Australia has been amazing! We have one week left, but it has been so eye opening so far. Monday we helped teach English at a center for new immigrants to America. We were working on writing Resumes, and the first woman I worked with, I ask her what jobs she has or had here, and then what she did back in her country, but she said she didn’t have a job because she was in the refugee camps. The next guy I helped had a similar story, and it just opened my eyes that theses people didn’t leave their homes because they wanted more money or live in a more western country, but because they are escaping oppression. 
Then on Tuesday we went to go volunteer at St. Vincent’s. St. Vincent’s does food ministry like the Long Grass Mansion, but it only serves breakfast and lunch on weekdays. They get all their food from donations from the grocery stores and what they don’t use they pass on to other food kitchens. We had a really good time making food, passing it out and talking with everyone there. 
Wednesday we packed up food bags for people to take home and prepare meals for their families. We then went back to our contacts house for lunch. I ended up going outside with the kids, because two of them were upset with each other. I went to see what was wrong, and they were both mad, because one wanted to rides bikes and the other didn’t, so the bike-rider had hit the non-bike-rider. I explained that hitting someone doesn’t make them want to play with you, and he said ok and then ran away. oh well, I tried…. or at least I thought it didn’t get through. He came up to me before we left and said, “he did want to play ball with me and I wasn’t rude to him!â€� Yay! 
The rest of the week we worked at a Middle School and went to the Long Grass Mansion and helped feed and clean. Brittani and I made dinner last night, which turned out delicious though we dropped a bottle of oyster sauce, a container of peelers and busted a can of cream soda; pretty much cleaned up more than we actually cooked. But it was a good week! But the icing on the cake was worship today. 
I gave the sermon at church; Charles opened with a message, then I gave a half testimony/half message, and Carrie did declarations. It went really well!! It was the first time I’ve had to speak in front of everyone with people yelling “Amen!� and “Praise God!�, but it was really good! I talked about how hopelessness; what it can do to a person, and how God is the only one who can always bear the full weight of our burdens. We opened up the floor at the end if any one was moved to receive prayer, and so many came up and we prayed for healing and forgiveness. Like, I wish I could put into words how full the room was with the Spirit. One of the guys, I’ll call him C, battles with drug addiction, and as I was talking I kept glancing over at him and near the end of me speaking I could see he was fighting back tears. When everyone came up to pray, he kinda stuck to the wall and the second the food was ready he went into the back. As he left though he told me “good talk you had� and gave me a thumbs up. I really hope a seed was planted today and while the letter C is all I can tell you, I hope you pray for him tonight, that whatever he heard that brought him to tears, would soften his heart and bring him to God.
