Week 1

Normally posts wont be this long but since I haven’t updated this will be the first week and what the base is like.  I promise to update more and more often so that they aren’t so long. 

So it’s been a crazy week to say the least.  Last Sunday we went to church and then went into town to shop.  It was also the official start to school.  On Monday we had orientation and then free time.  Tuesday was registration day and then free time.  Wednesday we started lectures.  We went over hearing the voice of God.  Our school leader taught us this week.  It was very cool.  I knew a lot of the stuff that we covered but something my leader said was “Relationship is love, and love is choice.”  It def hit me in a very deep way.

Thursday and Friday we continued the lectures on hearing the voice of God.  Each week we will have a different speaker and subject.  The speaker can be someone from base or someone who flies in to speak to us.  We go over many topics and I will tell you each one as the weeks go on.  As part of the school we have to do a journal each week.  The journal asks us different questions and we have to answer them.  We get to be creative with them so there has been plenty of paint, crayons, markers, and magazine clippings flying around. 

All the girls that are in my school are staying in the same place.  It’s very nice.  There are only four of us to a room and we all share a kitchen.  There are also spare rooms so we have guests coming in and out all the time.  It’s fun.  We have a very cool patio with a bench and since most afternoons are nice it’s a perfect place to sit out and read or journal.

I’ve been surprised how much of a community we are here.  We all pitch in to get things done.  In order to better explain I’ll go over what a typical day looks like.  At 6 am we have morning exercises for half an hour.  We then have a break then at 8 we do family chores for half an hour.  Then we either do worship or prayer as a school or a base.  Then it’s morning tea and coffee.  After that at 10 starts lectures and we go til lunch at 12:30.  After lunch starts 2 hours of work duties and two hours of free time.  Then at 5:30 is dinner.  Then we have some kind of night activity like lecture, small groups or evangelism. 

Family chores is half an hour everyday or some kind of work.  Right now I’m outside cleaning the laneway or the main walkway that we use.  Our team is about 10 people and we also clean the outside bathrooms.  We do this as a base because if we do then we don’t have to get up early on Saturday and do three hours of chores.  It also keeps the base really clean.  There are other jobs and everything gets clean during this time.  After three weeks we switch duties and move on to something else.  It also makes us take pride in what we use and not abuse the base.  It really does make it feel like home. 

Work duties is more like a job. They gave us a survey of what we have done in the past or what we like to do.  They then place us in that area as best as they can.  I’ve been placed with hospitality or hospo.  I really like it.  We do anything from cooking cakes for the staff or cleaning up and setting up the rooms for guests.  It’s the motherly group on the base.  I like it.  I ironed sheets and table clothes for 2 hours on Friday.  I’m telling you if you have ever tried to iron a fitted sheet you know how difficult it can be.  If you have never ironed a fitted sheet, go take off your sheet and try it.  It’s harder than you think.

Saturday my school and I traveled to the beach for some bonding time and a sausage sizzle.  It isn’t something that we will do every week but it was def fun to do the one time.  The beach was so clear and even though it was winter the weather held out as we splashed in the water and took pictures.  Towards the end it did get chilly and we were more than fine to pick up everything and head out but it was fun while we were there.  The water is so clear and so blue! It was amazing!!!

After the beach we went to see kangaroos.  There are only a couple of places you can see them in the city.  They don’t randomly come hopping through at any moment I promise! But where we found them is a grave site.  It’s also a park but where the kangaroos hop is the graveyard.  They are still wild animals so we couldn’t get too close and they were more than happy to hop away everytime that we got close but it was still cool to see them.  I was feet away from a kangaroo and seeing them hop is def a very cool sight to witness.. I did get a picture with one but the only reason he stood so still is because he was taking a poop. There is a place called kangaroo island where you can actually get up and pet them so hopefully we will make it out there.

The weather here is pretty chilly in the morning and at night but the day isn’t so bad.  It’s a mixture between Vegas and California weather.  Right now it’s raining which is good because this part of Australia has been in a drought so the rain is a blessing. 

Today was a quiet, cold day.  For the most part the weekends are our own.  We get to do what we want and don’t usually have activities that we have to attend.  Every three or four weeks we do have a weekend duty which would be like dishes or cooking or cleaning.  I did mine today and worked in the kitchen. 

