Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I thought I was a little more behind than I actually am; I really though it had been a month since I last posted something. Three weeks is not bad, considering the craziness of the holidays! No excuses though, the first of the year should bring more consistent postings.
A few weeks ago our team experienced some sad moments and really happy moments. On December tenth Jenica told the team that she would not be continuing on with us to Ipswich. She had many reasons why. It was really hard to see her go, but I think God is already working the situation out to His glory. The day after that came the good moment, Gregory graduated from college! We got to spend the evening with his parents and sister, and had a blast celebrating that big milestone with him.
Our team spent the seventeenth through the twentieth at an amazing lodge on Lake Brownwood. This was our last (and longest) module! It was spiritually, emotionally, and physically exhausting, but it was amazing. I cried everyday we were there, what is that about! I think I'm getting more weepy as the days go by. The timing for the module was really good, our new three person team got to talk about how we felt about losing Jenica and all the implications that go along with that. I also had the amazing blessing of growing closer to the women of the team that is moving to Chile in 2011. I have a new love for each and every one of them!
Our Christmas was a bit scrambled; our schedule got a little messed up. As my sister said when I told her we would not make it to see them in Bastrop, "This is turning out to be a very untraditional Christmas!" Amen sister! We will be seeing them later in the month, so that will be good. At least we were not stranded on I-20 for eleven hours on Christmas eve like some of our friends! You know who you are. :)
On a totally unrelated note, I read this article about Ipswich today and thought it was interesting.
http://www.qt.com.au/story/2009/12/30/council-say-they-can-cope-with-population/

The nose knows

Monday night was quite a new experience for me, I was punched in the face and broke my nose. I didn't block a punch at kickboxing, and the rest is history. However, the entire night was graced by the presence of God so I'd like to share some of that history. Although I don't consider this graphic some might, so read with caution!
Let's start with the punch. It came rather quickly, so while it didn't hurt at first I knew something was wrong. I had just enough time to pull off my gloves before my nose started bleeding all over the floor. The initial shock of it all led me to stand there and bleed all over the floor much longer than I should have, sorry about that to my instructor and owner of the school! He encouraged me to go into the bathroom and get some paper towels. I went into the bathroom breathing quite heavily (that's what I do when I experience traumatic physical pain, I heave), and my instructor quickly followed after me with a cold pack. I sat in the bathroom with the cold pack for just a few seconds before the guy who hit me in the face ran into the bathroom with a HUGE bag of ice! In freak out mode (and probably a little bit of dad mode, he has little ones at home) he wanted to get some ice for my nose, and I guess that's all they had at the gas station next door! He filled a bag with ice and gave it to me for my nose. In the meantime one of the other students at our school came in to ask a question about cleaning the blood off the floor. Granted he works there part time, but did I mention he is a pro MMA fighter offering to clean up my blood?
Next came the real issue...how I would get to the ER. My instructor and the above student I just mentioned suggested that I get to the ER as soon as possible so I could get my nose reset. You can imagine that a lot of those guys have had their noses broken before! My instructor got my phone for me so I could call my husband to come get me...but in the midst of the chaos I forgot that he does not have a vehicle right now. He's driving a huge fire truck around to show to customers, and picking me up in that would not work very well. My instructor offered to take me to the ER while Matt found a way to get there, but then the guy who hit me insisted that he do it instead. Everyone got my stuff together and he took me down to the ER. As I walked out the door all the guys were sure to give me some sort of "hope all turns out well" goodbye.
I'd like to stop here for a moment and share how I saw God working at the school that night. When everyone saw that I was hurt, they jumped into action. My instructor stopped teaching class to come and help me. He even offered to reset my nose for me, which he did with kind of a scared, "I don't really want to, but I can if you need me to" look. Definitely a no, but it was a nice thought! The guy who hit me had nothing on his mind but making sure that the bleeding stopped and that he got me to the ER. Even my friend and fellow student came to check on me and ask how my nose felt before he finished cleaning the blood up off the floor. Monday night those guys were my family, taking care of me until my husband could be there. They didn't judge or make fun of me, they helped me. God was showing his love through the care and concern of those guys that night.
I have another family that would have done the same thing though (besides my obvious birth family), and that's the group of people that I share my relationship with Jesus with. I know that if none of the guys from the school could have taken me to the ER, then any one of the people I participate in house church with would have dropped what they were doing to come and get me. The thing I love about my martial arts school is that anyone and everyone is welcome. Your skill level, age, or athleticism don't matter, what matters is that you go and try your hardest. However, there is one thing missing. Although I am very close to a few people at my school and know the most joyous and painful parts of their lives, I do not have a relationship with each and every student. There is no encouragement to share life outside of the martial arts world. Do I think that's a bad thing? No, not really. If people could find all fulfillment in a relationship with the martial arts world, then there would be no need for Jesus. However, they can't. I can't, or else I would have quit participating in my house church a long time ago and would just go work out all the time! My family in Christ shares one thing that my marital arts family does not, and that's the encouragement to bring the really dark corners of our lives out into the open so that Jesus can flood them with his light and love.
Now for part two of God's story. The guy got me to the ER and decided to stay until Matt got there. I sat down, and there was one other couple in the waiting room. Their situation seemed much worse. The woman was rocking back and forth crying and saying, "I can't lose a baby, I'm halfway there!" It was obvious she was there because she thought she was having a miscarriage. I'm sitting there in almost no pain, with a little blood on my clothes, and she's experiencing a life or death moment with her husband and unborn child. I sat there and prayed for them, asking God to save their lives. After just a few seconds the nurse came to take her away. I lost some money on a trip to the ER and a few extra hours of sleep that night, but there is a very good chance that a husband and wife lost the life of their little baby. It was very humbling. I partially think that I got punched in the face because I did not block, but even more than that I think I got punched in the face so that God would have someone crying out to him on behalf of that family Monday night. I think if you look in the Bible you will find many instances when people who give their lives to God are put in hard situations so that they can bless other people, and I think Monday night was one of those moments. There's nothing special about me, but what makes me special is that God wants to include me in his work in this world.
Since I am on the topic of family, there are a few other people I need to mention from this string of events. I need to give a huge thanks to my father in law and Matt for coming to take care of me. Scott got Matt to me at the ER, waited on me, and then took us back to my car which was at the karate school. He stayed out super late with finals to tend to the next day to be there for his family. Also, Matt is ridiculously sick right now, and he drove me to the pharmacy at midnight to get medicine after my ER visit. He is an amazing husband! Lastly, my mother in law and grandmother made us dinner tonight so that Matt and I would not have to be busy in the kitchen after I got my nose reset today. I am really blessed!

Resurrection

I was thinking and praying this morning, and realized that I have been on autopilot. Not only have I been on autopilot, I chose a boring, dirt road to wander down. What do I mean by this? Well, I've chosen laying under the covers way too long every morning over the warmth and refreshment that talking to God can bring. I've not really prayed much, because I've allowed myself to think that when I bring the same thing up to God over and over again, He gets tired of me. Deep down inside I know this is not true, but I think I can confidently say that those thoughts happen to myself and others quite often. I've not allowed myself to dream about what will happen when we are in Australia. This is a big deal, because when we stop thinking about and praying for the moms, brothers, and wives that we'll meet in Australia this whole mission becomes about us pushing through to a goal that we've stubbornly set for ourselves, instead of faithfully taking a path that God has cleared for us. Whenever I find myself in this funk I like to think about the words that Paul said back in the day, "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you". This morning as I was thinking about those words, God took my thoughts to another place that I'd like to share.
Let's think about the resurrection in reverse order. Jesus was raised from the dead, and that same power of God that brought a dead man to life is living in me. Pretty awesome. But to be resurrected, you must be dead, and before that you must have died. That might seem redundant, but there really is a huge difference between dying and being dead. I personally think the former has the potential to be much worse. This is where God took me today, in order to accept the joy of being given new life we have to accept that sometimes we are going to have to experience death. This could actually be the death of a loved one or close friend, but it really goes much further than that. Let's face it, really bad things happen all the time in our relationships, around us, because of us, etc. Stick with me, the connection is coming. We can't expect to fully appreciate the fact that we are living a resurrected life until we've been brought out of something that just about killed us. This is where autopilot comes in. In order to not feel the burden of death in my life, I often just avoid it all. I don't experience the good, life changing, life bringing opportunities in my own and others' lives because I don't want to experience the bad. However, what I end up with is a life traveled on an ugly, dirt road with no joy, memories, or life.

