Easter and Stuff

Ok, so once again i have been slack in updating my blog and i have a build up of events to record. how annoying. sigh. which means i will now be dedicating the next half hour of my life to catching up... :) ok. lets begin

Easter!
Easter. Wow. feels like forever ago now. Well, over Easter the center has a Passover and then, on Sunday morning, we have a Sunrise Service. I will begin with the passover...
We were told to wear white for the meal. Don't ask me why. We asked several times where the white tradition came from but we didnt really get an answer. I think its to symbolise the white lamb? or purity? or something? i don't know. But anyways, regardless of not knowing why we were doing it, we all wore white for the Passover. It was kinda fun. We just piled on all the white clothes that we owned, no matter how ridiculous it made us look, and then if we still wanted more white we got sheets and table clothes and wrapped ourselves in them also. It was pretty funny. Timbo wore his white sheet like a nappy for a little while lol. I wrapped one around me as a robe type thing. It looked pretty cool but the long dragging sheet was so annoying! i don't know how girls wear dresses at all. It gets in the way! you try to walk and step on the robe! gah! i ended up picking it up and kinda tucking it into itself while i served myself dinner. So frustrating. Ah... what else happened that night. Oh. lol. Our two hosts (oldest people at the passover?) had to read out all this stuff and we had to answered. Anyways, at one point our hosts had to light the candles in front of them, but they couldnt do it. The matches kept burning them. And so they kind of just launched the burning matchsticks into the large candles lol. But, because the flames then didnt go out but kept burning, the candle burnt, not downwards as it should, but out the side! the wax all melted in the middle and across to the side until there was this huge hole that slowly went down the candle. Which meant that the wax just poured straight out of the candle lol. Eventually, there was this massive pool of candle wax beneath the candle holder things onto the table cloth! I didnt notice this at first however. It wasnt until i saw the hosts and the people around them kind of panic and try to catch all the wax falling. When i saw this, i of course realised what had happened, but i dont think they realised what how it had happened.  I heard them saying "oh no! whats happening?" and other general noises of befuddlement. Lol. I decided to leave it. Unfortunately, now there is like a ban on candles on tablecloths because it was announced that the tablecloth was stained and we couldnt use candles anymore without little plates or anything beneath the candelabras. I realise now that they didnt realise that it was their own fault that the candles leaked. But seeing as the new rules are pretty common sense i havent bothered to say anything. putting a plate or something underneath seems sensible enough to me.
I still enjoyed a chuckle when i realised their reasons though :)
On Saturday we did like a Walk of the Cross type thing. (i dont know what else to call it). Basically we had different stations we went to , and at each station we would read part of the story of Jesus dying, from Gethsemane to his resurrection. It was really good. We went slowly, individually, to each station and had paper to reflect on each part of the story and what it meant to us. It really struck me how much Jesus went through. He didn't want to die but was willing to, his disciples didnt even stay awake, he was betrayed by one who he had lived and laughed with, he was hated and accused of fabricated crimes, he was tortured and mocked, abandoned by his disciples and denied three times, hung on a cross beside two thieves, etc. Terrible! But what stood out most to me, was how he acted throughout, despite what he was going through. He healed the mans ear, he refused to be baited by their accusations, stood firm and willing to do what God had asked him to do, he loved so much that despite being in pain he thought of his mother and John, and im sure that when he told the man he would go to heaven he took joy and felt gladness. What type of man can go through that and still act the way Jesus did!? Amazing. Imagine, that we are called to be Christ-like...
For the Sunrise Service, Milly and I had been asked to do the sermon. (AHHH!) Despite saying that i would do it only as the last resort and i hated speaking in front of people. Anyways, Saturday night Milly and I spent hours sitting there thinking and brainstorming on what to say. We had to speak about the resurrection and what it means for us. And we had lots of good thoughts on it, and lots of different things we would like to say, but our thoughts were just all over the place and we were getting nowhere. Thankfully, James agreed to give us a hand when we rang him, begging for assistance. So we went over to his place at like 7 that night and he helped us work it all out. Thankyoudidnt use her notes and forgot to ask the crucial questions that the entire sermon hinged on! She tried passing on to me saying "Mark has some thoughts on this" and in the next few seconds (longest seconds of my life!) i was frozen in horror! Everything i had to say relied on the questions and i could think of no way to ask the questions myself coz the entire point was that they came from her! It was terrible! I quickly prompted her though, and she did ask the questions, but oh my goodness! i thought i would die right there for a moment. I couldnt believe that she did it to me. So stressful.
In the end, the sermon went alright i think. They were a terrible audience. They were dead silent the whole time and i said "Umm" lots and lots. But overall, it was ok.
Such a relief to have it end :)
We then had a pancake breakfast and chatted and had fun. It was a nice Easter :)

