SO even though we are busy with lectures - work duties - music writing - performance - worship time - searching out what God is speaking to us - learning important things for outreach - working on dramas and learning Portuguese - spending time with the people we are in community with - trying to sleep.... ...- and staying in the word and keeping up with our school load - we have TONS OF FUN TOO!!!! Here are some pics of the masquerade that we had last weekend! It was so much fun - everyone just cut loose and danced as silly as we could! I went dressed as a snowflake. I even cut this sheet into a snowflake and wore it as sleeves - we had such a blast!

We also had a game night with our outreach team (which is amazing by the way!) We have a student from Belgium who made crepes for everyone! They were amazing we covered them in bananas, apples, nutella, and vanilla ice cream and pigged out! We laughed the entire night - because our team has so many funny people on it!

MUSIC TRACK

So the music track has been keeping quite busy. A few weeks ago we did a worship service for a local youth group and it was amazing! We had so much fun getting to know the teens there and sharing music with them. The last week has been focused on our song-writing, and this week we shared the music we had been working on with the class and voted on 3 songs to be recorded before we leave on outreach. Jordan, a friend of mine, and I wrote a song called Healing Rain with a friend of mine and we presented it. Our song was chosen among the three to be recorded, along with two amazing songs by my friends Seth and Jessica. So Monday afternoon we will be working on the scratch tracks. Then all week will be spent working with the bands we have set up for each song to get them recorded. It is a lot of work, but it is such an honor and really rewarding. I can't wait to hear the finished product and share it with everyone!

Also, this week we have cafe night at the end of the week! So, on Friday night the art track will display their work all throughout our meeting hall. We will have food and couches set up and everyone on base will come to enjoy the night. Then the dance and music track students will all perform various pieces. We are really given full creative rights to this night, we can share music we have written or cover songs and include any musicians to help us. I am not sure which song I am going to do yet, I have it narrowed down to three choices. So, I will have a lot of work to do this week, but I am surrounded by amazing musicians and we always have a lot of fun.

Another amazing opportunity that we have here on base is to lead worship. I will be doing that one morning this week as well, which is always really fun. It's great because we get to enjoy worship with all different students and staff working together in bands. It really brings fresh variety and a sense of community to our worship times.

Oh and fun fact - the band I am in is called Hee-su and the extras (named after our Korean drummer)!!

MINI-OUTREACH

Two weeks ago our entire school and staff went on outreach to Bellingham, Washington. We worked there with Mosaic, a church led by Atkins. He taught on the father heart of God in the mornings and throughout the day we worked with local community outreach programs. With 70 of us, we were able to accomplish quite a lot and really got a heart for the people of Bellingham. I spent a good amount of time landscaping for some of the non-profit organizations. I also was able to work with the homeless downtown, we just enjoyed sharing stories and food with them. It was so amazing. One day we were in the street chatting with a few of the homeless people and we had just given them sack lunches. Another man came, with a sack lunch in hand from one of my team members and he offered it to me!! This man, was homeless and had just been given food, and not knowing I was a part of the team - offered his to me! I was just moved...really! The week was amazing as other teams worked with an organization on a Christmas drive for homeless children and some worked in an after-school program. It was an amazing week as we learned from the pastor and people of the Mosaic church that relationship is really the way to see people come to know the love of God. They really focus on loving and meeting needs rather than throwing theology into a debate with people. I also discovered this is really the heart of the Father for each of us. In all that He does He wants us drawn to His love and to know Him in that way! It was amazing. Also, being away really brought our school together. It just adds and element and really brings people together. I was really able to get to know the staff in a greater way, and they are so amazing!!!

We did especially bond - tromping through the mud and rain all week - sleeping in a room with 30 people (some snoring...some building snoreproof walls with their journals and blankets) - squeezing 15 people in a van for twelve hours - having a van break down and playing in a store parking lot for three hours - making sack lunches in a parking lot on a cart flipped upside down as our table - getting lost on the way home...12 hour road trip = 13 and a half hours - playing perfect guy...but his hair is made of string cheese - waking up to a great breakfast every morning and worship - canoeing on a lake - playing sardines outside in the dark - having dance parties in the van - dying of heat in the van - and just getting to know the wonderful people we are family with now!