Christmas Time is Here!

So it is Christmas week! How bizarre is that??? Christmas decorations are everywhere and we are all trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" this week which helped a little . . . but since we were watching it outside on our patio because our house was like a sauna from the heat of the day some of the Christmas spirit was lost in translation. However I am happy to announce that I finally found some Christmas lights this week! People just do not put up Christmas lights in this area of Perth and after seeing one house with Christmas light a couple of weeks ago, I realized I was missing them since EVERYONE puts up Christmas lights at home and makes everything look so pretty. But my outreach leader Elisha took me to a neighbourhood nearby where there were a ton of Christmas lights so I was happier to see that!

As well as preparing for Christmas, we also had our commissioning night this week. Everyone got really dressed up and we had a formal sitdown dinner complete with people to serve us food (which by the way was fantastically delicious). It was a nice time of celebrating what God had done in each of the schools during lecture phase and then all of the schools got up on stage and the leadership team here on base prayed for us and commissioned us to go out into the nations. It was a very nice night though I would just like to say that pretty much everyone here treated the night like prom so came in really nice fancy dresses and fancy hairstyles and everything. I on the other hand dressed in the nicest clothes I brought and just looked like I was going to church. I looked nice of course, but felt very out of place next to all the "prom-goers." But it's fine . . . lots of people went out and bought new dresses for this, but I don't how they are planning on getting the dress home/keeping them nice for the next 3 months of outreach! So I may not have looked as fancy, but I was far more practical!

In terms of lectures this week, we had an amazing time. The topic of the week was Spiritual Warfare/Freedom in Christ and our speaker was one of the base founders, Peter Brownhill. He did an amazing job of introducing us to the topic of Spiritual Warfare and I found the topic fascinating. It is an area that a lot of people ignore because they do not want to acknowledge or deal with the spiritual rhelm, but the reality is there is a constant spiritual battle waging and it is better to be informed and equipped to deal with it rather than ignore it all and plead ignorance. So I found the week enlightening and interesting, and it is definitely a topic I would like to continue to learn more about.

As far as prayer goes, my outreach team still needs quite a bit of prayer . . . we still don't know where we are going/what we are doing for the first week and a half of outreach and we are supposed to leave in a week and a half! So that's interesting. We were supposed to be working with a church in the city (because we are staying in Perth through the month of January so we can be around for the big celebrations at the end of the month to celebrate YWAM's 50th birthday and YWAM Perth's 25th birthday), but the church for whatever reason decided not to take us after all so we have been pursuing other churches and other options, but so far nothing has panned out. We need to move out of our houses by the beginning of January because the January quarter students will need to be moving in, but we have nowhere to live since we don't know what we are doing. So you could definitely be standing with us in prayer about that one! Also there are still people on the school who do not have all the finances they need for outreach. We have seen God move powerfully to bring in the money that has already come in, but we are still short about $23,000 and 3 of our leaders still need a large chunk of finance as well. We are standing together in prayer that God will bring the money in so no one is left behind, but we need as much prayer as possible in this area. Also just be praying that God continues to be preparing our hearts for outreach as it is quickly approaching!

I think that is about it for this week! Next week will be my last regular update as we will be on outreach mode after that I don't know how regular our internet access will be. However I will try to update as frequently as possible to let you all know how outreach is going here in Perth and then on into Mexico City!

Another week in paradise . . . if 40 degree weather is paradise!

It was another fabulous week here in Perth. The temperature is currently 41 degrees Celsius which for all those who have not experienced that before is HOT! I was on car wash duty this morning so am well acquainted with just how hot it is! Let me just say that you know it is going to be a hot one when you wake up sweating at 5:30am because it is so hot in your room! It's good though . . . I think I am getting better acquainted with the heat, but of course that means I will be cold all the time once I come home! Oh well!

We had another exceptionally busy week filled with fundraising, classes, and other adventures. Yesterday a group of friends and I took the train to Fremantle which is on the coast not too far from Perth and enjoyed strolling through the summer markets there. As I already mentioned I was on carwash duty this morning, and on Tuesday our whole school participated in a trash-a-thon and picked up garbage around the city in an attempt to raise money for outreach. I personally picked up 527 pieces of garbage which was the most out of the school . . . I am not referred to as the garbage queen! I was really amazed at how much money some people were able to raise from the trash-a-thon alone . . . one girl raised $3,800 and she had already paid all her outreach fees! It's been really encouraging to see how giving people have been as we have been working together to get our outstanding outreach fees down to $0. It is a slow process, but we have gone from a deficit of $73,000 to about $23,000! We still have some money to raise but we are getting there and are really praying that the money will all come in in time for outreach.

