Christmas Down Under!!

Christmas in Australia was nothing like Christmas at home. Christmas Eve we had a BBQ outside and ate together then we sang some normal Christmas carols and some Aussie ones too. Christmas Day we woke up and all went to the same church. When church was over we came back to our house and opened gifts from home, stockings and our secret santa gifts. I got a video camera from the Yeos, a Rider t-shirt that is more like a dress, 2 teddy bears, heaps of candy, Tim Hortons Hot Chocolate and an ornament that says dream on it. After gifts, we had a small lunch and then had some fun in the sun. We made a slip and slide in the backyard and played out there all afternoon. Then it started to rain. For Christmas Dinner we had honey glazed ham, turkey, chicken, twice baked potatoes and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. It was amazing. For dessert we had apple crumble, pudding and a few different types of cakes. After dinner and dessert, we had a talent show. It was super funny. On Boxing Day we were supposed to go to a beach, but it was too cold and rainy so instead we watched movies, played ping pong and card games. Overall, it didn’t feel like Christmas at all and still doesn’t feel like it was Christmas. But it was lots of fun and a nice break of rountine.

Only 3 more weeks left in Australia for me, then off to New Zealand!

Forgive me...

Hey Guys!

Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote on here. Things have been pretty busy and the internet has not been a priority. So here’s an update!

So relationships week.. It was a super good week. I learned the difference between putting up walls and placing boundaries, which I believe is super good to know. If you have walls and not boundaries how are you supposed to learn or grow or open up at all, right? Another thing I learned was I will never know what is best for me. Only God does therefore I need to rely on him to show me what is best. I learned not to take friendships for granted. I need to take time to invest in the friendships I know are put in my life because of God.

The week after relationships was evangelism. I didn’t quite enjoy this week. We learned how to evangelize nicely. I didn’t really learn anything new. But during this week, we commissioned the July DTS (commission is graduation). It was lots of fun. We set up, cleaned up, enjoyed the program and got to dress up. Good deal.

This week was lordship. Lordship means making God Lord of your life. So this week we laid down our rights to certain things and we gave things to God to use for His good and not our own pleasure. It was really good and our school really bonded again. We were vulnerable with each other, we cried and we laughed. It was a great week. And we had the best speaker in the whole world, Natalie, our co-leader of our school J.

Next week is Christmas! And we don’t have lectures. We are doing something else for Tuesday and Wednesday which is still to be determined. Then Thursday, Friday and Saturday is our Christmas celebration! Details to follow.

A few weeks ago at Youth Street, I taught dance! We learned some jazz, contemporary, line dancing and break dancing. We have heaps of talent on our dance team staff. It was super fun.

Merry Christmas fellow blog readers! Enjoy the time with family and soak up every moment. Oh yeah, and enjoy the freezing cold weather suckers!

PS Special thanks to my mom and my dad and my sister and my brother and the Yeo’s for the awesome homemade food and the candy. I am so excited to open the gifts! Legit’s from home!!! I love getting mail (hint, hint)...

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Schoolies has come and gone and it was stinkin awesome! We took a bus to the Gold Coast which was supposed to be a 10 hour bus ride but turned into a 15 hour bus ride and on the way home we flew to Sydney and took a train to Newcastle. But, because the media loves hearing about Schoolies and changing the stories around, I cannot blog about it. If you would like to hear stories or have questions about it please email me . maxleibel@hotmail.com

Besides Schoolies, I am back at Newcastle and am here till we go on outreach which is in mid January. Can you believe Christmas is in like a month? I can’t. Imagine this. 43 degrees outside, waking up to a stuffy and stinky room, having to wear as little clothes as possible while being modest daily. Story of my life. I love it though. Although the heat is intense, it makes for good tanning weather. I am going to have the best tan lines.

Next week, lectures are on relationships. I am super excited to see what is going to happen next week. I only have 3 or 4 weeks of outreach left. Then Christmas, then outreach prep, then outreach! Time is flying!

PS Steph-my roommates call you scarf girl. Do you understand?

I have a few favours to ask;
-Shanice; can you write down good songs to keep me update?-Paulina; can you do the same especially country?
-Beccy; can you do the same with our awesome music?
-Steph; can you, Beth and I have a birthday party together when I get home? And can you find out details on what is going on with jatlb?
-Jenni; let me know if andy’s new stuff is good

I think that is all I need right now. Because the internet is crappy, it is so hard for me to keep up on music. Oh well.

