Lisa's Aussie Tales

a struggle in the process... remembering Julie

2008-07-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Last week in the midst of my thursday I heard some terrible news. A friend that I had reconnected with, a few months before I left for Australia, died in a tragic death at the Temperance River.

The last 7days have been rough. I've struggled with many thoughts... such as... I didn't know her as long as some, why am I so upset? Of course I'm upset, she was an amazing woman who connected with others and was intentional about where she invested her time. I was honored to be invested in, and invest in her in return.

As I type this, images of her run through my mind. I think we connected on a deep level without even having loads of deep conversations. I just knew she cared about our friendship and where it was going... I think we both knew that it was going to be long lasting. I think that's where the hit comes so hard, I was so looking forward to spending time getting to know her more. We were supposed to counsel together in a couple of weeks at the jr high Angel Tree camp, which happened to be held at the same camp we both counseled at back in the summer of 1999. At that time, as I've been sharing with others lately, Julie and I never really spoke much and the only reason I can come up with is because my best friend was counseling with me that summer. I really wish the circumstances back then were different, but in this last year it was our joke that "we never spoke back then, not a word."

Switching topics for a moment... you notice that this isn't an "aussie tale"... but it has definitely affected my journey of processing DTS... as it should, it's just hard.

I brought up a question or struggle last night as I was posting on a wall of a friend on facebook... i said,

"i've wrestled sometimes with knowing what/how to pray... except for comfort and peace. sometimes, truthfully(- using in tribute to julie) i tire of praying it over and again, i want there to be something else to say".

And also, truthfully there are more words to say to my God in heaven, my abba father, but the words are just my struggle and i want to have words that feel like they are "helping" in some way or something. I know God knows my heart, and he's not interested in my exact wording... I guess just showing up is even enough sometimes. But then, sometimes I struggle saying "I'm praying for you, or my prayers are with you" to others because in this specific situation I really don't have the words to pray. Can you pray for others without words? Or maybe it's that I really don't give it as much thought, i give up with the words. i don't know... just processing this as i type. any thoughts out there?

I'm going to post this on my "Random Thoughts with Lisa" blog as well. I suppose it's time to go back to that one. But, I may still write more on this one from time to time about job updates or new revelations of what this new time in life is revealing.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings tonight.

not the last

2008-06-23T23:14:00.001-07:00

so, i guess that last post wasn't the last you'll hear from me. i don't have a lot of time now, but the question lately for me has been, "what are you doing now that you're back, and don't have a job yet?" my first reaction is always "um... well... " pause to think of what interesting thing I can say because the job search was quite depressing.... and then I'd say something like "i've been meeting up with friends a lot... looking for coffee shop jobs... and then go into the story of how the economy stinks and it's hard to find something right now.

all of that usually came out because behind all of that answer is this huge feeling of guilt, that i should have a job and be occupying my time in the meantime with long lists of many things i've accomplished in my spare, jobless time.

i had a chat with my parents a week and a half ago... they reminded me and affirmed that it's okay that i don't have a job yet. and that was really helpful... and today i was again affirmed that yes, Lisa, enjoy this time you have now. so, this is me doing my best to make the best of my days, yet not be burdened to "do" things.. just to "do" them.

i want to be available for people and help out where i can because i want to, not because i feel like i should. i want to ask God who/what/where He may want me to be present to the next day, and maybe it's just being present to Him... and just alone with Him.

all that said, one of the wonderful things i've been doing is watching my nieces and nephew. every now and again we(my parents and i) have them overnight. for some reason, my youngest 15mos old niece decides she can't sleep all through the night on some of these nights. it only makes sense for me to be with her since im not working, so i've had a taste of sleepless nights with child in toe(or in arms in this case). she will fall asleep in my arms while rocking, but won't stay asleep when set in crib... chairs are not comfortable, so if she doesn't go down after a half hour i bring her to my bed and "sleep" with her by my side and her hand nudging my chest every once and again or her foot in my stomach.
i've also been reading books to my older niece and nephew... it's fun. and interesting because i've been reading a classic, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstien, and in reading realizing how some of them are really not very uplifting. i'm not an english major, so i don't have an awesome word to describe them, but i was definitely surprised as i was reading them aloud. If I didn't catch it when I was younger, I guess I can only hope the same happens with them... they'll get the good and funny stuff out of it and drop the rest.

Three Weeks at home... already!?!

2008-05-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

(Grad dress... a bit better pic of it, although

still not my fave cuz it puckers in an awkward spot, but owell.)

The title for this post was originally "two weeks home..." and this week just flew by without taking time to sit and type. My original plans for tonight and tomorrow changed, so I have some time now to sit and think about how to write one last post.

ooh, wow... I just got this tinge of saddness wave over me... the same one I had when I finally purchased my cell phone on thursday. It's these steps that make the experience more and more distant. It's still hard to put into words... it's like closure is happening and I want it, but don't want it.

Closure seems like the wrong word because of the finality of it, but really I am ending the YWAM part of my life... or the DTS part of my life. I don't know if I'll join with YWAM again, but really once a YWAMer always a YWAMer whether I'm active or not. So... yes.... closure... the end... BUT a new beginning as well.... so..... here we go.... I am going to give you my promised "update" from a couple days at the end that I didn't really follow up with... sorta seems silly at this point, but owell... maybe it will help me continue to the "closure"... haha.

Okay... So, that last week... on tues and wed. morning my outreach team ate breakfast together... the same kind we'd have when we were in Czech, dark breads, fruit, veggies, and yummy coffee... it was fun to come together again after our aussie outreach and have fun together. Wednesday afternoon/evening my small group met one last time and made chocolate cookies together. We ate cookie dough and laughed and just had a good time with each other... then at dinner we ate together in the community room and ate the freshly baked cookies... we talked and reminisced of our fun times over the last months. One thing is for sure, our small group really knew how to have fun and laugh with each other!

Mary-Kate and I.... Jules and Kayti... mmm... coooookie dough....

This is a picture taken from Mt. Cootha, a look-out over Brisbane. We came here as a school on thursday night as one last "hurrah"... or just one last outing and fun time as a school... just the school, no parents or staff/students who weren't involved in MAD. It was fun, except we had to go in two different groups, and we weren't altogether for the whole time. Following the time at the look-out we had a "dance party" and then a slide-show and some songs that some of the musicians had planned to perform during graduation. Although, there were too many apparently and it had to be cut out, so they played them for us on this night instead.

Up at Mt. Cootha.. (upper) me and Hannah-Claire... (lower) me and Laura!

Me with some wonderful "staff"/friends(upper).... (lower) laura, senja (j=y), Pauliina and Heikki

hmmm... what else... i think that's kind of it... oh, maybe briefly share about AFTER graduation. Well, the big thing was to go out to a "chill-club/bar" and have drinks and dance, if that was your thing. The info we got on this club was that it wasn't your typical dance-club techno packed type place. The thing we forgot about was that it was ANZAC day, which is like our memorial day. Everyone was out that night and partying because, well.. it was a holiday. Needless to say, it wasn't the "cool chilled out" place we thought. I actually went to this coffee shop called "The 3 Monkeys" before going to the club, which was nice to relax. Although, when we decided to meet up with the others at the bar, they were done with the club because it wasn't what they were expecting. The groups were going in different directions, one to the coffee place again and another to a place called "the valley." I decided to go to the valley, in which there were bars with dancing, etc. It was an adventure that normally isn't my "ideal scene" but fun none-the-less to do something out of the ordinary. I mean, come on, it was my last couple nights in the great land of Australia, I had to live it up! And, I did... ordered a white russian and was appalled by the price tag! Shouldn't have been a shocker though, when the cheapest beer in the city was $6/7! What ya gonna do? owell... I've got a story tell! :)
We found the cheapest deal in Brisbane though, a 1/4 slice of pizza for only 3bucks!! Now that, was shocking... i s'pose it's good business, keeping the drunks fed! haha... and the poor ywam missionaries! hahaha

I'm home... can't quite believe it.

2008-05-04T01:23:00.000-07:00

This is Brisbane at Night... atop Mt. Cootha..

A long sigh of relaxation just came out of my mouth.

It is good to be home. (arrived sun. night, april 27)

Yet, it is hard to not be in Australia, with the people who I was surrounded by for 7 months.

The grass is always greener... You don't know what you've got until you loose it...

Those are things that have been running through my mind for the last week. I got home on Sunday night with a flood of emotion, even as I was walking to the elevator to get down to baggage claim. I saw Caribou Coffee and almost lost it... after travelling for over 24hours and having not been home for 7mos, your emotions are quite volatile. And, it's amazing how a laptop bag can gain in poundage after carrying it around in three airports. Needless to say, I was a bit exhausted.

The following days were filled with lots of sister, nieces and nephew time, as well as MUCH sleep. I developed a cold that hit me Wed. morning and couldn't be bothered by getting out of my bed much of the day. I called my mom at work to bring me some throat drops of some kind, and started nursing myself back to health with those, some fruits and veggies and lots of water and this new V8 Fusion stuff. Well, new to me atleast, it may be 6mos. old for all I know!

I haven't updated in awhile, I should back track and fill you in on the last weeks of my time in Aussie-land. I think I mentioned my parents came, and them driving on the left side of the road drove me a bit crazy. :)

It's almost hard to recall those last two weeks. We didn't do a whole lot, and actually, I wrote about Byron Bay that Saturday, and there really was only a week left after that, so I don't have much to update. It was a lot of time just spent at the base with my friends, spending time doing things together... all those "one last time" things.

We had lectures two more times with a man named Dave Way, and then had a few other morning lectures with the base director's wife, Jenni. Every morning we had a "chapel" time... worshipping and praying. To some, it would seem overkill because it was every day, but I think it was different and unique each time (and really we only did it 3 times as a school, monday and fridays were a bit different). The prayer times were most important, really seeking the Lord for peace and readiness as we headed back into life after DTS.
Friday was the big Graduation Day! Woo hoo... nothing was on the schedule except Worship and Intercession in the morning with the whole base. I found out the day before that a friend, Krista, and I had the same flight out of Brisbane to New Zealand and then NZ to LA. What an amazing blessing from God, especially for her as she is younger and her dad was just praying for good people to be sitting next to her on the flights. So, we went down to the phone after Intercession and confirmed our flights and had them cross-reference our information so we could get seats together.
My next plan of action was to get a pedicure done because my feet have been much neglected over the last 7 months, but because it happened to be ANZAC Day, everything was closed. If you don't know what it is (and I wouldn't expect you to), it's like Memorial Day for us... look it up if you want more details :). The rest of the day I spent finishing the last things to pack in the suitcase my parents were bringing home. At about 2pm, my small group all went to Mary Kate's place to get ready for the Graduation. The graduations are like formals or prom in the states, so everyone gets all dolled up and puts on fancy dresses. Tammy did my hair and I painted my fingers and toes, did my make-up etc. I was ready to put on the dress my parents brought from home, but was thoroughly disappointed to realize it didn't fit quite right anymore. The better thing would have been to try it on right away when they brought it, but I wasn't that smart. It didn't dawn on me that maybe after not wearing it for about 5years, it may be too small. The girls at the house tried to give me some options, but I just didn't feel comfortable with any of the suggestions, so I left and quickly made my way back to the base.
Upon getting back, I was pretty broken up inside, not knowing what to do and not wanting it to be a big deal. I searched through my clothes and threw on a skirt and tank top, knowing it wasn't that great compared to what everyone else had on. A couple of friends noticed and Hannah-Claire came through for me... without me even asking. What a life-saver, she had this white dress that looked great, and another sweet girl had a necklace that looked perfect. THANK THE LORD! Problem overted, and just in time!

Me and Ing (my 1:1) and the dress! :)

The graduation was really surreal, it really didn't hit me that we were done, until I got home, I think, actually! It was a good time of eating and chatting and getting our certificates, etc. I won't go into detail because it isn't that exciting for those who weren't there.

I will post more later.... there are some more stories of after graduation party and I also remembered the night before graduation, there's a little bit to tell about our last night as just our school together.
It's just WAY late in the night... I meant to have this done an hour earlier, but my ipod was and still is acting up. Anyone have suggestions of what to do if your iPod doesn't respond to anything and is stuck on the "Do not disconnect" screen?? None of apple's suggestions work for my situation... grrrrrrrrrrr.

2008-04-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

I've been reflecting and processing a lot today. Before the end of the week, our school leaders will be meeting with each of us students to process some and discuss what we'll be doing next etc. I met with Leah (obviously, one of the school leaders) today and had a chance to think back a bit about the things I've learned and why God brought me here on this journey. At first, it was a bit hard to know where to begin, but then I just started babbling and often times I didn't even know if I answered her specific questions, but it was just so great to process some things.

It's really interesting to see how God puts different people in your life at different moments, but for really specific things. I actually didn't have a whole lot of time during this DTS to really get to know Leah, but I told her today that she just had this presence that brought peace to me... or a sense of stability of some kind. For some reason, she also reminded me of my sister... but I can't exactly say how... it was just that comfortable feeling like you're in the presence of someone you can trust.

One thing that I really gleaned from lectures tonight is that it is wise to be discerning of who and when to tell things to.... that verse about not casting your pearls to swine was mentioned. I tend to want to share everything with everyone, but then in the midst of all that I realize that not everything is meant to be shared with just anyone.

The last thing I want to share with you is the verse that I have on my header bar... Psalm 37:4.... the first line I got was actually verse 3 which says "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." and then the verses later go on to say things about how when you commit yourself to the Lord and trust in Him, he will make your righteousness shine like the dawn... etc.
I just thought it would be interesting to read the rest of the verse to see how it might apply to me coming back home. It was interesting that the beginning of the verse that I didn't originally write spoke about dwelling in the land and enjoying safe pasture. That really did happen here, there is a certain safety here away from the reality of home and real life responsibility and issues. I wouldn't want it forever, but it is a time of intensity where you need the shelter. I've realized today that there are things that I haven't had to deal with at home, that I'm not really looking at with enthusiasm. I don't want to get into the details, but I just know that this whole passage of Psalm 37 really applies well to the things I have encountered, and the things I am about to go into coming back.

Oh, Minneapolis... here I soon come....

2008-04-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

Where to begin... or end for that matter.

I have just one more week of this Aussie-land/YWAM adventure that God has taken me on. The feelings are very mixed at the moment as I'm sure you could imagine. I miss many things about home, the conveniences, my own room and queen bed, less expensive food, food whenever I want it instead of scheduled meal times, Chipotle, Guacamole and Tostitos, Pita Chips and Hummus, Campbell's Thick and Chunky Soups, Oreos that don't cost an arm and a leg, Cookie Nook Cookies ;), a shower that a few ppl use instead of 20 girls, ranch dressing, not paying extra for more sauce at restaurants, Caribou Caramel Coolers, Dunn Bros., Sebastian Joes, and so much more. AND of course, I miss all of my lovely friends and family.

My parents came into town last tuesday and will be here until I leave. It has been good to see them and travel a little bit the last few days. I have to admit though, it's strange to have them here in my life as I've known it for six months, a life that they have never experienced with me. It's really surreal because I flip back and forth between thinking so much of home while I'm with them, and then coming back to base remembering that I'm still here and want to spend as much time as I can with these friends I may never see again. Mom and Dad are really good about it, and they are actually on their way to Sydney as we speak... in a rental car, driving on the "wrong" side of the road.
We went to Byron Bay yesterday in the rental car, and boy was that an experience! Dad did really well, but I guess the roads here are a bit more narrow than at home AND the car needed an alignment job. Mom kept having to tell him he was too far to the left.
The time in Byron was nice, except it was rainy all day and we had to alter our plans a little bit to accommodate for the weather. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to stay overnight there, but there was one last performance of the musicians back at the base in the evening that I wanted to see.
No use worrying about it now.. while in Byron, we decided to first eat lunch and following that we shopped a bit, and grabbed some ice cream. Eventually the rain stopped enough for me to show them where I was baptized. We then went up to the lighthouse and looked around for a short bit until we could see a huge wall of rain coming toward us.

I will be writing more later... atleast that is the plan. But, it's very possible that it doesn't happen, unless I have any sleepless nights. We shall see...

