Settling in....

Well I just finished my first week of classes and enjoyed a much needed weekend break. The first two weeks of classes are called Intensives, and its the perfect title. The week consisted of class starting at either 9:30 or 8:15 depending on the day, and lectures until 5:00 at night, Tues. Thurs. and Friday. We heard from some of the most incredible speakers and by Friday night we were all exhausted trying to reflect on the information presented to us. Saturday I started my Fieldwork/Church Life which is the required volunteer work geared toward your pathway, i.e Pastoral Leadership-Young Adults. I was given Frontline for my fieldwork which is the church's group of 25-35 year olds. As excited as I was, I quickly realized what I had gotten myself into and part of me was regretting my pathway decision-however I do believe that its when we are in uncomfortable situations that God molds us into what he calls us to be. My church life volunteer work is our 6pm Sat. night service and out 5pm Sun. night service where I do various tasks including meet and greet, set up, tear down, ect. During the week my fieldwork consists of doing various tasks for the Frontline ministry including phone calls, meeting people, helping organize events ect. I actually got a call tonight from my Frontline leader- just found out we are in charge of planning a get together for some volunteers Friday night; my original 9:00am start time tomorrow is now 8:00am so that I can get together with the group to get some things organized. I have found the lack of organization surrounding school and church life a bit frustrating, but quickly realizing that its really not that important...God is God and if its his will it will happen, just need to enjoy the ride :)

After the Sat. night service there is always a get together/activity at the church that the Frontline group puts on. This past weekend was Asian Invasion- they had karaoke, Asian food, and various activities. I actually met a local guy who attends Hillsong that is in the Australian Army. We went to a pub called the Piano Room to watch a band some people knew Sunday night. It was nice to get out of the apartments and check out the city atmosphere. Paul (my new local buddy) is taking me to the city on Saturday to check out the bridge and Opera House and do some sight seeing. I'm excited to finally meet some people my age-especially locals with cars :)

Yesterday we started classes and this time we had to travel to the Hills campus (its about an hour bus ride and is the bigger of the Sydney campuses) for a combined student and leadership staff meeting. We got to hear from Pastor Brian Houston and a panel of leaders from the church on leadership (what else right :) Then we heard from Joel Houston (lead singer of Hillsong United and Brian's son) which was awesome. God did not give him the gift of public speaking :) He was a bit scatter-brained but shared some really good wisdom and advice. For those of you that know who Joel is, its easy to see him as a celebrity, but it was so neat to see such a humble side of him. He did a Q & A time and the first girl to ask a question said something like "oh my gosh, I can't believe I am sitting here talking talking to Joel Houston!" The look on his face was priceless-I have never seen someone look so disgusted before. He is more humble than I realized and I must admit I was one that looked at him with this awe and amazement and after that saw him as just another person, anointed by God to do ministry-nothing special, just faithful. (Makes me want to marry him even more ;) just kidding)

This past Sunday was Vision Sunday 2010. Each year Pastor Brian reminds the church of its vision and shares its plans for accomplishing that vision. It was so incredible to be a part of that this year. If any of you get a chance go to myhillsong.com and click on the Vision 2010-I believe you can watch the video-I highly recommend it. I have so much admiration for Hillsong-their vision, their heart, it is so on track with God's heart for the church-its inspiring and encouraging. In the video Brian shared the plan to start a church in.....NEW YORK!!! For all the Americans here we got pretty excited-one cause Hillsong is coming to America :) but more importantly because the east coast is in such a need for a solid biblical church-there really aren't any major solid churches out in that area, its exciting to see God move in that direction.

Well I am going to try something new and just do small updates on what is going on...its too hard to post a long message with my schedule and I'll be honest I am a bit lazy with it :) As you can see, I am not starting it just yet :) There is just so much to share and talk about!!! Anyways I hope you are all doing well-I miss you so so much....Please email me I would love to hear from ya!

Britt
brittany.rapp@hotmail.com