Fundraising and TeamQuest

Last Friday Matt and I held our fundraising dinner. I blogged about it in my last post...remember the breakdown? Well, no extra people came. We ended up having it in one of the smaller rooms of the church building, and it was great! We think that God really wanted the specific attendees together for this specific dinner. We ended up having five families represented and two individuals, totaling about eighteen people. We were really blessed to have Matt's mom help me get the food ready and the room set up. Help me is really an understatement, she's wonderful! The Green's blessed us by serving the dinner. Dwight W. who I've mentioned before came to support us. He and his wife shared the good news of Jesus in Adelaide for many years. Two of our very sweet and supportive female friends came to learn more about what we're doing. They really blew us away with wanting to spend the evening encouraging and praying with us. Perhaps the most surprising couple of the evening though was one that Matt first met when they lived in Searcy, Arkansas. They are family friends, and David works at ACU with Matt's stepdad. Their coming was so refreshing! After everyone ate that night, Matt and I gave our usual presentation. It was pretty apparent that this couple was soaking it up. After the presentation we opened the floor up to questions, and they had many good ones. When it was all said and done they said that they were really encouraged by our excitement in going to Australia. It was pretty amazing, because we encouraged them by showing excitement in being on this journey, and they encouraged us by coming out of the blue to support us and spend the evening hearing what we have to say. What we've found is that people don't even give Australia a chance when they think of countries/continents where not many people know the love of Jesus. However, once they hear more about it they are blown away. We don't ask people to be as excited as us about going...but we can't help but think that if they heard our story they might be!

This past Thursday our team was again part of TeamQuest. TeamQuest is an evening that ACU hosts where students can go and learn about how to be involved in God's mission through doing internships around the world and joining mission teams. Each team that is currently training makes food from their country to serve. We also talk to the students about the different internships we've done, our teams, where we're going, etc. This year I told students about how I did an internship in New Zealand in 2004. I would make the joke as I talked about how many of them were in high school when I did that internship. I had one student say, "I think I was in middle school". Yep, I'm old. Anyway, I love TeamQuest because I love to tell our story. God has done such crazy things in our lives that I can't help tell about them. It's cool to talk to students and see their eyes light up as they're thinking, "Hey, I can do that!" For those of you who just go places for the food, this year we served curried sausages (probably more of an Indian dish,
but still really popular in Australia), ANZAC biscuits, hot tea, and of course the usual Vegemite on crackers. We serve the Vegemite primarily for the shock factor. :) Don't worry, that flag is not touching the ground. I don't know if that's a big deal in Australia, but we try to show respect to the Australian flag just like we do the US flag.

This morning Matt is enjoying a Nascar race with some of the men in his family. It was kind of amusing, his stepdad called during the week and said, "Tish did not want to go right? Because if she did, we did not get her a ticket". I can't think of many more places I'd rather not be, but I really appreciated him thinking of me! I'm getting quite a few team things done; I've updated our "partner tally sheet" as I like to call it. I also sent out an email to those who have given us their email address in the past for updates. I contacted two new possible supporters, or at least people who might know people who might be supporters...you know what I mean. I'm about to send out some thank you cards. Then Bane and I are going to go out and enjoy this amazing day, he deserves to run around outside and sniff some light poles.

break down

I've been trying to catch up this weekend. So many wonderful things have happened the past week and a half, and a lot of really heartbreaking/frustrating things have also happened. To be honest I'm to frazzled to recall any of them, but I'm glad I experienced them. Last night I called one of the elders from my home church in Corpus to fill him in on our progress for leaving in January, which is not going to happen. Some might say, "now Tish, have some faith", but seriously, unless God miraculously transplants us there in January then it's not going to happen. When I say miraculously, I mean miraculously. Like walking on water miraculously. Anyway, he did not answer which was a bit of a relief and was really stressful all at the same time. I have been super stressed about talking to him, mainly because I have to say, "we're not ready". I'm ready to hear him say, "well, we're tired of waiting, you should be ready". What makes me feel this way? It's not anything he's said in the past, except for, "January is going to come quickly". I think that satan has taken that one little sentence and totally jacked my heart and my brain with it. We've been working on fundraising, citizenship, and visas for the past three+ months, but are not much further now than when we started. I am a go getter, and I feel like the fact that none of this is done is a poor reflection on me. Satan is using the way God made me to turn around and beat me down. I'm scared that this wonderful man of God and this wonderful church, who have always been nothing but encouraging, is going to desert us. I'm afraid that they are going to be disappointed in us. Disappointing people is what scares me more than anything else in the world. Just writing this is making me cry (for the second time in one day mind you, I think that's some sort of record). The screen is fuzzy through my tears, but I will press on!
So what have I been working on today? Well, I put together our little excel sheet showing who our ongoing and one time financial partners are. The list might be small, but it is an amazing reminder that there are people who agree that this journey is one that God alone has put us on. I'm grateful for those people. I also looked more in depth into money transfers from the U.S. to Australia, and wrote an email to XE.com asking them some questions. I wrote this ridiculously long email to a girl from Oklahoma who emailed me to ask what Matt and I will be doing in Australia. I probably scared that girl half to death, she's going to have to take a lunch break in the middle of reading the email because it's so long! I also talked with the man who is going to help us in our fundraising dinner on Friday night. He and his wife are going to be our hosts/MCs for the evening, it is very kind of them to help us out. That email correspondence led to the first wave of tears. He asked me what was expected of he and his wife on Friday, and while Matt and I have some ideas we did not have it totally figured out yet (this is the beginning of the whole letting people down thing...why haven't I been doing more to prepare?). I called our mentor Gary to get a better idea of what he's seen in the past. He gave me some wonderful ideas, and then I dropped the bomb that out of the twenty-ish invites we've sent out, only three people have RSVPd to say they are not coming. No one has said they are coming. Yeah, the tears came flooding through! I was trying to hold them back, and if I could have made it about thirty more seconds he never would have known. Yeah right, it's totally easy to tell when someone's crying on the phone, but I tried to fool myself. Since I was pretty confident that he could tell I was crying, I just let it all out. Deep gasps for air, snorting nose, the whole nine yards. I'd like to think he's used to it having a teenage daughter...let's hope so. Gary was very, very encouraging (as usual), and I managed to gain my composure. He said it will all be alright, which I do believe deep down inside. When I cry, it's not because I don't have hope and faith that this will happen. I cry because I have been giving my heart, my mind, and my time to things other than preparing to go. There are so many aspects of this journey that are only in God's hands, but there are a few that are totally in mine and I have let them slip right through. I'm so frustrated at myself for, I don't know, I guess being scared and therefore avoiding the tasks that have been set before me.
Everyone experiences trying to find the balance between what God calls us to trust Him to do and what He calls us to do ourselves, but I don't think people understand how much of a burden this is for people like me. Some people never really get what it feels like for your heart to feel like you have to keep EVERYTHING together even when your brain knows better. It is exhausting and emotionally draining, and every once in a while you can't keep it all together and you break down. That's me today...wave of tears number three. Now I'm sweaty and my nose is runny, but it is freeing. I'm sitting here breaking down before God, knowing that he will pick up these pieces and put them together like He does every time. Maybe this time though He'll leave out one of the little pieces that makes me feel like this all hinges on me. I'm tired of that feeling.