Classes were also really busy this week. We had Jono Turner from New Zealand come to speak to us about the Fatherheart of God. It was a really good week of teaching, but an intense and emotional one as well. Everyone here comes from such different backgrounds some with terrible fathers or no father at all, so the topic of Fatherheart of God can be a painful one and definitely hard to grasp. The focus for this coming week is on Spiritual Warfare and Freedom in Christ which will again be very full, intense, and emotional I'm sure! We have Peter Brownhill speaking to us, and he is one of the base founders as well as quite schooled in these topics, so it should all be really great.

Christmas is fast approaching, and outreach begins right after Christmas so pretty much all our free time is spent preparing for the two of these. My outreach team currently has no information about what we will be doing during our month of outreach here in Perth, which is abnormal for sure! The other 2 outreach teams from our school both know what they are doing at least for their first week of outreach in Perth and one of the teams knows exactly what they will be doing for their whole time in Perth! I know there are people on my team who are really itching to know more about what we will be doing, but I'm okay with it. My biggest concern was the people who would be on my outreach team and I am thrilled about every single person on my team with me, so I am not too concerned about what we will actually be doing. I am somewhat concerned about the heat though! It is only December and it is reaching 40 degree heat! January will be far hotter and we won't have the air conditioned classrooms we are used to. In addition we will probably be out in the sun more during the week, or at the very least in areas of high heat and the heat is just exhausting! So we will all need immense pray covering for energy and protection from the heat and sun here in January. At this point I am far more excited about outreach in Mexico City than here in Perth, but I'm sure what we will be doing in Perth will be great fun as well!

So that's about it for now. We are getting very excited for Christmas around here and many people are itching to get out on outreach. I am excited for outreach but also really enjoying lecture phase too, so I am just enjoying each day for what it is and not looking too far ahead. As always health is an issue in our communal living situation so please continue to be praying for health for our school. And as we prepare for outreach please be lifting up our outreach teams and praying for unity as we begin to bond together and spend more time together.

Pelicans, Penguins, and Carwashes . . . Oh My!

So I just completed a super busy weekend filled with pelicans, penguins, and car washes, so am only now getting a chance to update my blog. You may be curious where the penguins come into play here, so I will tell you. A group of my friends and I headed off to Penguin Island on Saturday for a day of fun in the sun an exploring more of Australia's wildlife! Did you know penguins are native to Australia??? Well I don't actually know if they are native, but there is an island a short train ride from Perth where penguins live during their molting season. So that was pretty sweet! These penguins are actually the world's smallest penguins so they also had a bit of a claim to fame. But I am of the personal opinion that the island should be renamed Pelican Island because there were far more pelicans than penguins around! So that was my Saturday: visiting Penguin Island, getting almost attacked by a pelican, and then coming home in the evening to do some of my homework! Then Sunday was filled with carwashes! Actually we had teams carwashing on Saturday too, but my time slot was Sunday. We are madly trying to fundraise right now to raise finances for outreach. Our money is due on Wednesday and as of this morning we are still short about $68,000, so that is interesting! Prayer for our finances is definitely appreciated right now!

But getting onto the meatier substance of this update I shall fill you in on our topic of the week. This week's topic was The Fear of the Lord and we received amazing teaching from Ari Sloots. It was a great, though challenging, week. Ari was a phenomenal speaker and is in my top three favorites for the whole time I have been here. Probably the most important thing we learned is that fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God, but rather living in reverence of who He is. There are many practical ways this can be demonstrated in our lives and it was encouraging to learn that we need to always be asking for and striving for greater fear of the Lord, so I don't have to feel bad for not having enough because we never will until we get face to face with God in heaven. So the whole week was exceptionally informative and practical and mostly encouraging, though as I already mentioned it was also very challenging!

Outreach details are starting to come together now which is very exciting since we leave for outreach in a little more than 3 weeks which is absolutely crazy! As I already mentioned our biggest concern and point of attention right now is accumulating finances for outreach. We did a weekend full of car washes and are doing a trash-a-thon tomorrow. Individuals are also doing specific things they feel God is calling them to do to see release of finances, and we are making steady progress, but it does seem rather hopeless for the money to come in . . . it is a good thing we don't have to live in hopelessness because we have a God who is an amazingly good Father and provider and while it doesn't seem possible for this to work out in the natural, we serve a God of the supernatural, so we are continuing to press in in faith that God will work this all out!

Christmas is also starting to come together around here right now. We had the base decorating day on Friday so everything is all decked out for Christmas and looks really beautiful. If you ignore the blazing heat outside and constant sunlight it is almost starting to feel like Christmas . . . almost! Luckily there is still a bit of time mentally prepare for an Aussie Christmas! It was be fun, fabuolous, and exciting I'm sure! I think this is about it on my end for now though. Prepare yourself for another outstanding update next weekend as I recount the wonderfulness of our Fatherheart of God week!

On the first day of Advent it was 30 degrees!

