My, my, my, it has been a long time.
Hello again, dear friends and family! I am terribly sorry there has been such a gap in my writing. I really never was any good at this blogging thing. I'm here now because the pressure on my conscience was mounting and I just felt too guilty not to write another day! But please, for redemption's sake, note that in March I posted a record of three (3) times. That's more than the last four months combined! I think during that time I must have been drinking a lot of coffee-flavored sugar milk (my sisters would insist that I don't actually drink coffee). And I haven't had any of that recently.
I am going to go into the rest of my tales from outreach in another post -- fingers crossed -- but, long story short, we went to China and I was not able to access my blog because it is considered a social media site and therefore blocked by the government. Womp :(. I arrived back in Perth on June 15th for a whirlwind week of re-acquanting myself with old friends, debriefing with my school, and an intense, three sessions per day, first time ever missions conference that the entire base was a part of. It was certainly a lot to take in, but God spoke wondrous things that week and allowed me to have a fantastic time with folks I hadn't seen in quite some time.
Also during that week I was scrambling to make plans to leave the country for a bit so that I could apply for a new Australian visa. The cheapest, and, funny enough, the closest place to fly to is Indonesia. Luckily there was a gal who had just completed her second-level school who was in the same boat as me. She had already booked her flight to Bali and had made plans to stay with some Indonesian friends that we know from the base for one week. I asked if I could tag along so I wouldn't have to go anywhere alone, prayed about it, and (after many failed attempts) booked my own ticket. Hallelujah! Many people have gone on said "visa runs" before, and usually end up staying in Bali for about two days. Our flight back home was July 2nd at 6:20am, but we weren't on it...
Unfortunately, things have not been going as smoothly or simply for us. You see, we need to cancel the current visas that we have, which expire at the end of the month, and apply for new visas that will last for the remainder of our time in Australia. Usually the Australian Immigration Embassy gets this done speedily, but we've just had some extra hoops to jump through for whatever reason. We, as well as those at the base in Perth, recognize that we must fight for these visas and spend this time in spiritual warfare. Both of our schools begin on July 7th. Prayers that we make it back in time are much appreciated! It's funny that our Indonesian friends were on the flight and made it back to Perth, and we're still here :). Currently we are staying at the YWAM base in Bali. We are just in the waiting game now! Hopefully our applications are processed quickly and our passports sent back to us soon. Until then, we are making new friends, helping out at the base, and going to the beach which is just across the road. And on this Independence Day spent in Indonesia, we are being rallied together with the three other Americans to have a barbecue. I even heard whispers of buying fireworks. Certainly fun, but I sure do miss home today!!
So, what else can I say in this random little post with no pictures? Oh, about that. My camera broke. On my birthday. For no apparent reason other than that I turned it on. Boo! So besides the ones I have already posted, I have zero photos from outreach. However I have the joy of stealing everyone else's photos via flash drive and hopefully bringing you the best of the best here very soon. And on getting older: how odd it is! Although my face seems to only be growing chubbier with age and I still have the legs of a twelve year old boy -- my feet got wrinklier. It's happening, people!!
I love you all very much. I am yet again so grateful to know that people are praying for me, supporting me, and even asking about me back home. I am doing well. I have enough money to buy a new ticket home and to cover the majority of my lecture phase fees for the BAS. I am still praying and trusting for the rest of those funds to come in, as well as enough for my 8-month outreach beginning in September. Please remember me over here in Indonesia/Australia and maybe even pray about supporting me! In total, my lecture phase fees for the Birth Attendant School will cost $3,960 AUD, and my outreach fees will cost around $7,000-9,000 AUD. Speaking of, I got to hear what our locations are :). We will be spending October to December in Lusaka, Zambia, December to March in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and April to May in Calcutta, India. Whoohoo! I cannot wait to get back to Perth and get into the swing of things again.
Until then, I have some freedom-celebratin' to do.
Grace
