2 weeks left

I realize that it has been a while since I have posted anything and for that I apologize. Life has been pretty busy since we got back from Sydney. It has been a good couple of weeks and it is hard to believe that I only have less than 2 more left. My heart is so torn. I am so thankful to God that He has blessed me with all that I have been able to experience here and these people have been so awesome. I will be very very sad to leave my friends and it is really difficult because I know that for some I will probably never see them again. I know that that is all in God's hands but it is still going to be very difficult to say goodbye. At the same time....I cannot wait to see all of you back home!!!! I am so glad that I will be home for the holidays. I have missed everyone greatly and can't wait to come back and share stories and everything. So pray for my strength that I will be able to get through these next 2 weeks fully enjoying them and looking forward to all of the things that God still has planned for this next year and my time here.
On a lighter note, I said that I have been pretty busy...I am still working at the church and finally finished the really big project that I had started on but had to take a break from to decorate the church a couple of times, hehe. So that is amazing...it felt really good to have accomplished something that I know will help the church. Other than that I have been busy hanging out with people, going shopping, attending birthday parties and having so much fun! Last Friday I attended my first Ballet! It was so incredibly beautiful! It was outside at this big amphitheater thing that they have at the Botannical Gardens in Melbourne. A bunch of us took blankets and food and had a picnic there while waiting for it to start. It was so cool. I was very glad that they give you a program that tells a little bit of the story otherwise I would have been totally lost, haha. Then last night I attended one of Melbourne's Carols services. There were tons of people there and my friends and I had a blast listening to the singers and watching the dancers and just singing along and hanging out. The church's Carols service is next week, my last Sunday :(.
Well it is Sunday morning here so I should go and finish getting ready for church. Love and miss you all and can't wait to see you!