So I am definitely still in denial that it is December in only 2 days and that today was in fact the first Sunday of Advent. I tried listening to Christmas music last night as I was working on my journal, but it just felt wrong when I was in a T-shirt and shorts, yet still sweating away even though both the door and windows were all open! Pretty much I am getting to experience a never-ending spring/summer since I left Victoria just as summer was ending, arrived in Australia just as spring was coming in, and will be back in Victoria just as spring is starting to come in! It is crazy to think about, but I honestly did not have an autumn and will not have a winter this year! I think I am going to enjoy Christmas down under, but it does all feel very weird. Wednesday is the 2nd of December, but the whole base is heading to the beach for dinner and some fun in the sun and ocean . . . nothing says December like fun in the sun! It is good though; so far it hasn't been too hot, just hot enough, though by the time January arrives I may be singing a different tune!

But now it is time to get down to business! Hmm, what happened in Perth this week??? Well first of all our topic for the week was all about Missions. I kind of thought that every week was about missions at YWAM, but we also had a whole week devoted to teaching as well! Actually I should clarify . . . it was only half a week of teaching because we had teaching for the whole base on Thursday and Friday so our Missions week got cut short. Our Missions speaker was incredible though. His name is Paul Dangtoumbda and he is the director for all of YWAM Nigeria. He had absolutely crazy stories to tell us about what is going on in Nigeria! Currently they have been doing a lot of work with Muslim militants who have been trying to take over Nigeria and turn in into a Muslim state. He was telling us all about the amazing ways God is working in the lives of the militants and how they are coming to know Him by the hundreds! The government of Nigeria is turning to YWAM in the area to help "rehabilitate" because they are amazed at the changes they are seeing in these previously dangerous and violent men. They just began the first ever DTS in Nigeria filled entirely with militants and there were more than 100 men who were a part of it. It was really amazing to hear what is happening there and to gain more understanding and insight into Missions as well.

For the second half of the week we joined with the whole base to receive teaching from Jim Stier. He pioneered YWAM Brazil and has been on the leadership team of YWAM internation for many years. He also wrote a book about his adventures with pioneering YWAM Brazil which I happen to be reading for my third book report, and since I was loving his book I was very eager to hear teaching from him live! It was an incredible 2 days of teaching contrasting a life lived off of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the fruit of the tree of life. He also had amazing stories to tell us about different ways he has seen God work and the crazy things he has seen as a result of pursuing and following the call of God on his life. It was both a challenging and uplifting week, but we were very blessed to have input from 2 such amazing speakers.

This was also quite a busy week for us because we all had our major research projects due on Friday. We were divided into groups and each group had to research a major city in the world and an unreached people group within the city. It was quite an interesting project as we got to learn a lot about many different cities and projects, but it was also stressful as our groups were chosen for us and we are all from such different academic backgrounds that it took some time to get used to each other's working styles. In the end though it all worked out well and everyone completed the project on time without too many issues. We all definitely had a big weight lifted off our shoulders by the end of Friday though. It is such a relief to have only 1 book report, 4 journal entries, and 1 update to write before the end of lecture phase. It was also nice to have more free time this weekend to just hang out with friends and not have to worry about this big project. On Saturday morning a group of my friends and I made ourselves a big pancake/french toast brunch to celebrate our City Project being finished and to just enjoy one another again!

It is difficult to believe that December starts this week because that means lecture phase is coming to an end. December is our last month of lectures which means that we have only a month before we head off on outreach. We have been meeting with our outreach groups each morning to pray about outreach and specifically to lift up finances. As a school I think we need something like $60,000-$70,000 to come in order for everyone to be able to pay their outreach fees and leave for outreach on time. We would greatly appreciate you standing with us in prayer as we wait in faith for the money to come in and look for opportunities to fundraise. The deadline for paying outreach fees is December 9 which approaching very quickly, so we honestly don't know how the money will come in or where it will come from, but our leaders all say this is an average amount to still need at this time and that the money always comes in, but having never seen or experienced anything like this before, this is definitely stretching my faith because my logical mind does not see how it is possible, especially so quickly!

In terms of other prayer requests, please continue to pray for health for all of us. Illness continues to make its way through the school and base as a whole, and I'm told it will continue on into outreach as well. Also continue to be lifting up our outreach teams. Now that we know who our teams are we are needing prayer regarding unity. We still need to be bound together so we can work together in full unity once we set out to do what God has planned for us to do. Disunity within outreach teams is apparently one of the biggest stumbling blocks on outreach, so we are really praying into this issue of unity. Those are definitely the 3 big things to be praying into: finances, unity, and health. As always thank you for your prayers and for taking the time to check in and see how my Australian adventure is coming along.

Yet another update!

