Beauty in Christ

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before in a previous blog but this semester I’m focusing on memorizing Psalm 34. This wasn’t anything I had planned on previously but instead found it to be something that was really encouraging and applicable. One of the verses that has been on my mind for awhile is verse five: “Those who look to him are radiant: their faces are never covered with shame.” You know those people who are so in love with their Savior that the joy just overflows into their eyes? That’s the kind of person I picture when I read this verse and this is what I pray for in my own life. So much of the time I let my frustrations with circumstances in life or with the overwhelming presence of sin in my heart amount so that I can no longer see past any of it. This is about choosing to turn my attention to God and allowing Him to change me: He has the ability to turn my heavy heart into pure joy. These thoughts may seem scattered but sometimes how I process things is to write them down in the form of a poem so that is what I’ll leave you with:

One way into Christ’s beautiful arms

I breathe peace and see clearly

This crazy world has the potential to bring me down

I choose to go only as far as my knees.

Processing Events

   How do I go about describing everything that happens while studying abroad? Sometimes life just seems so normal as I get on the bus, attend classes, feel completely overwhelmed with the amount of school work I have: these are the things I dealt with while back in the States (minus riding public transportation). But then something happens like our trip to the outback last week- such a surreal experience and a memory that I will always treasure. On Thursday morning we loaded up onto a tour bus with our faithful driver Ian and headed for a long trip out of the city, through the Blue Mountains, and to the flat plains and red dust. It’s an eight hour drive straight through but add in the times of stopping for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea (they feed us a lot here!) and one stop at an Indigenous center , we arrived approximately twelve hours later. The place we went to is a sheep station and we all got to bunk in the sheep shearer’s quarters. Before going to sleep that night we were presented with a challenge: to sign a sheet saying we wouldn’t shower for the next few days. This was because there were only a couple of showers for forty people but also to conserve water. Not everyone signed it but most of us did and by the end my thought was what would have been the point of showering anyway as the red dust sticks to you and everything you own anyway? I won’t go through all the details of our time there but some of the highlights were riding pick-up trucks or “utes” as they call them here, star gazing (never seen a night sky like that!), having meaningful conversations and hearing people’s stories around the campfire, playing with the many pets and seeing all the feral animals (which included a fox, a wild boar, kangaroos, an emu, and some beautiful exotic birds). Now that I’m back at school I need to switch my focus onto all my assignments that are due next week but I wanted to keep you all updated on my experiences here!

Never-Ending Adventures

      Hello blog readers! I promise I have not vanished into thin air or anything- just been super busy and internet deprived. Last week was the beginning of our school break which many of the American students have been calling “spring break” despite the fact that it is not spring here J. Speaking of the opposite seasons, the last two days have definitely felt like fall weather! I suppose I was hoping that it would stay sunny and warm for the rest of our time here but it has been quite chilly the last 24 hours or so. This weekend was beautiful though! Friday I met up with some people and we spent the day as beach bums at Manly Beach. Friday night my family rented the movie “Red Dog” which is a newer Australian film- I enjoyed watching it. Saturday I had service placement in the morning and then the afternoon was spent going to a market, and watching some free shows at Darling Harbour. Easter Sunday I spent the whole day with my host family, went to church with them, had fish and chips at the beach, and then they had a family dinner Sunday night with some of their extended family. The last couple of days have been mainly devoted to homework but I did take a trip to Watson’s Bay where there is a lighthouse on top of some cliffs- a beautiful view for sure! Tomorrow we leave for the outback; we’re taking an eight hour bus ride to a sheep station in the middle of nowhere. We’re told that it’s won’t look like the outback that we’ve probably been picturing in our heads simply because they’ve had a lot of rain and so the plants have sprung to life. Anyway, this is just a quick update on what I’ve been up to but I hope to update again soon (after the outback trip) about some of the stuff I’ve been learning! I miss everyone back home and would love to hear how you all are doing!

Work and Play

    Hello long lost blog, it’s been awhile. What have I been up to since we last talked? Good question…. Despite the deceiving pics on my facebook, I’ve actually been wasting away in a library for the most part. School has decided to pick up the pace (which I guess makes sense seeing that I’ve been here for over five weeks now). Last weekend, for our “Indigenous Cultures, History & Identity” class, they packed the American students into a bus and we headed to the South Coast, our destination- Booderee National Park. It was about a three hour bus ride to get to the campsite; we then proceeded to set up our tents, and then make our way to the botanical gardens. The Aboriginal community own and operate the park and they gave us a tour and taught us many things about the various plants, animals (including trying to get a python to come out of hiding, I made sure to back up several feet but thankfully they were unsuccessful), as well as many things about their culture. That night at camp after dinner, several of them showed us some of their traditional aboriginal dances. We then ended the night with smores (with Australia’s flavored marshmallows), stargazing on the beach, and playing card games. Unfortunately it rained that night while we slept so many people woke up in puddles (my tent stayed dry for the most part thankfully). The next morning the rain moved away and we proceeded to pack up our mud caked stuff. We had to head back to the city pretty quickly but not before stopping at “Summer Cloud Bay” where I got my first view of dolphins and learned a little more history of the area. On the way back we stopped in the town of Kiama to eat lunch, we enjoyed watching their famous blow hole spew water into the air as well as climbing on the rocks to get some amazing views. That was an eventful weekend but the days before and since has been spent preparing for a presentation, writing papers, reading, etc. It’s now Friday and I’m looking forward to my service placement, visiting churches, and maybe even… the beach? Hmm… don’t really have anything to complain about there. J