I just want to thank everyone who has supported me in any form to get here. It is seriously amazing and I wish everyone could experience this. To everyone who has supported me either financially, or just by encouragement or by prayer, thank you heaps. I couldn’t be doing this without you guys. Love you!

A short tid bit of update.

So, tomorrow we are Greyhounding it to the Gold Coast for Schoolies. I described it in a earlier blog. I am super excited but super nervous at the same time. I am praying I don't get puked on because that is sick, sick in the bad way, Dad. Speaking of my Dad, November 18th is my Mom and Dad's 20th anniversary!! And Havana's birthday. WOO! Happy Anniversary Mama and Fasha.

Last week we learned about the Holy Spirit. It was an intense week. You know how milk makes me feel sick and make my stomach talk? Well, I got healed of it! I eat it erday now boi.

ummm, yeah. I'll be gone till next Saturday, so I will blog more later. Talk to you guys soon!

The Saddest News Ever...

Don’t you love being sick? No one does. But I was sick on Thursday and Friday with a cold where I could hardly breathe and my eyes were constantly watering. Nice. It’s funny how sometimes God uses our sickness to spend time with us. Missing out on lectures on Fear of the Lord sucked. But hearing from God and reading His word was nothing short of awesome.

2 weeks ago we learned about Spiritual Warfare. Scary business, but a good scary. Apparently our leaders weren’t satisfied with what was taught and felt there should be more application stuff so we are returning to the subject sometime soon. My small group leader and mentor person had to go to Perth to get some more training under her belt. We miss you Natalie. Last week as I mentioned before is about Fear of the Lord. I don’t think I ever really understood what FOTL was, but now I have a clear understanding and a new look on it. That’s one good thing about DTS (hint hint Shanice).

Last weekend a few of us went to the beach. Oh how beautiful. Since they don’t celebrate Halloween here, a friend and I went and bought some candy for ourselves. Down here it’s not called candy, it’s called lollies. Anyways, on Tuesday it was 38 degrees. Super hot. Then Wednesday and Thursday were nice and cool. Probably about 25 degrees and cloudy.

This weekend that just past heaps of people off our base headed up to Sydney for some sightseeing and a Hillsong live album recording. For those of you who don’t know who or what Hillsong is, it’s a church in Sydney that has world famous worship bands. It was stinking awesome and I am stoked for this album to come out. Heaps of good songs for camp!

Tuesday nights are outreach prep nights. This week we just prayed and asked God where/what He would like us to do in our locations. So there still isn’t a set plan for New Zealand yet. All I know is flights are cheap, Lord of the Rings and Narnia were filmed there and there is a sick music festival we might be working at there. It’s called Parachute music festival. Check it. Underoath, Family Force 5, Hillsong United, Parachute Band a few others! I hope it works out.

Anyways, for outreach, I still need some more money so next week we are working on support stuff. I will be sending out more support stuff because I am a tad bit short for outreach. If you don’t go to Celebration, and you would still like to support me, you can give a cheque or cash to my dad or go online to www.ywamnow.com and support me from there.

Paulina and other The Hills fans and people who know what The Hills is: You remember my friend, Katie, who knows Uncle Jesse/John Stamos? Well she also used to be super good friends with Lauren and that other girl from The Hills name. The H one I think. Super sick, I know.
People who listened to or know of the 90’s all girl band Dream: The dance ministry leader used to be in it! She worked with P Diddy. Get this, there she is on Wikipedia. Check it. Her first name is Kasey and last name is Sherdon or something like that and her new last name is Russel.

For people who love Jay and the Lovebirds and for people who are wondering what the saddest news ever is: The rumors are true. Dougie is a now a one man show. RIP JATLB. L Worst news I’ve received since being here. I actually go into a deep depression thinking about how they are done. Hopefully Dougie will continue writing amazing songs and get new members. Perhaps Jamey Martin? Haha just kidding, but seriously... When I return to my homeland, I will be hosting a shindig in remembrance of Jay and the Lovebirds. We will be mourning the loss of this great band and playing great music all night.