Without further Adieu

2008-04-16T01:51:00.001-07:00

Hello my faithful blog readers. I apologize for the long delay in updates, the last couple weeks and a half have been filled with many things, not to mention the internet in Hervey Bay was WAY expensive. I couldn't be bothered by writing much while I was there, it took enough time just catching up with emails the two times I checked (over a two week period).

We got back this past sunday, but I haven't updated because it seems like a daunting task... until today... when I looked at my fellow DTSers blog, Laura, who wrote up a WONDERFUL overview of what we did the last two weeks. So, if you happen to read this before I tell you, thanks Laura... you are a great writer and I also couldn't be bothered by writing all that you did so well!

Here's what she wrote... and then maybe I'll elaborate on some things in further posts!

Okay, so for some reason, Safari won't cut and paste text in this box for some dumb reason. Here is a link to the blog instead:

www.beyondmystudio.blogspot.com

Cheers!

More Aussie outreach

2008-03-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Hello there.
It is Saturday morning... my day off! yeessssss.

So I left off with painting at a church on wed. morning. That evening we went to a homeless feed at a church just outside Brisbane city. It was really uncomfortable at fist because the majority of our team is female and most of the people there were male. It also seemed to me that a lot of them were either drunk, on drugs, or had a mental disability. After we started serving the meal, I felt a bit more at ease and eventually sat down at a table to chat because there were too many of us serving. I began speaking with a man who asked me about where I came from and what I do for work, etc etc. Eventually, since I am from the States he had to ask an inevitable question.... he prefaced it with "You don't have to answer this, but I'm curious, What do you think of George Bush?".... I knew it was coming... and I just said, "well, I'd sure hate to have his job right now." Kept it really general because I'm not really into debating politics anyways. He was polite, and we just speculated that this coming election will be very interesting, no matter WHO gets voted in... AND, especially if either of the democratic runners get in. I really haven't done enough research myself yet, to make an educated decision on the subject. I'm sure this next statement will raise some eyebrows, but honestly I'm at the point where I'm just not worried about who gets in. Above all else, God is my ruler... don't get me wrong, I'm going to vote and do what I can and what He has empowered me to do, but the rest is out of my control.
Okay, so that took a turn to politics.... anyways... the conversation was good, I took a step out of my comfort zone and invested in a man's life for just 20/30mins. I left knowing that if I give God what I can, He'll do the rest.
On Wed. night just before falling to sleep I was feeling a bit feverish. I finally fell asleep and woke up in the morning feeling average, so I got ready and met my team to go paint at a new recording studio. Painting at this place was not as fun as the other one... could have been the fact that my fever came back and I actually ended up sitting in a room unoccupied by anything for about an hour. Owell... later that day we were going to have "team time"... but Kate cancelled it because there was too much other stuff going on and our team members had work duties on the base anyways.
Yesterday my team went to an old folks home and performed a concert, but I didn't go because I needed rest. There wasn't anything for the artists to do anyways. Laura said there wasn't even an opportunity to talk with the residents because it was a concert and when it was done they all left within 5minutes!

I've been feeling much better today. It was a pretty lazy day... but nice because I got to chat on gmail with my sister and talk to mom and dad as well. Good times.

Leaving tomorrow for Redcliffe.... these next weeks are going to fly by.
Here are a few prayer requests..
1. That I'll focus on my time left here and really pour myself into these last weeks.
2. Details when mom and dad come will pan out... (yeah, fyi. my parents are coming to see me here in a couple of weeks!!)
3. For my mom and dad as they prepare to come... low stress levels.... etc.

Thanks mates!

cheers.

(sorry about the lack of pictures... the security in this place makes it mega hard to upload photos!!)

Outreach in AussieLand

2008-03-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

Last week our "outreach" activities involved working at a music festival called "Easterfest." I had the great job of manning the art gallery. It really was a sweet deal, the others had really odd jobs around the festival.
Being at the festival was interesting, as I've only been to Sonshine in Wilmar, MN... it definitely was different, less space here and a lot of different things to do and check out. Like, our tent for example was the "Chai Circle"... we served hot chai and had little concerts. One of the days we actually had Geoff Moore in our tent talking about, well I don't remember actually what the topic was, but he talked about an experience in Haiti so I of course was hooked!! If you don't know who Geoff Moore is.. he's a singer from the mid 90's... "I've Got a Friend Like You... (and you, and you an dyou and you)....... Oh the days of Youth Choir....
Anyways... that was one funny highlight... since it's not like he's my favorite by any means. Other highlights were, well... okay highlights is not a good word because it wasn't like the best music festival ever... BUT watching the Newsboys IN Australia, where two of the original band members (who are still with them) are from was pretty cool. They were telling stories about how when they first started out they sold these things called "Lamington's" to get money. Lamington's are along the lines of a "Snowball" cake thing... but they are in strips and small... they actually remind me of this thing you can get a gas stations... usually raspberry with coconut covering them. I miss Phil Joel being with them, they're just not the same anymore.
Jars of Clay also performed, but I wasn't that impressed with them either... I think I prefer them on albums rather than in concert. Some of there new stuff almost harkens the sound of the 80s... ick... for those of you from work who may read this, I was really thinking about Shofar during this one song... it was so strange!! They did do some of there old stuff, so that was cool, but they just didn't have a good stage presence... I've seen them before and liked them better, maybe they had an off day. :)

We got back on Sunday late night, then woke up early on Monday to go to a city called Ipswich to help out with their "Easter Monday FUnday"... I painted faces of children for about 7hours with only about 30mins/less break!! It was insane and intense... and actually went pretty fast surprisingly.
Tuesday (yesterday) was our day off and then today the Czech team went to a church and painted a chunk of a wall outside... it was really fun! Hot and sweaty, but we all worked together and had good conversation, etc. This is something I think we lacked on our outreach to Czech, I think we would have done much better to do some of these types of things before leaving. It really cultivates comradery within the team.
Tomorrow is unknown to me at the moment, but I think tonight we'll find out our schedule for the rest of the week.

That's about it for now.... One month and a day to go until I am back in MN!!

Cheers

Post Outreach

2008-03-18T01:37:00.000-07:00

Post Outreach...

We've been back at the base for a whole week now. I was one of the lucky ones who got to stay a couple days longer before heading to our next destination which is called Easterfest. It's a music festival and we're hosting a spot called the Global Village... it will have musicians and dancers and an art gallery. It should be a good time, we leave tomorrow morning. I still have to pack.... as usual.

I've been feeling my own pressure to post a blog of reflections about outreach, but it has been really hard. I don't feel like posting because there still so much processing going on in me at the moment. I'm wrestling with God about why exactly our team dynamics were so frustrating... why I couldn't seem to figure out how things should change.

I won't be able to post much in the next few weeks, possibly next week, but other than that I'm not sure. I think with more time I'll be able to process this better later anyways.

Thank you for your continued support!!

Cheers!

Wrap up in Prague...

2008-03-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Right at this moment, while typing, I am in Germany at Andy's family's house. It is very nice, we all have our own mattresses to sleep on and a huge open area with a kitchen, big bathroom with nice tub and separate shower, and a couch/sitting area with TV to watch movies.

Last blog that had a schedule update, I left off on Thursday... first I will update on the rest of the time and in the following blog I will add in my personal thoughts on the whole thing.

Friday, Feb. 22nd...
In the morning I led a time of worship and prayer with music I picked from iTunes. It was mostly instrumental, to get us into a time where we could just get out all the stress of the last week and lay it at His feet. We then went out into the city and did prayer walks in all different areas as we chose, walking in 2's and 3's. After about 45mins we met back and ate out for lunch.
In the afternoon, the musicians practiced for a gig at a Pub/Hostel called Sir Toby's which started at 8ish that evening. Unfortunately, the place was a bit cramped and didn't really offer opportunity for us to paint while they played. It may have proved to be awkward in that setting anyways.
Sat. Feb 23rd
Our DAY OFF! I took my time, for the most part, waking up and getting ready. A few of us planned to meet at the castle around 2:00, so Laura and I started out earlier and grabbed lunch at a little "Portaviny" (food market) on the way. Originally we wanted to find a little sandwich shop, but the way we were walking didn't cater to our plan. We got to the castle early and went into the cathedral... it is huge and pretty amazing, so much detail in everything. If I remember correctly, I think they said it took 900 years to complete, I can't even wrap my head around the enormity of that fact. We met up with Tammy at 2:00ish, went back into the cathedral a bit and then went on to the Charles Bridge, which is the "famous" bridge in Prague. We walked ALL around the old towne and eventually ate dinner and went to Noah & Andy's to watch movies. Tammy and I had never seen the movie Chocolat, and the others didn't mind seeing it again. I really enjoyed it!
(these re-caps have been long, I'll try to make the next ones shorter)
Sun. Feb 24th
We went to New Beginnings Christian in the morning, had lunch with Jerry and Carol, chilled for the afternoon (which included some "tourism") and went back to our place. Mary Kate planned the evening group time which consisted of dinner and then everyone watching the movie "Transformers." It was a good time to just hang out and have fun... the movie was courtesy of iTunes ability to now rent movies! Very convenient.
Mon. Feb 25th
This was the day I posted the last blog of events... I was at the Laundromat. Upon getting back we ate lunch and then went to a park that overlooked Prague and worshipped in A Capella. We then went into the city and attempted "faith" courses which meant doing a "random act of kindness" or having attempting to speak english with someone and give them an encouraging word. (this is something I will talk about in a later post)

Tues Feb 26th
This morning we had two hours planned quiet time, we could go anywhere and journal, process, etc. I enjoyed this SO much! I just sat in a coffee shop, ordered a pastry and coffee, read my bible and wrote in my journal. I finally took the time to stop and listen to my Father... I found it so hard to do this while on outreach, and wish I had made the time to do it more often. For me, I like when I don't feel rushed because I have to "be" somewhere soon after, and every other time I felt that way. We met up with the rest of the group at noon, ate lunch and went to a museum of the History of Communism in Prague/Czech Repub. Following the museum, we discussed many things about what we saw. It was a great processing time! I may try and expand on the discussion in another blog, if I remember :).

Wed Feb 27th
We went to Andy and Noah's again for a team meeting, we played games and went over the schedule for the next week. There was more free time and then in the evening we went to a young adult home group. It was laid back and casual, we mostly just attended and chatted with the people there, most of whom spoke english. Eryn shared some verses about faith and we discussed and shared about experiences we've had in that area.

Thurs Feb 28th
I woke up early this morning and felt really sick, not specifically nauseous, but still a stomache ache. We had the choice to spend two hours again on our own or sleep in and relax and then eat a nice brunch. I slept. Still felt gross when I woke up later, but didn't want to miss the art museum we planned on going to in the afternoon. It was an exhibit of Salvador Dali's artwork, and actually was pretty disappointing. You'd think for an artistic place like Prague, they'd have a lot of his most famous works, but the ones that were his famous were only copies. We had another really good discussion about the museum... asked the question "What makes someone an artist?" and "What is art?"... Another long discussion that really made me think. Later that day I went to the IHOP prayer night again and then upon returning home Tammy asked if I'd want to go for a walk later. I jumped at the idea... oh yeah... and the rest of that story was shortly explained in a blog or two before this.

Fri Feb 29th (happy leap-day)
During the walk I took with Tammy(last night) we decided that we'd share the "sermon" time we had to do at a chapel this morning. The chapel was for an int'l school of kids that ranged from grade one to grade twelve. There were only about 50 kids total, so that was really nice. It's amazing how much easier it is to speak without an interpreter. The rest of the day we rested up for the IHOP Night Watch, as we were most likely going to stay up all night. The IHOP people wanted us there at 8, so we got there, set up and prepared for the night. It officially started at 9:00pm with worship... well, the whole night was worship with all different bands. Andy started off painting, then Noah joined and I started a bit later. I have to be honest that I still felt very disconnected from the focus, which was the youth in Prague. I mentioned a bit of a struggle in the post I wrote just before I left for the night.
At about midnight, Andy and I had our one on one and discussed a lot of things, since we hadn't met since Plzen. That was really the highlight of my night, being able to be honest with her about how I was feeling about outreach and specifically our time in Prague. I even told her about how I didn't really agree with some of the things that were taught during the lecture phase. It was good to have someone in leadership recognize the things that I was feeling and tell me I'm not alone in feeling some of the things.

Sat Mar 1st
We got back at about 7am and went to bed! We slept for about 5 hours and woke up slowly... ate a bit of lunch then Laura and I went into the city to finish some last minute purchases. Went to a coffee shop and waited until 7:00 to meet up with two others from the team and find a place to eat. We then wandered around Old Town for about 50mins, just when we were about to give up, we found a place on our way to the metro. It was sooooo good! What I ordered was so simple, yet so satisfying... a delicious salad with feta cheese olives and other veggies AND bruschetta. It was sooo great, and reminded me of Angela (my long-time friend and roomie for 2years) because she loves it... and once we ordered it at Green Mill and it was just NOT as good as what she had eaten while in Europe. I didn't know how it could be different... until now :). I miss you Ang!!

Sun Mar 2nd
Ever since getting to Czech I knew there might be an opportunity for me to meet up with Tom and Debbie Johnson (Tom used to be a pastor at Open Door, and now him and his wife are doing missions in Slovakia) as they are only about 2hours away from Prague. We had been in correspondence and earlier in the week they decided it would work best for them to meet me Sunday. Plans were set for 11am, and so we connected up... walked around old town and found a little place to eat lunch. It was so great to see some familiar faces from "home"... they had actually seen my parents just a month earlier as they were in the states for the Holidays. It was also nice because they were people on the outside, I felt like a "normal" human being for that 3ish hours. I don' t know quite how to explain it... but it was really refreshing.
That evening we went to Prague Christian Fellowship for church, following the service I talked to a couple different people, one czech and one american. We then got together as a group and planned for our school cultural presentation that was taking place Monday morning.

Mon Mar 3rd
We had to wake up early and get to our meeting place by ten to eight. The program started at 9 and went over really well. Each country represented shared about their culture. It was hard to choose exactly what to say since America is huge and there are really many different cultures within the country. One of my fellow Americans spoke on the Amish culture and the kids were really interested and had lots of questions. I spoke about the animals and national parks, and also touched very briefly on Native Americans. The last half of the time we actually did the art and music workshops, similar to the ones we did in Plzen. For the art one we had the students draw something from their culture and then share it with us in the end in english. We also had them listen to different styles of music and paint to the music. They really got into this more than I thought, the explanations at the end were very interesting. After our workshop we ate lunch in their cafeteria. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was we ate, something like sweet bread with pudding and a bowl of potato and meat soup.
Later that day we also had an English Club to help out with at New Beginnings, where we had the highschool hang-outs the first week.

Tuesday we had one last time with the highschool group and then we came back, ate lunch and packed everything into two vans that brought us to Germany. Andy's brother in law and friend came to bring us to her family's house. It was about a 3 hour drive, and I was in the middle seat... could've been much worse. :)

Int'l House of Prayer

2008-02-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

In just a few minutes I'll be leaving for IHOP Night Watch. We will be in prayer for the youth of Prague and during the whole night all different bands will be performing and doing worship. During this time I'll be painting... it's actually ALL night, so it will be a long night but I am looking forward to it.

I will report more on this later, as for now I just wanted to leave you with a story.

Lately I've been feeling really low, for lack of a better description. I don't really know how to put it, but here in Prague we just haven't had as many events that we've been able to connect with locals. I have a hard time just walking up to someone and starting a conversation, let alone having a language barrier. All this to say.... I was talking to a friend from home yesterday night about all of this and during it, my teamate/friend Tammy asked if I wanted to go on a walk. I automatically said yes, without hesitation. It was about 10:00pm, and it was exactly what I needed. Sometimes in life you just need someone to listen to you, someone right there in person. We didn't have any grand answers for each other's situations, but to just talk about it without any expectations from the other was so refreshing. I really want to take in those moments, and remember that just because I wasn't ministering to someone from Czech, doesn't mean I'm not doing something.

God was with us last night, and I will treasure it for some time.

I can't say that I'm feeling 100% better... but I know God is doing something in me... and I'm not giving up.

