Can God heal in Western nations?

As a matter of fact, He can!

We know He moves in signs and wonders in places like India or Africa. And He certainly is still keeping busy with the miraculous in Mexico City. But what has been incredibly exciting to see this month is that God is on the move in Western Australia!!
Students from the school of worship have been going out to Perth city center to worship and share the gospel. Last week they saw the city more open than they have ever seen it before.

They were drawing crowds to the music and preaching, something missionaries only expect to see when they are the “weird white people.” They saw four instant healings in one morning, including someone who was on crutches until the students prayed and he walked home on both feet.

During the same week, while doing evangelism as a base in the town of Belmont (just outside Perth City), a woman’s knee was healed. Two young YWAMers prayed for her and she was thrilled when the pain left her. Later in the evening she ran into two other YWAMers and proceeded to tell them about how God had healed her through two boys’ prayers.
He is definitely stirring something up in Western Australia, which is western not only in name but also in mindset. Such visible fruit is often hard to come by in a nation like Australia, but something has shifted and we are seeing breakthrough!
Two weeks ago I was invited to go with a small team to share at a Christian high school. Though our main purpose in the day was to share about missions and YWAM, it turns out God had some other things up His sleeve as well! We had a two hour break between classes, so we went to the town centre to worship and share about God with people. One of the YWAMers, Denise, started talking to some scruffy looking characters as Manny played his guitar. They were really interested in his music and they all started talking, the conversation soon turning to God. They expressed some doubts and one in particular, a guy named Daniel, said he had learned too much about religion and he didn’t buy any of it for a second. He was friendly, and listened, but quite resolute about not believing. A few other ragamuffins showed up and soon the five of us were sharing with five of them. One boy, 15 years old, sat and asked questions about God for an hour and a half. He was incredible open and hungry and even started asking about how to do a DTS. Then all of a sudden one of our team members starts hollering up a storm “God healed him, so crazy, this guy just got healed!” The guy she was referring to was nodding his head in shocked but enthusiastic agreement. She had told him about how God heals and how she had seen God heal people in Mexico. He mentioned that he had been blind in one of his eyes since a bee sting incident 2 months ago. She tested his vision as he covered his good eye. She tested his reaction/sight by putting her hand really close to his blind eye and sure enough he didn’t blink. She prayed and he was healed. He could barely believe it, but then they ran the test again. He covered his good eye and counted fingers, and bushes, and trees, and people walking by. He could see perfectly again. His skeptical friend, Daniel, was genuinely surprised his friend’s eyesight had returned, but would still not believe it was God. “See Daniel,” I shared, “there is a difference between intellectual ideas and real experience. Your friend just experienced God and His healing.” He protested: “No way. Nah man, Hey mate, you don’t believe God just healed your eye do you?” “Yeah, man! God just healed my eye.” Was his firm, delighted reply. Daniel had nothing to say. But as we left the group (determined to get to class on time) we could overhear the guy who was healed telling his other friend “hey man, does your leg still hurt, because I could pray for it and maybe God will heal you, too.”
Yep. Even in Western nations, God is demonstrating His awesome power and reality.

Thanks for being a part of God’s miracles in all kinds of nations!

Bless you heaps
Claire Griffin

MEXICO CITY BOUND!!! IN 13 DAYS AND COUNTING!

I’ve discovered that God likes to surprise us.
Like when He said to me this week:
“SURPRISE! I AM SENDING YOU TO
MEXICO CITY IN
2 WEEKS TIME!”
Let me get you up to speed. When DTS finished in December I was placed into the ministry here on base called Megacities. It is a vision that Shirley Brownhill, the base director, got several years back of transforming nations by targeting the heart of the nation: big cities. Megacities goes into a city with a population of over a million for one year at a time and connects the local body of that city to short term teams from all over the world to join together in reaching the city. The integrated, unified, grassroots approach to outreach serves as a catalyst to ignite the local body and bears fruit that lasts for years. I have seen the effectiveness of this approach first hand. I did my outreach in Jakarta during the Megacities focus in 2008. God used our tiny team of 10 to stir up a youth group, get them fired up for God and involved in reaching a neighboring slum community with His love. More than a year later, those same teenagers are still going into the same community and seeing miracles and transformation in peoples’ lives week after week.

This year Megacities is focused on Mexico City!

It has been quite busy and exciting in the office over the last month. I have been corresponding with teams and churches via email about joining Megacities in Mexico City and have been phoning pastors in D.F., confirming details about the teams that are coming to work with them.

Then came the surprise!

On Wednesday afternoon my leader, Rod, asked me to pray about going to Mexico City at the end of this month to serve as a coordinator. Coordinators are the bridge between the local body and the visiting teams. They bring vision, encouragement, and direction and help to build relationship. Coordinators are also the face of legitimacy for Megacities during the beginning of the year, as more pastors hear of what is going on in their city and decide whether or not they want to be a part of this major effort. Despite the size of Megacities (dozens of teams and local churches are involved, and we’re hoping for hundreds more) there are only a couple of coordinators working in the city at any given time. It is a huge responsibility, privilege and honor.

As I sought the Lord about this decision, He reminded me of the words that He had already been speaking to me over the last few weeks. He had said to me that this is not a season of standing still, but of RUNNING… that I am to step out of my comfort zone so that He can move in big ways… and that I have been brought to this position for such a time as this! The final reassurance of His hand in this came through the scripture “I will be with you where ever you go.”

This is a major leap of faith… a leap bigger than He has every asked me to take. The role that I will be playing will be challenging and stretching, in ways that I have never experienced before. It is also a financial leap of faith. I have trusted Him for provision before, but never in such a short period of time. God has increased my faith a hundred fold in the last year and a half of serving Him in missions. I believe He is ready to multiply again.

o I need to raise $2300 for a plane ticket by Monday the 18th.
o I will also need $2000 for ground fees (transportation, food, and accommodation for the ten weeks) by January 25th.

One of my favorite YWAM speakers said that “the big things we want to see God do will never happen in our comfort zone.” I am ready to step out of my comfort zone to be a part of an incredible move of God in Mexico City!

I would like to ask you to please pray about supporting me as a Megacities coordinator in Mexico City. Your support would be a part of what makes an eternal impact on a city of 20 million souls.

Thank you!
In His amazing grace
Claire Griffin

If you are able to give, please do as soon as possible via:
Bank transfer (preferred method so that I can pay for airfare by card):
Bank of America checking acct # 0437305391
From BofA acct you need to know: zip code is 95835
From other bank you need to know: routing number 121000358

Give online at http://www.ywamperth.org.au/
Scroll down to donate/pay at the bottom of page, fill out online form (payment type = ‘other,’ recipient = Claire Griffin, school or ministry = Megacities)

What's the point? the holiday blues get busted

I came close to boycotting Christmas this year.

I'm new to YWAM Perth and I just got back from outreach and I don't know anyone and it's hot here and I'm homesick. I was "this" close to protesting, pouting, and otherwise preventing celebrating Christmas this year. "the 25th is a pagan holiday anyway..." and "it's too commercial" and every other excuse actually went through my mind this year.... as I sat arms-crossed and pouting in my spirit.

