Dear Friends & Family, 

Around 8:00 am Tuesday morning, Team Australia headed out to go towards Helidon, Australia to serve the victims of the Queensland flood. Helidon is just a short distance from the worst hit city, Granthom. This house that we are going to be staying at for this past week and next week is surrounded by chickens, pigs, and other interesting insects and creatures. But in a way, staying here is an honor. We were supposed to be in a little shack but last minute a generous man, Mark, gave up his home to let us stay here. This house has been through the flood so we had a clean up day but it has become quiet the little home for us. Mark, our very generous homeowner, will not let us call it “Mark’s House” but the new “YWAM Base.” He has made it a distribution center for us to give out materials like food, clothing, furniture, and other necessities to give to the flood victims. 

Throughout this last week, we have done various services for the homes that have gotten damaged. The first day we wiped down the walls, cleaned out some rooms, and sorted endless amount of donations at the house we are staying at. All through the week, we did some exploring of all the damage and the scenes were pretty intense. We drove to a place called Murphy’s Creek and looked out to a bridge, that well, was no longer a bridge but a river with metal and road pieces in it. As for working, we have picked up rubbish from different fields that got wiped out from the flood. To give you an idea of what we have seen, in one of our fields we were working at there is a creek next to it that had at least 4 or 5 cars flipped in and around it. When we walked near the cars there were police tape on it just to mark that there weren’t people still in the car. Pretty harsh to see and think about. However, we have helped clean out a plant nursery with a bunch of different volunteers. Here we would be picking up potted plants spread around the field, clean up mud that slid everywhere from the water, and basically rebuild this plant nursery. We have gotten the privledge to have an Aussie style barbecue every lunch time at this plant nursery. Working, helping, and connecting with these residents and volunteers has been truly amazing. 

Looking forward to next week, we will be going into Granthom to check out what is going on there and seeing if we can help there along with still helping out with the plant nursery. We are pumped to see where and who God will connect us with. 

Prayer Requests: To keep on connecting with people we come in contact with, to have God place us with residents that we can really connect with and not just help them with their home and material life but what is going on emotionally. Be praying that each one of us is stable emotionally, spiritually, and physically after seeing and working through all of this devastation. Also, be praying for a consistent team unity! Thank you so much for being apart of our team by praying. We appreciate it greatly! 

Sincerely with love & blessings,

Team Australia

Cassandra, Amanda, Sara, Sarah, Emily, Mathias, and Dave

^"1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,  because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, ² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy  instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. " Isaiah 61:1-3