I have been home for a little over a week now and it is a little strange. I was back in Australia for a week to debrief and report back to the people in ywam Perth about what we did during outreach. That week back was good. We presented what we did and shared stories and pictures. We had a final one on one with our leader Matty. We also had a class talking about how to share with people from home and how to keep growing with our relationship with Christ even though we are back at home. It was great. On Friday with 14th, I officially graduated. It was laid back and fun with so much cheering. The weekend was filled with time hanging out with friends, buying souvenirs and gifts, taking people to the airport, and hanging out at the beach. With that much free time I hardly knew what to do with myself. I had been so busy for the past 6 months so free time was weird; I didn't know what to do with myself.
I left Monday night and there were tears at the airport, specifically on the first flight. I was excited to go home, but was sad to leave the place that I had been for 6 months and the people who I had grown to love. It was weird. I got home late Tuesday night, after 37 hours of travel and lay overs. It was entirely too long. When I got to the final airport, I ran to my mom and she hugged me so tight. I cried because I was so happy to be back home. It has been interesting and surreal to be home. I have loved being with family and friends, but it has been 6 months so it's almost hard to believe that I'm back to 'normal' life. I visited people at church, shopped with my family, caught up with friends, eaten lots of Mexican food, and have done heaps of laundry. It has been good. One very important thing happened. I went into work and resigned. Yep, I resigned. The reason I did this was because I am planning to go back to Australia for two years of volunteer work. Some of you may have already heard, but surprise to the rest :) I have been praying about it for a while, so it is not a last minute decision. I applied a while back, but nothing official happened till I graduated on the 14th. I also did not want to say anything until I got a chance to resign and talk to my work. They deserved to know directly and for me to talk to them face to face. They have treated me so well and it has been an honor to work with them.I am hoping to go back to Perth mid February to work with two different ministries and to go on outreach February 25th. One ministry I will be a part of is called Revive. Thy regularly work with indigenous Australian kids doing therapy to help bring about healing holistically. This is so needed because there is so much hurt due to family abuse, sexual abuse, drug abuse, etc. The outreach will kind of launch the second part of the ministry. The vision is to partner with local ministries in third world countries and ultimately teach them how to do the therapy we already do, train them to work with Special Ed kids, basically partner with them to help the kids that most of the world has forgotten or chides to ignore. That is one ministry, the other one I would be helping to pioneer. The woman, who I have been praying for since December 2009, has been commissioned to start a women's half way home. The idea is to help women who are from the detention centers, former prostitutes, or women wanting to come in from indigenous communities and break free of he negative cycles of drug, alcohol, and physical abuse. I am really excited to work with these women and to create this ministry with this woman. I am so excited to go and do these ministries. While I am doing this I will also be taking a class that meets once a week. It is titled certificate IV Christian missions (c4cm). It is a 2 year course about being a missionary and the history of missions. It will be a great class.The had part of only being home till mid-February is raising funds and prayer support. When I was praying about how to do this, I felt led to do it more personally, via face to face, phone, and Skype conversations, as well as group get togethers, and speaking at churches. I have to raise both financial support to go back in addition to monthly support. I am aiming for a total of $8000 to get back/immediate outreach and between $1500-$2000 a month. If you want more information or have questions please feel free to contact me.Prayer points:
-opportunities to share with people about the last 6 months
-continued God honoring communication as I share about the future
-Australian visa for 2 years
-financial support
-thanking God for already blessing me with $1000 for return cost and $450 for monthly
I will keep you all in the loop about the future. It's really exciting.
I will keep you all in the loop about the future. It's really exciting.
-for me family, there are some health problems
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