Blog? Whats that?

OK! so. I apologize for not blogging for so long! I guess sometimes you just get so caught up in whats going on around you that you sometimes forget whats going on in the outside picture! So I apologize, but here I go. I am gonna type anything and everything that comes to my head when I think about the past month.

This experience has been a once in a lifetime kind of thing, its insane. We just finished colour conference here, and that is when a TON of women get together for one conference and praise and worship God and listen to famous preachers and pastors from all around the world speak. Im pretty sure Conference was so big this year, that they decided to have 2. Colour 1 (for short) was at the sydney entertainment centre, which held something like 8-10 thousand people (or women in this case) and then Colour 2 was held at the CC (Convention Centre) back at hillsong church. Their auditorium holds between 3,500-4,500 people. For each conference they make all the students serve in different areas they are assigned to. In Colour 1, I was on a team called 'Be The Change', and what we did was we stayed back at hillsong church and prepped it up to make it look good for conference 2. So I was put on the painting team, and now I can literally say 'I Painted the walls of Hillsong Church'. haha. Its a good feeling. But yeah, if you go on my facebook, theres some pictures of what I painted, its a really cool "FAITH HOPE LOVE" sign, and I had to cut around it and make it look nice. Very fun. So we did that for 3 days while all the rest of the girls and women were at the sydney entertainment centre serving there. That was 2 weeks ago, 1 week ago, as in this last thursday friday saturday, we had conference 2 at hillsong church. I was part of a team called 'Refresh' lol. What that basically is, is cleaning the church. It's a fancy name to make a dirty job sound cool or good. I was in charge of all the garbage (or rubbish bins as they call it over here) bins in the outside area where they had catering, different food stands, gloria jeans coffee carts, merch desks, help desks, etc. ALL those garbages were mine. So for 3 days, it was really beautiful weather, I was outside getting a sunburn/tan, loving life serving women haha. But yeah it was an awesome experience. I was also put on a team called Car Park, and what they do is they direct the traffic that comes inside the church, direct people where to park, or where they can't park haha, and its very ... umm... interesting. I learned that thousands of women trying to get into one place, parking a ways away trying to parallel park, is NOT a good idea haha. But yeah, you catch my drift. Some of my friends got flipped the bird a couple times (by business people, not delegates) ahah, so it was alllll good. Fun times. So that was my conference experience. Serving times a billion. Oh yeah I was there from 7:30am to 8:30pm. crazy hours. And yeah. love it.

Besides that, I don't know if you've heard or not, but yes... I did get a job at mcdonalds here. I know I know, out of all the places I could of chosen in australia, I chose mcdonalds. BUT, in my defense, it was the easiest one to get because all I had to do was tell them that I worked in North America for 3 years and they basically signed me up on the spot lol. AND...I get paid like double my wage I did back home. It doesn't even make sense... I get something like 19$ an hour, I'm not totally sure yet cause I haven't got my paycheck, but it will be up there. insane. So yeah, had my first shift there last night, everything is pretty much the same except for little things like procedures and slightly different toppings. But yeah, love it. Its not too far from where I live either so its great. God provides.

OH, I got my OSAP. incase ya'll were wondering (i've been around too many americans). So It's amazing how God provides and comes through for you when you are obedient and faithful. Thank you to all who have supported me, it really does help a lot. I haven't even begun to touch my OSAP funds because I've been able to live off of other sources of income for quite some time now! 2 months! So thank you! It means a lot, really. These are 2 months, and this whole year, is a time that I wouldn't trade for the world. Its so precious to me and jam packed with so much to learn from and to gain its crazy. I love it. so thank you.

Hmm... what else. FIELDWORK/CHURCH LIFE! Ok so every week the college makes you serve in an area of church for your fieldwork and church life. its part of our schooling. So during the week, I help out on tuesdays from 1-5pm with HMA (Hillsong Music Australia) in Session Recordings. So I get to go downstairs and burn off different session times and dates that people have ordered, burn multiple copies, label them, package them and ship them off to where ever they go, and its awesome! Like today I burned 10 different DVD sessions of colour, 60 DVD's per session, and labelled every single one, and packaged them in a 9-disc set for the whole colour conference DVD. I felt like I was producing like TV Series DVD's or something cause it was one of those DVD cases that folds out like 5 times haha. and so yeah, it was awesome. And other times like if you're actually recording the session as its happening, they actually have to burn the recording onto a DVD or CD and make multiple copies for people to buy the NIGHT OF. So you can LITERALLY go to the resource centre store after a service and say hey I really liked what was said tonight, can I buy a recording of it? and they can literally sell it to you on the spot. I personally find that so amazing, that the church has so much dedication for the people who enter and leave that place, that they want to make sure people don't miss a thing. It's nuts. So THATS my church life that I do every week for 4 hours.

