Wilsons Prom // Intern Retreat Part 2.

so this time i will attempt to elaborate a bit more on my roadtrip i had last week! hehe..
first of all, yes, it was amazing, in so many ways...
Wednesday began with our usual morning discipleship.
Pastor Russell spoke to us, about being 'planted'
as in, being in church, being with God everyday
reading your Bible, 'feeding' yourself on those things that the bible talks about that keeps us healthy and builds us up - fellowship, being around people, encouragement etc..you know, being planted in good soil reaps good soil
you wont have a positive life if you have a negative heart and mind
this is true.
so that was real good..then pastor Sam came in and we had the opportunity to honour both of them for everything they do for us and everything they had done for us throughout the year, then they actually honoured us!
it was all quite emotional. very emotional actually!
everyone was crying, all the pastors, all us interns
man..its been a big year...but im glad..

once we organised drivers and luggage and cars, we were off!
iv come to love roadtrips, just from this one trip alone, haha
i cant wait to travel!!! >.<
maybe cos it was my first real roadtrip with good friends
my best bud amy and kim!
it was fun, we had the roof off and we pumped john mayer :)

Setting up camp was interesting, kim brought her familys massive tent that held like 12 people, but we were half way through hanging it up and realised it had mold inside it, so the people who were gonna sleep in there ended up squeezing in other tents, i moved in with grace, tarsh and felicia :D

after dinner i sat in a tent with ps ange and discussed what happens from here, wether im having counselling and all that..shes organising a counsellor through some christian professional counselling service thing, im actually hoping right now she forgets to follow it up and i can forget about getting counselling, because honestly, i hate counselling, it wells something up inside me and gets me so angry and frustrated, i dont even know why though. every counsellor iv had, nothing has been wrong with them, i havent had some weird bad experience with a counsellor, i just..maybe i just dont like this sort of therapy. sitting in front of a stranger bearing myself..i dont know..anyway, we had a good chat..shes been the best this year, so easy to talk to and for loving me so much and believing in me so much, amazing.

Thursday morning we had breakfast and then headed down to the beach :D
we did a group devotion, right on the beach
for half an hour we all wandered to our own spot to do it
i sat on a rock :)
it was real lovely, just being with God under the morning sun, amongst just total beach..where else would you wanna spend time with your Jesus..
we then came all back together after half an hour and we went into discussion of what people got out of the scripture and stuff and concluded with prayer.
Pastor Paul then felt to do something different, as always :)
"i just felt to do something different..i want us to, like crossing the jordan, going through the waters of baptism..go through one of the rivers..and just leave things behind, in this year, washing it away, and receiving what God has for us on the other side..."
so we all went over to one of the small rivers, and pastor Paul and Ange went across first, then one by one whenever we were ready, went across..we all cheered and clapped as each person walked across, or danced over, or in my case, ran :)
it was one of the most memorable and significant parts of the three days we were up there..there was more crying haha but it was an incredible morning
then for the rest of the day i climbed rocks, napped, prayed, mingled with fellow intern buddies, bought ice cream :P yeah, not much else, i just enjoyed being away, layed on the sand, walked in the rivers
then later played beach cricket, that was a lot of fun!! lots of fun..
this was late arvo, and suddenly a storm comes and it starts pouring down rain, but a bunch of us decide to run off into the ocean, haha which resulted in getting completely drenched. but i loved it. i love the simple things in life, like running through water and jumping over the waves, and waving my hands above my head as the run comes down.. :)

oh yeah, i forgot, also the evening before (wednesday evening, we arrived there wednesday arvo) we played greedy santa, that was a whole lot of fun, i got a mini hair straightener. quite fortunate i say! then kelly and nicole had made awards.
i got the "x marks the spot, treasure found here" award, that surprised me a whole lot and was quite nice, meant alot actually...

Now, Thursday came, we had dinner, pasta :P
then the plan was to drive up mt oberon then hike the rest of the way, but it ended up being too stormy, rainy and windy or something so instead we drove a short distance and walked to squeeky beach :D
it took me a good five minutes to put two and two together that it was called squeeky beach because when you walked on the sand it made it squeek, lol..
we went between some massive rocks into a big open space of sand and..just worshipped God there, nothing but our voices with our raw hearts for God, torches and a guitar, singing..
"the hope of all hearts, is you.."

after that we all sat in a big circle.
Pastor Paul and Angelina had written us who were graduating cards as a way to honour and encourage us. they went through everyones card and said something nice to that person as they gave it to them, and someone else could also say something if they really wanted to or felt to. although it became quite freezing, it was still a lovely night. we didnt get through everyone but the next day as we packed our tents and everything up we then went through everyone else, including me.
of course, me being an emotional goof, i tried very hard to hold back the tears, i couldnt though..it was something else to remember, having pastor ange telling me to remember how loved i am and noticing the amount of voices that agreed along with her..i will remember love...

also, each night, well, two nights, whilst outside, doing whatever it was i was doing, i would walk along and stop, and just stare up at the stars..i dont know what it is about stars..they always just leave me in awe..like renee yohe, i will never forget to, remember the stars..theres something about hope that comes in stars..something symbolic. but i love it..i love mostly the creator of those stars, that just made those three days so very much worth it..

the trip home was alot of fun
we had two extra people on the way home, the beautiful katie bowman and the most cute dani hardland!
we did full on singalongs and dance moves from wilson prom to our pit stop at Leongatha which consisted of tunage like..
beautiful day by U2 - you can imagine that going off hey, ha..
love story by Taylor Swift! - i actually requested that one lol
yellow by coldplay - good times :)
stevie wonder and michael jackson
im yours by Jason Mraz - love love LOVE it!
and several others :D
it was definitely one of those infinte moments..

Then Sunday came and as all us interns waited lined up side stage ready to be called up, i couldnt help but burst out into tears, reminded of all thats happened this year..man, so much has happened. so much bad, yet so much good. But still, its been worth it, its been good, its been great..
i didnt necessarily graduate though, ha, but i participated, only on attendance though, because i missed alot of the wednesday discipleships. i had no strikes. lol so just so anyone thinks it was because of anything else, it wasnt ha..but yeah, just thought id say that. mm.
i hugged all the pastors, ps ange giving me a big smile, ps sam telling me 'well done', ps paul encouraging me again, "perseverence..", and ps russell telling me, "im proud of you."
mm, it was a day full of alot of emotions..wow. its all over..one thing i will remember, even though its most easy to remember now cos its most recent, but anyway, is those three days at wilsons prom, the intern retreat..what i experienced up there, to remember love, remembering Jesus, remembering everything. yeah, remembering everything, that has occurred this year, the lessons and fun, everything..that im not alone, that i have a whole family of friends behind me, that i am loved, that..gosh, that anything is possible..that God loves me, that..man, ahh! just..remembering love, that Jesus is here, in my life. right here. that life is okay, life is brilliant...i can live again..not just exist.

so, ha. mm..cheers to the beginning of the next phase of my life. ha..fabulous.

its been a good year :)