*Coming to you from Jakarta, Indonesia*
Since I last wrote to you on January 23, much has happened that I am so excited to share! I want to preface this blog by saying that I will be uploading multiple blogs in a row to bridge the gap between the end of January and what is now the end of February. The Lord has been showing up in crazy cool ways; so, buckle up and here we go!
Australia Reflection
As you read, I’m now in Indonesia and have been since February 5th. However, I don’t want to miss the opportunity to share more about Australia. Our month in Australia was spent in Coffs Harbour, a small family oriented coastal city. Australia was our all squad month and we partnered with the YWAM base there. Working with YWAM was a great opportunity to partner with local organizations and meet other young people on fire for Jesus!
Because it was ‘all squad’ month, thirty-two of us were together in Coffs. Three teams slept on the floor of Life House Church and two teams slept on the floor of a Wesleyan Methodist Church. Life House is where the leaders of Coffs YWAM operate out of, it’s a non-denominational church with a very large youth presence. The Wesleyan Methodist is where my team stayed. The congregation was small but so sweet. I got very familiar with my sleeping pad and cold showers right off the bat. Every day we would drive over to Life House for meals and ministry as a squad.
Our ministry in Australia was widespread but shared the commonality of helping local churches and ministries build and grow their communities. Combined with our days of street evangelism there is much I could share, however, alongside Sherwood Cliffs Rehab Center (check out my previous blog if you haven’t to learn more!) there was two other opportunities that were on my heart to share.
Voyage Church:
Voyage is a local church in Coffs that is only two years old. A few of my squad mates had the opportunity to attend a Sunday there and they met the Pastor’s family and connected instantly. That same Sunday our entire squad was invited over to their house for lunch. The connection grew over our time together between the leaders of Voyage and our squad. One Thursday morning we spent four hours handing out ~6,000 flyers for Voyage into individual mailboxes, reaching every street in a surrounding suburb. It was hot, sweaty, and tiring but we saw the fruit of our labor almost immediately. While we were back at the church cooling off and having some snacks and water, the lead pastor had received a couple text messages exclaiming their excitement over having received a flyer in their mailbox. One family messaged and said the reason they started attending Voyage was because of the letter drop they received two years ago when Voyage first started. Pray for Voyage’s growth and that they will flourish with newcomers for months and years to come!
Red Frogs:
Attending concerts and festivals is not new to me. Being surrounded by people who are puking, stumbling, swaying, and passed out at said concerts and festivals is also not new to me. However, putting on a red and black t-shirt while carrying around a bag of candy to hand out to people at said event – was new to me. Red Frogs is a crazy cool organization that has an outstanding reputation in Australia. In 1997, founder Andy Gourley, saw a need for a sober presence at massive drinking parties to help keep people safe. With a team of 17 volunteers wearing t-shirts screen printed with ‘Hotel Chaplaincy’, they started door-knocking every hotel room and looking after Schoolies. Schoolies are the Australian equivalent to Spring Break in America. Many schoolies were skeptical and closed the door in their faces – until they discovered the magic of a small red lolly. That candy, Red Frogs, was a gateway to start conversations with people and let them attend their parties. Since 1997, Red Frogs has expanded to also attending music festivals and sporting events; they are now even sponsored by Allen’s Red Frogs lollies. Also, side note; the hotel chaplaincy thing has since been dropped and they just go by Red Frogs.
At Music Festivals, Red Frogs volunteers offer free water, free frogs, and first response. This was what we had the opportunity to do with them at a local event called Rolling Sets. Rolling Sets started at 11:30am and we stayed until the last concert ended at midnight. We had a water stand where we would hand out free waters to make sure that everyone stayed hydrated. We would even fill water cups and bring them over to the crowd in the mosh pit. When not at the hydration station we would walk around the event in pairs. This is the first response aspect. As volunteers, we were just looking out for everyone to make sure they were safe. Such activities include helping people order Ubers, holding back the hair of those puking, walking the premises of outside the venue to make sure no one wandered into the ocean, making sure young women aren’t alone, etc. The point of us being there wasn’t to “stop the fun” or “kill the party” but simply to meet people where they were at and lend a hand.
The response that we got was actually the most surprising aspect of the day. People would walk by and be like “Red frogs you saved my life!”, “We love Red Frogs!”, “Thanks for helping!” and of course many people approached us to receive a free piece of candy. There were a few instances where we approached someone and our request to help was denied but even then, they would say, “Thanks for caring though”. That’s what made the day so special. To intentionally open my eyes and just let people know that someone was out there looking after them.
Final Wrap Up
Australia was a great first month to dip our toes into the race. There wasn’t really an experience of culture shock and we only got slightly stretched out of our comfort zone. Yet, in that time there was still a lot of fruit and seeing the Holy Spirit work.
There were also many notable memories such as swimming with dolphins, kangaroo beach, Tuesday nights with the girls, stargazing, trips to the jetty, extremely soft beach sand, food trucks, dance parties, the list could go on. My dream of visiting Australia since I was a little girl finally came true and I have to say it lived up to the hype; despite not seeing a Koala bear.
Well folks, that’s it for Australia! Next up, I will tell you about my time in Canggu, Bali Indonesia for Squad Debrief!