Uh oh, only 25 minutes until dinner . . . guess this will have to be a very fast update! We had another great week here in Perth. I especially enjoyed it because we got a little bit of a break from the heat that had been building in the early parts of November. We even got some rain this week! But it wasn't rain like at home where it is gray and drizzly for like a week . . . instead we had rain for 2 days but I'm pretty sure the same amount of water fell as would fall in one Victoria rainy week because it rained hard! It was funny though because it was never continuous! It would rain insanely hard for about 5 minutes then stop and maybe even get sunny for 10 minutes then rain really hard again for another 5 minutes then stop again . . . it was the weirdest cycle I have ever encountered! But it was great! I loved it! You could tell exactly who was from BC because we were the ones who were so happy when it started to rain and even went out and stood in the rain and got completely soaked just because we were so happy to see rain! Our bodies are telling us it should be raining everyday right now because it is November, but in reality it is not raining hardly at all here and it just feels wrong! I love the sunshine and warmth, but there are just times when I really need a little rain in my life!

However, apart from the rain situation we also had a great week of teaching! Andrew Dutton came from the base in Kona, Hawaii to speak to us about Lordship and Submission. I found the whole week fascinating and was really impressed with Andrew as a speaker. He had a hard act to follow after Hinrich last week, but he held his own and I was impressed! Probably the thing that stuck out at me the most from the whole week was about submission. I have always known that it is possible to submit without necessarily obeying, but I was floored when Andrew said that you can also obey without submitting. Submission itself is not an action, but a heart attitude! This really hit me because I always thought of myself as a naturally submissive person; I do what I'm told and usually do it without complaining. However, my heart was not always submissive in those situations. I may not have grumbled on the outside, but in many cases I sure grumbled on the inside, so that was a really interesting thing for me to note!

Another thing which made this week so fabulous was that we finally found out what our outreach teams would look like! Since our DTS is rather large (50 people) we will be splitting into 3 different groups and even though we will be in the same city (Mexcio City for those of you who didn't know!) we likely won't see each other at all. Plus since half of us are doing report back in Perth and half in Mexico City, we won't all be together again for report back so when we leave for outreach we could very well be saying goodbye to certain people forever! So this was a big deal for all of us! But we found out about the teams and our leaders really did a fabulous job of splitting them us up because all the teams are incredible! I don't think I have come across a single person who is not absolutely thrilled with their outreach team. There are definitely cases of people wishing they could have been with this one or two people, but overall everyone is happy which is great. I am on an outreach team with 2 of my roommates (there are 4 of us in our room and only 5 of us in our house) which really surprised all of us since we thought for sure they would split up us Gladstone girls (Gladstone is the house we live in!). But 3 of us are together which is amazing and I am really really happy with everyone who is on my team! I think we have a great mix of people and we have great leaders (though all the leaders are fabulous of course!).

So yes, basically we had an all-around good week! Still keep praying for unity with our whole group and unity for our outreach teams. Health is also a big prayer point right now as the stomach flu is still going around and now colds are sore throats are running rampant as well! Everything here is going well, but your prayers are always appreciated. Hope you are all enjoying hearing about my adventures!

Back to Normal Again . . .

Well after the craziness of last week it sure was nice to get back to our regular routine this week. We resumed morning exercises again and I actualy decided that I had missed them the week before! We also got back to our regular class schedule and were able to connect as a school again, which is something we were unable to do when we were all attending different modules and such during the National Leaders' Meeting. It was once we were all back together again that I saw certain people and realized that I hadn't seen them for a week because our paths simply did not cross during NLM. So it was very nice to reconnect again and eve hear about the highlights of the week for different people.

On top of the relief of getting back to a normal schedule and getting to reconnect with people, it was also Relationship week, so we were all in for a real treat! Our speaker was the fabulous Hinrich Kraenzlin who is actually the regional direction of YWAM for all of the Pacific! He really was fabulou though. He was absolutely hilarious in the way he spoke and with many of his favial expressions and he had been through a lot in terms of relationships so he had real wisdom to share with us all. All in all it was a great week of teaching about realtionship with GOd, with peers, and of course the ultimate guy-girl relationships as well. We received very valuable teaching and insight on this topic and I certainly came out of the week with far more hope that Godly relationships do exist and can occur regardless of that statistics and the world itself says!

It was a pretty uneventful week apart from the teaching, however. I did not go on any big adventures yesterday . . . I was so exhausted from the week that I ended up sleeping until 11am on Saturday which NEVER happens (even at home!). We did have a little bit of excitemnet last night though. Pearl Jam was playing live in the apen air stadium across the street from my house so we were able to het a fre Pearl Jam concert! Some guy named Ben Harper opened for Parl Jam too; I had never heard of him, but apparently he is quite the big deal! Anyhow I got lots of rest and am now prepared to enter into a brand new week focused on Lordship and Submission to Jesus. It should be an interesting week to say the least!

