Small Outreach was a Success

Hi everyone! For the past three weeks we have been on our first small (local) outreach. It was great. The three weeks went by pretty fast. Here is a blog to fill you all in on what we did during these weeks. I hope you enjoy it!

The first two weeks we stayed here in Townsville when the other teams went to other cities in Australia. At first it was somewhat hard because I wanted to explore more of Australia but I ended up enjoying myself. When we were on outreach here in Town we packed bags for the North Queensland Games athletes. The games are basically similar to the Olympics but just for this area. We were apart of the setting up for the games too. We also set up for the opening ceremony and closing one. We got medals at the end for being great volunteers haha. We were the first YWAM team to help with this so this was a great start for the community to hear who we are and our vision of what we do. We met some amazing people during these games. A women in charge gave us free Cowboy tickets to the game and works with the professional Fire basketball team. From there she is donating basketballs for us to bring up to Paupa New Guinea!

When we were on outreach here in Town we packed bags for the North Queensland Games athletes. The games are basically similar to the Olympics but just for this area. We were apart of the setting up for the games too. We also set up for the opening ceremony and closing one. We got medals at the end for being great volunteers haha. We were the first YWAM team to help with this so this was a great start for the community to hear who we are and our vision of what we do. We met some amazing people during these games. A women in charge gave us free Cowboy tickets to the game and works with the professional Fire basketball team. From there she is donating basketballs for us to bring up to Paupa New Guinea!

We had the opportunity to go to Mount Louisa’s House of Prayer. It is a place that serves people with disabilities. We did an Easter service for them on the second Friday. We got to join them in an Easter egg hunt that the staff set up. We did the dance that a girl from our team taught us and they loved it. They made us do it twice and then the third time they joined in with us. It was so fun to dance and teach them as well. I gave a testimony about what Easter means to me and what the real reason is about; Jesus. At the end we had a time to chat with them and get to know them. At times it was hard to understand them, but just loving on them was great.

Week two we helped out at the campus. Since they just recently bought out a new college, we have a lot of construction to do. We ended up helping with a thing called Building Blitz. We took out ALL the ceiling tiles on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors. It took us Monday through Friday at 8am-4pm to do all of this. It was a full-time and physical job that we did. It was nice to know that we could help serve at the base for all that they do. The insulation from the ceiling tiles was so itchy and we got so sweaty, but it was all worth it.

We got to do some school sessions. We went with some of the Cowboy players to an Aboriginal Charter School. We got to speak on substance abuse and bullying. It was nice to see that the three Cowboy players were giving back to the community and wanting to help them. We also went to two high schools the second week. At one we did a sausage sizzle and played handball and basketball with them. I got to learn how to play handball and it is fun! It was fun to see how they liked my “accent” and the comment they would make. We did promotion there for the youth event of ‘I Want To Live’! That week was National Youth week in Australia. That is where you honor the youth and all they do and to support them.

The last event on week two was the big ‘I Want To Live’ event! That was so much fun. We helped prep for it the week before and made bunting, posters, balloons, etc. We had to set up and take it all down as well. It was a great night with many activities. We had a mechanical bull, blow up joisting, sumo suits, wii games, board games, dances, skate parks, parkour, music, photobooth, graffiti area, and a storybook area. All the activities were sooo fun. I was security for the first two hours. I got to wear a neon vest and had a clipboard incase something happened. It was pretty fun to walk around and see everything going on. The last two hours I was a welcomer at the front gate. We had over 500 people come in the four hours! About 15 minutes before we left, us students went to have some fun. Unfortunately Katie crushed me in sumo suit wrestling (I say it was because my foot strength is weak which is true but I also know she is stronger, haha). I did beat Katie though on the joisting match. The mechanical bull was super hard but so much fun. I fell off within like 25 seconds, but hey I beat a guy staff on it! It was so fun to have an open event and have parents also join the youth. It was also a nice way to represent and promote who YWAM is!