I am about an hour away from leaving from the airport and thought I should post something before I leave. It has been a crazy last week or so to say the least! Week 11 was our last full week of class. We had Chris Adams from base talk to us about Spiritual Warfare! It was a balanced and interesting teaching that I enjoyed very much. Cliff and Cristine were our teachers for week 12. They taught on missions. It was fun to end my time in Perth with my good friends teaching! They were great and a lot of fun!
This past Monday Perth had the worst storm they've had in 50 years. The sky was dark and ominous and reminded me of the few times I've been in tornado type weather. Reports say that it actually was a cyclone. Anyway, it started to rain a bit and then hail. A little later it was like the heavens opened and it started to pour like I've never seen. It rained so hard that much of the base and the streets were flooded. Quite a few roofs were damaged and a couple of the dorms had to be evacuated. We were without electricity on base for a few days. Needless to say we had to be incredibly flexible and creative to see everything run as normal.
In the midst of the storm and clean up we also have been fighting for visas for 23 students that come from more developing nations. There has been a lot of red tape and the Mexican embassy changing their minds about the process and what they need to do. It looks like most of them will have to wait 2-3 weeks to go to Mexico. Please pray that this situation clears, that they all are granted a visa and that they can come sooner rather than later! Please also pray that the government comes up with a way for students from these countries to get visas quicker because there will be people being sent to Mexico all year!
I don't know that I have had time to truly process my whole time in Perth. I know first and foremost that God gave me this time to relax me and to refresh me for more ministry. It has been such a blessing to have three months of learning more about him and sitting in his presence! I am so blessed by all of you that made this possible for me to come. I am so grateful! I look forward to stepping out to Mexico City and seeing all that God has for us there. We have heard phenomenal stories of what's been happening there and I am excited to get going. I'm not sure how often I will be able to have Internet but I will update whenever possible! Thanks again for your love and support of me! I know I couldn't do this without it! Thanks for reading!! See ya Perth!!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Kookaburras in Kings Park!
It’s Sunday and the end of week 10! It was a really good week. We had Rachel McGirr come and speak to us about Lordship, Authority and Submission. It was also the week our outreach fees were due. At the beginning of the week our class needed a total of about $100,000 of fees that had no pledges of support. By Friday that number was down to $7000. God blessed in amazing ways. Thanks to all of you for supporting me. I had almost all of my outreach fees paid for and have pledges for the rest! On Tuesday we had our walk-a-thon. Our whole class walked 12k to help raise the money we needed. We actually walked in our outreach teams. 
I have a great team (see pic). They are all really creative and a lot of fun. I think we will have a blast in Mexico City working together! We leave in less than two weeks. I still can’t believe how fast the time went and I am excited to go and see what God has for us there. This coming Tuesday the outreach teams that have been there the last month or so are going to have their report back day. I am looking forward to hearing the stories of their time in Mexico City. It will hopefully be encouraging as we will be there soon!
Today I had a chance to go to
King’s park which is a big park filled with memorials, restaurants and a botanical garden. It was a lot of fun and such a beautiful park. It is up on a hill and overlooks the whole city. 
We were able to take a bunch of pictures. We had lunch at a small café that was incredible. I even got to climb a huge tree (see pic). At one point while we were there we took a break on a park bench. I began peeling an orange and all of a sudden a bird came close that was incredibly cute and unique. 
We found out later it is a Kookaburra bird (see pics). We really wanted it to come closer so we could get a picture of it so I threw it a piece of my orange. Well, he soon was right by me eating my orange peel. He was so cute! I have really enjoyed seeing all the unique wildlife here in Australia! I will miss it when I’m gone for sure. Thanks so much for reading! Have a great week!!