One other thing that will be happening this week is we wil be getting information about outreach. Our leaders are right now going through the process of praying to figure out how our outreach teams will be divided up. Usually diferent outreach teams go to different locations so students are able to pray about where God wants them to go and the teams are decided that way. Since everyone in our DTS is going to the same place the leaders pray about which staff should lead each team and which students should be on which team. It is quite the process as we are really trusting God that our outreach teams would be the exact make-up God wants. So it would be great if you could be praying about this. Also you could be praying for energy and stamina. As we have crossed the halfway point of the lecture phase of our school many people are feeling slightly burnt out spiritually and even physically. We really need continual prayer to keep pushing forward so we can get everything out of this experience that God has for us!

Life is going to be getting very exciting and hectic in the coming weeks as Christmas is quickly aproaching, but it all promises to be super fun! It will continue to write my weekly updates at least until January when we begin outreach. I don't know what the internet situation will look like then or if we will even have access to internet once outreach begins. However, until that time I hope you enjoy hearing about my adventures in Australia!

Were Those Christmas Decorations I Saw???

Well it's true! I was walking in downtown Perth yesterday and they were already putting Christmas decorations up . . . I was shocked and amazed when I saw it! It just seems so wrong! But then I realized it is November and there are probably Christmas decorations up at home too . . . . afterall Halloween is over, and last year I'm pretty sure all the Christmas stuff went up even before Halloween was over! But regardless it feels odd because it is so hot! I know the heat right now is nothing like it will be in the coming months (which by the way I am NOT looking forward to!) but it is far too hot for Christmas decorations! I thought it wouldn't be too hard to adjust to Christmas in the summer since at least I am not used to White Christmases every year (though we did get one last year . . . YAY!), but 35 degree Christmas is a far cry from merely not a white Christmas. I'm told there are a ton of very fun traditions for Christmas here and that the whole base heads down to the beach to celebrate Christmas day. It sounds fun, but is also weird! I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss the cold and dreary rain! It rained a couple of days two weeks ago and I (along with all the other BCers) were so ecstatic to see it! It is November so my brian says it should be raining, but it's not. It is all very strange and hard to get used to, but exciting all the same!

Speaking of exciting we had the National Leaders' Conference on base here this week. All the YWAM leaders from Australia met together here in Perth and it was a week filled with amazing teaching, fabulous fellowship, and ever so much food! I'm pretty sure everyone on base gained about 10 pounds this week, but it was so worth it! The food was fabulous, and oh yeah I guess the teaching was okay too. Did I say it was okay??? That is a bit of an understatement! It was absolutely phenomenal! We had amazing worship sessions every morning where everyone could really feel God moving, and then we signed up for different teaching modules for the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon as well. I signed up for the Destiny By Design class and it was AMAZING! I heard great things about some of the other modules too. I definitely wished I could have taken about 5 different modules as I was especially intrigued by the mercy ministries teaching, the class on Paul's letter's, the biblical studies module, and about 50 others! All in all it was a crazy and fabulous week, but we were so busy! I pretty much feel like I need a week just to recover from this past week because I am so tired! But alas I must press on! Tomorrow morning we resume our 6 am morning workouts (boo!) and our regular schedule. I know most people in my school are very excited about our topic for the week: relationships. It should be a good one for sure!

This was a week of a thousand happenings, but at the same time not that much went on, so I think I will now draw this to a close. Please pray that everyone will adjust well to being back on a regular schedule and that we will fall back into routine easily. Also be praying for the general health of the base; there is a lot of illness making its way around right now. Colds and chest infections have been going around for awhile, but this week we were also hit by a really nasty 24 hour stomach bug. I was fortunate enough to avoid the bug, but many others on base and in my school spent the better part of a day throwing up and all that accompanies it. We are heading into an intensely busy couple of weeks in my school as we have a major research project due in just a couple of weeks and it can be very difficult to coordinate schedules for groups to meet together. The last thing we need on our plate at this time is to be fighting illness as well, so thank you for being diligent in your prayers. I think that's all for now. Maybe I will have to go on another adventure next weekend so I have more to write about then!

So I Rode a Camel Yesterday . . .

It's the end of week 4 of my DTS and tomorrow marks 1 month of being in Perth! It has been a crazy month filled with many laughs and many tears, but it's been good and so worth it! I have experienced freedom here which I have not experienced before; freedom to just be myself and not have to live up to the expectations others have of me, because no one here even knew me! It's been an amazing month of spiritual freedom as well as I have been free to interact with and worship God how I want to without the various pressures and whatnot I often felt in other situations. Over all being in Australia is exceptionally freeing and I am hoping to reach a place during my time away where that freedom will also translate home when I return and will not be left behind.

The topic of teaching for this week was really interesting: Intercession and Worship. We didn't actually receive any teaching on worship, but we learned a lot about intercession and got to practice it a couple of times, which was amazing! It was really incredible the ways God moved and spoke to us in our intercession groups and the ways He led us to pray and intercede for those we would never have thought to intercede for without His input. There was a lot of practical teaching about intercession and prophetic actions and what they are and how to go about interceding, but there was also a lot of teaching on the biblical history of intercession, much of which was above my head and not really what I was interested in, but it was still good.

