praying Mantis, reindeer and not a lot else...

Christmas is coming!
This means that everything I am excited for is yet to be done.
there's an ugly sweater contest, a Christmas party for the base, AND... I'm going camping on some remote island with a bunch of friends for Christmas holidays!
Beach to bush is on their way to Saipan, Guam, India and some other place I don't remember for Outreach phase, so the base is crazy with prep and cleaning lately.
One of the girls from MAD is also going home... Prayers for safety are on my mind.
As for me, I still love it here, but often try to dissapear into the Cafe for the sole reason of Air conditioning.
Yesterday I was in Brisbane city and saw live Reindeer, and I caught a praying mantis who then refused to get off my arm. What else? uhm... Lectures are about relationships and then we had conflict management . It was good, and kinda funny to realise that we, as the human race, are immature. you don't see animals holding grudges or trying to get revenge!
And then art focus afternoons. wow. Kalli, the teacher is amazing at gauging what I can handle, and brings me to just before that. Live model large scale drawing, live model painting, surreal story art, (both also large scale, she loves challenging me) it's amazing. I didn't know how powerful art could be!
yeah, so not much else. sorry guys!

so much!

Authority and submission,Worship and sneaking out of a partially my own party.

      Yep. That’s what I have been up to.

        Cory, my team leader and a man who has earned my respect from both the orangutan dance and his Godly leadership (yes, it’s possible to do both) was teaching on this topic for Friday. Thursday and Wednesday, we had a 24 hour worship session. Not many people get to praise God crazier and more genuinely than an insanely hard partyer. I felt like I should stay for the whole thing, so I did the math and it turns out I went about 50 hours without sleep. And yet, having my heart in that position, I wasn’t tired.  We later on went to the graveyard to watch the sunrise. It’s beautiful!

        Maggie has been matchmaking, and or likening people to movies, and she claims I am Meg from the Disney Hercules, and keeps telling me who my Hercules is.  Uh, no. And don’t worry, there are no red headed British guitarists who make good coffee here, so you have no chance to tease me with that either. XD

   The past few days I have been doing a lot of learning. I got history lessons from the Norwegians, Colombians and Aussies, and I was taught how to shoot hoops (mostly laughed at but that's OK.)  The next thing that happened is the December Pyjama birthday party! There's at least 7 of us born this month.  In this time I realised that large amounts of unwanted/ unexpected touch scares me. Yeah, slumber party games. In said game they kicked the players out of the room, decided what we were going to be, brought us back into the room, and then I was immediately bombarded with large amounts of being petted. Turns out they thought I was a fluffy kitten. I… Kinda ended up in the fetal position in the corner. So as soon as that was done, I disappeared to the coffee shop where I chilled with the film guys and talked about sound people and white balance, and which celebs we would date. Unfortunately, at least three people decided to play with my hair. And Ben kept playing with my feet so I decided he wanted to be a footstool. Yeah… this happens. YWAM is also likely the only place where it’s acceptable to Limbo in worship.

I woke up around three today, I couldn’t sleep. so I prayed.  Good news though, Grandpa is out of the worst, and is arranging wheelchair races with the nurses. 

     It turns out I have a spiritual gift. When I draw, I look in the person and often know what they truly are. So I drew myself. I can’t do anyone else’s honestly without knowing myself. My soul and personality is a bit contradicting. I have so much joy it almost drowns out the depression, so many thoughts it almost drowns out the foolishness, so much to say that I’m not saying. A childlikeness, and an ancientness. It’s like quiet and noise are warring in my soul. God and darkness. And yet I have come so far. 

oh, 18.

      It seems as if people want to know if life is different now that I am legal. It isn't. if anything, it's more boring cuz I don't get the thrill of doing something illegal if I have a drink or something. But since I am not a big drinker anyways, nothing has changed except my facebook privacy settings.
Anyways. At that time I was recuperating from my schoolies volunteer week, so on my 18th I did homework, laundry, took a nap, and one of the awesome people here made gluten free cake for me and the girl who shares my birthday! (there always seems to be someone :P ) I also opened part of my package from home. (the one with 106 stamps) It included socks, poppycock, Kraft Dinner, and the most amazing artwork ever done! 'twas made personally for me by the kids I used to look after.
     this week lectures are by our school leader, Hannah. Topic is worship. first she played screamo, which made me happy, because she seems so sweet, but she loves the passion and honesty in it. me too.
then we got talking about thankfulness, passion, and how God's greatest demonstration of love was not comfort, it's pain. he not only came full circle to the tree in the garden, he not only took our pain, but every feeling that resulted from sin, He felt that. all the guilt anyone ever carried, He took that. all the things you or anyone else had or will ever do, he paid for that. And since he was all human, there was no getting away from it. But since He was also all God, he loved us enough to keep on. And die.
just think! if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you were thankful for today, what would you have?  I would have a mostly clean Tshirt, my team, a box of KD, and the ability to learn. It made me realise how much we truly take for granted. Including Jesus' death. wow.
        I have been learning so much lately! I have also been doing a lot of praying for you all.
I miss you! feel free to you know... comment or message me. I don't have a lot of time to chat, but I try to write back. and if you come to the Cafe it may one day be possible for me to make you a shake!

