Billabong...No not the brand

Life has been picking up speed like no other here!  This past week of lectures was on identity which was an impacting time for pretty much everyone.  Our speaker, Joanne Blaik, was an amazing speaker who had everyone captivated from the beginning.  You could tell by the way she spoke and interacted with us that she cared so much about us and what she was teaching about.  One of the exercises that we did while in lectures was hilarious but at the same time very impactful.  One of the things that Joanne had been telling us about was that we look at people but don't really see them.  So to practice what we were learning in this exercise we had to go up to someone and for over a minute had to just stare straight into their eyes (don't worry there was music playing in the background to take away the sting of the awkwardness).  As we stared into their eyes we had to try and see how God sees them.  Once the, "oh my goodness this is so awkward please person try to stop laughing so that I can actually see your eyes" wears off and you are actually able to look into your partners eyes it is one of the most peaceful feelings.  You can practically see the venerability in the depths of their eyes.  Gods creation is so magnificent.  On the last day we gathered into a few small circles each with our list of lies that we believed about ourselves that we had written out the day before.  Each person, if they wanted to, would step into the middle and read off their list of truths off to everyone.  As we went the leaders who were in each group would encourage the person in the middle to do certain things such as shout their truths or do other symbolisms to bring the truths home.  It was definitely an intense time for everyone.

Youth Street this week was awesome!  My team, Saving Grace, was merged with the music team because last week we only had one crew show up.  We had two new girls in the group who had never been to Youth Street and they really liked it!  I was able help teach piano and then teach another girl guitar which was really fun.
I love to joke around that a homeschooler can spot another homeschooler from a mile away but its so true!  After only 2 weeks of Youth Street I have met three homeschoolers which is apparently very rare.   One of the core values of Youth Street is dynamic which means that we try and change things up every week by doing things such as changing the look of the room around or doing a dress-up day.  This weeks dynamic point was that everyone was supposed to dress up in their PJ's.  We had some fun with this one, to say the least.

On Sunday we went to the Billabong!  It was too amazing for words so I will just share some pictures with you.

I would love to write more but base worship starts in 3 minutes so I must be off!  I am so thankful for each and every one of you.  God bless your day.

Selah