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Christmas photos here

An Aussie Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS
BLOG WORLD!
(sorry, i'm a few days late)

This is the Christmas tree in our room, all decorated! yay

This is the tree we sat around on Christmas night listening to the Christmas story told by Jemima. (one of the Frontiers DTS leaders)

On the wed. before Christmas, we had a fun party with our small group. What a beautiful table all set up!

mmm.... white chocolate and nutella melted with pretzels and sprinkles, too.... mmm

All the baking being done in the kitchen!

My Aussie Christmas:
It started early the week before with that small group xmas party... o what fun it was! I got a cool set of watercolor pencils, magazines to collage with and also a little box full of things that Jules (my secret santa) had collected to collage stuff. It was great! A fantastic jolly night, had by all!
On Thursday night we had a Christmas concert for everyone on the base. Since we have so many musicians, it made sense for them to have the chance to show off their skills. Many did, and it was a fantastic night. We even got to hear good ol' Amy Grant's "Emmanuel." After that, the MAD dts had their xmas dance party... and we all got down on the dance floor!
The weekend was filled with many things... on friday night a bunch of people went into the city to watch Miracle on 34th Street, under the stars on South Bank, but Kayti and I decided to stay back and have a relaxing night. We had some quiet time, watched White Christmas and went to bed soon after it ended.
Saturday was our friend Ramesh's christmas party! It was a fun time... he got a hat and a mini broom/dust pan set and many many cards. We played pictionary and ate homemade guacamole with chips and also delicious sugar cookies! After the party, Kayti and I went to the city and just walked all around... had Starbucks... went to the markets... walked up and down the river taking pictures, etc. At 5ish we met the "old peoples alliance" for dinner and ate the best pizza at this italian restaurant along the river on South Bank. The "old peoples alliance" is a group of us that are either 1. married or 2. over the age of 24... because most of the others are all under the age of 20. There are 8 of us without the leaders, and then there are 11, i think. It's a good time to just chill. It's hard to describe, but it's just a different vibe when it's just us.
After dinner there was a fireworks display with music over the river, how cool... fireworks for Christmas! Then, we went on our way.
Sunday was a lazy day... I'm blanking on what I did that day..... Oh yeah... it was lazy, some time after lunch I went over to Cristina's house to eat freshly baked chocolate cookies (not as good as "The Cookie Nook" ie: Erin Bennett's)... and played games, etc. Good times. I forget what I did Sunday night :(. Probably watched a movie or something.
On the morning of Christmas Eve all the MAD students who didn't go somewhere for xmas had breakfast at Leah's house. Leah is "second-in-command" of our school, and also one of the artists. She baked cinnamon rolls for us, but not just ANY cinnamon rolls.. the recipe from Cinnabon! They were heavenly... even the frosting was like Cinnabon's kind... they looked a little different, but still tasted amazing. There was also some other confections there... and fruit and coffee... mmm... good stuff. We chatted for awhile and then a bunch of us played a game that was similar to Catch Phrase, and I my team won... it was lots of fun. The rest of the day was pretty lazy again... OH YEAH... earlier that day I went on SKYPE with my family and Mike and Lois... it was such a good time. My parents sent me my stocking, so I opened it that day so I'd have it Christmas morning. It had the usual things we always get in our stockings... toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and candy... oh... and some Burt's Bees lip balm and lotion! Skype is such a great invention... you all really should get it... especially if you have a webcam, you can't go wrong... it's free for goodness sakes! :) So anyways... that evening I went to Christmas Eve Mass at St. Stephen's in Brisbane. It was a good experience, but I really appreciate what I have back home. Following the Mass we went to a restaurant for dessert and because I was dying of thirst and everyone's always up for dessert! When we got back from the city I'm pretty sure we watched a movie.
I woke up on Christmas morning around 9 and jumped on SKYPE again to talk to my family as it was Christmas Eve when all the fam gets together... you know ALL 10 of them (3 being kids). But, it was good... I hadn't SEEN my grma or aunt since I got here, so that was a treat and gift in itself! We chatted for awhile and then we had a gift exchange here, so I signed off for awhile. We opened gifts and had lots of fun... then watched Rattatoullie (sp?) that cgi animated movie about the rat who cooks :). I got back on with the fam for a little while and then said goodbye... it was a bit sad, but that's okay it's a given.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful... until we had a nice dinner with white table cloths and delicious food. AFter dinner we had a time of Carols and read the Christmas story... it was good... and then we watched White Christmas on the BIG screen. yay... it was really great!