But I'm done windging and whining about this being my first Christmas away from home. Why? Because God gives perspective when we ask for it. And I've been noticing the lyrics to traditional Christmas songs lately, and they are amazing. Christmas songs are like the ultimate worship songs. They are powerful! It's been refreshing to view Christmas songs as a way to worship God. And it was that right there that brought me back to the heart of Christmas. Here, in Australia, stripped of all my familiarity, comfort, family, most of my close friends, and to boot the torture of celebrating a traditionally "cold/wintery/snowy" holiday in 90 degree heat, I was overcome with the beautiful simplicity of why we make such a fuss towards the end of December.

It's Jesus.

He was actually born. He cried and had fat baby arms. He grew up and learned how to talk and walk. He lived a beautiful and perfect life and then died a greusome death... so that we could receive the Father's love. He died for love. So that we could be loved extravagently. So that we could take all our mistakes, our "owies" and "ouches"- both those caused by others and the ones we have done- to the one who gives total healing and restoration. Jesus came so that we could have abundant life, wholeness, healing, love, and joy. Jesus is amazing!!

Now, I know that Christmas in its simplest, least commercial, form may be a little... repetitive for us Christians. We claim to celebrate and worship Jesus every day, so why such a hullabaloo on one particular day. We'd much rather focus on the decorations and gifts because it's a break from the ordinary, mundane, day to day... it's something different. Can we really worship God every day AND get ultra-exicted about the same thing on December 25th? I'm going to go on a tangent now but it will prove relevant so bear with me: I've been interacting with more married couples lately. On many, many occasions I have been SHOCKED by married couples requesting MORE time to spend with each other. For example, couples wanting to make sure their weekend work duties are the same so that they can do them together. My immediate, naive thought is "you guys live together... do you seriously want more of your working and spare time with each other? Don't you see each other enough?" I don't understand... I probably won't understand untill I am married.. but I suspect there is something truly beautiful behind that. It is a beautiful thing that two people who share every day together would still want more time together, would still get excited about the "more" or the "extra". And I guess that's kinda the way Christmas should be. That we worship Him, live with Him, love Him daily but we are SO in love with Him that we can still get excited about the special occasion, the added opportunity to make a fuss over Him and celebrate His love. And tonight, at church singing Joy to the World and O Holy Night, as the lyrics of the songs really sunk in for the first time ever, I felt that excitement rise up inside me. I felt an exuberance and bubbling joy over the opportunity to revel in His love and grace in such a beautiful and sweet and festive way- on this crazy day called Christmas.

And that, my friends and family, is why it is worth it to celebrate Christmas.. alone, in shorts, scratching my mosquito bites. It is worth celebrating, and celebrating madly!

Christmas Wishlist!

I'm gonna go ahead and put this out there.. in case people are feeling particularly postal this Christmas:

Things I would love from the States that I can't get in Australia:

1) Trident gum- the green spearmint flavor

2) Peet's or Starbucks coffee!!!!!!!! (ground)

3) Reese's peanut butter cups/pieces (or Christmas trees)

4) Airborne

5) Deoderant - anything solid and smelly-good


My address is:
P.O. Box 8501
Perth Business Centre
Perth, WA
Australia 6849

You're probably in Cambodia if....

• You see 6 monks in a Tuk Tuk

• You take any form of transportation anywhere and find that you never stop once until you reach your destination (literally... they don't stop... everyone yields... intersections and all... they just weave.. there are no stop signs or traffic lights anywhere in Battambang)

• You see a dog riding on a motor bike

• Loud music wakes you up at 4:30 a.m.

• You go to the market after sunset and the stands are lit up by candlelight

• You see goats congregating in the park, hanging out on the steps of a statue

• You see people sleeping in the parks overnight... in hammocks

• Entire families on a single moto- two adults and four kids, plenty of room!!

More to come we ain't done being here yet!!!

OUTREACH REPORT!!

Outreach Report!

It’s been some of the most incredible months of my life. This outreach has been really unique and different in almost every way from my DTS outreach.

Highlights!

DELFT! We started outreach in Delft, Cape Town, South Africa, a poor colored community (that is the way the South Africans would describe it). The thirteen of us slept, ate and worked in the Apostolic Faith Mission church for 2 weeks. Our ministry during the time turned out to be primarily children’s ministry. Street kids and neighborhood kids came out from the woodwork as early as the first day and we spent all our free time playing games with them and talking to them (it’s an Afrikaans speaking community but most spoke English also). Most of the kids’ ministry was unstructured, but some of the structure activity was for a group of kids who are at risk, either from abusive homes or have AIDS. The whole community became abuzz as the kids would go home every night talking about all the fun they had that day. We worked with many many kids, but there is one story that stands out. His name is Denver. He is a foster kid, actually…was a foster kid. We fell in love with him the first day- he was quirky and hilarious, about 9 years old. We practically took him in, he stuck to us like glue. We prayed for him several times during our team prayer time, praying that he would find a better home than the one he was in (Denver was being neglected physically and emotionally) and that the church would continue to look after him when we were gone. The last day we were in Delft, Auntie Freida (one of my favorite Aunties, the purest gold heart you’ll ever come across) calmly and sweetly announced that the Lord had spoken for her to look after Denver and that she would be looking into the adoption process.

Update: since we left the kids continue to flock to the church, Denver is being taken extra care of, and the church has unified their separate feeding projects (run from different peoples’ homes) and are running it out of the church’s kitchen (before our visit the kitchen was largely left untouched), bigger and better than ever before.

MUIZENBERG: we had two weeks of lectures in Muizenberg before heading out to our next South Africa location. The lectures were a great way of getting filled up and refreshed. The definite highlight of these two weeks, besides climbing Table Mountain of course, was getting to translate for our Argentinian guest speaker.

RETREAT: outreach seemed to get better and better as we arrived in Retreat, Cape Town, South Africa. We worked with a guy named Pastor Bradley who is incredibly passionate and gifted in youth ministry. We were able to go into a high school every day for four weeks and talk to students… about life, struggles, sports, God, dancing.. anything they wanted to talk about. Our purpose during the time was to encourage, motivate, support, edify the students. We (slowly but surely) developed amazing relationships with these (mostly Xhosa) students. The highlight from this time I think would be the girls’ club we started the second week there. We met with GIRLS ONLY!! One afternoon each week and played games and danced and shared something short about identity and value (women in the Xhosa culture have very little societal worth and therefore most of the girls we met had incredibly low self-value and negative self-image). It was incredibly to see these girls go from totally skeptical about our presence in their school to totally open and receptive to our encouragement and advice. Even though it was only four weeks, the whole atmosphere of the school seemed to change. Many of the girls wrote us notes the last week sharing how our time with them had given them strength when they were close to giving up and reason to believe that someone loves them and that therefore there is something about them worth loving. My only regret was that we couldn’t stay longer. I would love to continue on the girls’ club. I learned so much about leadership, youth ministry, and myself during this time, I can’t even begin to write it all. We also had a TON of fun and we learned and experienced that ministry is not supposed to be heavy, it’s life-giving, exhilarating and heaps of fun, even with the challenges.