Sydney Trip

I am now living proof that dreams do come true and prayers are answered. Ever since I was young I have wanted to go to Sydney and visit the Opera House and see the Harbor Bridge and now I can officially say that I have. I am so thankful to my father (both earthly and heavenly) for making this possible. We arrived in the city around 7:30 or 8:00 and went straight to our Hostel where we were staying and unpacked, ate and just watched some TV, relaxing after a long days drive. The next day, however, we walked down to the city to buy our public transportation passes and we are just going down this hill when I turn my head and stop dead in my tracks. I jump up and down, squeal, make a complete fool of myself and almost start crying as The Opera House comes into my view. I could not believe that I was actually seeing it in real life. We were still on the other side of the bay from it but it was just so awesome because you just looked to the left a bit more and there was the Harbor Bridge. We took a bunch of photos from that distance and then proceeded on towards The Opera House so that we could climb the stairs and look around (you aren't actually allowed inside unless you pay a bunch of money for a tour). Standing in front of it was more incredible than I could have imagined it. I was filled with smiles and giggles and just complete awe! It was amazing! After that we went on a ferry ride and ate lunch in the park right by it. We ate lunch under a really large tree and I decided after I ate that I wanted to climb it really badly so we did :). That was a lot of fun and we were all pretty crazy. Saturday we went to the Gleeb Market. (Gleeb was the street that our Hostel was on) They have the market every Saturday and it is a really cool set-up where you can find cool clothes and different things for a lot cheaper than in regular stores. After that we got on 3 different buses that we didn't need to and tried to find our way to Bondi Beach, haha. We eventually got there and just relaxed in the sun for a bit. It was beautiful, of course, and it felt so good to lay out under the sun again. The weather was absolutely perfect the whole week that we were there. Sunday we went to the inner-city Hill song church. It wasn't the massive one because that campus is really far from the city and it would have been very difficult and costly for us to try and get out there to the hills. But the City campus service was really good. The people were super nice and we met some really cool girls that made us feel less out of place. After church we went to another street market thing that happens only once a year. It was so cool because we just happened to be there the Sunday that they were putting it on. It, also, was on Gleeb street and there were just tons of booths up and down the street selling clothes, food, jewelry, gifts, they had bands playing and a few bounce houses set up and stuff. It was really fun and so awesome that we were able to be there for that. Monday was absolutely packed. We went to the Aquarium in the morning, visited the Queen Victoria Shopping Center Building in the mid-morning/early afternoon, ate lunch at The spinning Tower Restaurant in the late afternoon, shopped again after that, walked all through the Royal Botanical Gardens in the evening and then ended the day with a fairy ride at night. It was such an awesome day! The aquarium was really fun and we were able to see lots of cool fishies and sea creatures and the restaurant was really nice and the food was delicious (I actually ate Kangaroo)! The shopping part was so much fun and we had a blast being hyper and taking photos and video in the stores and some really funny events happened in the gardens that really us girls would only find funny because we were there but it was great and then the ferry ride was just so relaxing after the long day. Needless to say, we all slept well that night. I was very very happy because on Tuesday we decided to go to the Blue Mountains. I didn't think that we were going to be able to go but everyone seemed to think it would be a good idea and a bit of a different experience than just the city. Plus the Blue Mountains are really popular here and everyone has said that I needed to go there. So I was very glad when we decided to drive out there. They were about and hour and a half to two hours away from the city so we left fairly early so that we would be able to spend the majority of the day there. There are many different sights that you can go to because they are just so big. We chose to go to two of them. The first one that we went to we chose to walk down two different trails. The first trail was one that led to a small but old aboriginal cave like thing where the aboriginals had left hand prints all over the walls of the caves. It was really cool to see some real genuine Australian History. For those of you that don't know, the Aboriginals were the people that were first in Australia before the Europeans. Then the Europeans came to Aussie and tried to "civilize" the people and it didn't and hasn't gone over well. Anyways, the second trail led us to a gorgeous look out where you overlooked a huge river and hills that were filled with tons and tons of trees! It was beautiful! After we were done with that sight we drove farther and went to another sight that was supposed to have some water falls in it's paths. We probably chose the path that was the most difficult one that we could find and hardly ever traveled on and it took us forever to find the water fall but once we did, oh my word, it was so unbelievably amazing!!! There were other people there but they eventually left and Erin, Amy and I went exploring some and took lots and lots of photos. The rocks were, of course, super slippery, haha and so them mixed with my lack of balance ability led to me slipping (quite hilariously) and falling right into a little crevice of water that was in one of the Waterfalls pools that it ran down into. It was probably one of the funniest moments of the trip because I just looked like an idiot and was half soaked, lol. It was great and I loved it. After that I was tempted to just jump in but the water was SO freezing!!! That ended up being the only trail that we took for that stop but that was alright because the hike back up was SO hard! We were so out of breath and our legs were so ready to be done. We would have been a funny sight to see. So that was Tuesday and then Wednesday we had to pack up and head home. I slept for a bit of the drive in the morning because I was just worn out but after about lunch time we all woke up and were just in crazy hyper moods and we had a blast belting out music and dancing to it in the car. It made the trip seem alot shorter coming back. So all in all it was an amazing indescribable trip that was greater than I could ever have imagined. I was very please and VERY thankful to God for his provision and safety through it all.
It is strange to think that if a few hours all of you will be celebrating Thanksgiving. We were going to celebrate it tomorrow as well but we moved it to Saturday because Mrs. Loftis has to work tomorrow so Saturday would just be easier. So I still get a Thanksgiving :)
It is even more strange to think about the fact that I only have one more month here! I can't believe that it has already been over 2 months! That just doesn't seem possible. Well, I am still tired from my trip and my fingers are starting to hurt from typing so much, hehe, so I am going to go to bed now. I love you all! Thanks so much for all of your prayers!

XOXOXO

More Photos

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/jmktraveler/

Crazyness

Last weekend was so unbelievably busy and crazy! It was the church's 20th year anniversary and they had a weekend celebration. Friday night we had a big game night at the church where we played soccer, basketball, board games, and just hung out with each other. Saturday we had a big dinner and ball and Sunday we had the regular service in the morning and then a dedication service/afternoon tea later in the day. It all seemed to go really well. Friday was a blast just hanging out with everyone and being able to play some soccer and b-ball with some of the guys was really awesome. After that some of Chris' friends spent the night so we were up pretty late just having fun. Saturday morning I went over and helped set some stuff up at the church for that night and everyone was running around kind of crazy like trying to make sure that it all got done in time. The actual evening was really really fun. All of us girls got ready with one another and JoyLee did most of our hair. It is so much fun to have an opportunity to get all dressed up. I had my mom send my prom dress over so that I would have something to wear. I was super glad that I had another opportunity to wear it and everyone seemed to love it which, of course, made me feel special. The whole night was full of just picture taking, eating, and kind of dancing. It was great. So after the Ball we went over to some friend's house to just hang out for a bit longer and didn't get home till pretty late. Then I had to get up really early Saturday in order to be ready for church on time and everything. The service was great as well as the afternoon tea. After that a bunch of us kids walked home and played some games at the Loftis house. So after all of that I was pretty exhausted and did not want to wake up on Monday. thank goodness I don't normally work on Mondays.
Last night we had a meeting for our Sydney trip just to plan out how we are going to get there and some of the little details. I can't believe that we are leaving Thursday! I am SO excited!!! I probably won't post anything till after so it will be a while before I write again but I will as soon as I can! Pray for our safety and that God's hand will be upon us as we travel and sight see :) Hugs and Kisses!

