Begin Again

Hi everyone!

I am here now at the base in Perth surrounded by wonderful new friends from the BAS :). After almost 4 weeks in Indonesia, my visa was granted and I received my passport back from immigration on Wednesday and flew out the following day. I arrived here on the night of July 18th. Moved into a chilly house full of warm faces and expectations of the laughter that's to come.

It is so magnificent to finally be here and be learning! The first week back was definitely full on, but as of last Sunday night when I made up the last test, I am officially caught up! Amazingly, there was another girl who also arrived for the BAS on the same day as me, so we were in it together! I am so thankful for that. We completed about three weeks worth of work in one week + weekends. Thanks be to God! Now I am really feeling good, and had a free afternoon to sit here and write to all you lovely people.

My school! There are 21 students and 11 staff (they take shifts for our 8 month outreach).

Since I have been back here, God has shown me again and again how much He wants to take care of me. I realized that I was in faith that He would provide for things like school fees, but I didn't trust Him with the seemingly infinite little details on my shopping list. I was on my own for those. In an intercession time we had, I repented of my unbelief. About an hour later, one of my friends approached me and said that God had spoken to her, and that she would like to buy a coat for me. A few days later someone gave me a notebook to use for class (and it was perfect for me!). I even got given hair ties by one of my housemates. Little tiny things that one could easily disregard, but for me it was that unmistakable whisper of Someone saying: I see. I know. I care. What a kind and tender and attentive Father we have. He is devoted to His children.

I cannot tell you how delightful it is to be together with my school. It is the largest BAS to date, and I must say we have an anointed school! I am not the only student who struggled to make it here, and the enemy is not making it easy for many of us to stay here. There is much opposition, but our God blesses us even in the midst of the battle! He prepares a feast for us in the presence of our foe. I firmly believe that God going to show us favor regardless of the assault. I have already seen God's outstanding provision in my life, and I am confident He will continue to provide. This is where He wants me to be.

As far as lecture fees are concerned, I am able to pay in the roughly $1,100 that I still need. My parents transferred some money to me, and the American dollar is higher than the Aussie dollar right now so that always helps. Woohoo! Your dollar goes further my friends, it is a good time to give :). We have not been given exact numbers for outreach expenses, but it is going to be from $7,000-9,000 AUD. My outreach expenses are due on September 11th. We will stay overseas throughout the entire outreach, going from Zambia (Thanksgiving and Christmas will be interesting!) to Ethiopia to India. There are some other costs that I was made aware of upon my return. I will need to purchase some equipment before we leave, specifically a blood pressure cuff ($30), a stethoscope ($30), thermometer ($12), mosquito net ($25) and also labor room shoes and a nurse's watch. We are also required to have missionary health insurance which costs $514 for 11 months, but with a YWAM Perth discount it comes to $335. Would you be willing to support me for one or more of these expenses? It would be such a blessing to me! I am ever grateful for the finances that keep coming in! And of course I always, always, always covet your prayers. Thank you.

I have immensely enjoyed my lecture content. We are motorin' right through, covering anatomy and physiology, antenatal care and abdominal palpations, malaria, HIV and community development (the doctor who taught us had worked with Mother Teresa in the past!). This week we are going to delve into nutrition and pregnancy in developing nations. I am loving it. But I do really miss home and all the lovely bodies that inhabit it, so, any and every type of mail/ communication is much appreciated :).

Much love,

Grace

In flux

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

With love, from Nepal

Hello loved ones!

Writing to you now from the Himalayan Cafe (where I can get pancakes and virtually uninterrupted internet, a precious commodity) in Kathmandu! Amazingly we only have four more days in the city, then we separate into our three locations around Nepal. Time goes by even faster on outreach! I am always praying for God to help me be present and really absorb all that I can from our short time here. If you know me, you know I tend to live in the future a little bit. Or a lot. But I am surely grateful for what God is doing in my life right now.

View from the roof

I feel like so much of what He has been speaking to me thus far focuses on why I am the way that I am. Being in a large group like this, all doing ministry together, it is easy to compare yourself with others. We have some incredibly gifted people on our team! I so easily slip into thinking that I'm not good enough, I'm not a powerful evangelist, I won't see miracles like they have, I don't have as good of a testimony, I won't share the gospel as well as her, etc. But God has been so patient and loving, and continues to reveal that He created me especially and specifically me. God thought of and designed the way that I connect with people, the way that I show my love, the way that I relate and adapt and live. I've been strengthened and encouraged by His words of truth over my life.