Prague

2008-02-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

As I said in the previous blog post, Monday was our day of travel to Prague.... and now I believe my laundry is soon to be done.... here are some thoughts of the beginning of our week in Prague...

We've been here for about a week so far and have had some challenging times going through some conflict within the team, etc. It's never easy learning the hard way, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Actually, the dryer needed two dry cycles to be really dry. It's kind of expensive too, 60 crowns for each washing and drying, but I suppose it makes up for not having to pay for laundry the two weeks in Plzen and not really doing it anyways for the last week and a half. I didn't wash much in Plzen either, because the washer was about 1/4 the size of a normal US washer and there was little room to hang stuff and 7 other people who had to do small loads every now and then in between. So, yes, this outreach has definitely been an adventure!

This past tuesday was a pretty crazy day. We are teaming up with two different churches here. One is called New Beginnings Christian, and the same people run a Highschool outreach program that runs during the lunch times of the students. They are welcome to come down to this cafe type place and have pizza's, coffee, tea, etc. They've got ping pong and music videos going on during the time as well. It's a pretty cool place, but I guess they just run it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was talking to one boy who told me he wishes it was everyday. I haven't had a chance to ask the main guy who runs it, why they can't do it all week. I played ping pong with all the guys, it's that kind where you play all around the table.. I forget what you call it. That way, everyone can play and I actually like it better I think! :)
After the High school thing, we all went back and had lunch at our place. Which I must mention is a tight squeeze. The shower is actually in the "kitchen." We're actually really living in an office of the other church we're partnering with, Prague Christian Fellowship. There are two rooms we squeeze everyone in, the beds are all tight together with no space in between.
During lunch, we had a "family meeting"... and that's how it turned out... like the "typical" one would go... it was not good. We learned lessons about how to approach conflict... that's really all I'm going to say because, well, there's no reason to re-tell it. We came together again for a meeting with all the leaders the next day and things went much better.
Tuesday night we sat in with a youth group and shared some testimonies and heard some testimonies from the youth that attended. It was a small group and they ranged from 16 to about 22. During the time that we were praying at the end, we were pick pocketed! I guess the doors to outside weren't locked and someone came up outside our room and looked through the hanging jackets. They took the equivalent of about 40 US dollars from Laura's wallet and two other pairs of shoes of a couple of the guys of the youth group. (sorry, that was a jumbled mouthful!) Atleast it wasn't any identification documents or anything worse. How odd though, I actually think they took chapstick our of my coat pocket! How stupid, chapstick... I mean, it is good stuff... Chapstick brand and strawberry, my favoriite. But, come on.... how lame. I'm so glad I had the sense to keep my purse with me in the room!! That turned out to be a late night, we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so at like 9pm we went to a Chinese restaraunt for dinner. I had lemon chicken, and regretted it... not quite what I was thinking. Owell.... it was food and mostly edible...(had to be careful of bones).

Wednesday we went to Noah and Andy's place and had our meeting... it was good. We all got on the same page with things... Noah and Andy explained some changes with their leadership, which explained a lot of the confusion and frustration we were having.
The rest of the day we got to look around town for a bit and relax before going to the same youth group place from the night before. This time, it was younger kids, more about junior high ages. It was a lot harder with them, because they have only learned english for about 2 or 3 years... and probably the same kind of understanding that I'd have with french after only studying after two years or something. I still enjoyed observing and trying to communicate... I told them that I used to help out with youth at home and that no matter where you go, youth still all act the same way (you know, like body language, giggles, etc.). I so had wished I could have a good conversation with them, but even the interpreters were a bit hard to communicate with at times.

So... I still have more days to report about... and this is a long blog...
Thursday we had the highschool group again. The people who run it are Jerry and Carol and Jerry's sister and her husband. I forget their names... oops... they both have daughters, so during the outreach time I volunteered to watch them so they didn't get in the way of the kids playing ping pong. They were fun... gets me excited to see my nieces and nephew... I miss them so much. The girls' names were Sophie and Grace, Sophie is a few months older than Grace and talks a bunch. Grace was a bit quieter, but liked to randomly scream out at the top of her lungs.
After it was finished, the musicians practiced and we made and ate lunch at the center. We had some "chill" time and then Julia, Mary Kate, and I went to an IHOP evening of prayer. If you haven't heard of IHOP it stands for International House of Prayer... not Pancakes! :)

The rest of Plzen... updates

2008-02-25T04:26:00.000-08:00

(get comfy, cuz this is a long one!)

Today is Monday, I am currently sitting at a Laundromat in Prague about 5/6 metro stops down from the one by our residence. Prague is definitely a DIFFERENT place than Plzen, not better or worse... for the most part. It is a bit more sketchy around here, you really have to keep watch over yourself for pickpockets, etc.

Quickly I'll re-cap what we finished the week up with in Plzen... I shared about Valentine's night the last time I wrote. ACtually, I forgot to write about the day before... it was wednesday and the artists had the task of finding ways to decorate a "marriage" booth for a Valentine's market in the square. A couple from the YWAM team are involved with an organization that is all about marriage. I don't know how to describe it, but at the last minute they were able to get a booth at this V-day market in the square and they asked us to decorate it. For me, this task was super frustrating because we didn't have a good idea of how things were going to look, etc. Not to mention, we only had a day to plan it, with little resources available. We ended up getting some fabric to match the colors of the logo for the organization. Once we finished with that we went back to the villa and had lunch, and the rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and practicing, as the musicians had a concert for a cafe night at the Villa. The artists prepped canvases for that night and finished some decorations for the Valentines night as well.
The cafe night went well, although I had a headache the whole time, I painted one of my best paintings. I actually struggled with it the whole time, not knowing what it really "should" be, etc. I've always had a hard time painting while the musicians perform, I think because it also feels like a performance for me as well. But, I fought the urge to just give up on the concept... and at the end as I was just letting myself do my thing, the song title of one of Matt Patrick's songs came into my head. It's not on any of his recordings, but on his myspace page, it's called The Mess Inside of Me. I added words to this phrase and wrote it on the painting. Here's the painting:

Friday was a pretty good day, although the market was still on and the same people wanted the artists to do portrait drawing at their booth. In the cold. Let's just say, only two people had portraits drawn, and one of them was me! Because I don't do portraits on the spot, and we needed to attract the people, so I was the example :). Andy and Laura are fabulous portrait drawers! That evening we went to a Plzen Jr. Hockey League game for something fun to do... it was, except it was very cold and we left the game early in three shifts. Actually, the last group to leave stayed until the end, but I left after the 2nd period.

Saturday was a long day. We had a creative arts workshop to run at 2pm, but had to clean the villa again and then get the rooms ready. There was one room that Laura taught, it was how to draw a portrait with the correct proportions, etc. I was running a session with Andy that we called "creative expression" where you didn't necessarily have to have any talent. The first part of it we had them get a partner and draw them as a "tree." Sounds strange, but it was cool because for instance, I drew Andy and the tree that came to mind was a birch. They are tall, skinny and strong... I drew fall leaves that were changing because I know there are changes and have been changes in her life lately. Stuff like that, others drew trees with big roots if they knew that person was really grounded or had deep connections with people, etc.
The second part of ours involved the musicians... they played three different kinds of music and the "artists" were supposed to paint according to what the sounds made them feel like painting. I really liked this time, it brought me back to times when I'd just paint with my niece and nephew and not really think about anything I was painting, it would just come out.
After the creative workshop we went to our housing and had dinner with a group of catholic young people who were at a leadership training weekend. They asked us about missions, etc. It was a pretty good night, but I was disapointed that we couldn't drink the Pilsner Urquell they offered us (it's Plzen's beer, the brewery is right in the city) because of the no drinking rule of the YWAM Brisbane base. I'm not much of a beer drinker in the first place, but at the same time it was something from their culture etc. that would have been cool to experience. Owell....

Sunday we woke up stinking early and met Kaja (the pastor we teamed with the whole time) at the cathedral in the square at 7am! He goes to the top every sunday morning to pray for the city, which was pretty cool... both the view and his prayer time. It was also STINKIN' cold!! I think the coldest I've been this winter season!! My toes took forever to de-thaw. Immediately following that, we went to a church service at a Methodist church. We did a couple testimonies and I painted... being that I was cold and tired, my inspiration was really lacking and I really have no idea what I was painting the whole time.
That afternoon we went back to the villa and ate lunch and killed time before the second service we were going to run. This one was at a Gypsy Church... it was really freeing and I really enjoyed it. We had a few people share testimonies, two people painted (not me), and then musicians did the worship. During the worship time I set out paper for the congregation to come up and express worship through words or pictures. The mistake I made was letting the kids come up first. I have nothing against kids, but it didn't quite work well because none of the adults really participated and the kids were really loud so it was hard to completely enter into the time. I didn't let it phase me though, because maybe the distraction of the kids was okay...
Later that night we had a fun night with the YWAM team as it was our last night with them. We talked about what we had experienced the last two weeks and what we'll take away... or different impressions or thoughts. I really enjoyed the YWAMers in Plzen, their approach to missions etc, really resonated with me.

Czech Republic captured on camera...

2008-02-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

This is the YWAM Plzen Villa

Before having a jacket... waiting at a Tram stop

The YWAMers had bunnies... salt and pepper :)

This is the spot where I painted my first painting in Plzen... during a concert teaming with the KS church

In Progress...
(honestly, i think I like this shot better than the final product :))

Sorry, I will upload the final later, I didn't get it in this bunch of photos

This is a photo outside a church on a hill... it's near the Teen Challenge center we went to a couple weeks ago. (I'm so behind in my updates... sorry)

This is me... duh... my new hat that i really like :).

Streets in Plzen.

We're now in Prague and had a long week... we had some "family" conflict arise, but worked it through and I believe are stronger now because of it... I hate learning the hard way, but it's learning none-the-less... and that's good.

Beware of Staples

2008-02-15T05:41:00.000-08:00

Note to self: when testing stapler, move finger from spot where staples come out.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody... a day late. Last night the church put on a couples night which had our musicians, the churches musicians, Laura and I painting, and then Czech's stories about marriage. While getting ready for the event Laura and I had to stretch our canvases... we ran out of staples and had to load more in, but when we tried to use it again it didn't work. It wasn't closed right, so I was messing with it to get it shut and managed to stick a staple into my index finger. I didn't realize that the staple actually stuck into my finger until I looked at it. I promptly told Laura to pull it out because I was too afraid to do it myself. I can't imagine what I'd do if I ever got stabbed with anything bigger, I really would have to make someone pull whatever it was out. Strange thought of the day for you. :) It only bled for a short bit, I ran it under cold water and stuck some tissue over it, but then it got a bit bruised. It's feeling better today, but it was just so strange.

I am going to leave you with a short bit of info that Julia, my fellow minnesotan on the team, wrote to our families this week. It's an update, she sends out emails... and does a good job a shortly summing up our activities. I don't have the energy to do it this time. :) (p.s. it is written starting out from LAST friday)

I'll have to share more about yesterday another time. It was a rather interesting day.

Love to you all!

last post cont'd

2008-02-13T23:12:00.000-08:00

I didn't really finish explaining why I painted a lighthouse... but the vision he had was of a lighthouse... that his church was a lighthouse and that people were drawn to it, so in the picture I painted circles to represent people.. and the circles were different colors.. black, browns and yellows to represent all different denominations.
That was the first time I had something planned to paint... it was good and bad. Good because I had direction and knew what and how to paint it, but bad because it's not really my style of painting... some of it was, but the other part just wasn't working for me (the detail parts). I can do detail sometimes, but I didn't have a picture or anything to go by, so that's what made it harder. Owell, it was a good experience overall.

Outreach post #2

2008-02-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Last post I left off with tuesday night... it is now the following week. We've had a full schedule of events or ministry opportunities. This is a much different missions experience for me because 1. We're a pioneering team (which means, there are no previous relationships built here) 2. We're musicians and artists 3. We're in a Westernized country.... these are all things that make the way I've done missions in the past, very hard. I'm not going into a place where I'm known because of a church that has a relationship with this place. I'm in a western culture where they are independent and don't need your help with physical needs. As artists and musicians, we're meant to use our gifts in some way, so that usually translates into a concert performance. Often it is in a church setting running the service, having the musicians lead worship someone sharing a testimony, someone speaking on a topic and then an artist or two painting in the background during the whole thing.
These have been good opportunities for us to start relationships, but it is hard because sometimes it feels like we are constantly "performing." It's not really "performing" per se because we are seeking God to minister through our creative expressions and He meets us there. I think it's the fact that we are doing the same thing so often, sometimes that wears me out more. I don't want to sound so negative, but I guess that mid week stretch is getting to me.
Last night there was a cool thing that happened. We were running a youth group here, one of the girls lead worship a couple girls shared testimonies and there was a dance in between the testimonies. At the end of the last testimony our leader felt like we should have a time where we spoke words of encouragement over the students. Our team members got into pairs and the youth came in pairs or one by one and we prayed with them and gave them encouragement and words from the Lord. There was this one girl we prayed with who was dealing with depression, and Tammy (who I was partnered with) started praying and God spoke to her about a specific thing in this girl's life... without going into detail it turned out that what Tammy heard was confirmed by this girl. I think we were all encouraged, seeing how God spoke to each of us.

I've skipped a lot of things that went on last week, the one day that sticks out that I haven't written about is Thursday. We met with the pastor of the church we've been connected with and he spoke to us about Czech culture. I really enjoyed this time, because in it we were reminded about the fact that we didn't just come to just give give give what we have, but there is a lot that we can get from them as well. Or, rather there is a lot we can learn from them as well. Although the language barrier is tough to get through, I want to challenge myself in speaking more because though they say they can't speak english they do way better than they think.
Later on Thursday we performed at an event and I painted a picture during that time, of a lighthouse. The picture I got was from a vision the pastor spoke about of his church/the church in general in Plzen. I guess here (not sure if it's specifically plzen or not) churches are not stuck to their own denominations, or there just isn't as much line drawing. The vision Kaja (pastor) had was of many many people coming to the Lord, though not only his church, but through the christian community. I'm doing a poor job explaining his vision correctly, but the main thing is that it really resonated with me.
The rest of the weekend was filled with tooling around the city, etc. It was nice.
I have to go now.... more to come as I can give it! :)

Finally...

2008-02-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

This is not as much as I really would have liked to post, but my time here has been busy, and the access to the internet isn't as accessable. (i know bad spelling)... so here is a part of what I've blogged... it's only partially finished...

Hey Blog world...
It has been awhile, hasn't it? My time here in the Czech Republic has been interesting... I love the sites, the buildings and rich history, but it is a cold country both realistically figuratively speaking. The cold temperature doesn't bother me, I bought a great new coat, but the fact that the people here are hard to communicate with is discouraging. It doesn't help that I don't speak their language, but at the same time, it's harder to communicate non-verbally because they don't smile as much. There is a very stand-off-ish feeling, and even when they do speak english you have to be cautious in how you say things.

I'll give a bit of an overview of what we've been doing here so far....
On Monday we had an orientation of how the two weeks were to go while in Plzen with a schedule. Each day we've had some type of event, whether it be a concert or planning meeting, youth group event, etc. Later that day we got settled in at our "home" for the two weeks. I don't know what exactly it's called, but it's a Catholic run place with nuns on a couple floors and a place in the basement where a "youth" group meets on Tuesday nights.
On Tuesday there was a concert at a shopping mall and then just a short while after, we led the "youth" group thing I was just speaking about. That morning the band practiced and upon finishing some tension rose up about not feeling like they were gelling as a team, etc. It was a bit tense during lunch and on the way to the mall for the concert.
Once at the mall, the sound guys were having trouble getting everything to work, so the artists got together to pray. The things we prayed for were unity and peace, because it was obvious that those areas were really being attacked. The sound never really was great, but we also prayed that though it may not sound perfect it really wouldn't matter.. that the heart of why we were there would really come out strong above the music itself.
Immediately following that was the youth night, which we had very little time to prepare.

Last lecture week in Byron Bay!!

