Outreach Update!

Greetings, Loved Ones!

I have finally found a free moment to write a quick post for you all.

Outreach, so far, has been spectacular. We have been sprinting non-stop for almost three weeks now. We have been guest speaking at numerous churches, teaching, sharing testimonies, and engaging in Christian fellowship during Sunday services, Wednesday services, and Friday services. We have completed 22 school programs consisting of skits, poems, testimonies, interactive songs, etc.. (Shout out to my mother and all the Tapawingo gals: we did the "go bananas" song at almost every program!). Typically we were either teaching Religious Education classes or doing "Easter Concerts" for the kids. We have visited numerous youth groups as well, helping out with their planned events, getting to know the kids, sharing about YWAM, and sharing about different aspects of Christianity. Lastly, and what we are in the midst of currently, would be the "Easter Camp" here at Assemblies of God Mossman Church. Beginning Thursday and ending Monday, about 40 church members come to the church and camp out, either inside the sanctuary with the YWAM team (which, to be fair, isn't really "inside" as the walls are made entirely of lattice - enabling bugs, wind, and birds to come and go as they please), or out in the fields next to the building. We have been mainly helping with cleaning and cooking - the pastor and his wife are running the entire event so they very much appreciate our help.

For my part, personally, I have been doing quite a bit of public speaking. One of the highlights so far was sharing my testimony in front of this church two nights ago at the Good Friday service. I was so blessed to learn from the people there that they enjoyed hearing my story. Another time I helped lead worship with two other people on my team. As many of you know I love to sing so I enjoyed that quite a bit.

So that is a short update, but gives you a taste of what we have been doing. We have had very limited wifi and still do - so I need to wrap this up. I hope you all have had a wonderful Easter- thank you so much for your prayers and support. God bless you!

Random fact of the post:

We went to a rainforest creek a few days ago (we are currently living inside the rainforest- if you're wondering which one, it's called "Daintree"--technically though the border of Daintree is about 20 minutes away) and as I was standing in it, someone a little ways away from me yelled "EEL!" Sure enough, as I stood there perfectly still out of curiosity and out of my love for all creatures, an eel about half a meter long swam right up to my feet and proceeded to swim under the rock I was standing directly next to. First time ever seeing an eel. Beautiful creatures, they are. Slightly frightening, but stunning nonetheless. I have no idea if it was lethally venomous or not- that statement seems to be a theme for my time here is Oz. Click Here to Read More..

Off To Work With the Homeless In Cairns!

Greetings, Loved Ones!

I am here today to tell you that I will be away on missions work for 3 weeks, starting on Monday! A team of 9, made up of myself and 8 others (basic math skills), are heading 5 hours south to stay in Cairns (and Mossman- a nearby, smaller city) for three weeks. Our accommodations will be purely generosity based; we will be staying both on the floors of churches and at one particular charity based home for the homeless. We were originally going to be living in tents at a trailer park for half the time, but a church (who has never interacted with YWAM before- which makes us a "pioneering team" as we are experimenting and cultivating a new relationship!) came forward and asked if we would stay in their building.

When asked if there would be opportunities for us to contact home during these three weeks, our leaders informed us that, hopefully, we'd get at least one time per week where we had wifi. I will hold myself, obviously, to updating all of you as frequently as possible. Thank you again for your prayers.

In other news- the Lord is speaking. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of life-changing happenings. The reality of God speaking in a way that is comprehensible to me in addition to His keeping His promises has come to absolute fruition in the past ten days. Absolutely wonderful. I have come to the conclusion that God loves to be wrestled with- I fought Him for three hours straight over something that appeared two weeks ago and let me just tell you: in all my classical training and the college courses I've done and the theological classes I've taken, I have never been taught so much than in those three hours and the days immediately after. I was DEMANDING that He tell me what was going on or, at the very least, tell me how to fix it. I couldn't understand the logic behind Christ putting something in my life to distract me from Him. What I've learned in bullet points:

A) The Lord doesn't particularly cater to worldly logic.

B) I cannot force the Lord into telling me anything.

C) The Lord truly does have a plan for me that I cannot alter in my foolishness.

