As I sit here pretending to do my homework and assignments, I got to thinking: I have been here for nearly 4 months. That is well over the "half time" mark of me being in Australia. Which means the majority of my time here has come and gone and soon I will be on a plane jetting back to beautiful British Columbia. It is a pretty sad thought and as I was talking to my friend Josh about only being around for a short while more, I had to stop him from speaking as I was being brought to tears. It has been such a lovely and discomforting (in a good way) stay here. I've learned so much about myself and I have really grown. Moreover, I've really grown in my relationship with God as well which I didn't think would be what I was taking home with me and getting out of this experience. What really pushed my faith over the edge was the PlanetShakers conference. I remember walking back to the car with my friend Justine and her mentioning that she felt I wasn't meant to come to Australia for school and an awesome experience, I was meant to come to grow in my relationship with God. At that moment I really felt like that's what my calling here was. I took a moment to register in my faith and it really is true. I've grown so much and God has stopped being the thing that is there for when I need him, but the Lord and King who is there all the time. My heart is more focused on Him and my mind is not only thinking of Him at night when I pray but during little moments in the day of happiness, suffering, trial, frustration, content, admiration and love. God is such a powerful attendy in my life now. This adventure has really re confirmed my faith and I wouldn't change a single minute of it. I came on to blog something funny, but it took a whirlwind of a change when I mentioned how great our God actually is and now I can't stop writing about our amazing creator. I feel my heart being called to do something greater in this world. I've always known I can't do a job where I am not helping people. It is in my soul. I need to make a difference and I need to help those in need. I've been trying to find a perfect placement for myself but could never settle and never really felt God's peace about it. Then it hit me: Youth Ministry. It was first a very scary thought and a very uncomfortable one. But God doesn't keep us in our comfort zones. He challenges our faith. He doesn't want us living safe lives where we hide and huddle in our rooms. He wants us to go out and experience. And we can't get experience if we don't take risks. He gives us nothing we can't handle. So for me to enter Youth Ministry is a very scary and big risk. I've never been good at swaying people. I've never been good at public speaking. I've always been the one to sit in the back and shrug off differences and always be like "you have your opinions I have mine". I've never been one to share the amazing-ness of our Lord with non-believers. In fact, it made me unbelievably uncomfortable getting into conversations and debates. But God said "NO! This is your place". Overwhelmed is the only word I can use to describe this. I now have this unending feeling of wanting to spread the word and news to those young teenagers who were just like me trying to figure themselves out. I want to work mostly with girls who are in that stage of unknowing because I was in that exact place not so long ago. I can tell you now if I had someone like who I am wanting to be helping me out every step of the way, my life would have come to Christ so much quicker. My life would have been ever so exploding with the love of God that I wouldn't have been able to be stopped. I wouldn't have been afraid to share my discoveries with my parents. I wouldn't have been afraid to witness to those who were seeking. I wouldn't have been uncertain of what it actually is that God has done to my life and those around me. This is what I want and this is what my heart is being called to do. Minister. Preach. Witness. All for the glory of God. Not to mention I will be able to do this with my sidekick in Christ, Amy Pickard, who is also being called to this. This post here goes to show how overwhelming this feeling and calling is because I never intended to come on and write about this. In fact, I intended to not tell people until I was sure. But God has other plans. Don't worry though, the previous "funny" post I mentioned I would do will come along shortly. I apparently just needed to share with you my new and awesome discovery. God is amazing. Amazing-as.

How can we look at this world see this kind of beauty and still only think it's man made.