It really is like a big family here.  Birthdays are something to celebrate and you can sit down next to a stranger and be best friends by the end of it.  The accents are also very cool.  There are a 105 students this quarter with about 200 on staff with easily over 30 nations represented.  The amount of work that is done is amazing both within the city and world wide.  Worship is fun and prayer is always happening.  There is a music DTS here so at any given point you will hear people singing or music played.  At dinner the boys love to sing mumford and sons which just makes me laugh because them singing reminds me of all the boys back home.

We drink coffee and tea a lot here.  I hate coffee but yet drink about a cup a day.  (HINT HINT there is no starbucks here so if anyone wants to send me via packets I will kiss you when I get home). 

With all the different languages here I’ve learned a lot.  I’ve slowed down in speaking a lot so we can understand each other and we constantly tell each other how to say things or tell of customs from back home.  My friend Joliene is Dutch and is constantly speaking Dutch to me on accident.  We laugh about it every time.  It’s been a fun experience to see how each other lives back at home and how similar we are.

I don’t really pick up the accents anymore and I don’t really hear Australian accents anymore.  I have picked up some words from different countries like a gas station is a servo, salvation army is salvo (we love salvo and the salvo bin on base), sun glasses are sunnies, a beanie is a toque, my bladder is a blass, and if asked como es esta (I know no Spanish let alone how to write it besides like 10 words) answer with muy bonita or very beautiful instead.  It’s been a lot of fun to talk with everyone.    

Gary your music has been pulling me through here.  I think I’ve listened to you everyday.  It really has hit home some of your songs and have related to my lectures this week.

Kitty and Gavin, someone totally walked up to me and said “war eagle” as I was walking!!!!! I brought with me an Auburn University sweatshirt that was a gag gift from them but is way comfy so I brought it with.

Kristina I miss you like no other and John and Tony walking somewhere or eating a meal isn’t the same without Jon Jon and T. 

The college group I miss you guys and our events and Tuesday nights but it’s like Tuesday night on crack here, it’s so intense in such a good way!

And of course I miss my mommy, step dad, and puppies but they already know that.

God is doing great things here and I’m totally excited to see where He takes me and my team! I will know outreach by the end of the month or soon after and as soon as I do I will let you know.  On a personal note if you would please pray for me about London.  I’m not sure why but it comes up and everytime it does I feel like something bigger is going to happen.  I’m not sure what it means yet or if anything will come from it but it def is something that is stirring within me. 

haha

so the last post was supposed to be titled "carb overlaod" not "card"


that's what tiredness will do to you!

Card Overload

I'm here in Perth! It is seriously like southern California out here.  The weather is just like Vegas winter.  It's cold but not too bitter most days.  Right now I'm outside in the shade and it's pretty nice!

My flights were amazing. The 8 hour layover in New Zealand was killer though! there is nothing to do in that air port worth wild and there is no free wifi which stinks.  But I got here on Saturday night and got moved into my room.  The July DTS girls are all staying in one house.  Most of the other students here are staying in what we call 228.  It's a huge building with two big rooms.  In the rooms are just piles of bunk beds.  There isn't much privacy and apparently it echos pretty bad so it's not always quiet. 

However July DTS girls are in a house called Gladstone.  It's a building that it more SoCal looking.  I'll post pictures later so you get a better idea.  there are four girls to a room and our showers and toilets are outside the house but in a closed area.  again i'll post pictures later to give a better idea of what i'm living in.  Base is a three minute walk from where I'm staying.

On sunday which was my first day the girls and i went to church here in town.  It's called Metro church.  It was pretty legit.  It took place it what looks like an old theater.  i really liked the service.  After church we went to the grocery store and then had lunch at the base.  we then ventured into town.  its like california shopping areas.  There are big office buildings and then shopping on the street level.  It's kind of like what Fremont street would be if it wasn't so run down and had shops that didn't just sell vegas stuff.  it was really fun.

Sunday night after dinner we had our first meeting as a class.  We have 11 girls and two guys right now.  We are maybe awaiting for another girl and we have a boy from Mexico coming to join us! We have a few different nationalities on the team.  3 Canadians, 6 Americans, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Holland, 1 from Sweden, 2 from Australia, 1 from South Korea, 1 from Germany, and i'm blanking if there is more.  This includes our staff which is 4 females and 1 male.  I'll talk about my team later.

Monday was orientation day and then my team went to King's Park which is like Central Park.  It's huge and beautiful and has an amazing view of the Perth skyline. 

