ThickShakes.. Evangelism..Cottesloe...REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS!

First off... Sorry for the delay in the new blog. Things are really starting to pick up, and routines are forming...or formed really.
Let me give you a little inside scoop on our daily schedule..
6am- Morning exercises for half hour
6:30-8am-quiet time..breakfast.. or a nap :)
8am- Morning family chores.. as a base we split up into groups and clean stuff.. bathrooms, outside breezeway, kitchen clean up, sweep, mop, etc etc etc...
8:30- Mondays we have worship as a base, Tuesday-Friday we will either have a creative presentation or worship as a school
10:30- Class starts and goes until lunch
12:30- Lunch
1:30 Work duties till 3:30. My work duty for my time here is landscaping and general care for gardens at different YWAM Perth Properties.
3:30-5:30- I usually take a shower and get a thick shake from the Base coffee shop ministry call "Kaio" and head to my computer to talk to Josh or Amber over skype.
5:30- Dinner
7:00- Mondays we finish up the last part of the speaking for the day, Tuesday we have our small groups, Wednesday is a free night which usually includes going into the city or the beach/river, playing sport.. or working on Journals. Thursday we have Evangelism night(which I'll go into more detail later), and Friday we have "Friday Night Meeting"...which is church essentially.. As a base we all go, and other people come from the community.
Saturdays, and Sundays are free. Sometimes on Saturday the leaders will schedule a event for our school to a beach or something. I would say about 99% of the YP school sleeps in till about 11 or 12 on the weekends. It's crazy how tiring the week can be.. Praise God for sleep!
I spend my weekends doing journal work, exploring the city, and random beaches, going to coffee shops, and fellow shipping with new friends.
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Thursday Night Evangelism...
Every Thursday night we spilt up into teams and go out into the city and surrounding areas to tell people about Jesus. Over the next 2 months I will be heading to Fremantle which is about a half hour drive from Perth. It is a town with a lot of culture and is also a key place for loading docks, businesses, and restaurants. The past two weeks myself, and a Lady named Kathy have tagged teamed a few adventures with people in the area. The first week we talked to a taxi driver named Fernando. He is from Italy and has been living in Australia for the past 16 years. He is Catholic, but not a practicing catholic. He told us he believed in God, but he doesn't have a relationship with Jesus. We told him about our personal relationship with Jesus, and how He is a active part of our lives. He thought that was so cool, and was proud of us for standing up for what we believe in.. but Fernando himself wasn't interested in a relationship....yet. Hopefully the seed we planted there would spark something in him in the future.
This past week Kathy and myself stumbled upon two people from the Philippines. They were here for work. We soon learned that Edwin and Arlene were Catholic. They had found a church the first week they were here, and have been attending every week, and even working in some ministries in their church. They asked what we did, and we told them all about YWAM and DTS. They asked a lot of questions, and were really curious. I told them about my experiences so far, and how much God is working in my life, they thought that was really cool. After talking to them for nearly a hour, we prayed for them, and there work.. and then went our separate ways.
So every Thursday myself and about 15 others will be heading to Fremantle to tell people about Jesus. It is kind of hard walking up to random strangers and striking up a conversation, but God calls us spread His word, and once you get past being uncomfortable, You can feel God speaking through you.
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Every Wednesday I have my work duty off. This past week and I went on a solo adventure to a beach called Cottesloe-which is about a 20 min train ride south of the city. It was extremely relaxing to have time to myself, and with God. It gave me a good opportunity to process this weeks topic of forgiveness and repentance.
Some notes from Forgiveness and Repentance week....
The week was about surrender and total faith in Christ....
*Anything that takes our eyes off Christ will stop us from following God
*Have a sheild of faith.. Stand on who God is, and EMBRACE it!
*Walk in a life of greatfulness
*God's Law- The purpose of God's Law is to reveal our sin and the state of our heart.
*Guilt is a good thing.. it shows us our sin, and what we need to repent of
*In todays world.. Morality has been replaced by the word "Ethics"
*True repentance is a heart change
*Running from our guilt makes our heart hard.
*To be free from sin, we must take personal responsibility
*When we are unfaithful.. God is ALWAYS Faithful!
*Coming to Christ is the oly thing that can heal us
*Temptation--->Thought--->Action--->Habit--->Lifestyle--->Destiny
*We have a choice to accept or reject sin
*God calls us to receive,and Give Love
This past Friday from 8:30 am till about 1 in the morning we had a forgiveness and repentance day. They split us into 2 groups, and there were two leaders up front. As you felt led.. you went up and prayed out to God, and repented from your sins and asked for forgiveness. Early in the week we wrote out everything we wanted to Repent and ask for forgiveness of. Writing the list was really hard, but praying out the list in front of 30+ people was also really hard. I felt vulnerable and uncomfortable, but I knew it was something I knew I had to do, and am called to do. Also hearing other peoples repentance was really emotional. When I went up and sat down I immediately broke down and fought through my page(front and back) with uncontrollable tears and emotion... of everything I wanted to repent and ask forgiveness of. My heart broke into a million pieces as I was going through my list..I felt so heavy and sick to my stomach of every wrong and stupid thing I had done.
When I was done, Caleb and Landry Prayed for me, and spoke words or prophecy in my life. I peeled myself off the chair and walked over and nailed my paper to the cross.. I felt so free, and in a sense.. born again. My slate was wiped clean, and there were no longer any dark corners in my heart, just the Love and Salvation of Jesus Christ.
It was a extremely emotionally exhausting day of crying off and on for 13 hours. But at the end of it all, we were all set free, and clean of any sin we had in our life.
Something I learned is that Repentance isn't a event.. like Friday... It's a lifestyle!
We should live our lives always coming to God and asking for, forgiveness when we have wronged.
Acts 17:28 "For in Him we live and move and exist.
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Next weeks topic... "Intercession and Worship"

Thank you all for reading.. I know this one was long, but important.
You know where to write me...
anne.stribling@gmail.com