2008-01-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

This week has been pretty irregular as far as schedule and lectures go. There was a mis-communication between our first lecturer and our second lecturer wasn’t planned to come until Wed.
On Monday, we worked on our workbooks during the morning, had lunch and work duties, then headed to the beach and downtown Byron Bay. I laid on the beach and continued working in the workbook because we had 3 sections to finish and I hadn’t started until earlier in the morning. It was not too productive, seeing as there was a beach behind me beckoning that I come. I really enjoy Byron Bay beaches the best out of the 3 I’ve experienced so far. (I don’t remember if I wrote about my time last weekend at a beach near the Gold Coast, it was fun, but definitely had intense waves. I don’t know what the actual beach was called.) Monday night we had dinner and then more hang-out or workbook time, so you can guess what filled my evening.....

Tuesday was a very chill day. It started out with Intercession and Worship as normal, and during that time one of our staff handed me a sealed envelope and told me to open it after Int./Worship. I continued to worship, we then were instructed by some fellow students to break up into our outreach groups to pray and discuss the strengths we thought each of us brought to the group. As we were ending I noticed the absence of staff in the room. I then opened the envelope and read, “Please read aloud for everyone”- “WELCOME TO NO STAFF DAY”.... with a list of particulars. They gave us $82.50 to spend on food and whatever else we might need. It also said to be productive and some other things we had to follow. I don’t remember exactly, but basically we had a day to relax and just make sure work duties were done and making meals for ourselves. At first, there was some chaos about who was going to do work duties because they took our work duty sheet that already had it planned out, but most of us already knew what we were on that day. Our meals turned out really well actually, about 6 ppl volunteered to do the shopping and they split themselves and the money up for lunch and dinner.
I think the staff wanted us to learn some profound lesson from it, but honestly being that I’m 27, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s not like we couldn’t function as a group, I mean sure, at the very beginning I observed some people wanting to take control and “lead,” but in the end we didn’t have any huge specific task to achieve, so it wasn’t an issue.
Though we didn’t do anything particularly productive as a team, it was a day we all needed. I finished our DTS tshirts, chatted with people, and rested. Throughout the day I reflected a lot on leadership... specifically my transition from leader to student and then that day where I felt a bit empowered by being given the envelope to read.

During the time I led the youth, I grew a TON... starting out, I was very insecure. All I could remember was how much I LOVED my first small group leader and the impact she made on me. I wanted to be that to my small group girls, to show God’s love through me, but in the beginning I tried way too hard. My first few years were some of the hardest and I almost threw in the towel. I was persuaded to continue, and started back with a new fresh group of 7th graders. During the 6 years that followed, I went on a journey... through leadership, but of course just through life, which in turn affected the way I led. I learned that it wasn’t always what I said that mattered, but being present and available to listen and pray is what meant the most. I finished leading last spring with a confidence that I couldn’t have spoken of 9 years previous. It was a hard thing to leave, but my time of leadership was coming to a close.
Going back to being a student here was(is) hard, while talking to a good friend here who is also a bit older than the rest(25), we laughed about how we sometimes catch ourselves acting un-characteristically immature. It’s a strange phenomenon, but I think has some to do with the fact that I have no responsibility to anything besides me, my own personal space, and my work duty(which, lets face it, is a pretty simple thing for me). To not have anything outside of myself to be responsible for is a bit debilitating. At first, I had a hard time knowing where my place was, but time and again I was reminded that my time here is to be a student. Another reason for the struggle is that the last time I was a student, I was in high school. Being a student as an adult is different, not to mention the age of most students here is between 18-21. These girls (and a few guys) still struggle deeply with their identity and comparing, etc. It was a bit of a “culture” shock for my system because though I do have my own issues with comparing, they are not on the same level as the freshly graduated from high school girls.
So, all of that to say, I struggled with the fact that I had just come from a pretty confident place of leadership, to this new world of being a student amongst these majority of freshly graduated students and no "stated" place of authority or leadership. I'm having a hard time explaining myself, but think my point about saying all of this, was that on Tuesday, I had a small taste of the leadership aspect again.

This post is getting rather long, and we have a busy week before heading to outreach. So, I'm going to wrap up the rest of the week very quickly. On Wed. we had lectures both morning and afternoon, and in the evening we went into town and had coffee with our small groups(well, some of us did). It was a nice, relaxing time to just hang out and chat. Thursday, we had lectures in the morning and team building activities at the beach... this was awesome... especially because THE CZECH team won!!! Woo Hoo... and I must add that we are all female (besides one of the leaders)- so it was pretty sweet!

Friday morning was an early one, as we were ready to go to the Lighthouse for worship at 7:30am. It's so beautiful there, although it was raining when we first arrived it stopped by the time we were done. This was great because then we all walked down the path to the beach where we had the baptism service.
It was pretty informal, really, so to say "service" sounds a bit funny. We all gathered in a circled cluster and listened for a few minutes to Gunny talk about baptism. When he was finished each of us getting baptized shared a bit of why we made our decision. Gunnleik then prayed and one by one (there were three of us), we went into the water and "got dunked" (as I like to call it). I really don't know what I was "expecting," but when people asked me how I "felt" I couldn't really respond. It wasn't like there were fireworks or butterflies or anything, and really I don't think it mattered. It was a statement and act of my faith being put into action and a declaration in the physical and spiritual realm. After the three of us all came back out, we stood in different spots and people prayed over us. That was the most impacting time for me, just sealing it all in prayer.

Thank you all for your continued prayers as outreach creeps closer. The next two days we have outreach simulation where they take you through many ridiculous scenarios to prepare you while travelling. (saying ridiculous, knowing that it's not at all far from reality)...
It should be a good time.

Also, if you think of it... the school needs prayer for finances to come in. The total for our school that is needed is $59,000... i think Australian, but still, that's a lot of money. Not more than God can provide though, so if you think of it send out a prayer. And if for some reason, God lays it on your heart to give, email me as soon as possible. I personally have my lecture and outreach fees paid. But, I did miscalculate and didn't leave much room for money to use for things like toothpaste, shampoo, etc. I am using money of my own, but if you feel led to give extra, please let me know. Or, if you attend Open Door, you can fill out a blue card at the missions table put it in an envelope and drop it in the box. (just make sure you fill out my name on the blue card) I strongly hesitated writing this last bit, so please know it comes from a place of humility to ask.

Baptism

2008-01-19T05:28:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning I leave for Byron Bay again.. this time just for a lecture week, our very LAST one, actually! In two weeks I'll be in transit to Czech Republic, and I am sooo excited!
I really loved Byron Bay, so I am really excited to be going back. One thing I am looking forward to is that I am being baptized there this week.
It may come as a surprise to some of you that I have not yet been baptized, but it is indeed true. No reason specifically, I just hadn't felt a strong pull to take the plunge...(pun intended). It really has a lot of symbolism for me here. This journey that I'm on right now is a turning point in my life... full of new revelations of God's love, restoration, and renewal. It just seems right to mark it with a choice of commitment to go deeper into His love and be baptized. It is something I have been thinking about for the last year, and then when we were in Byron last time I saw a student from the base there get baptized. It was such a beautiful thing that took place, I remember thinking to myself, "why haven't I done this yet?"... and I believe God spoke to my heart and said something like "well, no better time or place." Okay, so I don't remember the exact words... but I just knew in my spirit it was time.
I just wanted to let you know before it happens... I'm not sure what day it will be, it might actually be one of the mornings.

Take care this week, bloggers!

Miracle and Lordship

2008-01-16T03:53:00.000-08:00

I am meaning to update you on last week's lectures and goings on, but first I must report an amazing story, actually I'll call it what it is, a miracle.

At this YWAM base there are multiple DTS groups going on at one time, they all begin and end at different times and have different durations. When our MAD (Music, Art, Dance) school started, there was also another school starting called Frontiers. Though not in our same school, I've grown to know a few of the students on that school and consider them part of this YWAM family. Their outreach phase starts tomorrow and lasts until after we get back from our outreaches.
For the past month or so their outreach teams have been fighting for their fees to come in and knowing this I decided I wanted to give. I withdrew money the other day and prayed about who should get the support.
This morning(written on monday) we had our community meeting and there was a report of how much money was still needed for the Frontiers. I should mention that if all the money doesn't come in before they leave, they don't leave (or the individuals don't leave... they wait until it comes in). They had two teams going, one to India and one to Thailand, and three weeks or so ago they needed around $30,000 as a whole. The report this morning was still $8,000 to go for the India team (thailand received all of theirs)... and as I said earlier, their flights leave tomorrow.
One of the elders on the base suggested we take an offering right away, not pray and give during the day, but take time right then to pray and then go and get the money you have right away. I knew then it was time to just put in what I had to give. Many people went to their rooms to get money, and put it in the box... I did so, and then just prayed continually as others put theirs in that it would be multiplied. We all were praying and praising God as a few people gathered and counted. A few people had some words to give to the team and some from the team spoke some as well. As they finished the total was told to us.... $7,500+ ... PRAISE JESUS...
Honestly, I believe it was a miracle... this was a room full of ywamers, students, missionaries... I fully believe that God did multiply the money. Later we found out the total rose to $8.000+...
I thought it was worth blogging because I have never witnessed such a huge need being fulfilled in such little time. What a testament to God's faithfulness, love, and peace. He comes through and blesses in ways we cannot comprehend. It gives me that much more faith that He will provide for me in all of the ways I need as well.

2008-01-16T03:50:00.000-08:00

Lectures last week were on the topic of Lordship, which we defined as having a heart like Jesus... surrender, yielding, obedience, releasing and empowering, giving up our rights to Him, It was good stuff... and it's commonly labeled the "intense" week because it's a time to examine the things/areas of our lives we put in place of God... or things we want to control or feel we value more than Him. On Thursday we learned all about the tabernacle and the meaning of each area. If you don't know much about the old/new covenant and about the old and new covenants, etc. It's really interesting, something I had never really studied before. If you haven't, I'd suggest reading Hebrews, that's where these things are explained. On Friday we were brought through the "tabernacle"... our meeting room was set up as such and we entered the the gates with thanksgiving and His courts with Praise! When we finished with that we went on to fellowship offerings... which were things like career/future/family/money... and then to burnt offerings, which were repentance, asking forgiveness or forgiving someone, confession of sins.
This was a very powerful time of brokenness before God. For the first offering I brought my laptop and paint brush as a symbol of my future career/plans. And then also later I realized that I hold on to my family (specifically my sister and her kids) and sometimes I worry too much about them. The burnt offering was harder... I know God has been showing me the ways I have an inferior pride.. about my artistic abilities and not feeling like I could ever compare to the designers I deem the best, and also in the spiritual sense I compare myself to other christians in my age group and see how much I think they are more spiritual because of this or that and somehow see them as better than myself. I also decided it was time to speak out loud forgiveness of my grandma on my dad's side.
There are many of you who don't know my family history, but to make a long story short, issues were revealed and she chose to not believe them and somewhere in all the crap we (mom, dad, sister) haven't spoken to her since I was about 12 years old(except maybe 2 or 3 conversations my dad had with her). What hurts the most is that I feel she picked death over life. It's hard to say that, because I have no idea where her heart is or the other family on that side is either. I don't think they are a lost cause, I just see how much life there is when our immediate family with Karen, Pat and the kids are altogether and having fun, I see all that she's missing out on and wonder what my grandma was thinking.
You can imagine the things that our whole DTS were bringing... it was a day of victory over darkness... strongholds being broken and new life being breathed over everyone. After the offerings we prayed over the individuals who had confessed sexual sins (either done or been done to them) and then prayed over others around us. And then, we were anointed with oil by the staff.... had a time of communion and then ended again with praising God for the things he had done that day.

What I've been learning lately is to hear God in the ordinary times, when I'm not overwhelmed with emotion. Not to say it's bad to move on emotions, but sometimes my emotions get in the way of what He really is trying to say to me. I don't know if that makes sense, but as in life as well, we can't just always make decisions based on our emotions.

Czech Republic Outreach Prayer Requests

2008-01-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

In just over 3 weeks my outreach team and I will be embarking on our journey to the Czech Republic. This just blows my mind, the lecture phase has flown by so quickly!
We leave February 2nd... our first destination is Plzen (a city in the western part of Czech) and from there we'll be in Prague for the rest of the outreach... our debriefing will be in a small town in Germany that one of our leader's parents lives in. Apparently it is fairly close to Rothenburg, a town with a Christmas Gift Shop that is open year round and is well known for it's affinity to elf culture. (bahaha... okay, that last line is actually from the movie ELF, I have no idea it's affinity to elf culture :)) I've actually had the honor of knowing about this store because of a valued client at Vision Van Gogh... his name is David Young, a man who can play two flutes and once. It's pretty cool, even though it may sound a bit odd at first. :)

On to the prayer request points:

• Finances- I have my outreach fees taken care of, but the three leaders are still in need of their finances to come in. I'd love for you to join with me in prayer for my team, that the money would be released and brought in. I am taking this on because we are a team, and it's just as if I'm the one needing the money.

• Team Bonding/Unity- We haven't done a lot of "bonding" yet... having times to just hang out and have fun getting to know each other deeper. We're a group of all girls and one young married couple the couple and one girl our our leaders. I feel like we're sort of a mixed bag of artists and musicians. I'm pretty close to two of them... one musician and one artist... the others I know pretty well, but it could be better. SO... I feel I a rambling, so I will leave it at that... the song that keeps running through my head is "Bind us Together"...

• Passion for the people of Czech Republic- I feel like I'm behind in praying for the desire to have a passion for them... to really want to know the history, trials, etc. of their nation. I want to be informed about the place I'm going into... but facts and history have never been my strong point, so research often turns me off. I know it is important though... so yeah... passion for them... and for the Holy Spirit to speak into the places and things we should be praying about.

• Our "Production"- I don't know what to call it yet, but we've just started brainstorming and first beginnings of writing a production that includes music, art, drama... a kind of personal narrative that uses an individual's life story. At this point we're basing it around a girl in our group's testimony of trials and tribulations and ultimately finding God and redemption etc.

This last point is really a big one on my heart right now... I'm excited about it, but nervous because there are only a couple of really strong leading personalities on the team. We're such creative types, so at times it is hard to figure out if everyone is on the same track creatively and working in the same direction. I don't know how to describe it well. But, I just know that this could be very impacting if done right... and it really excites me because it's a tangible way I really know I'll be able to create on the outreach. Before now it was never really explained what we'd be doing with our art, besides maybe setting up and painting while the musicians play at a coffee shop or something, even then I didn't know if that would've been possible. So, we have that production/narrative thing and also we found out we'll be leading an Art Workshop for some artists while we're in Plzen. I know there will probably be other opportunities, so I guess just pray that other opportunities will arise as well.

Thank you all for all the prayers you've been lifting up on my behalf. I am so encouraged to know there are even many others who I don't even know who read this blog. To all of you I say hello and bless you!!

Happy New Year at Coff's Harbor!

2008-01-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

This post comes out to you tonight (this morning) in Coff's Harbor... and it's New Year's Day! It's the beginning of 2008 and I'm living in the first hours of it before any of you in the United States (assuming only Americans are reading this)... Boo yah! ...

On this outreach we have what is called "The Chai Tent" where the musicians jam, dancers perform, and the artists create and possibly sell their paintings. All the while, passers-by have the opportunity to come in, grab a free Chai Tea (served cold in the day, and hot at night), chill-lax and converse with others in the tent.

