Sacrifice of Praise

Hello!

We've hit the one month mark of being in Nepal. How does that happen??
3 weeks to go and then 4 weeks in Cambodia. And the last half always goes faster than the first half, and I've loved Nepal ever so much!

This week was marked with something new, and different, and unpredictable!
sickness.

Yes I did, I got sick. I'll keep the details to the minimum, for the sake of all, but I was out-of-commission for 3 days.
Bed-ridden, most pleased when I could lie unmoved in a collapsed heap on my bed, and surviving on water with some sugar and salt for nutrients.... yeah. It was painful.
My head felt so tight and pressurized, my body felt weak and vulnerable. And then there is the not-so-happy-gurgle-tune my intestines would sing to me.
The worst day, the pain in my head was so great, that it was too much to even open my eyes because I would have to use energy to focus on what I was seeing. I couldn't listen to music because it was too much energy to listen to the lyrics of songs.
So all I could do was wait. For time to pass. And focus on each shallow breath. Time passed in breaths that day.

In a moment of clarity, I flipped open my Bible and there was Hebrews 13:15. Which was exactly what I needed to be reminded and assured of.

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name."

A sacrifice of praise.
It's very very easy for me to praise God when things are great. But should my thanks to God be any different when things are not good? Definately not.
Is my love of God conditional/proportional to how my body feels? No.
Even if my body is feeling a little out of kilter, God is still worthy to be praised. There is still so much to be thankful for, like how God made our bodies to fight diseases and germs and heal themselves.
It's in those times when things start to breakdown and fall apart that I get tempted to lose hope or lose trust. But it is exactly the opposite! These are the times when we get to see God's power because He can come through and heal my body and restore my strength!
It is a sacrifice to praise Him because it does not come easily, but it so worth it, because He is worth it all. He is faithful!

I'm feeling totally myself again, I'm on the mend and stronger for it! The mornings are a little questionable still, and after I eat, but now I've acquired and conquered more of the Nepali germs into my system.
We think it is probably a parasite, because a lot of people went to the doctor and that's what they had. So I'm going to go to the pharmacy to buy the pills (costs about 50 cents!) and send this parasite to the grave!!

I'm on some antibiotics from my leader, but turns out they're a dosage for a baby (very mild). But I've been getting better each day,
praise the Lord!

And the best news yet:
tomorrow we go the mountains! 10 of us are driving to a village close to the Tibetan border. (yes!!!) This is where the Sherpas are.
I expect it to be nothing short of amazing, I love this country.

Walking each step into better health, and praising God for it!

Love Fia

Easter Sunday

I had the most interesting Easter Sunday!

In morning we did an open air in a market. (open-air evangelism: we go to a busy place and then dance, share stories of how Jesus transformed our lives, dance some more, do a drama, and someone usually preaches/shares a message to the curious crowd that gathers. Then we talk more afterward to the people who stick around.)
So we did one of those, and then were scheduled to do another one somewhere else.

So we get our backpacks and are led by our translator to this house with a colourful tent outside. We were greeted with "Jai-ma-see" (Glory to the Messiah! ... a greeting Christians say to each other), and were led to sit in the chairs set up. We were served orange drink and soft music played in the background.
We still didn't know what was going on or why we were there.
More people kept coming, and being seated.
I figured it was an Easter Service.

Then we were told through broken English it was a memorial service for a guy who died a year ago.
!
And then we were told it was our translator's uncle's dad who was a Christian and died 2 weeks ago, and it was a memorial service for him.
I was asked to preach at the 2nd open-air, but our leaders asked me to preach here instead. (plans change when you're on outreach!)
There were a lot of Hindu friends and relatives there. So we did a Jesus drama,
and then I preached on what God told me to preach on that morning. How Jesus is for everyone, whether you're born into a Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, or anything family. Because you're a person. You're made in God's image, and that is worth enough to God to send Jesus to die and to take care of the sins against you and cancel the debt you will never be able to get rid of.
So I preached,
under a colourful tent,
at a guy's memorial service,
on Easter Sunday.

Ha! it was great.


I must not forget to add that God is also doing such a refining work in me though.
Beneath the funny/thrilling circumstances I find myself in,
A lot of my areas in my life have been confronted and my holes exposed. I am pushed spiritually to my limits and then the thin areas that I thought were strong, take me by surprise.
Some of my attitudes, actions, and motives of the heart were showing in this very-demanding setting,
and I asked God why I was like that.
Atop a cliff overlooking a Kathmandu slum, we had worship in the late afternoon on Easter Sunday, and God began to speak clearly into my life like only a perfect Counsellor can do.
Bottom line:
I had believed deep, subtle lies that I didnt even realize.
Feelings of worthlessness, and being performance-oriented.
Pretty much, the lie that "my presence is only worth something if I can offer something of value (words, advice, song, a smile, etc)/bring something to the table."
Different fears finally being revealed to me, that I never could see before:
Fear that I'm not going to be good enough.
Fear of failure. Fear of getting in trouble, fear of being bad.
the lie, that "what good am I if I fail?" Love based on merit. Conditional.