The smog does make way for some gorgeous sunsets. On a very rare occasion we can even
 see the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance!

When we first arrived, I was very hesitant to reach out to others. I've struggled to open up and connect and love on people, even the children next door, because my mind kept saying, "what's the point?" I'm just a foreigner passing through. I don't want to love and then leave like everyone else. Why do they need me when there's others around who have stepped out in love? How I felt weary of short term missions! I long to be in a community, really part of a community. Not just a white Westerner who forms close relationships, who is in intimate friendship with people, and then simply leaves. I want to belong! I want to be a part of a people and see long term change. I want to be known as Grace, a woman who is part of us. I want to share Jesus with my whole life, with the way I live and what I do, with absolutely everything that I am. Going out on evangelism and talking with people for a little bit has been hard for me. I know it is so good, that it is necessary and commanded and fruitful. But I've caught myself desiring full time missions, in fact, not being able to imagine anything different. What! Did I say that? Do I really want that? Man, God is changing my heart big time.

Hey das me

That said, I know I am right where He wants me. So I don't want my changing emotions to dictate my attitude towards what we're doing. Which really is a lot! Our days are full, and it's so good. Once a week we go to a place called Ratna Park -- basically an open dusty area where there's people congregated for reasons unknown/a market that is held there. We come in and draw a crowd immediately. One or two of our smaller teams will put on an open air (drama, testimony, gospel message) and then we mingle and share with people one-on-one. They are so hungry for Jesus! We've seen many people saved and even more healed and touched by the presence of God. The drama that we often do is to the song "Everything" by Lifehouse. I had never seen it before, but it is apparently well known amongst the Christian young-folk. It powerfully displays the message of Jesus without words, and I myself am brought almost to tears every time I watch it.

I have really been challenged during our evangelism times at Ratna Park and at a local university that we visit and also hold open airs at. I often find myself in the middle of a crowd of usually 10-20 men who direct extremely intellectual questions about Christianity at me. Me. One thing I know for certain is that it is the Holy Spirit speaking through me and giving me wisdom, because I somehow always have an answer for them. And they truly ask excellent questions! I am encouraged by that, because it is obvious that they have heard a little bit about what this Jesus thing is, pondered over questions and have been waiting in anticipation for someone to come along and give them the answers that they seek. I often hear "I am confused about _____."I have been in great conversations just explaining how following Christ is different than worshiping up to millions of Hindu gods. So many are stunned by the simple and powerful love of Jesus, the fact that we don't have to work to be "good" or earn grace, and this strange idea of praying to God anytime, anywhere, for anyone, about anything!

We hiked to the highest point in Kathmandu Valley!

On one of our days here we spent the morning waiting on the Lord to see what He would have us do that day. Our team was able to visit a slum near the river in an area of the city called Thamel. We felt that we were supposed to spend our time there just playing with the kids, which we joyfully did with balloons and bubbles and many rounds of Duck, Duck, Goose. My cup was filled because I sat next to a young mother who let me hold her precious baby girl, and even blow raspberries on her sweet tummy. When we left for that day, my mind was overflowing with thoughts about how God might use me in ministry down the road. I guess it was as good of a time as any to clue me in a little on His plans for me! I really haven't known, and still don't fully know, what my future will look like (as far as after the BAS/why He wants me to do that school). But you know how God is, and in His goodness to me and understanding of my curious nature, He brings just a bit of clarity to the blurriness. I love it when the blob of my future begins to take shape. Asdfghjkl. It's all very exciting. I cannot wait to see how these now nebulous plans begin to manifest themselves according to His timing and as He wills to reveal.

We went up so sing praises and proclaim God's promises over this region -- and got a nice
glimpse of His glory shining down!

Well gang I am now going to publish this post, a mere seven days after I started it. Needless to say, I am no longer at the Himalaya cafe. I blame the shifty internet more than my inability to write fast/make sure a draft is saved before exiting the window... But, thus is outreach life. Anyway. I really want to thank you all for continuing to support me, love me, and pray for me. I sorely need it and just hope you know how much I appreciate you! I have remained very healthy thus far (thanks momma), been sleeping well, and enjoying fellowship with my friends during this time, which will be over before I know it! That said, it will most likely be harder for me to write during our three weeks in Biratnagar, but I shall surely try my best! Thank you again for everything you do. Really, truly. Thank you :).

Until next time,
Grace