After the heat and humidity of Asia, we were absolutely delighted to walk into an icy Australia where we did not always have the sweat glow on our foreheads and we could finally use our Global Challenge jackets every day! :)
Australia was defiintely full of learning experiences... learning how to debark a tree, learning how to cut down a tree, learning how to plant the stumps for the fence, how to ride a scrambler, how to ride a horse and how to actually build a fence!*
We as yellow team were not assigned to a specific job together, so everyone mixed around with the different tasks! Wynand and PJ helped out with a camp that was on the weekend that we arrived there, and spent their time with young boys, doing things such as dirt
bikes and caving all day... so to them it was the ultimate! The rest of us got to rest the first weekend, before the work started on the Monday! The first Sunday we were there, we went into Canberra and saw a bit of the town and also got to visit a local church there!
Oom Johan and his family are from South Africa and are there now, running the camp! So just to have been around other South Africans and being able to speak Afrikaans, was such a breath of fresh air! Luckily, oom Johan is a strong believer of hard work, but then also some fun! So during our time in Austrlia, we really were spoiled numerous times with outings, dirt biking, horse riding and caving among other things!
I was on the debarking team, Elsabe on the pole planting team, Wynanad on the 'putting fence together' team and Danie was cutting down the trees! It was a pleasure to work in such beautiful surroundings and with such amazing, gentle, God-loving
people! I also got the opportunity to go visit a school in a nearby town known as Yass, where the neighbour of Mountain Trails (where we worked) was a teacher, but at the special units class, which is for mentallydisabled kids! These kids were filled with so much joy and laughter that it was contagious! Sam, Suiyen and myself had a great time with the kids!
Overalls = also known as the new love suits!*
The time in Austrlia was really such a treat and such good timing after Asia! God really knew what our needs would be for this time when He planned this journey! And just being around our type of people, it just felt like home... in a beautiful Australian setting! We were spoilt by tannie Noelene with peppermint crisp
tart, melktert, pancakes, biltong and many other dishes! They even had a braai for us the one evening with skaap tjops and braai broodjies!!!! And thats not even the end of it... they arranged for us to be able to watch the Super14 semi's the next morning at 1am at someone's house!!! So with a full South African belly and a Stormers-Blue Bulls final... what more could we want!?!
1 Thes 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
God wanted to spoil us a bit and He did it abundantly (He even blessed us with the opportunity to visit Hillsong church in Sydney... as well as the Sydney Opera House before we flew to New Zealand)! But let us rememeber to give thanks to Him always, and not just when things are going great! :) He knows our needs, and will look after them always! Praise God every minute for who He is,
not for what He does for us!*