Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…Part 2!

Apologies for the terrible layout of some of those previous photos….I’m hoping you get the general idea! We had a Christmas Cafe on Friday where we got to decorate Christmas biscuits… and there was a gingerbread competition! Ice taken pictures of all the different entries, as you can see there was a wide variety of designs sparking from the old and wise and very talented on base, to the very youngest members here at YWAM Perth, whose designs were a little bit more abstract….I’ll let you decide whose is what!!!

So everybody got one vote each to put into the voting box, and then at the end of the night the winner was announced! Entries came from individuals, families, and houses, but the winner came from the Simple Health Care Ministry team, whose design was themed ‘Christmas in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres’. Its the one with both a surfing gingerbread man at the sea and teahouse covered in snow! It has both sides and turned on some kind of spinning contraption… very clever. Although I am slightly biased (this is the ministry I work in every afternoon for my work duty so I had already promised them my support!) I do think the win was very much deserved. Although they were all incredible, and far better than any of my attempts would have been, as you can see from my Christmas tree biscuit attempt!

Needless to say, it was a very fun evening and helped to get everybody in the Christmas spirit. We have lots more exciting plans for Christmas too, but I’ll leave those for another day to share with you! So that’s it for now, you have officially seen nearly all of my photos! But I’m sure I’ll have some more soon, so I will try my best to gets them to you sooner!!

Lots of love and Christmas cheer and blessings being sent your way

(a very hot and sweaty!) Jo xx

 

We are never ever ever getting back together…..

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Ok its not a Christmas a song, but its the most fitting for these photos. For those of you who may not know the song, it by an artist by Taylor Swift, who is very popular with teenage girls! And she was performing here in Perth last week, in the stadium literally opposite my front door. Some of these photos were taken from my front door in fact. Others I moved up to the road to get a closer shot. But you see my point. Its very close. And we could hear every word from our house. So in the end we crossed the road and joined in…. watching through the fence for free! Some of our group even climbed a tree to see over the fence! All in all it was a pretty good show.

But you can also see the chaos it caused! People literally everywhere. Cars parked all down our road. And the pictures of the bridge show all the people flocking from the train station to get to the stadium, which is just round the corner from where I live and opposite the base. Poor folks, it must have taken hours for some of them to get home again given the mass exodus. I was quite happy to cross over the road and walk through my front door….

 

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

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This is my wonderful Santa Tshirt that arrived in my Christmas parcel from back home. Having struggled for a few weeks to believe that it was actually going to be Christmas soon due to the heat and other lack of such Christmassy things, this automatically solved the problem. That and the chocolate advent calendar that arrived in another parcel. Thanks to everybody who has written me emails, sent me ecards, and parcels in the post….I feel very loved and truly blessed to know you all! Xxx

Im Dreaming of a White Christmas….

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Or maybe not! Its getting pretty hot down under here in Perth. Not Christmassy at all! Missing the cold weather, wrapping up in hats gloves and scarves, and the hot chocolate and mulled wine! Ok, maybe not the hot chocolate…im drinking that anyway!!

But it does have some perks. Here are the photos of our outdoor carol service, complete with palm tree. We hosted it in the local park, and around 700 people during the course of the afternoon/evening, packed with children’s activities, Christmas carols and songs, and gospel message. Highlight was definitely when the lights went out (aka the sun!) and we all lit our candles and swayed to Oh Holy Night, one of my favourite Christmas carols. Powerful stuff. Both the voice of the woman singing, and the atmosphere! Utterly beautiful.

And the kids performances were of comical value too… who were not overcome by stage fright, but instead decided to use the opportunity of having a mic in their hands to declare their undying love for their mums and dads! So adorable. But I think you will agree they look pretty awesome dressed as shepherds with the tea towels on their heads !

I should probably add that the people in grass skirts were performing a traditional Tongan dance, its one of the ministries that we have here, so wasn’t exactly your traditional Christmas performance, but a good reflection of the multiculturalism that we have here at ywam. If you are on Facebook, check out my page and you will see a good picture of all the candles… apparently I forgot to take one of this n my camera. Sorry!!

Joy to the World! My camera battery charger has come!

