Everyday Adventure

I've been home for quite a while, I leave in two weeks for the next adventure: university. Bring it on! Everything is ready to go, I have even started packing all the random things, like my snow gear, which I currently don't need. All I have to do now is turn up.

I find that I have been waiting for the next adventure to start, when in reality it already has. Here I sit thinking, 'have I treated the last two months as an adventure?', sadly, the answer is no. I'm waiting in anticipation for something to come along and tell me 'I am your adventure, let's go!' Don't get me wrong, I have had so much fun, with my sister being here, working (I do actually enjoy my job at the Wedding Lodge), hanging out with friends etc, but I haven't put my energy into anything in particular.

I'm a feeling person, no, I don't go crying at everything and laughing at anything in particular (although I do find puns extremely hilarious), what I mean is, I like to feel pride and excitement for what I do, and yes, I need to work on my pride. I like to do things knowing I get results out of it. This has definitely been evident in my faith and prayer life over the past two months. I've found it hard, prayer is easy when I can feel and see the difference in it, I even find it easier during the really tough times when I'm tired. Don't get me wrong, it's still very hard but I find it easier and a lot more pleasing during the tough times, than the mediocre. This is where I find myself now: the mediocre.

The past two years, I've been in a situation where it's almost impossible not to grow in faith, knowledge and love, however I finished serving with NET and suddenly I was thrown into the world to survive on my own. NET set us up for this, helped me and everyone else out, had talks, workshops and personal conversations with each person about life outside NET. There really isn't much more they could have done to set us up for the 'real world'. Nevertheless, the world hits you and you're swimming on your own with no arm floaties. This struck me and I became average. I made many excuses, all really pathetic ones. Excuses for the God who died for me.

I put my foot down, it's enough. Shouldn't I have more time for God now more than ever? The answer: yes. So, I picked up a book, an awesome book by Scott Hahn, Reasons To Believe. In the first chapter he writes "There is no shortage of opportunity for study, contemplation and evangelisation. Wherever we go, we are in God's presence and in His world. And most places we go we can take a good book along for stolen moments of study. It's the work of a lifetime." Boom, there's no excuse not to pray, learn or evangelise. Not even the excuse of 'I don't feel like it today.'

So, here lies my next adventure, finding time for God everyday.

Prayers

Pursuing to be Pursued

I have this deep desire to be pursued. To be looked upon by that one person who loves you beyond words can even fathom. To be in relationship. I feel as though this is common feeling among young women who haven't quite found that man.

I've discovered that I feel like this often, especially since I started working at a wedding function center and watch people celebrate love and marriage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of every weekend of the summer. It's a unbelievable privileged to be able to see such a beautiful sacrament 1,2,3 times a weekend. I think, no, I know I live in the fairy tale world that most females have lived since being a very little girl. 

I sit in my castle, trapped... waiting.

For my prince to come along, slay the evil dragon, cross the crocodile infested moat, climb the impressive climb to my tower sweep my off my feet and take me back to his kingdom on his trusty steed to become his princess.

In reality I do have that man, a man who would do anything for me, supports me and loves me and yes you can guess it... His name is Jesus.

I often forget that Jesus hangs around trying to get my attention when I find myself thinking about what the future holds for that one special relationship. He stands there waving, shouting 'I'm here! Hello!', and I ignore Him, not always intentionally, or I find myself angry, thinking, 'but it's not you I want, it's the other man who I don't know yet.' It becomes a frustrating thought on the future and what it holds, however, in that I find I can miss the here and now because I want to be there in the future with my future husband. I know that Jesus has His timing, knowing when I am ready to be in relationship, but again I often find myself disheartened by this. 

On the other hand, I am learning to be pursued by nothing less than Jesus Himself, how? There's many things I do (and I am no way near perfect at this).  

1. I read books, Redeeming Love being my ultimate favourite, putting myself into the shoes of the characters and learning how to be pursued through books.
2. I pray, every time I feel myself brought down by the feelings of being 'lonely' I pray for him, wherever he is and then continue the prayer for something else entirely i.e. for all Priests and Religious. This way I find that I can turn my sadness into a prayer for something good.
3. Read God's love letter to us, the Bible. Sometimes it's hard to find the love personal from it, but what did God do for you in those scriptures? Live, die and rise for you. I mean, come on, God is very romantic, just read The Song of Songs.

I, and you, currently have THE perfect man for you, whether you are married or not. Jesus is pursuing you, He slayed the dragon (dying for you on the cross), crossed the moat infested with crocodiles (battled your sin) and climbed the impressive tower (made Himself known to you) all to take you home on His trusty steed (the Holy Spirit) to the Kingdom of Heaven to be His princess. He is yours and you are His in sickness and health till never do you part. Praise God! Remember you have Him with you always by your side holding your hand and the right man (or religious order for some) will come along in its own time. Be happy in learning who you are as a single person and cherish every moment of it because in the scheme of life, it doesn't stay around for long.

You are beautiful, adored and ultimately loved by great God who is fascinated by you.

The pursuit to be pursued!

Peace

Here I am!

So I realise that I haven't blogged for a long while... sorry.

