RICE: Leader's Day Out

Just came back from LDO! Really packed, full-on day; but a really awesome day out- a great experience working with other leaders from other churches :D

The day started with chris coming by, at like 5 to 7! he was wayy early; i think he wanted to make sure we weren't late! we then went to to toongabbie to pick up his friend danny, where we waited until he got ready. we then had to go all the way over to croydon so that took a while, but we eventually got there wayy early at 8! the guys wanted to get maccas but we didn't know where the nearest one was.. so we kinda just walked up and down (liverpool?) road, but- failed. so we pretty much walked back to SMBC where we though we would be really early.. but turns out they were just starting up the rego :D so we all signed up, got lanyards and our cool RICE tops (green this year!) and waited around til about 9ish when we went in.

we started the session with an intro, and praise session. then we got introduced to the 2009 RICE Core Team. Then, we took some time out to mingle with everyone else and pray together in 2's and 3's. I teamed up with Brendan (BCPC) and David (EFC) and prayed. After that, we heard a short sharing session from Steve Chong- reinforcing the importance of the theme for today; 'Theology in Action'. it was just a heaps good reminder of the reason why we were doing what we were doing, and to realise the Spirit is the one who works in us- we are just instruments in the process. so that was cool :P
We were then introduced to the 'new', revamped RICEfever (not RICEfest^^) with a new venue, new games, new vibes- but still the same vision of course ;) after that we split off into our various teams for RICEfever; i was in Games.. we all assembled in the Dining Room with Hiroshi as our Core Leader. we were introduced to the new games we would be running this year; there's actually heaps of really new concepts/games which is heaps exciting :D We then decided on which areas we wanted to go to- i chose to go to the 'photoshoot/binocular soccer' group.. haha yeah, this year we're having a photobooth! so we planned who would be in charge of running/bringing what.. we've got full pro DSLR cameras, sets/props lols it's gonna be awesome :D:D then we planned for the 'binocular soccer'- a lol concept actually.. according to hiroshi it's some jap concept they do, but sounds hilarious :P

afterwards we had lunch- subway! sooo much food. caught up with jason and a few others i saw lining up.. after that we headed back inside to have more praise n worship. we then heard from mark (earngy?) all about evangelism, and the beauty of the gospel; and how we as christians should be, through our evangelism; giving off a 'beautiful fragrance' that is the gospel. we then got into our electives (mine was the child protection one, given that i hadn't done it before, and needed to). it was quite an interesting one actually, led by millie sparks. we learnt about how to approach certain situations with dealing with young people and different indicators of abuse.

we then finished up and had some more singing (they were all new songs to me! but gd ones) then got introduced to some of the changes to RICErally this year- like nicole c. mullen! and matt chandler as speaker. we then split off into our teams for Rally; i was in the evangelism team, where we actually didn't do much in terms of 'training' as such, but more of just changes to how RICElounge would be operating this year. but we're gonna have more of a training session next meeting on the 18th. met some ppl from livingstone- didn't realise liz was there til some of her church ppl i met pointed her out to me! oh and didn't see bec vo either til she poked me from behind haha while we were sitting down in our teams :D

when we finished we basically finished up, sang some more songs (:P) prayed and took a kinda fail group foto! i think they had to take it in parts.. but yeah it was cool :D after that we had last minute announcements and finished for the day.
the guys decided they wanted to go for maccas after so we followed ronnie n crew, and andy- the really long way around to burwood maccas, where the guys had heaps to eat haha. we left abt 6ish n drove back to cherrybrook.

so that was it for today :P as i said, a heaps full-on day but a really good experience especially for my first time as a RICE leader. it's gonna be really exciting working with all the others and prepping for the two events in august- looking forward to it.

lol so now just watching all these MJ tribute shows! his mv's are really hilarious and really action packed too; didn't realise he was thaaat much of a pop idol, guess he's gonna be really missed.