Hi everyone! It has been way too long. I won't try to sum up all that has been happening since I last wrote a real entry, but I will tell a little about what's going on now. I moved into a hostel a couple of weeks ago, and I really love it. It's right in the middle of Freo--the area of Perth where our church meets, and I'm just a minute's walking distance from the train station. Living there also gives me the opportunity to meet all sorts of people. I really feel blessed to be there because a week or so ago I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to afford to live at this place, but it has worked out for me to stay and I'm very thankful!
I sat down to eat dinner last week in the kitchen at the hostel, and a guy and his wife, along with one of their friends sat down with me. They offered me some of their food, and so I joined in. We all started talking, and they asked me what I was doing in Fremantle. I told them I was with Mission to the World, and the friend of this couple asks me if it is a Christian organization. I say yes, and after that, the man asks me, "Do you really believe all that?" And I tell him, "Of course I do." Well, I kind of saw it coming, but after that, he proceeded to dump on me all of his frustrations with Christianity, and told me that Christians didn't need to be coming to Australia to tell people what to do. His main argument was the Crusades, and how so-called Christians had killed so many people. I apologized to him for that and told him that even though those people called themselves Christians, they had the wrong motivations. He didn't seem to care. I think he just thought I wanted to convert him.
Well, he got up, and his wife, who is a Cambodian Buddhist started talking to me, and the first words out of her mouth were "I like all". I wasn't sure what she had said, so I asked her to repeat herself, and then I just kind of smiled. And she said, "I am Buddhist, but we accept all religions in my country. It's okay if you are Christian." I thought to myself: "Well, this is a stark contrast." Before I could say anything, though, their friend from Germany who had been sitting there the whole time interjected and started asking me millions of questions about our church in Fremantle. She wanted to know all about it! Why do we call ourselves a church for people who don't like church? What do we do there? Where do we meet? What types of words does the pastor use? How do we draw "non-religious" people into a church service? She had so many questions. But they were really good!
There's more that happened that night--after talking to these people a girl who's involved in witchcraft befriended me. It's definitely not an accident that I prayed for the Lord to allow me to speak to people and for Him to show me who He wanted me to spend time with that day. And that's really why I've shared all of this with you. Prayer is so huge, and I think that's something I'm learning more and more. We all know it and we hear it all the time. But I am learning it more and more as I experience it's power and see how the Lord SO specifically answers prayer here. Even when it's not quite the way I expect Him to do something--it's still so specific to what I asked. And it amazes me everytime. He is so good. And I'm so thankful to be apart of what He's doing here.