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So after a few weeks of using my camera I discovered that I had left my camera battery charger back in the UK…so when my battery died there wasn’t much I could do! Happily, my very lovely and generous parents sent it to men in the post, and so now it has arrived, and I actually have some spare time on my hands, I thought it was about time I gave you an update of life here in Perth! So I will do it in separate posts depending on topic/theme, which I will attempt to name using an appropriate Christmas song. We will see if this works out! But for this post, here are the pictures from our evening of Danish Dancing! An evening of laughter and crazy dancing, led by my equally crazy but utterly brilliant Danish DTS leader. Enjoy!

Ps- these photos are taken from the main auditorium here on base where we have all of our main meetings and times of worship.

Honest Reflections

If I am honest, I don’t want to write this post. And I wasn’t going to. But I feel like this is what God wants me to do, and so I must walk in humility and obedience.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how God had healed my knee. One day I was on crutches, the next day I wasn’t, and since then I have been without crutches, free to walk, go up and down stairs, and just generally do everyday things that I couldn’t do before. I’ve been feeling great.

But yesterday I went to see the physiotherapist and it’s safe to say she was not as impressed with my progress as I have been. She basically told me that despite me now walking without crutches, there has actually been very little improvement in terms of my knee, and that the way I am currently walking is unsafe and causing more damage. In technical terms, I currently have a 10° lag in my knee, which means that my knee isn’t locking properly, and isn’t being fully supported, and so is aggravating the ligaments and tendons. Until I have a 0° lag, my walking is unsafe and I am in danger of causing more damage. Bummer.

It’s safe to say that this has been a major disappointment and frustration. I have been feeling so good these past few weeks and I genuinely believed that my knee was getting better. So to then be told that actually I had been fooled into thinking this because I could walk without support was difficult to hear. Firstly, because it means that I still have a long road ahead towards my recovery, including lots more physio, ice packs and hard work! But more significantly because, I really believed that God had healed me, but it turns out that He hadn’t as much as I thought.

Now that doesn’t mean to say that I no longer believe that God healed me. I know some people would probably try to argue that He hadn’t, but I do still believe that He brought some healing. One day I was in pain and needed crutches, the next day I didn’t. And the only explanation that I have for that is God. Why He didn’t heal me completely I don’t know. But what I do know is that for the past couple of weeks I have been living in far more freedom than I was before, being able to walk from my house to base every day without crutches, and that has been a massive blessing to me.  So yes, it’s a disappointment, and yes it’s frustrating that I still have a long way to go. And it’s true that I don’t have all of the answers.

To make matters even more complicated, I may need to start paying for my treatment in the near future. Up until this point, I have been covered by reciprocal health where Australia and the UK have an agreement between the two countries. But this won’t cover physiotherapy, which is what I now need on a weekly basis, and it seems unlikely that my health insurance will cover the cost because I received the injury before I arrived in the country. How much this will cost me I have no idea, so I am currently holding my breath to see if a massive medical bill will arrive in the post. The situation is less from ideal.

In 6 weeks’ time I am going to be getting onto a plane and flying to Nepal to preach the gospel, engage in Mercy Ministries and share the love of God with a nation that so desperately needs to hear the truth of God’s word. Will I still be in pain and having problems with my knee? I don’t know. Will I be hundreds of dollars out of pocket from paying medical bills? Maybe. Again, I don’t know. But this is what I do know. My God is faithful. And He is way bigger than any physiotherapist diagnosis or knee injury. And He is able. Will He heal my knee completely? I hope so! But even if He doesn’t, He is still strong and mighty to save. And yes, travelling to Nepal could be risky and could cause more difficulties, in the same way that travelling here to Australia so soon after my accident was a risk. But if nothing else, I am convinced that God has called me here to this place, for this time. And no matter what happens, there is no better place to be than walking in obedience in the will of God.

So I leave you now with the lyrics of one of my favourite worship songs, which seems to me to be rather fitting for this moment. And I hope that you will join with me in praying that whatever is yet to come, His name will be glorified. Amen.

[Verse 1:]
This is my prayer in the desert
When all that’s within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

[Verse 2:]
And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me, Lord, through the flame

[Chorus:]
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

[Verse 3:]
And this is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I’ll stand

[Chorus:]
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

[Bridge 4x:]
All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

[Chorus 2x:]
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

[Verse 4:]
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I’m filled to be emptied again
The seed I’ve received I will sow

Update!

