Day one and two

First off I want to say thank you for all the prayers that were sent on for me for my trip over. I did run into a little bit of a bump when I got to Sydney. I missed my flight over to Perth and had to wait for the next one. It wasn't a big deal but it was more time than I wanted to spend traveling. I got to Perth and got picked up by Jenny, one of my leaders, dropped off my luggage at the house I will be staying in, and went straight to the YWAM base. It was amazing that even though I was exhausted from traveling I was still able to stay awake through the tour and all the introductions that were made. I got announced and welcome at supper(they call it dinner) with over 300 students and staff there. That was a scary one for me. Not to mention that everyone thinks that my name is pronounced Ree-gen in stead of Ray-gan.  But that's okay. I got introduced to Ben the person that I will be working with all summer. And all the students that he has with his DTS school right now, that I will also be working with. I met so many people it was kind of an overload for me. Then after supper my new housemates and I walked home which is about a mile away and I showered and went to bed around 8 p.m. their time (would be around 7 a.m. your time). I tried to sleep as long as possible but for some reason my body and mind woke up this morning pretty early and I ended up waking up with the other girls.

For my second day, I walked back to base and went to the Create office where I will be working. I talked with all of them for a while and then one of the girls took me into town to buy some things I needed. This was definitely a new experience for me. To get to "town" or basically their shopping area, we rode a bus into town. Never really done that before so that was an experience. And they took me into the some of the stores there to look for pillows and blankets and shower stuff. The first store we went into was Target. By the way, it is nothing like the Targets we have back home and they are much more expensive here. But I ended up getting a pillow and comforter that were on sale. Then we went to this store called the discard shop. It has a lot of odds and ends at really low prices. So I got some shampoo, conditioner, and body wash there. They took me into one of their food markets and everything was different. The girl I was with wanted to buy a few things, and then we headed back. But this time coming back we took the train. Oh my goodness, I don't know how they do it. They have to wait on trains, and buses to make it back and forth for where they need to go. I think that is one thing I will miss is having my own car and getting to drive when and where I want to. But then we came back to the office, and Ben came back and I had kinda two orientation sessions about YWAM. The first was before lunch, and then we ate, and I went on a walk with one of the girls in his DTS school, and then had the second session. I got to learn a lot about YWAM, and how they run and operate, and what I will be doing while I am here. Then I brought all of my stuff home, and and I am going to take a little nap and wake up for dinner, and stay up for a little bit, and then go back to bed.

I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such nice and welcoming people. I feel they will take care of me while I am here and that I will get to know a lot of new people. I am very excited to see how God will use me and my abilities this summer for this organization. The devil still tries to plague me with doubts but I think that these people will be appreciative of my work and will accept me for who I am and what I can do. Thank you all for your prayer and support. I'm sure I will have more stories to come. I haven't had a lot of time to take pictures yet but hopefully I will get some up the next time. As the Aussies say their farewell:

Cheers!