Apologies

So if you were at maccas tonight, and I said something mean to you, or did something mean to you (i.e. slap you on the face or wake you up by clapping right next to your ear), then I'm sorry. I was just getting too silly.

I'm off to Loganlea State High School for my drama prac.

Not a word, Aaron, not a word.

Falling Out

Face down
This carpet tastes like coffee grounds
Ground into my
Face now
And every angle's covered
With just another
Band-aid. ~Falling Out, Relient K

Yesterday I stacked it.

I was running towards the bus stop, thinking my bus was there. It had started raining completely unexpectedly. The tiles were slippery. I was wearing my rubber thongs.

All the seats were full of people waiting for buses as I slipped, started falling backwards, steadied myself, and fell forwards at the feet of two older ladies.

I got up (to cries of "Are you alright?") to discover it wasn't my bus after all.
So I sat down on the ground, hiding behind these ladies.

When my bus did come, this old dude asked me if I was alright, to which I grinned and said, "Yes, just did a big stack, that's all!"
He said, "Well you were very graceful."
"Really?! I didn't know"
"Well, you don't have to believe it if you don't want, it was just a compliment."
What? If it wasn't true, why give it? I thought. But, he was just trying to be nice, so I thanked him.

Then I got on the bus to go on my way to a clowning workshop ;-) Good thing I'd had some training.

AGMF photos 2

photos 1 - for Aaron's convenience ;-)

We're all good friends here at AGMF.... hey hann! you look awesome! :-)










like i said, all good friends.........












heh heh heh :-)













Um....bad hair day. and Gloria's tiger impression.










Her name is G! L! O! R! I! G-L-O-R-I-A - Gloria! (and me)






In the moshpit











At the bushdance.










Do the funky chicken......or something.

AGMF

AGMF was really good.
Photos coming.

Things that happened:

Minimal sleep. (My tent was right near the talking area. Whoops!) I busted some people a few times for talking while I was trying to sleep :-s Actually, probably everyone saw a 'grumpy Nicola' at some point this weekend. Hope I wasn't too grumpy, and sorry if I was guys!

Music :-) Bands we saw: Sons of Korah, Scat, Mike Frost and the Icemen, Compliments of Gus, Soulframe, Parachute Band, Newsboys, Rebecca St James, Sounds Like Chicken, Falling Short, plus some people in the YWAM Chai Circle (love that place, and love the chai tea - it's my annual AGMF treat)

Absolutely amazing worship/Bible teaching. Felt like lots of things people were talking about were written or said just for me :-)

"Bust a move" - Lisa, Trev and I went to aerobics one morning. Hann and I did a hip hop workshop. Then I busted my knee and had to sit out. The next night I hurt the other knee playing soccer. Luckily Pete brought Tiger Balm and it was all ok.

Touring Toowoomba: Pete took us on some guided tours of good ol' Woomba. One night we took 2 cars, and Pete tried to confuse (annoy?) us by doing silly things eg. indicating left and turning right etc etc. Fortunately we managed to speed off and navigate our way back - we almost beat him ;-)

No shame: Janelle and I did karaoke. In front of 100 people. Singing 'I Believe I Can Fly' in 2 part harmony. And I wore pink penguin pyjama pants.

Alliteration: This guy called Cameron (he's a poet dude) did 2 Bible stories entirely with alliteration.
"Move the massive mahogany mast from your motion sensor, making the removal of the matchstick from your mate's motion sensor much easier."

No dancing:
"I went to the fancy pants ball
But could not dance at all"
This was because it was held in the cafe area - everyone was sitting down. Pete did the worm move and got busted by a security guard. So we all left.

SMS: So many messages saying "Where are you guys?!"

Food: It was good :-)

I think the best way to describe it would be- heaven practice.

Easter!!!

Tomorrow is Good Friday.

If anyone out there reading this hasn't ever thought about why we celebrate Easter, then now's the best time to think about it.

Jesus died on the cross for us. That's not a small thing - see The Passion of the Christ.

A question lots of people asked after this film is, "Why? Why did He die?"

The answer is: God made us to have a relationship, a friendship, with Him. That is what He wants most from us - ourselves. To be His friends.

Unfortunately, you can't be friends with someone as perfect as God if you've got a lot of rubbish in your life - whether it's not helping enough with washing up or whether it's murder - we are imperfect.

The problem with the 'rubbish' (aka "sin") is that it keeps us from having a friendship with God. That's bad, because God is the source of all things good - without Him, there's not a single thing that is good.

So that means that when we die, cos of this sin, we remain distant from God - and that means that we don't go to heaven (which is where God is). We go to hell - eternally separated, cut off from every good thing.

This is a problem.

And we don't have the solution.

But God does! And He's made a way so that we don't have to spend eternity apart from Him :-) This is good news, quite literally.

Jesus is the way to God. He is God, the Son of God. He was born, lived a perfectly sinless life, never did a thing wrong. Then He was crucified on a Roman cross. While He was on the cross, God put on Him the sin of the whole world. He paid for it with His death.

We know that this payment worked, because before He died, Jesus predicted He would be resurrected 3 days after His death. And God did resurrect Him - this was proof that God accepted His payment.

So now we can have a choice. We can choose to accept Jesus' payment for our sins. This means we can be friends with God. We can go to heaven. It also means that we choose to let God be in control of our lives so we don't have to have all that rubbish/sin in our lives.

Or we can choose to make our own payment for our sins. This means we can't be friends with God. We are in charge of our own lives, but we won't be able to stop all the sin in them. And we can't go to heaven when we die.

So it's over to you now. What are you going to choose?

update

So here's an update.

This weekend was very busy and fun :-) One of those fantastic times when everything is just great!!!

Went to a wedding Saturday afternoon. Caught the bouquet. This has never happened before. When I say this to guys, they back away. Or they wink and nudge and say, 'Who's the lucky guy?' I'm out to disprove the bouquet theory - I'll be fifty and single and saying, "See! Told you it didn't work!" ;-)

Then went for a great driving lesson. I learned handbrake turns, burn-offs and how to drive backwards.

Onto my friend's 21st birthday party. Yay Nikki!! At her birthday party, she opened her fortune cookie, and the message on it was from her boyfriend Dan. It said, "Dear Nikki, I love you, will you marry me? Love Dan." She thought he was kidding until he pulled the ring out of his pocket. Yes, they are engaged :-) Congratulations!!! *Maybe that bouquet had a transfer effect??*

And then Sunday wasn't as eventful, but still good. So all in all a good weekend.