Thank goodness I'm young

So last Friday (like over a week ago, not four days ago) I left work and started my mission: to drive as much of the state, see as much of the family, and exhaust myself as much as possible. Okay, so I hoped to avoid the third one...but the first two are accurate. My sister, brother in law, and two nephews moved from Idaho to Bastrop (yipee!), last weekend, and I wanted to help them move into their new place. Keep in mind that I have not seen my nephews since last Christmas, so I was pretty eager to be with them! I left at 6:30ish on Friday night and got into Bastrop at 10:40ish. Not bad for a young lady on a Friday night, I was feeling good. I went to sleep immediately. My sister had put a futon mattress on the floor in the boys' room, and it was glorious. If you're wondering, futon mattresses are far more comfortable on the floor than on the chair. Saturday morning I woke up and started breaking down the many boxes my sister had already managed to empty the few days before. It was just the two of us and the boys in the house, because my bro in law, father, and uncle had left for Belton before I got up. They had to go get the rest of the "heavy" stuff. I would break down a few boxes, stop and read a chapter of Captain Underpants to the boys, and then break down a few more boxes. Around lunch time my sister and I took a Reader's Digest tour of the town, got lunch, and ran home with the boys. I then ate pizza, had a cup of coffee, and a slice of cake. After that I took a shower and left their house. I left at 3:15pm, so I was at my sister's for what, seventeen hours?
I left Bastrop for Carrollton, because my sister in law was having her ...th birthday party (she might not like me broadcasting it to the world) Her family and friends were going to be surrounding her, and I wanted to be there. The trip should have taken about four hours, but it rained the entire way! I'm not kidding, I might have had about five minutes with no rain. I can't complain though, a good bit of the state got rain that day! I got to Carrollton at about 8:30pm, just in time to see my sister in law blow out the candles on her beautiful birthday cake. My mother in law made it, and it was great! I ate dinner, chatted with my husband (who had driven in from Ballinger that same day, that's why we weren't together), had some cake, and tried to chill out a little. You should have seen my knuckles after driving through Dallas on a Friday night in the rain...it was interesting. The party was great, everyone left, and we went to sleep.
We got up Sunday morning for church. Matt and I were blessed to be able to spend some time with the missions committee at Farmer's Branch on Sunday morning after church, and tell them our story. Linda and Brett were very encouraging. We hope and pray that Farmer's Branch will be able to partner with us in one way or another, please pray about the possibilities that God will create! After church we met with some extended family for lunch, and then went back to Matt's sister's house to get our stuff packed up. We were there about eighteen hours. Matt and I left in separate cars toward home (that was a bummer). We got back into Abilene just in time to meet with our brothers and sisters in faith at our home gathering, which was great. I was tired, but I want to soak up every moment and special occasion with family that I can. Thank goodness I'm young, and thank goodness God gives me strength that is beyond measure.

Who has time for another story? This Saturday we were blessed by our friends Chris, Hasina, Stephanie, and The Brew coffee shop here in Abilene. The Brew offered to give our team a portion of their profits from 6-10pm on Saturday. We gathered, set up an information table, met people, drank coffee, played games, and had a blast! We ended up making a some money, telling people what God is doing in our lives, encouraging others that anything is possible, meeting new friends, and blessing the coffee shop with a very busy night. Thanks to everyone who played an important part in Saturday's events.

Summit, Enchiladas, and Roast

Many good things happened last week...so there is some catching up to do. Last week ACU held their annual "Summit". It's like a week of classes and lectures that people can come to. It's a great opportunity to catch up on new books, new ideas, meet people, be refreshed, etc. I went on Tuesday morning and helped man the Halbert Institute booth. That was fairly uneventful, but then I got to go to a lecture afterward. A gentleman who studies and writes about spiritual practices of the early church led it, and it was wonderful! I'm a brain person, I think much more than I feel. However, my spirit has felt a little dry lately, and I have seen time and time again recently how God is calling me to just physically be with him. That might sound strange, but I can't think of a better way to put it! Maybe you can comment and give me some ideas of what you think I might mean.
The team got together on Tuesday night and worked on our "strategy". We don't like that word much, because it sounds like we're planning exactly what we're going to do in Australia while we are still here, and hell or high water are going to see it through. That's not the case at all. We're working on a plan that says, "Here are some things I think I hear God telling me to do when I'm in Australia. If after so many years there is no fruit from that, I will stop and pray about what else it is that God might want me to do". Tuesday was actually a really wonderful night, because we allowed ourselves the freedom to stop thinking so big picture for a little while and say, "Okay, what really specific things do you want to do in Australia?" We got to dream big!
Enchiladas...On Friday night Deborah N. had the women of Halbert who have done church planting in the past and us women who will be moving in the future to her house for dinner. We had a blast! She made this wonderful dinner and we all ate, talked, told stories, and laughed. Those women have so many amazing stories to share, and we just got to sit and take them all in. They went to different countries at much different times than we will be, so it was good to hear about the things they faced and think about how those will be different or the same than what we will face. She is an amazing woman for investing the time and energy into allowing us all a place to come together and share life.
Roast...This Sunday the team got together again for dinner and to work on the strategy some more. You might recall a post I wrote a few months ago where I talked about how our team is growing in friendship. Sometimes that means we are awkward around each other, running out of things to say and things like that. I have to say, Sunday night was a total different group than that one in the past! It was wonderful, we were honest about things on our hearts and didn't get our feelings hurt or get uptight. We talked, laughed, and worked together to clean up the kitchen. I know we still have a long way to go, but we have moved forward in leaps and bounds! I was really encouraged by our time together.
Matt and I got turned down by another church on Sunday night, which was disappointing. Like I've said many times before though, at least they let us know their response! If you know of any churches interested in helping our family with fundraising, or are interested in helping us yourself, please comment to this post and I will be more than happy to talk with you and share more about our needs.

Fundraising...not so fun. Skype...so fun!

I've adopted a bit of a motto these days: fundraising is not fun and it does not raise your spirits. I thought the play on words was really catchy! Fundraising is very tedious, it can get you excited at the slightest smidgen of a possibility that someone will help you out, then leaves you in a whimpering mess on the floor when the smidgen is thrown to the floor and stepped on. Okay, so that's terribly dramatic, but it's kind of accurate! However, we know that God has a very cool plan behind how hard this is. I can't wait for the day when I get to write that story in my blog! That's pretty unrelated to the next set of events, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
Last weekend (over a week ago, not a few days ago) Matt and I finalized our September newsletter and got an address list together of people that we know and love from the church we attend in Abilene. Since our church will not be able to help support us on an ongoing basis, we are going to seek the ongoing support of our individual brothers and sisters there. Our list consists of about sixty-five families. Friday night I got off work and went to Wal-Mart. I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart, the produce is generally bad, the selection of different things I like is limited, and it's just a general place of chaos and commotion. I much prefer going to HEB, but I had to get a printer cartridge. Let's keep in mind that the ONLY reason I went to Wal-Mart is because I needed a printer cartridge. I made this my "big shop" of the month as we like to call it, and got a lot of food and toiletries. I got two cartons of ice cream like normal, because I can't ever decide. I also got a twelve pack of 8 oz. coca-cola, because I was going to cook a frozen pizza that night and you can't have pizza without coke. When I left Wal-Mart, it was raining pretty good. I ran out to my car and started loading it as fast as I could. The carton of cokes opened up and they fell into the trunk and onto the ground. I ran after the little can that was rolling away down the asphalt, and managed to save it before getting hit by a truck going down the aisle. One of the cans fell rather smashingly on my loaf of bread, which was sad. I conquered the mess though and got it all in the trunk. I hopped in the car and started to drive home in the rain. About three minutes from Wal-Mart I realized that I forgot the one thing that took me there...printer cartridges. Needless to say I was pretty sad, but I had the ice cream in the trunk and I hate frothy, melted ice cream! I was also a bit on the annoyed side, so I decided that I would go home, eat pizza, watch a movie, and then go to Wal-Mart after that. I must also make it clear that I pretty much refuse to go to Wal-Mart from about 8am-9pm, so that's why I couldn't just go the next morning. The chaos is even greater during normal hours. I did just that, ate the pizza and watched "Phoebe in Wonderland", it was amazingly strange. I loved it! After that, I went back up to Wal-Mart and got the ink cartridges, labels, and envelopes. Saturday morning I woke up, ready to print and stuff envelopes. I got the laptop hooked up to the printer. I guess I should mention that it was an empty printer...and there was no paper in sight. I looked in all the usual places, and found no paper. Really?!? After all the drama I did not have any paper? I decided I would just do the labels in the meantime, and print the letters later that afternoon. Apparently I live in the twilight zone, because our Avery labels would not match up with the Avery template in our computer, and I printed about three different sheets of labels before giving up on them being really messed up. Plan B or C(I've lost count by this point), just print the addresses on the envelopes. This worked like a charm, and I printed the return address on at the same time I printed the receivers' addresses on. Later that afternoon I went and got some paper, and the letters turned out really well. I got them all stuffed on Sunday and Monday, and had them in the mail on Tuesday. Talk about drama, I hope the invitations are not so crazy!
On yet another unrelated note, Matt and I used Skype for the first time last night. There is a family that has moved to Wollongong, Australia to do the same thing as us in Ipswich. They have been there about nine months. It's very interesting, their situation is just like mine and Matt's, but switched between the spouses. She was an Australian who married a U.S. citizen, and Matt is the Aussie who married me. We had the most AMAZING conversation with them for an hour! We got to ask them about visas and citizenship, culture shock, grocery shopping, friendships they're building, what they're doing with their time, how their team is working together, the list goes on and on. They asked us what books we're reading, how our team is doing, what our timeline is, etc. They got to affirm that pretty much everything Gary is teaching us about culture shock is accurate, which is both exciting and humbling. I think we'd all like to think deep down inside that we're above it, that we will be able to adjust better than people have in the past for some reason (maybe that's just my pride talking). They made it clear that no, we will not get around it! The woman also affirmed our assumptions that the person who will probably have the hardest time adjusting will be Matt, since he lived there when he was young. For the rest of us things will be new and exciting, but for him things will just be different than he knew as a child. The changes will be harder for him to take. We also got to listen to them share their frustrations, worries, and joys in a safe atmosphere. Since we're training on what they're going through, they can say things honestly without leading us to worry that they want to come back or regret what they're doing. They're just trying to get by in a world that has been turned upside down! I felt so refreshed and encouraged when we were done talking with them, I can't emphasize how amazing it was. I hope they were blessed by our conversation as well.