one week outreach!

 our team in Ponchos... (flash flood = flash mob!)

 the beach

 the lighthouse

a snake warning sign

        This week we had our first outreach. It was one of the small ones, only a week. 40 of us helped out with Schoolies (look it up) in Byron bay. What do you do for outreach at a beach you say? Well.... My team cooked pancakes, Chai tea, DJed (is that a word?), had amazing conversations with new graduates, answered ambulance calls, held hair as people were puking, walked people home, handed out candy, slept on the floor of a church, took ice cold showers, got sand in places we didn't know we had, made amazing friends, party rocked in plastic ponchos, created inside jokes, put on a concert, handed messages in bottles.... and those are just for starters! you can do a lot with a hundred volunteers working around the clock! it was one of the longest weeks, but one of my favourites. I have only been back at base for a few hours but I miss the other volunteers like crazy!
The organisation we were working for has a great reputation, and it opened a lot of opportunities for answers to some hugely big questions about God, love, religion and lots of other things.
Oh, and Justin Bieber's cousin said I'm cute. that's not really relevant, just funny. (Bieber was in Byron the same time I was.)
   Last week our lectures were on Evangelism. the speaker knows a couple of you guys back home! This guy, Stevie, runs a youth outreach called Youthstreet, and its almost exactly what I want to do with my life. He also is an amazing musician.
Sorry there isn't a lot of content in this one, I'm super tired. Laters!

the strangest sickness

so much has happened this week!I am going to try my hardest to keep it chronological...
let's start on Thursday... a group of us decided to have worship time in the graveyard, which isn't as weird as it sounds. I was pondering the choices of outreach locations, doing it the logical way with pros's and cons. I had just finished saying goodbye to the people I loved but missed the funeral of. I realised then that it was time to let God have a say in where I went. ( I am serving him after all!) so I said OK God, where do you wan- He cut me off with the word Vanuatu. what? i don't know anything about there  except its full of fishing villages! I'm allergic to fish! once I realised I just had to trust God to take care of everything, I was OK with letting his choice be mine. (lately I haven't been reacting badly to fish! It's amazing.) I really wanted to go to Japan though... Then on Friday It was our first evangelism night, which meant going into the city and sharing God's good news. My group was small, me, the art teacher (who is amazing)one of the guys, and the school leader. we decided to stake out and draw people's dreams. the guys we talked to were new age street performers. (really nice guys!) their dreams were "to find who I am" and "for nature and man to become one" for the first, we drew an Alice in and the looking glass style picture and for the second... Jesus on the Tree (cross.) as we gave them the pictures, I tried to shake their hands but it turns out one of the thought I needed a kiss instead. my teammate almost decked him! Saturday was boring... Sunday half the base got sick with a fluish virus! it struck at midnight and by midnight the day after we were all fine. weird! this week for lectures we had a mash week. Marley talked about modesty, Paige about stewardship, a TV recording about pride, Hannah and some students about YWAM opportunities. Then our locations were revealed! I told you I thought i was going to Vanuatu right? well, Hannah misplaced my paper and asked if I would mind going to Japan. Jesus Christ, you do have a sense of humour! The school of digital filmmaking and acting for the screen graduated this Friday, so I bought a new dress for the premier of the movies they made. They (the movies) are brilliant!!!! I think i am going to miss the students, they're all sweethearts. (a little strange, but what do you expect from people planning on hollywood?)  in other news, our school launched it's new website at  www.goywam.com, I didn't do homework, and I am a good blog updater. (once a week is good!)

super heros and super exciting!

