Weekend at Bryon Bay

Last weekend was quite possibly the best weekend I've had on YWAM. We got permission to use a van so a few of us went down to the Byron Bay base.  The whole base came to the Gold Coast in November to hear Mark Parker speak.  That week there was a lot of sharing and growing, so we naturally got close to everyone from Byron.  We call them our "base BFF's."  One leader said that although it's typical for bases to come together to hear speakers, she's never seen anyone bond the way we did with them. It was an awesome weekend of catching up with friends and seeing different sights.

The Byron Base is so different from ours.  They only have one house where they all live, and then they drive to a local church to do classes.  Community is strong because they are constantly together. The house is on a horse farm surrounded by beautiful countryside. It was refreshing to see open fields and green pastures again.  Since I've been here, it's been a lot of concrete and suburbs. Everyone was hospitable; constantly asking if we wanted anything.  We were hanging out on the porch and the guys noticed we were cold.  They naturally went inside and brought out sweatshirts and blankets for us.  Simple things like that, they did all weekend.

Byron Bay the town has a lot of back packers and hippies.  We went into town the first day and walked around. Lots of hippies and new age stuff there.  Crystal shops, vegan restaurants and fair trade stores are common.  The DTS has some awesome outreaches in that town.  They have a coffee shop and a host a free BBQ for the town every Friday.  It was neat to see another base's mission field and ways they reach the community.

On Sunday, they invited us to come to their church.  One of the Byron guys describing said "you can honestly do whatever, you can sleep in the back, dance in the front or sit in the middle."  We were greeted by a tall guy in dreads. My friend looked at me and gasped.  It's been her dream to get dread locks since coming here, so she was thrilled when half the congregation had them.  They had candles lit and cushions everywhere.  The atmosphere was so different from any church I've ever been to.  I felt so welcome and included even though I was never there.  Worship was incredible!  Everyone was dancing and praising God however they wanted.  People were just themselves.  Toward the end, they had a ministry time and my friends went up to the front and prayed for each other. We spent an hour sharing our struggles, passions, and how much we cared for each other. We prayed for the Christmas season since we are away from our families. The service lasted five hours, but I could have been there all night.  We had an awesome time at this church.  We want to go back every week now! :)

There were hammocks, a wrap around porch and an open field to do quiet time in the morning.  Some people sang, read their Bible's and  played guitar or drums.  There was something so peaceful and simple about the morning.  Everyone's first priority of the day was to be with Jesus.  I climbed this tree to have my quiet time. It was great to oversee God's beautiful creation and hear other people worshiping God.

The last day the guys from Byron took us to this secluded beach. It's called beach X because they don't want people to find out about it.  It took a while to get to, but it was so worth it. We drove through wilderness up a mountain, to hike this trail down a mountain and behold see the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  The day was perfect.  Eighty degrees, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. Dolphins were swimming all day and the water was crystal clear.  We all found these rocks and went cliff  jumping, took some pictures, explored a cave and swam in this natural pool with fish.  We all came back and had a BBQ at the base. Right before we left they took us to the Byron Bay lighthouse.  It's the most eastern part of Australia, so that was cool. We hung around for a while and went stargazing.  It was harder to say good-bye a second time.  They are an awesome group.  With our bases combined, we are called "The Golden Bay."  (Gold Coast and Byron Bay combined)

Last week in small group we were praying for each other. It's a time where we can be real about what is going on in our life. A guy in my group said he wasn't really experiencing God and some other things as well. As I was praying for him, I got this message from God I should tell him ( It sounds weird typing it out, but I don't know how else to describe it.) The message was that God wants to reveal to Himself through nature to him in the next week.  He was going to see something in creation and just know it was God showing him He loved him.  This was before we even knew we were going to Byron Bay, and we certainly knew nothing about this beach.  He did experience this moment at the beach on Monday, which was within the week.  God is so amazing!  As iron sharpens iron, my faith was stirred as well as his.

I was so blessed this weekend! It was refreshing to see other people who are going through the same things.  
God showed us his glory through all we did.