Four More Sleeps!

"We only have four more sleeps!" The leader of my upcoming mission trip within a mission trip wrote this in a recent email she sent to the team. I am truly amazed to think that the trip I heard about almost three months ago is finally here! For those of you who haven't heard, I will be participating in a ten-day bush exposure trip with a group from my church. There are six team members participating and we will be joining two of the missionaries Alice Baptist supports, Norm and Karen Roberts. The Roberts have been serving in the bush communities northwest of Alice Springs for over five years now. They are great people and I cannot wait to get to know them better and hear more about their journey into missionary life.
So a little about the why of the trip. We are going because we want to support the work that is being done in these three communities to spread the gospel of Christ to the Warlpiri people. We will be starting our journey in Willowra.

This small town with an estimated population of 350 people has a small community of believers and a church building. The building is in need of a fence to keep out wandering critters. We will be working on this as a team with the assistance of a builder and his father from our church. We are really excited to be able to help in such a practical way!

After that we will be moving to Ali Curung, another small town North of Alice. I think we'll be helping to clear the area in and around the mission house due to the rainfall the grass has been growing like crazy and so we will be mowing and cleaning up the yard area. We will also be spending time in the community building relationships and spending some time with the locals.

After a couple days there we will be headed to our third community, Yuendemu! This is one of the larger towns in the area and we will be spending time out in the community there too. Who knows what we'll wind up doing while we're there but, I think it's going to be a really great time.

When we've finished our time in Yuendemu we will be headed back to Alice! There are going to be some challenges ahead and some great experiences too. I know that God has been working in the hearts of me and my teammates as we've been preparing for this.

We would really appreciate your prayers as we head out for the next ten-days. Special prayer requests would be:
-Safety in travels
-Speed and efficiency on the fence building as we only have to professionals there for a few days.
-That each of us would have a heart that is open to learn and a spirit that is sensitive to the words of God.

Thanks for reading and for praying!
Shannon

Here's a map of our Journey!
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115871408322241677933.000485496906df8b42d7a&ll=-21.983801,132.879639&spn=4.043883,7.064209&t=h&z=7

Busier than the Easter Bunny!

There has been a bit of a lag in my blog postings lately. I realize that and I hope that it hasn't left you with nothing of interest to read! But, the lag corresponds directly with an upswing in the activities of other things in my life. The Easter holiday is a very different thing here in Alice than in Baltimore. Here it corresponds with a school break of 1-2 weeks. So it's a vacation weekend for a lot of kids and families. The youth group uses that weekend together with that break to go on a retreat. They call it "Easter Camp".
I was recruited to help out with this weekend by my friends and co-workers from church who were planning the event. I went along willingly but I wasn't really sure what it was going to be like. I don't help with youth group on a regular basis so I didn't really know any of the teens. I hadn't slept in a swag before but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be as comfortable as my bed. I had been on youth retreats before and I remembered the haggard looks on the faces of some of the leaders whenever they were over. But, I also remembered the changes that had happened in my life and my faith whenever I went on those trips.
It was definitely a weekend to remember! We had an awesome time as a group, playing games, eating meals, listening to the challenge of God's Word, spending time in small groups. But there were also lots of times for a more personal one on one time with some of the students. It was challenging for me to be in such a direct leadership position and yet, I really liked it. The girls in my group were really fun and great to work with. Each one was different and yet we all had a lot in common.
Overall, the weekend was a totally great way to spend Easter, changing lives with Jesus!
Coming back was not easy. Of course, we were all pretty tired. I got home and decided to throw in a load of laundry before I crashed on the couch. This was a great idea and I even applauded my own self-motivation (I think I actually thought, this is what mom would recommend I do before I relax. But, there was one minor oversight in my plan.
The next day I was expecting to receive a text message. By the afternoon when I realized I had received no such message I decided I wasn't even really sure where my phone was (insert music indicating impending doom). I looked around my room for it and then a terrible realization sprung into my mind! I had it in the pocket of my shorts yesterday...
I'm sure the rest you can fill in for yourselves. I washed it and then dried it in the tumble dryer, twice. So that phone is long gone but, a solution presented itself so that is all good.

Anyhow, the whole weekend was a great reminder of why I do ministry, because Jesus is alive and people need to know it. It was also a reminder of the fact that this world and the things in it die, whether by natural causes or washing machine, and that the only answer to death is Jesus' victorious resurrection!

Thanks for reading,
Shannon