Which left me feeling like a fettered bird. A little bit tense when I'm getting to the end of my rope, because I need to prove my value. Talk about performance-oriented! Yikes, sounds exhausting.

Which explains why I love certain worship songs which are about the unconditional love of God. That I can just BE and BE LOVED. For nothing I can DO, but just because I AM.
Ahh... what a relief.

Revelation by the Holy Spirit, touches and transforms like nothing else!

So that's the latest with me,
day by day I am walking in this familiar, yet new and deeply profound truth that I AM LOVED. Unconditionally, by the King of kings.

Bless you all!

The Mountains of Kharbu

Hello all!

An excerpt of my journal on April 9th.

I am in the most remarkable setting.
The village of Kharbu.
The Himilayan hills of Nepal.... terraced slopes skillfully carved out, sparse brick houses sitting stoutly nestled in the hillsides.

A rooster crows in the distance,
Indian radio fills my right ear,
and local boys playing the guitar fill my left.
A baby goat bleats,
and the rising sun burns hot against the chill of the morning.

I got the opportunity along with 10 others to go up to the mountains for 4 days.
We arrived yesterday, after a 2 1/2 hour jeep-ride up winding one-lane, unpaved roads. The ride was an experience in itself! Many times we were close to the edge, and had to sqeeze by buses too, but I wasn't scared. I've learned that you can't even compare cultures.... if much of what I saw/experienced here took place in Canada, people would be freaking out. (traffic, fitting as many people as you can in a car, no stop lights, people walking in front of cars, etc). But these people know what they're doing, so just sit back and trust.

We arrived at the richest man in the village's house (the only one with a squatty toilet). The girls room is a cement floor with unfinished stuf walls and a few pieces of metallic wrapping paper (?) taped to the top. For decoration I suppose!
I love it! 7 of us fit lying down, which is all we need.
We went on a 2 hour hike up and up on winding goat trails. The air is thinner here, and cleaner, 2,000 metres above sea level.
I find myself wanting to speak in parables and proverbs, it just seems to fit the scenery!

I am in a constant state of awe and thankfulness, and beauty of God's creation and God's people. People are self-sufficient here, they grow their own crops, gather their own water, and plow their own fields with oxen and a wooden plow.
We met a family along the way up our hike and they were picking fresh peas from their garden. They offered us some, and there we sat:

eating fresh peas,
with smiling Hindus,
in the mountain villages of Nepal.
Not saying anything.
Then we picked peas with them!
What a precious moment!

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him."
1 Cor. 2:9



God is definately moving here. People get saved everyday.
We did lots of health care and did on-the-fly presentations of sharing testimonies and preaching and dancing. Most people had never heard of the gospel before.
It was really such a priviledge to be there! And bring hope.We handed out a lot of nepalese new testaments to the people who were thirsty for this Jesus they heard about, and we got to pray for lots of people too.
It was cool, many of them said after we prayed for them, they felt lighter and more peaceful. I think it's because for a short instant we were able to bring God's presence and lift the oppressive spirit of Hinduism.
I was speechless a lot of the time, because the world is just so beautiful!
3 little girls attatched themselves to me so we'd play clapping games everynight with the light of the fire.

P.s. I got to hold a baby goat in one of the villages. Best moment ever.
p.p.s. My friend Brooke and I got to help make dinner around the fire... it was chicken. real chicken.They chopped off the heads, drained its neck blood into a grassy trough and then we pulled out all its feathers. It was quite the experience! A little bit hesitant but thrilling at the same time. I'm glad I did it. I now know how to make chicken from ultimate scratch!

First Days in Kathmandu

A glimpse of the Nepali experience...

Wow, what can I say about Nepal.
Lord, give me the words.
Kathmandu has beautiful people. They look Indian with a hint of Mongolian.

The streets are bumpy and hilly and dirt. Their brick roads are dusty dirt with bricks stuck every-which-way in them.
There are cows chilling out beside the road on grassy slopes covered with plastic trash.
The women wear bright coloured saris and punjabis, their silks blowing in the wind.
There is an orchestra of car horns everywhere you go. Some horns sound like flute melodies, some are tapped with rhythms by the drivers.

There are no lanes, just roads, and each man for himself. Yet I haven't seen an accident so far. (No one drives very fast because of the constant braking.) Buses, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, cars, all ride together, weaving in and out of each other. People walk on the sides of the road.
We were walking up a hill and a bus came to an SUV car.... but there wasn't room for both to pass.
When push comes to shove, the big guy always wins. The SUV and the cars behind it had to back up in reverse, and let the mighty, adorned bus (with people shouting and hanging from the doors) passed through.

The roads are lined with one room shops;
paint, snacks, fabric.
Bolts and bolts of fabric piled high... Bold colours and beautiful patterns backdrop the little man sitting bent over at his sewing machine.

We cross a river...it's more like a 3-foot deep muddy trickle that stretches 25 feet wide. There are 2 boys washing their cars in it and on the other side, a gaggle of women with buckets doing their laundry.
How do they get their clothes so clean, when the water is so dirty?

We pass fellow workers, and we smile, put our hands together, and say "Namaste". Their skeptical face breaks forth into a glowing smile, and we get a "Namaste" back. The people here are friendly.

