27...

So...this week I celebrated my 27th birthday. 27. Officially can't get away with saying I'm in my mid twenties anymore ;) apparently we've moved on to late...so strange!!! But each year of walking with the Lord is more exciting and full of surprises than the last, so I look forward to this year with much anticipation.
My birthday itself was a little crazy, but really amazing. As many of you know, I'd been praying and believing for God to provide me with $5000 so I could go on outreach to London and Cambodia next week. The tickets were being held until 1:30 pm on December 22, which happens to be my birthday. As of my birthday morning, I was at peace with the fact that I wouldn't be going. By 11 AM, I was racing around from ATMs to the finance department and back, paying for my ticket! Because, friends, God gave me a birthday miracle. I am officially going to London on Thursday to be a part of Mega cities and all the amazing ministries they will be a part of there. I still can't believe that I'm going, but I guess I have to start packing soon, so I better get used to the idea!
So, ya that was the craziest part of my day.

In the evening I went out to the city with some friends for cake. I like being 27, each year gets better and better and I have a feeling it's going to be an especially good one!

one season over.

Okay, so we are in week 11 of the FCM. Week 11. I feel like I just got here, but next week is the final week of lecture phase here in Perth. Why is it that just as I start to settle in and open up and really start to love this base, the season is ending? Last night we had “Commissioning night”, which is where all of us students who are at the end of our lecture phase of school, get prayed over and commissioned onto the next phase-outreach. It was such a beautiful night, each school got up and talked about what the last 3 months had meant to them. I have to say I was feeling pretty sentimental. What I love about YWAM Perth, is that it’s not as big as YWAM Kona. What this means is that you actually get to know pretty much everyone on the base, to some degree or another. There are only 80 something students this semester, which makes it so much easier to get to know people in other schools. So, even though you can’t possibly get to know everyone super well, you still end up feeling like one big family. Last night each person in my counseling school was asked to choose one word which describes the previous 3 months of study. My word was restoring.  It’s really the best word I can think to sum up how God has been at work in my life. Restoring the walls that were broken down…or more like broken down, stomped on and thrown to the wind with no real faith that they’d ever be rebuilt. But the cool thing is, they were! I’ve never known this side of God so clearly- He is my healer. The more I meet people of every age, culture, and background, and the more I study the area of counseling, the more I realize that we are all more or less broken-which is why we need Jesus so desperately. Because He’s the only one who can truly heal and restore. I love that I get to pursue counseling in a way that really keeps Jesus at the center.

So, here are some photos from our commissioning night last night, hope you like them.

so nice to have Jenny here in Perth

my ywam experience is never complete without a few Koreans.

An uplifting study session... ;)

Courtney and I enjoying an afternoon at a local coffee shop. We had to laugh when we noticed our very depressing topics of book choice. In our defense, they were for our research project. 

this is how we do in FCM.

on Saturday...

So, as a Counseling school, we leave for outreach to London and Cambodia in 4 weeks, and have roughly a million dollars to raise before then (slight exaggeration). We are trusting God to do it, as He always does, in His own way. It has been a great lesson in faith, and continues to be. However, we in ywam also believe in doing our part. Asking God what He would like us to do to see this outreach take place, and to receive break through in the area of finances. We prayed as a class, and someone had the idea of a pizza making/selling fundraiser. So that’s what we did for most of the day Saturday, made/sold/delivered pizzas. It ended up being really fun, everyone loved our pizzas, and I think God really blessed our efforts! Here are some pictures of the blessed event for your enjoyment:

always important to wear matching outfits while baking bread dough.

Then, because we felt we hadn’t done quite enough fundraising for one day, my friends Courtney, Cody, and I decided to embark on a pancake selling adventure. You see, our dorm is about 10 steps away from the Stadium where all the concerts all held here in Perth. This is pretty cool, as we can often hear really well known bands from right outside our door. So, this particular Saturday night, Kings of Leon was performing, and we thought there might be some hungry concert goers. We finished cleaning up all the stuff from the pizza fundraiser at 8, and then had about 1 hour total to prep our own little fundraiser. So it was a mad dash to make a million pancakes, and find a cardboard box to make a sign out of (we had to make do). Then, we walked over and began the pancake sales. I will say it ended up being one of the most hilarious experiences I’ve had in a while. We met the most random people, some of whom really didn’t believe that we were actually fundraising to go overseas to counsel women. Apparantly it’s not all that common for 3 young girls to sell pancakes at a concert to raise money for a missions trip. J I even had one guy say to me, ‘ you know, that sounds like a really wholesome thing that you’re doing, and I’d love to believe you….’ In the end though, who cares if he didn’t believe me because he still bought pancakes. It was awesome, and Courtney even scored a t shirt from a grumpy old man who seemed to be willing to do just about anything to not have to buy our pancakes!

We had a great time, I haven’t laughed that much for a long time, and we did our part, which is what its all about.

Hope you like these photos of the evening:

my very ghetto sign

Loved.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love...." Jeremiah 31:3

Blessed.

staff/students of FCM 2011

So again I must apologize for being so slack in the update area. I really am trying, but between morning chores, worship, class, 1 on 1’s, work duty, small groups, community outreach, counseling workshops, book reports, weekly assignments, trying to have some sort of social life, not to mention sleep, it’s kind of hard to get a solid chunk of time for updating.. (However I know I’m not nearly as busy as my sister who has almost 4 kids and a new puppy and still manages to update her blog like twice a week…how do you do it Nik?!) But I am trying I promise and will try harder. So for all those who have been wanting to be updated, here’s a quick update, and will write more next week.