I'm not going to lie i have a lot to say but am kind of tired.  Just wanted to let everyone know I'm here, I'm alive, I'm loving it, I miss home but it feels like i'm just in California so it's not bad at all, it's beautiful and I'm loving it.  Classes will start for me tomorrow. 

I'll write more later! Love you all!

Oh about the title.  We have a couple of bakery's that donate their bread to us at the end of the day so we have more bread than we need.  Toast is what we usually have for breakfast.  It's fun!

Something So Big

My time is running out in the states.  I'm trying to get everything cleaned, packed, put away, organized, bought, returned, thanked, tucked away, and on and on and on.  It's controlled chaos and I'm trying to take it one day at a time and get a little done each day.  I'm excited though.  I'm anxious and worried and concerned and nervous, but underlying it all, I'm at peace.  I know this is what God wants me to do.  I know this is where I need to go.  I know that this is His plan for my life right now and I'm excited.  But it is hard leaving everything that I know for something I know really nothing about.  But it will be an amazing adventure and for that I'm excited.

Back when my church told the staff what changes they were making and what all the planning they had been doing for, they had my friend Gary sing this song.  The chorus simply says, "I want to do something, so big, it's destined to fail without you Lord, I want to fail without you Lord."  This whole song is truly how this trip is for me.  It was such a BIG undertaking for me.  A big decision to do.  To go without finishing my degree, which everyone told/tells me I need or I will fail.  To go knowing that it was going to cost me $13,000.  That's a lot for a broke college student. Knowing that six months away could/will/would change my whole life.

It was scary.  But the whole time I knew that this is what I needed to do, and with that I relied on God to provide.  I had no idea how in the world I would make thirteen thousand dollars.  That's a really big amount.  I got the idea to ask people for all their spare change, and with that alone I've made over $1,300.  IN CHANGE.  There is no reason or logic that I would get one thousand, three hundred dollars from change.  I'm talking nickles, pennies, dimes, and quarters.  I made over 13,000 pennies.  It was easily twenty pounds of pennies.  All the change was so heavy I had to enlist the help of my cousin to take it to the bank with me cause it was so heavy, and he only carried the dimes and nickles.

Then I talked to whoever would listen about my trip.  I've received donations from a wide variety of people, some people I don't even know or have met before.  That was God working.  I didn't know how I would all the money, but I knew God would provide.  And He did.  I'm FULLY FUNDED.

I'm doing something, so big, that without God, I'm going to fail.  I'm setting myself up to fail if I don't rely on him.  I'm going to fail HARD if I don't rely on Him.  It hasn't been a cake walk.  It's been hard.  I've wanted to just stay in bed and forget about the trip.  But at the end of the day I know this is what I need to do.

So in ten days I'm going.  I'm going on the trip of a lifetime.  I'm going with the support of my family, friends, and church.  I'm going to change the world.  I'm going to plant seeds, show love, learn lots, and do a lot of traveling.

I'm going.

Before the wall falls

It's been a while and for that I am sorry.  I promise to update much more often while I am on my trip!!! To say the least life has been crazy in the last month.  Let alone in the last week.  I finished school at the beginning of May.  I am finishing out my last weekend working at the church, I will still be volunteering there but need to take some me time and start preparing mentally and emotionally and spiritually for this trip.  It's been a crazy one.  Before I leave I will share my whole story about how the trip came to happen.  It has taken three years and a lot of running to get there but I'm getting there.  However, the past few days have been one to remember and facebook said my "how am i feeling" was too long so I decided to blog about it.

I was able to spend some time with a girl that I love to death but never really get to hang out with or see because life is busy and crazy.  So we went out for lunch and to get our toes done on tuesday and had a really good time.  As this trip gets closer I feel more at peace.  It's a weird feeling cause I'm scared out of my mind about it, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't.  I am more than excited for this trip but it is a huge step for me and so it's crazy to think about me leaving.

So I was able to go out with a friend and have a great time and then go to our weekly college bible study that night.  As the night went on I felt more and more awful.  It got to the point where I was going to have to leave the lesson, but I'm stubborn and stuck it out til the end and when I finally got home realized that I was sick.  There was no way around it.  I was SICK. 

You may or may not know but I was planning to have a garage sale today to help with funds for the trip and there were a couple points I didn't think I was going to be able to pull it off.  I was in bed with more symptoms than I care to list and probably you care to know about.  Needless to say I'm a baby when I'm sick and it was no fun.  I decided last night that I needed to have the sale before it reaches a 100 degrees here in Vegas so my mom and I woke up at 5 am to set up and put the show on. 