Everyday I recognize my need of the Holy Spirit because things are quite overwhelming and different.
Jesus be my strength.
Jesus be my reality.
Jesus, show your power to these beloved people.

Tomorrow: Hello Asia

Hi!
It’s late Saturday night here, the night before we leave for Nepal!

It’s hard to comprehend that 12 weeks have already gone by... wow. Time is so strange that way, it seems like a short time but then it feels like a very long time --all at the same time.


Well this past week has been an exciting and eventful one! (As is every week here). Yesterday we wrapped up the final day of teaching with a crash course on basic health care. We learned about simple, natural ways to teach others how to guard the body against infection, how to clean and wrap wounds, how to prevent cough and colds, fevers, malnutrition, and how to prevent/treat diarrhea.
(Seriously: one of the highest causes of death in children is diarrhea. Sounds ridiculous but it’s true. Their food is going straight through them at a very rapid rate, so they lose massive amounts of water and electrolytes, and they become severely dehydrated. If they are not able to get adequate fluids into their system, they die.

Drinking a simple mixture of clean water, salt, and sugar (ORS-Oral Rehydration Solution), replenishes the body with electrolytes (salt) and energy (sugar) and is absorbed more effectively and quickly than plain water. This simple teaching will stop many children and adults from dying from diarrhea via dehydration! Ahh! We are so over-educated in the West!

So we’ll be doing some basic health care clinics too! Yay! A little foretaste of what the Birth Attendant School will be like!
I’m in charge of carrying the stethoscopes and ear-checking kit.

(For those of you that don’t know or are confused about what school I am doing right now;)
I am presently completing the YWAM Discipleship Training School (DTS) with a Compassion Focus. This means that the things we will do on our outreach to Nepal and Cambodia will be more “mercy/compassion focused”. We will love on people in orphanages, care for the children that have been forced into the terrible child trafficking ring, teach English, do some basic health care, perform in the streets doing dances and dramas, and trekking up to remote villages where the mountain people have not yet heard the good news about a Savior who loves them and yearns to be in relationship with them. Most importantly, we will share our life stories with the precious Nepalese and Cambodians about what Jesus has done in each of our lives, the eternal Hope there is in Him, and the free gift of salvation He extends to all humanity. We are trusting God for amazing things to happen on this outreach. Signs and wonders to follow. I’ll keep you posted!

THEN, after this, I am doing an 11-month Birth Attendant School in July where I will learn how to be a midwife for women in developing nations. I will have 3 months in Perth, Australia (the YWAM Perth Base), and then an 8 month outreach to nations in Africa, Asia, and/or the Middle East.

So the journey has really just begun!

Anyway, it is the wee hours of the night here and I can hear the murmur of sleepy girls chatting as they pack their bags, and my little cricket friend is making his nightly cricket chirping noises... he must be in a crack behind the fridge.
I’m also listening to amazing music by Sigur Ros, their album called “Takk”. (They’re an Icelandic band who artfully use instruments and vocals to create quite a colourful, beautiful sound!) I recommend the songs “Glosoli” and “Mea Bloanasir”. Check it out on the iTunes Store.

So good music floods my ears and the satisfaction of having my clothes freshly washed and my backpack packed puts a peaceful smile on my face.
I cut my hair today, gave it a fresh trim, and added more layers... it looks really good!
And with a cup of yummy, free, donated-to-the-base Organic Soy Milk in hand, I can now sit down to write.

Well, I wont have my laptop with me on outreach for these next three months. It is too heavy and too valuable to take for the kind of trip we’ll be doing. We don’t know for sure the accomodation we’ll be having, but it is quite likely that there won’t be running water. Toilet paper is also non-existent there. We are advised to bring our own. And apparently the electricity is only on for 3 hours per day in some parts. It will be a different world...Welcome to Nepal.
I can’t wait!

So, having said that, I’ll try to update the blog when I can, but who knows when Internet cafes will be open, and if I’ll be able to send a little message within the 3-hour electricity time. It will most likely be little tidbits here and there, and hopefully when I get back in Australia I can edit my posts and fill out the details and add some pictures too.

It’s 2 am here, in 14 hours we’ll be at the airport boarding a plane for Bangkok, Thailand. We’ll sleep on the floor overnight in the Bangkok airport, and then catch our plane for Kathmandu, Nepal at 10 am the following morning.
Then....?

Well, I’ll have to let you know.


Next time I write I’ll be wearing a punjabi.
!!!!


And here I am at present:
..... “thumbs up for Asia!”

Expecting great things from God,
Love Fia

Less than Two Weeks!

Hi!
How’s everybody doing in Northern Hemisphere?

It’s still rockin’ Down Under and time is going by so fast!!!

(<-- this is Shannon. Hear her roar!) She's a sweet heart from Texas. She's also going to Cambodia with me!

We have less than two weeks until we set flight to Nepal! I’m getting really stoked, we are only allowed to bring one backpack, so we will really be backpacking it! Love it!