Things are great here in Perth. I love what I’m learning, like LOVE. Like as in I will be immersed in my huge Christian counseling book and realize I’m smiling (I know it’s a bit warped to be smiling while reading about really sad things like depression, anxiety etc, but ya know..). I’m smiling a lot these days- I feel like so many years have been leading up to this, finally getting a chance to study counseling, my dream for so many years. As long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be able to help people, and I feel like I’m finally getting equipped to do that!

So far, in my FCM (foundations in counseling ministries school), we have studied:

Foundations in Counseling

Nature and character of God

Evangelism

Transforming communities

The Divine Plumbline

Currently we are on Plumbline, which is a method of counseling developed by a New Zealand doctor named Bruce Thomas. If you guys have not heard of a plumbline or are wondering what it is like I was at first, the first mention of it is in the Bible. In Amos 7:7-9, it reads, “ This is what he showed me; the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, which a plumb line in his hand.  And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see? And I said, “A plumb line.  Then the Lord said, “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by…”

Any of you who are in the business of building houses would likely know what a plumb line is but just by a different name. By definition, a plumb line is a string with a metal weight at one end that, when suspended, points directly towards the earth's centre of gravity and so is used to determine verticality, the depth of water, etc.

So, basically, it’s used to measure whether or not a wall is straight. In this case, “the Divine Plumbline” ensures that the walls of our lives are straight and solid. So, basically, it is accepting God’s truth and re aligning ourselves with it so that our walls can be straight and strong, and not susceptible to tumbling down. Sorry, I know this sounds boring but in real life it really is fascinating. The last 2 days have been application of what we’ve learned.  It was intense but so good as we saw God move in such a strong way. Because my heart is so soft, I almost always cry when other people cry, so I was a bit of a mess for 2 days. J   I am really excited to be able to walk people through their hurts using this method, now that I’ve been able to experience it first hand. So ya, the learning aspect has been amazing.

Also, I love my friends here. Every time I move somewhere new, I pray like crazy that God will give me just 1 friend that I can be real with. Every single time, he outdoes himself and gives me  many amazing friends that I can be myself with.  So ya I feel blessed like crazy.

In other news, we are starting to plan our outreach to London, England, which will begin December 25 for about 7 weeks! And, we just found out our 2^nd outreach location for the final 4 weeks, which will be to Cambodia!!! I am SOOO excited to have 2 such completely different outreach experiences in the same month.

I was reflecting on this last year of life and realized by the end of the year I will have lived in 6 different countries by the end of 2011. What the heck?!! When did life get to be so much fun? I guess it was about 2 years ago when I decided to follow God fully for the first time. Never a dull moment when you are walking with the Lord. So cool that He knows and cares about each of the things that we are passionate about, and wants to let us experience those things. I feel like I could go on forever about this, as I am SOOOO overwhelmed lately by everything God is doing in my life.

But I’ll stop here as I have to be in the class room in 7 minutes.

Next week I will update with more details about our outreach plans….coming up so soon!

Much love

Australia.....

Okay so I thought its probably time to update, sorry for being so slack. So I've been in Perth, Australia for a whole week now and am feeling pretty settled in...Loving being back in the Australian laid back culture, such a cool country. I live in a room with about 20 girls, and am sleeping on a top bunk for the first time in like 20 something years, but surprisingly, its been really fun, not at all as crazy as it sounds like it would be. As usual with YWAM, I'm loving that I get to meet so many people from so many different cultures...it just brings so much flavor to life! This base is about half the size of the one in Kona so that has proven to be quite nice as you definetely get to know more people and feel like part of a family. A lot of things are different from Kona, and some are taking some getting used to, but all in all, I do really like it here. There are a couple girls in my class that I know from my time in SBS in Kona so that has been SUCH a blessing when I'm feeling homesick for Kona.
As far as my studies go, I am completely LOVING it. It seems like a dream come true to finally be beginning my journey into becoming a counselor. Last week we were taught on "Foundations in Counselling" by the dean of the university, Brad Tout. This week we are studying 'the nature and character of God' with a guy named Richard Blake, who is both hilarious and deep and insightful. I am loving, loving, loving it...I feel beyond blessed to be so blessed to be here, studying something I am so passionate about, in such a cool place as Perth, with such awesome people.
Still praying in my finances and asking God to show me for creative ways to fund raise, I know He will provide but I want to make sure I am doing my part to get there.
My work duty (2 hours we serve each day on base outside of our school) I am in the registration office doing filing, etc, which has been such a blessing, as most of my class is on dish duty. I don't know why I got so blessed as to be able to work in the office instead..but im not complaining! The registration people are so fun and it is so nice to get to know some new people outside of class.
Oh, and today they served pumpkin pie, only for the Canadians...missing my family a lot today.
So,happy thanksgiving to all my Canadian loved ones!
I'll keep you guys posted on the happs around here..
heres some photos and Kangaroo videos just for my favorite boys, Benji and Seth...because they couldn't come with me.. at least they could see them on video :)