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!!

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!!

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!!

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!!

Fatherheart of God and four weeks till Mexico!!

I can't believe it is the end of week 8. Time has been going quickly. We have less than 27 days until we leave for Mexico City! I am getting excited to go and have loved how God is stirring in everyone that excitement to go! We are in the process of figuring out how everyone will pay for the outreach fees. As a school we have over 60 thousand that needs to come in by the 10th of March. I have been learning a lot about faith in God for finances. Please pray with me that our school will watch God work to cover all of this expense!

This week we had John Bills come and speak to our class on the Fatherheart of God. John is a longtime YWAMer. For those of you that have been reading Joy Dawson's book Intercession, John is actually married to Joy's daughter! He was such a neat guy who has spent much of his life ministering to people with AIDS as an AIDS hospice chaplain. His experiences working with people with AIDS helped to show the heart of our Father in heaven. I have been so blessed to have an awesome earthly father that has always loved and cared for me! (Love you Dad!!) I realized this week that not everyone has that and it can affect how we view God the Father! We also can have experiences with others that the enemy uses to taint our view of God. We spent time this week working through our false views of God that affect how we receive God as Father. God has unlimited Fatherly affection, acceptance, faithfulness, generosity, attentiveness and authority with each and everyone of us. He is a loving God that is perfect in every one of those ways. It was such a great week and good reminder of what a great Father we all have!!

Thanks to all of you that have been praying for me! I can tell that you all are speaking to God on my behalf! This week I found out that I had some damage done to my condo because of a leaky pipe. Please pray with me that this can get fixed soon and that the damage is minor. My insurance should cover some of it but this will be an added expense! God is a generous God though who cares for all of us and I know he will provide! Thanks in advance for praying for this for me!!

This past week I had the many opportunities to talk with friends. I was able to talk with all the Brouwers in Canada, went to Cliff and Cristine's house one night, talked with a friend from Oregon and my sister and Mom and Dad. I felt so energized by talking with them and incredibly grateful for the support system God has given me. I am blessed by all of you!! Please know that all of you are loved by me!! Thanks for reading!!

Fear of the Lord

It's Saturday and end of week 7! I have a free weekend which I have to say came at just the right time. After Slum Survivor last weekend I was pretty tired this week. It will be nice to recoup and get some homework done. Week 7 was really good. We had Shirley Brownhill, the base director, as our guest speaker talking on the Fear of the Lord. I was looking forward to hearing her speak and getting to know her a bit more. On Tuesday however, she ended up getting very sick and didn't end up teaching anymore. So, we had Will who was our teacher for Repentance and Forgiveness come and teach the rest of the week. It was a great week of teaching. We talked about what it means to be holy and how the fear of the Lord over the sin in our lives can help us to overcome anything. It was really good to see practically how holiness can play out in our lives.

Tuesday was our hands-on-compassion. We finally got in to see the girls!! We brought cookies and icing to decorate them with. It was a lot of fun! I think they enjoyed eating all the cookies! We also got into some great conversations with a few of them. Thanks for praying! Keep praying too so that we will continue to be able to go in.

Thursday was our base evangelism night. The group that I was in spent the time walking on the beach (watching a gorgeous sunset over the Indian Ocean!) in Cottesloe and talking with people we saw. We had a really great conversation with a lady who I think really needed to talk with someone. She was struggling with a few different issues in her life and didn't have many people around to help her process all that was going on. I really felt like it was key that we were able to be a listening ear to her. Her name is Fiona and she has some major changes happening with her family in the next couple weeks. If you think of her, please lift her up in prayer!!

This next week we have John Bills coming to speak with us. I am really excited about hearing him. He has been with YWAM for 36 years and is a great speaker. In the meantime I will enjoy my weekend!! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! I like thinking that people are keeping up with what I'm up to, helps to feel connected to all of you back home! Have a great weekend!

Half-way done and livin' in a Slum!!

We are officially half-way done with the lecture phase of the DTS. I can't believe it! It still feels like I just got here in some ways! Week six was a really fun week in that the topic was relationships. We learned about the foundational aspects of healthy relationships: Love, Trust, Understanding and Honor. We had Shaneane Totorewa from YWAM New Zealand come as our guest speaker. She was a lot of fun. I am so thankful for the friends and family I have and that God chose to give me each one! You all are a blessing to me.

Tuesday was our hands on compassion. We were able to get into the detention center this time but not to see the girls. They had more girls than what they are supposed to have and that meant they needed to move some of them around. Because of that, they didn't want us to go to the girls area. We were bummed that once again we weren't able to get in but we did get to go and play games with one of the boys areas. I played ping pong and a card game with a few of them. It was fun! Please continue to pray that we can get into the center and see the girls!

At the end of the week we left the base for Slum Survivor. It was a weekend away where we went to the bush (a beautiful national park). They split us up into teams and we spent the weekend living like someone might that is from a Slum. We had to build our Slum out of cardboard and tarps and live in them. We also played games kind of like they do on the TV show Survivor. We had a blast! Saturday night after we all went to bed our staff found a kangaroo getting into our garbage and food. I am so used to raccoons doing that, I thought it was funny that it was a kangaroo!! I didn't get a chance to see it though. Hopefully I will see one before I leave!

The next week or two is going to be really busy! We have quite a few assignments due along with all our regular assignments and other work duties. We are also in the process of getting prepared for Mexico City. I am getting excited for our outreach. I feel like God is giving me a heart for that city and I am ready to go! We leave in a little more than a month. Thanks for your support of me and for praying for me! I appreciate it so much! Blessings and have a great week!!