During this whirlwind, the Lord has spoken audibly, visually, through prophecy, through the mouths of people, and through my own mind. Yesterday, at the very end of lectures, I was somewhat divinely showed the verse 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Then, as I was meditating on the passage, my eyes drifted up to verse 8, which says exactly (in the NIV, anyway) "three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me BUT HE SAID 'My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness." That was me two weeks ago. I wasn't just pleading though, I was both BEGGING and DEMANDING with all the strength I could muster. Just as an encouragement to all those out there who aren't sure if the Lord does or will ever speak to you in a way you can clearly comprehend: He will take you hand in hand, step by step, through whatever you honestly desire Him to.

Random fact of the post:

Whilst camping, I was awestruck at the abundance of small beauties the Lord has put on this earth. There were sensory activated plants all over- plants that, when your finger tips brushed them, folded up like a Chinese fan. There were dragon flies that were, every inch of their bodies, purely neon colored; not just neon green striped though- I mean brilliant colors like neon red and neon blue. Their entire bodies were these shades of bright, saturated color- when they flew by, your eyes had no choice but to follow them. There were flowers that had, in every one "flower head", 6 smaller flowers- 5 of them a beautiful periwinkle color and one in the middle of those five that was bright orange. Inside each of those 6 would be about 10 more tiny, whitish-blue flowers. We could see the entire Milky Way Galaxy on a clear night. There was a plethora of shooting stars nightly. Even the spiders and the lizards were brilliant colors and shapes and sizes. To top off my excitement about nature, just tonight, as I was walking along a bridge alone in the dark, a possum showed up. Not an opossum- those are the ones in the states. A possum is different, though looks quite similar (they are a bit different in size, I think?). At any rate, I was able to pet it for a short while before it returned to its home in the tree tops. It's tail wrapped around my wrist. Those things are quite strong. Click Here to Read More..

Camping in the Bush (pt. 2)

Greetings, Loved Ones!

So, part two: picking up from my last post - I believe I had to stop right when Katrina and I heard the call of a frantic leader from the other side of the tent divider, hey? So we jump up, trying to find a torch to figure out how to unzip the divider, listening to her yell that "the door is broken". Katrina unzips the thing and right as we're about to go through, the poles on our side of the tent twisted inward (the poles were shaped at an angle) and the wind began to blow the entire side of the tent INTO the side of the tent we were going over to. I jumped at it and began to hold it up against the wind (which was the STRONGEST WIND I've ever felt in my LIFE- Aussie storm season is not one to be messed with, apparently) while Katrina went to help with the door. The whole zipper of the door had been torn away by the wind and, as there was no tarp just then, rain was coming into and onto us and our tent in heavy sheets. As this was in the middle of the night, it was not cool rain, but COLD rain, and we were not at all prepared for it in our pajamas!

We had to switch positions after a bit because, no shame, I was the only person in the tent tall enough to hold both sides of the door up while also trying to zip it back up from the bottom... Basically, it was a nightmare. One of my good friends back home would have described it something like this: "Doors be breakin', rain be poorin', people be yellin'." A startling bolt of thunder struck just in the field next to us- suddenly, a quite loud and very clear "moo" sounded from one of the surrounding areas.

At this point in the story I'll make a quick excerpt to elaborate on the fact of wild cows: they were everywhere in the Valley. They would roam through our tents, up to our lecture tent/shed, grazing through the fields and such. Obviously I have a deep love for animals and so this fact excited me quite a bit.

My excitement got the best of me and I yelled at the top of my lungs "COWS! ITS THE COWS! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR DAYS TO SEE THE COWS!!!

Everyone in the camp who was not awake yet was certainly up after that.

After quite a while of running about in the rain, putting tarps up, breaking out those emergency towels I told you all of before (thanks, dad!), we eventually got to the point where, as the wind and rain subsided, we just put up with our damp clothes, beds, and bags, and just went back to sleep.

The next morning we all showed up for breakfast in damp clothing accessorised with puffy eyes and aching muscles. We sang praise to Christ that morning with more fervour than I had heard yet that month.

My tent mates and I were brought back together and given a new tent- a six man, praise the Lord- and it held up the rest of the time. Not much excitement in the way of weather after those first few nights.

