Meeting #2

WOW, I just came back from a Hong Kong meeting and have so much information in my head right now, I don't even know where to start. Emily has been coming to all our meetings so far to support us but Woodsy has decided that we really need to learn and grow together as a team so she will probably just be joining us for prayer on Thursday nights.

 So Woodsy told us a lot about what we'll be doing in Hong Kong. I would be lying if I told you that what he said didn't make me uncomfortable. Granted as a girl I will not ever be alone with a New Boy, for which I am thankful. We all are going to be taking shifts with the new guys that come in. This is an all day thing and they are spiritual babies so for the first little while that they are at New Man House, we are to get them whatever they want, whenever they want it. The guys actually have to go in the bathroom with the recovering drug addicts to make sure that they aren't hiding drugs on them. I am SO glad that I'm a girl lol. Woodsy also said that all the people there will like me immediately whereas for the guys it will take time. Not surprised about that too much I guess, girls aren't'as intimidating as a general rule.

He talked to us for about an hour on what we will be doing and gave us a chart that is supposed to help us out. A little overwhelmed right now, but It will be okay.  I'm still looking forward but am realizing how big of a role we are taking on, of course we are not alone so that's great, well tomorrow is Tuesday and I'm planning on starting my outline as soon as possible so that my weekend is completely free! Ciao

Sydney Opera

Went to the Sydney Opera House last night! It was amazing! The whole evening in the Opera lasted three hours. There was an accident on the way there so we were stuck in traffic and didn't get to eat before going into the Opera. There were two intermissions of 20-30 min. During the intermission there was the opportunity to go out on the terrace and overlook the Harbour. There was a fantastic view of the Harbour bridge and all the buildings across the water, you could see sailboats, the birds, and other ships on the water. Everyone took lots of pictures, I didn't bring my camera to the Opera though so I'm hoping people put them on facebook.

There were twelve of us students that went, along with Woodsy. We had the back row on the first level. Therefore we couldn't see the subtitles that translated the Italian singing. We read the synopsis however so we caught on to what was happening, it was a tragic love story about Princess Turandot.  At the end of the performance there was clapping for at least 5 minutes straight. It was so funny to see who people clapped for the most, depending on the character they played. Suffice to say that Turandot was not as celebrated as Liu , Calaf, or even Timur! The performance was long yet it didn't seem lengthy at all.

 I felt really important being at the Opera like in books I've read. Everyone got dressed up and Jamie did some girls' makeup. I had bought a dress in town weeks ago and it was perfect for the evening, I was the only one wearing a reddy, pink dress! After the Opera and more pictures, we walked to McDonalds for our late dinner. Two 1$ cheeseburgers for me. Of course walking there and back to the Opera House I stuck close by some of the guys since any city at night is a bit sketchy.

 On the ride home we got pulled over by the police that had set up a checkpoint and they warned Woodsy that we all needed to wear are seatbelts properly, I was of course ;), Thanks Mom. He could have got a 2000$ fine if we weren't wearing them. They are very strict about traffic laws here and they are very keen on enforcing them!

 I'm quite exhausted since we got back to the school at 1am, however me and a nap are not compatible so I'll probably just be tired for the majority of the day and drink some cappuccinos at church! haha There is a community dinner at the church after the service tonight and they are bringing in pizza, Rachel and I have to be back in time for SN @ C which starts at 7:30, but I think we'll be okay. I really want to be able to stay for it. Everyone else gets the opportunity to go out for lunch with members of their congregation and since ours is an evening service, we don't. Hopefully Pastor Mark get the go ahead from Garth (in charge of SN @C and missions)

Fun times!!

So yesterday I thought I had a prayer meeting at 2:00 so I went to Woodsy's and he informed me that the meeting was actually at 7:00pm... oops.  So instead I went into town to get money out of my bank to pay for my flight to Hong Kong. Woodsy entrusted me with his bank card and said that all I had to do was go to his bank, they would swipe the card and then I could give them money to deposit. I was a little surprised that he just gave it to me, but then again I am pretty trustworthy. All went well and my flights are paid for!! I also got the chance to Skype with my family and had a pretty great laugh at Tias song :). I also went and bought some chocolate, they have Vanilla Mars Bars!!!

Then today it was 24 degrees out so I made time for some sunbathing. We had classes in the morning and then the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. I am running out of internet time and since I don't have any cash... I'm not sure when I will get the chance to buy some more. So if all my time runs out, I won't be blogging until I get more internet, just a heads up.

 Olivia went to the Street Meat tonight but and it goes until 1:00am so I didn't go. The Opera is tomorrow!!! We are going to dress up and then take a bus to Sydney, on the way we will stop for Dinner, I'm not sure where though. I'm really looking forward to it but don't want to be exhausted for it so I'll probably go to bed earlyish.... I think that's about it as far as activities go, in going to the Opera I'll be missing out on a church baptism that follows with a swim and BBQ... Figures that it would be on one of the only Saturdays that I'm busy! I might look into trying to get a few babysitting jobs on weekends, since the work that there is doesn't really appeal to me (raking for 5-8 hrs).   Apparently there is a babysitting agency and they charge 25$ an hour, WOW if I made that much at home I would have that as a career haha.