Well I have finished my second year with NET Ministries Australia! Wow, what a whirl wind of a year that was. I wish I could tell you everything that happened but that would take me 11 months, it was by far one of my most challenging and fruitful years, in fact the past two years have been. It's been a growing process in many areas, particularly my faith, the main lesson being that God does everything, on the days where I was tired, sick or too plain lazy, God came through and did it all for me, carrying me like a big sack of potatoes.

I've formed many memories being at Mazenod College, and I have definitely found a home in Melbourne, particularly in the incredible community of Mazenod. I wouldn't change these past two years for anything in the world, I've had two unbelievably amazing teams, two awesome communities and one massively epic experience. I would challenge anyone reading this who has never thought of doing something like this to maybe think about it, it will change your life.

However, one door has closed and another is just about to open and next year I will be heading down to Lincoln University just outside of Christchurch where I will begin my studies and hopefully be able to share with you the whimsical life of a Catholic girl at University. I head down in February, but I am sure some stories will come up between now and then.

Until next time, prayers

It's All Begun

I have so much to say for what the past few weeks have brought about! Training has been great, there has been so many fun times with the 54 netters that have been there. I've also already been to Melbourne once, been back and forth to Brisbane, smelt bush fires  nearly been flooded out, been to hospital (already, I know)  done our first encounter days and sooooo much more! It's been full on and totally crazy. To be honest I don't even know where to start.

Katie and I flew to Australia on the 3rd January ready for Music Training. I spent 5 days playing guitar for 6 hours straight, lets just say that my fingers weren't too happy about this, but I absolutely loved it. I can now play 8 chords on the guitar instead of 4 :) It was so hot for the whole first half of training, there were several bush fires hanging around the surrounding areas of Brisbane, I was in no way affected by them but they did make the sunsets look pretty awesome!

Sunset from the street of my first host home ... how beautiful. God always turns the hard stuff into something beautiful 

We traveled up to Peregian for the beginning of training. It was hot for a long time, hard to sleep and just sweaty all the time, 2 showers a day were not enough. We were on retreat for the first week of training and it was great to take some time to take my faith on that next step because you can never be close enough to God, no matter what you do. I was really relaxing and amazing to learn so much more. 

I have been to hospital since being at training. I had a serious Asthma attack and had to be taken into hospital. I had Jeremy (on staff) drive at over 80km/h down a gravel road. I was fine after getting to hospital. Whilst this was happening all the other Netters were having personal prayer during adoration and I started to breathe again when they brought out Jesus in the monstrance when I was on my way to hospital ... Jesus literally saves!

Teams were announced just over a week and half of being at training. Crazy stuff. I'm being sent t Mazenod Catholic Boys College in Melbourne. My team is great, I'm on a five person team this year. Brigid, Travis, Erica and Simon. I'm looking forward to it this year, it's going to be a fun one!

Back - Front: Me, Erica, Brigid, Travis, Simon

Not long after team announcements, we had a massive down pour of rain ... for days. It had started flooding north of Brisbane. During one of the sessions we were having the ater level started coming up really fast and we had to sand bag the main hall. I was running between the volleyball court and the main hall filling bags with sand. It was really fun. Luckily we weren't flooded out but it was extremely close!

'If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking'

We have also been down to Melbourne as a team already. Mazenod college asked for us to come down and attend the year 12 retreat. So for 5 days we just packed up and went to Melbourne for 5 days. It was so much colder but it was really fun. We were able to meet the year 12 boys, there are so many of them, in one year groups alone there was 188 young men. Over all Mazenod has 1200 students all of them boys. Myself and the 2 other girls on my team, a few female staff are the only women in the near vicinity. 

Flying down to Melbourne for the first time

Yes, it was cold enough to stand there in a doona!

Since getting back from Melbourne we have been going through the last bit of the training process like crazy! We have been back in Brisbane for the past week, doing last minute things for our encounter days, which went really well. The only thing we need to do now is be commissioned which is happening this afternoon. We then fly out to Melbourne on Sunday and the year officially starts! Bring it on!

Our theme scripture for this year is Romans 10.9 (which happens to be my Emerald team brother's favourite scripture. 'If you declare with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from death, YOU WILL BE SAVED!' I love this scripture as this is what we are doing all year!

This is our theme song this year. Nothing is Impossible by Planetshakers

Thank you for all the prayers and I will be able to keep this updated a little easier once I arrive in Melbourne. God bless!

From the Unexpected

If you are not aware I am going back Australia to continue my mission with NET Ministries. So with that comes the problem of fundraising the money to go back. It's been hard and I still have a bit to pay off but I will get there ... one day.

It's in fundraising that I have seen beauty. Yesterday was the last Sunday that I will be home until November next year, so we stood there again asking for donations. Its been hard to fundraise as there are four from our parish going to NET next year, so everything we do has been divided by four. I was talking to a beautiful lady who has not long become a nun. During this conversation she stuffs every bit of money that she has into our donation box. I was stunned! All I could think of was 'I can't take this from you, that is all you have!'