CAMBODIA! It was really hard to say good bye to South Africa, but Cambodia has been a great surprise! It’s opposite from South Africa in virtually every way, but as much as we loved South Africa, we love it here too! We have two main ministries here. One is teaching English to elementary school kids (K-6). The other is spending time (teaching English, playing games, and doing arts and crafts) with girls that live in a “safe house.” They have been rescued from the human trafficking industry or other really severely abusive situations. The girls range from 5- 22 years old. “Our purpose” here is similar to that of our time in the high school- to love on, be a support to, encourage and bring joy to them through simple things like playing a game or having a chat. They soak up the love and attention like sponges. I’m grateful we are there 5 days a week and can’t imagine how difficult it will be for us to leave in December. I’ve made two “sisters” already. I’ve also really enjoyed teaching 1st grade English. The students are so cute and love learning English. I have no idea what I’m doing. Normally that would freak me out. But a lot of what I learned in Retreat has come in handy- I don’t have to stress, or try too hard, I can take it easy, be spur of the moment, have fun, and trust God to teach me as I go along.
The aim of outreach is to bless others. I think.. I know.. we have done that. Still I can’t help but feel like the most blessed person in the whole wide world. The team has been incredible (fun, whole hearted, passionate, silly, wise, and dedicated) and the relationships made, built (and being built) with people in South Africa and Cambodia have been a precious gift from Daddy God. He is an extravagantly good God.

Thank you to everyone who has made our ministry possible!!

If you have prayed, helped financially, ever read any of my emails or blogposts or supported me in any other way I’d really like to thank you – in paper! Please email me your snail mail address as soon as possible!!!

Thanks for reading. I love you people!

This is why I go....

August 19th

I have an amazingly cool story to share. For those of you who aren’t “the religious type” please read; I’m not a fan of religion either, but I really love my relationship with God and you might like hearing about this… maybe?

A few weeks ago the students were given the opportunity to pray about which outreach location to go to. Some were worried that God would not speak to them. I was speaking to one girl (let’s call her Wendy) in particular and told her that I know from experience that God cares about the details of our lives and that He really will tell her specifically which place to go (of three options). She was surprised to hear that a big God cares about the details of our lives. I told her a couple stories from my own life of how God has shown that to me, and she said “huh” (like, huh interesting). Fast forward. Same girl. In our week of teaching about prayer she feels that God is affirming the worshipper in her. She is greatly encouraged by this and starts singing more and worshiping in her heart more frequently. “Lord, it would be really great if I had an ipod to listen to worship music with,” she thinks quietly to herself one day. A couple days later another girl (who was not present for the “God in the details” chat and who does not read minds and could not have read Wendy’s mind) gives her ipod away to Wendy with a note that says “I felt God telling me to give this away to you, to show you that He is a God who cares about the details of our lives.”

Are you kidding me? THAT is God. Not only does that speak to me of the reality of God, but to me it also speaks HEAPS about His character. This is His intention for everyone- to show us that He is so caring and so loving, and active in His love. This is not always communicated successfully; not everyone has Wendy’s ipod experience to back up claims of His goodness. But I think that is largely because He has chosen to use people to demonstrate His love. He uses us to speak things to one another, to be the person that hears Him say “give this person your ipod” and does it not even knowing that that is the answer to a secret prayer. Sometimes we hear Him and are able to be a part of a miracle. Sometimes we stuff it up or don’t hear it altogether. But that doesn’t change the fact that He is speaking and His intention is to demonstrate this love to EVERY person on this planet. That is His heart.

I got another glimpse of God’s heart this week. A friend of a friend took his own life. I don’t know this person at all, but when I heard the news I cried. My heart hurt. I felt like God was sharing His heart with me, a tiny fraction of it, in that His heart breaks when things like this happen. Because His intention for people is good, His intention is to bring hope and peace, freedom and fullness of life. It literally gives His heart pain to see His children living in sorrow and despair and inflicting pain on themselves and each other. But He has given us free will, because He wants to enter a loving relationship with all of us, and that can’t be forced. For some, their free will can bring agony and destruction into their lives and the lives of the people around Him. He is active in trying to stop this, He is active in pursuing us and showing His love, but because He largely (but not exclusively) works through people (remember the ipod story), it doesn’t always get communicated. Some might think, “well, it’s pretty stupid of Him to work through people, because of course we’re going to mess it up. That’s too much responsibility! He should just do it and leave us out of it!” But we live in the physical and He is spirit, so it is His kindness, humility and love that cause Him to work through physical beings –so that He can speak to us in a way we hear, receive and give His touch, give physical gifts through us, show us visible things through other people – all things that He couldn’t do or would be harder to do if He chose not to work with us and through us. Not to mention He loves to co-labor and partner with us. Just like a Dad wants to play games or build stuff with his kids. He doesn’t want us to be puppets or strangers, He is close and works alongside us.

That is why we go. This is why I work for a non-profit missions organization. Our free will can bring so much pain into the world, for ourselves and for others. Or…. our free will can be the agent of His demonstrations of love. We can be the ones that show others His ability to speak, His attention to detail, His heart of compassion, His pro-active efforts to communicate His undying love for us. I want to be His communicator. I want to be His agent of love. I want to spend my life being someone who God uses to show people His real, active, tangible, unfailing, healing love.

That’s why I am going to South Africa and Cambodia.

On September 5th, I leave for South Africa. I will be co-leading a team of 11 students with one other staff member. We will be in South Africa for 10 weeks. Then we will go to Cambodia for a month. We will be serving the people of these countries, helping in any practical way we can (teaching English, cooking meals, etc.) and showing love and value to the people we meet. There is sooooo much more I could say, but I am trying to keep this entry shorter than my previous emails ;)

If you would like to hear more or if you would like to support the outreach through finances (current need is $2000 AUD) or prayer please let me know!

First Entry Since Arriving in Perth

I have arrived!


Arrival shock:


It’s so surreal to be back in Perth. Half the time I think I am dreaming and that it is the strangest, most foreign thing to be here. The other half of me already feels like I never left… except that I am acutely aware that I am here on staff, not as a student. That part is not surreal at all. Maybe it’s the new and exciting privilege of using the staff bathrooms. I love it (being staff that is, not the bathrooms per se! I am deeply and pleasantly aware that I am supposed to be here.


I know I am staffing the right school, too. I sat down with the leader of the school (Janine) my first morning after travelling and we discussed the school and what she felt God was speaking about it. She told me she felt that God was putting psalm 84 on her heart for the school. She feels that through their DTS they will really know and feel that it is better to spend one day with God than a thousand without Him. It was amazing because God had put psalm 84 on my heart earlier that morning, too. Those that set their heart on pilgrimage- on seeking Him out and following after Him- go from strength to strength, and get to see His face. That is better than anything else. I know from the experience of comparison. The hardest times in my life WITH Him have always been soooooooooooo much better than my best times in life lived without Him. It was says it is better to be a doorkeeper in His house than live in tents (I think that was a better thing back then than it is now- you know, life fancy tents, not camping tents) with bad company. I am a UC Berkeley grad, yet I not only don’t make money, I depend on the financial support of others. It’s pretty humbling to be doing this at 24 with a college degree. I sure feel like a doorkeeper. But I wouldn’t trade it for any fancy, high-paid career or some highly-esteemed profession, not even for a day. I am really looking forward to seeing the students getting a hold of the message behind this psalm, too. It's life changing, life bettering.


One the fun side:


There’s been a bit of fun involved, too, already….