That's the end to the first major story; I'm sure I'll be mentioning others for the next couple of weeks but for now I'll let them lie. Thank you for praying for me as always. For those of you who may not have known, a cyclone has just swept in from the sea and has hit the island next to us along with a couple other areas- we received heavy rain but no damage was done. Thank you for praying! May God bless you all!

Random fact of the post:

There were so many spiders during camping. For one, there was a Bird Eating Spider hanging over my head once (about 6 inches long, maybe more?) which was great. There was also a lethally venomous one crawling on my leg- though I didn't realize it at the time and so I flicked it off with my fingers. Looking it up later, I realised my mistake. Another time, I was changing in my tent and asked my friend to hand me a pair of my shorts from the line- She did, and as I was turning them around, there was a Huntsman spider climbing rapidly upwards onto my hand due to my disturbing its sleep from the underside of my shorts. Huntsmans, though not incredibly poisonous, can still do some serious damage- the real reason I yelped in fright and threw the shorts down, though, was simply because they're big. They can grow to the size of a man's stretched out hand and bigger. This one was about the diameter of a grapefruit. SO MANY FUN TIMES.

Thank you all again! Lord be with you! Click Here to Read More..

Camping in the Bush (pt. 1)

Greetings, Loved Ones!

My back is doing well. I was somewhat miraculously healed after a session of prayer in the middle of lectures yesterday (today is March 10). (If you'd like the full story, email me. Now that I've had few days to recoup, I'm excited to share with you my adventures from the Bush.

First off, it was a two-and-some hour drive to get to the campsite, which was in a small valley (named Hidden Valley) on the top of a mountain chain. We got to the base of the mountains after about forty minutes, if that gives you an idea of how far away we were from, first of all, sea level, and, secondly, civilization. We drove through a rain forest on our way up the windy, un-railed mountain sides-- absolutely beautiful.

When we arrived, I could already see (and hear) the storm clouds on the horizon. My three tent mates and I snatched our backpacks and our four-man-tent and set off to find a good, high-ground place to set up. There were no high ground places anywhere. There were low places, and there were lower places.

Once our tent was up, we set about trying to situate all of our belongings: 4 full sized hiker backpacks and two duffle bags. It worked quite well until we tried to add our selves; for those of you who don't camp much, the equation for the size of tent you should use goes something like this: however many people you have, you get at least one size tent bigger (eg. if you have two people you get a four man, three people you get a 6 man, etc.). We had a four man tent with four people plus our luggage. Not fun.

It began to rain about 30 minutes after we all got into the tent. The sides began to leak almost immediately. Through fits of laughter, we managed to waterproof most of our belongings with trash bags. The next afternoon, we were hit with a storm so strong that we originally thought it was a cyclone. Our tent was literally ripped from top to bottom. We scrambled around in hysteric laughter to get our things out of the now-flooding tent only to find that the only place we could put them was in "the shed" (a large lean-to type deal with a tin roof) where EVERYONE was mingling around. It was a hysterical night. We were then told to split up and share two tents with two of the leaders who had their own 10-man mansion tents... Katrina and I (we were one pair - the other two girls went to the other tent) snuck into the tent around midnight to find locusts flying around inside, spiders the size of an adult hand crawling on the floor, and puddles everywhere but the very middle of the floor. There was a woman sleeping on the other side of the divider inside the tent and so we had to take care of all of these obstacles silently- quite the task in the dark.

Katrina and I fell asleep shortly thereafter, curled up in the dead middle of the floor, in between the dead spiders and the puddles, only to be rudely awakened an hour or so later by the side of the tent concaving and hitting us both in the face. We woke up, looked at the warped side of the tent, laughed at each other and rolled over to fall back asleep; we were brought to our feet by the leader on the other side yelling "Girls? GIRLS! Come here!"

The story does not end here of course, but this post is already quite long, so I'll finish the story in the next post. All of my love to all of you! Thank you, as always. The Lord bless you.