Hi everybody!

Its Saturday morning here, and I actually have some free time, so thought I would write my next very much needed update! So what has been happening here down under?!

Well, we have just finished week 7 of lectures. Crazy I know. Time here just seems to be flying by, but I suppose that is a good sign because time always goes quickest when you are having fun! Topics that we have had (plus speakers!) are:

Week One: Hearing the Voice of God with Petra who is from Holland and on staff here at YWAM Perth, as part of the Mega Cities team.

Week Two: The Nature and Character of God; one of my favourite weeks so far. Our speaker was Chris, from America and also on staff here, heading up the School of Worship and on the base main leadership team. He is an incredibly gifted speaker and had lots of amazing things to say about God!

Week Three: Repentance and Forgiveness. A pretty heavy week, with an application day starting at 8.30am and finishing at 6pm that evening. Our speaker was Peter Brownhill, one of the founders of the YWAM Perth base, from Australia and filled with lots of wisdom.

Week Four: Worship and Intercession. Definitely an interesting week, as it was the first time our lectures were translated from Korean into English rather than the other way round, which required a lot of concentration!! We also joined with the Sports DTS so there were about 50 of us students. Our speaker was some guy from Korea whose name I’m afraid I really can’t remember, but I know it ended in Kim!!

Week Five: Father Heart of God. This week is a close contender with Week 2 for my favourite week so far. Our speaker was Cliff, from the States and again on the main leadership team here, and is awesome. It helps that for Monday night lectures he brought us ice cream and chocolate sauce (and biscuits and Doritos and hummus!) but that is by no means the only reason why we love him. This week was pretty crucial and ground breaking for many people in my class….Our application day started on Friday at 8.30am and finished 1am on Saturday!! But it was really good, and I know that a lot of people received a lot of healing from their Heavenly Father.

Week Six: Lordship and Submission/Authority. Combining two weeks’ worth of lectures into just the one made this week pretty intense! And that’s not including our crazy New Zealander lecturer Mark Parker! Seriously…. Mad as a badger. But with a lot of wisdom, experience, and insight, so I learnt a lot. Required a lot of effort to keep track in lectures as we were going a million miles an hour, but by the time we got to application day, it all made sense! We had another good application day starting at the usual 8.30am and finishing at 10pm. I reckon we would have gone on for longer had it not been for the fact that all staff on base were leaving early the next morning to go on staff retreat, leaving the students home alone for the weekend! This was a lot of fun, as with only 96 of us we had full roam of the base and got to do some exciting things!! Staff all came back on Monday night for dinner, so week 7 started a day late!

Week Seven: Spiritual Warfare. Our speaker this week was a guy cram Northern Ireland!! It was nice to hear an accent from home, although it was pretty watered down, a mix between living here on base for many years with people from all over the world, and living in Asia for many years pioneering work for ywam. But it was a great week (we were all sad that it was a day less) and we learnt a lot about things going on across the world in the spiritual realm, and the importance of operating in both offensive and defensive warfare.

This coming week our topic is evangelism, which I am really excited about. Having been going out into the city every Thursday afternoon with people from base to do evangelism, I have come to the conclusion that I still have lots to learn! So I’m hoping that next week will prove to be helpful!

In other news summer has officially arrived here in Perth. The heat has come… and so have the flies. Humph. Seriously. Ive always laughed at those silly Australian hats with corks attached, but now I fully appreciate the need for them.  Almost tempted to get one myself, although I haven’t quite got that desperate… yet. But they are an absolute hassle. Loving the sunny weather though! Its currently varying between 26° and 37°, so quite the spectrum, but give it a couple of extra weeks and we will be definitely getting closer to the 40° mark, which will be a first for me! Praise the Lord for air conditioning!!

Everybody here is starting to look forward to Christmas, although for my class that week will mostly be filled with outreach prep as we will be heading off almost straight away afterwards (after we spend Boxing Day with everybody on the beach!!)  Our flights haven’t been booked yet, but there is a very real possibility that I will be spending my birthday on a plane, or in an airport somewhere!! I am in a team that will be spending 5 weeks in Nepal, 3 weeks back here in Western Australia somewhere, and 3 weeks in a mystery location! That is, a mystery to you, not me. I know where I am going, but unfortunately I’m not allowed to say where! But I’ve always enjoyed a good mystery so have fun with that!!

