the conclusion that if God was real then Michi would give Him one week to prove himself. So Corina agreed. For the rest of the morning we handed out pancakes and talked to the backpackers then packed up our van to leave to the Sunshine Coast. 1770 was such a sweet town and we had such a good time there. We all wished that we could stay but we had to debrief so we made our way to the coast. We arrived at the Coast at around 5 and we got all of our contact information. Some of the people we had met in Dalby at one of the youth groups offered there home to us. So we went over to the house which was amazing. It looked like it should be in a magazine. We arrived and met Laura's sister Bianca who let us in. We had dinner then started our debriefing and talked about how things went on outreach. That night Denzil (we met Laura and Denzil in Dalby) came from Brisbane and we all hung out at the house and talked until we went to bed. On Thursday the 17th we woke up and had the rest of our debrief. Then for the rest of the day we went shopping (some surfing) then went back to the house. Laura came with a friend from Dalby for the night so we all hung out and made a nice meal. It was a good time to sit and chill for our last night. We took a lot of video's on our cameras and were all running around the house goofing off. For our final day on Friday July 18th we woke up and had our final meeting. We prayed over our time and then just talked about how well we did as a team. Once we finished talking and packing we went into the vehicle and said goodbye to Laura, Denzil, and friend and went off. A couple of hours later we arrived in Brisbane and unpacked our stuff in our rooms. Our whole dorm was painted while we were gone which was weird but it was good to be back.
Outreach was such a good time! I really grew in being able to share my faith more often and more openly. Also during outreach I was really able to solidify what I believed in my heart what I learned on DTS. During the Gold Coast week I was challenged constantly by being told that I was wrong and "Allah is one" (not the trinity). But through their challenging I was really shaken for awhile but in the end it only made me stronger. I realized the importance of questioning God and how flawless His word is and how there's no contradictions. I was able to go from shaky to solid because of that questioning. I was also able to learn so much about different cultures. I was able to learn more about how to relate with both the Muslims and the Jews from Israel as well as Europeans. Not only that but I also learned more about what it will be like when I go back home. It was a outreach where you weren't in your community or "YWAM bubble" but you were with backpackers who were not Christians. It gave me a idea of what living outside of a Christian environment was like again after being in community with only Christians. It allowed me to evaluate in what ways I started to backslide because of that environment and gave me ideas of how to stop me from backsliding when I go back home or to school somewhere where I do not have all the spiritual support. I feel like through this outreach I was able to see the area's that I need to ensure to hold on to stronger at home so that I will not go back to the way some things were before leaving. It was a great time of just evaluating all I have learned and putting them into practice and really concentrating about going back home and the values that I want to keep with me while I go. It was a great 6 weeks to get out there and work as a team (an amazing team) and learn together. I am so thankful I picked the Australia outreach, I wouldn't have traded it for anything! We were a solid team and I feel like it really gave me a platform for stepping up even in the areas where I found myself stepping down in. Once again I want to thank-you again for all your prayers while we were on our outreach. It was greatly appreciated! I would like to ask for your continued prayer support during these next 2 weeks left in Australia for our debrief that we would become more prepared to going back home and that we would be open to whatever the future has in store for us.
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