Today was very windy and a tad on the cool side of things... I have to be so very careful saying it's "cold" because most of you are currently in lands of tundra. But, being that I'm in Australia, it's not the typical weather... in fact last week on Christmas they set a record for the coldest one to date! I couldn't tell you the official degree, especially because they use Celsius instead of Fairenheight (sp?). Why does the U.S. have to do EVERYTHING different from the rest of the free world?! That's a WHOLE 'nother can o' worms though.
On to the day... besides being cold, it was SO windy, I was pretty sure the tent could blow down. Upon getting to the tent (we sleep at a church in nearby.... the tent is set up just off a creek that flows into the ocean), we went on prayer walks around the park that surrounded the tent and then came together again to worship. It was a powerful time, I felt like God led me to pray (during the walk) for the people of Coff's to be able to see the glory and beauty of God's creation. I thought about how easy it would be to take for granted such a beautiful place if you're living in it day to day. I'm the first to admit I rush through the day without enjoying the beauty He has created, even at home in Minnesota. So, I prayed that His beautiful creation would draw them closer to the one God who created it and us all. The cool part was when another girl shared that she too, had the same leading. Some would write that off as just a coincidence, but I believe that it really was God speaking into what He desired us to pray.
After our worship time we opened the walls and began the day reaching out to onlookers, etc. I intended on painting, and ended up adding to a painting I had started yesterday by just drawing with pencil what I was going to do next. It ended up that I never did paint over the pencil because lunch was soon and then after lunch i never made my way to the art corner. Instead I decided to sit down by the "kids corner" and from that moment on I was captured by the attention of Gunnleik's daughers (the school leader), Linea (5) and Rose (9). We colored in a coloring book for a good 45mins/hour and then I had my arm "tattooed" with art from Rose, she did very well for her age! Such sweet girls... they are norwegian and know both their native language AND english, but have an australian english accent... it's quite funny(the aussie accent). That time was pretty much the highlight of my day... sounds a bit strange as I sit here and read that, being that I'm an adult and it is New Year's.. the fact that it brought me back to being at home with my niece and nephew could have a slight bit to do with it.... but really it was finally being able to be with kids again as well. For 3mos. I hadn't had much contact at all with little kids and had started to wonder if I'd ever!
We had a big party for New Years Eve, the best part of that were fireworks on the beach. They were far away, and the end was very anti-climactic, but better than nothing... I can't say I've ever watched fireworks over the ocean before. There were some really cool ones, too, that looked like lava shooting out of a volcano! I tried to take videos, but whenever I'd start recording something that looked cool, it would end because they didn't have it timed very well.

So, what will 2008 bring my way? Hmm... well, this whole DTS thing is one big new beginning for me.. not to mention that I've had many people speak words of newness over me... which relate to many aspects of my life. It's not like I'm going to have a whole new career or anything... but new creations and ways to create and blend together the passions that are inside of me.

Another year I dedicate to the Lord... I believe that you will do great things in me and those around me.... Amen

2007-12-26T23:15:00.000-08:00

Pirate Day photos, click here

Christmas photos here

An Aussie Christmas

2007-12-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS
BLOG WORLD!
(sorry, i'm a few days late)

This is the Christmas tree in our room, all decorated! yay

This is the tree we sat around on Christmas night listening to the Christmas story told by Jemima. (one of the Frontiers DTS leaders)

On the wed. before Christmas, we had a fun party with our small group. What a beautiful table all set up!

mmm.... white chocolate and nutella melted with pretzels and sprinkles, too.... mmm

All the baking being done in the kitchen!

My Aussie Christmas:
It started early the week before with that small group xmas party... o what fun it was! I got a cool set of watercolor pencils, magazines to collage with and also a little box full of things that Jules (my secret santa) had collected to collage stuff. It was great! A fantastic jolly night, had by all!
On Thursday night we had a Christmas concert for everyone on the base. Since we have so many musicians, it made sense for them to have the chance to show off their skills. Many did, and it was a fantastic night. We even got to hear good ol' Amy Grant's "Emmanuel." After that, the MAD dts had their xmas dance party... and we all got down on the dance floor!
The weekend was filled with many things... on friday night a bunch of people went into the city to watch Miracle on 34th Street, under the stars on South Bank, but Kayti and I decided to stay back and have a relaxing night. We had some quiet time, watched White Christmas and went to bed soon after it ended.
Saturday was our friend Ramesh's christmas party! It was a fun time... he got a hat and a mini broom/dust pan set and many many cards. We played pictionary and ate homemade guacamole with chips and also delicious sugar cookies! After the party, Kayti and I went to the city and just walked all around... had Starbucks... went to the markets... walked up and down the river taking pictures, etc. At 5ish we met the "old peoples alliance" for dinner and ate the best pizza at this italian restaurant along the river on South Bank. The "old peoples alliance" is a group of us that are either 1. married or 2. over the age of 24... because most of the others are all under the age of 20. There are 8 of us without the leaders, and then there are 11, i think. It's a good time to just chill. It's hard to describe, but it's just a different vibe when it's just us.
After dinner there was a fireworks display with music over the river, how cool... fireworks for Christmas! Then, we went on our way.
Sunday was a lazy day... I'm blanking on what I did that day..... Oh yeah... it was lazy, some time after lunch I went over to Cristina's house to eat freshly baked chocolate cookies (not as good as "The Cookie Nook" ie: Erin Bennett's)... and played games, etc. Good times. I forget what I did Sunday night :(. Probably watched a movie or something.
On the morning of Christmas Eve all the MAD students who didn't go somewhere for xmas had breakfast at Leah's house. Leah is "second-in-command" of our school, and also one of the artists. She baked cinnamon rolls for us, but not just ANY cinnamon rolls.. the recipe from Cinnabon! They were heavenly... even the frosting was like Cinnabon's kind... they looked a little different, but still tasted amazing. There was also some other confections there... and fruit and coffee... mmm... good stuff. We chatted for awhile and then a bunch of us played a game that was similar to Catch Phrase, and I my team won... it was lots of fun. The rest of the day was pretty lazy again... OH YEAH... earlier that day I went on SKYPE with my family and Mike and Lois... it was such a good time. My parents sent me my stocking, so I opened it that day so I'd have it Christmas morning. It had the usual things we always get in our stockings... toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and candy... oh... and some Burt's Bees lip balm and lotion! Skype is such a great invention... you all really should get it... especially if you have a webcam, you can't go wrong... it's free for goodness sakes! :) So anyways... that evening I went to Christmas Eve Mass at St. Stephen's in Brisbane. It was a good experience, but I really appreciate what I have back home. Following the Mass we went to a restaurant for dessert and because I was dying of thirst and everyone's always up for dessert! When we got back from the city I'm pretty sure we watched a movie.
I woke up on Christmas morning around 9 and jumped on SKYPE again to talk to my family as it was Christmas Eve when all the fam gets together... you know ALL 10 of them (3 being kids). But, it was good... I hadn't SEEN my grma or aunt since I got here, so that was a treat and gift in itself! We chatted for awhile and then we had a gift exchange here, so I signed off for awhile. We opened gifts and had lots of fun... then watched Rattatoullie (sp?) that cgi animated movie about the rat who cooks :). I got back on with the fam for a little while and then said goodbye... it was a bit sad, but that's okay it's a given.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful... until we had a nice dinner with white table cloths and delicious food. AFter dinner we had a time of Carols and read the Christmas story... it was good... and then we watched White Christmas on the BIG screen. yay... it was really great!

I'd like to go on... Buuuut, I must go... this has taken WAY too long and I'm sure you're bored reading it by now :).
Love you all... oh, and here is a word that Ken Helser, the guy who spoke on The Father Heart of God, it was pretty cool:

Lisa Lundquist
An artist after my heart? How about, God the artist, after your heart. Lisa, the word for your life is "NEW." I do make all things new. Put away the past, trust and reach for the future, but right now, get ME, and you will be made new. Out of the newness, creativity will be birthed and you will shout about it. "Your eyes have not seen, your ears not heard, what I have in store for you, but I will reveal it by my spirit."
I Corinthians 2:9 and 10

Fear of the Lord/Worship - Intercession and Spiritual Warfare

2007-12-19T21:34:00.000-08:00

Where to begin. These last two weeks of lectures have been again, intense. I have been learning so much and it's often times hard to put into words so I neglect coming to the computer and blogging.
To sum up Fear of the Lord is hard, so I'll just tell you a bit of what we did. Our speaker, Nathan, is an "elder" on the base and in quotes because he is not old (26). It was really cool because as he spoke he really listened for what God's agenda was, and not his own. The opposite of the fear of the Lord, is the fear of man, which many of us including myself struggle with, especially in the context of my creativity. We talked about that and the need for repentance in those areas, to submit those things to the Lord so we can be free and fear only the Lord.
On Wednesday of last week we took the whole of lecture times and used it all for a time of true repentance, prayer, and worship to the Lord. It was a beautiful time... God was pursuing our hearts and minds. He always is, but it was our act of yielding to Him that made it so real.

I am going to end this short and hope to follow up with it later. But I am really excited about what God has been doing in me lately. Showing me holy and grace-filled obedience, a thirst for spending time in His presence like I've never had before. This week has been teaching on Spiritual Warfare... it is so good. Not like the hyped up looking for demons around every corner kind of teaching, it's real and practical. I am excited to share more of this later.

Christmas is soon around the corner and I have many mixed feelings. Plans are finally starting to come together and we've had a couple Christmas parties... and one is tonight that I have to go and help decorate the room for. I hope to post more pictures and reports of what I'll be doing on Christmas, but there are no guarantees (it's just so hard to get alone time still, with access to the internet at the same time).

Love to you all!!

More Photos!! Art studio!

2007-12-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

This is looking into the studio from the front door.

This is the opposite side from where I took the first one.

To See more... and see some artwork, click here!

Early Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-07T16:56:00.001-08:00

Click here to see a fun little thing... the popularity is growing, i had to jump on the band wagon!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1228305163

A day in the life...

2007-12-04T04:23:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd take the time to share about a typical day in my life at the base.

Most mornings we have to be at lecture/worship/chapel time at 8:30am, the exception is Monday mornings when we have Basewide cleaning and we have to meet at 8am. I rarely get up in time to have the cereal they put out for "breakfast"... it's really not worth it, so sometimes I eat my own cereal with yogurt and other times I just wait for morning tea(i will elaborate on this in a minute). The actual time I wake up is about 30mins before class, whether or not I choose to shower that day. Although, I am often "awakened" by everyone else starting at 6am... I still cannot figure out who needs to be up at that hour, but to each his own! Those people would be the ones who are in bed before lights out which is 10:00.

Depending on the week and the lecturer we usually have some kind of worship time before our lectures start, but this is not always the case. I really enjoy the worship times here, they are so free and open to express in whatever way works for you. Sometimes the worship "leader" will just play guitar and "free-style" and everyone just breaks into their own song to the Lord, those times have become one of my favorite.

At mid morning, usually around 10:30am/11am, we have Morning Tea... this is an Aussie/New Zealand(i think NZ) custom to have tea and an assortment of sweet and savory pastries. It's pretty much the coolest thing, and I believe attributes to the rumor that the Australian YWAM bases make you gain weight. Another thing that attributes this is because there is always a supply of fresh bread out in the dining room AND peanut butter and jelly. So, if you are a picky eater, this is the base for you! :) I love Morning Tea...

After the break we go back into lectures for another hour and a half until lunch at 12:30... lunch is pretty self explanatory. This is where the day changes drastically depending on the day of the week.
On Mondays I have the rest of the afternoon free and then a bit after dinner, we have "MAD Mondays" at 7:30.. which is a time when a professional in the arts from the surrounding community or nation/world comes in to our class and speaks about what they do... in essesnce a time to cultivate dreams, etc...(implied that they are christians).
On Tuesday nights we've had lectures sometimes, but lately we just have a free night, woo hoo! On Wed. nights we have small groups at 7:30... I love this night because our sm. grp is the coolest, we always have some yum yums of some kind and just good conversation.
I forgot to tell about the afternoons on Tuesdays... so, after lunch I have some free time, but usually I head to the art studio early and work on the paintings I have started. It officially starts at 2:30 and ends around 5ish so we can get back for dinner at 5:30.
Also, on Wed. afternoons we have "sports" at 4:00... this consists of going to the park down the street, setting up nets for volleyball and cones for soccer and then playing. The idea was originally to get the community to join in our games, but there really isn't many people around to join, anyways.
On Thursday afternoons, I have my design work duty from 1:00 to 2:15, and then I head to the art studio with the other artists and work on paintings again. I really like tues./thurs. the best! Then, Thurs. evenings are totally free... I've gone to the local mall for coffee because it's the only night they are open past 5:30pm... ridiculous, right?! It's so annoying.
Friday afternoons are the longest because I have the work duty for 4.5hours... 1:00 to 5:30... I know it's needed for the type of work duty I have, but sometimes I just don't look forward to it at all. But, then when I get into it, it's really not that bad.

So, to end my "typical" day... I'm usually up until atleast 11pm, if not later. The "lights out" at 10pm just means that the dorm lights are off at that time... it's annoying sometimes, especially when I forget to clean off my bed while I've been in there with the lights on knowing I won't be back until after they're shut off.

Adjusting to this different and rigid schedule took some getting used to, since I've lived on my own and had a job that didn't require me to be in at a specific time. It's not so rigid, just a major adjustment... but all in all... it hasn't been as bad as I thought it could be.

The end....

Ramesh

2007-12-02T03:32:00.001-08:00

This is Me and Ramesh!

p.s. Also... here's a link to some updated pictures! CLICK ME CLICK ME

Lecture week 7!

2007-12-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been 7weeks already! Time has been flying by! This week was a bit off because we didn't have class on Monday, and we started late on Tuesday and didn't even have teaching on Tuesday, either. I'm a bit disappointed because the teaching on the Holy Spirit was so good. On Wednesday we had to cram 3 days worth into one, I soaked in every word and studied a bunch of the references for myself during my quiet time. It's strange because I love hearing Pastor Dave at church speak on things, but this was just so much more on my level, I guess. Maybe broken down into an easier way to grasp or something... it just all finally made sense to me and didn't seem so ambiguous.

Yesterday was my birthday... yep, the big 2 - 7... kinda weird. Doesn't feel like I should be in my late twenties already, I feel like a kid so often still. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I can't say it's the best birthday I've EVER had, but the most unique I suppose. It started out with sleeping in a bit, reading some of Pride and Prejudice, reading the Bday card mom & dad sent earlier in the week, shower and all that, and lunch. After lunch a man named Ramesh had me and a bunch of my friends over for cheesecake to celebrate my birthday. God used him as an example to me, I don't feel like I deserved for him to give me anything, but he wanted to give me the best. He even bought me some earings from the base (they sell some jewelry in the office).
I also must mention that we celebrated as a DTS class on friday mid-morning since we don't have class on the weekends. It was nice, I requested an icecream cake, and it was sooo delicious, the whole class sang Happy Birthday and a couple leaders in particular belted it out at the top of their lungs. I haven't heard it sung to me like that since like middle school or something, it was pretty hilarious! :) So anyways, after cheesecake some of the girls stayed to clean his house and I sat and chatted with him because I wasn't allowed to help by his orders. When they were finished cleaning we left and went back to the base... I had some quiet time and then went on gmail and chatted with my mom and sister. It was good, but hard at the same time because I just want to see them... I want to see all of you that I miss... but I for sure don't want to leave, so the whole days was just mixed feelings. The original plan I had in my head was to go to the Australia Zoo, but there was a music festival in the park that a bunch of people went to (i went the night before... pretty cool) and then this Christmas Carols by Candlelight event that a bunch of other people had to participate in. It just didn't make sense to go, so I ended up going to the Christmas thing because at the end they shot off fireworks... and I've never had fireworks on my birthday, so why not?! The show was was pretty funny... but not necessarily because it was supposed to be funny. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but it just was goofy... it basically had all the different aspects of Christmas mixed into one show and at the end they shot off fireworks. I have to admit I've seen better, but they had a lot of the ones that sound like rice krispies and those are my favorite, so it worked out. :)

There is a lot of growing and processing going on in me right now... lots of good stuff, so thank you all for your prayers... in any way you may be praying. I believe that God uses the prayers of His people and that they transcend time and space. Lord may you bless those who are blessing and have blessed me.
Amen.

Book Meme

2007-11-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

Okay... so this has NOTHING to do with australia, but i'm sure nobody checks my random thoughts blog, so i had to do this here.....

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? i think paperback, but there are pluses and minuses to both

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…I don't know if I can beat Erin's Book Nook... especially with the Cookie Nook right next to it... but I decided if I ever own a coffee shop I'd call it Lucy and Dorothy's! too wonderful grandma's

3. My favourite quote from a book (mention the title) is…There are so many good books, with good quotes... I'm going to go with the Bible on this one... James 1:12 from The Message:

¹²Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be …. Bruce Olson

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be… Hmm... I am hiding God's word in my heart, so I wouldn't have to bring the Bible, haha... so I'd say Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that….Something that holds them open on a table. I didn't think it was a necessary gadget until I tried to type the quote above. :) (ditto, Erin!)