I have a great team (see pic). They are all really creative and a lot of fun. I think we will have a blast in Mexico City working together! We leave in less than two weeks. I still can’t believe how fast the time went and I am excited to go and see what God has for us there. This coming Tuesday the outreach teams that have been there the last month or so are going to have their report back day. I am looking forward to hearing the stories of their time in Mexico City. It will hopefully be encouraging as we will be there soon! Today I had a chance to go to
King’s park which is a big park filled with memorials, restaurants and a botanical garden. It was a lot of fun and such a beautiful park. It is up on a hill and overlooks the whole city. 
We were able to take a bunch of pictures. We had lunch at a small café that was incredible. I even got to climb a huge tree (see pic). At one point while we were there we took a break on a park bench. I began peeling an orange and all of a sudden a bird came close that was incredibly cute and unique. 
We found out later it is a Kookaburra bird (see pics). We really wanted it to come closer so we could get a picture of it so I threw it a piece of my orange. Well, he soon was right by me eating my orange peel. He was so cute! I have really enjoyed seeing all the unique wildlife here in Australia! I will miss it when I’m gone for sure. Thanks so much for reading! Have a great week!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Pet Kangaroo...check!!
I saw a kangaroo tonight!! Cristine and I and her two girls and Johnny, a friend of Avery's went to Kangaroo Island tonight and saw three kangaroos! It was so much fun! I really wanted to see a kangaroo before I left Australia. Now I can say I saw one! It was so fun. We walked around for quite a while and didn't see any.
We decided to leave because it was getting dark. On our way back to the car we saw three of them. They let us walk right up to them and pet them! It was so fun! The kids were loving it too! They are such a unique animal, isn't God creative! I'm having some issues uploading the pictures. I'll post them soon!! Have a great day everyone!!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Luau and Street Evangelism!
It's the end of week 9! It has been the busiest week yet but in the end a lot of fun! This week our subject was evangelism. Stevie Lujan from another base in Australia came to speak to us. 
He was a lot of fun and had some amazing stories of evangelism that he has done. On Friday for application we prayed for a bit to see what God might want us to do and then went into the town square area. We were able to talk with people and share with them about Jesus and even pray with some. It was a really neat time. Evangelism is really easy when you think of it in terms of building relationships and telling your story. We all have a story of God's faithfulness to us in our lives. We just need to be willing to talk with others about it! I find that I enjoy praying with people. I was able to talk with and pray for about 5 people during our time. It was great!
Friday morning we participated in One Voice, a worship time with 9 bases around the world. Bases in Hawaii and Coatsville from the US, Mexico, Colombia, Switzerland and Australia participated through a Genesis link over the Internet.
Each base had a band that led a worship song at different points in the morning. For us, the worship was from 5-7am. It was a great time and so neat to realize that we were all worshiping from all different parts of the world at the exact same time.
Friday night we all presented our research projects that we have been working on for the last few weeks. We all chose a topic of need in our world and then an area that we would research about.
My group studied homelessness and because we are heading there in a few weeks we looked at homelessness in Mexico City. We found that Mexico City has a lot of street children and squatter communities throughout the city. We definitely learned a lot and look forward to having times where we can talk with and minister to people that are without homes.
Saturday was a Luau on base (see pictures)! Island Breeze is a ministry of YWAM that ministers through cultural dance. Most of the dancing is from islands in the South Pacific. We had a great time at the Luau. The food was phenomenal and the dancing was so much fun! It was fun to see everyone dressed up from our school as well! The Luau was a fund raiser for the base towards a building fund that they are currently raising support for. Overall the night raised about $17,000.
This week looks to be a big week as well. On Wednesday all of our outreach fees are due. I know that people have pledged money to me and I believe I am close to having what I need. I don't know though that I'll have all of it by Wednesday. We are having one final fund raiser this week as well. On Tuesday we are having a walk-a-thon. As a school we are walking a 12K on Tuesday morning. We are hoping to have people support us per kilometer. If you would like to support me in the walk-a-thon you can do that one of two ways. First, you can pay by credit card by going to the Ywam Perth website (www.ywamperth.org.au). Once there, go to the donate/pay section. Fill out the form and put my name as the recipient. The other way is to send a check to my church for the amount. Make the check out to Suburban Life Community Church and send it to the address on the right hand side of my blog. If you have any questions you can leave me a comment and I will answer that! Thank you all for your support of me. Please pray with me that I will be able to have all my fees by Wednesday!