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

    Have you ever had a day when nothing went as planned? Yesterday was one of those days, and it’s carried into today. One thing after another, small things but they don’t have to be big to disappoint. This is the beginning of week four, the week that we were told would be one of the hardest because we would start to feel the pressures of school as well as begin to miss home even more. I have to say that I didn’t really believe that it would be that big of a deal. After all I’m in Australia! That should mean that I’m happy to be here all the time right? The saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side” never means so much until you leave home for an extended amount of time. It’s the same way every time I drive eight hours to school, from Nashville, TN to Chicago, IL. I like school but after awhile it starts to feel like a prison and I just want to escape.  See, what I’m learning is there’s never just one hard thing you have to deal with at a time. When I was kid, I remember being so upset at one particular thing: maybe a toy broke or I had a fight with one of my siblings. Those things loomed large in my mind. But now that I’m an adult, there always seems to be so many things coming at me at once, tearing my focus from where it needs to be. You, the reader are probably wondering why I’m being such a downer but I told you in my previous update that I wanted to go deeper with this blog than just the surface level, fun things that I’m doing here. Amidst some of the struggles, here are some of the beautiful things God is teaching me at the moment:

    I mentioned in my last blog that I was able to go with a group of people to the Blue Mountains last weekend. It was a gorgeous place and I was glad I got to go. However, it was one of the hardest physical things I had ever done. I am not, and have never been, athletic. The most I do to work out is go on long walks or ride a bike, I’ve never been a runner and as much as I like hiking, I had never done a very long, strenuous one like we did last week. We started at the very top of these cliffs, climbed down a ton of stairs, walked on some flatter trails for a little while and then proceeded to climb up the other side of the cliffs. I decided afterwards that it would be ok if I never saw a set of stairs again after that. The point of this story is that my pride was stamped to the ground that day. I wanted so bad to keep up with the other people in my group. I did not want to be the straggler that struggled to take each step and sounded like I needed an inhaler. But that’s what happened. It’s been my unmentioned goal in life to not be in vulnerable situations. I like to believe that I’m a strong person mentally, emotionally, and physically. I’m not. And my Heavenly Father is breaking my walls down in this area. It hurts, but this is what I asked for. I’ve been in a spiritual ditch for quite some time now. I’ve never stopped trying to have a relationship with God but that was the whole point all along. It was my prideful thinking that I could do something to fix my own heart. This is not to say that I now have it all figured out now, but I am in the midst of learning to surrender. I didn’t have to travel to the other side of the world to learn these things, but God is using this time away from home in a powerful way and I’m grateful for it.

Week Three

     So I’ve been keeping up with both of my sisters blogs and they’re so insightful and deep! I’m going to attempt to put some thoughts together about some stuff I’m learning about God, myself, and culture…. but not right now. J This past weekend was packed full but a lot of fun. Friday was another field trip into the city to visit the “Hyde Park Barracks” where we learned a lot about Australia’s history and saw the places that some of the convicts stayed in when they first came to this land. Saturday was an early morning start as my service placement at Hillsong started. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it’s an organized program where groups of “street teams” go to houses or apartments of various people (a lot of elderly for the most part) and either help them clean, or do something else to help out, or just sit and visit with them. I really enjoyed it and am excited to be a part of the program while I’m here. Saturday afternoon was spent walking around Sydney, seeing just a small part of the botanical gardens (I will be going back soon to explore them for sure!) and then visiting a church across the Harbor Bridge Saturday evening. Sunday was another early morning as large group of us students caught an early train to visit the Blue Mountains. It was about a two hour train ride and it was sooo nice to be out of the city for a little while! We even saw some wildlife including a Goanna (large lizard), some kind of bird (not sure exactly what it was) and then I saw two kangaroos on the train ride back! Well that’s all for now… thanks for reading!

Two Weeks

          Today (Wednesday, March 7^th, 2012) is the two week mark since I arrived in Sydney, Australia. A lot has happened in those two weeks! I won’t go into detail about everything but I’ve definitely stayed busy! School here is set up differently: instead of having classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then Tuesday, Thursday, each class is once a week and is three hours long. At first I wasn’t sure how I would like that but they give you breaks during class and it’s nice to be able to focus on one thing at a time. Monday’s I have two photography classes and then I have one class a day for the rest of the week (excluding Saturdays and Sundays of course). Another part of my program here is to do 35 hours in a service placement, I’m not yet sure what I will be doing because they’re in the process of switching me to a different placement.

         This weekend was full of fun, new adventures with the other American students: Friday night some of us went out and had Kangaroo burgers (it was pretty good but we all decided we’d rather have normal hamburgers). Saturday I found my way into the city by myself for the first time and met up with a couple of people to attend the Hillsong evening service (not the main church but one of their other campuses). After the service we went to a place called “Pancakes on the Rocks” (“The Rocks” is a place within the city, near the Opera House). Sunday we spent most of the day at Cronulla Beach, with the intention of watching a Surf competition (wasn’t as exciting as we imagined), and for the most part just soaked up the sun and watched people brave the intense waves. Monday was a full day of classes and then yesterday, our whole class (there’s 37 of us) went into the city and got to explore a lot of the historic parts of Sydney.

     I think that about covers my adventures of the past few days… here’s a collage of some of my favorite pictures I’ve taken so far (I haven’t taken a whole lot yet but don’t worry- I will!):