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of….Yeah, for sure Erin... elementary school

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be….Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice

9. The most overestimated book of all times is…. hmmm... dunno

10. I hate it when a book…. is turned into a movie, and then is awful on-screen

Tag to whomever sees this next!

Schoolies Outreach

2007-11-27T00:29:00.000-08:00

Last week was exhausting, good, but exhausting. Schoolies are all of the highschool graduates who head out to some great beach destination and party without any rules. It’s like “Spring Break” for the US, but its at the end of their school year.
We set up at a park to make pancakes and chai tea for those who were in the area. There were actually a lot of backpackers that came to our spot, which mixed it up a bit. The first night I spoke with a man from somewhere in northern Queensland who decided to come down to the beach for the day. He was slightly inebriated, but I could see as we chatted that he was on a journey to find something more. There have been different people in his life who had preached at him and God was portrayed poorly, but also he had some good experiences as well. I feel like I could have spoken more intentionally with him, but I just wasn’t hearing what God wanted me to say. I told him about how I always had wanted to come to Australia and that it was so cool that God would combine my passion for art and missions and bring me here.
When he found out I was from Minnesota he went on and on about how we’re so nice and that you can tell when someone is from there and that its really genuine and down to earth. I laughed inside though, because I know of plenty wild and crazy Minnesotans! Apparently he has traveled on the west coast and some on the east coast of the states, so he had a bit of knowledge about the many faces of Americans.
I think it was a good beginning... I realized over this past week that really, this was the first time I’ve ever been in a situation of intentional “evangelism.” Missions the way I’ve been taught has focused on relationships and building and supporting churches in under-developed places. I believe that there is a place for what we did this last week. There were many of us who made connections and relationships with these young kids and backpackers and there were probably a dozen who were lead to the Lord... genuinely, you know? It was good for me to see a side of evangelism that wasn’t the “TURN or BURN” mentality, yet was intentional about speaking truth.
So, here’s the deal. I just went to read the portion of Velvet Elvis about agendas, because it kept swirling around in my head.... what does it mean to have an agenda, what did he mean again? Well, I’m not going to tell you everything I read or quote from the book or anything. I’m just going to tell you what I think God might be telling me or what I think I am learning... it’s this: I am a work in progress and I will never “arrive”... I tend to put pressure on myself because I didn’t “do” enough or say the right thing.... and the point is that I just have to be me. And if I forget about trying to do or say the right thing and just be me, I forget the "agenda" and let God do what He wants in the situation.
This aspect of never arriving and needing to just be "me" applies to every part of my life. I think somewhere along the line, I thought I had overcome (arrived, finished) this battle of insecurity and comparing, etc. I have definitely grown a ton, but being thrown into a new situation with NO familiarity has definitely brought up old feelings of “fitting in” and all that crap. I can’t depend on my surroundings, friends, family, to be confident in who I am, I need to be confident in who I am in Christ and who He made me to be. I guess that's one big thing I'm learning... who I am, apart from being an artist, aunt, sister, daughter, niece, grand-daughter...etc. etc. I am a child of God and my desire is to know Him more and more, and to make Him known in the way that comes most naturally to me.

I'm Baaack, in Brissy! (brisbane)

2007-11-24T01:13:00.000-08:00

Hey there everyone... 5weeks in Australia and finally I get to the beach! It was an amazing week... some challenging things, but all, so good.

Here is a link to my facebook photos... I can't make up my mind where to store them, but I finally got it all working, and they upload straight from my iPhoto program... woo hoo!!

Click HERE to link to the photobook... there are a bunch! :)
(P.S. just to let you know if you are a bit un-saavy in computers... if you click on an individual picture, it will bring it up larger in a new window and you can click through them as large pics)

Lecture Week 4 and 5

2007-11-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

Last week were the lectures that focused on "The Father Heart of God," with a man named Ken Helser. I really enjoyed his sweet presence and the ways he displayed the Father's love for us. At times it was overwhelming(in a good way), and sometimes I couldn't even specify an exact reason for the emotions that came out of me. He said to me once that the tears are because I'm healing, which I fully believe. I've become more comfortable with being broken in front of the people here with whom I've connected. And now that we're into the next week, the healing and tears haven't necessarily stopped. I think healing is continual as long as you allow yourself to be open, even if there is a new lecturer with a completely different subject.

This week we've had a speaker named Danny Lehmann here teaching us about Evangelism. As I looked over my handbook in the beginning of the DTS, this was the one lecture week that I really questioned... or had very judgemental thoughts about. I've been challenged.... Last night we watched a Nooma video (Rob Bell's teaching series) called Bullhorn. I'm awful at summaries, but basically Rob is attacking the man who stands on the corner of the streets screaming "REPENT, TURN, OR BURN...helll fire and brimstone".... I agree with Rob that it actually probably does more harm than any good. We also watched a video from a guy who responded to Rob's that spoke about how you can't just love love love because you've not told them the gospel. Actually, I did a horrible job explaining the last video. I lost all respect for that one because he started out ripping on Rob, instead of just getting his own point across. So, all of that to say, the speaker talked a lot about all different ways to evangelize. My summary of the week was that there were some good things I got out of it, but it was a good week to continue my own processing of last week. Does that make any sense?
It's like this, I didn't feel the need to fully engage and listen to every single word he was saying, I could let in what I wanted and knew was good for me to hear and let everything else filter out and process my stuff. Yeah... Evangelism is a tough subject to speak on and I reckon that the folks who speak on it are the confrontational ones (which is a style of evangelism) because they are the most outwardly passionate about their style. So, though he tried to be balanced on all the different ways, he definitely favored his own style.
The end.

I hope to post again tomorrow before I leave for Schoolies to Byron Bay... Schoolies is like the American's Spring Break time. We'll be doing our music arts and dance stuff on the beach! I'm so excited!

roma/chinchilla pics

2007-11-11T01:33:00.000-08:00

These were cattle that we had to stop for in the middle of the road..
you'd think I'd never seen cattle before, but it was funny that there was a huge mob of them!

yep, just chillin to the tunes while headed to Roma

The girls' sleeping quarters

This is Gunnliek's band, Gunni is our school leader.

This is Paulina and myself... she is from Finland and married to a guy named Heikki, i bet you can't pronounce that...

pictures from a couple weeks ago... art museum in Brisbane

2007-11-11T01:16:00.001-08:00

Marieke and I on our way to the art museum

The modern art museum had this huge exhibit, I forget what it was called.

Wild, eh?!

This is a bunch of pictures of the "rising sun" in Japan

This was where we had coffee with Patrick and discussed the art we viewed.

OUTREACH LOCATION!!!!!

2007-11-06T02:17:00.001-08:00

drum roll please /\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Ready.... I was stunned...........

The Czech Republic!!

Seriously. Wow... so all of you who were jealous I was missing winter... be jealous no longer, because it will be in February which is a bitter cold month there... or so someone here has been told! DANG... I guess God just doesn't want me to miss winter... or deep down somewhere inside me, he knew I'd miss it>?!? hmmm... jk..... That's the only reason I may be slightly disapointed... other than that... yeah baby! I'm so excited, I'll get to check off another continent I've been to! Because that's what this is all about, right? What I wanted. haha...

Now, in all seriousness, I am really excited about it... we're actually pioneering this journey, ie: a YWAM team from our base has never been there before. There is so much art and culture there and we'll be with musicians. The musician team we're going with is an instrumental one and they are very talented, I'm so excited to go into coffee shops and paint alongside as they do their thing. (sorry, that was a long paragraph!)

Roma/Sun. Oct 28 - Chinchilla/Fri. Nov 2-4

2007-11-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

I neglected to update you all that I was to be gone for a week in Roma and Chinchilla, Australia for a week of outreach. It also had to do with the fact that they needed more rooms on the base, so they found a place that we could do lectures AND outreach.

We left on Sunday morning at about 9pm and headed on our 6 hour drive to Roma. There are a LOT of MAD students, so we took a “bus” (it’s called a Coaster, it’s not a typical school bus, it only has one row of two seater seats and then a long bench on the other side of the span of the bus) and two vans, a 7 seater and a 12 seater. I was in the 12 seater, which I think I prefer, although I do like the seats behind the driver of the bus as they are higher than all the other seats. As if you care :).
I fell asleep on the bus ride there with the cool wind blowing about and was rudely awakened by the hot air hitting me in the face, along with my strands of hair that came out from being tucked behind my ears. To skip forward a bit, to say the least, it was much warmer in Roma and drier. I’ve never seen so many burrs or stickers in my life, well, they’re hard to see on the ground, but they stick to shoes and everything. The girls stayed in an Anglican Church hall on the floor, so glad I bought an air mat before we left. We didn’t have anything planned that night, so we ate dinner hung out and went to bed. (the boys stayed with the Chaplain of the schools)
The next day we had lectures and in the afternoon I volunteered to help clean the house of a man whose name is Terry, and has Cerable Paulsy. He lives in a sort of assisted living type situation and has supported YWAMers for many years. It was a sweet time just doing a few normal cleaning things, and then really spending time chatting and encouraging each other. There were three others who volunteered with me.
As we sat there talking, I asked him what his favorite story or book of the bible was and he began to speak about the “Come Follow Me” passage in the fourth chapter of Matthew. How the disciples dropped there nets at once and followed Jesus, and that it was so out of character for a Rabbi to do such a thing. This conversation was not new to me, the subject atleast, but to hear it from a man who so many would write off as crippled or disabled was so beautiful to me. I think he had a joy that was unexplainble, yet I could see the pain he has gone through. To put myself in his place would be impossible, yet I know I have been in the depths of pain and was able to cry out to God for joy in those times... to get it from Him and to give it as well.
I thought of my mom often during those few hours at Terry’s, how she used to clean elderly peoples homes and build relationships with those sweet men and women (and some that were often not sweet). I think it takes a certain type of person to have the patience to listen and talk with them. I’m not sure I am naturally that person, but I want to be like that, like my mom. (love you :))

The rest of the week was lectures and free time because I hadn’t received my blue card yet. You have to have a blue card to go into schools to work with kids, and those who had their cards went in during the kids’ RE classes (religious education) and did skits. I was SO dissapointed that I didn’t get to show off my AWESOME acting skills, so my friend Laura was excited to do it for me! (caps and italicization show oozing sarcasm) It’s not that I didn’t want to go into the schools though, because I generally like to spend time with kids, etc. Instead, we walked downtown Roma one day and the next couple of days we went swimming at the local pool. WOW! Finally after three weeks I am actually getting use out of my swim suit! :)
This weeks lectures were on Relationships.... I was not too excited about it because I’ve heard about 15+ speeches on the subject and a handful of those were really incredible, what new things could there really be? I appreciated the beginning because it wasn’t specifically talking about just relationships between men and women. By mid-week we moved into the sex talks and then on into pornography and other such things. Our school leader, Gunnliek was speaking all week, and did a great job with questions and being honest and open about stuff. Friday was the coolest ministry time, as Gunni spoke about the need for forgiveness of sins and hurts that have come against you and opened up a time of spoken repentence, etc. It was a time of much healing for everyone, even if they didn’t go up to speak. I do believe it is very powerful to do such a thing, though. During that time a million things raced through my mind that I could say, but one thing that came up was something I didn’t realize still had so much power over me. It was the bitterness I’ve had toward God about my singleness, which I thought I had reconciled but truly realized it needed to be spoken out and let go once and for all. I don’t think it means I’m all happy and joyful about not being married or whatever. It was just the freedom in knowing that God still wants to do so much more in me before that time comes.
That afternoon the team of us going to Chinchilla left at about 2pm for the two hour ride. There were 19 of us, if I remember right :). Here are those that went: artists: Me, Laura, Leah -school leader, Hannah J., Marieka, (yay for all the artists)... MUSO’s (music) guy Kelly (leader), Mic, Stefano, Caleb, Jeremy, Karla (also a dancer), Henna, Heikki, Paulina, Tammy, Eryn, Amber (leader), Mary Kate (leader), and one Dancer- Roseleen.
It was really cool to finally have a smaller team together, and that’s even funny to say since twenty is kind of a large number too. In Chinchilla we served dinner and provided entertainment for a group of youth from the churches in the community. I think it’s a great idea they have there, instead of each church having a youth group, they combine them all into one across denominational lines. They were having a “prom/formal” of sorts and they were speaking on relationships, that part was hilarious for a myriad of reasons that I just won’t go into because it would take too long. (and this is already long!) At the end they cleared the tables and had a dance, and encouraged the students to ask the YWAMers to dance... I got out of the first and second one because I was waiting for the toilet and didn’t get back in time for the second, but then got suckered into the third one. I don’t like dances with specific steps, or when the guy doesn’t lead well, but that’s okay. At the end they turned on Relient K’s anatomy of tounge and cheek, so a bunch of us moshed and skanked it up, that was fun! Yeah, I know all you former youth who are reading this are laughing at me... but that’s okay, that’s why I love you, cuz you love me even The rest of the weekend was really relaxing... I taught Laura and Leah CINQ-O on saturday afternoon... only the youth will appreciate what I’m talking about... it’s a game we played in Belize all the time and most of us got sick of it by the next year. I still suck at explaining it, but it worked out still. I think I still have yet to win that game, Leah ended up blowing Laura and I out of the water. Maybe it’s something about that name, LEAH! I wonder how many of you have lasted through this LONG post... sorry...

I think I’ll end it at there... except to say that we had a night of worship on saturday night that prepared me for this week to come. My heart is full and heavy, knowing that God has a lot to show me and though I so much want it, I’m really scared to let it all out in front of these people I have only known for 4weeks. So, pray that God would place people in front of me at the right time and that I’d be open and able to articulate everything I’m feeling because right now it feels like a big twisted knot in my mind.

Love and Miss you all like crazy!!

Lecture Week 2

2007-10-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Lecture week 2
This week we’ve been hearing from a man named Patrick Dodson. He has been challenging my way of thinking about art and how God sees me as an artist and how to create my art. It has been freeing, yet sometimes frustrating.... freeing in the sense that I don’t create things for other people and don’t need the approval of others for my art to be “good.” Even in writing that last part, it doesn’t truly express what I mean, it’s just so much good information and stuff to process.

One thing he said that was incredibly freeing, yet extremely frustrating is that the first ten years of your craft will be crap. Bold, right? Hard to take in? But, at the same time, knowing that this whole thing is a process, and maybe it’s not completely crap it’s all that stuff that comes out in the process. It’s overwhelming at times because the way he speaks makes it feel that I missed the boat back in my early years... 18/19... to be thinking in this different mind-set.

The different mindset is this... it’s called “centrifugal art: moving from the inside out as opposed to “centripetal” art: working from the outside in. Centripetal art is rampant in america.. looking to the industry for the next biggest thing and trying to cater to the world around you. Instead of looking at it from the inside out... one thing I wrote down that he said was.. “channel what Christ has for us to create through annointing”... to me this means putting more meaning behind what you’re creating, instead of just drawing this shape here and that line there because it is conceptualing pleasing. In my first efforts of painting I think I was creating from within, but didn’t necessarily put any meaning to it... I had a HUGE canvas to use, so I painted whatever I wanted that was pleasing to the eye. But actually, in that process I continually asked myself if it was done when I got to the end. I’m not saying the whole thing was crap or that it means nothing, but it was a step. I wonder how much more feeling or life it could have had if I put more meaning into the piece.

Switching gears again, this has really made me think hard about my previous profession as a graphic designer. He (patrick) hasn’t yet talked specifically about that world, but talked a lot about the pressures and how that tends to control and manipulate how you create. Although I have loved designing at it’s core, there is always a part of it that messes with your creativity because what you are creating is not your own. I don’t know if it is different in areas outside of the music industry, but I find it especially hard because you are creating a representation of another artists’ creation. Just stop for a moment and think about that, talk about pressure. Whether or not the pressure is internal or external, it’s a huge stumbling block for creativity. As I write this I think of these things... does that mean I haven’t mastered the art of letting go of the pressure and letting go of what they think? I don’t know, because I know there is that whole “don’t take criticism personally” which I was taught from the very beginning, but after creating 5 different designs for someone only to have them go with another designer who just “tried” something on the side... it’s hard to not take personal and just brush off. Even if that person has asked for forgiveness and blah blah and three bags full. [of course i’m not talking about a personal experience or anything... ;| ;|] It just plain messes with you. So, it’s only two weeks in and I am starting to ask myself.... “do I want to continue down the road of graphic design... or do I want to explore the other gifts He has given me in the fine arts... and what does that look like practically?