So much more that I could say, but I fear that I have already said too much. Will try and do another update in the near future to keep you all in the loop with my adventures! But in the meantime, I wish you all every happiness, and ask that you enjoy the beautiful autumn mornings that you are currently having for me! Strangely enough…I am kind of missing them!

Lots of love

Jo xx

Part 2 of my knee being healed….

Sorry this is in pieces….I’m not sure why but every time I a post, it only publishes half of it and loses the rest 🙁  so what I was wanting to say was…

this past week has been utterly amazing and I’m so excited!! And its so good to be able to share this with people here who have been so faithfully supporting, loving and encouraging me, as well as praying for me, its like a massive moment for everybody.

And here are a couple of reflections that I have had since.

I have learnt never to question the ways of God. Many people prayed for my knee to be healed before I left for Australia, but if God had healed me when we first prayed, I wouldn’t have learnt all that I have through this injury. A big part of my healing came after I handed over to God some of my emotional hurts, which I only became aware of because of my knee injury. If God had answered my prayer (where I thought I knew what was best for me!) I wouldn’t have received the emotional healing that came as part of the package very very early Saturday morning! So, although God didn’t give me what I wanted, He actually gave me something far far better, because He knows better, and actually, He has been glorified far more because of it. Everybody here is super excited, and it has really encouraged peoples faith, so its not only me who has benefited!! Its so amazing watching people here who have been faithfully praying/supporting/encouraging me for weeks literally jumping with joy because I can walk without crutches!!  Praise God!!

 

So if I could leave you with some words of wisdom/encouragement:

1) God does hear and answer our prayers

2) Sometimes they don’t get answered in the way we expect, or would like, but that is because GOD KNOWS BEST and also wants the very best for you. Sometimes even we can’t see what that very best is, and that is when we have to trust God and His faithfulness.

3) In all things God will be glorified! And He is oh so worthy of all our praise.

AMEN! So here’s to all of us experiencing Gods goodness this week!

Lots of love and blessings xxx

My Knee has been Healed!!!

So many of you will be aware that 2 weeks before I was due to leave for Australia I had an accident and injured my knee. A week before leaving I was in A&E and was put on crutches. Not brilliant timing. Ever since my knee has been swollen and causing me quite a bit of pain, resulting in me having to go to the hospital here in Perth a few weeks ago. I am so thankful to God for reciprocal health care which means I didn’t have to pay a dime! Being British really does have many advantages!! I had to have another xray, and after seeing the doctor it was decided that I had bruised my knee and that I would need physio therapy, and could take up to 3 months to heal. But in the mean time lots of people have been praying!
On Friday we had application day for this weeks topic of ‘Father Heart of God’. It was such a good week, and we had a really amazing speaker, and I learnt so much. Every week on Friday we have application day where we put into practice what we have learnt during the week. We take however long it takes, so normal Friday schedule usually gets put on hold. Everybody in my class so needed to receive the love of God this week that it literally took 15 hours! 14 if you take away lunch and tea breaks etc we started at 10.30am on Friday and finished at 1am Saturday morning!! But it was so amazing. Some of the best hours of my life.
And then on Sunday morning prayers were answered!! I woke up in the morning and felt God say ‘I want you to dance with me’. So after everybody else had left to go to church, I put on some worship music and as I danced around the dorm my knee started to loosen, and the swelling decreased, and then I could stand on one leg…and then I found myself walking almost completely normally, putting equal pressure on both legs! It was amazing. And  I haven’t needed the crutches since! Praise God!
Everybody here is so excited. They are still praying for complete healing, but I know that it is coming. I woke up on Monday morning, and my knee was hurting again, so I was scared that I had just imagined it. But I felt God telling me to dance again, so I did, and my knee just freed up almost immediately and the pain went! So cool!!
The swelling is still slightly visible, and going up and down stairs feels pretty weird, but other than that I’m pretty much there! It feels SO weird because every time I go to leave a  room I feel like I have forgotten something!! Its so easy to just get up and go haha. It feels amazing