Two Yanks In Oz

HELLO lovely people!

Oh my goodness, it has been forever! But let me tell you, this has been the absolute busiest season of life- more busy than when I was in my student teaching semester at OCU. And THAT is saying something. However, it's been the good kind of busy- when you feel purpose filled and like you're learning and experiencing things that are changing the very core of who you are.

It gets kind of exhausting when you change so much in a short period of time- whew.

I won't go into detail about everything that's happened, but in summary:

I've completed Theology, Leadership, New Testament Studies (a more in depth study of the overview we took in our first year- and we will do the OT again next semester. We focused on Romans and Luke this semester and it's really made me want to be more diligent and detailed in my own studies), Analysis, Theology of Worship (amazing! Goodness, our trainer for that, Aran Puddle, always says things that make my eyes well up in class- the Spirit is so present in that 1.5 hours each Wednesday) and our usual weekly worship band workshops.

Our performances this semester were hard as usual, but at least they were fun. Our first one involved re-arranging two songs into two completely different genres while keeping original lyrics and melody. The first one my group did was to re-arrange the hymn "Blessed Assurance" into the style of Jonsi- look him up if you don't know what I'm talking about. The second song we did was "Only In Your Heart" by America and re-arranged it for Katy Perry. That one was actually really fun to perform, and I did a lot of the re-arranging for the vocal lines, which was a lot of fun for me to do.

Our second performance was a solo performance. Originally I was going to do a classical piece, but it fell through, and I felt God telling me to get way out of my comfort zone and do a piece I wrote myself. So I showed up to that performance with my guitar and played everyone a song I've been working on for a while about my journey with God since I've been here. I was so scared I was shaking; and after I was done, I went back to the trainers for feedback and couldn't keep from crying- I was so relieved I had done it and that it had gone well; and plus a little bit more of myself was out in the open. I got great encouraging feedback on not only my songwriting but also on my personal breakthrough musically and spiritually. They said they want to see more of what I can do; so I plan to give it to them. :)

Our last performance is this coming Friday and it's a gospel performance. We have four songs to do. I'm leading one, BVing one, vocal directing one and singing in the choir on one. It will be intense! We are scrambling to get rehearsal time in, because we've had school holidays, all assessments were due today, and last night was album recording, so we've all been busy and unavailable. Plus I'm in Christmas Spectacular again this year so I've been in rehearsals for that, and been in the studio for a few days recording the backing tracks, so my life has been absolutely crazy.

This semester I had to have surgery to remove a kidney stone from my right kidney, which went off without a hitch but made me realize that I need to take really good care of myself from now on. My body does make them no matter what, but I let the stone sit too long and it ended up getting infected and I could have gotten incredibly sick. I'm lucky they got it out when they did. I won't ignore things like that in the future. I was blessed to find a nice, thorough, FEMALE doctor that was accepted by my insurance, and my insurance covered everything. I love Australia- it's cheaper for me to have medical care here, as a non-citizen, than it is for me to have medical care in the States. Go figure....

Like I said, last night we had our annual live album recording in the Acer arena. 12,000 people gathering to praise Jesus- it was awesome! And because of my weekly ministry being choir, I get rostered to sing in choir at album recordings too. I get to be behind the stage singing out to the crowds and it is awesome to watch them worship together. After the recording, we all walked back to our greenroom together and who was in the hallway but Darlene Zschech! She was so lovely! She asked us if we were choir, and when we said yes, she said " You all did such a wonderful job, thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us!" Then she said she wished she could meet everyone, and this really brave guy in front stuck out his hand and introduced himself to her. She shook it and then kept shaking people's hands (including mine...oh man that was a moment of self control lol). Then a girl went up to be introduced and Darlene took the girl's face in her hands, looked her in the eye and said "You're beautiful. Thank you so much for the great job you did out there." And kissed her on the cheeks. What a moment to see such a famous and revered worship leader pouring such love into college students she didn't know! I want to be like her when I grow up. :)

Today I'm just finishing up assessments and doing my laundry- my day to day life isn't exciting, but it's satisfying and I'm so happy here. I'm considering whether or not to stay a third year. I love my job (still a youth worker) and I'm growing to love this church more as I make relationships with more of the students and staff. I am praying about what God would have me do next year.

But until then,

Be blessed!

~Aislinn