I see His love and mercy...

It's 11:07pm and I just got back. I hung out with even more friends!

But let's start with the beginning of the day:

I attended an Academic Writing seminar this morning - which was very good... got me even more ready to start writing papers.
My Financial Advisor was supposed to send my file up from the Gold Coast today, and that didn't happen.
Looked into trip packages to Ayer's Rock (Uluru).
Read just a little bit.
Played a lot of Sudoku (thank you Bryan).

And around 7pm I was outside waiting for Maija, a girl that I met on Sunday at Garden City Christian, to come pick me up so that we could go to United - the youth group for 18-25 year olds that meets on Friday night at the church. She came with another girl, Maria (from Norway - who is here for the semester). We drove to church and just kinda hung out with some people, met a few other girls and then we walked into the sactuary where we began worship.

The worship was a little louder than Sunday and there was a lot of jumping. :) Maija laughed at me when I asked her about the jumping later on the evening. But I said it's just something that I would have to get used to. It was just a bunch of younger people praising God and having fun in the midst of it all. It was great. The worship got a little more toned down toward the end when we started singing "Hosanna" - a Hillsong song covered by Brooke Fraser (who is a BIG Christian artist out here, definitely check her out, she's really great). The song's lyrics are as follows:

I see the King of Glory
coming on the clouds with fire
the whole earth shakes
the whole earth shakes, yea...

I see His love and mercy
washing over all our sin
the people sing
the people sing

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
rising up to take their place
with selfless faith
with selfless faith

I see a near revival
stirring as we pray and seek
we're on our knees
we're on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
open up my eyes to the things unseen
show me how to love like You have loved me
everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
as I walk from earth into eternity

Great song (one for SeaCoast maybe? - Deb, if you're reading... check it out).
The speaker was Monty, one of the leaders of the youth group. She spoke of how we need to find God's plan for our lives. We might have a desire to do something for God and for His Kingdom, but we need to pray and make sure that it is God's plan for our lives, or if He has something completely different in store for us. The message really spoke to me toward the end where Monty spoke of how when we are in God's plan that He will take care of us, that He's got us in His hand, because it was His will for our lives and He wants us there. And I really felt that God was saying to me that He is here. I wouldn't have gotten here if it weren't for Him. So many things fell perfectly into place for me to get to this point and I KNOW that it was a God thing. So this message was really a reminder to me that God's got me. He got me here, wants me here - for some reason - and that He's going to take care of me. It was a good reminder. I really felt like I was supposed to be there. It was a good, peaceful feeling.

After the service we just kinda hung out and talked for a bit
(Esther, Maria and Me)
(Maija - she's adorable!)
and then we were off to Mackies - or McDonald's. Now, I don't know when the last time was that I went to McDonald's but we went. And to be honest, it was EXACTLY like what I remember of McDonald's at home. :) Except that they had an additional Cafe with pastries, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. So Maija bought Maria and I hot chocolate and we indulged in the choclatey warmth and talked about where we have all been and what we all want to do.
(mmmm.. hot chocolate!)
(Maria)
We're hoping to get to Fraser Island sometime this sememster. Maybe take a trip with a group of people. Maija is planning on going to school in Boston starting up in January. She's hoping to get to California before she goes up there and I told her she could come stay with my family and that we had an extra room (sorry family for invitin without asking, but I figured you wouldn't mind).

I'm starting to feel at ease. Hopefully it will last.
I need to find friends that are planning on being here again in February when I return for my full year of classes. So far everyone that I've met is going to be gone by December! But for now I'm going to enjoy the friendships that I've made.

Tomorrow there's a big Rugby game on television and I'm planning on watching. Other than that, no big plans. But you never know what will happen!

Until then...