Ok. I made that Easter post way too long. I can't be bothered to delete any of it though so i will just make a mental note to be more brief in the next sections. I am aware that long boring chunks of writing is tedious to read :) Sorry lol

Pulling Plastic
A new job we have recently acquired is pulling plastic up. Sounds fun hey. Yay for plastic! lol.
When they grow the watermelons and pumpkins they lay plastic down in rows to deter weeds. Unfortunately for us poor workers, the plastic then needs to be pulled up and tied in bundles to be disposed of. Which means mud hands and clothes, dirt everywhere, dust in your eyes, and sore muscles. As a job its one of the better ones but it still takes it out of you. One day Alf asked us to record how many rows we could do in a day, so i went totally flat out and smashed everyone. What i didnt realise though, was that after that i was then expected not only by Alf, but by everyone else and myself, to be an amazing plastic puller who goes at least as fast as the fastest other worker. So, basically, now i get totally exhausted every time i do it lol. Oh well :)

Dubbo Visit
Home sweet home. All the guys got to go to Dub-vegas to go to a Communication Workshop with James. It was so good! The talks were great and i loved the chance to catch up with the Family and sleep in my own bed! (emphasis on sleeping my own bed!) I also got to see Toby! I miss him lots and lots. It was so good to have him running around my feet again lol. (for those that dont know or havent guessed, Toby is my dog who couldnt come to cornerstone with me). I got hardly any time to catch up with people though, and i ended up exhausting myself trying to find the time to. The weekend was good, but i left more tired than when i arrived.
When we got back, we found that the girls had attacked our rooms. All our stuff was moved around, post-it-notes were stuck everywhere, cauliflowers hung above our beds, glitter flung around, etc. And our bathroom was made amazing! They put photos and quotes and drawing around everywhere so that now our bathroom looks totally cool. Oh, they also gladwrapped the toilets. Thankfully we noticed though.
It was pretty funny overall. It was meant to be payback for when we put mayonnaise in their shampoos. Overall i think we got the better end of the deal. :)

Sickness...
I'm not sure who gave it to me, but after being so tired on the weekend i got sick. The symptoms appeared Monday morning when i went out to do lettuce. I was coughing and felt weak and dizzy all morning. a couple of times i almost fell onto the lettuces because of a wave of dizziness hitting me. Thankfully i never passed out, although i came close several times. I considered saying i had to stop work, but i knew that if i left it would be harder for the others, and i think i was feeling a bit stubborn and felt like rebelling against the others suggestions to sit out, and so i managed to get through the whole day...
Since then though, i have been pretty miserable. I had Thursday and Friday off and now am stuck at the center all weekend to try and recover for Monday. Its terrible. Everyone else got to go to Dubbo this weekend for Members Conference and get to see everyone and have fun and party and enjoy themselves while im stuck at home, on the couch, with my tissues, vix, vitamins and water. Terrible. Feel sorry for me :) lol. Im on the mend now though. i should be able to work Monday

Mice... I HATE mice!
Before i end my blog, i have to add in this last part. The other night, while i was sleeping, i had a mouse crawl into my hair! MY HAIR! and then i had one crawl up my back as i was sleeping. DISGUSTING! *shudder* We have now blocked off under both of our doors and have set the traps. I think we have got rid of most of them now, although i think we have one still in the room. It wont be there long though. I plan to kill it! I will teach them to dare touch me with their filth while i am sleeping!

Ok. I actually had more that i was going to blog about, but it takes so long to write this stuff down! Way longer than half an hour. Ive been sitting here for at least an hour. Admittedly i have been talking to Jess who is also sick on the couch beside mine. But still!
Never mind that though. I will end here.

Farewell fellow peoples! Think of me and pray that i will get well by Monday :)