THIS BLOG IS MADE OF TWO OR MORE MESSAGES SENT TO OTHERS. If you were one of those people, just read the other part.
One word. Disney! That was our halloween/birthday party. I was Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. I also watched Thor 2. it came out a week earlier here than over there. the movie was good, but the adventure surrounding it is what will make the memories. It was sunday night, and four of us girls decided on the spur of a moment that we all wanted to see Thor, so we took a train(or three) to the city centre, sprinted trying to find the theatre in time, almost missed the cutoff, almost didnt have enough money, but then settled into the theatre for a great movie. Then we ran to the train station only to miss the last train (the midnight train) by a couple seconds. so we walked to the next station only to be told there were no more outgoing trains until 4. therefore, the four of us walked up and down the unknown road, trying to hail down our very first Taxi ride. when we succeeded, the driver didn't say a word, which made our 20 minute ride back to base uncomfortable and scary, and at 1:00, hours after curfew, we returned full of glee and thoughts of Thor (or Loki for some). there ya go, a good story, and not a single spoiler!
TWO DAYS LATER...
OUTREACH LOCATIONS HAVE BEEN REVEALED!

On wednsdays we have two sessions. the people of MAD DTS waited out of doors, trying to peer through the veiled curtains, into the mysterious happenings beyond. As we were called to enter, a silence fell over our usual laughing and singing selves. the 30 anticipating students quietly, almost nervously shuffled through the doors, and sat on the floor of the darkened classroom. We had not yet been told what this class would hold. The staff was lined up at the front, with a glimmer in thier eyes, but not a smile to be seen on thier faces. as the game  show music drifted to our ears, murmers of 'outreach!' 'ohgoodnessitsreallyhappening' and 'I knew it!' were heard around the hushed group. as we guessed answers to random trivia, our five locations were revealed slowly, letter by letter. one place at a time. JAPAN! MALAYSIA! VANUATU! AUSTRALIA! PERU! screetches of excitement were the exclamations proffered at the end. Then, the rules. We are told not to talk to our classmates about our choice, for our decision must bebased on God's leading, not our people preference.We may tell our parents, speak to staff, and research , but under no curcumstances may we post these decisions on social media until our team and staff are revealed. Then, awe in our eyes, we walk out of the class and into the light of day, as well as the knowledge of where we may go with God. and I write this.

    other news, the speaker, a communications major, and an amazing movie producer, is talking about hearing the voice of God. He is amazing. so many stories have come of it! Did you know that God got sass? well, he does. and a wierd sense of humor, and I think he has a crooked smile. Juss sayin. ;) 

love and All dat Junk

Stuff happens. Lots of it. This week, I got a ton of bad news, but I also got a lot of good news. But the bible and the Guy who wrote it did a crazy amount of getting to me by words and by  the people here. Words like forgiveness, closeness and love are all over! I may not be holding grudges, but I have been praying for others, and their relationships with people that have hurt them. 

 It's Halloween and we MAD students are throwing a Disney birthday party!!! I will be Punk Esmeralda, and the film crew are dressed up as the Game of Thrones characters(except for one, He's Link. Such an outcast!)  the upside of us all being creative and different is I get to borrow people's clothes. Adventurers run rampage as we praise and do sidewalk art in the park with the kids, (BTW Aussie kids are freakin adorable) visit churches and bless them with the extreme amount of energy we bring with us, climb through waterways, learn love languages, and study who God is. our speaker this week is a cute Little old man we call Isi, (father in Finnish) and he simply pours out love in everything! (shout out Father Daddy's love, give a hug, clap and whoop!) there's not much news, other than I have been busy, and have a ton of homework. Prayers would be good though. there is a lot of healing happening on base, which also means there is a lot of pain. One boy is going home, and so  next Thursday (Wednesday for you) please pray for him to come to Jesus' arms again.

 ( He doesn't need to come back to YWAM, just back to God. ) I love you guys! possibly a more interesting or full update soon.

Hey man, wanna tour?

 our Dorm door, names and flags :)

 The view from our dorm window

 Yeah Man, study party!

 the ant brigade in our toilet room

 the student dorms, ladies upstairs, gentlemen downstairs,

 My beautiful model and the YWAM sign

 a sneak peak into the indoor art studio

 wonderful kitchen volunteers

 the dishwashing station

 the chillout area

 LAUNDRY

 my 'workout area' aka trampoline

 the real workout area

 the outdoor art studio ( almost my fave place on base)

 the game area where ultimate floppy backwards ping pong was invented

 our community area

 a palm tree trunk

another palm tree trunk...

 the YWAM happy plane

 Our gold coin coffee shop

so, that was my quickie base tour :) real blog soon to come!

