2006-2007

Here are my reflections on 2006:

It started out awesome... I was at Cler's house with a bunch of other church people and we played eye-toy till the early hours of the morning.
The year was a very busy year (even though I didn't have a real job). Uni became a lot harder and on top of that I received a lot more responsibilities. In the middle of the year... I was booked for 3 camps in 3 consecutive weeks (among other camps in the year). I was also holding a main role in organising two of those camps. My immune system seemed to fail me for a bit too... I had food poisoning twice in two months. It didn't take me long to realise that I needed to plan for 2007 a lot better. I also set a new years resolution to read the bible in a year (using one of those guides). Half-way through the year I became a lil slack... but persevered on. I'm currently 2 months behind... but I'm still going slowly.

My highlights for the year:

switch - we had a lot of new junior girls join us and I think a majority of them were non-christians. It was so interesting seeing how they matured and changed in their thinking during the year. They started off coming to youth group only for the games... and little by little they became more interested in the Bible and then really growing in godliness. At first they were a bit of trouble to lead... but I'm so thankful that I got to get to know them and lead them.

switch camp - My first time at organising a camp. Some parts were easy and some were hard. From this experience I learned how great it is to fully trust God and rely on him in our prayers. We had issues looking for a speaker... and it was 1.5 weeks before the camp, at a switch meeting... that we prayed for a speaker... and then Anthony walked in the room... we asked him... and he said YES!!! An awesome answer to prayer. His talks were really great and the kids learned a lot.

ISCF Conference - this conference is always a blast. For once I wasn't too sick (I did lose my voice) and could get closer to the kids. I especially enjoyed running workshops in encouragement and "yr 12 and beyond" where I got to encourage and develop friendships with some of the older teens. I was also encouraged to see a guy from youth group go and make friends and learn skills in christian leadership. It is such a fulfilling camp.

MYC - I came to this camp right after ISCF conference and I was buggered! I think for most of the talks I wasn't fully concentrating but from listening to the talks again on cd... I've learned so much. One of the best things about MYC was getting to know my fellow brothers and sisters from CBS a whole lot better and even having some deep and meaningfuls with some of the MTSers. The topic this year was on Relationships... and boy did I need it after having relationship problems in the beginning of the year. All through the week I was constantly challenged to glorify God in my whole life (including relationships).

Switch Leaders Retreat (SLR) - At this retreat we had 2 extra people come... one who already decided to join the leader team and one who was just questioning. We had an awesome fun time and I really enjoyed praying for each other and also for our kids. Switch definately brought along lots of different challenges for everyone this year and it was nice to reflect, praise God and pray for the future.

Muso Bible Study - This was something me and Dan wanted to do for a while since there were lots of music students who were christians. We started off with a huge number of people who somewhere along the line dropped off... but it was still cool reading the bible with those who stayed.

Music Education - this year we all seemed to be a whole lot more relaxed with everyone. We made more of an effort to see each other and we hanged out alot outside of uni. Especially fun was going to see Sam and his band play at the brass monkey. My marks also improved this year which was nice. Prac at Tangara wasn't as I had expected it to be... but I learned so much... and got so many resources... I'm excited about developing my own programs and using those resources in my own classroom one day.

CBS - I fully threw myself into CBS this year and I'm so glad I did. After not really getting involved in first year... I had the most awesome time this year. Elsie my MTSer has been such a great friend and mentor this year. She always encouraged me to keep on meeting together with the other christians at uni which was great. I made so many new christian friends this year which has made uni double as excellent. Volunteering for CBS was a surprise treat for me... postering early in the mornings wasn't as embarassing as I thought it would be and in fact I made friends with people doing it too.

One on One - towards the end of the year my friend from music and I got into a really good conversation about christian stuff. This wasn't odd as we talked about this stuff alot. I knew I should have invited her to cbs or asked to read the Bible with her but I was scared that she would say no. But God's plan was that I would read with her... and during that good conversation... she asked if we could read the Bible together. How could I say no?! This was very exciting for me. We started reading through Mark which taught us a lot about the character of Jesus. Although we failed to meet towards the end of the year... I'm praying that we can read some more stuff about God's love and his plan for salvation. Psalm 130 is good.

points of learning - I discovered a lot about myself this year. Especially areas of my life where I was discontent. Praying about this and reading the bible, and christian journals, helped me to become content with what God has presented me with. I thought God was being slack to me... but really... God has been AWESOME!

Well that is my particularly long rant. And my new years resolution: Learn how to serve God well (and not wear myself out).