We also had a really busy week with lots of new and crazy events. When our school began at the beginning of October, the base here was about a third of the way through 40 days of prayer and fasting for what they call the precinct (the parcel of land around the base which God has promised them). Well this week was the end of the 40 days (Wednesday was the last day), so to end it off we as a base had 24 hours of worship. Each school and ministry and other groups of people on base took at least an hour between 8pm on Wednesday and 8pm on Thursday and we had groups of people worshipping for a full 24 hours . . . it was really incredible! Our school's time was 12 to 1 am Thursday morning which I wasn't thrilled about since I can hardly keep my eyes open past 10pm since we get up so early, but it ended up being amazing! I think probably because I was sleepy a lot of my inhibitions were down so I went full out worshipping God and everyone could really sense His presence with us. It was great! Luckily morning exercises were cancelled the next morning so we didn't have to get up at 5:45 and were able to sleep in a little bit. To end off the 24 hours of worship, the whole base gathered together for a potluck dinner and worship from 5:30-8pm on Thursday. The worship again was incredible and the food was OUTSTANDING! Our feasts at The Forge can get pretty nice, but this potluck was like nothing I have ever experinced in my life! We had about 250 people coming together to bring food and there was such an amazing variety. We had genuine Korean food, Indonesian food, Chinese food, etc. Everything was eclectic and so delicious! Once we had finished eating many people were wondering if they would be able to move at all for worship, but somehow we managed.

The other fun and exciting thing we did this week was Open Mic Night on Wednesday. First of all let me just say that I am in a DTS with incredibly talented people! The Open Mic Night was open to the whole base and lots of different people performed, but over all my October DTS had the most acts and they were all amazing! We have brillant singers, lots of song writers, some dancers, just a little bit of everything! We even have 4 of our guys who formed a band (with acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, drums, etc.) and wrote their own songs to perform. It was great! They are all only 18 or 19, but the musical maturity they have is incredible, and the songs they wrote were beautiful.

Now you may be wondering where the title of this blog fits in anywhere with what I have actually been writing . . . well here it is. I rode a camel yesterday! I honestly did! I also fed and pet kangaroos, and pet a koala, and pretty much it was just the best day ever! A group of people from my DTS went to Caversham Wildlife Park and it was crazy! First of all we had a little adventure on the way there and ended up taking 5 hours to get there (2 and a half of which were spent walking from where the bus dropped us off to where the park actually was!). To put that in perspective, we only took an hour to get home afterwards! But it was so worth it because we got to see all sorts of Australian animals like wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, tasmanian devils, dingos (which really just look like Golden labs!), and lots of other ones too. But as I already mentioned, my highlights by far were feeding and petting kangaroos, petting a koala, and riding a camel! It was so much fun, and the mix of our group was perfect because we all just really enjoyed hanging out together! It may be my favorite day so far because it was so much fun.

So this was a week which was unlike any other so far, and this week will also be unlike any other. YWAM Perth is hosting the National Leaders Meeting this week which is a chance for all the YWAM leaders in Australia to come together for meetings and teaching, and all of us students are going to be a part of it as well. We get to sit in on the meetings and attend the varous workshops. Our regular classes are suspended for this week because of this National Leaders Meeting, but it is expected to be an exciting week, though very busy! So please be praying for energy as we take on an even busier schedule than we already have, and also be praying for God to be speaking clearly as we engage with this week and that hearts would be open to Him. I am excited for what is to come this week and this month as much to my surprise I am already in November here! So continue to be praying for what's going on here and also be lifting us up as we prepare for outreach in the new year. We need to see lots of finances come in for many students and plans to be laid for our time there. Also be praying for our hearts to be prepared for what we will encounter in Mexico. Thank you for your prayers and sharing this journey with me!

Tech Problems, Intense Teaching, but oh so much fun!

Well this has been quite the week of tech problems and complications! There is a computer epidemic going around my school where computers are suddenly up and dying just when we are needing them the most! So far the death toll is 4 with 1 still in serious condition and 1 on the mend. Unfortunately mine is one of the 4 which died. Not having a computer makes my school assignments more difficult, especially when we have a big research project due in a month and my topic is the city of Tashkent (anyone heard of it, because I sure had not!). The internet is a handy tool when researching somewhat obscure cities such as Tashkent (I may have to give $5.00 to anyone who can tell me which country Tashkent is in WITHOUT looking it up!); however, it is fortunate that the people in my school are generous enough to lend me their computers, so I can still update everyone at home and possibly get a little bit of research done.