In Nepal we need to wear “punjabis”. A punjabi is an Indian silk dress-type-garment, which I am very excited about. It’s a dress-smock with big slits and then you wear puffy pants underneath and a scarf on your shoulders. The scarf bit is very important... if you don’t wear it, you’re a “scandalous woman”.

Things are coming together in quite miraculous ways...
let me give you an example:
Our money.

So by March 4th at 3:00pm we had to have all our Outreach Finances paid in so we could buy the airplane tickets. All in all, we needed $104,000 for our whole school. (28 people). A few weeks before the deadline, we were needing $76,000, people were slowly paying in what they had, some people didn’t have all the outreach fees and were still trusting God with how the money was going to come in through donations and other ways of provision.

So things were steadily coming in, but the night before the finances were due, we still needed $11,000 as a school. My outreach fees were paid for, thanks to all of your contributions. I can’t thank you enough for giving. Honestly. It is only by your generosity that I am here.
But, we still needed $11, 000 as a team, so we had a prayer meeting and it was awesome. We’ve been praying for finances this whole time, but we just kicked it up a notch this night.

Then the next morning, it was 10 am and still nothing had budged. We had to buy our tickets by 3 that afternoon. Our leader, Rachel, felt like we should have a “time of giving”, where we waited on God to see if He wanted us to give anything to anyone. Not necessarily money either. Just to loosen the tension and bless each other and stop thinking about ourselves.
So we went away for 20 minutes, asked God, “what do I give? and to whom?”
Then we got what we needed and came back.

It was like Christmas! All these special gifts that were really meaningful because it was directed by God. People were giving their clothes, jewelry, precious things away to team members that God spotlighted for them. Also, God laid it on some hearts to give a financial donation towards some team members who still needed it.

You really disarm the spirit of greed when you come against it in the opposite spirit, cheerful, joyous giving!
The guitar was going, a joyous rhythm, and everyone was going around blessing each other, in the midst of huge need. I was so excited to give away the things that God told me to give, and I actually received some wonderful, unexpected things too!
It was quite a moment!
This lasted for about 20 minutes, and during this time, the number on the board kept getting erased and rewritten again.... $10,000.....$6,000.....$5,000.....$0. Outreach paid.


!!!
!!
!
What! How did that happen!?
20 minutes ago we needed $11, 000 and now with a little personal giving from people.... it doesn’t add up to me.
It’s a mystery.
A miracle!
Bottom line: our God provides!
But anyway, it was an amazing moment. It all took us by surprise and we were so excited! We let out shouts and praise and songs and jumps!!! Thank you Jesus!
So we bought our tickets that afternoon by the deadline. No sweat. Perfect timing.

And less importantly, we had a dance party on Saturday... circus themed! It was really fun! Good music and some people went all out!
We had people dressed as lions, gypsies, clowns, strong men, tightrope walkers...

I went as a trapeze artist!And this is our "Italian photo"; Shannon, Michelle, Ana, Fia.
We're all 1/4 Italian, so us four together, we make one whole Italian!


Shannon's a lion, Michelle and Ana are Gypsies.
It's funny, I was able to outfit 2 whole gypsy costumes (Michelle and my roomate, Mary) out of my own regular clothes. Lots of scarves and beads and earrings and necklaces and flowy skirts!

Something is happening!

Something is happening!

This week, week eight we had a speaker come in and speak on Lordship. What it means to have Jesus as Lord. To follow Him with radical obedience, and to experience the freedom, grace and love that comes with that.

Earlier in the week, I was getting frustrated because I felt like I was operating below the potential that God has for me. I was trying to become level with the people around me, but we’re all at different levels and and different points in our walk with God.

God spoke to me and said, “Fia, be the thermostat, not the thermometer.” Don’t measure the temperature, SET the temperature.

On Wednesday afternoon, I felt like God wanted me to write a song, and dance in the classroom. I felt a very strong impression from God to do it, and do it THAT afternoon! I grabbed the guitar, got inspiration for lyrics, melody, everything, within an hour. I haven’t written a complete song in maybe 1-2 years?

Then, we had the afternoon off so I went to the classroom and was in there by myself. I put on the Ipod, and began to worship God with my everything, with song, movement, dance... it was great yet scary because I had not danced here yet. Things have been a little conservative lately. I was praying for our class, for the students, and pretty much doing dance-intercession in there! Worship-dance is so powerful!

So here I am dancing in the classroom, and some of my classmates walk in, and they want to stay. Uhh... okay....

Courage: not being fearless, but looking fear right in the face and going for it anyway.

So I dance like they aren’t there. After all, it shouldn’t matter. I’m not performing, I’m dancing for an audience of one and that’s Jesus.

Our relationship with God is deeply personal, but should not be private.

So I’m just going for it, having so much fun and getting more and more breakthrough in my own life as what usually happens when I worship. Fear of man being looked straight in the face and broken off! Yes Lord!

The two that stayed were both blown away and so encouraged....they’d never seen anything like it, and thought that I was following steps, but I told them I didn’t know what the next step was, I just did it.
One of them wrote me a note saying, “Your dancing really touched me... I am so amazed at your passion and that you go for the Lord 100% all the time no matter what!”

Then, one guy who was really shy about playing the guitar, picked up the guitar and played the coolest acoustic freestyle music! In front of people!