Random fact of the post:

The morning before we left the valley, everyone in my tent woke up and set out for the creek-side to watch the sunrise. Then, as we were sitting on the curb of the bridge, we began to see bubbles in the water, traveling towards us slowly. We all stood up, having heard the rumors of what may be in the water, and suddenly a platypus floated up to the surface and swam right underneath us, waving all its legs and paddling its little tail. Apparently it was a rare sight! They're much smaller than us Northern Americans often think- about the size of a medium size flip-flop (or thong, for the Aussies). It was absolutely darling. Click Here to Read More..

Back from the Bush

Greetings, Loved Ones.

Today (March 6) I had my first taste of how hard missionary life can really be. I returned home from camping today with an excited and rejuvenated spirit. That spirit was slightly dampened by the fact that my lower back went into a severe spasm - which means I am unable to sit up without assistance and must lie flat on my back to avoid excruciating pain. This happened because I have severe scoliosis, and whenever I do strange things with my back for an extended period of time (which in this case was sleeping on the ground for two weeks, frequently swimming in rainforest pools - which was awesome by the way!, working hard and then sitting in old camp chairs for HOURS at a time) it (my back) goes "out" for a while. The longest time I have had to lie flat on my back was my first back spasm which lasted 10 days! Thankfully none of the subsequent ones have been that bad, and I am hopeful to only be laid up for two or three days with this one.

But all of this is really inconsequential. My point is that despite my back spasm - my heart was on cloud nine! The Lord spoke to me over the past two weeks and revealed things to me that excite my spirit. I arrived back at base to three care packages waiting for me, all of which contained wonderful goodies. The third, though, had in it a heartfelt letter from my mother. She had emailed me last week asking me to call her as soon as I got back but I neglected to do so, seeing that it was nearly 3 AM where they were. I figured a Facebook message saying I was happily home was enough to get us by until the next morning. Alas, but I misunderstood the reason why she wanted to speak with me: as I opened the letter in my room later on, I read with sobbing lungs and a broken heart that my precious cat Kiwi had died. My mother was hoping to tell me in person before I had to read the letter.

Kiwi, my darling kitty, was given to me on Christmas morning of 2010. I had wanted a kitten since I was 4 and I cried with joy and unbelief when she sprung out of the decorative gift box onto my face (still my favorite Christmas present ever!). It seems as though I cried when she came into my life and also when she went out. She had been with me through all of my high school years (which, without going into detail, were very, very hard). The Lord works in mysterious ways. On our last night in Hidden Valley (where we were camping), we sang songs around the campfire, and we finished the night with "It Is Well With My Soul." Even now as my eyes sting and my back quivers in pain, I rejoice in the Lord that He is with me, and it is indeed well with my soul. I vowed yesterday to lay down my calloused heart and any bitterness it still nurtured. And can I tell you something? I think pain like this hurts more when you have a soft heart because that bitterness, that anger, is no longer a response option. All I am left with is to praise the Lord for all He has done.

My two weeks of camping were absolutely and literally out of this world, and I can't wait to tell you all about all that happened to me, but I am afraid my heart can't handle right now relating stories of laughter and joy.

I know to some of you losing a cat may seem rather petty or inconsequential, but let me tell you, it is not. No objective disaster could have hurt me more - not if all of my belongings had gone up in flames. Kiwi was my precious little one who snuggled me through the hardest times in my life and now she is gone; I was not there to say goodbye, I was not there to see her gone, I do not have my family nearby to comfort me. I rejoice in what the Lord has called me here to do. I will rejoice in the wonderful moments and the terrible moments. I absolutely refuse to give any of my heart to anger. My Father in heaven is the WONDERFUL Counselor and the PRINCE of Peace and I will go nowhere else but to His throne to receive that peace and good counsel. He is refining me to be more like Himself, and through my pains here and now, I will be more like Him later on.

Pray for me, if you would. It is oh-too-possible to rejoice in the love of the Lord while still feeling the full force of raw pain; I will be hurting (emotionally and physically) for at least a little while still. I greatly appreciate your support. You can email me, as always, by clicking here for my email address.

Random fact of the post:

Kiwi was not a very good-natured cat- she loved me, but most others she would attack (which only made me love her more, since she was unique like me!). She would often hiss and growl if you moved too much while holding her- when she would do this in my arms, I would put my finger on her little snout and kiss her on the nose and snuggle her all the closer. I will miss her so much. (Ugh, I'm crying again! I hate this!) Thank you all again for supporting me. Be blessed. Click Here to Read More..