But enough about that! This week was also very intense in terms of classes as the topic for the week was Repentence and Forgiveness . . . not exactly everyone`s favorite topic! But we received amazing teaching from our school leader Caleb Brownhill which was able to clarify and highlight certain aspects of repentence and forgiveness which I at least has not considered or understood before. It was an emotional, intense week, but it was good too. It was amazing the way we were able to come out of the week so much cleaner and far more refreshed than we had been going into it.

On a more fun note I had the great pleasure of engaging in my very first Tim Tam Slam party last night. It was lots of fun and oh so delicious! For those who have never had the pleasure of enjoying a Tim Tam before, it is a chocolate covered cookie which had a certain flavor of filling between 2 cookie layers. They sound pretty simple, but are AMAZING! Plus they come in a variety of flavors so last night we had dark chocolate ones, white chocolate ones, hazelnut ones, Black Forest ones, caramel ones, caramel cream ones, mint ones, and double coated ones . . . you actually cannot understand how amazing they actually are until you have tried one (especially the hazelnut!). But just to make a Tim Tam even better, someone at some point invented the idea of a Tim Tam Slam. So rather than just eating the cookie you first bite off opposite corners, dip the Tim Tam into hot chocolate or coffee, then suck up through the cookie like a straw. Once you feel the liquid hit your mouth you shove the whole cookie in your mouth and it just melts . . . FABULOUS! So last night was a chocolicious night filled with friends and fun . . . and hilarious videos which I will try to post online at somepoint.

Those are the events of this week which stick out in my mind. I am pleased with how well we are geling as a school right now and getting along. Great friendships are forming (though prayer in that area is still always appreciated) and we are starting to get to know one another on a deeper level now. In terms of prayer I suppose it would be helpful to have prayer that I (and everyone else in my school) would continue to take steps forward and not just move back to old ways and old things once the moment has passed. Also praying for health would be appreciated as colds and flues are making their way around. But I think that`s all for now, so I hope you enjoyed hearing all about my adventures of this week and I will keep you posted. We are planning a trip to a wildlife preserve in a couple of weeks so I may finally be able to see all those cool Australian animals everyone keeps asking me about. Take care everyone!

So much going on, so little time to share . . .

So here it is, the second entry of my clearly amazing blog. I wish I had the time to share every detail of what goes on here as it has been so exciting and so much fun, but there is so little time to actually sit down at the computer and process all that goes on. However, I will highlight the important parts and you can count on an update about once a week now that I know more what my time and scheduling contraints look like.

So now that that is all out of the way, it's time for the ultimate question . . . what all has been going on since I last shared with you? Well first of all I just feel the need to share with you all that it was beautifully sunny and about 35 degrees Celsius today. I thought you'd enjoy knowing that since it was probably raining in Victoria ;-) But on to more important things. We had a crazy, busy, exciting week here in Perth. We received teaching on the character and nature of God from the base director Shirley Brownhill, and it was amazing! One thing we were taught in the first week is that how we relate to God often depends on how we view Him. If we view Him as distant and indifferent that is how we will react to Him, if we view Him as mean and unjust we will probably react meanly and unjustly towards Him, etc. It was very enlightening because so many people have such an misunderstood view of who God is and react out of this misunderstanding. It can end up being quite the paradygm because one of the best (and sometimes only) ways to develop an accurate view of who God is is through spending time walking with Him and listening to Him, but if we already have an incorrect view of who He is we don't want to spend time with Him because we think He is mean or distant or whatever. So that is one thing that has stood out most to me: the importance of an accurate view of who God is.

We learned many many many other things about God's nature and character, many of which I had heard already but believed only in my head not in my heart, and some of which were new and exciting! So as a whole the teaching this week was phenomenal! At times it was difficult to focus completely because we started morning exercises this week so are now having to get up at 5:45, so I was completely exhausted, but what we were learning was so interesting that for the most part I was rapt to attention.

Apart from morning exercises, other new things we were introduced to this week were our weekly small groups and Thursday night evangelism. My small group was fantastic! Our leader set up a table in the dining room really nicely and we had hot chocolate and did Tim Tam Slams! It was yummy! It was great too, because as I was walking to small group that night I was thinking that I would love a hot chocoloate because it was quite cold out. Amidst all the fun we also got to hear everyone's stories of their walk with God and how they ended up at YWAM. It was really interesting because I hadn't heard anyone's stories before and it helped us all to understand and get to know one another better.

Thursday night evangelism was the other new event for us this week. Every Thursday night every person on the YWAM base (staff, students, families, everyone!) goes out in teams and meets people in various locations around Perth offering them prayer and letting them know about God's love for them. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced in my entire life and I am told it will get easier as the months go on since we will be going out every Thursday which is good because I found it incredibly awkward! It was good though. Nothing spectacular happened with my partner and me, but other groups had people come to know Jesus and a few people were even healed as groups prayed for them! It was definitely an interesting night.