Trip to Belbrae

It's been a while, I know, but I have been gone and very busy! I CANNOT believe that it is already a week into November!!! Where has the time gone?!?! Anyways...Belbrae was so awesome...We stayed at a place called The Belbrae Country Club. I think I might have given the wrong impression earlier though...this Holiday house wasn't actually at the beach like the last one, it was about 10 minutes from it...but you were back in a woodsy kind of area. It was really cool because where our house was you could look out the living room/kitchen window and see the trees and hills and stuff. It was absolutely beautiful when the sun went down (which isn't till like 8:00). They have some animals there and we were right in front of the fence where they would roam and eat so I was able to go down and feed the horse, 2 mules, and a goat that they had :) it made me very happy. The first couple of days that we were there it was overcast and one day even poured down rain (which was nice because they really need it since Australia is in a huge draught). We didn't do much Saturday, however us kids did go to the indoor pool, spa, and sauna that they had which is ALWAYS heavenly, lol. Sunday, Pastor Tim spoke as a guest speaker at a really small Baptist church. It was pretty nice and he did a very good job speaking on the Sounds of Grace. It was really really interesting. We went to lunch with 2 of their friends from that church at a casual Italian place where I had amazing pizza. Monday, Pastor Tim and Mrs. Loftis had to return for PT to get surgery on his pinkie finger. He broke it (again) playing footy (Aussie rules football) at a Men's Retreat that he spoke at. Chris also went back with them so that he could play in a soccer game. So it was just the 3 girls...me, Saralisa, and Melody. Melody and I went on a hike that took roughly 2 hours which was SO SO SO Amazing!!! We could never get really close to Kangaroos because they would hear us and hop away, lol, but we did see lots of little groups from a distance. Let's see....we went to the pool after that to relax and then came back, ate yummy spaghetti (haha, again Italian) and watched Australian Idol and Tarzan...good old Disney. PT, Mrs. Loftis and Chris returned that night as well. On Tuesday Chad, Erica and Leif (oldest son, wife and baby boy) came out for the day. We watched the Melbourne Cup and had b-b-q hamburgers...it was lots and lots of fun. Leif is absolutely adorable. To explain the Melbourne Cup a bit....it is a horse race that pretty much all of Australia takes part in. It is a huge event, and is even considered a holiday where people are given work and school off for it. It's amazing. They film pretty much all day and have a fashion-at-the-races part and announce a bunch of statistics about the horses and their riders...it was all pretty interesting. Anyways so that is pretty much the basics of what we did....we returned Tuesday night and I went back to work today (Wednesday). It was a crazy kind of a day because the church's 20th year anniversary celebration is this weekend and there is so much that needs to be done and, of course, not enough time to do it all. It will all work out though....these things always do. I'm going shopping with Amy tomorrow (one of the girls going to Sydney with us) so that should be fun....she's really awesome and laid back. One of those girls that is just herself no matter who she is with or what she is doing. I love it. Kk well I'm tired and I still need to get ready for bed so I'll catch ya'll later!

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/jmktraveler/?bulkComplete=1194440107918