To all facebookers: I am deeply sorry I have lacked on putting up pictures. The internet is slow as and my cord is on its way. It’s probably in the airplane right meow.

Love you guys and miss you tons. Can you believe I’ve already been gone a month? A whole month. For me it has flown by. I hope it has for you too.

OUTREACH TEAMS FINALIZED

Guess now it's official, can't back out, can't back out. PANIC! (I watched High School Musical last night) Anyways, this evening we were told to meet in the lecture hall because we had "lectures". They told us we were going to do an application activity. So they handed us pieces of paper and made us close our eyes and on our piece of paper was an animal. We had to make this animal noise that was on our paper. I had a sheep (hint). So we started "baa-ing". After we found our fellow sheeps, we had to put together this puzzle without talking. As we put together our puzzle, I and another girl, screamed OUTREACH TEAMS at the exact same time. So they announced our teams! I'm going to New Zealand!! My team is a team for 4 students, 3 girls and 1 boy and 1 leader. I am so excited. Outreach will cost us at most $4500. But because I'm not flying 14 hours, it will be cheaper. I am still short on outreach yet. I have about half I think.

This week we are learning about Spiritual Warfare. More to come at the end of the week.

Love you guys!

P.S. Leave comments!

I got a tan!

So I am home from camping! Myalls Lake National Park is where we went. It was about an hour and a half away from home. We got there and the men had set up our tents and everything. My kind of camping. So the whole base was there. All 98 of us or something crazy like that. It was so fun and great to get to know the whole staff and the July DTS came back to go camping with us! They are a cool school but of course, October is better! I got to see wild kangaroos, an ugly lizard thing called a goanna, tons of gross spiders, birds and possums. My tent was so tiny and fit only me and Bo and was literally like 200 feet away from the lake. They lake is half fresh water but is filled with tea tree oil. So the water was beautiful. It was especially nice because we had no showers. Not showering was so disgusting. But it was okay because no one could shower. Anyways, everyone left us on Wednesday night and then it was just October kids and the Base leaders and their families. We did our lectures and learned about the Fatherheart of God. Super awesome topic. Then on Thursday we did this thing called ‘openness and brokenness’. It was basically an opportunity to be vulnerable with each other and tell each other everything. It was super hard but in the end, it has brought us so much closer.
Crazy story for you guys. On Friday we wanted to go to this historical native creek. So with us we had two boats and an aquavan. An aquavan is a homemade boat which is an old motor home turned into a boat. So cool right? Anyways so we started our trek which consisted of several adventures.
1st adventure- The aquavan wouldn’t start. The way we fixed it was by jumping the battery with one of the boats.
2nd adventure- The boat we used to jump the aquavan wouldn’t start. Blew a fuse.
3rd adventure- Once everyone was on the water and on the way to the creek, the aquavan decides to take a short cut. Bad idea. We get stuck in this mud and reeds resulting in our rope of the anchor getting caught up on the propeller.
4th adventure- 3 of the boys get out to push us because it wasn’t that deep, little did they know this mud acted like quick sand. So they were sinking by the minute. They made them hold on to a boat while the boat dragged them out.
5th adventure- Aquavan dies again and won’t start for anything resulting in being towed by both boats.
6th adventure- A thunder storm rolls in while we were on the water. Sweet right? Not. So scary. But we made is safely back to camp in one piece with all three modes of transportation.
It was supposed to take us an hour or two but ended up taking us 5 hours.
They still haven’t announced outreach teams due to craziness of camping. Sorry guys. I would tell you what one I think God wants me to go on, but if someone from my school reads this, its pretty much off with my head. Just kidding but seriously.
So in a month or so I’ll be teaching dance at the base here for Youth Street! I’m not sure what I’ll be teaching either jazz or contemporary. Either way it’s going to be fun.
You guys will never guess what. You all know Uncle Jesse from Full House right? No you don’t personally but this girl on my DTS named Katie does! Man, he is her ex-boyfriend’s God son. So she has met him several times, been to his house and has pictures with him. So cool hey Jenni?
But I think that is all I have to say. So until next time, keep fit and have fun!

Outreach Locations!!

