We made it!

Sorry I have yet to write here, it has been a crazy past few days, but we made it! It was a long plane ride, but 25 hours later of traveling, we are in Sydney.

We (Emma, Sydney, a girl that we met up with at the LA airport and is doing a DTS at our Newcastle base, and I) are currently staying at the Sydney Island Breeze base before heading to Newcastle tomorrow and I am so grateful we could stay here with such kind and welcoming people.

When we arrived on Friday it was early in the morning so we had to stay awake all day to adjust to the time change...we made it to 7pm, good enough! We slept very well.  On Saturday morning we were lucky enough to tag along with the Island Breeze team and go to Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to pet and feed Kangaroos, see Koalas, and experience the Aussie wildlife! Needless to say, it was awesome! Afterwards, Emma, Sydney, and I got to explore Sydney. We road a train into the City and found out when we got there that 1.5 million other people were there as well to see ships in the harbor, it was quite the adventure! We were able to see the Sydney Harbour and the Opera House, both so beautiful, and we basically got to live the city life, it was an awesome experience. But over these past three days, this morning was my favorite, we were able to go to Hillsong Church. The main Hillsong team is actually in New York right now for a Hillsong conference so it wasn't the typical set up, but was still so cool to be apart of. The service began with worship which was incredible, then the kids came out and gave us a little example of what they do in kids service by putting on the bible story of Noah. Lastly, they had a guest Pastor, Robert Madu, from Texas speak. The message he gave was about Comparison.
He started out with the question "Who are you racing?" As in who do you look at to compare yourself too? What person are you racing and trying to beat? As these questions were asked I immediately thought of a few people i'm trying to "beat" in life and thought why do I do this, why do we as believers try to measure ourselves to each other? When we are running the race for Jesus our eyes are suppose to be fixed on Him, not looking at the person to our left and right. Something Robert said was "Comparison will consistently cloud the work God is doing in your life and the purpose for your life." This is what Satan does to us, one of his biggest tricks is to get us to compare ourselves to others, that's why he fell in the first place, he tried to compare himself to God instead of glorifying God. We need to call him out, we need to say "No, I'm not going to compare myself to her/him because I am a masterpiece, I was made specifically, intricately, and with a purpose by my Creator." When we compare ourselves to others we are looking at God and saying "What you made isn't good enough" and who are we to tell God what He created isn't good? But what He made is good. When He creates He creates with a purpose, for a purpose.
All I can say is, I was challenged, but it was so good to hear and be challenged with, I pray you are as well, that the next time you look to that person do not let envy and pride sneak in, do not let satan get victory over who you are and who your identity is in, it's in Jesus, not in anyone else. Simply, Jesus.