Hi wonderful, amazing, beautiful people I have the pleasure of living life with! 

Sorry I have been a slacker when it comes to blogging. I have probably already written 4 or 5 post by now but never send them because they are either too lengthy or too wordy and well, was never pleased. BUT Id love to keep you guys updated on things here and continue asking for prayer while I am on my journey.

Instead of going too crazy in-depth of life here in Australia I am going to just pin point some of the big things that have taken place in the last 2 weeks. 

***Our house is complete and everyone is home! Rebekah is great. She is 25 & from Northern State of New York. She is in the worship arts stream & been really great getting to know her and starting this journey together as "newbies" 

** We had our first "house meeting" this past Saturday and it went really good. All the girls are devoted to making it the best semester possible for each other and really into praying and blessing each other, which is great when so far from home and you have that kind of atmosphere to come home to. 

* Its kind of warming up! Its been sunny the last few days with just a little chill in the air rather than raining and freezing... which was pretty miserable for 6 days straight.

***School is great. We have only started intensives so far so we haven't technically gotten into our routine of what our week to week will look like. For the first 2 weeks (one already completed) all the streams and years broken up and share classes all together from 8:30 in the am till around 5:30. Extremely long & somewhat draining days because we sit in lectures all day for 1&1/2 at a time with 10 min breaks... The speakers are great. Yet, they all speak on the same things; Teamwork, Unity & Leadership. Been great but still ready to see what my schedule of classes is like. 

**Kind of BIG news! As if moving across the world wasn't enough change for me... Once I was at orientation God completely changed the one thing I KNEW I was going to do here... the Worship Arts stream... So the more and more I heard about all the different streams and pathways my heart was just not set on being here solely for the Worship stream. I didn't understand why... until I heard that there was actually an Events Pathway under the Pastoral Stream!!! I didn't want to jump right into changing but really felt it pressing on my heart. So I asked around and tried to see the pro's and con's of each... and to be honest, got some really negative input about the Events stream... but without going into too much detail here... The Lord completely confirmed in my Spirit that I was suppose to change... even though it is probably going to be the most difficult thing I have ever or will ever do! 

*So, I am on the Pastoral Stream with Events as my pathway! - which was pretty neat, for one of our lectures during intensives we meet with one of the lead Event Planners and got a tour of the church and knew it was meant to be when we watched a clip of The Wedding Planner to show what our role is kind of like! :) 

*I have one more week of intensives and then I will begin the classes that I will have until November. I do know a few of the classes are New Testament, Biblical Doctrine, and then will have Fieldwork & Church Life- which will be the only time where events will come into play. Im pretty excited! 

***CANT BELIEVE I HAVE ALREADY BEEN GONE FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH***

God has been pretty amazing on this journey, as I knew He would be. His peace and comfort has been sometimes all I've had to hold on to. I do miss home a ton. Being here has helped me really appreciate the amazing people I have in my life... I don't say that lightly because yall are the ones reading this. But, I mean it with everything in me. I miss being a part of your day to day or even the faces I get to see on Sunday and just know that our hearts are similar and reaching for the same goal. I feel that here and know its probably the same, but not having the same connection definitely makes things seem so much more distant and well, not the same. So please know I cherish each and every one of you! and look forward to this time not only being an adventure of me here living in Australia going to HILC, but a time to pour into the relationships that I have been blessed with! 

Please write often or just let me know how things are going back at home. I do miss communication with you guys and try my best to keep in touch with everyone back home... but its much more difficult for one person to write 100 ppl then for me to respond to others. It would mean the world to me! Not because I am terribly home sick (which I have my days) but just to know that I am not leaving home, disconnecting from everyone, and plan to return one day and have to almost start all over again. If that makes any sense! 

Love you guys... 

I am going to end it at that for now, but really hope to get better with this whole blogging thing! Its my goal to do it atleast once a week from here on out! 

I will be posting soon from an awesome service we had tonight with Joel A'bell! 

Praying for everyone on the MOTION Conf trip & for many others who I know are going through a life changing moment in life! I know God has great things in work for 2011 and we are already half way through it! - can only imagine how much greater things can and will get! Praying & Believing with you all! 

First Official Post from Australia

So, I have officially been in Australia for 1 week and 5 days! Its already beginning to feel like home.


Life here is beautiful. The sky is breathtaking, even in its day to day blueness :) ... My housemates are lovely and so welcoming... and God is just ... well words can't describe! He has been so overwhelming in this journey so far and already see glimpses of what is in store through other students and the work He has done in them. I get overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions just thinking about the journey I get to have with Him over the next year - happy emotions that is!


I wont overwhelm you all with too many details but do want you to feel apart of what I am doing here since SO many of you were a HUGE part of getting me here both by prayer and financial support!