I'd like to go on... Buuuut, I must go... this has taken WAY too long and I'm sure you're bored reading it by now :).
Love you all... oh, and here is a word that Ken Helser, the guy who spoke on The Father Heart of God, it was pretty cool:

Lisa Lundquist
An artist after my heart? How about, God the artist, after your heart. Lisa, the word for your life is "NEW." I do make all things new. Put away the past, trust and reach for the future, but right now, get ME, and you will be made new. Out of the newness, creativity will be birthed and you will shout about it. "Your eyes have not seen, your ears not heard, what I have in store for you, but I will reveal it by my spirit."
I Corinthians 2:9 and 10

Fear of the Lord/Worship - Intercession and Spiritual Warfare

Where to begin. These last two weeks of lectures have been again, intense. I have been learning so much and it's often times hard to put into words so I neglect coming to the computer and blogging.
To sum up Fear of the Lord is hard, so I'll just tell you a bit of what we did. Our speaker, Nathan, is an "elder" on the base and in quotes because he is not old (26). It was really cool because as he spoke he really listened for what God's agenda was, and not his own. The opposite of the fear of the Lord, is the fear of man, which many of us including myself struggle with, especially in the context of my creativity. We talked about that and the need for repentance in those areas, to submit those things to the Lord so we can be free and fear only the Lord.
On Wednesday of last week we took the whole of lecture times and used it all for a time of true repentance, prayer, and worship to the Lord. It was a beautiful time... God was pursuing our hearts and minds. He always is, but it was our act of yielding to Him that made it so real.

I am going to end this short and hope to follow up with it later. But I am really excited about what God has been doing in me lately. Showing me holy and grace-filled obedience, a thirst for spending time in His presence like I've never had before. This week has been teaching on Spiritual Warfare... it is so good. Not like the hyped up looking for demons around every corner kind of teaching, it's real and practical. I am excited to share more of this later.

Christmas is soon around the corner and I have many mixed feelings. Plans are finally starting to come together and we've had a couple Christmas parties... and one is tonight that I have to go and help decorate the room for. I hope to post more pictures and reports of what I'll be doing on Christmas, but there are no guarantees (it's just so hard to get alone time still, with access to the internet at the same time).

Love to you all!!

More Photos!! Art studio!

This is looking into the studio from the front door.
































This is the opposite side from where I took the first one.

To See more... and see some artwork, click here!

Early Merry Christmas!!

Click here to see a fun little thing... the popularity is growing, i had to jump on the band wagon!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1228305163

A day in the life...

I thought I'd take the time to share about a typical day in my life at the base.

Most mornings we have to be at lecture/worship/chapel time at 8:30am, the exception is Monday mornings when we have Basewide cleaning and we have to meet at 8am. I rarely get up in time to have the cereal they put out for "breakfast"... it's really not worth it, so sometimes I eat my own cereal with yogurt and other times I just wait for morning tea(i will elaborate on this in a minute). The actual time I wake up is about 30mins before class, whether or not I choose to shower that day. Although, I am often "awakened" by everyone else starting at 6am... I still cannot figure out who needs to be up at that hour, but to each his own! Those people would be the ones who are in bed before lights out which is 10:00.

Depending on the week and the lecturer we usually have some kind of worship time before our lectures start, but this is not always the case. I really enjoy the worship times here, they are so free and open to express in whatever way works for you. Sometimes the worship "leader" will just play guitar and "free-style" and everyone just breaks into their own song to the Lord, those times have become one of my favorite.

At mid morning, usually around 10:30am/11am, we have Morning Tea... this is an Aussie/New Zealand(i think NZ) custom to have tea and an assortment of sweet and savory pastries. It's pretty much the coolest thing, and I believe attributes to the rumor that the Australian YWAM bases make you gain weight. Another thing that attributes this is because there is always a supply of fresh bread out in the dining room AND peanut butter and jelly. So, if you are a picky eater, this is the base for you! :) I love Morning Tea...