Two Weeks Gone

Greetings, Loved Ones.

The fatigue has set in.

This week has been the worst for me in the area of physical exhaustion. The first half of the day is straight lectures and only the second is work, so it's not as though my days are excruciating, but the cumulative tiredness has begun to take its toll...

We leave on Sunday for two weeks straight of Australian Bush camping. No wifi, no phone signal, no charging stations- I am extremely excited. The QUIET that will be present, the peace that will be felt, the serenity of nature! Granted, due to the large amount of us going (about 60) it will be more of a glamping (glamour camping) trip than a tried and true, old fashioned camping trip, but I'm alright with that. For instance, the kitchen is bringing a fridge or two. Don't mistake me, they won't have electricity for anything but food and water, but nonetheless. The men, going up a day early to prepare the site, will also be setting up a water tank for us to drink from. (I will have you all know that I am bringing my own water filter-- my father gave it to me before I left. It's not that I don't trust their filtered water, it's just that I, personally, would rather have my own potentially life saving filter to carry around in my bag at all times (along with a ten-pack of vacuum compacted emergency towels and a trustworthy hunting knife- all from the wonderful Nate Winters)).

That being said, there is a downfall to the wilderness: I will be unreachable (and unable to reach out) in the most absolute sense of the word for two weeks. Because of this, there will obviously be a bit of a gap in my blog. I will write down or take pictures of (at least in the first week, before my only camera runs out of batteries) the exciting scenarios that I fall into and be sure to relay them to you all later, once I again have access to the internet.

On a completely unrelated note: lectures this week have focused on the Character[istics] of God- not entirely the same as the Attributes of God, but close- and the main characteristic has been faithfulness (derived from His love and unchangeableness). Listening to these lectures brought back many memories from my high school days- the man speaking briefly touched in one week MAMMOTH topics that I was made to (in schooling) mull over for months. Topics such as Infinite Regression, Predestination, and even historical topics such as the Assyrian Armies of Nineveh. The first four days were moderately excruciating for me: it seemed as though all my comrades were having revelations of biblical truths or interpretations they had never been exposed to before. Having a pastor as a father and going to a classical Christian school for 6 years you can imagine that I was not experiencing quite as many "mind blowing" revelations-- I was feeling quite left out and, in a way, almost insecure that I had already heard a lot of the material being spoken of and thus was not participating in the campus-wide excitement of new knowledge.

On the last day of the week, the speaker told a story of being abroad leading a team on missions. One of his students decided to pray that the team would be shown God's faithfulness through an "impossible situation". After hearing the story, the speaker made a joking comment to the effect of "don't pray to be shown His faithfulness if you're not prepared to trust Him through impossible times."

....Interesting. Do not mistake me: I trust the Lord. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He will work everything out for my good because I know that I love Him. I'm not, however, entirely sure if I holistically believe that He will provide for me; FOR ME. I've known He protects my parents, and I've often reasoned that that translates to Him protecting their children, as we are extensions of them and if we are hurt, they are hurt, but would Christ walk with me just for the sake of my own well being? Or would He place me in a situation and supervise as I built character? There have been times in my life when I have been in a serious trial and I have not turned to Christ or any physical human. I know in my mind that Christ must have helped me without my actively knowing it at the time, but do I have anything to base that belief off of beside the fact that I'm still here, breathing?

So. These observations bring me to this question: Do I believe that Christ cares for me at such a personal level that I am willing to pray for an impossible situation and trust Him to bring me through it because He loves ME and is unchanging to ME? I have to tell you, I'm not sure. I don't want to experience a tragedy or trial just to work out my "heart issue", especially if my heart isn't mature enough to not turn bitter during the process. A tad paradoxical, I find. Well then, I suppose we shall see, won't we?

