oh hi.

If you followed my blog hoping it would provide you with all sort of newslettery things from my time in Australialand, I’m sorry. I have to much fun with life to record it to my liking…permanently,..on the Internet,…for all to see.

The lack of pictures are ‘cause I don’t have the time or patience to edit and upload them here. When I get back to good ole Lancaster County, I’m sure several will surface.

And finally the last disclaimer for the lack of interesting, new, exciting, informative posts are because my laptop decided to go all wonky. Poor little guy’s screen just quit working and is as black as…well…a dead computer screen! If you wanna say a prayer or two that I can salvage my recorded life from the past half year off of it, that’d be fantastic! Hoping that it miraculously starts working again!

But yeah, other then that, I’m super content. God’s joy and peace are so consent and they never seem to run out.

I’ll be back to the hometown in about two weeks. Please, don’t feel timid about taking me out and spoiling me with coffee! Just kidding. But if you did, in return I can offer you stories upon stories that you won’t read on here!

how He loves.

where to begin. the title of my lil tumblr here rings so true to how i feel right now. and about summing it all up. like an endless sea. all the things He’s taken me through and is taking me through. but it’s not about me, you see. time and time again i realize that. i become more humbled each time someone comes up and speaks a word into my life or shares how inspiring the testimony that i live is. it’s by His beautiful work that He’s made me new. He is so good. i write tonight, only because i so desperately want you to know how much He loves. how much He desires you. how much His heart breaks every day for us. i wish you could see yourself through His eyes for a moment. i think you’d be blown away. know that He is faithful. this may all be the last thing you wanna hear. you may be thinking, “yeah, well that’s nice for you!” yeah, life is hard. it does suck sometimes. but think about it for a moment, think about the situation you’re in. and remember. remember that He is faithful. that there is joy in hidden places.

i wish i could explain God to you, but i can’t. for if He were explainable, He would not be God. 

Whithaven Beach in Whitsundays. ^ 

We had another away from base outreach over New Year’s week in Airlie. This week we had the Chia Tent! Picture a relaxed cafe setting. Small tables and floor pillows spread around on carpet. A little side stage with speakers for live music playing. A grass block for dancers to perform. A kitchen area in the corner serving up freshly brewed chia tea. Paper lanterns hung overhead. Sounds inviting, no? 

It drew people in, they were curious. It was the exact from opposite from the new year’s partying that was going on across the street in the pubs. 

We met so many people from all over the place with lots of different perspectives that week. We met a lot of cool people and a lot of not-so-cool-people that week, but we took it all in a stride. I thought back to a year or so ago and how I wouldn’t have enjoyed just talking to random people and actually caring about ‘em. Must be a Jesus thing. Seriously. 

Anyway, we just sat and talked to people. Told ‘em about Jesus or what He’d done in our lives if they opportunity arose or they asked. 

The people my heart broke for most were the ones who thought they were to far gone to ever be loved by God. It’s hard to see them hopeless when you know, see and feel God longing for them. Wanting them. Perhaps someday a final word is said or an action taken that will tip them over the edge of the fence they’re sitting on. Over into His grace and love. My hope is they realize they are so worth it and let Him break through. 

a very Merry Christmas it is!

Christmas day dawned bright and sunny! So warm. We shouted “Merry Christmas!” to each other as we excitedly roamed into the community room full of couches, blankets, air con, and stuffed stockings. This is how the group of us still on base started Christmas day. The stockings were emptied with laughs and happiness. Stomachs grew hungry and so bacon, scrambled eggs and french toast with bananas were in order. Satisfied, most snuggled in for holiday movie watching. But the real adventure was only starting. DuDadaaa! *dramatic sound effect* 

Six friends decided they rather spend their Christmas day adventuring toward a beach on bicycles. I was one of the friends.  

We eagerly rented rickety bikes for the day from the shed out back. Water bottles were filled and backpacks were crammed, we were ready. Except Froydis had disappeared. Ughh, where was she? Did she wimp out? We were about to decide she wasn’t coming when she rounded the corner with hands stacked full of PB&J sandwiches she made from the bread bin. We cracked up, wahooo! Now we could officially start the journey. 

The path curved around a creek for quite some time. Over bridges, under bridges, past lazy cattle in a pasture, families playing in parks, the white concrete was rolling smoothly away under our skinny tires. We backtracked several times, but only for a very short amount of path. We stopped and asked almost every other person if we were headed in the right direction. Some gave us funny looks, but all gave confirming words of direction that we where headed the right way.  Songs were belted at the top of lungs, smiles given to strangers and bicycle bells rung. We were together under the Aussie sun having a merry time of it. 

Midway through our little excursion, we came upon kids swooping high on a rope swing and dropping into creek waters below. We had to stop. We scraped down our breaks and pulled over. “Can we take a dive in?” I shouted. “Sure, yeah, yeah!!” the response was welcoming. I took a swing into the air, screaming and crashing down into the muddy waters with thrill. The kids we swam with were friendly. One girl said “I like your accent” proving that we were probably a bit of a foreign novelty to them. After 15 minutes or so we continued on our way, we had path to cover! 

Marshy flatlands came into view and we rode through them rumbling over safe wooden bridges. Finally, we came out along the beach. It was brown, small and natural, but it was the ocean! We clambered along the shore line through twiggy trees until we found a dried out log. And there we sat. Sat and hungrily ate our PBJ in victory. 

The natural beach was enjoyable. We walked along the rippled sand, letting it massage our feet. Alina, Essy, Saulo and I ventured out into the shallow waves, wading in the salty water. A person would have to wade quite a way to get even shoulder deep in the water. It was the oddest beach I’ve ever been on, but it was lovely in it’s own way.

Nick happened upon a blue jelly fish on the sand. We had a very quick debate which resulted in us all agreeing that it was the scary, blue poisonous kind. We took pictures and some of us exclaimed about seeing our first big, blue poisonous Australian jellyfish. Yay! *waves hands dramatically* Then we touched it. Just real fast with one finger on it’s top. Don’t freak out. 

We returned to our waiting bikes and rode to the first station to catch a train home. So ended our Christmas day adventure. Only then could we sit down and watch movies in contentment. Tis a Christmas day that will not soon be forgotten!

——— 

I love days like that one, just being free of a time schedule. Meeting people and adventuring in a different area. Christmas break was great here. It was unusual and usual at the same time. I ran in a downpour of rain and boogie boarded on wet park grass, that was the unusual. The usual part was that I celebrated with a huge family, listened to the Christmas story, sang carols and wrapped up little presents. So I conclude that Christmas in Aussie land was good. I hope you had as much of an excellent time celebrating the start of Christ’s redemption plan, as I did. 

Happy Holidays, friends! 

they have a story.  

thanks MMC!

A very huge thank you to my church family! Thanks so much for sending me a large Christmas package. It’s always exciting to receive things in the post here! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and a blessed New Year. 

outreach loco.

Just in case you haven’t heard, I’m staying in Australia for outreach! We’ll be traveling around by van to different locations during the outreach phase. Still working out all the details and logistics. Our team of 7 leaves in February. Excited!