Last night I went to a Christmas party at 8 Bulwer (that’s the house name). Yep. A Christmas party. A bunch of North Americans decided since it’s cold here now and hot in December when Christmas actually happens, we should celebrate it now, when the weather is slightly more like what we are used to. It was a fabulous party. People at YWAM Perth are really good hosts and party-throwers I’ve noticed. They pulled out all the stops. They had eggnog, red and green jello, stuffing (talk about random, there was no turkey or anything else, just stuffing) and hot chocolate and tons of Christmas decorations. We even played the white elephant gift exchange game. It was a riot. Since most of us are on a stringent budget the gifts included an orange, a bar of chocolate, a plastic sword, and a gold ribbon. Yes, a gold ribbon. Which actually got stolen believe it or not. I was uber pleased to get rid of a pair of gloves I never wear and a pack of gum- which got stolen three times… yessssssssssssss! To put icing on the cake we watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was great. On the not so Christmas-y side we also made smores (with smuggled in American marshmellows) in their backyard and lit sparklers. Mmmmmmmm........


To be honest and dangerously open, the party was fun but a bit hard. I miss my home community already - where I am just me and people know me and appreciate me. I am safe being me and it is easy to be me- in fact, the people that surrounded me reminded me of who I am, and it was easy to stay true to that. Here, I don’t know very many people and very few know me at all yet. I know this will change with time, but the in between stage is difficult. I’m not craving attention or appreciation, but I do want the freedom to just BE ME. I can’t wait to get to that point here.


Friday Night meeting revelation:


Friday night meeting was also a really great experience. Aleni spoke on what a servant’s heart looks like, challenging us to examine our motives for what we do. Do we do it for the recognition? Because we think we’ll get a reward? Do we do the bare minimum sometimes because we are unpaid- just “volunteers”? (It was really cute when Aleni asked the audience, “do you have a volunteer mentality?” and one of the toddlers in the front happened to cry out “noooooooooooo” at just the right time). Since I have arrived in Perth I have been singing the song “You are my treasure” over and over again. My heart and spirit have been so pleased, so satisfied to be here because I know I will get closer to God, closer to Jesus. Even in worship on Friday night I was brought to laughter and tears during the worship because I wanted nothing but Him and I knew being here again, that is exactly what I will get. But, as Aleni gave His talk I did see a part of my heart that had been clinging to a certain verse in the Bible about rewards. The whole “those who leave mother and brother and father and husband and home will receive many more, in this lifetime” bit (not a direct quote) was something that had helped me be able to give up everything at home to come here. I felt (and feel) I was giving up a lot, and I felt reassured that I would get back was I lost – literally. But He challenged me in this, saying, “what if what I meant by that was that I will be your mother, father, lover, brother, and home? What if that is the reward and nothing else? Would that be enough?” My heart had been saying yes to that question for the last few days, but I could tell my mind was still clinging to the whole repayment thing. So, I’m letting go of that, too. Because He is the best reward, and if He is the only reward, it will all still be more than worth it.


A random note about my housing:


I am beginning to like my house. It’s old and, despite the drafts and leaks (it’s raining A LOT here), feels remarkably cozy. It’s kinda like camping. It actually feels a lot like camping. We keep the window in the bathroom open all the time to keep it from molding (makes for cold showers, but I am all for the prevention of mold considering that the last time I was in Perth I worked on the property crew and spent a week cleaning the mold off the ceiling in there). So with a window always open the house mostly smells of the great outdoors (expect the refrigerator which smells of something else). I really like smelling the plants and the rain when brushing my teeth at night and in the morning, very “campy.” You can also hear the sound of the rain on the roof, and the wind through the trees from any room in the house (none of the houses here are very sound proof) and I sleep in a sleeping bag. So, yeah, it feels oddly like a big camping trip. Which I like quite a bit. But I am trying not to get too attached to my new home because I may move (temporarily) next week to live closer to the students during the lecture phase. Anyway… just some random detail.


Looking ahead:


This week the whirlwind begins. I start leadership school and the students of the discipleship school will start to come arrive. My 18+ hour days will begin soon. Honestly, I know He promises the whole Philippians 4:13 all things through Him thing. But I am terrified. I was able to survive my DTS last year, but this is even more hours and more exhaustion. He gave me the grace to actually not feel that tired last year, but for some reason I am scared and doubtful this time around. I guess that’s something I gotta talk to Him about today.
Next entry I’ll know more about the school and the students. I think getting to know the students will help remind me of the passion God gave me that got me into this holy mess. That passion will hopefully be what gets me out of bed at 5 a.m. next week.

What I do and why you wanna be a part of it!

It took ten minutes for me to figure out that God was real. It took ten years to figure out that He is good.

I “converted” when I heard a worship song that touched my heart at the tender age of 12. After my conversion, I tried to figure out “Christianity” on my own. I didn’t know much about God, and all that I seemed to be able to gather about Him was that He was sort of distant (if not absent), hot tempered, and more or less indifferent toward me. Naturally, I had a hard time sticking with it and instead of doing the walk of faith, I rode the rollercoaster. I’d try to follow Him and be good for a while, but would always wind up chasing after any and every other love I could.

My relationship with God was radically changed last year when I attended a Discipleship Training School (DTS) through Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Perth. I finally figured out once and for all who He really is. In the third week of DTS we had teaching on “The Character of God.” The thesis was that He is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in love. The teaching was incredible and I had completely new and profound revelation about His character. But I needed more. I was still grieving the loss of my best friend the year earlier and I needed more than just good teaching to get me to trust that He was really good despite what had happened. On the last day of “character of God” week I received some prayer and I released the accusation I had been carrying since her death. When I went back to my dorm, I crawled into my top bunk and put on some worship music. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with an incredible sensation: comfort. It was as if all the comfort I had needed for the last year and a half, but had not been able to receive because anger had kept it out, came pouring into my heart all at once. I felt, saw, and heard Him more clearly than I ever had before. It wasn’t just comfort that came in for the first time; I also fully received His love for the first time in my life. I had always tried to believe and wanted to believe that He loved me, but it had never reached my heart. I didn’t trust Him. I didn’t think He was good. But as I received His comfort that day in that top bunk and as the tears poured down my face and into His hand I knew He was good. And knowing that He really is good allowed me to believe that He really could love me, too.

Once I had that incredible encounter with Him I wanted others to taste and see His goodness, too. It was like all of a sudden one day I looked up and saw the other 34 people in my DTS. I desperately wanted to see them impacted, healed and changed in powerful, permanent ways. And they did change. And by His grace He included me in the process! Towards the middle of lecture phase I found myself up frequently past midnight talking to and praying for the girls in my dorm, helping them through struggles with condemnation, insecurity, rejection, and frustration with God. I loved being used by Him in this way and getting to be in the front row to witness breakthrough in their lives. It made me want to see and be a part of His transforming love even more. I felt God putting a desire in my heart to staff DTSs in the future.

I, and the rest of the students in my DTS, had gotten lost somewhere between salvation and abundant life. We had gotten caught up in different things: ongoing sin, shame from the past, relationship problems, misconceptions about God, offence, fear… and they kept us from walking in the abundant life that He promised us. We were kind of like Lazarus just after he was raised from the dead, alive but tangled. Jesus had given me new life when I was 12, but I kept stumbling around in my grave clothes for ten years! Just as Jesus had his disciples untangle Lazarus, He also used discipleship to free me.