I have found out for certain that I will be headed to Papua New Guinea for my outreach (in May). We will be headed to the Central Province to a specific tribe and train some of the natives in evangelism, their area of missions being surrounding tribes. The Lord is going to be doing some amazing things. If I could ask for prayer for something, it would be this: pray for me to be less critical. My first reaction to instruction--whether it be lecturing, confrontation, team building, mentoring--is skepticism. While it's good to be able to find the thread of Truth in the weave of words, it's not good to "throw the baby out with the bath water", so to speak. That phrase was once used against me as I rejected a confrontation on the grounds of faulty logic... I am so foolish. At any rate, prayer for skepticism. Thank you.

As always,

I love you all, and I will talk to you in two weeks! Click Here to Read More..

Second Impressions

Greetings, Loved Ones!

Now that I have been here almost a month (imagine that!), I feel as though I have a better take on this place. I'd like to share with you just 10 of the different Australian oddities that I've noticed- only 10 of the plethora.

1. All the outlets have their own switches, and I mean EVERY outlet- two plugs and two switches per white rectangle. You have to turn the outlet on before energy is pumped into the cord you just plugged in.

2. They pronounce the adjective "Aussie" as "Ozzie", not "Awssie", and Australia is often referred to as "Aus"(pronounced and sometimes written as Oz).

3. There are geckos. Everywhere. We found one in our food the other day.

4. The people here are (get ready for a sweeping generalization) much taller than in the USA, meaning that I don't attract quite as many odd looks. Although I must say, I've had my fair share of comrades at the Base come up and enlighten me as to the fact that "I'm so tall" and "I should play basketball". (Ha!)...

5. Sadly, due to all the diversity here on campus, I've learned just how much cheaper college really is in just about every country apart from the US. In Germany, Norway, and similar countries, it's free! Also, there is not the pressure that is present in the US to "go to college no matter what." I've found this information fairly depressing, considering my current plans for college...in America. We shall see where the Lord leads!

6. The majority of church services here are held in the late afternoon, typically between 3pm and 7pm. Personally I think that's a genius idea.

7. There are wild crocodiles- and they're surprisingly common here in Northern QLD. The Strand (the ~70 meter area of the beach designated for swimming which is enclosed in a net to keep the jellyfish out) was closed last weekend due to a 5 meter croc that had made its way into the area- it could have easily gotten through the net, so they restricted swimming until they found it further on up the shore. Let that sink in for a minute: I swam on Friday night, the exact place I was swimming was closed the following morning because there was high risk of a 5 METER CROCODILE lurking in the same water. It literally could have been just outside the net while I was swimming. Crazy, right? How thrilling.

8. They have market day on Sunday, where everything you could imagine has been homemade and put up for sale by someone. It's like a flea market, but tighter packed, and with more street musicians. They have everything from exotic fruit to finger puppets!

9. The restaurants are very diverse and exceedingly tightly packed; just here down the road there is an Indian place which is next to a Chinese place which has an upper level that is a Thai place-- all of which are right across the street from the Australian version of Chipotle, which is next to an Irish Pub. There's a frozen yogurt place right there too- basically, whatever you want, they've got.

10. Lastly, I'd like to share about the ocean- the Pacific, though I was told prior to leaving that it would be colder than the Atlantic and the Caribbean, is actually quite warm- the sun heats it to the point that it's still quite warm even at 11pm and after. (There are times we have to go night swimming if we want to go at all- they work us quite hard here- I love it!) In addition, it's INSANELY salty. If you swallow even a spoonful, your entire throat goes raw. There are also vinegar stations along the Strand in case you do get stung by a jellyfish (which, by the way, they call "stingers" here). Apparently it happens often, especially once the net goes down in August.

Well, that's all, folks. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of what I've been encountering these last several weeks- I hear there's a blizzard somewhere in the States right about now, moving into Indiana and such? Very interesting... If it makes you feel any better, living in mid-90's every day isn't always fun! (Ha!) Thank you for your prayers, and again, if you'd like to contact me personally, my email address can be located by clicking here.

Have a wonderful week, all!

Random fact of the post:

Ant bites HURT! Who knew those little suckers could pack such a punch, ay? I had to learn the hard way. As soon as you step in the wrong spot, ten of them will instantly be on your foot and then.... BAM: sharp, stinging, itching pain. Got to love Oz. Click Here to Read More..