my FIELDWORK is something totally different. Every sunday morning I serve in whats called an extension service at a place called Villawood Detention Centre. Villawood is a place where illegal immigrants are detained and either are sent back home where they came from or they work on getting them proper or renewed visas. So, there's 2 ways to get in this detention centre. Swim or illegally hop on a boat and sneak into the country and get caught, or let your visa expire without renewing it lol. There's your two ways. Anyways, its like a little mini service we put on every sunday, there's on average like 50 people and most of them are Chinese so the message is translated, but what I do is I either sing and play acoustic guitar, or I run FOH. FOH stands for Front Of House and its basically you're working the sound board, EQ-ing everyone and making sure their levels are where they're suppose to be and so forth. Its a pretty small sound board, only like 12 channels, but thats all thats needed when you have 4 vocalists, 2 speakers, 1 keys and 1 acoustic lol. Its pretty low key, but I often find that in a smaller setting and environment, it creates a more intimate setting to enter in to the presence of God, although for some it is still hard with the language barrier. But still, Its great. It reminds me of what I did in Montreal with SOAR. Just a couple little speakers, a guitar and a mic outside lol. Similar to that. But yeah, its awesome, so I do that every sunday morning, and that counts as my fieldwork.

FOH and TD for Chapel - I also volunteer for college in our daily chapels. Someone I met here hooked me up with getting involved with FOH (which is what I said earlier, Front of House) and TD (Technical Director). A 'TD' is someone who communicates between the band and the FOH guy to make sure things are running smoothly and on time, so he usually stays on stage making sure people are getting ready, making sure all the connections and leads and cords are all set up, and making sure the sound check goes smoothly. And FOH I already explained to you, its mastering the sound board. BUT, the difference with Chapel is its a much bigger setting. Its in the Hub Auditorium so there's room for like 1000 college students there, so their sound board is amazing, with a built in touch screen and like 40 or 50 different channels I think, its nuts. Worship leaders get RX Mics, which are wireless microphones and all other vocalists get wired mics. So yeah, I volunteer with that like once every week or two, and its awesome to get to learn how to do this stuff properly and in a bigger setting.

hmm... what else.

My bike has a flat tire, it stinks. and the nearest store that has an inner tube for sale is like a half hour BIKE ride away. so imagine walking. Im gonna need to take a bus haha. Oh and I also rode my longboard into a pool, and it was a salt water pool, so my bearings are really rusted and now I can barely right THAT anywhere EITHER! haha. I need a car, but for that, I need money. So I'll be saving haha. I probably won't get one, but one can dream right?! haha.

OH, YWAM. haha my friends from YWAM and from back home came to sydney for a week! and that was cool! The one girl I knew I actually met years ago from the second YWAM team that came to niagara falls, her name is Hannah. And yeah, I met up with her like years later here in sydney and it was insane! AND! on her team was another girl who I went to high school with, so it was insane to see and meet people who I knew from previous times in my life and it was awesome to catch up and stuff. I also went to go see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at the WORLDS LARGEST IMAX THEATRE in the world haha. It was better then I thought it was gonna be, I liked it to be honest. Good flick. but yeah. Good times spend at Darling Harbour (one of the biggest tourist spots in the city of Sydney, the Opera House is really close to there). But yeah, good times.

Ummmmm... School starts up this week again. it was on hold due to the conferences, but we just resumed classes again today, and it was good to get back in the rhythm of things. haha for my music class we have to perform a song of our choice based from this list of like 7 songs, and they perform half way through the semester, and then we pick another 7 for the second half. And I'm not lead vocalist on any song yet, I will in the next set of 7, but I am doing backup vocals for this guy named Kinut lol Its pronounced Kinoot. and he's from norway I think, or somewhere up there, and its funny cause he chose 'Sweet Thing' by Keith Urban and I'm doing back up vocals for it! Its gonna be sweet, but yeah, we practice performances every friday, so yeah, its real fun to sing and play with our class which is like a full band. Everybody plays different instruments, and we plug them in wherever they're needed, its awesome. Other classes are sick too, like Personal Leadership we talk about our own personal devotion with God and how we should live it out in our own daily lives, and then Old Testament, in which we are going through every book of the old testament starting with Genesis which is sick, and then we have just like communications in ministry and stuff, and basically our whole friday is spent in what we call our Tutorial class. our tutorial class consists of 20-ish students that are in a group for the rest of the semester, so I go through daily life, daily classes, everything with these 20 some odd students and its awesome because it creates more of an intimate setting and you can actually grow close and create some great relationships with people that could last you your whole life, its awesome. So yeah, thats my school life.

Powerhouse is sick, best youth I've ever gone too. Its for ages 18-25 and its awesome. We start it off by having a huge worship session with full band and everything, and then they speak a message and then end off in a song or so, its pretty much like a service, but its way cooler cause its people your own age, and its super fun. I love it.

But yeah, I'm getting tired and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow for FOH Chapel so should be fun! lovin life! haha. I love the commitment here, seriously. No matter what your call time is, its crucial that you get there and people respect that and always come with a servant heart and attitude to serve the church, to help build God's house and God's kingdom, and its just awesome the emphasis they put on volunteering and servanthood. Amazing. I love having a servant heart. I love Jesus. He is my lover, brother and friend. Amen? Amen.

Talk to you later guys, check out my facebook again for some pictures, oh and here's a video of a little tour of hillsong church incase you guys were wondering what it looked like haha. Here it is,

Bye! Love you all.

Andrew.

Tour of Hillsong Church from Andrew Howell on Vimeo.