A few new pics

Oct. 30th '07

Things still keep getting better and better all the time...Sunday Pastor Tim was speaking at a men's retreat so the associate Pastor spoke and at first it was a bit difficult to follow him but I caught on after a bit. He spoke on Psalm 119...well not all of it cuz that would take a while but anyways it was good and Samantha (Sam) came over afterwards and had lunch with us and we watched movies and then went to another girl's birthday party (Hannah) that lives down a couple of houses, then we came back to watch Australian Idol. That was all alot of fun. Me and Melody had young adults study last night which was great. The leader guy (Rodney) is actually from the U.S. but married an Aussie woman and moved here. Then today, Sam ditched school (her mom's suggestion, lol) and had her mom drop us off at High Point Plaza which is a nicer and bigger mall than the one that is closer to the Loftis house. We had an absolute blast shopping and chatting, you know, what girls do best hehe. Then we went back to her house and had a really good dinner (her mom is a really good cook). Erin is coming over tonight so that we can talk more about the Sydney plans....And umm in case you didn't get the memo, I am REALLY excited!!!!!!! Anyways, not much else to report, it is weird not celebrating Halloween but I actually really don't mind. No one is really huge on it over here and that is ok with me....the family is all goin away this weekend to a holiday house in Belbrae, a cute town fairly close to where we stayed last time. That will be really awesome and really relaxing! Please continue to pray that I will stay strong and grow even more in my desire to deepen my relationship with Christ, my Savior. Thanks! Much love to all!

Having a Blast

I have been having an absolutely amazing time lately. Let's see....well today was church and it was actually a really hot day but that's besides the point...the message was good and after church there was a luncheon and I had a blast with all of the youth that stayed. It also just amazes me, daily, at how much of a serving spirit God has given me throughout this whole trip. So also today I was able to serve some at the church with some of the older ladies and that was really cool. After the luncheon a bunch of the youth went over to Sam's house (she is really really awesome) to go swimming cuz it was so hot. We all had a blast and the guys are absolutely hilarious and reminded me so much of some people back home :). After that we came back to the Loftis house and had some more fun.....it was awesome. Last night the teens that went on a Thailand trip came over and we had a dinner for them and that was awesome as well, we spent the day cooking and preparing; it felt a bit like thanksgiving time, haha. We have also semi-finalized details of the Sydney trip...we will be staying 6 days in a youth hostel (which is like a place that a lot of backpackers stay at when traveling). One of the days we are going to this nice restaurant that towers over all of Sydney and slowing rotates around so you get a full view of Sydney from the sky :) it is going to be so flippin amazing!!! And we are going to visit the Opera House and Hillsong church (hopefully) and some gorgeous botanical gardens that are there....ugh I can't wait!!!! And don't worry I will take LOTS of pictures! Anyways that isn't till mid november, I just can't seem to take my mind off of it, lol.
On a more serious note...when Joylee and I had our awesome talk, she gave me this book that she thought I would like and appreciate and stuff. I've been reading it and today I read a chapter that was just SO moving and SO, I don't even know how to describe it, it just left me with such a Joyful feeling about how much God LOVES me. I don't really want to go into more detail over internet but it was just so unbelievably amazing and I am so thankful that God set up that whole thing so that I could read the book.
I don't think that I go into the office tomorrow but some of my friends are still here so I better go and not be rude. *hugs and kisses to all*

Lovin' Aussie

Things have been awesome lately. Mel and I took the train to a really cute place called Williamstown and then to the city. Williamstown was really cute and we walked along the waterfront that looks out to the big city. It was fun walking around all of the cute homes and neighborhoods. It was GORGEOUS here so it was an absolutely perfect day to do all of this! The city was really cool as well. We walked along the little river that runs through the city Oh and we went into this Cathedral that was really really beautiful. It was called St. Paul's Cathedral. I guess thanks to Andy and all of those year of choir tours...visiting all of the different cathedrals in San Fran and other places made me appreciate them and their beauty so much :). So it is official....me, Melody and two of our friends (Erin and Amy) are road tripping it to Sydney!!! I am SO excited!! We are planning to go about mid-November and hopefully stay with some missionaries that live in the suburbs for about 3 days and then stay right in Sydney in a youth house for about 4 days....hopefully. Nothing is for sure yet except for the fact that we are going! November is actually going to be a pretty busy month for us in the Loftis household. I'm stoked :)
God just continues to amaze me...I've been wanting and praying that I would be able to have a good conversation with JoyLee because she is the only sibling that I haven't really been able to talk to (that live in the house). So this morning I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to go to the office again but I assumed that I was supposed to and so I got up earlier than I normally would have. Well it turns out that Pastor Tim normally takes most of Monday off (at least most of the morning). I wasn't upset or anything but as I was waiting to leave JoyLee comes down and explains all of this to me and we end up having a cup of tea together and talking for quite a bit...it was really really great and our conversation was just awesome. So I've been thanking God for that. He is just awesome. Well I know that I have to go to the office tomorrow so I better go get ready for bed. Please pray that all of the Sydney details will fall into place fairly soon......Love and miss you all!!

There are a few new pics
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/jmktraveler/