let's get all sudsy

I wish I was wise, really wise, "Solomon" wise. I wish I always knew the right thing to say, and just when to say it. I wish that pearls of wisdom rolled off my tongue like I was the biggest oyster in the world. There are a few things I want to be remembered for when I'm no longer on this earth, and the top two are probably being faithful to God and people, and being wise.
I guess part of that whole wanting to be wise thing stems from the fact that I'm a fixer. I'm a detail oriented, assertive, organized woman, and I want to fix things. People who fix things should generally be wise, so there you go.
Why do I bring this up? Thanks for asking, it's because I'm surrounded by people whose lives are twisted, torn, and spit out on the floor. Whether it was their decision or not, they're trapped in a world of self hurt and hurting others, and I hate it. I want to be able to say, "this is how God can heal this situation", have them listen and do the things I suggest, and be healed. That of course means that I assume I always know what God wants for people...and I don't...so that part needs a little tweaking. Anyway, I wish I was wiser so that I could help people more. I guess part of that will come with age, and a lot of it will come from asking for it from God with a humble heart. Speaking of humble heart, let's talk about bullies.
I do not like it when people assume that they are better than others. I don't like it when people make fun of the marginalized, or don't include outsiders because they "don't belong". I have never really been bullied myself, I guess I was raised to be way too confident and intimidating for that. I also think that God has given me a spirit of confidence that I could not attain on my own. However, not everyone is like that. Therefore, quit being a bully! In the Kajukembo classes I teach, respect and a humble attitude are at the top of the list of things I want to instill in my students. If you can't learn those things in a place where you're also learning to kick and punch, you're asking for trouble! I hate seeing kids who are bullies...but what I think I might hate even more is seeing adults who are bullies. If you have not grown out of making fun of people, then you have some serious issues! If the only thing that makes you feel like a decent human being is being indecent to those around you, then I really feel sorry for you. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a little playful banter among friends. However, being mean for the sake of making another person feel like less of a human being than you is sick and evil. It's time for some grown ups I know to start acting like it. It's time for me to not be the most mature person in a room when I'm surrounded by people older than me. It's time for people who say they follow Christ to start living out love toward others. It's time for me to listen to my own words, don't worry about that. It's also time for some other people to as well though. Here's my thought on it, God is the creator of all so He can love and judge perfectly. However, we as humans are not capable of the same. We are much better and judging and a lot worse at loving. Therefore God says, "Okay, you need to practice love, and you can't focus on two things at the same time. Therefore, I want you to love and not judge". Are we going to listen?

The Three Stooges

there were birds everywhere!
This weekend, my sister, mom, and I met up in Horseshoe Bay (funny title, huh?). We didn't really realize until we got there that it was right at a four hour trip for each of us, which worked out really well. We wanted to take a chance to just hang out with each other without spouses and children around. We needed some girl time!
The resort we went to was the Horseshoe Bay Marriott Resort, and it was beautiful. The different pools and restaurants of the resort were spread out among a few miles, so golf carts and passenger vans took us everywhere we needed to go. On Friday night we ate dinner at a great restaurant overlooking Lake LBJ, then we sat in the Caprock Pool for about an hour chatting. When we got back to the hotel we walked around the grounds for a while...and they were amazing! The art and landscaping that surrounds the hotel were amazing in the dark, we could not wait to see it all during the day!
On Saturday my mom got a massage for her birthday, a treat from her daughters. Anita and I ate breakfast and got ready to go while she was gone. Then we went and sat on the man made beach for...well, most of the day! I love the beach, but I hate the salt water. Switch out said saltwater with lake water and I'm a happy girl! I got to spend a little time reading more of one of the many books that have been assigned to our team (thanks Gary!), it's called The Case for Christ. It's about a journalist who set out to debunk the existence/purpose/history of Christ. I was reading in the chapter where he interviewed a Jewish Christian, and it was by far the most interesting chapter so far. The book is getting better the more I read!
Saturday night we got dressed up and ate at one of the fancier restaurants at the resort, I had great slow cooked short ribs with polenta and seasonal vegetables...and orange truffle cheesecake with ganache for dessert. Have I ever mentioned that ganache is one of my favorite things in the world? You could put it on top of just about anything and make it taste like a million bucks!

Saturday night I walked around the hotel and took some pictures of all the cool stuff I saw on Friday night, but the camera (probably actually the photographer!) was not at the top of its game. I didn't get the best shots, but I still got some good ones.Saturday night we watched some movies and then hit the hay.
Sunday we ate breakfast at a golf course that had been skunked the night before. I don't know exactly how it happened, but they said a skunk got under the floor and did its magic (wording my own, who really talks like that besides me?) Anyway, we ate our breakfast outside to avoid the smell, and the food was great. After that we went back to the hotel and played golf...well, miniature golf. It was like putt putt, but with actual putting greens and no clowns opening and closing their mouths. It was really neat, I felt like Tiger Woods (but poorer and much less talented). After that? You guessed it, we went down to the beach again and sat around! It was wonderful, I really loved it down there. That night we ate dinner together and then my sister Anita had to leave. Her little boy started kindergarten today, and she needed to be there with him. How exciting, and a little scary, for all of them. Mom and I watched a few more movies (well, I watched them and she fell asleep!) and then hit the hay again. This morning she and I ate breakfast and then said our goodbyes as well. I came home to a husband who has been doing many much needed and much appreciated odd jobs like getting our closet light to work (thanks also to Aaron, sorry I was so bossy about you coming as soon as possible. I was tired of taking a flashlight into the closet to see my clothes!) I also came home to a dog who has had projectile diarrhea for the past three days. We think the combo of having other dogs in our home for the past two weeks and me being gone for three days might have had some stressful effects on him! Usually when I'm gone Matt is too, so he's kind of used to how all of that works. When I just up and left though, we think he got a little confused and worried! Who knows, I just hope he doesn't get sick again (like I can complain, Matt's been cleaning up after him!)
My sister, mom, and I had a great time. We talked about growing up, marriage, divorce, the future, our friends, our family, money, etc. It was great to share our hearts with one another in a slow paced, relaxed environment. I'm grateful to my mom for treating my sister and I to such a wonderful weekend.

the fountain near one of the pools

the view from our room

How many boxes of kleenex are we going to go through?!?