We did very well and raised $265 from it.  It was even more cool to see some of my fellow college students come out and look around and donate to me as well.  But I thought it was cool that the majority of my sales were from random people who I didn't know.  Garage sales don't usually raise that much and get what I did my mom and I were astounded and tired.  We hulled what didn't sell to Goodwill and came home to shower and nap.

Now after being sick for four days and waking up at 5 am the last thing I needed was a sunburn to exhaust my body of everything, and for the record books my mom and tried to put on sun screen but it hated it and it didn't work.  So yes, I am a little (lot) pink from the sale and that made me doubly tired.

I worked at 4 like always.  It was odd that no one was there when I got there but I figured since it was summer people were running a little late and that I got there early.  When Jeanie got there to let me in she said she had to "ask me something and didn't want others to hear if they came in" so we stepped into a classroom and to my TOTAL surprise my coworkers and few of my friends that also volunteer in the childrens center were there to celebrate my last weekend at work.  It was crazy.  I think I was more shocked that Jeanie multiplied into all my coworkers in seconds than anything else. 

It was just nice to sit and talk with my ladies and Mo and hang out and eat.  They all wrote cards and wrote on a banner for me and just made me feel blessed.  I honestly would not know how to put it into words how blessed I feel to have my job.  I do not work many hours and I do not get paid millions, but that doesn't even cross my mind.  I have amazing women surrounding me and supporting me.  They all have a heart for children and I love being around them.  Having been given this job was a blessing in disguise.  I would have never thought that I would love this job as much as I do.  I would have never gotten a party like I did today at any other job, and I wouldn't be surrounded by amazing people like I was.  

It was just a reminder how lucky I am.  And how God really wants me to go on this trip and how much even though it's crazy for me to think about me going on this trip, I know it what He wants and He's providing in many ways.  Spoiler alert who are reading this before church on Sunday but the sermon at church this weekend was about how when the walls of Jerrico fell the Israelite's shouted for victory before the wall ever fell.   They knew God's will in their lives and they knew that they had to walk around the wall and shout in order to do His will.  So they shouted for victory and by faith God made those walls fall.  And that is a miracle.  

Going back I remember when I made my budget for this trip and realized it was going to cost $13,000 dollars to go on this trip and I thought I was crazy to think that I could come up with that amount of money.  And there is no reason why I should have raised as much as I have if I didn't have God.  Plain and simple.  I knew I had to do this, I knew I had to go.  There wasn't a doubt in me that I had to go, and so I walked around the walls for 10 months. Just walking.  Cause that was the will and I knew I had to do it.  It was hard, but I knew that at the end of the day God needed me to go.  So now I'm yelling and God is providing in SO many ways.  

I have friends and family that support me so much it hurts to think that I'm leaving them.  I have a church that supports me and gave me a job when I lost mine and gave me an amazing work environment and co workers.   He's provided the money that I need for this trip and I could tell you logically where it's all come from, but there's reason that I should have raised over a thousand dollars from coins alone.  I can't tell you how a few dollars that gets handed to me is multiplied in thousands but it has.  And for that I am thankful.  And i'm walking.  And I will continue to walk and yell until I fulfill God's will.

Words of Encouragement

Often times in life I feel as though many people don't ever have anything nice to say.  I sit next to a girl in one of my classes and she really never has said anything that would be considered encouraging about another person.  Usually it's putting someone else down.  When talking about people she knows she has positive things to say but generally negativity comes out of her mouth.  I find at times I can be the same way.  There are times that I just want to focus on others problems or say mean things because in the end it doesn't hurt me to say them.  But if someone found out that I said something negative about them it would probably hurt their feelings.

I think as a society and as Christians, and as individuals we can do, I can do so much better.  Since the start of the year I try to say something positive or encouraging to anyone that helps me.  Mostly people who make my food or ring me up at the store.  After working in sales I know how unappreciative people can be, so I try my best to at least say thank you if not more. 

I know I wrote about this earlier in this blog about how we need to love more as a society but even then we need to watch what we say.  In James it talks about how our mouth can have a tremendous effect on others.  And it's true.  What our mouth says, says a lot about us.  People can tell if we are positive or negative by just listening to what we say.  People will decide if they want to be close to us or if they want to ignore us by what we say.  We have to watch ourselves.