THAT afternoon,
IT RAINED.
A downpour.

It was the first rainfall since I’ve been here.
Something was changing...
Thank you Jesus.

On Friday we had the coolest day yet! It was the final day of Lordship lectures and it was the application time where we laid down at the cross things that were hindering us from Jesus truly being Lord of our life. Some people surrendered their past relationships with ex-boyfriends, visions/plans they had made for their future, pride, control, etc. “I step down from the throne of my own life, and I want you to be rightly Lord.”


We also got to give back to God the gifts that He gave us and lay them down saying, “They’re yours, not mine. Thank you for them, and I want to consecrate them to you!”

(1 Corinthians 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”)

We laid down bank cards (symbolizing money/ bank accounts),
pictures of family and those dear to us... I also laid down all the gifts of creativity God has given me that are precious to me:
sketchbooks...
writing...
art...
sewing...
calligraphy...
musical ability/songwriting.... I played the song on the guitar that God had just given me two days before,
and dance... I danced to a song that I love, it was full of freedom and joy and fun! God’s grace was surely on me to do that with all my team in the room. But I didn’t care! It HAD to be done! One girl told me later that she was almost in tears.
And most importantly... my self. I am so thankful for my life, but once again it belongs to Jesus, there is no other safer hands that I would want to hold it.

After we all did that, we were so aware of the presence of God!
It was awesome. Yet very humbling. I was confronted with Jesus the King. Not just Jesus my buddy, but also Jesus the King of kings, Lord of lords, worthy-to-open-the-scroll Jesus. He is Worthy.
God brought me to Revelation chapter 5, the description of the Throneroom, and I couldn’t get past the 2nd verse without weeping. I thought I was worthy. I was so humbled.
(Go ahead and read it for yourself!)

Yeah from there, God really got to grab hold of me in a deeper way, and revealed areas that I still wanted control of on my life.
I felt like I was in a refiner’s fire, and small yet significant impurites were being brought to the surface and the gold (which is me) was becoming purified and more clear. It took till the next day for me to finally yield. And with that, an increased freedom and joy! God is so good!

Later that day, the girl who almost cried during my dancing said she wanted so badly to do worship dance in the classroom!
And other girls wanted to join her!
I got so excited that they were taking initiative and going for it!

Later that night, and I went to pop in to see if the worship session was still going...
I was so blessed to see what I saw.
About a dozen people were in there! They had been going for 2 hours! Music blaring, singing, dancing, praying, prophesying...

Oh and guess what,
for the 2nd time this year,
It RAINED that day.

!!!
Come Holy Spirit!


2 Cor 3:17
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Be the thermostat, not the thermometer. Obey God, and see what happens!

More News!

Okay where to start....
It has been such a long time, Honestly there has hardly been a spare moment to even check email!
I feel like my heart has been on a refining journey over the past few weeks!

Well, okay I have some more news.

So the YWAM staff have been keeping a lookout for Sri Lanka, because they are in a civil war. We were told this after the team was formed...So then we had to let our parents know about this, ask their permission to go, and honour their decision if they didn’t want us to go. Mostly all of our parents said yes, they wanted to release us and trusted YWAM to make good decisions and not be foolish if the situation got worse.

During this time, God was dealing with me on not having my heart set on a specific location, but on Him, because that’s the main thing. I had to let go of any hope I’ve put in my team or the country we were going to, because the team may lose some people depending on the decisions of the parents.
I loved my group and I couldn’t imagine us not going somewhere together! Now everything that we thought was solid, became up in the air.
So the whole team went through a heart- refining process, clarifying our expectations and hopes, laying them at the altar and waiting for the next step.

During the time of waiting, there was a humbling of us to be willing to obey our parents above our own decision. The people on the team whose parents weren’t Christians were more reluctant/strongly refusing to release them to go to Sri Lanka, and it really impacted them that their children would honour them by stepping down from the team and going to either China or Thailand, if that's what it took. It was actually really cool how in these tense moments, the real feelings came out, and Christ could be shown. So praise God! He is all about restoring families and reconciliation.

On Feb 20th there was a bombing in the capital city where we would go. Usually the ruckus was in the North (far from where we would be) but this was a little dodgy. A little close to home.
SO, the staff continued to pray into this, and more and more parents of the students became tense. On a DTS, they don't want to send us into a war zone, that's not what they do. They sought God more, and felt a release to pray again for a country, due to the downward change of circumstances.
So it was an interesting situation, and God brought us to deeper levels of being flexible, not attatching ourselves to anything but Him. What a good place to be!

So we had a full team... but no idea which country! Talk about being okay with anything! Our leaders met with us after some arranging and phone calls, and the place where we would be going...

CAMBODIA!

we will be doing work with children, slums, practical skills, work in schools, working with the community to guard against child trafficking (a HUGE problem in Cambodia/Thailand).
We were asked to still pray, and see if we were okay with that. If not, there was still room on the China and Thailand teams.
I still felt like I should stay with my team, and I had no strong pull to the other destinations, so Cambodia it is! Really, God has tested and purified my heart with this Sri Lanka ordeal, and I have gotten to the place where it doesnt matter where we go because we have the Holy Spirit.

