Oz Quest

        This week was quite different to the other ones so far. On Monday and Tuesday we had regular days and lectures, but from Tuesday night until the end of the week the students went on a trip called Oz Quest. The whole thing was a surprise to us. Literally all we knew before leaving was what we had to pack. We were given a packing list and were told not to bring anything that wasn't on the list. Just so you get the idea of what was going through our heads at the time I'll let you know a few things about the list. Sleeping bags were allowed but 'pillow' was not on it. The only hygiene items on the list were toothbrush/toothpaste and a bar of soap. We could judge by how many shirts we were allowed to bring approximately how long the trip was, but we really didn't know anything for sure. So as you can see this trip became a challenge right from the start; simply because we didn't know what to expect.

     We met tuesday night and the first thing they told us was "All of your questions about Oz Quest will be answered by the end of Oz Quest". How brilliant is that? So then it started. We ended up running around, hiking and camping in Australia's wilderness. There was a lot of hiking and walking involved, the leaders estimated about 150km by the time we were home. The first day alone we spent about 8 hours hiking to the camp in our teams. The plus side of this was the amazing views we had at the top of the mountain. Everything was so green and alive! It was a beautiful couple of days.

     This trip was designed to be physically, emotionally and spiritually challenging, but most of all it was meant to bring our outreach team closer together. Oz Quest was an opportunity to work out all the kinks in our team and discover what we're good at and what we need to improve on so that when we go on our outreach trip it's not about us. Our focus is going to be sharing the love of Jesus with people and speaking value into their lives. We don't want to be distracted by our selfishness and potential team conflicts. We did a lot of team building activities and each person had the opportunity of being a leader. Through this we got to learn each others' style of leadership and their strengths and weaknesses.

    The other goal of Oz Quest is to learn how to fully trust and depend on God. Like I said before we were given a strict packing list to abide by and being in the wilderness we didn't have the comforts of home. We had to sleep outside, eat outside and pee outside. The food we were given was not what we were used to eating, and there wasn't a lot of it. We learned to be completely satisfied in God and to trust Him to give us energy for the day. We spent an hour every morning in personal quiet time with God and another hour doing devotions and worship as a large group. I think the biggest thing I learned was to give God complete control of everything; surrendering my plans to Him. I am one of those people who likes to know what is going on at all times and I like details. It was a challenge for me to have everything as a surprise, but I think it taught me a lot. I wouldn't say this was my favorite trip ever but there were for sure some high points and some good times. I know this trip was a large part of coming together as a team and Im really glad we did it!

   **Side note for all those who are interested: we saw heaps of weird and kinda scary animals while we were out.  Lots of spiders, including a huntsman that was the size of a toilet paper roll and some long legged green ones. (EWW) We also saw a few snakes (a little too close gor comfort) an iguana about 4ft long, something that looked like a small crocodile but might've something else.., multiple lizards, and a ton of wallabys! They're like little kangaroos and they're super cute! All this and we didnt even go to the zoo. I'd call that a success :)