The Last Month and A Half

I am amazed at how fast times flies. So many things to write about and say! I guess I will just write about random things that have happened.

The second and third week of September were school holidays for the kids and during the first week of holiday I helped at Tween Camp. Tween Camp is up at Spring Beach which is on the coast and is about an hour and a half from where I live. Spring Breach is like Cohutta Springs. It is Tasmania's Adventist camp/retreat center. Tween camp is basically like summer camp except it is not summer. We had about 45 kids come and we run all sort of activities for them during the day and at night we have our evening program. I was in charge of the kayaks. We decided that a fun game to play on the dam (which was freezing by the way) was water polo. So we bought these float-able nets and a ball. The evening before the kids came I went down to the water and sent the nets up so everything would be ready. I woke up the next day and went down to the water and one of the nets was not floating anymore and kind of sitting halfway in the water! Some rabid creature had chewed all of the foam material that made it float. I asked someone what kind of monster lived in the dam/pond and they told me eels. Great I thought. I am going to be life guarding and kayaking in a pond full of eels and freezing water. Alas, no one was eaten though by killer eels which was a very positive thing.

On Friday we went down to the beach and the water was also freezing. You might be catching a common theme here: Tasmania is cold. I was sitting in my swim suit and shirt shivering on the rocks and Jack, the cameraman was coming around filming different people. Jack started filming me and I said some random statement about how water in America is not this cold. And then for the kids and for the camera I took off my shirt and start running toward the water at full speed thinking man it can't be that cold. As I am sprinting as fast as I can, I suddenly trip and fall flat on my face in about an inch of water. I had not seen a dip in the sand and basically ate it hardcore. Everyone was like, is Jeff okay? And then when they saw me get up, they all started laughing. I am glad I could provide for a laugh=)

The next week I went hiking with Mr. Norman who is the principal at Hilliard Christian School where I am the chaplain. We drove down this road out in the middle of nowhere and then the road basically stopped and we hiked for a couple hours through the Australian bush until we reached the coast and it was absolutely amazing! These huge sea cliffs just drop right down to the ocean and you could see for miles up and down the coast. Really pretty. We hiked down to this spot called Shipstern's Bay which is supposedly a famous surfing spot. The waves were pretty calm when we were there but they can get up to 20 feet or so.

I recently moved as well. I had been staying with Pastor Deveron, the youth director, and his wife Sarah who is the PE/Art teacher at the school. This last week I moved into a flat all by my lonesome self over in New Town which is a suburb about 25 minutes from where I was living. At first, I was not too keen on the idea because Sarah is a really good cook and I enjoyed living with them. And then I heard that some guy recently got stabbed to death in New Town. Hmmm...
But then I warmed up to the idea because I can now invite people over for vespers/Bible studies/meals/etc. And I enjoy cooking for myself too. The apartment or flat does not have a drier, but I enjoy hanging my clothes up on the clothesline. Makes me feel domesticated and now I feel like I have been doing it all my life. My clothes are nice and crisp too. I think I am going to hang my clothes up on a line when I get back to the States.

They don't have graham crackers here by the way. I was looking for some the other day because I was going to teach the youth how to make Smores at a vespers/fire we had the other night. However, the grocery stores don't carry them. We used cookies instead. Not the same.

They call cookies "biscuits" and they call supper "tea". So if I said, "Going to have some people over for tea" it would not mean we are going to sit around the fire sipping lemon and iced tea, but rather we were going to eat dinner. But here, you could also have morning tea which is a morning snack and even afternoon tea which is a snack after lunch. But just tea is supper.

This week is Spiritual Emphasis Week at the school. I had a Spiritual Emphasis Week for the elementary kids a few weeks ago but this week it is for the high school kids. I am nervous. The kids come from a vast variety of spiritual backgrounds. Some are mature Christians. Others are just beginning in their faith. A lot may believe in God but don't care at all. And three or four are even professed atheists. What do you tell them? They have a hard time listening as well. I struggle speaking to people who don't at least show that they are listening. A lot of the kids in high school also have the "CKS" aka Cool Kid Syndrome. They act all tough, but you know they really aren't. I would really appreciate your prayers this week for these high school kids. Man, they come from such tough homes and messed up backgrounds. I would say at least 75% of the high school kids are not Adventist, let alone Christian! I just want them to know how much Jesus loves them and how He wants their hearts and how living for Jesus is not really a sacrifice at all but better than anything they have ever experienced. I want them to know that Jesus wants to be their best friend and that we have to spend time with Him daily to really get to know Him. I want them to know that you have to choose to be a follower of Jesus. You can't base your decisions or your relationship with God on feelings, but you have to trust what His Word says. I just want them to believe!

God is soo good though. I am learning a lot about Him, myself, and ministry. He has not yet failed me and I know He won't! I was encouraged by a promise this morning found in Psalm 27 "Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, He will strengthen your heart, Wait I say on the Lord!" God is faithful and I am so glad that my weakness is His strength and that I can trust Him!

Lord, when I thought I could do everything, I could do nothing. How blessed is my lack of ability because it makes me find in you everything lacking in me.--Francois Fenelon