The Homesick Games

I was homesick for the first time in my life this week. What made it harder is I never believed it was real. It is. I was missing my family, and snow, and the goofballs around home so bad, I felt sick! Then, rationalising like I do, I realised God is my home. Kinda like the 'home is where the heart is' thing. I had to trust him, that the DTS and everything is where I should be. I don't need to be home, making sure everything is clean and people are fed. God has that covered. Lectures are good, because they are reiterating what I learnt at home. Scheduled Worship, church and prayer are a bit more challenging. Everyone here is to free to be, to move, to feel, and to show it, that I often doubt the realness of it.  Raised baptist, people at my home church sing songs about dancing and praise but stand stock still. So when I see people shouting out their prayers and dancing in church, I wonder if it is reverent. But this is how I have always wanted to praise, to laugh and cry with Christ's body. I know in my soul God is moving the whole school in a lot of healing and in his will. Now that I am over my yearning for the past, I am so excited to join in the future!there is so much music, art, and dancing here, it is beautiful.  My one on one (kind of an accountability partner and counsellor) is great, and there is a few girls that have become close to my heart in the last week. I still miss home, but it is more of remembering the love there than holding back my heart here now. I also enjoy art class, because I may not be the best, but I learn so much, and I LOVE to learn. right now I soak it up like a sponge! Intercession is interesting because so many people have India on their hearts. On the other hand, my skin is not like a sponge and so sunscreen equals zits and no sunscreen equals sunburn. It's a horrible circle.

mad mad world

testimonies are amazing. everyone has a different story, and it all seems to bring us together. I was planning to Say something like 'I was homeschooled, ans I have a big and good family,and I always wanted to be a missionary.' Instead, I unloaded. I told of my history with depression, my 'pain game' and losing many of my loved ones. I ended up rambling on, and sobbing into the Kleenex and clock that were the "talking tools'.Not planned, and not fun. I felt like i was in an AA meeting. I loved getting to know people, and hopefully we all realised that stereotypes aren't true... 

after that 20 out of 30 of us went to the city, and unwittingly walked into a street festival. we saw a unicycle performer, (she was ok) tons of amazing live music, and decided to make use of an abandoned stage. can you say Awesome God? I went on my first train, which was kinda boring... it's simple public transport. Then we went to church. As I walked in, I got this horrible feeling like I didn't ever want to be here, but as the praise started, the young people jumped up and nearly started a mosh pit! I loved the freedom given to be able to be excited for God. then, the sermon. it was all about Laments. things get broken, and we need to be comforted, but God has a different idea of comfort. He will not pat you on the back and say its all going to be ok, he will make you rebuild instead.we don't need pat words, we need to rebuild our lives. it really struck me, because that was what our testimonies were about. coming to Jerusalem, and rebuilding the walls.  anyways, I shall log off, classes start! 

becoming home

How ya goin mates?

Ladies and gentlemen, It has begun. 

Right now I am sitting in the YWAM outreach Cafe, which has amazing pumpkin pie and Chai.(gold coin, so come and visit!)  Orientation was really fun! I mean, a lot of it is rules and boring things, but what other school but a MAD school gets you to demonstrate the Christian Magna Carta win an interpretive dance skit? Or the school foundations by a photo scavenger hunt? Tonight there is a Girls Night, and that sounds exciting! Everyone is so creative and zealous for God and missions. So far I get along with everyone. YWAMers are the absolute best!

Yesterday I went for a walk with a group and visited the neighborhood. the Salamanders are cute. 

There are cons to living in Australia though, right now there are tons of bushfires. None are near us, but they need a lot of prayer right now.  There is a possum living in one of the girls dorms, and in ours, Humongous cockroaches! 

Currently I am writing out my testimony, and if enough people request it, I will post it on the blog.

I have to get back to work, so Bye!

 

journey in photos

crazy day update

  Update on the last Three crazy days 

 Local time 5 pm on the 13 Oct.

  And so it begins. My flight from Calgary was crazy, and the initial checking and security was horrible. I nearly forgot my passport and gave mom a heart attack! Luckily, the guards and attendants were nice, and I made what you might call Airport buddies with a big family off to Disneyland. They were kind enough to buy me a hamburger, and we made small talk.

       The plane, my first, was quite identical to a flying greyhound bus, only longer and more squished. I still think they look like awkward whales (or sardines for that one!) Taking off feels like a boring rollercoaster, and going through the clouds made me think of Disney songs. ‘A whole new world ‘ fo shizzle! Yeah, the first and last five minutes of the ride are beautiful, the rest are boring, therefore spent reading The Fault in our Stars. Highly recommended if you like pop culture references! It’s really too bad I read so fast, because it’s one adventure I would like to prolong.