Thanks also for praying for my condo. From what I hear the pipe and condo below has been fixed. It was a bit cheaper than originally thought (Thank you Lord!!) and I'm pretty sure my insurance will cover at least part of it. Thanks for your prayers!! I am so grateful for all of you! Thanks for reading!!
He was a lot of fun and had some amazing stories of evangelism that he has done. On Friday for application we prayed for a bit to see what God might want us to do and then went into the town square area. We were able to talk with people and share with them about Jesus and even pray with some. It was a really neat time. Evangelism is really easy when you think of it in terms of building relationships and telling your story. We all have a story of God's faithfulness to us in our lives. We just need to be willing to talk with others about it! I find that I enjoy praying with people. I was able to talk with and pray for about 5 people during our time. It was great!Friday morning we participated in One Voice, a worship time with 9 bases around the world. Bases in Hawaii and Coatsville from the US, Mexico, Colombia, Switzerland and Australia participated through a Genesis link over the Internet.
Each base had a band that led a worship song at different points in the morning. For us, the worship was from 5-7am. It was a great time and so neat to realize that we were all worshiping from all different parts of the world at the exact same time. Friday night we all presented our research projects that we have been working on for the last few weeks. We all chose a topic of need in our world and then an area that we would research about.
My group studied homelessness and because we are heading there in a few weeks we looked at homelessness in Mexico City. We found that Mexico City has a lot of street children and squatter communities throughout the city. We definitely learned a lot and look forward to having times where we can talk with and minister to people that are without homes.Saturday was a Luau on base (see pictures)! Island Breeze is a ministry of YWAM that ministers through cultural dance. Most of the dancing is from islands in the South Pacific. We had a great time at the Luau. The food was phenomenal and the dancing was so much fun! It was fun to see everyone dressed up from our school as well! The Luau was a fund raiser for the base towards a building fund that they are currently raising support for. Overall the night raised about $17,000.
This week looks to be a big week as well. On Wednesday all of our outreach fees are due. I know that people have pledged money to me and I believe I am close to having what I need. I don't know though that I'll have all of it by Wednesday. We are having one final fund raiser this week as well. On Tuesday we are having a walk-a-thon. As a school we are walking a 12K on Tuesday morning. We are hoping to have people support us per kilometer. If you would like to support me in the walk-a-thon you can do that one of two ways. First, you can pay by credit card by going to the Ywam Perth website (www.ywamperth.org.au). Once there, go to the donate/pay section. Fill out the form and put my name as the recipient. The other way is to send a check to my church for the amount. Make the check out to Suburban Life Community Church and send it to the address on the right hand side of my blog. If you have any questions you can leave me a comment and I will answer that! Thank you all for your support of me. Please pray with me that I will be able to have all my fees by Wednesday!
Thanks also for praying for my condo. From what I hear the pipe and condo below has been fixed. It was a bit cheaper than originally thought (Thank you Lord!!) and I'm pretty sure my insurance will cover at least part of it. Thanks for your prayers!! I am so grateful for all of you! Thanks for reading!!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Prayer Needed...leaky pipe!
I found out that a pipe in the bathroom of my condo (back home) was leaking and did some damage in the condo below mine. It cost $550 to fix. My insurance might cover some of the damage but they are checking all the by-laws for my association. I would love it if you all would pray with me about the money to pay for this! I am really trusting God for the rest of my outreach fees as well and now that I need the money for this it's easy to wonder (and even worry) about where it's going to come from. I believe God will take care of me and am trying not to get overwhelmed with what seems like impossible deadlines. God showed me a lot last week that he is a Father that takes care of his children and loves them in extravagant ways! Please join me in prayer that He will provide for me in this way! Thanks everyone! I appreciate it so much!!
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