HA! I almost DID die!!

Soooooo... I did almost die! HAHAHA... and it was hilarious!
Yesterday whilst doing my work duty in the kitchen, I found myself cramped in the wide frames of the windows, dusting away. Upon finishing I arose and was about to prance off the countertops when out from somewhere... WHACK!!!! Flippen ceiling fan sliced through the air and ripped through the side of my head.... not quite sure of what happened, I look around and see about 20 faces starring with eyes wide, and mouths open in shock and horror at me.
Still dazed, I do what any half-normal Julia would do, and burst into hystericall fits of laughter trying to reassuring everyone that I was totally fine.
"No you are not fine!" Meredith says as she caringly yanks me to a sitting position, and cups here hands to catch the streams of blood rippling down my face. HAHAHAHA... ("this is hilarious" I think to myself "I just got hit with a ceiling fan! HA!! and i'm bleeding everywhere!")
Hannah, our RN on base, comes rushing over from the offices, in sheer excitement that she finally gets to use her nursing skills on a real live head wound. After inspection, I am taken on my first ever trip to an australian hospital.
I was taken care of by a lovely Belgian doctor who thought I was from Ireland. He thought I'd be a quick fix... but upon looking at the gash, informed me that the fan blade had cut through "the layers" down to the bone... and... in fact... dented my skull... leaving paint chips from the fan in my head!!! HAHA!!!! Priceless...
So, as I lay giggling to myself under the a paper sheet, he injects me anethetics and begins the sewing process of putting me back together again.
I giggled and smiled the whole time.. thinking how great God was and how he "blessed" me with this story and experience!... (crazy.. i Know!!!)
So my head shall be mummified till tommorow when I can take this massive head bandage off and shower once again.
Great thanx go out to my flatmates who so tenderly woke me up every two hours through the night to see if I was still alive... and to Meredith who held my blood and head in her hands with such tender love... and thanx to my Dad! I have pictures sticky tacked above my head, so I can fall asleep to the faces of my family and friends, and Dad... your face was the one I looked upon, and focused on when the room began to spin out of control, and my eyes rolled in circles to the back of my head!!!! Oh concussions... how glorious and wonderful!!! haha...

Outreach!!!

Wow!
So last friday, at the end of lectures, our leaders presented us with our options for outreach teams, and then gave us the weekend to pray over which one God may be leading us to!!! Yeahy! Now because of regulations, in regards to student visa's changing, in Queensland, over the past few months, we are actually going to be unable to leave Australia, let alone the state Queensland durring outreach.
Upon hearing this about two months ago, I began to ask God to place a certain region or people group upon my heart for outreach. The coast, "surf" culture, and coastal cities began to press one me.
So when Justin wrote that there was a team heading south down the coast reaching out to backpackers, I almost died a little, because it seemed to fit so perfectly.
I instantly became so sure that this was where God wanted me to go... I meen come on... it was so obvious! He'd confirmed it in my heart before even hearing locations!
HA! Was I ever wrong in my thinking. Oh God... how mysterious you are and how perfect your ways.
But regardless of what I felt... I decided to "be wise" and prayed over the weekend that God would confirm that the South team really was where he wanted me. But God started to do something within me that was quite unexpected & kinda uncomfortabler... He began to pull an tug at my heart towards the West team heading out to West to Mt. Isa, reaching out to youth. The one team I knew I did not want to go on, and I, in fact, dreaded God calling me to. HAHA... so when God began to pull me that way, I kinda freaked out in my insides a bit... and ended up battling all weekend with it.
Sunday night came, and I out of shear frustration & confusion with what I wanted and what God wanted, I headed out onto the little back poarch of my flat to have a little chat with God. I prayed and prayed... and kept asking God "are you sure you want me to go west? I really don't want to go west... are you sure?" (HA.. me questioning God... kinda hilarious when you think of how pathetic it is!)... after much toiling, I finally I gave up... and said "God... I'll go West! I know your ways are far beyond my ways, and your plans for me are far beyond anything I could hope or dream for myself! I submit to your way!" After this submission within my heart, I felt incredible peace and decided to head to bed...
Decided to wake up next morning... and durring my quiet time... I heard God say to me "Julia.. you can South! I was just testing you... seeing if you would go my way! Seeing if you would trust me regardless of how you felt! Seeing if you would give up your dreams for my dreams for you!"
WOW! What a lesson for myself! I'm going God's way from now on. He trully does have my best interest in mind... and wants to bless me with my heart's desires!
Next neat little story that ties into all this is: Monday my DTS mates and I handed in our little sheets of paper to our leaders numbering our outreach location choices from 1-3.
At this time my leaders informed us that it would take a week or two at best to give us the official teams. Hours of sorting through names, choices, locations, and switching and shuffling would need to be had, in order to arrange things perfectly. There would need to be only 9 students and 2 staff per team.
That evening, Outreach prep. came, and our leaders stood before us quite flabergasted... "Your teams have been made...and it took less than an hour!" HA....
Each person... all 29 of us... had been granted our first choice for outreach location, and the numbers for teams worked out perfect... no changes were made. God had called each of us to a specific location, and each of us had listened. Amazing!!!!
So I'm headed South reaching out to backpackers, with the radest, craziest team ever. We have quite the number of "strong individuals." We're headed up to Cairn's for New Year's Eve, and will then be making our way down the Australian coast over the course of two months, eventually ending up in Airlie beach, hitting all the backpacking hotspots as we head down (mission beach, maggie island...)
We are all exctatic!
So yah!! Things have been amazing!!
Lectures have been incredible... The past week was "relationships" week with Faith Dutton. Amazing! And tommorow we begin "Freedom In Christ" week with Dave Cole. It's trully hard to put in a blog entry all that I am learning... so I'm not gunna try tonight! The heats fryed my brain as well! It's sick!
Feeling so much freedom being here... I have such a massive love for God, and huge hunger to know more and dig in hard and deep to all that God is! I hardly know what to do with myself! God's amazing... he's working... and he's so real...
Take care! Love you all so much!
(p.s-watched a snowboarding video last night, and ive been pretty homesick ever since... enjoy the white wonderland you live in people... palms trees & beach is all grande & wonderful, until you begin to drown in your own swet, can't dry off after you shower, feel like a constant grimeball no matter how much you shower... lovely... just lovely! er)