I may diverg more of this on the blog in the next couple days or even weeks. (is diverg a word, and did i even use it in the right context?? :)) This is definitely and area that God is working on in me... along with other stuff as well.

What I’ve really enjoyed about Patrick as well, is that he is an advocate for healing being a process. You can be “healed” from something, but it doesn’t mean it’s a magic wand and you don’t have anything else to worry about. This seems like a totally different topic, eh? But, he also encourages and says that bringing your healing and the things you are going through into your art is really important and is what gives life and passion to your work. That is something I agree with whole-heartedly, if there is no emotion or feeling in a painting/picture/song then there is no connection point. If your life was perfect without pain, there would be no experience to draw upon (literally and figuratively).

He's got a website, I would encourage any artist/musician/creative to look him up, you may get totally inspired! :) www.patrickdodson.net

ALSO>>> Don't Send salad dressing to Australia... they will quarantine it!!!! Lame, right?! >>>>>

pictures of trip to brisbane

2007-10-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

Bird at the train station.
train tracks
the "nicollett" type mall (sorry for the bad spelling)
The girls choir we saw.
tammy, kelly, and senja

more to come

2007-10-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

This is Brisbane City by the river.

Yumm... icecream... Kelly Senja (senya) and ME

Brisbane City skyline... i love it

haha... give way... not "yield"

cool trees

Delight Yourself in the Lord...

2007-10-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

And He will give you the work duty that you want!!! :)

Indeed, it actually ends with "and He will give you the desires of your heart." And this verse from the psalms has been referenced a couple times since I've been here, how cool since I picked it for the heading on the graphic I made for this.

If you haven't realized it yet.... Today after a nap to rid my headache, the photographer, Kelsey came to my bunk and asked if I'd want to switch work duties. She realized she just wasn't going to have fun doing it. YES! And, now, she will have fun doing Kitchen duty :). yay! We're trading all over too, because I bought yogurt the other day that I didn't realize was Low Fat which I hate and she likes it, so she's buying it from me! Sweeeet!

The moment after I gave her my reply I thought, "hmm... this is what I want, right? psh, of course.." It won't be that much... only thursday from 1-2:30 and friday from 1-5:30... sounds kind of long on friday, but really, to get anything done you need a good chunk of time. So... THANK YOU JESUS!

free bird

2007-10-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today we had morning chapel/worship and morning lectures and at the end they told us our afternoon lecture was cancelled! Which means, I have the whole rest of the day to do NOTHING or ANYTHING I want! This is what I have done so far: ate lunch, met with my one on one leader, jumped online to do a few emails, put laundry in the washer, and now back here blogging. What I plan to do the rest of the day: finish this blog, hang my laundry to dry, find a quiet place to listen to Rob Bell's podcast and spend time with God (I hear there's a cool cemetary close to base that works well), read, take my clothes down from the line, read, and whatever else I want to do. I guess eat dinner sometime in between as well.. It would be nice to eat some food other than the base food.
Today for lunch I ate an odd combination, half way through I wished I could just put it all back and just make a PB&J, they always have bread out to eat and peanut butter, jelly, and Vegemite. They had tortillas, random veggies, ham, salami, and cheese, but I got there a bit late and the scraps of lettuce were only left and about the same for everything else. It ended up being a salami, scraps of lettuce, cheese, and sour cream wrap. It wasn't the worst thing, but it was nothing incredibly satisfying either. The food hasn't been all bad, and not that different either, except in anything they make with ground beef, they always add oats... since when do hamburgers call for oatmeal? Wierd. Not super tasty, but not the worst I've had either. I don't think we've eaten anything that's "australian" per se, but as I've said, lots of salad... every fricken day... salad. salad. salad. If there were croutons or sunflower seeds I'd think that might make it better as well. might.

Okay... so I'd like to address the "work duty" situation as know many of you were up in arms for me... for that I thank you for caring! This is the status.... so on Tuesday the "artists" got to meet and go to the art studio and get to know each other better. It was super cool time. As I shared about what I did before I started teh DTS, one of the staff on art asked if I'd want to help out with the "MAD" ministries logo. Some of the others also said they'd love to get to know photoshop better, etc. SO..... after lamenting the work duty... and realizing I won't be completely left out of using my graphic abilities as well as fine art, I was verry much satisfied. And in all honesty, this was supposed to be a time for a bit of a break from the computer side of art... maybe I hadn't expressed it as much to people, but that's where I was at... and now this is where I am! O, how profound. :D
There are some super cool staff that are behind the scenes who will be working with us during the art studio sessions. I am so excited for it to full out start, we just began stretching canvas yesterday so soon I'll be able to start painting... woo hoo!

I think that's where I'll stop for now... OH... and I was also going to say... I'm atleast 1.5hours from the beach... darn, but might be going to the beach this weekend!
My mom wanted to know that :).... if you have any other questions that you're dying ot know that I haven't explained or said anything about... please ask! :)
love to all!

Dinner Crew???

2007-10-15T04:12:00.000-07:00

A few days have passed since I really wrote anything about what I've been doing. It's really hard sometimes to know what to share. But, first I'll explain my post title.

Two days ago we had to write down on a slip of paper what work duties we preferred, a first choice and second choice. They listed them all on a white board and described a little about each. One of the choices was Web Design/Graphics, and when describing mostly said it would be video and photo editing and re-touching and then sometimes some print materials or the base. Perfect! There are no other graphic designers, only an interior designer and a photographer (who self-proclaimed has a lot to learn about photoshop). Later that day before a group time we were given a slip of paper saying the duty we were on and before they were given out apologies were made to those who didn't get their first choice. I was so confident that I would get my first choice, there was even a space to say why you would be a good candidate and I put down my credentials accordingly, but to my surprise I read on the slip Dinner Kitchen Duty. ----blank stare---- "You're kidding me, really? WHO else would get the graphics work duty.. did someone hear me say that the graphics work duty wasn't even work?" I didn't say that out loud, but I was really upset... I couldn't understand why I wouldn't be atleast ONE of the TWO picked. Instead the photographer and the Interior Designer were picked.
Okay God... what are you doing here??? I shouldn't be upset, should I? I mean honestly I was looking for a break from the computer in the beginning, but when it came down to actually having the opportunity again, I was excited. Excited to do something a little different than what I usually do at work. So, as you can see, it is still fresh, especially since I just finished getting the "orientation" for Dinner Work Duty.

The reason why it is so hard to take is because I feel like I'm the one that is most experienced, and that they must think I don't know much. The truth is that they don't know and it really is nothing personal, it was their ignorance. But it just feels like this low blow, and I don't know even how to ask the other to girls who got the duty if there would ever be an opportunity to get in on something. (since there work time would be different than mine anyways) It's still so raw for me, I don't want anything to come out sarcastically, it's not there fault I wasn't picked... well... for the most part.

Enough of my complaining... sorry.. I don't mean to have a "throw-up" blog. :)

Other good things.....
I was having quiet time yesterday and along with confessing my sadness about the above topic, I also just realized I hadn't had many deep conversations or even been truly embraced by anyone yet. As I wrote to a couple people, it sounds really wierd or goofy to write about, but seriously it's a big deal. One of my old youth leaders used to say that you need 8 hugs a day to survive... well, as much as that would be great I'm usually okay with one a day or so... BUT, when you don't have any in a whole week you notice it. I was praying that God would break whatever barrier was up inside everyone.
So here comes the cool part.... later in the day I was helping a girl named Hannah take some "rubish" to the big bins out back. On the way back we stopped by this picinic table and began to chat. We started talking about the church in general and how for so many it's the same format all of the time: worship, announcements, offering, message... or some sort of combination. Also, that often is the case that you are looked down upon if there are stretches in life when getting to "church" hasn't been a priority... but what isn't noticed is that there may be fellowship or "church" going on in another way in your life. The conversation ebbed and flowed from different topics like that and eventually we started talking about meeting people in new situations, etc. and how natural it is to judge people on their outward actions or appearance. Hannah is appearingly and inwardly a "free-spirit"... I love it, she reminds me a bit of a girl named Karina who just graduated in the youth group. I told her about my weird hug topic and she said, "Okay, then I'll jump up on your bed every morning and give you a hug. That's not necessarily what I meant, but I assure you, she did that this morning and it made me laugh. It was a little earlier than I would have liked. :) But when are you going to complain about a hug, right? :D

I'll talk more about the church I attended sunday night in the next couple of days. I am trying to figure out a balance in writing in the blog and spending time with God and all that. I think that I may try to only use the internet two days a week or so.

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOO

2007-10-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

On the way to the airport!
(mom was in the back of the van between josh and sarah... it was a tight squeeze, but why take two cars... that would be silly)

Fijian money!

ME IN FIJI!!!

mmm... fooood.

2007-10-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is in the airplane (duh) - a photo of New Zealand.. it was rather cloudy the whole time.

This airplane was sitting at the terminal when we pulled in, I mostly took the picture for sarah and josh!! :) cute, eh?

After 24hrs. or more of traveling, I was pretty much exhausted and just wanted to get out of the airport!! This is in Brisbane waiting for my ride.

I took this picture on my balcony, the building below is another housing facility. Apparently they have to watch out more for the poisonous spiders... THANK you JESUS for not putting me in that one!

This is one of the many cool trees around the base.

For future reference I'll occasionally send out notices about more photos posted on facebook. You can view those even without an account.

I have my luggage!!

2007-10-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

just so you know... i recieved my luggage yesterday...
it feels really good to be in my clean clothes, to be wearing something other than "Chacos" on my feet (sandals). i love my flip flops!

i found one thing that i miss... it's kinda funny, but it's Kraft Ranch Dressing... or any good Ranch dressing from the US. Here it has a sort of "sweet" taste to it and it seems we've been eating salad at EVERY meal.. which I like, accept the only dressing that is decent is Ceasar and even that has a little different taste.

Keep Left.

2007-10-11T23:28:00.001-07:00

October 10

Greetings from Brisbane, Australia!! Today has been a mellow day with not much going on. The next thing I have to be at is a "welcome dinner" for the new DTS students. I've met quite a few gals and found out there are only about 3 guys that I know of on our MAD DTS. Why do girls ALWAYS out number guys? So, there are 3 people here from MN.. represent baby! (did that sound totally cheesy or what?) One of the guys is from IA, but lived in MN until he was about 10 years old.

In the afternoon we went into Brisbane City to the mall, the same kind of thing like Nicolette(sp?) Mall in Mpls. As we walked to the bus down a few blocks that took us to the city, I continually had to remind myself to look right instead of left. Also, it didn't dawn on me right away until walking around in the malls that they walk on the left side of the sidewalks as well.

I really feel like I am in a family here. Once I woke up the first morning, it just felt right. Even though I barely knew anyone, I just felt at home. And oddly, I haven't felt really jet-lagged. OH.. and I had been telling everyone that it's a 14 hour difference, but it's actually a 15hour difference. Brisbane doesn't observe Daylight Savings either, just so you know. I guess it's because there is a HUGE farming community and way back in the day they thought that changing the time would confuse the cows and then they wouldn't produce milk.

During dinner there was a presentation of all the staff at the base and we also had to introduce ourselves and say what school we were doing and our favorite dinner. Lasagne had been taken about three times already, so I decided to say steak, and that got a good response! :)

After dinner we had a time of worship. It was wonderful, so beautiful and freeing to finally just worship and thank God through song for my travels and safety. I continued to pray for my luggage to come as well, and to continue to be at peace with what I could not control.

it was a good day all in all.

(p.s. its actually thursday as I write the end of this and I've got my luggage!!! hurray!)

HEY, has anyone figured out iPhoto 08?? I've been trying to upload photos from there, but somehow when I import them it doesn't put them into a separate folder to find when uploading. I'm not very happy about this!! It's this long process to get them to save into a folder... so bear with me and I'll post some pics of my living quarters, etc. as soon as possible.

goodbyes... travel days... hating LAX... and more travel stories

2007-10-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

really? it's october 7th already. i was really really excited up until yesterday and the nerves hit. i know they are a very important function of the body. but it really just is hard.

Here I am at the Nadi, Fiji Airport. I honestly don't know what they call it officially, but I don't think you all care too much.

Last night was pretty much awful(technically, the time zone I'm in now, it wasn't last night)... well it was going well until I had to say Goodbye to my mom, sister, bro-in law, and nieces and nephew. That was hard, and as in an email I wrote to my dad while waiting to board my plane, I wasn't really excited... I was sad and came to the realization of it all. I knew it all along, but it was finally officially real and I kept wondering, what am I doing??... I actually started doubting saturday night. I honestly think it was an attack... whether it was my own emotions just culminating and not letting me sleep OR the devil trying to get down on me... it was real and I had a hard time sleeping at first.

After saying the hard goodbyes, I went through security and got to my gate... found out I could log on to the internet for only eight bucks for twenty four hours, so I figured then I could use it in LA too... perfect! As I waited I browsed the internet and sent a couple emails.
I forget if I called my mom first, or they called me. I think it was that I called them because I realized I was facing Post Road, where they were up on a hill behind watching planes. As I was on the phone with them, Ang beeped through and it was close to boarding time so I said goodbye again. :) When I switched over to talk to Ang quick an announcement was made that there'd be a half hour delay, we finished chatting and said goodbye as well, she had good words for me.
I then sent a text msg. to Pat (bro in law) to go down to the actual post road parking lot because I could see it and thought maybe I'd see them under the lamp post. They did and called, but all I could see was Pat shining the lights from the van. That was enough though... it was fun, I guess they were waving and dancing around or something, wish I could've seen 'em. haha owell.... We eventually boarded, I called them one more time, (i know... sappy? naw, it's just that leaving for 7mos. is a LONG time for someone who hasn't left for more than 2weeks!) and saw the glow of the van lights through the fence and said goodbye.

The girl I sat next to on the plane was really sweet... I was having a hard time still, and when we hit some turbulence and saw lighting, I freaked out a bit. She was really understanding and we chatted for a little while. She grew up in Andover and went to Anoka HS, but graduated four years later. She told me this story that last time she flew there was a HUGE lightning storm, and it was so bad she couldn't even cry... it was just so intense.(you may be wondering why I am writing out numbers, well, I'm not looking at the keyboard at all cuz it gives me a headache when I do and I don't kow the numeber keys very well :)).

I guess I have the punctioations down though. I think I'll be editing this anyways :). ...

Here begins the REAL DRAMA.....
So... Once I got into LAX I went to the New Zealand Air desk and the guy told me I was actually flying on their coooperative airline Air Pacific and I had to a ten minute walk over to Tom Bradley Terminal... quickly. So I did. When I entered the terminal it was mass chaos. I have never been in a more awful airport, even Port au Prince was better than this!! It was nine thirty at night and there were atleast a couple thousand people roaming around and in lines that made no sense to me. I stood in a line for ten minutes that wasn't even where I needed to be, I got to this one point and the security guy said, oh, you need to be way down there at the end. (which where there was NO line!!) I got there and they asked "what's your reason for being late... I was so irritated (as if I could do anything about it), I told them because they're fricken airport is so confusing and my flight from mpls was delayed just slightly. They informed me that my bags might not get to my destination in time and did I want to fly knowing they may not be there... I was like FINE, but I need to be to my destiantion on time, so let's go here. Well, I didn't say all those words exactly, but made it clear that I was not happy... although I don't know how you couldn't know since my cheeks were tear stanined from all of the emotion and chaos and udder lonlieness I felt. I tried to find solice in the phone calls made to my dad and vice versa, but the airport was so friggen loud I could barely hear him(or myself for that matter). Even thinking about the scenario just makes me overwhelmed again.
Going through the security line felt like an eternity, I was so afraid I wouldn't make my flight, apparently I was supposed to be looking for a Air Pacific person with a sign go by to get me closer to the front, but I sure didn't see one pass. I'm glad my cell plan was good until the 9th, because even though there was nobody in flesh, I knew there was my dad at my fingertips to give whatever support he could. I just wrote in the previous paragraph about feeling so alone, but as I look back even though I did feel alone it was so important to have my dad. (fyi: my dad was on business [i think in providence] and my mom was at home... but she would have freaked worse if she heard the worry in my voice... so THANKS DAD! I'm pretty sure it was like 2AM his time)

I finally made it through security and thank God the gate was close. I got there while they were still boarding, made a call to my dad and to my mom and sighed/cried in relief.