     The first thing I really noticed about the LAX is that it isn’t as friendly as Calgary. The second, all the signs are English. No French at all! It seemed…. Sad to me. The bilingual-ness of Canada is somewhat special to me.  Writing this is my attempt at killing a loooooong layover in LA, where I will not be leaving the airport just in case.  How else do you murder vague ideas? I mean, think about it. From a scientific point of view, you can’t touch it, hypothesize it, test it, but you see the effects of it so undeniably you have to know it’s real. Kinda like God. I feel like it is 6 pm (Calgary time, it’s true), in LA it’s 5 pm, and in Brisbane its 7 AM. Everywhere knows time differently.

Places as well, can a place really be strange, if it is made by the same creator? None of them feel like ‘Not Home.’ I suppose I will find out eventually.

8 pm local time

It’s a good thing I didn’t leave the Airport in LA, because some sort of security breach delayed my flight and put the whole thing on lockdown! When that was over, I boarded my NZ flight. Air New Zealand was really nice and friendly, and more like I imagined a plane (less tin can wobble maker.) I spent most of my time watching movies because even though it was a 13 hour night flight, my body knew it was daytime in Canada. I got to watch the sun go down in LA and come up in AUK. I ate breakfast three times in a row, each in a different time zone. Since the la flight was delayed I as nearly late for the next plane I had to take, and booked it through the airport. In the 2 minutes I spent there, I realised NZ has hobbits on their planes and the gates look like the Mines if Moria. After the next, and mostly uneventful leg, I picked up my bags which were a bit worse for wear, and headed out to meet some of my new schoolmates.

On the ride to my new ‘home’ I was amazed at the colours. Jacarandas of glorious purple, all the reds and yellows, and palm trees! Then I met the people at the school. Out of 30 students, 25 are girls. 6 Canadians, and a plethora of Americans, Norwegians, Germans, and other nationalities.  I think it’s a pretty cool bunch. The time we spent getting to know each other was pretty much standard procedure. Ask Name, nationality, and track. I have a feeling us girls are going to have a lot of fun! We got a quick tour around the base and town, and I have firmly decided the guy who designed this school was crazy! It has so many levels and stairs, and it goes in circles to get to anything. I like it. Later on, I Met a girl who knows my best friends mom.it really is a small world! Then we Played games, talked, and almost fell asleep. Jet lag is so weird!

0530 AM local time

After I wrote that, I fell asleep.  It is now 530 am local time, and the cockatoos outside are squawking. I slept like   a rock! After breakfast today some of the girls are going to go shopping. Jeans are really not useful right now! We live a couple minutes from a train station, and the two hour ride to the beach only costs 10$ CAD! I haven’t went yet, we asked the ticket guy. He then asked if we loved Jesus, and told us to have fun at YWAM. 

 The school rules are pretty easy, stuff like respect and modesty. The next couple days are orientation, which I seem to need, because even though it’s a small base and all, the architecture is a bit confusing. I’ll signoff now, there’s a lot I need to do. Pictures soon! 

the insanity of normality

I leave in a week. During the time I am stressing about living out of a suitcase, beginner plane trips, and altogether life changing decisions, Life has gone on. School has started, people are working and studying and it seems I am the only one who is restless with the routine. Sure, I will miss home, but if you had the choice would you go to work, sleep, eat, and do the same things all day for the rest of your life? I find the normality of this perfect middle class life mundane. God has called me to be extreme. I will travel the world, working to the glory of Jesus. I will eat weird things. I will sleep in a mosquito net under a red sky. And through all this, I will not be content with what I could be doing, I will be the hands that God uses to shape a masterpiece in heaven. It might hurt, I might be homesick, but my true home is heaven, and the trip isn't over yet!

making time to take time

I forget. Reading my bible sometimes seems to fall by the wayside, and I need to remember that in the still times, the busy times, and when it seems irrelevant, God is who I should be wanting to talk to. Lets learn about Him before we go out. Let's talk to him before we yell at others. Let's admire his creation before we do our own work. That's what the bible on my desk is for.

Two love

I was thinking today about God's plan for marriage. One man and one woman for life. Matthew 22:30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Just think! True love for eternity? How romantic! Why does humankind put quantity ahead of quality? What do our relationships in general have to say about our hearts? What would the world be like if we all waited for our Twoo wuv? 

my summer as a visual memory. the last two and a half months in photos