Ai ai... the things I'll do for the Kingdom of God... Ok Lord, if you really want me to go to Airlie beach (the most amazing beach on the western hemisphere) I'll go.
So one day after I arrived at the baseI got on the bus and came with the YWAM team from Brisbane to Airlie beach to do evangelism for a week. It was a looooong 15 hour trip straight up north, but it was worth the drive. We had 3 YWAM teams there with a total of about 70 YWAMers. All these people were amazing and we had lots of deep, quality, worship and spiritual time together. Very intense and very real. Very powerful too. It was great.
On the first day we got there we helped the others teams to finish setting up our tent. This tent was huge and could easily fit 200 people. Inside it we had a stage, a few coffe table that were used for board games, cards, etc, and a free Chai tea table (which was a major hit). I was put in the sports ministry team and all we did was play soccer and volleyball at the beach all day in order to meet people and invite them to the tent at night. At night we would all be at the tent and hang out with the people that came in for the free Chai and to hang out. Almost every night we also had live music and one day we all got really crazy and had an amazing jaming night. Some how me and these other 5 guys with drums, guitars and trompete sounded really good. It was sooooo much fun. In the middle of the week we organized a volleyball tournament and I was the tournament director. We had a free BBQ and a great tournament. 48 people signed up and participated! Lots of them stopped by the tent at night and we had a chance to share our lives and testimonies with many of them. I ran the tournament like the tennis pizza parties and it worked out really well :)
I had lots of great conversations and many powerful experiences this week. God was so real, present and evident in this tent. It was amazing! Very humbling in times. Most of the people that came into the tent were backpackers from all ove the world, mostly Canadians and Europeans. With most of these I had to talk and listen to them for 1 hour or more before we talked about God and Christianity, but it was always worth being patient. Some times the subject didn't even come up, and it was ok, we had a good time together. So many of these young people were glad that the tent was there and that they could come hang out with us intead of going to the bars and get drunk again... (there is not much to do in Airlie beach). We made many friends and handed a few bibles too. I believe many lives were changed.
On friday, after the amazing jamming session, somebody gave our leader a free trip for two to the Whitsundays Islnad and she ended up giving it to me and another dude that I met that night. This guy (Frankie - from Germany- on the picture above) was so happy! He just walked into the tent, talked with me for like 20 minutes and ended up getting a free trip to the most amazing island and beaches in Australia! I ended up spending the night with Frankie and Michael (Australian dude) whom I had also met that night. Our whole group stayed in an elementary school 15 minutes away from the beach, where we slept on the floor with our sleeping bags. I couldn't go to the school at night because I would have no ride to catch the cruise in the morning, so I ended up crashing with Michael in a really nice hotel right by the beach. It was so nice to sleep in a bed (even though it was only for 5 hours) - I had been sleeping on the floor for a week... Early the next day Frankie and I got on the boat and had to the Whitsundays. The food on the boat was amazing and the beaches and islands were spectacular too. The water was crystal clear and the sand was white as snow and really really thin and soft. We spend the afternoon there swimming and playing frisbee and other games. Loads of fun.
On many nights I was on security duty and I had to stay awake at the tent to watch the sound equipment and make sure no drunk people would sleep or pass out in the tent. It wasn't too bad, specially with the world cup games being at 1am and 5am (we showed all the games on a big screen in the tent and this was also an evangelism tool). After 2 nights with very little sleep and a full day on the boat I was put on security again and my shift was suppose to end at 4:30am. By 10pm I was almost a sleep but I drank lots of coffee and managed to stay awake until the Germany Argentina game at 1am. The game was great but afterwards I was dead, and needed desperately to sleep. Everything went wrong, the van that was suppose to pick us up broke down I was stuck there until 6:30am! It was awful! When the next crew finally arrived we had no car so we had to take a taxi back to the school. After I slept for 3 hours I had to wake up and pack my bags to leave the elementary school. I ended up missing the bus was stuck there for another 3 hours (that I wish I was sleeping)... the rest of the day was pretty rough but it slowly got better. We had a good dinner and a fun last night. The next morning at 5am Brazil played awful and lost to France. Horrendous! After that we cleaned the house and got on the bus again. 15 hours latter we arrived in Brisbane.
For the next two weeks I'll be doing construction work, gardening, moving luggage and helping in the kitchen, from 8:30am to 6pm Monday - Friday. Next week I'll be able to watch some of the Sports DTS (Discipleship Training School) lectures and I am very excited and looking forward to it. That's the main reason why I came to Brisbane and Australia in the first place. Below is a picture of us jamming in the tent :) - JP
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