Today our leaders announced the outreach locations but in a very unique way. We drove 45 minutes to a park thing where there were a ton of kangaroos just chilling. We parked and waited while two of our leaders got "passes" for this park. Then we walked towards the kangaroos and there was bread for us to feed them. I got some sweet pictures for you all later! Anyways we all saw these papers on the backs of these kangaroos but no one cared. Then I was like why does this one say New Zealand? And then I screamed "these are our outreach locations!!!" So our outreach options are New Zealand, Mexico or Nepal/India. We have to pray about which one we feel God wants us to go to. And then things will be finalized by the time I get back from camping. I'll let you know when I know.

PS I'm going camping on Sunday. So I won't be near a computer till Saturday!

So the weekend has come and gone. It was a good first weekend. On Saturday we had Youth Street. Because the weather was bunk and most of the crew (the youth) just got back from a 5 Day Escape camp with our base, we chilled and watched Bedtime Stories. Then we enjoyed burgers together. Dad- the burgers taste different here and I would choose a home-made one any day over these ones. After that it was free time. Woo-hoo. So my friends Ray and Bo and I went down to Wolly’s (Woolworths is the real name and it’s a grocery store) and we stoked up on candy and other random snacks. Then I found out my credit card is garbage. So I was mad. But that is a side note. After I returned from Wooly’s, Bo and I watched Aladdin and then went to bed.

Then it was Sunday! I got up early (which was a dumb idea) to talk to my parents and find out when the Rider game started at to see if I could catch it online. Then Bo, Rachel, Natalie, Rebecca and I headed to Rebecca’s church which was a lot like Celebration and I enjoyed it heaps. When we returned from church I tried to watch the Rider game but was unsuccessful so I curled up with Rabbi and we watched 10 Things I Hate About You on my laptop. Sunday evening my friend Hannah was feeling super homesick so we decided that we would do something for her. My friends Ben, Wade, Joel, Matt, Bo, Rachel, Hannah, Wing, Jesse, Ben and I headed to Ben’s mom’s house and ate tons of good Aussie snacks and drank Ginger Beer (which is so gross in my opinion) and learned how to make legit Chai Tea. When we came back and all just chilled.

Monday was the last day of the weekend. It was the first nice day since I got here so we headed to the beach. The water was freezing and it was super wavy so we just tanned. Then it started to rain so we headed home. When we got home we watched Aladdin again with a bunch of people and then all just hung out.

Tuesday was a ‘normal’ day at YWAM Newie consisting of worship, lectures, meals, work duties, evening activities. This week we are learning about hearing God’s voice and communicating with God. Our evening activity was Youth Street training. We learned the 4 principles of Youth Street and then did skits to show them. My group was the principle of Multiplying. Anyone remember when Megan birthed Nick? Well we got birthed too. It was stinking hilarious.
Anyways I’m having heaps of fun and am keeping busy. Sorry about the delay on the Facebook pictures but the internet is super crappy and uploading pictures is almost impossible. Be prepared to see a picture or two a day. They are coming I promise. Life is hectic and crazy as a DTS student. If you want to know more e-mail me at maxleibel@hotmail.com or Facebook message me. Sometimes I don’t answer right away but I will as soon as possible. Love you guys and miss you!

PS this might be my last blog for a week or more because on Sunday we are going camping for 7 days!! Don’t worry Mom, I’ll stay away from the sharks. And Jen and Kristen, what years did you do your DTS? There are a few people on staff that did DTS in Townsville.

So far so good...