DTS is discipleship intensified. It provides great teaching from speakers around the world, one-on-one discipleship, tons of worship and prayer time, as well as just the space to get away from the distractions and temptations of everyday life. Because of this, the 6 month program is considered the equivalent of ten years of church. The students that attend DTS are usually 18-35 and are often at a place in their lives where they are desperate for God. For these reasons, so many come back from their time in YWAM permanently changed and forever closer to God. I don’t know where I would be if God had not led me to do a DTS, and I know 34 others who say the same thing. This is why I am so excited that God is calling me to return to YWAM as DTS staff!

I can’t wait to return to Perth in June of this year to be a part of helping others have an amazing experience with God and be brought from grave clothes to abundant life. In the next two years as staff I know I will see God do amazing things with, in, and through so many people’s lives. I wish everyone could witness the way He transforms, frees, and heals people through DTS. Not everyone can go, but there is a way that anyone can become a part of DTS. I am looking for people who will partner with me in this incredible ministry by praying and/or giving financial support. By partnering with me you will get to hear the amazing stories of what God does and know that your prayers and your resources played a part in making it happen. You, in effect, will be enabling transformation in hundreds of people’s lives.

If you have a vision and a heart to see more people living abundant lives in Christ, I invite you to sow into this ministry joyfully and expectantly! You’ll be amazed at all that He does!

How to get involved:
prayer partnership - email me at Claireelizabethgriffin@gmail.com
financial support - send check to PO Box 8501, Perth Business Centre, Western Australia 6849
or make an "online payment" at www.ywamperth.org.au

KCAB NI GNOK GNOH

I am back in Hong Kong, another lengthy layover. But I seem to be doing everything in reverse. I sat at this exact same computer almost 6 months ago after a long flight from San Francisco and typed a blog entry before meeting my friend Gregory and seeing a bit of the city. Today, I have seen a bit of the city and am now at the computer and then headed for my long flight to San Francisco. For some reason I find it extremely satisfying to be retracing my steps.

Well, the last entry didn't go so well. I am going to try to rewrite as naturally as I can the entry I created a week ago and subsequently deleted. There is so much to say about my experiences, and I intend to use most of the upcoming 14 hour flight to try to recount all that transpired over the last 6 months (most of it is extensively recorded in my journals, but in preparation for the strange transition I am making back into "normal" life I feel prompted to relive it and rewrite it all one more time :) I can't even begin to retell all that happened on outreach, especially because there is a fifteen minute limit to these computers.

But there were a couple stories and a some thoughts I wanted to share.

One highlight was the time I ate chicken head. I thought it was a leg. Until the host started rattling off in Bahasa Indonesia and the only thing I could catch were the words "kepala" and "ayam" which I unfortunately understood to mean head and chicken respectively. I tried to pretend in my own head that I didn't understand. But she persisted. She really wanted to know whether I liked the chicken head or not, so she asked the translator to ask me. When he said in Bahasa "no, she doesn't know, let's not tell her, it's better that way" I could no longer feign ignorance. I looked down at my plate and sure enought there was the place where the eye ball used to be and there were the neck muscles and part of the beak. I will never look at a chicken the same way again.

Another highlight of outreach was Senter Klas, the dutch holliday where a big, jolly, old fellow comes in a suit in the middle of the night and leaves kids presents. No, this is nothing like Christmas I am assured because unlike Santa Claus, Senter Klas deposits gifts in shoes not stockings and because instead of coal if you are naughty, Senter Klas's assistant will come and take you away in the middle of night to Spain for a whole year. I don't know what the Spanish did to the Dutch that was so bad that a year spent there is considered punishment rather than a vacation. Anyway, we got gifts in our shoes and we each wrote a poem for another person on our team, like Senter Klas does (another clear distinction between the big bellied holiday heroes), and read them out loud in the morning. To use my friend Amanda's favorite word: it was "precious."

On the serious side, it is times like the last three months that I really appreciate the education I got in sociology. Indonesia is a great place full of incredible people. It seemed the worse off people were economically the more hospitable, loving, and generous they were. While some were reserved, the vast majority welcomed us into their homes and yes, many invited us into their hearts. We developed relationship with people, which proved to be of more worth to many than gold, literally. Not just for us, but for them as well. Several people commented on the fact that they had seem many "bule" (foreigners) come in before. They drop off food or try to start a service project and then leave as quick as they can. But not us, they said, we kept coming, not just to give them something but to know them. Many couldn't understand why. Why would we have interest in them? That, we quickly discovered, would be our main "mission" in the slums of Jakarta. Everywhere we went they called us beautiful. It was a nice compliment we akwardly accepted at first. But when women started asking us to pray for their babies to be born looking like us a huge flag went up. It was then that we realized what they meant by "you are beautiful" was also "we are ugly." More and more we tried to show people and tell people of the value they have, their beauty and worth, not just in our eyes but in God's eyes, even if the whole world would tell them otherwise. I learned alot more about poverty in the last three months. Sociology at Cal taught me unbelievable things about the way the world is structured, how poverty happens, and how inequality is perpetuated and exacerbated along racial lines. What I learned in school helped me to explain to the wealthier Chinese-Indonesians why people in the slums are not lazy, not less. And it gave a voice to those afflicted by Indonesia's racial economic system. But with all that I learned at Cal I did not understand till recently that poverty is not just material, not just physical but spiritual also. Poverty doesn't only cause empty bellies, it empties people's souls. The people we met had been taught all of their lives by all spheres of society that they were ugly, valueless and meaningless. That is a kind of poverty and lack that clearly affects quality of life. I also discovered that it affects the material as well. Many of the people we interacted with, spent time with, prayed for started looking for jobs for the first time while we were there. Sometimes poverty is caused, or worsened, by hopelessness and fatalism, and feelings of worthlessness. Poverty is not only material. Nor is the solution. Unfortunately we had a church back out of slum adoption because of concerns over the world economy. It was such a sad day. The lie that money solves everything paralyzed a group of people that had the potential to continue what we had been doing for the previous eleven weeks (without a penny). I don't know if I am doing a very good job trying to articulate this, I hope I am making some sense. What I learned is that the problem isn't only material nor is the solution purely material. If we want to address poverty, we have to recognize and address all the needs, not just some. Without hope, faith and love the material will never be enough. I wish there was more we could have done, but I know we did alot. And I know it is not over. This is the first of many experiences in the world's most desperate places. It's where God's heart is. And now, it is where mine is, too.

Fresh Air, Ozone-Free

I am back in Australia. So sorry that it has been a MONTH since I last wrote. The internet situation in Jakarta was dire, and only got worse as outreach continued.



I am sitting in a pleasant cafe in Perth, enjoying my Early Grey and the soft breeze and pleasant smells. I haven't really enjoyed breathing for the last eleven weeks. The air here is so delicious.


Wow... I just wrote a huge entry and spent nearly two hours writing and editing it. And it got deleted somehow. I am very sad right now... will try to rewrite it later... may not happen till I get to the states again... :(

Fire drills, Jellyfish, and Chicken Feet

I am using my friend's laptop right now to write this.  What an absolute pleasure. Someday I will have this luxury. 