First I will share some exciting news with you guys...
A little background:
So when I first arrived, John (a guy from North Augusta who went to school with Danielle @ ACS) picked us up from the airport and took me to one of the girls house here that i'd be staying in for the first week until college housing opened up on the 11th. Well, it was conference week and the majority of the time spent with the girls was sleeping... But they were all so welcoming and super sweet. We connected immediately, although I wasn't completely open since it was all so foreign to me - we still had a great connection. Well, after conference (which was amazing, and will go more into detail about that later on) I spent Saturday & Sunday with the girls and really just felt a part, but still had no clue where I was going to live. That week I had emailed Joy (who is over accommodations) to see if it was possible for me to take 1 of the 2 empty spaces in the girls house. When she wrote back saying she had already placed me in a different home and that it was closer to the school - I decided to stick with her plan. So the following Monday I went to the school and got my housing stuff sorted out and went to visit my house! Well, it wasn't what I was expecting and didn't help that I had been spoiled for a week with lovely ladies who LOVE a clean house! :) Not that the other house wasn't clean it just was nothing in comparison. It is one of the girl mansions here in the Hills and had 11 girls living in it, in comparison to 7 in the house I was staying in. Well, long story short, I visited the house... wasn't 100% thrilled about it but wanted to give it time - so I dropped my stuff off and packed a small bag of things to stay at the other girls house for a few nights while the girls in the mansion got their stuff sorted out and moved out. Well in those next 2 or 3 days I connected even more with the girls and really felt like I was "home" while in their house and already in their routine so was just praying really hard on what I should do. SOO Wednesday night some of us girls were out celebrating Charity's birthday and one girl wanted to stop by and see my house - so we stopped by & I instantly felt like it wasn't meant to be! Nothing terrible about it, but just wasn't meant for me! So I emailed Joy again to see if it was possible still to get one of the spots in the girls house... AND.... IT WAS!!!! There was a little bit of work that had to be done but it was such great news to know that I was going to be with this amazing group of girls that wanted me and I wanted to them! It was such a relief to say the least.
I have just settled right in ever since! No longer living out of my suitcases, and sleeping in my own bed! AH... such an amazing feeling... and it feels normal! Totally the Lord!


SO... My housemates currently are:
Kaitlyn, who welcomed the idea to let me stay with them the week of the conference! It was such a huge blessing! She is from Atlanta, GA and is actually done with school and heading home on the 22nd... its sad to connect with her and then her leave!
Kelsey, who is also from GA area and such a huge help getting around at conference and making Blake and I feel welcomed. She left the day after conference so haven't really got to know her yet. But look forward to it! :)
Charity & Sus... who I have got to spend a lot of quality time with, and wouldn't change it for anything!
They are both sooo precious and such an encouragement! They both have so many stories of how God has shown up tremendously in their life while here at college. Charity just turned 19 and is from Canada and Sus recently turned 20 and is from Holland! She bakes a really good apple pie! :)
Im so excited about our friendship and look forward to spending the next 6 months with them!
Then there is my lovely roommate Rachel who is 21 & from Wales.. she is super sweet and again such an encourager. She loves to cuddle and has such a welcoming spirit about her... which will be lovely when the homesickness comes around.  She is great!
Then we have Chelsea, who is in her own room and LOVES cleaning which made me smile when I saw her awake at like 8 am scrubbing the railing of the stairs :) She is lovely and has an amazing voice... she actually performed in one of the openers at conference (will post a video). Her family came to visit this week so haven't seen her much lately but excited to hang out with everyone and get to know them!
We will have one other new student moving in with us and i'm anxious to meet her and see what characteristics and fun things she will bring to the group of girls! Her name is Rebecca, but that is all we know for now. She was suppose to arrive today but hasn't made it yet.
So... God is soo good in opening up this spot in their house for me and I have loved every second so far... not saying its going to be perfect always - but definitely a blessing!

far left top row... Rachel, Charity, Kelsey, Chelsea, Beatrice (who already left)

bottom row from left... Suzanne and Kaitlyn

(this is an old pic I stole from one of the girls... but to give you a visual)

I have cooked tons while i've been here & enjoyed every second of it!
Yesterday I made my moms amazing Chili & Noodles... and surprisingly tasted a lot like hers!

Tonight I thought i'd experiment some and made a Chicken Pesto Alfredo Pasta... pretty amazing if I do say so! :)
I've enjoyed it and Charity & Sus have as well so... hopefully this will be the beginning of a good thing!

 Since I have been here I have... done a lot of walking (only more to come), visited the city, ridden a train, bus & ferry multiple times, cooked lots, eaten lots of nutella, drank lots of hot tea, visited Manly Beach, watched like 5 movies, skyped, obsessed over the sky & how amazing God is, ridden on the wrong side of the road, fell down our stairs (of course!), seen Jesus Culture live, went to 1st service @ Hillsong Church, had fajitas 3 times ( and mexican isn't big here), met some amazing people, celebrated 4th with cookout & sparklers, tried Tim Tams & Anzac cookies, broke down in the middle of the Apple store, spent a lot of change (which is hard for me!), froze to death (which I am doing at the moment), hang dried my clothes :( (not sure how you'd say that) , said "no worries" a few dozen times, and heard Priscilla Shirer, Jentzen Franklin, John Maxwell, Nick Gumble, Brian Houston, Judah Smith, Bobbie Houston, Christine Caine, Julie A'bell & Robert Ferguson speak... all amazing!


Some of my favorite sights thus far:

my first view off of the plane

lunch at the harbour with my new friends under the beautiful big sky

real life... beautiful

view from the ferry ride to Manly Beach

Manly Beach

real life surfers :)

will leave you with this beautiful view of Manly Beach

Miss home and the normalcy of life back home but embracing life here and loving it thus far. Anxious for classes to begin and to see how life will be once in the normal routine. 


Love you all!!!! Please Please Please... write often and keep me posted on life back home. I feel like I've said it a million times, and I at once thought it would be bad to hear about things and feel like I'm missing out, but it is actually helping me still feel a part of home, rather than having to guess that life is perfect & amazing without me! haha :) Silly Im sure, but it helps! 


I have my official address -  so for anyone who is interested, comment me your email & I will send you all my information!




You will have to excuse my writing - I know it is not the best! :-/ 
My blog will be a mixture of things... both for you guys back home but also for me to look back on and remember this remarkable journey I am getting to go on.


There will be updates of normal day to day life here as well as journals recapping amazing lectures I hear, or Words from the Lord to inspire me and others... just a little bit of everything! 
Hope you enjoy and I hope the Lord uses my journey to inspire some of you to DREAM BIG! 


Love living life with YOU! 


Katelin :)