2011 in Mansfield!

So last year, I went to Mansfield to do a missions trip, and I also spent new years there if you didn't know.
To be honest, at first I was nervous about going, but when I was actually there, it was absolutely awesome. Meeting so many people from all over Melbourne, and all going together to help the people from Mansfield get to know Jesus is something I'm glad I got to be a part of.

The Blue Moose Mansfield team were the best, there was never a dull moment, and they pretty much became my second family.  As a team, there was so much we did together. I had my daily potassium time with a guy called Mike, and it was just us eating a banana everyday. There was also Mr.Uke and Mr.Ukimara, our two beloved ukuleles. As well as what I think was the quote of the trip, "would you rather cut your own leg off, or stomp on a bag of kittens?" really made the experience all the more fun.

As for the actual stuff we went up there to do, we ran a cafe/drop in centre for the locals of Mansfield. It ran from 8pm to around midnight and people could just come in whenever they wanted to. Of course, we would have liked it to be packed from 8pm, but it is a small town after all. We all met so many people, and made heaps of friends there. The guy that I was closest to was a guy named James, and he was almost a copy of me. We had the same way of thinking and the same humour. When people like Joash and Chau asked us to play doubles pool with them, we both said that we're too awesome for them and don't want to make them feel bad :D The locals were all really cool, and they even told us to come back up sometime in the year to go skiing with them up at Mt.Buller. (Mansfield is pretty much next to it)

We saw so many people come in, and most of them said they love it mostly because of the stories that we tell, which were our testimonies. That was really awesome to see, and seeing them open up to our team because of it was just mind-blowing. There was even one guy who came in every night just to read and study the bible with our main leader! How awesome is that?!

I don't want to make this post too long, but to finish up I guess I would just like to say that Blue Moose is an experience that really changes a person. The intimacy with God that you can get out of it, the amazing testimonies of the people on your team, the wonders that God does at the shop, all of the answered prayers, as well as the amount of fun that you can have, is really amazing. I never would have thought in 10 days so much could happen and for it to go by that fast. One of the best transition between years I've ever had.

I can't wait for the re-union on wednesday! :D