On thing that I have been totally blessed with is people who always have positive things to say.  I have a lot of guy friends that I'm close with and never once have they had anything truly mean to say about me.  Can they be harsh? Yes, of course, they are boys and they don't always realize that they are talking to a girl.  But when all is said and done, those boys make sure I know what's what and that I'm important.  They let me know that I'm beautiful.  That I'm wanted.  That I'm a good friend.  They tell me all these things because they know they should and they want to say them. 

And I have awesome parents that let me know I'm doing good in my life.  They are encouraging and supportive to what I want to do in life and the decisions I am making in my life.  I couldn't thank my mom enough for being an awesome mom who shows her appreciation to me on a daily basis.

But often times, the people around us don't have such people in their lives to give them positive encouraging words.  I had a deep conversation with someone close to me a few weeks ago and I found out that they never really had any sort of encouraging words said to them.  They had positive things said to them before but it wasn't consistent.  It wasn't an all the time thing.  They didn't know they were appreciated.  They didn't know that they were cared for,  they didn't know how much I cared for them.  Their self worth was never really shown to this individual.  It broke my heart, it really did.  Someone this close to me and they never knew worth or value in their life.  And this is someone in the church. 

It was a slap in the face that I needed to be more encouraging in my words.  I needed to make it apparent my appreciation for others and let them know verbally that I cared for them instead of just assuming that they knew my appreciation for them. 

Working at the church I have found out that sometimes people just take it for granted what church employees do.  They work their butts off and mostly it goes unnoticed.  The same goes for volunteers who give up  their time.  People don't see the effort others make or know how much we put into planning lessons or how we have learned that we need to teach the kids in individual ways.  I had a work meeting last week (8 women all in one room) and my boss started to tell us how much she really appreciated us.  Then she started to cry.  Which of course made us all cry (again 8 women all in one room).  And it was uplifting to hear how much my boss and her assistant really do appreciate the work we do.  Even if the parents don't always show it, my boss sees the hard work we put in to teach the kids about God.  It was positive encouraging words that we all needed to hear.

So I think you can guess the importance or words.  Especially encouraging words.  And that I shouldn't ramble on anymore.  So my challenge to all of you who read this post is to go out and say at least one positive thing to everyone that you come into contact with in one day.  Just try it one day.  If someone makes you food, thank them.  If your kids do something good, tell them.  If your neighbor lets their dog pee on your lawn, tell them that you would prefer them not to let their dog do that and that you love their front lawn.  Tell everyone one thing positive.  Doesn't have to be a big thing, but something positive goes a long way!

I'm telling you, it will make an impact.  You may not see the difference but it does make an impact.  (Trust me, people who are around my age, if someone older rings you up at a store and you say "Thank you ma'am/sir" you will probably see complete and utter shock on their face because someone actually had good manners."

it's been way to long

Sorry it's been so long since I have posted! I really have no excuse except loss of words.  I have about 30 entries that I started but never finished.  I often think what I write isn't good enough and don't want people to judge me on my writing cause I like to think that I'm pretty okay at it and so if I don't feel it's amazing I don't post it.  So for my lack of communication with everyone I'm sorry.

School and work are the same.  I really am not into school and I totally wish I could just teach and not have to take all these classes.  And work is amazing.  I love the kids to death, they usually make my day and it just proves how much I wasn't the happiest at my other job and I need more of an interactive job. 

Trip wise my student visa was approved so I'm officially allowed to be in Australia from June 25th til January 12.  I do not plan to be there that long but with how expensive it is to come home right now it seems like I might be.  I am still raising money and still collecting change! So keep it coming!  I am also in need of prayer like always! Prayer is always welcomed and needed in my life so thank you to everyone that has been praying for me! I appreciate it!

I had two of my best friends from Kentucky come out to visit me over spring break!  It was amazing to see them and spend time with them again.  I haven't seen them since November of 2009 so it was really cool to be able to hang out with them and live with them for a week.  They loved Vegas.  It was culture shock for them in some ways.  I think they understand a little bit better now why I was in culture shock when I lived in Kentucky.  They are two different places and it was cool for them to finally understand some things.  Like my utter love for rain and snow.  Took them to the local places and they had a great time (or at least I hope they did!).

I don't know what else to say right now.  I'm totally exhausted as seems to be much of my life.  I have an essay test, three essay's to be exact, on Monday in my history of the American Civil war class so I'm working out in my head all that I know so that's keeping me distracted.  And I have to wake up in a few short hours so that I can go watch some babies at the church!

Please keep in contact with me as time progresses!!!!!!!  Much love and hope!