Last weekend we had an amazing time in College Station. No, we weren't running around in our A&M t-shirts...we were participating in our second to last module through Halbert. Last weekend was a family/supporter weekend. Our team, a team moving to Thailand in about a month, our financial supporters, and our parents all gathered in College Station for a weekend of catching up. We got to College Station on Friday evening, and then the Thailand team and our team gave our presentations to the crowd. It was a good opportunity for our parents to see what we show to churches when we visit them, and to just get a better idea of what we're planning to do in Australia. We talk about it here and there with them, but they don't get to hear our day in and day out conversations about it.
The tears started Friday night. I didn't cry, but my eyes watered. Me, the girl who doesn't cry! I got emotional telling my story...partly because it's been a stinking seven year process and partly because I'm so excited! The possibilities are endless in Ipswich, and my brain can't wrap itself around them all. I'm super excited. The tears started again on Saturday morning. We have Gary to thank for those! He was going through a powerpoint that showed the adjustment process that we will experience, and telling the families and supporters the best way to help us deal with those adjustments. It was an emotional time because he was in essence saying, "your kids are about to leave, and when they come back they're going to be a lot different than when they left", and that was hard for parents to take! There was a lot more to what Gary said...I don't want him to think that's all anyone got out of it! That was just kind of the snapping point for a few people. I also don't want it to sound like I don't think it was valid for parents to get upset at that, because it totally was. Before I dig myself into a bigger hole, I'll continue! The toughness of that conversation led to a time when all of us team members had to leave the room, and the parents just got to debrief a little. Apparently it was an amazing time when they all got to be honest, I hope they all got a lot out of it.
Crying station number three was our time alone with our parents to share how they've blessed our lives. You can imagine how that went! I've always felt encouraged by my family, but we've never been a, "hey, way to go" kind of group. All I can say is that those thirty or so minutes with Matt, Leonie, and my dad was one of the most amazing times of sharing I've ever experienced...in my life. I will never forget it. The evening ended in some amazing chicken fajitas and Snickers ice cream bars, mmmmmm.
Thanks so much to my dad for coming to College Station. Thanks to A&M COC for feeding us and hosting us. Thanks to Mr. Hogan for letting us stay at his house and spending time in conversation with us. Thanks to Jenica's family, Gregory's family, and Leonie for coming to support each of us. Thanks to Halbert for investing so much time and love into our teams. Thanks to the Thailand team for being so fun! Thanks to God for continuing to make it clear that we are on the right path, because sometimes satan makes us wonder.

Going to Colorado

Matt, Jenica, and I went to Colorado this weekend. We left Friday at 6am for Brighton, Colorado and returned back in Abilene at 2am Monday morning. What can I say, we're young and crazy! We went to visit Gregory, who has been doing an internship there for the past two months. He has been interning with a guy named Hobby who is launching, organic, home based churches in Brighton. Organic is such a fancy shmancy word these days...all I mean is that they're trying to keep it simple. There were other people that Gregory was working with and being mentored by, but Hobby was kind of the go to guy. The funny thing is that Matt and I knew Hobby before Gregory did. We met him and his wife in 2004 in Searcy, Arkansas. They were in the beginning stages of forming a team to move to New Zealand, and Matt and I visited with them to see if the team was a good fit for us. They were amazing people, but Matt and I were not quite ready for that kind of commitment. Long story short, Hobby and his wife Jerry ended up feeling like God had different plans for them and went to Colorado instead. They are amazing people that God has really bestowed wisdom and encouragement on. Hobby is the kind of guy that makes you feel really important to God and to others, it's quite a gift.
On Friday we got to meet a few people in the leadership group that Gregory really hung out with this summer, and got to tell them God's story in leading us to Ipswich. They in turn gave us many words of encouragement. It was an awesome start to the weekend! On Saturday morning we drove around and Gregory showed us different spots where he spent most of his time this summer: Funshine Daycare, the city pool, the park where the church met, etc. It was great getting to share in the things that he invested his time and energy into. After that we went to Boulder and hiked a mountain. We were all huffing and puffing...I'd like to blame it on the altitude! It was a really beautiful hike, and the view from the little summit we ended on was amazing. The four of us also got to talk honestly about our team, since we have not been together since Gregory left for Colorado. We talked about the things that we think are lacking in our team, like encouragement and the ability to dream creatively. It was a good time together, we were able to be a lot more honest than we have been in the past! We still have a really long way to go, but it was refreshing to be together and talk about what was on our hearts. That night we walked down Pearl street, ate dinner, and enjoyed the outdoor mall scene. It reminded us all of the mall near Southbank in Brisbane that we went to last summer, Queen Street Mall. It was nice to reminisce!
Sunday morning we got to participate with the church in the launching of their house church. It was amazing to meet all the people who were doing church in a house for the first time, people were kind of nervous but really excited! What was really amazing was to get to participate in a house church other than the one we are part of in Abilene, to see what they did and how they did it. Everyone on our team felt like God showed us a lot that morning. After that we drove home...and boy was it a long drive! I'm really sick of fast food now and am pretty exhausted from getting so little sleep last night (or this morning rather), but man was it worth it!

The second interview

Last Wednesday the team had our second interview, this time for two of the local television stations in Abilene. Jenica and Gary did the interview, and they did a great job. The finished product on television showed Jenica only. The stories were really good, and we appreciate that the local stations decided to talk about us.
Yesterday I met with Jenica for our weekly Tuesday night meeting. We had a great time, our get-togethers have been a little sporadic lately. We talked about all sorts of things; sacrifice, relationships, working out, jobs, etc. It was really nice talking about big things and little things, we have moments when we break through and really get honest with each other. We have a long way to go, but we've made a lot of headway!
I also came to a realization last night. I haven't stared at the stars in a long time. I used to know all about the constellations; where they are, the stories behind them, what they look like, all sorts of stuff. However, I've lost the desire to keep up with all of that. When you work out until 9pm, have to empty the dishwasher, fold laundry, take a shower, and still get to bed at a decent time, you lose interest in the little things that used to bring you great joy. I am crazy about getting things done around the house...but where does that get me? The clothes will still be waiting to be folded tomorrow night, and it's not going to hurt anyone to see them. I've said in the past that I want to be better at not getting worked up about things that are not done, but I've really been doing a better job of it lately. Matt might not say so, but he can't read my mind to see how it's stopped going a million miles an hour! Anyway, I'm going to lay a blanket out in the backyard and watch the stars more, even if it means that I leave the dishes until tomorrow. What have you been leaving undone that you used to enjoy? Can anything else wait until tomorrow so you can enjoy that one thing now?