Oh, one thing: When she announced Cambodia,
I got a picture of a temple against a red sunset and as I later prayed into it, I got two words:
Ancient Kingdom.
(I know nothing about that country)

Turns out, I went on the internet later to check it out, and Cambodia is....
an Ancient Kingdom! Go figure!
And their flag has a picture of a temple on it!

Well God is speaking, isn’t He!

I also got the word Photography, so I believe God wants to use my photos from there.

Our whole team got the go-ahead from our parents, and we all get to stay TOGETHER (yay!), and we are in expectation for the things to come!
Anyway,
God is good, He is so good!

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Let's Get Real, Shall We?

Hello!
So I have been convicted that I’m writing this blog like a report, rather than communicating my heart.

Why am I writing this blog?
If it’s just to record events that have happened to me, then it’s not a good enough reason.

I desire honesty. Growth. Freedom! Revelation! Jesus!
When I’m talking to someone, I’m more interested in their heart attitudes and real testimonies, than any extravagant list of things they did during their week.

So, I apologize. For the surface reports. May this blog be more about my personal experiences with God, and less about me and my groovy life. John 3:30!
I invite you to come along, engage, and I pray that you will be intrigued, challenged, and encouraged!

So, let’s get real shall we?

A couple weeks ago we had a speaker and he talked about identity. He challenged us to write out truths about ourselves. Here is a little of mine, just so we're all on the same page.


I am the 4th child and only daughter of Peter and Bonita. I was born and raised in Winnipeg, lived overseas in New Zealand and had my 2 formative years of adulthood on the West Coast of Canada.
I have so many hopes and dreams and personal strong convictions, it really bothers me when I am generalized as person, or have been tried to be put in a category so that other people can file me in a little box and from that, predict my next move. I have a strong nurturing character, I love caring for people and having deep meaningful conversations about the Lord.

I am fascinated by life itself. God has given me a passion for Women’s ministry, purity, and truth. I have a passion for other cultures, midwifery, and wholistic simple living.
I am most satisfied and fulfilled when in the presence of the Father; I was born to worship God with my words, song, mind, deeds, and my body. I love art and creativity gets me excited. I love fresh new vision and dynamic leadership.

My life as an adventure with Jesus makes my heart beat fast and I get butterflies in my stomach... Jesus’ love thrills my heart to no end and I desire to live in complete surrender to His voice. Joy has been something that has been called over my life ever since becoming a Christian and I believe He is using me to sow seeds of peace and hope along every path God leads me on.

My heart is warmed when people feel encouraged, I feel privileged when I can speak the truth into other’s lives, and I desire to see Christians set free and victorious.
I have yet a lot to discover, but am holding Jesus’ hand tight as He leads me to the place where my greatest desires and the world’s greatest hunger meet.

Galatians 5:25. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Celebrations and Revelations

Hello!

So it is officially hot in Perth!
Days and days in the high 30’s and low 40’s, plus humidity.
Pretty much all the time is hot, and because of the humidity, you feel sticky and moist all the time.
Like someone has just sprayed your arms, legs, face with a mist of water. Nice, eh?

In the afternoons I sometimes take a quick cold shower just to get a freshly-jumped-in-the-lake type of refreshing feeling, and I kid you not: the cold water is hot. Last Sunday I took a “cold shower” and the water felt like it was coming from a kettle! I have never experienced that before!
I’ve experienced the opposite many times on a cold Winnipeg winter’s day, where all the hot water’s run out and I end up rinsing the conditioner in my hair with what feels like little ice droplets.

But here, I don’t even consider turning on the hot tap because the cold water is at best lukewarm. Understandably, though. Seriously, how are they supposed to refrigerate their cold water tanks?
In any case, it is still refreshing, because I get to be un-sticky for a moment. I try not even to towel dry my hair because I know that as soon as I stand in a ray of Australian sunshine with a gentle, hot breeze, I’ll be dry in a matter of moments.

Two weekends ago, I got to go down to a thrift store and I found this cute blue sundress at a bargain price! In the midst of the stagnant heat I was totally satisfied. I sat on my top bunk, with my little sewing kit, replacing the elastic, changing the buttons, and I couldn’t have been happier.



Many things have happened since my last post!

This past week was filled with outreach destinations, baking birthday cakes, and living like slum people.

This is a ginger-cinnamon double-layer cake that I made for Astrid's birthday, a Danish girl in our group. She is so precious!

I kind of became the birthday-hospitality person for Compassion DTS. I organized all the special things that go into making the people feel loved on their birthday. I love doing that anyway, so it was pure joy to make cards, bake cakes, and decorate the birthday tables.


This is Claudio from Angola, Africa. He is very happy and grateful for his birthday table and his birthday cake. We tell him to smile for pictures, but still he doesn’t do it. He is very happy, anyway!



Anyways, MOST RECENTLY...
let's talk about Outreach:

After waiting and praying in anticipation for days, we were finally told the outreach options on Monday night.

The days before, I was really trying to prepare my heart to immediately submit the options to God. To not even let my mind get its way in there and start to think/rationalize about them too much. I really wanted to give ear ONLY to what the Spirit is saying.