So it was a crazy week this week, but it was so good. Relationships are being forged and cemented and right now everyone gets along really well. I'm sure eventually the honeymoon period will be over and there will be more disagreements, so that is something that can be upheld in prayer, but right now things are going well. As always prayer for safety is appreciated; the drivers here are crazy! Pedestrians do not have the right of way at all and the other night a bunch of us saw a girl almost die as a car missed hitting her at just the last second. Also be in prayer even for the city of Perth, that hearts here would be opened and that we would be able to reach the people who are desperate to feel a little touch of love. As I elluded to before, our schedule is busy and jam-packed and we get up early so prayer for energy and stamina would also be greatly appreciated :-)

I do not know what to expect of next week as it has a notorious reputation in YWAM, but as a whole I am learning not to have expectations at all, because things never go as expected. God has me on a crazy journey here, but I am trying to remain open to where he is leading me. So until next time, thanks for joining me for a session of my Never-Ending Journey.

New Beginnings

Well here it is, the first entry of the Blog John so graciously announced to you all that I was creating (thanks for checking with me first John!). Luckily for him I love to write and this really is the easiest way to keep everyone who cares about me informed about all the crazy adventures I encounter during this Australia chapter of my Never-Ending Journey. And wow have they been crazy adventures, filled with all sorts of new beginnings!

You will all be happy to know that I arrived in Perth basically unscathed by my 37 hour long journey from Victoria (that's right, I said 37 hour long!). I will admit though that I spent the first day of my time in Perth basically deaf as my ears did not pop during the descent of the airplane. There were all sorts of various mix ups with my housing and getting keys to give me access to my house, so I spent my first afternoon with out any of my stuff wandering the streets of Perth alone, praying I would be able to find my way back to the base since I had no idea where I was or where I was going. It was kind of a harsh introduction to life in Perth, but also a good chance for me to see fully what I was made of and if I was cut out for this 6 month adventure. After travelling across the world on my own and successfully navigating a strange new city on my own after having only 6 hours of sleep and operating as though it were 3 o'clock in the morning (which it was in Victoria), I decided that I could do this! I could live in a new place by myself and I could take whatever it was God was planning to throw at me in the coming months.

The first week of my time proved that there were still many things that could be thrown at me and there were times I was ready to jump back on a plane headed for Victoria if for nothing more than some snuggles from my favorite kids, but again I came out none the worse for wear. Although I did not see it as a blessing at the time, God has blessed me with a beautiful house to live in which offers lots of peace and quiet as it is apart from the dorm where the majority of people on my DTS live all crammed together. It has been an interesting journey trying to adjust to the time difference, so I was happy to be able to do that apart from 40 other people all trying to over come different time differences all at the same time!

It has been quite the big adventure to just meet new people and find out where they are from. There are currently 150 students and who knows how many staff on base, and we figured out on our orientation day that we represent 28 different nations of the world, which is pretty spectacular! In my school alone we have people from Switzerland, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Canada, USA, Britain, and Germany! It is fun to hear all the different accents and just learn about life in another culture. It is also fun to be able to share about my culture and dispell all the misbeliefs the Americans in particular hold about us Canadians. I must also admit that everyone on staff is getting a kick out of having me around since there is another woman on staff named Leah who is also from Victoria. Oh and here is how crazy small our world can be at times . . . this Leah from Victoria is getting married in April to one of the leaders on my DTS, and guess who is performing the ceremony??? Well none other than our very own John Thwaites!

In class this past week we were mostly just getting used to the schedule so we didn't have as many lectures as we would other weeks, but we did get to hear some fantastic teaching on "Hearing the Voice of God." Our speaker was Peter Brownhill who is actually one of the founders of the Perth YWAM base, and the father of my head DTS leader Caleb. All the staff on our DTS are very nice, welcoming, and encouraging, and I think I am going to really enjoy getting to know them in the coming months.

We have a lot on our plate right now just getting used to everything and getting into the busy schedule and routine they have established on base. So if you are looking for specific prayer pointers for while I am away I will be needing prayer that I settle in well and get used to my new life here in Australia. It would also be great for people to pray for bonding within our school. For what is to happen in the coming weeks to be successful it is important that we become a family that is bonded together and not continue to be the isolated cells of people we currently are right now. We need unity to be maintained in our group quickly and we are just not there yet. A final note of prayer is for finances. I am fortunate enough to have parents who are willing to absorb the cost of this DTS until I have the finances to pay them back, but there are a lot of finances I did not count on and my debt is growing larger and larger. I do not yet know where God is calling me for when this is all over, but I would hate to be restricted to returning home to get a job to pay off my debt if that is not where God is taking me.

So there is a relatively brief introduction to my life here in Perth. I plan to update it frequently, so if you are wondering what I am up to or even just how you can be praying for me, feel free to access this blog any time and hopefully you will find the answers you are looking for! Thanks for reading and walking with me during this chapter of my Never-Ending Journey!