I am in Bandung. One of my closest friends from training phase lives here and me and another friend got to come along for our free day and enjoy her home, her family and her hometown.  I thought this would be an exotic mini vacation, but I pretty much traded Jakarta malls for hers.  But it is really nice to be in a home and her family is beyond kind.    They took us out to dim sum this morning, which was great!! Dim sum in southeast asia, what could be better.  You have to take advantage of every chance right?  So I tried chicken feet and jellyfish.  This is remarkable considering I am the same person whose mother serenaded her as a child singing "give food a chance!"  Then I got to try jackfruit and snackfruit.  No kidding. Rhyming completely random. They were yummy, too.  I oughta be more adventurous.  I will be more adventurous from now on.   I am far too cautious in life.  :)  It's a good thing my mom doesn't read this blog. Ha. 

In other exciting news, our apartment had a fire drill yesterday. You know, like the kind they organize in elementary schools at the beginning of the year? Yeah, one of those.  And they don't play around.  They stopped the elevators and everything.  We had to take the stairs down from the 27th floor, which is actually only like 20 flights because of the whole missing floors phenomenon.  But still, our calves are still hurting.  But it was definitely worth it.  We didn't just have to leave the building and stand out in the sun, oh no! like I said, they take it seriously.  They had a little "evacuation area" set up in the parking lot, a beautiful frilly red and white awning, and rows and rows of fold up chairs.  We all took our places and waited for further instruction in a language we don't understand.  There was very little space between rows and the lack of leg room reminded me immediately of an airplane ride.  As soon as I thought this, as if on cue, they started handing out snack boxes! I kid you not!  We had rice and a pastry and water.  Mmmm.  Then came the in-flight entertainment portion.  They stood in front of us and explained, still in a language I don't understand, how to use a fire extinguisher.  Awesome. Wait, it gets better.  After explaining, they took out a large tin garbage can and started a fire in it (never thought you'd see a fire started rather than being put out during a fire drill!) and then allowed people in the audience to practice putting it out. This was a great idea I thought, except for the fact that the chairs were set up down wind and we were all soon inhaling and coughing up fire extinguisher powder.  But the show must go on!! Soon they were building an even bigger fire and getting out the big hose. This was truly the climactic part of the presentation... until they were unable to get the hose working.  About ten minutes later an anticlimactic spurt of water came out and put out the flames. We all cheered and then rebuckled our seatbelts as we prepared to land.

Things are strange here.  I find it highly entertaining. 

More news from the slums next week... 

Good News

Yea! Breakthrough. Can't write much, but just wanted to share that we have seen great exciting progress here... Two churches have agreed to each adopt a slum community. This means they are committing to two years of involvement- spending time in the community, building relationships, trying to assess the greatest needs of the community, trying to meet those needs as well as teaching the people how to meet their needs themselves (empowerment/teaching skills/social networking etc). I love the vision of slum adoption, it is amazing what God can do through it. It has the potential to seriously meet physical, social, spiritual, mental and psychological needs. I am such a fan.

This will mean a much busier schedule, so keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Also, in follow up with Jantik- new mother. I have it on my heart to fundraise money for their hospital bill and to possibly buy them a new mattress- which I found out would only cost about $100-150 USD. Keep this in your thoughts and prayers.

until my next rushed entry hopefully a week from now...

thanks faithful readers!

Growing Gap

I spend most of my times here in the slums. Let me share a bit with you about what it is like and who I have been meeting.

I have done some traveling in my day, but let me tell you I have never seen this big of a contrast between the rich and the poor. Nor have I ever seen it in such proximity- what I mean is that the slums border the richest neighborhoods here. Yards, literally, separate one-room wooden shacks from mansions bigger than the ones you see along the Lake Michigan shore in Evanston. Many of the people in the slums have come to the city from the countryside in search of work, the grand life that city jobs provide. Unable to find jobs and unable to raise enough money to return home they end up living in these slums. The slums by the way are mostly illegal lands that the government threatens to bulldoze any minute while the people living in these awful spaces actually pay rent. Speaking of injustices, the corruption is so bad here that many teachers actually bribe the parents- if the parents want to see their children move to the next grade they have to pay the teacher. Most families in the slums cannot afford school past junior high. Yet every family I talk to emphasizes the importance of education, these parents starve so that their kids can go to school. From the information I've gathered I think it costs less than $100USD a month for a good education, but this sum is way way too high for these families to pay.

Just one quick introduction. I have been visiting a beautiful woman named Jantik. She just gave birth to her first baby, who they named Jordan. They are smiling and happy and so glad to have this little blessing. We gave her some nutritious milk mix for her to drink while she is breast feeding. Unfortunately she had to have last minute c-section and owes the hospital $500. This doesn't sound like much to us, but it is a huge debt. They have no way of paying it. I would also love to see them own a bed, or at least a mattress. They sleep on the floor and own two pillows. My heart's desire is for them to have something soft to sleep on with their baby. Praying into how these needs can be met.

There is so much need.... I am glad I am here. I am glad I am doing what I am doing. It is easy to get overwhelmed. Again, I remind myself: one person at a time. One at a time.

Finally in the hot spot

It's hot here. And the food is spicy. Mmmmmmm. It's times like these that I am really grateful for the part of my upbringing that included annual trips to tropical Mexico. I am adapting remarkably well.

This place definitely is foreign. The buildings are missing floors because certain numbers are bad luck. The highways don't have lanes. The whole city shuts down for a couple days for Eid - the end of Ramadan celebration. There are no intersections or crosswalks. On most roads, if you want to turn across traffic you must find an opportunity to chuck a U-ey and then drive back a distance to the road you wanted to go down, resulting in repetitive turn arounds- back and forth, and back and forth. Al Gore would certainly find flaws in this system. At first we thought the taxis were trying to cheat us.. or severely confused. But then we understood that's just how the roads are. Trying to cross the street involves the wave of your hand and a prayer that you make it across alive. You can't wait till there is a break in traffic, or that the cars stop or slow down on their own, of you'll never cross the street. Seriously.

But surprisingly, I don't feel foreign here. Except for the constant reminders from the people -"buleh! buleh!" (westerner) they shout- I feel almost at home here. Ok, the language barrier is a bit of a reminder, too. But the point is I feel good here. It is tough being in the slums here though. There is nothing normal about that. People live in one room homes with no furniture, atop wooden piers that are constructed above highly polluted and littered water. They live next to dumps and among the dead rats and dead cats. The first family I interacted with was a couple who had lost their five year old daughter a couple months ago. She became sick and they took her to the better hospital but found out it they could not afford it. By the time they arrived at the public hospital she was already dead. It is difficult to sit there and listen, knowing that just outside this slum there is a HUGE megamall where people go every day to spend hundreds of dollars. It is difficult to try to explain why I believe in a God that is good. Most of all it is difficult to know that most likely, no matter what I do in these ten weeks I will not be able to bring her out of poverty, and I certainly won't be able to undo the injustice that cost her her child's life. But the trick to this do-gooder thing is to not fall under the same spirits that afflict those you've come to serve. If I give in to hopelessness, then this trip is finished. The key is to remember that one person helping one person can change the world... and that no matter how big the situation, my God is bigger.