I Almost Died....

Headed to the Billabong Santuary yesterday... and I almost died... cuz everything was beyond liveable CUTE!!!! HAhaha... seriously!!!

Clear Conscience & Disciplines

(so sorry it's taken me so long to let you guys know where I'm at and what's been going on... just been crazy busy overload... in a good way though!)
Wow! God is so good... my heart is basically so free and bursting with love, peace, and contentment right now. I'm at such a place in my life where I desire nothing more than to be exactly where I am...right...now...
I'm continually blown away that God would bless me with such a time as this! I am able to set aside six months of my life, fully dedicated to knowing God, loving God, building an intimate relationship with my him, and then going out and making him known, and pouring his love upon the people of this beautiful nation.
I haven't stopped smiling since I got here... and honestly, I can't even begin to think about coming home. (as much as I love you and miss you all so much....) I'm in such a good place right now...
God's doing an amazing work in me: totally stripping away the old and bringing in the new, breaking down the walls I've put up and the oblitering the boxes I've placed him... absolutly blowing me right out of the water.
It's amazing the transformation I see God taking me through. Huge revelations and truths about himself, that he's been engraining in my heart ands oul. I finally feel like I've been able to find out who God's made to be, then release any and all the lies that I've heard and held onto all my life, and then lay the foundation for my own faith.
FINALLY!!! All the head knowledge, in regards to what I believe, that I've built up over the course of my life is finally sinking down into my heart and then being put it into action in my everyday life.
I can literally feel my relationship with the Lord becoming my own... REAL! I can feel myself falling more in love with him everyday. I now know I can't live without him... I know he's the reason I live... and for that I lay down my life, and my own selfish ways for his purpose....
OH man!! It's so hard to put into words all that I feel, and all that God's been teaching me and doing.... just... wow!
A huge thing for me over the past few weeks has been the word REAL: being REAL, God becoming REAL to me, hearing REAL truth and making those truths REALITY, then seeing God move in REAL ways. Everything is alive and real for me... nothing seems unattainable for me right now! HAHA!! Dreaming big and expecting more!
Last week was "Clear Conscience" week with Ken Mulligan, where alot of us were able to strip away the "baggage" we've been trying to heave around with us for far too long... and in turn we've found true freedom in Christ, in his forgiveness, grace, and mercy.
This week was "Christian Disciplines" week with Andrew Dutton, where we learned the more practical lessons on how to live out our faith. The first few days were spent looking at such things as the gospel message, God's character, and his nature.... ( i meen how are we supposed to strive to be like our God is we don't even know who he is?!?...)
The rest of the week was spent in teaching on such things as fasting, obedience & submission to man and God, stewardship, faithfulness, handingling finances & God's provision... awesome awesome pratical life stuff.
When they say DTS is an intense course.... they really meen it!!!! Amazing though!!!!
This morning we were also presented with our Outreach location options... so we're gunna pray about them over the weekend... and I'll let you guys know when I know for sure where I am going!!!!
Anyways... once again I deeply apoligize if this all makes no sense. It's just so hard to put into words all that's happening... and what I tell you on here only scrapes the surface of what's been happening in my heart and in the lives of those around me.
I'm already looking forward to connecting with all of you back home and sharing all this with you... in full...
So for entertainments sake too... here are a few pictures from my "day of rest" last week... we headed up to Crystal Creek to go cliff jumping!!! Secluded little God-made waterfalls and rock pools in the middle of a rainforest tucked into the outback...! LAAAA... amazing... (oh and some pictures from Backstage (saturday youth event) as well)
Love you all so very much... take care....