So I flew to Calgary which was only an hour flight and was super boring. Then I had a 2 hour layover there and then I flew to Vancouver. Then my flight from Vancouver to Sydney was delayed almost an hour so I pretty much wanted to die in the stupid airport. I met a guy that tried to make me apply for a credit card and I told him I didn’t want one because I wouldn’t use it for like six months and told him what I was going to be doing and he told me he just wanted to tell me to keep praying and to pray as much as I could in the next six months. It was pretty weird. I told him I wanted to grab a coffee then I would come back to talk to him and he said yeah for sure. But he was gone. So I had to entertain myself other ways. I got here on Monday at noon (so Sunday at 7pmish for you guys). Monday is a day of our weekend because Saturday we have a youth program to run. So I got here ate some food, watched a movie with my roommate Raychell and then went to bed at like 6 pm.
Everyone on base lives in this huge hostel. It’s so crammed with people. Right now about 95 people live here. Two families who have their own living quarters attached to the house, 50 staff, and a bunch of students. We have work duties which are pretty much chores and tidy time once a day Tuesday for Friday. My daily tidy time duty is to cut cucumbers and lettuce and tomatoes. My work duty is cleaning the guest room for the speaker and organizing birthday parties. It’s pretty fun so far. Our weekends are Sunday and Monday. I have 3 roommates named Serah (from Australia), Raychell (born in Brisbane but is 100% Hawaiian and recently moved there) and Courtney (also Hawaiian).
The next day I had orientation all day. Super boring. But I got to know some of the staff and most of the kids on my school. There are 18 of us (a 19th possibly coming still trying to get funds). We come from tons of countries and places. There is a girl from Hong Kong, 3 from Hawaii, 3 from random states in the US, 3 from Australia, one from Norway and one from Sweden. There is a boy from Germany, Holland, and 3 from the states. We are a school of 5 boys and 13 girls and 4 leaders. Two of the leaders are from USA and one from Australia and the other from Tasmania which is apparently part of Australia. News to me. The guy from Tasmania was on Shayla’s DTS and went on outreach with her. The boys are stinking hilarious. And side note to people. Remember how I always used to add “sh” to the beginning of everything? Well there is a kid on my school and his name is Steffan, pronounced Shteffan. End of side note. But yeah orientation was lame. Anyways, orientation was boring but now I am an expert of Lewis House Hostel.
We also had a full week of lectures this week. Our topic was Character of God. We explored who God really is and who He isn’t and what is tainting our view of God and who He is. We were given the opportunity to share what events and things have made us view God differently for example deaths and bad accidents. Our leader Jesse, shared about how last year one of the staff from base here was killed. For more information on him go to www.onetwentyone.com I believe. After Jesse shared alot of us also shared. God really moved and helped us understand those situations and events. It was amazing.
Our base is super unique and I’m stoked about it. October DTS, which is me, is a special school. We get to go camping for a week with the whole base! We leave in two weeks. Also normal DTS’ have 8 weeks of outreach. We do as well but ours isn’t 8 weeks straight. We are going to a thing called Schoolies for a week in November. It’s where all graduating Aussies go to Gold Coast and party and drink and do drugs and all sorts of not good things. We are teaming up with a organization called RedFrogs (again there is a youtube video on this and I believe the website is something like www.redfrogs.com.au). So basically as RedFrogs, we are on call 24/7 and we bake pancakes every morning for the Schoolies, walk people to their hotels, we give out RedFrog candies, we have run a stage where we entertain tens thousands of Schoolies and we clean their rooms! So this counts as one week of our outreach. Our outreach locations are still undetermined but as soon as I know, so will you. Another reason our base is unique is because every Thursday night we head to a mall in Newcastle and do evangelism. In Australia, kids and teens hang out in the malls. It`s the cool place to be seen in you nice clothes, it`s where fights take place, it`s where people get drunk and high. We go there every Thursday night not only to promote Youth Street but to tell them about God. Youth Street is the youth program that is run out of our base. It happens every Saturday afternoon and evening. In the afternoons we just do hang outs and go skateboarding, hold dance classes, art classes, surf lessons and play sports. In the evenings we do worship and bible study. I`ve yet to experience Youth Street. Our base right now is building a youth centre in an old warehouse. We get to help out with that. They will have a skate park in the parking lot, a cafe in the warehouse, offices in the warehouse, a sound proof auditorium in the warehouse and a half pipe. It`s nowhere near done but is getting close. It`s going to be huge. The base is also looking to purchase the houses around the warehouse so they can have an actual `Youth Street` which was the original vision of the idea of Youth Street.
I`ve got a few cool stories already. I ate a kangabanga (kangaroo sausage. Australians call hot dogs sausages). Then we went to Blackbutt Reserve which is an animal reserve and I got to see kangaroos, wombats, wallaroos, koala bears, pythons, quails, and a bunch of other ugly birds. We also had a tour of Newcastle. Man the ocean is gorgeous! We are hopefully heading there on Saturday.
Anyways, I`m having an amazing time. It is freezing here though, but not cold enough to snow! I love the opportunities to chill with people and with God. I love the lectures and how much I have already learned. I love how much God has already stretched me. I miss you guys a ton. But not enough to leave. You guys are in my prayers!