The Briars was awesome, there was live music and Pastor Mark and Coby came and joined us. We were sitting there for quite a while and the people behind us were leaving. They saw us eyeing their cheese and crackers so they said we could have them :). It was really good, Brie is my new favorite cheese! Time for bed for sure...,

Bible study and work day

So, yesterday was workday and every two weeks we get assigned a different workday task as well as a different priviledge. I am now inside on workday and am working with Adam in the conference/lecture Hall. Technically we each had separate jobs but decided that it would be more fun if we worked together.

So we cleaned all morning and Sally said that if we got our tasks finished we could decorate a lost and found box.

Lunch was kind of gross, we had hotdogs but the "hotdogs" had a red covering on them that u were supposed to eat with it and they smelled like wet cat. yuck. I ate them and they didn't settle well with my stomach...

Anyways after lunch we finished the rest of our assigned jobs and got to work painting the toilet paper box so that it could be the "Loser Box". Adam had joked earlier that he was going to get paint on me but i figured I was pretty safe..

He ended up flicking water at me with the paintbrushes a few times but I got him back with a cup of water. The box is VERY colorful and I'm pretty sure no one will miss it lol

My biblestudy was afterwards and it didn't go as well as I had hoped but it wasn't at all bad. I had wanted an A on both components and ended up getting a B on presentation and an A- on content. Thats actually quite good for my first one!

Well other than that I am trying to decide what to do for the march travel weekend and although I originally didn't want to go camping, I think I might. At least I'll be able to hang out at the beach with a bunch of people from the school and also it will be pretty cheap!!

Digging a Hole....

So, I said that I would write on tuesday about a story, and for me... Its Tuesday. So since Valentines Day all the girls have had a secret brother. We all drew their names out of a bowl so none of us got to choose who we got! Thats not to say that no one got who they wanted though.

Alright so on Valentines Day we decorated the conference hall, all the girls did something a little bit different for their "brother". For example, some of the girls made AMAZINGLY creative cards! I decorated my brothers' seat with steamers and balloons and spelt his name out on Oreos.

So we were only going to give them secret gifts until that friday but then a bunch of the girls thought that the guys deserved more presents since they put on a fantastic dinner for us, which is true.

So, I gave little notes with choclates, a poem and oreos. Just little things and on Thursday when I gave my brother a verse and note he was joking to the guys around him that it was a proposal. So, I decided to actual "propose" the next day as a joke. I made it a fill in the blank and the clues were bible verses. It spelt out: Seth, will you marry __________, the last blank was Colossians 1:26. It was a joke and I maybe overdid it by giving him a paper engagement ring....

Anyways a few guys knew that it was me giving the gifts to Seth and they were continually making jabs at me about it. As tuesday was coming closer I wrote a letter explaining that I wasn't actually asking him to marry me, and only meant to ask him to not try to find out who I was for the remainder of the week. This was what I was originally thinking!

So anyways today we revealed ourselves and I wrapped up a 1.5L of vanilla Coke in a plastic bag and on the side of it I wrote "Share a Coke with Brianna".

He said that the guys didn't let my identity slip until yesterday and when they did, he didn't believe them so I guess I did an okay job at being secretive... He actually came and poured me a glass of Coke which was pretty sweet.

The Hole that I was talking about was that now that its no longer a secret, all the guys can make fun. A couple comments today:

"You can't take back a proposal"
"So, I hear you're honeymooning in Hong Kong!"

also when a question was asked in class about how many great people we know, I got called on to answer and I said that great people are ones who have impacted us or who we have impacted, Woodsy asked me to give an example and the guys yelled "Seth"

Such jokesters... I don't think I'll ever hear the end of this one. Hey, it might even beat out my catch phrase, "It's all about Brianna"

Prayer support

Hey everyone I just wanted to let you know some details of the trip I'm going on to New Mans House in Hong Kong. We will be leaving at the end of March and will be  there for two weeks. I ask that you all remember me and my team in your prayers as well as the people we are going there to bless. We are praying about fundraising right now and that we can raise money to take down for the people at New Mans House. We are going there to stay with those that are recovering from drugs and alcohol so that they can go back out into the community with Jesus to rely on and a new sense of purpose for their life.

I am very excited for this amazing opportunity and if you have any questions, feel free to let me know :)

Just For Brittany ;)

So... Brittany messaged me and said I should blog so here it is. Yesterday I stayed back from the beach to work on my biblestudy and the majority of it is done! Then when everyone was back some of us played a game in the lecture hall. Essentially everyone sits in chairs in a circle and there is one empty seat. There is a person in the middle blindfolded holding a pillow. They were to call someones name and that person had to get to the empty chair without being hit, if you got hit you were in the middle. It was quite fun! Then since Woodsy was away all weekend we watched X-Men first class until 11:30 pm and then I went to bed. The night before that we watched a movie there as well and ate brownies. So today I did my laundry, which there was quite a bit of.... then after lunch I walked to the Briars for Fridas birthday but only stayed 10  min cuz I was getting picked up for church. Church went quite well, we were teaching the kids about Noah so I asked God for rain.... it didn't come til after church but maybe the kids saw it and thought back to the lesson!

Tonight the Covenant Players (drama group/family) came to perform at SN @ C and they did a great job. I'm getting to know some of the girls in the community a bit better and had a short conversation with Krissy in German haha.

Tomorrow I have a meeting to talk about my biblestudy and then a Hong Kong meeting right after. Mondays are "town" days but i've missed 2 so far due to Hong Kong meetings. I'm kind of hoping he picks a different day later on or else I'll have to bike in another day :/.

I think thats all I have to say.... Hope you all are doing well!!!