One article leads to another

About a month ago I received an email from a journalist in Australia. He does freelance writing for the Ipswich Queensland Times, the local newspaper in the town we're moving to. I read the paper online almost everyday to get an idea of what's going on in Ipswich. In his email he said that he'd been reading my blog and wanted to know if he could interview our team for an article in the paper. We were totally excited about the possibility, but nervous at the same time. What would he ask? After us submitting our questions, would he twist our words? No offense, but with us moving over there to share the Gospel and being so physically far removed from Australia at this point, he could really bash us and we wouldn't have much opportunity to do anything about it! However, the more we thought and prayed about it the more we thought it would be a good idea. The way we saw it, if even one person read our story and got excited about us coming and sharing the love of God with them, the article would be worth it. Even if everyone hated it, we were pretty confident that people would forget about us and the article by the time we got there!
The article posted last week, here's the link: http://www.qt.com.au/story/2009/07/09/americans-team-god-church/
Overall, we think it was a good article. He kept most of our comments true to what we said and the context, so we can't complain! As of today there is only one negative comment on the article, so we can't complain about that either! I joke, but this really was a big deal to us. We're well aware of what a lot of people will think when we go to Australia. Many will think that we are self righteous, proud, or think we are better than those around us because we are Christians. What's sad is that Christians have done some things to make a really bad name for ourselves, so when people hear the word "Christian" they no longer think about what's important about it--Christ. We're not going to Ipswich because we have it all together and are going to stick it to everyone. We're going because God loves the people of Ipswich (just like Abilene, Africa, Alaska...you get my point). Just like so many people throughout the history of the Bible, God has called us to embark on a journey that we don't fully understand. All we're trying to do is be faithful to what He's asking us to do, and that leads us four to Ipswich. Personally, I think He's going to do some awesome stuff in people's lives, and I'm excited about being able to be a part of it.
Wow, that's enough of that! I could go all night, but I have to get on with my story. The day our article came out in the Australian paper, someone in Abilene read it. I have no idea how all of that happened! Either way, one of the local television stations wants to do a story on our team and what we'll be doing in Australia, so we will be doing that interview on Wednesday. As if those two things weren't enough, there is a person from ACU who wants to put our story on the school's website. Wow! God has connected all of these things in a matter of days! We don't know where it will all lead, but here are a few things I'm praying about regarding all of this craziness:
-I'm praying that this is one of the ways our supporters find us. We have had a tough time raising funds, and I really believe that someone is going to see our story or read our article and hear the call of God to help us out.
-The more important thing I'm praying about is this, that people will hear about us and find hope. These stories are not about us and all the stuff we're doing. There are plenty of people around the world doing the same exact thing right now, and we just happened to get noticed. These stories are about what God is doing, and about Him calling out to the people of this world to turn to Him and find a new life in Jesus. We want people who don't know God to get excited about the thought of who He is. We want them to imagine the possibilities of what life looks like when they follow after Him. We want people to pray for us to get to Ipswich so we can share this message of eternal hope with them.
It seems like I want a lot...and I guess I do. I just know that God is capable of all these things and more, so I'm not going to stop asking because I know He is not going to stop listening!

Thank you Kelly family

Last week our team hosted a garage sale...but none of the stuff was ours. Husband and wife CT and Carol Kelly said that if our team was willing to set up and man their garage sale, they would give us all of the money for our move. I had last Friday off, so it seemed like the perfect weekend to do it. Wednesday night our team (minus Gregory who is doing an internship in Colorado) plus a few other brave, kind friends went to their house to start getting things ready. We took four large sized tables, but they were not near enough! The Kelly's said they had never done a garage sale, and they had plenty of things to get rid of. There was furniture, clothing, sheets, kitchenware, toys, stuffed animals galore, trinkets, crafts, a grill, books, audio tapes, the list goes on and on. Wednesday night and Thursday night were spent trying to organize boxes and set up tables. Friday morning Matt and I got up at 4:45am to get ready and get to their house for the first day's sale at 6am. We had a pretty good turn out, and stayed for nine hours that day. It was overcast and sprinkled every once in a while, so the heat did not seem so bad. However there seems to be a big difference between working outside and just sitting outside for nine hours, because we were exhausted by the end of the day! We definitely took a nap after getting home that afternoon. Saturday was the same thing, getting up early and working the garage sale. There was a great turnout Saturday, but this time the wind was about twenty miles an hour all day. A few small glass items flew off tables and broke, and the sheet sets were constantly gaining air and floating away like kites. Our lawn chairs would fly away when we weren't sitting in them, no joke! I'm just glad we didn't lose any money. After it was all said and done on Saturday afternoon, we had sold half the stuff and made just over one thousand dollars. We were so tired, but it was worth the time and effort. We were very grateful to the Kelly family for offering us the opportunity to do the garage sale, and the money will be very helpful to our team as we make our move.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the garage sale was the fact that we didn't really know the Kelly family. We've been to their home once, but it was in a large crowd and I don't think they'd remember that. They offered us this opportunity not because we were great friends, but because we are all believers in Jesus and they wanted to help us with what we are going to do in Australia. That's the cool thing about the body of Christ, we work together in all sorts of different ways so that God's love can be spread around the world.

Chremily's wedding

So Matt and I have this thing, you know a couple will make it if you can put their names together and the combined name sounds good. Our friends Chris and Emily got married this weekend, and Chremily is a great name! Matt was the best man, and I was a maid of honor. I have to share the journey of this weekend, because it's just too good not to.
Matt and I were taking care of my in-laws' dog, and our plan was to have someone come and let the dogs out a few times over the weekend. We had it all worked out, and then late Friday morning Matt called me and said that our air conditioner was out (keep in mind that the temp the past week has broken 100 probably every day). First plan foiled, the dogs had to go to the kennel. I got off work at 12, took the dogs to the kennel, and then finished getting ready in a 93 degree house. Matt, Jenica, and I left the house a little after 3pm, and had to be at the rehearsal at 5pm. We made it there about 5:10pm, but we wouldn't be Harrises if we weren't late. The rehearsal was fun, and the rehearsal dinner (feast really) was amazing. It was at this beautiful house, and the food was homecooked and amazing!
That night a storm started to roll in, and it looked amazing. Little did we know that it was bringing with it horrible hail. Both Chris and Emily's car windows were broken out (along with about five other people's windows), everyone got huge dents on their cars, and it looked like someone shot at the church that Chris and Emily were to get married in. I have to say though, they both took the evening's events like a couple of champs!
The wedding was beautiful (and not too long). Emily looked absolutely beautiful, and Chris looked at her all day like she was the only person on earth. Matt was surprisingly weepy all day...it was kind of cute! I don't think we realize how much people mean to us until they experience something life altering and we get to participate in it with them. There's just something about it that is important and meaningful.
Matt and I are now staying with my in-laws for the week, because it will be at least Thursday until our air conditioner gets replaced. I'm sitting on the couch watching tv with the family, life is good!

Visas, life in Ipswich, and my family

I have much faith in the things that God can and will do, but for some reason the thought of applying for visas to live in Australia brings a great wave of tension and fear over me. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it freaks me out pretty bad! There are a few reasons I get worried about visas; one is that they take a long time to get passed and we haven't applied for them yet (because we don't have all our financial support), another is that they're super expensive and if you mess up and have to reapply you don't get your money back (we're talking over a thousand bucks for mine alone), and the last is that I feel like nothing else can really move forward until we have visas. It wouldn't make much sense to sell our house and all our stuff without visas...what if they don't go through for a while and we don't have a place to live? Okay, so the homeless thing is a bit extreme, but I'm the kind of person who looks about sixty steps ahead and imagines the possibilities as reality. I guess there's nothing wrong with that, as long as I imagine the possibilities in God's world. Anything could happen for our team, the rest of our money could come in in two weeks and our visas could go through in six months with no flaws. We could not have our money by January and be here for six more extra months (which I'm not really hoping for!) Either way, as long as it's the schedule and journey God wants us on I guess I can't complain. To be in His will is the best place to be, even though it might really stink at the time.
This weekend my dad and stepmom visited us from Corpus Christi. On Saturday we did a little shopping (I got a pair of Levi's for $4.40!), saw Star Trek, and ate dinner with my parents and my in-laws. We had a blast! Star Trek was pretty cool, and I'm not even a Trekkie. This morning Jenica ate breakfast with us, so she got to meet and get to know my parents a little. It was a great weekend.
If you've never checked out the links to the right of my blog, I really encourage you to go to the Ipswich Queensland Times website. I was reading the day's new on Friday, and I found something out that really troubled me. Fighting among students in schools is becoming a really big problem there. Last week I read about a student who was knocked unconscious by some kid in a fight, and then on Friday I read about a video of a bunch of girls fighting in a school that got posted to youtube for a few days before it was removed. These kids are getting in really intense fights, and are proud of it! It breaks my heart, and makes me want to show kids and teens in Ipswich that there's more to live for than the hate, judgement, and anger that goes along with fighting. I think God has much healing in store for the families of Ipswich, and while I don't think it's all going to come by my hand I do think He wants our team to be a small part of what He is now and will do through us there.