Okay, so first off:
we are ALL going as a GROUP to.....

NEPAL!!
for 47 days! Kathmandu mostly!
Isn't that amazing! Wow, I honestly had no idea of the countries.

Nepal, what a special place!
Grampa Norm’s old stomping grounds! For those of you who aren’t Merkeleys: my Grampa who was a surgeon in Canada, volunteered his services for at least 20 years doing life-changing surgeries for the people of Nepal and other Asian countries.
So I am blown away with gratefulness that I get to walk where Grampa walked, see the sights that he saw, all the pictures and stories of Kathmandu he’s told, will become something I can touch and experience with my own eyes.... wow!

Then,
for 30 days,
we had three options, and she wrote them one by one on the board.
I closed my eyes,
“Jesus, wherever you want me.”


China, Thailand, Sri Lanka

When she wrote Sri Lanka, my jaw dropped with a smile on my face and I felt a solid drop of a YES in my spirit.
I really don't know much about the place but that it's that little island off of the Indian peninsula.
She described the other countries a little bit of what we’d be doing, and still Sri Lanka was resounding inside of me.


So, I felt quite immediately a strong pull in one direction.
We had one day and one night to ask God where He wanted us to go.
I took the next day to continue to pray into it, we were not allowed to talk to anyone on the base about it, which I think is a great idea. That way you have no influence of wanting to go where your friends are going.
As I prayed about it, I still felt strongly towards Sri Lanka.

Then as the day went on, I started to think that everyone would choose that one! Because it was making such a solid reaction in me, I was wondering if everyone was feeling that way. And I started to think that I should choose something else because probably this was the one that everyone wanted. (Isn’t that ridiculous!?)

But God brought the scripture to me where Peter is walking on water.
Matt 14: 28- 33. Peter has his eyes fixed on Jesus and he has walked out of the boat and obeying Jesus' command to "Come!". Then he gets distracted from everything around him, the wind, the waves, and starts to get scared and sink.
I really feel like that this is the word of the Lord for me: to not become concerned with what I think the "other people's" decisions will be, (and honestly, how did I even know what other people are being led towards???) and just go with what I believed to be God in this situation.

So the following day I submitted my destination, and waited in faith until the teams were confirmed.

It was a few days wait, but the leaders finally announced the groups on the weekend and wow was it a special moment! Praise God!

This weekend, we were on Slum Survivor, where we lived in a ”simulation slum environment”: we had to make our own shacks out of wooden pallettes, sheet metal and a tarp, and cardboard for the floor. We had two meals a day (rice and lentils) and had to fetch our own water. We were only allowed to bring the clothes we had on, and a sleeping bag, toothbrush, and bar of soap. (No deodorant, lotion, hairbrush, pyjamas, pillow, flip flops, shampoo, makeup, cameras, iPods, etc). Sorry, I don't have any pictures from the weekend...we couldn't bring our cameras.

It was great!

We spent two nights like this and got to experience some of the depravity that 1/6 of the world lives in.
The two meals a day I could handle, the one set of clothes, and not showering for the weekend, but what really made it feel like poverty was the sleeping on a piece of cardboard. The first night was pretty brutal, I probably woke up about 10-15 times, shifting after it felt like my hip bones and shoulders were getting bruises. But Praise God, as soon as morning came and I could “walk it off”, all the soreness left.

The next day was even better; everyone was getting more into it, and more comfortable with the fact that they were haggard. It was a bonding experience, and I found it hilarious to discover people’s “true” personalities when pushed to the limits and deprived of life’s luxuries.

I loved how we didn’t have anything to entertain us but ourselves.
We made soccer balls out of newspaper, plastic bags, and string, and had intense soccer games (we have some fiery soccer players!). The winners got a plum to eat.

In the morning before our first meal, we were all standing around and some of the guys invented a riveting “throw the ball in the bucket” game, which consisted of exactly that. But it was so fun! There was so much hype! Everyone wanted to try!
Filip, one of our leaders from Denmark, captured the essence of the moment when he stated (in his Danish-honest way),
“It is only the competition that drives us.”
We all stood around and watched him with anticipation as the homemade ball hit the rim of the bucket. Comments erupt from the peanut gallery.
It was not about the game, but about being with each other.

That night, as the wind tugged at my matted hair and we stood together with rolled up dusty pants and sandy bare feet, we were told the outreach teams. I was overwhelmed with the goodness of God. I couldn’t have orchestrated a better group to be with. It is so cool how God directs us, all eight of us had personally heard God to choose Sri Lanka, obeyed, and this is the result! Yay!
Starry constellations filled the navy sky above us, and we each giddily told the way that God had brought us to our decision, and ended up praying with each other in excitement of the things to come!

The second night on the cardboard was not so bad!

This is my bunk-mate Mary.

She's from the Channel Islands of the UK. She is the sweetest little peach you've ever seen!
She's from the island called Jersey, but with her accent it sounds like she's saying "Jazzy".

We're going to Sri Lanka together!!!!