After the break we go back into lectures for another hour and a half until lunch at 12:30... lunch is pretty self explanatory. This is where the day changes drastically depending on the day of the week.
On Mondays I have the rest of the afternoon free and then a bit after dinner, we have "MAD Mondays" at 7:30.. which is a time when a professional in the arts from the surrounding community or nation/world comes in to our class and speaks about what they do... in essesnce a time to cultivate dreams, etc...(implied that they are christians).
On Tuesday nights we've had lectures sometimes, but lately we just have a free night, woo hoo! On Wed. nights we have small groups at 7:30... I love this night because our sm. grp is the coolest, we always have some yum yums of some kind and just good conversation.
I forgot to tell about the afternoons on Tuesdays... so, after lunch I have some free time, but usually I head to the art studio early and work on the paintings I have started. It officially starts at 2:30 and ends around 5ish so we can get back for dinner at 5:30.
Also, on Wed. afternoons we have "sports" at 4:00... this consists of going to the park down the street, setting up nets for volleyball and cones for soccer and then playing. The idea was originally to get the community to join in our games, but there really isn't many people around to join, anyways.
On Thursday afternoons, I have my design work duty from 1:00 to 2:15, and then I head to the art studio with the other artists and work on paintings again. I really like tues./thurs. the best! Then, Thurs. evenings are totally free... I've gone to the local mall for coffee because it's the only night they are open past 5:30pm... ridiculous, right?! It's so annoying.
Friday afternoons are the longest because I have the work duty for 4.5hours... 1:00 to 5:30... I know it's needed for the type of work duty I have, but sometimes I just don't look forward to it at all. But, then when I get into it, it's really not that bad.

So, to end my "typical" day... I'm usually up until atleast 11pm, if not later. The "lights out" at 10pm just means that the dorm lights are off at that time... it's annoying sometimes, especially when I forget to clean off my bed while I've been in there with the lights on knowing I won't be back until after they're shut off.

Adjusting to this different and rigid schedule took some getting used to, since I've lived on my own and had a job that didn't require me to be in at a specific time. It's not so rigid, just a major adjustment... but all in all... it hasn't been as bad as I thought it could be.

The end....

Ramesh

This is Me and Ramesh!


p.s. Also... here's a link to some updated pictures! CLICK ME CLICK ME

Lecture week 7!

I can't believe it has been 7weeks already! Time has been flying by! This week was a bit off because we didn't have class on Monday, and we started late on Tuesday and didn't even have teaching on Tuesday, either. I'm a bit disappointed because the teaching on the Holy Spirit was so good. On Wednesday we had to cram 3 days worth into one, I soaked in every word and studied a bunch of the references for myself during my quiet time. It's strange because I love hearing Pastor Dave at church speak on things, but this was just so much more on my level, I guess. Maybe broken down into an easier way to grasp or something... it just all finally made sense to me and didn't seem so ambiguous.

Yesterday was my birthday... yep, the big 2 - 7... kinda weird. Doesn't feel like I should be in my late twenties already, I feel like a kid so often still. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I can't say it's the best birthday I've EVER had, but the most unique I suppose. It started out with sleeping in a bit, reading some of Pride and Prejudice, reading the Bday card mom & dad sent earlier in the week, shower and all that, and lunch. After lunch a man named Ramesh had me and a bunch of my friends over for cheesecake to celebrate my birthday. God used him as an example to me, I don't feel like I deserved for him to give me anything, but he wanted to give me the best. He even bought me some earings from the base (they sell some jewelry in the office).
I also must mention that we celebrated as a DTS class on friday mid-morning since we don't have class on the weekends. It was nice, I requested an icecream cake, and it was sooo delicious, the whole class sang Happy Birthday and a couple leaders in particular belted it out at the top of their lungs. I haven't heard it sung to me like that since like middle school or something, it was pretty hilarious! :) So anyways, after cheesecake some of the girls stayed to clean his house and I sat and chatted with him because I wasn't allowed to help by his orders. When they were finished cleaning we left and went back to the base... I had some quiet time and then went on gmail and chatted with my mom and sister. It was good, but hard at the same time because I just want to see them... I want to see all of you that I miss... but I for sure don't want to leave, so the whole days was just mixed feelings. The original plan I had in my head was to go to the Australia Zoo, but there was a music festival in the park that a bunch of people went to (i went the night before... pretty cool) and then this Christmas Carols by Candlelight event that a bunch of other people had to participate in. It just didn't make sense to go, so I ended up going to the Christmas thing because at the end they shot off fireworks... and I've never had fireworks on my birthday, so why not?! The show was was pretty funny... but not necessarily because it was supposed to be funny. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but it just was goofy... it basically had all the different aspects of Christmas mixed into one show and at the end they shot off fireworks. I have to admit I've seen better, but they had a lot of the ones that sound like rice krispies and those are my favorite, so it worked out. :)

There is a lot of growing and processing going on in me right now... lots of good stuff, so thank you all for your prayers... in any way you may be praying. I believe that God uses the prayers of His people and that they transcend time and space. Lord may you bless those who are blessing and have blessed me.
Amen.