Back at base

Wow the past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I will try and remember all of the highlights to fill you in on what has been happening.
July 18-19 - The team had the chance to take a trip up to Thursday Island for Croc Fest. This is a school event that students from all over Northern Australia attend to learn about how to control their future and different career opportunities. It also gives the kids a chance to do a performance on the big stage at night. Working in the schools here we really wanted to connect with them and others there. We received a ride in a dingee to get over there. It was about a 1 1/2 hour ride. On the way there it was fairly calm waters, but on the way back it was very rough and we got soaked. But praise God we made it there and back safely and have some exciting memories of the trip. We made some new contacts for YWAM to become involved with Croc Fest in the future. What a great opportunity to have the attention of young people!
July 21 - Sat - This day was planned by the women of the church as a fun day at the beach for us as a team our last weekend. We spent the day eating, fishing, eating some more and a bonfire. It was a lot of fun. Most of the time we were fishing either off of the shore or on the dingee. Laban (our honorary walkabout member) took us out so that we could catch dinner. I caught 3 fish, tieing Laban for the most! Katie & Sione each caught one and the others didn't catch anything. Luckily they had brought other food or we would have been hungry, but we did eat mine. It was a very fun day just relaxing and socializing.
July 22 - Our last Sunday in Bamaga. We attended "our" church for the last time. In the morning I helped with Sunday School and then we had a light lunch at the church. We then went to the Sambo's for lunch, singing and games. Their family became our home away from home. Granny cried almost every time we saw her the last week because we were leaving. The evening service Peter lead and it was just a time of sharing and praising. A bunch of the church members sang songs or did dances. It was a great night. Even after the service was over almost everyone hung out until about 9:30 just jamming.
The last week was a very busy one trying to say goodbye and also planning for our big "thank you" event on Thursday night. On Monday we said our goodbye at the Primary school. It was awesome! The kids were so excited to see us again and they all joined in on the painter skit that we did again. We couldn't get them to be quiet or calm down when they were saying their final goodbye. They even sang us a "My God Loves Me" song. It was sad to say goodbye to the Grade ones and the teachers. After 6 weeks working in their room I have grown to love them. Monday night was another night at the Sambo's for our last meal at their house.
Tuesday we all went to HACC which is the elderly home that we worked with. We did another presentation for them and then hung out with them for a couple of hours. Again for some of our group it was very hard to say goodbye. Tuesday night was a Bible reading as a group and an early night for most of us.
Wednesday was a very full day of going to the high school and also a farewell dinner put on by the church. This was the first time that we had a chance to present at the high school so it was important to us to get our message across to them. Praise God everything worked out and it was a great time. In the afternoon it was planning and prep time for Thursday night. The dinner at night was a feast! The church members blessed us so much, it was great to spend more time with them.
Thursday was a very big day for us as a team. It started out with a few of us going to the high school to help out with Athletics day while the food committee stayed back to prepare the food for after our program. In the afternoon we decorated the church and finished the food prep. We were praying the whole day for the food because we were not sure that we were going to have enough, but God provided more than we even needed. We fed about 80 people only spending about $40! The evening was awesome!!!!! God was definitely with us! We did our dances and some skits and just had some fun with everyone. We were very blessed the whole evening.
Friday morning we slept in a little bit. Then got up and had praise & worship and sharing time. After that we went on prayer walks and covered the entire Bamaga area in prayer. Then it was time to pack and clean the houses. We did some praise in the park across the street with another DTS that is in Bamaga for about a week. We left for the airport about 4:00. I felt so loved by all of the people that came to say goodbye and see us off. Tons of hugs, some tears, and many last minute pictures were shared in our last hour in Bamaga. They stayed by the fence and waved at us the whole time until we were out of site. We arrived in Cairns about 7 pm and spent the entire night in the airport.
Today we left Cairns at 6am and arrived back in Brisbane about 8am. After a birthday party in the park for the director's daughter we had a nap and are getting settled back in.
Thanks for your prayers! I have tons of stories, but I have to go take a shower now, I can't take it anymore.
God Bless & have a great day!

Waiting

Here I am on the computer waiting for someone to come online and I am getting bored. With as little as I am on the computer lately I don't know what to do. So I thought I would take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you that are praying for me and my group. We have exactly 3 weeks until Graduation and there are some definite changes in the group. We have all become very close in the past five months and it is hard to imagine not having everyone around.
We have 2 weeks left of our outreach and instead of thinking of it as only 2 weeks, we are thinking of it as "We still have 2 weeks to impact this area for God!" Please continue to pray for our ministry.
I hope and pray that you are all enjoying your summer. I really miss all of the wonderful summer outdoor activities (by the way I need updates on the softball teams). My parents are camping in Lake City right now and I really miss the time spent up there.
Please know that I think of & pray for you all often. I appreciate all of the emails and things from you all, keep them coming!
Have a great weekend!
Tami

Finally an update!

First I am sorry that I haven't been able to update you all lately. I only come to the computer once a week and last time it wouldn't let me into my blog. :(
So here is a short synopsis of what has happened here:
The school holidays changed our schedules a bit so we have been doing some more street evangelism and one on one talking with people. God is awesome and He leads us to the people to talk to, or even leads them to us. We have also been spending a lot of time in personal devotions and group Bible study. We just completed a study and discussion on the book of Romans. Last week Ana and I worked at the Day Care Center in the mornings. It is amazing to see the attitudes, language, hitting, and just plain not listening from these kids under 6 years old. Don't get me wrong I have grown to love most of them, but it just shows how surroundings have a great impact on kids at a very young age. Most of them are just vying for attention. Please pray for the family lives of the kids here.
We did celebrate the 4th of July as a team. The leaders decided that we should celebrate at least on holiday from each country represented. It was a fun time of fellowship with everyone. Peter even had us go around the room and say one thing we all love about America. It was great to hear things from the perspectives of the other countries. We also played a game of charades the US verses the World. (the rule was the things had to be in English!) We even made a 4th cookout of cheeseburgers, potato salad, jello, and brownies. The evening was topped off with fireworks... okay it was just on tv at the start of the state of origin rugby game, but we did see some!
Prayer Requests:
This week the flu bug has hit some of our team so please pray for health. Also Sova is suffering from some pain that they believe is a hernia. Sione is still waiting to hear on his visa renewal. I am trying to hear from God on exactly what I am supposed to do after DTS is finished. Graduation is Aug 3rd. Pray that we can have an opportunity to travel to Thursday Island and evangelize there next week during a festival.
Thank you all for your prayers! I love you and miss you all!