I need to board my flight to New Zealand now... more later.

ok... in New Zealand now. Just finished edits to the earlier portion of the post. This one is long... and may be one of the longest that I'll be posting.

(I am sitting here at the base in Mitchelton, Australia.)
I better talk about my Fiji experience now.

I got to Fiji at 5am, so it was still dark out as I walked out of the plane to the terminal. We didn't walk on the tarmack, but they had a walkway outside before reaching the terminal. We were greeted with Fijians playing guitars and yukelielies (sp???), it was pretty humurous. I stood in a line for about 45mins only to be told to sit down and wait because since my flight wasn't leaving for 5 hours it wasn't in the system yet. So, I was in this "interim" place for about 2hours before I could go into the main terminal and eat and relax.... all the while hearing the same songs of the men playing every time a new flight came in. (so, it wasn't as humurous the 5th time)

I finally got through to the main terminal at 7:20am, and proceeded to walk around and look at all the "touristy" shops. (as I am sitting here, I am listening to a girl who is playing her harp and another girl playing the guitar) I realized that I needed some sustinance because the airplane food just wasn't cutting it. I bought a croissant and an iced coffee... the iced coffee was a mistake because I was already a little dehydrated and promptly got a headache and felt a little "dizzy/lightheaded."
I am going to skip most of the time in Fiji because it really wasn't that eventful, just a lot of waiting around, walking around (with my laptop bag that got SO heavy) trying to decide what Fijian trinket I should get... I decided to add to my extensive key-chain collection. I couldn't bring myself to buy any of their carved bowls etc because it's just wierd to buy it at the airport without a good story of where or who it was made by.

From Fiji it was to New Zealand and I sat by some nice folks. I was supposed to have a window seat, but the girl who was in my seat had been bit by a misquito during her stay in Fiji and her arm had been super puffed up and was sore. She didn't want it to get bumped, so I, being the kind person I am, let her sit in my seat. (sorry about the bad punctuation there) I was a bit bummed because I never did get to see the beautfiul waters of Fiji... Owell. They were from New Zealand and were headed home, and told me all about the things to see if I make it to NZ at the end of my DTS. There was a movie playing on that ride so I got to see "No Reservations" (again, but willingly!).

The New Zealand airport is probably my favorite so far, very open and simple. Although my flight was delayed about a half hour, so getting into Brisbane I was late and it was rainy and very turbulent. By that time, I was so sick of flying I just wanted to be done, it was bothersome turbulence, but I was so used to it at that point and continued to pray that His angels would surround the plane as with every other time.

I got through customs with no problems, they didn't even ask for the paperwork that I broght with for the VISA. Smooth sailing... until baggage claim. DOH! It took forever for the bags to get there, and then I waited for about another half hour to find out my bags had been stuck somewhere and didn't get on that flight. GRRR... okay okay.... go with the flow... it's not the end of the world. BUT, after having been traveling for 24hours PLUS, I was tired and just wanted to take a shower and go to sleep. It took awhile trying to find the YWAM people as well. Especially since my flight was delayed and then the whole process with the luggage. I think I was at the Brisbane airport for 2hours. Got to the Base at about 9pm... actually we picked up another girl that had been flying domestic because she came early to travel in New Zealand and then Sydney. It happened to be the other girl I knew who's 25... we connected over email personally and had the same thought about being the "olders" of the group. So, we instantly connected on the ride to the base. It was great. yay... so now I AM excited and even over these last couple hours have had an extreme peace about my bags getting here and just going with the flow. Knowing that this is not ABnormal, especially for missionaries who travel all over. You just have to adapt to the different situations that come up.

I think I'm going to end this post and hopefully in the next day or two will be able to post it!

3 days... woah

2007-10-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

so i'm three days out... when you read this, it will actually be more like 2 and a half days or so. that is, if you read on october 5th ... technically it already is october 5th.

crazy. that's what i've heard from my mouth a lot lately.

my going away party was very cool. if you weren't invited and felt like you should have been, deal with it. HA... or atleast don't take it personall, life has been just slightly busy lately.
as i reflect on the prayer/commissioning time, i realize how powerful our God is and how He speaks to others without me having to say specific things. there is so much to think about, it was hard to know the exact things i need prayer for, but the things i needed were covered. i've also had a few other times of prayer with friends who weren't able to make it, and listening to the words are so amazing. everyone has their own way of articulating, and i know it doesn't matter so much how you say it, but when i hear it, it really makes sense. it has been a great comfort hearing the words and just being with others who you know are on the same wave-length as you, enough to know that sometimes words aren't even needed.

thank you all.

Lord,
thank you for the words you speak to me and my prayerful supporters! you are amazing!
Amen

Isaiah 61:1-4

2007-09-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, ^[a]

² to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.

⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.

take my life

2007-09-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

In the hustle and bustle of getting all of the last details figured out it has been hard to make time to spend for myself (and God). I want to see and spend time with my beloved friends and family before I go, so it has been hard to juggle that with getting details done, not to mention cleaning out my room. Saying no or making time shorter with friends is not something I want to do, but may be necessary for me to be rested and ready to go. Time alone is something that I'll be lacking much of in the next 7mos. so taking that time now is important. My short prayer for this is that I would have wisdom in these last remaining days of how to effectively use my time.

This past weekend we sang a song that really resonated with me (or maybe it was the weekend before, i don't remember).... "Take My Life And Let it Be".. this is my prayer... and also the old song by Amy Grant "Thy Word". I've posted the lyrics below to a "modernized" version of Take My Life... My favorite parts are the chorus... "Here am I, all of me. Take my life, it's all for thee." At church we sing the original version, and then sing this chorus... I really love the original too, but this rendition is cool as well. If you're curious how it sounds, look it up under Chris Tomlin in iTunes or Amazon.

Tonight, "Thy Word" popped into my head. I think it has to do with this feeling I've been having lately about the unknown. So, the chorus says "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." the last part is what struck me. He is my light.. His word is my light in the unknown territory I am journeying into. "Nothing will I fear, as long as you are there, please be near me to the end." (going off of memory here)... Funny how this old nostalgic song gave me the comfort and affirmation I needed for the unknown. I know it's not necessarily an easy fix, but a good reminder and something to hang onto.

Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.

Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my king.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use every power as you choose.

Here am I, all of me.
Take my life, it's all for thee.

Take my will and make it Thine it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord I pour at your feet its treasure store
Take myself and I will be ever, only all for thee,
Take myself and I will be ever, only all for thee.

Here am I, All of me.
Take my life, It's all for thee.

Take my life, Lord take my life. take all of me

Here am I, All of me.
Take my life, It's all for thee.

macbook madness

2007-09-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went in to the Apple Store to purchase a Macbook. I looked around and decided which laptop I really thought would work the best. I came to my decision that it was the Macbook Pro, it's the higher end type of laptop, but the lower model in the series. I was really excited, but they were swamped so I waited and waited. When I finally spoke with someone, they informed me it was out of stock everywhere, and that I could order it online with free-shipping or call in every once in awhile to see if they have had any shipments. Though the latter of the two options seemed a little obnoxious, I'm still just old fashioned when it comes to this stuff and like to be in person for big purchases. I left the store that day frustrated that I drove out to Rosedale for nothing, yet excited that I knew what I really wanted.

In the meantime, I called every so often until last friday when I got a bite! I decided to call in the morning for a change. The nice man at the rosedale store said to call midday because they get blind shipments all day. (why didn't any of them tell me that before?) I almost forgot to call, but at 1pm I stole a moment away from work and called the Apple Store. VOILA! They had the exact one I wanted, but could only hold it for 2hours. I guess it was going to be a half-day, good thing my "schedule" is flexible. I informed Guy(the boss-man), about the news and he gave me his blessing. At 2:35pm I was out the door and on my way to Rosedale.

I walked in and told them I had a Macbook Pro waiting for me, etc etc. The guy who helped me then inquired if I knew about the free printer offer with mail-in rebate, or the student discount offer. I indeed knew about the student discout, but quickly informed him that it probably wouldn't work for me. We went over to the printer and he showed me the free one that included a scanner AND copier... SWEET! Sign me up! Then he inquired further about my school, and I told him about the University for the Nations (which is the affiliated university that gives credit for the DTS). I said I didn't think it was considered the same as a university because even when I tried to defer loans it didn't show up in there list. He said he had heard of YWAM and that he would check UFN out. He came back and said all he needed was to see some sort of certification that I was enrolled... another AWESOME deal! That meant I got $200 off AND a FREE ipod nano. I was astonished... I really had it in my head that I wouldn't get the student discount.

As I walked out of the store with my laptop, printer(scanner/copier), and ipod nano, I could barely contain my joy and elation. I felt an overwhelming gratefulness to my Lord for putting all these things into place. (not to mention thankfulness to my Grandma who was the $ provider... lots of LOVE to her!!) I put it all in the trunk and got in my car, and BAWLED.

There was so much anticipation and unexpected additions, it was too much to contain. Why is it that God keeps paving my way so easily? (knock on wood) Where is the hang-up going to be, I mean, God forbid... I don't want anything awful to happen, but with everything going fairly easily it's hard to believe it will continue to be this easy. I suppose it will be difficult in other arenas... maybe the arena of my heart, unexpeced things that I have to work through? I don't know... I know this whole journey won't be easy, but I guess if these initial things go well, it's better that way?!

ending prayer of thankfulness..

OH Lord... you have been good.... you have been faithful... you have been good.
Thank you Lord Jesus for the path you have paved before me and what you will bring me through in the next 7months... I anticipate your revelations of life, love, trust, and peace... and so much more!

45 days and counting

2007-08-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

These days are rolling by faster and faster. A week goes by and I think, "Shoot! I was going to do this and going to do that..." It seems my time management skills have gone down the toilet all of the sudden. I wasn't a rockstar at it before, but I think I'm noticing it because my days remaining in MN are few.

I just connected with a girl who found me in a "Facebook" group for YWAM Brisbane. She's from the cities and is still waiting a reply to see if she has been accepted in the the MAD DTS for this October. What am I freaking out about... I've known for 6months and she hasn't even been accepted. The fact is, there's a real chance she may not be accepted because it may be filled already... etc. She did just graduate highschool though, so I think at that point in life it's easier to just up and leave (from the responsibilities standpoint).

I guess we'll see :). It might be cool to actually have a fellow Minnesotan there.

There's actually another crazy connection to her, but it's a longer story, so I'll end with just this tonight.

Have a good night.

Gracias for Prayer...

2007-08-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

Updates and "praises" for prayer...

1. My visa application was accepted and approved!! I actually found out the NEXT DAY! I was completely astonished. Many thanks went up that day!

2. Plane Tickets have been purchased. yikes... this thing is SO real. excitement is rising.
I have a stop in Fiji, for real!?!! Sweet, only like 2/4 hours, but hey, I can say I've been to Fiji!! Also New Zealand.. rockin!

3. Last week's prayer request about work... sounds like it will work out! Wild, that means only a month and a week left... that's a weird feeling.

4. Financial support is coming along... sometimes it feels like it crawls, but then it'll jump. Just letting go of the "need to know" has helped... although it's not easy.

Prayer request

2007-07-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

I realized on Thursday that I hadn't made it clear at work when I was planning on being done. Or, that my definition of needing some extra time before I leave, and my boss' definition were different. At the time I first told him, it seemed like a very long time until then, so I wasn't specific.
All of that to say, depending on who comes in to take my place, it's possible that it may be tricky and not as smooth a transition for me or vvg. I emphasized "may" because you never know what God can do, maybe it will be smooth. It's the unknown that adds stress.. and right now, I don't need more to add to my plate.

So... prayer for peace... wisdom for my boss... enough transition time... for work and for me before I leave.
Thanks supporters.
Thanks God!
amen

Visa

2007-07-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

I am beginning the Visa application process. Once this has been taken care of, I will be able to breathe much better knowing that as far as Australia's concerned, they'll let me in. :) Pray that the process will go smoothly... just as smooth as the passport renewal went. (I expedited it, came within 3 weeks, I was astonished!)

That's all for now.

Peace Games... practice

2007-07-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

There was a block party in North Minneapolis tonight called Peace Games... apparently it is one of three going on this summer. My church asked for volunteers to help at various activities that were provided.
I happened to get there late, only a few minutes, but everything was up and going already. I found Ellen and she directed me to the "Crafts and FacePainting" table. How convenient. :)
The tools were not what I would have preferred, but it only goes to show that it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm just too much of a perfectionist in my art. I guess it was a hit though, because I sat there for two hours straight painting butterflies and flowers and the occasional baseball or basketball. I didn't have an "example chart" and after a day of work I just couldn't think of anything more creative. Anything else wouldn't really work anyways, I didn't have the luxury of small brushes to do details... like I said though, it really didn't matter.

On the way home I thought of how just three hours previous I was seriously debating whether to go or not. It was mostly because I knew I'd be late and hadn't had dinner and was really tired, but I knew I wanted to enjoy the beautiful weather and I also had committed to it.
I forgot about all that stuff when I sat down and started painting butterflies on little tyke after little tyke.
About mid-way through there were a bunch of teenage girls that came over and wanted these different guys names on their arms. Like... D'Angelo and D-Man and D-Mob.... As I was doing this a number of things raced through my head. Was it just teenagers being goofy girls, or was it more? I have no idea... it was just the way they tounge-n-cheek'd between each other.
I'm a white suburbanite for sure, so I'm the last one to really think I know what's going on in their lives, prime example of this:
One of the girls had a baby bjorn strapped to her (or the equivalent to), and I automatically assumed the baby was hers! It was her nephew, he was just two months old and this girl couldn't have been more than 15years old herself. It really reminded me of Belize, the kids just come out of the woodwork, and everyone is related to someone else.

I'm so glad I made the decision to do this! I even met a woman who recognized me from a year and a half ago when I told a piece of my story at church on a communion sunday. She was volunteering at the same table doing crafts. Usually when someone at church says they recognize me I'll say I work with the youth and leave it at that, but I felt compelled to share about that time I shared.

Thanks Lord, for a time of going out of my normal tasks of the day and putting to use my talents right here in Minneapolis. I pray as you begin to speak to me about my steps after YWAM, that the things I am doing now would build for later.

First Post... yay!

2007-07-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is my first post for my official YWAM Australia blog!

And, it is also the first time I am writng without being online. My internet services are temporarily out of service. (ie: my computer is just old enough where it didn’t come standard with a wireless card installed). I am trying to figure it out, but at the moment just don’t have the time or energy to figure it out. It’s almost nice to not have the internet. I’m the kind of person who gets sucked in very easily.

On to more important things...
This past week I went up to my sister’s for the 4th, we played in the water and had lots of fun. Much quality time was had with the nieces and nephew.. I would have liked a little more one to one time with the sis, but with the kids in tow makes it a little harder. It’s all good though, we’ve got a “girls weekend” coming up soon.

As I prepare my heart to leave, it has been a struggle knowing what to do with all this “stuff” I’m feeling. I know I need to keep communication open, but sometimes I don’t even know how exactly to express myself. The problem I had this weekend was that I didn’t really say anything, I just avoided it, but then it ended up coming out in anger about something completely unrelated. (well kinda... it was living arrangement stuff)

I took time on Sunday to talk and pray with a mentor, as we spoke I was affirmed of the things I was feeling, and challenged to not let my emotions take control over me. I have a tendency to “care-take” others’ feelings. I don’t need to take on the weight of how my family and friends may be feeling as I leave.
It’s a hard thing to process, I’m wrestling with it and giving it up to God, knowing that He can lighten my load and everyone else’s as well.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matt. 11:29-30