Another departure....

So... I will be leaving in eight days... to a place unlike any other I have been to. I am nervous and excited and overwhelmed by the preparation process. There is alot to do right now.

I may not be able to write again for a while, because I am not sure what the schedule and internet cafe options will be like once I am there (sorry faithful followers). But I will fill you in on the most recent news and just hope you don't suffer too much from eager anticipation till my next entry. I am being really sarcastic now given the fact that I think my readership has plummeted recently to just two.

Fun story: here on base they do birthday tables almost every night. They are real fancy, have lots of sweets and snacks, a table cloth, candles, napkins (I've already mentioned that we use our jeans for napkins here right?), cordial (kinda like pop?) and a cake after dinner. Hospo (hospitality crew) does all the set up and preparation and everything. This is all great and exciting except when you don't have a birthday during your stay here and haven't managed (despite all your selfish attempts) to make any friends with birthdays during these months. It's very sad. So my clever friends and I decided to make our own fake birthday table. We put out a sheet as a table cloth, bought our own sweets and cake, made little name tags and used an old board game as a center piece. Instead of setting it up in the center of the room where the birthday tables usually are, we had ours in a random corner. It was quite a hit. We got many confused reactions and quite a few laughs. I love the creativity and randomness of my friends here.

Another fun event: "commissioning night." It's a little ceremony to honor the people that will be leaving for outreach. We had ours this Wednesday. Everyone gets all dolled up (which is a treat in itself) and they say nice things about us and honor us on stage and then we get to eat yummy food after. Mmmm so good. Well, the night was nice enough in itself but the added treat was that I was asked to share something about my experiences in front of the whole base. I was so nervous but it was a real honor. After the ceremony, everyone talked, laughed, danced and took pictures till late. It was an incredibly lovely evening. This pic is from that night- these are my friends Edolbina and Leah. We work together on 'property'/'maintenance' which is non stop hilarious fun.

More exciting news: for teams that only have one staff member, one student is asked to help lead. They asked me. It is a humbling honor as I am younger than some of the people on my team, but I am excited for it as I know it will be an opportunity for lots of growth. Student support leader means I will pray with the staff leader every morning and help lead if the staff member ever gets sick. It is not a huge role- as my friend Ian described it I will be a mechanic making fine tune adjustments to our car (fixing the oil and stuff, making sure we are in unity and encouraged and staying strong). It's going to be a great challenge. I can't wait to be stretched.

I think that is it for now. Sorry to be so brief... and blunt. Until next time, whenever that is!

Nonprofit community living: how to's

I had a realization the other day that my blogs have been very egocentric in nature lately (you're thinking, "Duh, it's a blog,") but I ought to use this resource as a means of sharing and educating people on things pertaining to their lives. I realized I am not just experiencing life in a nonprofit organization but also, double whammy, a very close(literally)-knit community. I feel a great reponsibility to share with you the knowledge that I have been acquiring over the weeks. These helpful tips should come in very handy should you find yourself living in enclosed spaces with a bunch of people who have no money.

Lesson #1:
The first thing that I have learned is that when living in a "nonprofit community" life is like a game of memory. You know that game you played as a kid with the cards that you have to flip over two at a time and try to make pairs? If you can think about the things around you in those terms, all your needs will eventually -after enough flipping- be met. Last week when I was rummaging through the travel mug bin in the kitchen I saw a plunger that goes to a small french press. Interesting but not useful without the container. Then this morning as I was rummaging through my friend's shelf to find her ipod charger (we do a lot of rummaging here, but that is not a lesson- it is just a fact) I saw that she had a small french press with a rusted decrepid plunger. Aha! I remember seeing that card in the kitchen. I went to retrieve the plunger from the kitchen later in the day, brought it back to our dorm to see if it would fit and sure enough it did! Now we have a functioning, rust-free coffee maker. (The best part about this whole story is that I have been praying for and wishing for a french press for the last couple weeks. It all started when I inherited a couple pounds of normal coffee (way better than instant) but had no means by which to prepare it. Determined to consume my favorite means of caffeinating I have been using a tea filter: filling up a mug with grinds and hot water and then transferring, spoon by spoon, the coffee into the tiny tea filter atop another mug and then dumping out the grinds again and again until my grind-free cup was filled. This process took a good ten minutes, which is a lot of time when you only have twenty minutes to get ready.)

Lesson #2:
When Goodwill meets spring cleaning. In the "forprofit individual world" things accumulate until the point that we can't stand the clutter and then we stuff it all in bags and give it to Goodwill/Salvation Army. (Then we buy new stuff, which I have to say strikes me as somewhat counterproductive.) But when living in a "nonprofit community" the need to get rid of stuff generally matches the need to get stuff. It's a beautifully sustainable system of internal supply and demand- make the most of it! We have here a "Salvo" bin- a bin for clothes that we want to give to the Salvation Army. But the funny part is that I don't think any of it really gets to Goodwill- it is snatched up before it can get that far. I myself can boast of scoring two pairs of shorts, four shirts and one skirt from salvo. I haven't spent a penny on clothes (the category of clothes does not include accessories- I am guilty of purchasing a pair of monstrous, multicolored hoop earrings) and yet my wardrobe is constantly mutating. And I have to admit there is a healthy amount of competition among some girls here to see who can get the best stuff from the bin. Whereas in the "forprofit individual world" people boast about how much their things cost, here we boast about how zero it cost. It also becomes a fun game of "who did I see wearing that shirt last week?" a sort of a "connect the dots" until you get to the original owner... unless of course the original owner comes up to you and ruins the excitement by saying "nice shirt- my grandma gave me that last year for Christmas."

Lesson #3:
This may come off as very anti-community and somewhat selfish in nature, but you would do the same thing too: strategic dining. Here there are tables that fit 6 people or 8 people. The tables get roughly the same amount of food, so if you are hungry or if it is a dessert night, your best move is to dine where there are only six people... or lots of babies.

Lesson #4:
Learn to improvise. If all "nonprofit communities" are the same you will find in yours that you never have all the ingredients you need for the cookies you want to make. You probably won't even have all the ingredients for breakfast. When there is cereal you will be out of milk, when there is oatmeal you will be out of brown sugar, when you have jam you will be out of bread. Learn to be innovative. I have found enough ways to comsume cereal without milk to write a recipe book.
You will also probably never have the tools you need. You will learn how to make cement out of sand and how to use a quarter as a screwdriver. Just the other day our work assignment was to paste a poster onto cardboard so it could be hung in an office. We had no normal glue so we improvised- using cement glue- glue that adheres various types of metal and heavy plastics- instead. This had a nasty smelling, mind-altering vapor to it, but it seemed to be doing the job. We came back a half hour later to see if it was sticking, only to find that the glue had completely eaten through the outer edges of the poster. Ah! Not having money enough to replace the poster with a new one we just had to improvise. So we got out the paints to draw a pretty little border around the edges where acidic bubbles had knawed through it. But there were no paint brushes so I improvised by using a stick I found in the yard. In the end I drew a really cool design and the poster looked fabulous. Sadly, it turns out the poster/cardboard combo is too heavy to hang where they wanted it so they will improvise by using it as a floor mat. Obviously improvisation also requires great humility.

Well, I hope these lessons will come in handy for you some day. If I learn anything else I will be sure to pass it on.

