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!