The Zoo and Opening Ceremonies

G'day mate... it sounds so weird even when I type that... anyways hello everyone! It's Monday afternoon (the end to the weekend here which is Sunday-Monday) and we start real life tomorrow. The last two weeks have been nice: relaxing, site seeing, sleeping in, ect. but now we're in to the good stuff. First I'm going to tell you about last night and this morning and then write out my wonderful schedule.

Opening Ceremony:
Last night the staff put together a beautiful dinner for the new students. Because we're girls we decided to dress up for dinner. After dinner (we didn't know this ahead of time...) there was a welcoming ceremony. However, it wasn't for about an half hr. after dinner... so what did we do? We changed back into our PJs... yah. cool. So we showed up to our welcoming ceremony in sweats and pink fuzzy slippers... oops. Anyways, we were all there and three of the staff members did an indigenous welcoming dance. It was really cool! The staff members then stood in a row (about seven different Nations represented) and welcomed us individually in their own way... some shook our hands others bowed... whatever it was it was theirs and their way of saying, 'Hello' from their nation. After we recieved our welcome package (aka our text books) we were taught an African dance and song. It was sooo much fun and really helped the group bond because... none us knew what the heck we were doing! :) I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone. There are people here from Canada, America, Scotland, England, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Africa, Korea, Australia, and many other nations. As our director told us this morning, "It doesn't matter your nation... we have Jesus Christ in common and that's enough"

The Zoo:
This morning our group left the base at 9 a.m. to go to the zoo! :) It was soooo cool. Anna- I did it! I pet a Koala bear, as well as Kangaroo! They literally let the Kangaroos just go where they pleased. We saw some amazing tropical birds and all sorts of fun stuff :) I had a great time. :) :) :) Pictures are on facebook!

Schedule:

Tuesday-Saturday:

6 a.m. out of bed and getting ready or working ot
7-7:30 a.m. breakfast (you don't get up... you don't get it. The end.)
8:30-9 a.m. work duties (cleaning the base)
9-10:30 a.m. (changes ever day) workship, intercession, small groups, ect.
11-1 p.m. lectures
1-1:30 lunch

Afternoons change but basically we do either lectures, outreach in the streets, or work on drama/music/dance prep until dinner that is at 5:30. After dinner is clean up and then more lectures or out reaches depending on the night. Lights are out at 10 p.m.

So basically the schedule is super crazy and there's not a lot of down time (thank God for the weekends!) and I'm needing my sleep and rest. Please continue to pray that I'll be able to get past these silly dreams and that I'll get a good nights sleep. :)

I love you all! I'm praying for you guys back at home and hope that you're all healthy, safe, and staying in his perfect plan!

God Bless,
-Shanna