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had. - Mark 12:43-44

I suppose I had never really seen generosity like that, I was blown away by how willing she was to give the money to us. I think I would have been shocked if anyone had done it, let alone a newly professed nun who lives under the vow of poverty. '...but she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had.' There isn't really much that I can say, I was just blown away by it all. God sends you what you need by unexpected means, He sent us somebody who vows to be poor and she gives us everything she has. God is an awesome and mysterious guy.

I suppose it's one of the ways God shows us that we can rely on Him for everything, I am this year, I have no choice in the matter, I can hardly afford to fly to Australia, thankfully I just have enough to get me there. It's liberating to be like this, not be tied down by the constraints of money but still do what I love by the blessing of God. Living free from the worries of the world.

I thank God for the blessings that He has sent, the ones I know He has sent and the ones He sends in disguise.

A coincidence is a miracle where God chose to remain anonymous - Heidi Quade

Safety Blankets

Well tonight is my last night at home until I return home in November. Again, I am jet setting off into the unknown, but a little more known then last time. I don't fly until the third January but I am going to stay with my trusty bestie Katie until I do fly. So I am packing (well procrastinating really) 

See look I've at least started, and this is only half the stuff I actually want to fit in my suitcase. Don't judge about the pj's I wearing them so that I don't have to dirty clothes that I want to take with me

I was listening to the radio the other day and it brought up the true meaning of Christmas, it was a Christian radio station (I wish it was a secular one :) ) and it spoke about the Christmas Charlie Brown. Now I never really watched Charlie Brown when I was younger but this intrigued me. It spoke about the real meaning of Christmas and how this little clip shows it. Well basically Linus, the character with the green hat, tells all about Christmas from the Gospel of Luke. Yeah that's cool but the best thing of all is when he says 'and the angels said unto them fear not ...' at the moment that he proclaims 'fear not' he drops his blanket. We all have our secruity blankets, now it may not be a physical blanket, mine however is a teddy. We all have that thing that we hold onto, we never quite leave it behind and give all to the Lord because we are scared we might lose something, but Jesus came to us so that we might not have fear, only fear and awe in Him and Him alone. We should  be able to take that step and drop the 'security blanket' and let God take control.

So anyway, my NET journey 2.0 starts tomorrow, kind of. I will be living with another NETer for a  few days. There are things that scare me, it's another chapter in life, I will be going back to something similar but find it very different, not all the same people will be there and my team will be totally different, I will end up in a different, or possible several different places. So there are the fears and worries in that. I am particularly sad that I won't be with my team, I would love to continue my journey with the, but this is not what it's about, I'm sacred about being put on a new team, I scared of the fact that my new team won't live up to my previous. I need to let go of the safety blanket feeling of my current brothers and sister and stand up and fight for my next team, I need to create a bigger heart to add love for my next team, but never leave or forget my other brothers and sisters. Lets just say that my biggest fear is my team, yes it was scary this year but I had no expectations, no experience of what it could have been like, but now I have. I need to put those expectations aside and come to understand that no two people are the same therefore making it impossible for two teams to be the same. The only safety blanket I need is Jesus.

This blog post is making it sound that I am rather scared and nervous about going back, as a matter of fact I am totally pumped and excited, ready to go (apart from the fact that I've not finished packing) This coming year is going to be awesome adventure and I pray that it goes as well as my time in Australia was this year. I get to proclaim that Jesus is Lord and help people let go of their safety blankets as I learn to let go of mine.

In it all I ask for your prayers during my time away, prayers for those whom I minister to for and my family that I leave behind. Know that I am praying for all you out there and the youth in thw world who have not yet encountered the love of Jesus.

Praise and Glory to God ... always

Jesus loves you always, His love never epires

Where has Christ gone?

So I am sure you are well aware that it is Christmas tomorrow, unless you are in the American region of the world :) So anyway, all I want to know is where has Jesus gone in the crazy escapade of Christmas? I've just been watching the news and all I saw were people doing their last minute shopping, getting presents, food, anything they need for this festive day just around the corner. Commercials showing all the last minute deals.  No mention of the real reason of Christmas. Not one. Te fact is that there would be no Christmas without Christ ... it would just be 'mas' or as I have seen increasingly often xmas.

Seeing xmas everywhere really annoys me. It is one small bit of proof that the world isn't needing God, or should I say not wanting God, the world definitely needs God. Xmas shows that people are removing God from their lives, literally, they replace the name of Christ with a simple 'x'. Not only are they removing God from their lives but are also showing super laziness, 'who would want to write a word with 9 letters when we can shorten it to 4?' Doesn't God deserve our very best, even those who believe in God write xmas, I write it. Shouldn't we show how proud and excited we are to write the name of Christ, we should put care and attention into it. We should honour Our God in everything we do, especially in the joy of writing His name.

I suppose if we look to a deeper meaning of xmas we can see the shape of the cross in the x. It can serve to remind us, even in these most blessed and joyous times that 'God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life' (John 3:16) and that the whole reason that Jesus came to earth was so that we can be united to Our Father in heaven.

I really want to make this Christmas one centered on Christ and not presents and food and all the other worldy things because it's not the point. The point, the very center of this season is Jesus.

I pray you all enjoy the true spirit of Christmas and have a blessed New Year. Jesus is the reason for the season.!