An out of the ordinary week

The last two weeks were really fun and out of the ordinary. Thursday and Friday I attended a missions focus seminar from 8am to 3pm. We learned a lot from John White, a pioneer in simple churches. Did I just call someone a pioneer?!? Anyway, he's learning a lot about doing church in homes, and is teaching people about it. We talked a lot about listening to God, which was pretty awesome. I've also decided that working only two hours a day is pretty wonderful...I think I'll do it everyday (just kidding Lana). Seriously though, being able to take off time pretty much whenever I want (as long as I have the unused time) is a huge blessing. I work with very understaning people who really appreciate me.
On Saturday Jenica, Gregory, and I hit the road for Conroe, Texas (near Houston). Matt met up with us later that night. The drive to Houston was really beautiful, and the long road trip gave us the opportunity to listen to music that each of us likes. I think you can learn a lot about a person by listening to the music they listen to on a regular basis. We were visiting the Houston area to share our team's presentation with a church there. Jenica did an internship at the church a few summers ago, and she just loved it. After our visit with them, we loved them too! Everyone we met on Sunday morning and Sunday evening encouraged us so much, it blew our minds. We'll hear back from them in about two weeks to see how God wants them to help us.
Fast forward a week to this past weekend. Matt and I had our three year anniversary last week, so we went to Lake Brownwood State Park last weekend to celebrate. Sounds romantic, huh? It really was fun though...I better have liked it since I was the one who planned it! We stayed at a cabin at the state park. It was nice, but bugs ate us alive. Matt also got a tick that he had to burn off his thigh. We were really roughing it! We took the boat with us and fished everyday, and the weather could not have been better. I've fished most of my life, but I must admit that I've never unhooked my own fish. Matt's a wonderful teacher and encourager, and he managed to get me to unhook my own fish (all but the ones where the hook managed to get in their eyes, I made him do those). It was a wonderful trip. We'll see if I get around to posting some pictures from it.

The past two (yikes!) weeks

A lot has happened since my last posting, but I've found lately that the last thing I want to do at night is get back on the computer after being on it all day. I'm pretty sure I've said that before...which shows how adamant I am about it. However, a lot of cool things have happened so I need to catch up on them.
The rest of my teammates got a little fire lit under them at our module, and Jenica has been doing an awesome job of contacting churches to help support us. She got a visit set up with a church in Houston and one in San Antonio, so May is traveling month for the team! We're really excited, because one of the things we realized at our module is that God has not only called us to share the Gospel with the people of Australia, but also to tell North Americans that God loves and cares about the people of Australia. Sometimes we feel like people don't think Australians need to know God, because Australia is not an underdeveloped country. However, so little people there know Him, and they're trying to fill their lives with other things that won't last. God has big plans for Australia, and we are excited to tell people about that.
One of the other cool things that happened was our mentor Gary contacted another church on our behalf, and we sent them a few of our fundraising packets this week. We got together twice last week to polish up the packet, and those two nights were really fun. We're opening up so much as a team, just having fun and being crazy around one another. One thing I found out about Gregory is that he's a pretty great dancer! He was not afraid to show off his moves as we listened to music....
I've also had some really good conversations with a man from the church my sister attends in Idaho. Their church just did a fundraising weekend for missions, and he was talking about the possibility of helping Matt and me a little out of that contribution. As is the case with almost every church we've talked to this year, he said unfortunately people are not giving as much as they did a few years ago (which is understandable, but still frustrating!) What has really struck me though is this, he has been amazing about keeping in touch with me to let me know the status of the church. He has also been really encouraging as to what we'll be doing in Australia. Most churches we contacted never even returned our emails...pretty crazy right? It's much better to get a no than nothing at all! As I told my sister last week, even if the church is not able to help us monetarily, the fact that they are praying for us and he has been so encouraging has been a huge blessing.
On a different note, another thing that has kept me really busy since last Saturday is painting our kitchen cabinets. We're doing this for two reasons, one being that they're really ugly and need to be painted white to help freshen up our kitchen, and the other is that we think painting them will help us sell this house. It's been a great first house, but there have been a lot of things that we've gotten used to being here everyday that are really quite ugly! It's little things really, like grungy looking light switches and a poor quality paint job on the walls. Needless to say, our Saturdays are going to be busy with little remodels here and there for quite a few months!

Kingdom Leadership

Our team spent this past weekend at Lake Brownwood Christian Camp participating in the "Kingdom Leadership Module". Those are fancy words for "we spent the weekend together at a camp learning from mentors and working together as a team". These modules are one of the facets of our training through the Halbert Institute for Missions.
When most people think of Christian leadership, they think of the one guy who runs the show. Jesus had a different idea, he wanted to make every person a disciple who leads in one way or another. At the module we had two very wise and wonderful men teach us and guide us in discussion with one another; Gary Green (our team's mentor) and Kent Smith. They did a pretty wonderful job of showing us what true Godly leadership is, and how to encourage its growth in ourselves and others.
I learned a lot throughout the weekend, so I'll try to touch on a few points without sounding too frazzled. I learned more about my teammates, one thing being the way each person thinks satan will try to attack our team when we're in Australia. That might sound strange, but it's good to discuss bad things that might happen so we know what to pray for God to protect us against. I was also reminded of who I am to God. I know that God loves me, but I easily lose sight of the fact that He wants to lavish me with His love. I am valued by God, and each day He is doing things to transform me. The even cooler thing is that this is not just something God has in store for me, but for everyone he has created. Another thing we talked a lot about this weekend was forgiving others. I thought about the fact that God created us to look out for those in need (just look at Jubilee). We were created to get angry when people are mistreated, and to reach out to help them. On the other side of the same coin, when we are mistreated we should forgive those who wronged us and trust God to send us a deliverer. That deliverer might be someone God has called on to help us, or we might have to wait for God to be our final avenger in whatever way He chooses.
I learned a lot more, but I'll end with the point that I think Kent would want us to remember above all; mutual disclosure is the pathway to true intimacy. When we disclose more of ourselves to God, He in turn shows us more of who He is. When that happens, our intimacy with God grows and we find our true identity. When our identity in Christ is made clearer, we become a more Godly leader, and our ability to minister and be a healthy part of genuine, Godly community grows. Wow!

the shaping of things to come

Our team is reading a book called "The Shaping of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. Okay, so everyone else is probably done but sorry Gary...I am not. However, I totally love everything that I'm reading in it! I don't necessarily agree with it all (although I do most of it), but I love what it makes me think about. For the past few nights I've been reading about action as sacrament, or a little more plainly how our actions are vital to our faith. This is what the authors say, "What we are trying to do here is affirm the inherent value of deeds themselves. Will they save us? No! Are they still inherently valuable? Absolutely, yes".
Here's my thought, our deeds might not save us, but they save other people. I'm not saying that I have the power to bring someone into a relationship with Jesus just by being nice to them, or that I get to decide who deserves that relationship. What I am saying though is this; if you know Jesus, how did that relationship start? Was it because someone took the initiative to teach your Sunday school class or even just be nice to you when no one else would? God works in mysterious ways and does not really need us to show Him to people, but it's pretty stinking clear that He chooses to use us because He wants to. I can think of countless stories in the Bible where someone found Jesus because a Christian listened to God when He said, "Hey, do or say this to that person in that chariot or sitting by the river". Good deeds are holy actions, and even though performing them does not save us they just might be the first step to God saving someone else. So please, do not be scared to do something nice for someone for a change!