Cheers!

Gidgegannup getaway

So I will fill in the details as soon as I can, but for now I am just posting pictures that I took while I have the chance to use my friend's computer. Can't wait till the day I own a laptop.

We went overnight to our friend's house and got to walk around the "bush" the next day. It was such a great little break from the city, the hustle and bustle and the busy school week. We played a bit in her huge backyard and then took a scenic drive in the country, and then up to a nature preserve where we walked, climbed boulders and sat by a beautiful red rock river. Australia is so different from anything else. I have only gotten a tiny tiny taste for it, but I can say it is one cool country!

Outreach Teams and a Bit of Openness

Apologies to the faithful readers who have been devastated by the lack of new editions to this little column I write. Shout outs in particular to Dad, Sara, Suky and Christina (and the other faithful subscribers that I just don't know about!)

The last three weeks have been incredibly busy. I'm not entirely sure why. Partly I was sick. Partly we had several really long application days (the Fridays on which we apply to our lives everything we learned through out the week), and partly because we have been filling up most of our Saturdays with car washes to fundraise money for outreach. And, to be honest, partly because of not knowing what exactly to share on this blogspot. Not because nothing is happening here, but because so much is happening here that I am not sure how to put it into words. I can't possibly capture it all here, even if I tried. So I will just offer a little sampler.

I am starting to delight in the things that used to drive me crazy. I actually made up a song with a friend to the tune of "Isn't it ironic" by Alanis Morissette. We tend to run out of things in really ironic ways. For example, we will have no milk for the longest and then all of a sudden the day we get milk is that day we run out of cereal. Same goes for the brownsugar and the oatmeal, the bread and the jam, etc. etc. This at one point torture is now a source of entertainment.

I am learning to let go of control. I have decided to trust God with my life and let Him decide what is best for me. I don't know what this means for my future, but I know it will be good. Right now, I am considering continuing on with this organization in the future. We will see... more will be revealed.

I am also learning how to love people. I apologize as SOON as I've done something stupid or not very nice. And I am seeing the people around me the way that God made them to be and little glimpses of their futures- the people that they are becoming. It is exciting and immensely fulfilling to love people who are extremely different from you- people who you probably, if you were honest, not be friends with under normal circumstances. And it has been a gift to my soul to love people in the active, selfless way love is always supposed to be. We have talked alot here about how love is usually thought of in terms of a feeling. And it is something we are always trying to get. But we ought to give love. And we ought to remember that love is an action- on behalf of the good of someone else. I realize how selfish I have been in relationships. And I am by no means cured of it, but I am working on it. And it gets easier to love people here as we shed our insecurities, hurts, and pride. People are being transformed around me and it is inspiring. In a strange environment like this one- unfamiliar, far from home, intense- you get a lot of opportunities for growth. You are constantly bombarded with opportunities to choose. Choose to love someone you don't know. Choose to ignore harsh words spoken and return it with a blessing. Choose to look for the good in every situation and give thanks in every circumstance.

My biggest challenge this week was getting our outreach group assignments. They are breaking our school up into four groups for outreach. All four teams will be in the same city in Southeast Asia for the whole three months, but we will be in different regions and will only get to come together once a month. I found out who I will be with, which seven other students and which leader, for three months. To be honest, I was really disappointed. I have made some really close friends and some pretty good friends. None of them is in my group. I was really sad, and felt a fair amount of grief. Sounds dramatic, but it is an unnatural thing to develop intense friendships in close quarters for three months (think about it- I spend almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the girls. Not even most married couples spend that much time together) and then be ripped apart. But I have had, in the last few days, the chance to reflect and pray and I can now say with confidence that I am really excited about my group. I am excited to get to know these people I know nothing about. I am anxious to see these nine different people from seven different nations become a family over the course of eleven weeks.

By the way, I am praying for God to provide $1,300 more dollars for the outreach phase of this adventure. If you pray, please pray!

In the meantime (until the next edition) I will leave you with some random achievements from the last few weeks:
- I have learned how to build a brick wall
- I have learned how to say "how much is that beautiful, wild, crazy, awesome, great monkey? I want to buy it!" in my friend's native tongue
- I have spoken in front of 400 people (shared a little story/testimony in front of the whole base)
- I have been to a photo exhibit held by an organization that seeks to spread awareness about child-trafficking
- I have been in charge of designing and creating a new announcement wall for the school offices
- I have tried what is called a lemon bitters, which is an Australian thing and quite delish
- I have still not seen a kangaroo, an unaccomplishment really
- I have met a woman who was born and raised in Berkeley, California
- I have been the source of envy for many who want my cool camping foldup chair
- I have played a game of volleyball and not left the court pouting, name-calling, or bashing myself up
- I have won a team scrabble game (in which we were behind by over thirty points) with a single letter placed on the board
- I have misspelled the word 'won' by spelling it 'one' on my blog. Don't look for it, you can't see it, I've already deleted it

Thanks for reading, until next time!!

rainy days

I apologize in advance for any incoherence to this entry. I am sick. Just a cold. I've learned through my experiences working with kids that if it's just a cold I have nothing to complain about. So here we go... feigning normalcy.

This week has been one of the best. I am finally getting used to waking up to forty different females' faces. I am finally enjoying the lunacy of frozen milk and exercising at six in the morning.

Boy, it sure rains a lot here. A lot. In fact, it has become my number one source of entertainment. Tuesday night after small group, (one of the leaders and three other girls and myself hang out on Tuesday nights- which has been great fun and very refreshing) the four of us girls started walking back from our leader's house. It had been raining most of the evening but had decided to take a break. Just as soon as we got a block away, it started sprinkling. Sprinkling turned to rain and rain turned to downpour and we were left between a rock and a wet place- we were almost exactly between our starting point and home. No one had an umbrella or rain gear or anything, so we started to run through the middle of the deserted streets. Then simultaneously we all burst out in laughter. I think we realized how ridiculous we looked- I mean, first- we were running (as if we will out run the drops of rain as they fall and escape somehow miraculously dry). Second, we were wearing ridiculous outfits. We had left Janine's house in our slippers and socks & flip flop combos and a straw hat with flowers that we had found on the ground. Truly a sight, if anyone had happened to pass. We dropped off one of the girls where she is staying, took a few pictures and then splashed through every puddle we could as we walked through the alley to our house. The laughter and joy of feeling like a kid again stayed with me for the rest of the week.

The second rain experience I am grateful for this week was a double rainbow. I saw them early Thursday morning just before starting morning chores. They were in the shape of an ark from one spot on the horizon to another. One rainbow was magnificently bright- rainbows here seem to be brighter than ones I've seen elsewhere and they also contain an almost fluorescent pink under the purple. The other rainbow was the exact same shape, above the bright rainbow and a little more faded. I've never seen a sight like this one. It was incredible.

Now, I'm just going to go ahead and be cheezy for a minute. I can't help but take these physical experiences and apply them as a spiritual lesson. There are so many things to complain about here. The living situations, our schedules, etc. are totally out of the ordinary. In fact sometimes I'm surprised to find myself still here. But I know I am here because of what God does. He takes the rain, the gray, the cold, and turns it into a source of laughter, joy, rejuvenation, and beauty. That's a promise.