Australia Day

January 26 was Australia Day. I love being in the country for their national holiday!
In the morning, we had a little presentation about Australian history, and lots of people had Aussie flag tattoos, were wearing red, white, and blue (flag colours), or green and yellow (rugby colours).


There is some controversy over when Australians celebrate their Day, because January 26th, 1788 was the day that “white settlement” first invaded the land. There was a lot of killing of the Aboriginals as the white people set foot, so some people view it as “Invasion Day”. The situation between the whites and the natives is very much like Canada's, and after the presentation we prayed for the country and reconciliation of the two people groups.

Nevertheless, it IS the day they have chosen to celebrate Australia and the great nation it is, so we had lots of festivities:
For morning tea, (the snack between brekkie and lunch) we had homemade scones with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. It was very special.
Usually for morning tea, we have day-old baked goods (cinnamon buns, cheese buns, raisin bread) donated from local bakeries. Which I think is an awesome concept that instead of food going to waste, they bless us by giving it free to young, thankful Christians.

During morning tea, one of the guys from my group proposed a Vegemite Contest. Take a big scoop of vegemite on a knife and swallow it. For those who don’t know Vegemite, it is a very Australian thing that you spread on toast and eat for breakfast, or put in sandwiches. It is dark dark brown, and a very concentrated paste that tastes like salt, fermented yeast, and concentrated chicken bouillion cubes.
Tasting a mere translucent smear of it on your finger is enough to make you cringe.
I took up the challenge along with a couple others, and got a generous amount loaded on my knife. It was sick.

My victory plan of swallowing it immediately before I could taste it...failed!
It is a little bit soft, so it started to coat my mouth and words cannot express the discomfort of the experience! I couldn't seem to swallow it! Admittedly, I actually had to take a napkin and spit it out, for I could feel my gag-reflex kicking in.
Next time...


From there, we went to Queen’s Park, (kind of like Assinboine Park in Winnipeg, but with palm trees and no Leo Mol Sculptures), had an hour of sweet reflection time with Jesus. I laid down on the grass in the hot shade and praised and thanked God for all that I’ve learned here and for the things to come. We then had a BBQ lunch and had a great time.

Then at night we had a special dinner with our school, and walked down to the ocean waterfront where there were probably 300,000 people milling about, getting ready for the fireworks. We got the best spots in the house: we went right to the water, and sat there. It was like a cement curb into the ocean. It was a little stony, but well worth the view.
As we were waiting for the remnants of the sunset to disappear to black, we would get all riled up with the other Australians as they did their “cheer”:

Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Oi Oi Oi!
Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Oi Oi Oi!
Aussie! Oi!
Aussie! Oi!
Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Oi Oi Oi!

(One person leads/shouts the Aussie part, and the rest of the crowd shouts/replies with the Oi part) “Oi” is a slang word they say to get people’s attention.

It was so funny because anyone could initiate it, and everyone else would whole-heartedly engage. I led it once too, with my best Aussie accent!

Above is Hayley, our true Australian girl on our team. She's from Queensland, on the East Coast.

Brooke (USA), me, Sietske (Holland)

The fireworks (or "skyworks" as they say down-under) were awesome!

The salty sea lapped at our toes and the warm ocean breeze wrapped around us like an invisible hug.
As we sat at the ocean’s door step during the Oooh’s and Ahhh’s of the fireworks, sometimes we got a little wet from the crashing waves, but that was quite alright! All the more of an eventful and wonderful end to Australia Day!

Car Wash and Character

Hello once again!

Today is Sunday and marks the end of Week 3. I am sun-kissed, tired, and glad. Yesterday (Saturday) we had a By-Donation Car Wash to raise money for our 3 months of outreach. Our class split up into 4 groups, going to different gas stations. It was 40 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and we worked so hard! We were there from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm and washed non-stop! There were 5 of us and probably washed 35-40 cars! It was really fun and it was fun chatting to the people too. In total, all four groups raised over $1000 for outreach. Yay God for favor!
Here are some pictures of the day....
(above) Mine and Ana's feet: half dirt, half sandal-tan.

Ana and I drying a car. Ana's from Oregon and she's part Italian like me!

I think this picture is so funny! This monster of a truck, being washed by Sarah who's 4'11''.

I'm an expert squee-gee kid now.

Anyway....
This week was very good. Our DTS leader, Rachel, taught in the lecture slots about the Nature and Character of God. Really solid, and transformational for people who had a really skewed picture of who God is. I really admire the way Rachel teaches, she’s very wise, sincere, and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, every lecture was different, and one time in the middle of class, she was on a roll and started getting words of prophecy for some of the students. It was so rad!
She’s an amazing woman: Australian but born and raised in Kenya, mother of 5, and lives in China half the year, where she and her Irish husband headed up an orphanage and a school there. Her fourth child is a little adopted Chinese boy that was abandoned by his parents. She’s very calm, and relaxed but a real fireball who loves impossible adventures made possible by God.

At the end of the week, after an honest search through the Bible of who God is and His unchanging nature, she got us to write on the white-board our favorite/most meaningful attribute of Him. It was so powerful for me as I saw all the sincere eagerness to go up and write our revelations of who God is to us in our lives.