Grandmothers

Last Friday I drove to Wichita, Kansas. My grandmother on my mom's side is very sick, and my sister, mom, and I thought it would be a good idea to all travel to see her. My sister came from Idaho, my mom from Dallas, and I from Abilene. I was only able to see my grandma for one day on Saturday, but it was a great visit! She was alert and in good spirits. I think she was using as much energy as she could on being a good hostess for us. I had to leave on Sunday to get home for work the next day, but my sister and mom stayed behind a few more days. They said she was pretty tired the rest of the week. It is possible that it was the last visit I will have with my grandmother before she passes away, so while it's selfish to say I'm glad that it was a very peaceful and good one. Really I'm glad for her sake that it was a good visit, because I want her to be surrounded by good memories as long as she's around.
On Monday night my grandmother on my father's side, along with her daughter, drove in from New Mexico. They live in Iowa, and are making a bit of a cross country car trip to visit family and friends in the surrounding states. This is the first time they have been able to come through the Abilene area, so they were kind enough to grace us with their presence Monday evening. We ate out with my in laws who live in Abilene, and it was the first time my grandma and her daughter got to meet my in laws. Matt and I have our bed and used to have a futon, but we don't have the futon anymore. We gave our bed to my grandmother and her daughter, and I planned on Matt and I just sleeping on our couch and loveseat. Matt was pretty insistent that we borrow a blow up bed from his parents, so Monday night at about 1opm we were trying to blow up a bed with an inflator that was going dead from not being charged. It was quite a sight (and sound) trying to use that thing. We managed to get it blown up, but it was so uncomfortable! It was possibly one of the three most uncomfortable sleeping situations I've ever been in. Add to the discomfort our dog Bane next to us on the floor eating a rawhide chewtoy at 11:30pm and you've got stuff that only the best of dreams are made of....We barely got any sleep, but all I can do is look back on it and laugh.
Last night Matt's grandparents came in from Graham, so we got to eat dinner and hang out with them. It's always nice catching up with them, they're really sweet and super encouraging.
So this might be a record, I've seen three grandmothers in just over a week. I normally only see them about once every other year, but now I've seen each of them within a year. I think God is bringing us together with as much family as possible before we go to Australia...but maybe for energy's sake He'll spread the visits out a little more next time!

Home Gathering Celebration

Wow, another one of those weeks where I feel like I can't catch up...or get to bed before 11pm. I think I might have said this last week, I'm beginning to feel like a broken record! Anyway, I'm tired but I have something worth writing about so here goes. Matt and I are part of home gatherings through Southern Hills in Abilene, that means that instead of going to the big building on Sunday mornings we experience being church in someone's home. There's a lot more that goes into it, but to be honest I'm way too tired to go into it! Feel free to post a question though...people rarely post comments on my blog. We meet on Sunday evenings. Home gatherings have been an awesome blessing in my life, I really connect to the ability to delve deep in relationship with a few people instead of seeing a thousand faces at a time that I can't seem to catch up with. There are about five of our groups meeting throughout town, and we have committed to meet together every couple of months or so. Last Sunday was our celebration time together, and it was amazing! I had a blast catching up with people I have not seen in a while. One of the things I appreciated the most was seeing how each of our groups shows a different characteristic of God. Like I said Sunday evening, our God is a creative creator and He's given us all really cool ways to help reveal who He is to one another. Here are a few pics from our time together, enjoy!

super cool self defense party

Last night I had possibly the coolest birthday party ever! I had a self defense party for my girlfriends at the kajukembo school where I work out. At first I was a little nervous that they would not really get into it, but everyone had a blast! My instructor taught them things that are practical and easy to remember, and they got to hit stuff! After that we did an obstacle course, because what fun is a birthday party if you can't act like a kid? I think my instructor had fun too, because my girlfriends are pretty crazy! After that we had a sleepover at my house. Matt was a great sport and spent the night with one of his guy friends. I can't remember the last time I had people over for a sleepover, it's been at least five years. It showed, because we all fell asleep by about 11:30!
What made this party so special is the fact that it will be the last one I have in the states for quite a few years. As some of my friends reminded me, we will Lord willing be in Australia by this time next year. Kind of sad, but kind of cool!

Australian Dinner

On Friday night my teammate Gregory hosted a black tie dinner to tell his friends about what our team will be doing in Australia. Somehow Matt and I missed the memo that we were supposed to dress up, so two of Gregory's teammates were the worst dressed in the place! Thankfully Gregory is a forgiving guy! I yet again got to see a different side of Gregory Friday night, he wore a suit! Most of us thought that was a big deal in and of itself. The whole night was really great, some of our friends served us salad, pasta and bread. After some good conversation with people, we all moved from our tables to another room where Gregory had each of us on the team tell about how we got on this journey to do missions in Australia. I always love telling my story, because it's really God's story. It's cool to be able to step back while you're talking about your life and say "Yeah, God was working there, there, and there". After each of us spoke, our mentor Gary talked a little about the Halbert Institute of Missions that we're doing our training through. It was encouraging to be surrounded by so many people who are excited about what we'll be doing.
Perhaps the coolest part of the evening was the fact that Gregory's dad, mom, and sister came in from the San Antonio area to attend the dinner. We've only met them once before, and the conditions then did not present us with much opportunity to talk and get to know one another. This time though, I got to chat with each of them which was wonderful. It's important to get to know the family of the people we'll be moving to Australia with, because I think they'll feel a little more at ease letting their kids go when they know who they'll be surrounded by!

At the beach...in Granbury, Texas?!?

After that wedding I wrote about the other day, I have had quite a few wonderful days off. Not only did I get to see my dad and stepmom at that wedding in Louisiana, but I got to spend a few days with my mom in Dallas on Sunday and Monday. Sunday we spent a few hours together before she went to work, and then I watched movies ALL day long while she was gone. It rocked, I had a whole day to myself with no important things to do! That might sound like the worst day ever, but I love to be by myself. On Monday we ran around all day and then had dinner with family and friends that night as an early birthday celebration for me. After that my mom graciously drove me to Granbury, where Matt was staying for work training. On Tuesday morning he had a few more hours of training to do, so yet again I had the morning to myself. I went to the beach. You heard me right, in Granbury, Texas I walked across the parking lot of the hotel and laid out on the beach. Okay, so it was a man made beach on part of Lake Granbury, but it was pretty stinking cool anyway. I got the sand without the stink and humidity of the ocean, and saw ducks swimming in the water. That freaked my brain out!
One of the coolest things about hanging out at the beach was that I had the most amazing opportunity to worship God that morning. I did what I seem to do best when I'm laying out in the sun...I fell asleep. (Okay, so really if I sit or lay in any one position for more than five minutes I fall asleep, but that's beside the point) I awoke to the most wonderful sound of children laughing. When I first went down to the beach I was alone, but sometime between me falling asleep and waking back up, all these parents with their kids came out of the woodwork and came down to the beach. There were at least fifteen kids ranging from two to twelve running around. They were so beautiful with their giggling voices, jumping in puddles up on the sand and running along the shore. They laughed and smiled as they showed their moms (no dads that day) different things that they picked up or built in the sand. There were blond haired heads, red haired heads, and brown haired heads running around enjoying life. Sitting there watching them I spent time enjoying the presence of God, because I know He was right there with me. Jesus really loved kids, and I think it's because when you look at a child you can see more of the image of God than when you look at a worn out adult. That might sound strange, but I really think it's true. Granted some kids have had a harder life than I can imagine before they even turn five, but for the most part children can run, laugh, and play with a sense of innocence that adults slowly lose as the evil of the world knocks us down again and again. That morning I smiled a lot as I watched those little children enjoy the beauty of the day that God granted us with.

Louisiana Saturday Night

I have been so bad about writing the past couple of weeks! I was a bridesmaid in a wedding yesterday, and it had me busier and a little more stressed out than I thought I would be. Matt and I left Thursday morning for Ville Platte, Louisiana, where my friend Melissa was getting married. Melissa and I know each other from middle school where we met in choir. One of the things that kept us together as friends was playing softball in high school (she was pretty stinking amazing, and I was not so good!) She played softball in college, and eventually ended up at LSU where she met her sweetie Lucas.

The last three days were a total blast! They rented out cabins at Chico State Park, and we got to sleep over a swamp (and see an alligator). The view was pretty cool. On Thursday we had the rehearsal and ate a wonderful dinner at The Jungle. Friday we got our nails done and had a crawfish boil that evening. I've had crawfish before, but having a Louisianan boil it in front of me seemed to make it a lot better! The wedding on Saturday was beautiful, and the reception was pretty crazy! Going to Louisiana is like visiting another world, it was so much fun.
I don't know if you have any friends that you've held onto from middle or high school, but there's a special bond that remains when you've had a friend that long. Melissa and I are very different people than we were back in school, but we still love each other so much! I don't know how to describe it, but it's a very cool feeling. What is also very cool is the fact that Melissa kept me in mind when she was planning the date of her wedding. She knows that Matt and I are moving, and she was sure to have her wedding when she knew we were not either on our survey trip or already gone. I have to say, I felt quite honored by that! I will be better about writing now that we're back in town. Here's a pic of me and the beautiful bride.