It has been some time now since I have sat down with pen and paper (or keyboard and screen, as is currently the case) to put in words the finer, deeper emotions and thoughts of the past year. Every time I have tried, be it personal reflections in my journal, letters to beloved friends or post to be shared with the world, I have found myself staring at blank pages - or pages full of words that are all wrong, wrong, WRONG! I have found, for the first time in life, that the written word has failed me utterly.
But the truth is, how do you put into words the love, the gratitude, the delight, the heartache, the - the - oh! I don't have the words for it! Perhaps it is best expressed as the fellowship that I have experienced this past year. Yes, I think that might be it.
I have grown up some this past year. I am still growing, I know it well! But I have grown up some, this year. And I think, perhaps, it is because of just that fellowship (for lack of a better word) that is so hard for me to put into words.
I know that I have loved more deeply, more freely, more openly, than I have ever loved before. And have felt myself to be deeply loved in return. Oh, I'm doing this so, so badly!
To that girl from Austria; those newly-weds I wrote to over a year ago and have since been brother and sister to me; to those sisters I prayed with, laughed with, cried with every week at college; to those men who are brothers; to all those who have mentored me, prayed for me, led me closer to God through your example; to those at church, at beach mission, from school, and - of course - from college:
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you for being men and women of God. Thank you for pursuing Him with all your hearts. Thank you for hearing that part of me I have been too ashamed to show the world and accepting me with open arms still. Thank you for sharing your heartaches, your wounds, your scars, your tears. Thank you for sharing your joys, your triumphs, your laughter. Thank you for being open, honest and safe. Thank you for being people who are willing to let God work through you.
I thank God for each and every one of you, for I really, truly have none like you. Each turning page of my life has brought greater joys (and, sometimes, greater sorrows), than the preceding year. Because of you, last year was the sweetest page of my story so far. And because of you, I look to the coming pages with optimism and complete confidence in all the Lord has in store for me.
I know that many of you had a page (or even a chapter) stained with tears this last year. I know that others of you have chapters ringing with laughter. Happy or sad, I know all you - all of us - had pages written perfectly by the hand of the Master Author. And I know that - whilst we may wish things written differently know - each line serves to forward to story of our lives as God's children and ambassadors in this world. I encourage you, my beloved friends, to trust in God's goodness, grace and justice. Trust that our stories, our pages of pain, and our pages of comfort, all have a place in the great Narrative of the universe.
I wish... I really, really wish, that I could put into words just what you mean to me. Just how encouraged I have been by each and every one of you, and just how much I hope to be - or to have been - as much of an encouragement to you. Perhaps a better master of writing than me - or perhaps just one more diligent about practicing the art of writing - could do it, but I can not.
And so you'll just have to trust that you have shaped me and influenced me in my life. You'll have to accept those small things I have been able to do, and will do as often as I can, as proof of a deeper love and gratitude than I am capable of expressing. And I hope that, come Judgment day, when all is made plain before mankind, that you will understand then and give glory to our Father for it.
May God bless you and keep you. May He guide you through life. May His grace be the anthem of your days and His justice your comfort. May His love uphold you and His light brighten the darkest of days. May His mission inspire you and His Spirit embolden you. May you lay down your lives in thankful unceasing worship of Him every day that you draw breath. And may His Death on the Cross, His Resurrection from the Gave and His Ascension into Heaven give you strength, comfort and hope when all else seems lost.
With all my love, prayers and hopes to catch up soon,
Laura
Showing posts with label a year to remember. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a year to remember. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Friday, 21 March 2014
A Year to Remember: The Story So Far
Hey everyone,
So, I figured I should probably start being intentional about keeping people up to date with how I'm going, what I need prayer for and the administration details of, well, fundraising.
This means that this post will be the first of what will hopefully be a weekly (no promises, but I'll try not to let it stretch longer than fortnightly) update.
I have the feeling that most of you don't actually know what it is I'm doing this year, so I'll give you the quick rundown. I am doing a gap year program called Year 13. This is a subdivision, course, I'm not sure what the word is, of the Anglican Bible college Youthworks. It's a great program that involves Bible college study, ministry, and work. So, it's not really a year off... I also have some other things that I'll be doing, like travelling and catching up with friends and writing that I'll be trying to balance in the year as well.
The word that comes to mind here is busy...
Anyway, now that you have the rundown, here's how it is going.
College
College has been a mixture of good and bad so far. I've had six weeks so far, and I've been assured that the community down there will be my dearest friends and family by the end, so it should be mostly good.
I have been loving the studies that we've been doing. One of our classes, Theology for Everyday Living (or is it Life? Whichever, I'll refer to it as TEL from now on), is a thought provoking subject intended to challenge and grow our moral imagination. Which is a fancy way of saying get us thinking about ethics. Biblical Theology of Mission (BTM) has also been very good as we've been studying an overview of the Bible and seeing how God's mission (which is the restore His Kingdom) is revealed throughout the Bible. It is a fascinating subject, and I never realized just how full the Bible was until we had to content ourselves with brief "and this happened, then that happened and it's all really important but this is what we're focusing on" about whole sections of the Bible. Our lecturers are also really engaging.
Class aside, the community is really good. We are split into prayer groups of 3 (or, in my case, 4). I've been loving this as it is an opportunity for me to engage with my fellow students on a deeper level than I would probably otherwise have been able to this early in the game. Chaplaincy groups are similar. Larger groups, but similar. There, we have an older leader who will be looking at different things with as a providing us with a larger support network than just our prayer groups. So far, my chaplaincy group has focused on sharing our testimonies, something that I have been loving as, again, it means that we can get to know each other more deeply. It has also been really encouraging, and challenging. I'll probably type my testimony up here soon and share it with you all.
So, that's been a lot of the good. The bad, because I did say it's been a mixture, has mostly been my own struggle with connecting with the other students. It has been getting better as people get more comfortable and I start getting to know people in my prayer and chaplaincy groups, but it has still been a struggle. I am really, really atrocious and just meeting people. So, you know, there have been many weeks when I've felt very much like I'm on the sidelines looking in. Still, it's early days. And my chaplaincy leader said she had a similar experience when she did Year 13, so I'm positive it will get better.
This week was the best. What we do is go to the campus early Wednesday and leave on Thursday, staying the night in between. This week, after dark, a group of us wandered down to the chapel (which is open air, in the bush) and spent an hour just chatting, absorbing the wonder of nature and marveling at the Creator, with the occasional bursts of insanity. It was a great evening, and was really encouraging. Something about hanging out with other people my age, who I would probably not be able to associate with anywhere else (seriously, at school, they would have been "the cool crowd") and seeing the love and passion and wonder they have for God was extraordinarily encouraging. It was suggested later that maybe we should have an after dark worship service one week. I'm all for it.
So, that's the basic update for college.
Ministry
Ministry has been going well, I think. I'm involved with leading Kids Klub, helping/teaching Sunday school and am prayer elder (a position not as fancy as it sounds) at the evening service. I am also involved with worship leading, logistics and welcoming.
Kids Klub has been great fun. I've loved getting to know the kids who come more every week, as well as being able to engage with them on topics of God, faith, the whys and the hows. The children are all so inquisitive, it's great!! I was due to do the talk this week, but sickness unfortunately made finishing writing the talk impossible so the youth minister is covering it.
Sunday school has been quite similar to Kids Klub as I was in with the same age group as come to Kids Klub. I was due to start with a younger age group on Sunday, but again, sickness got in the way. I'll be starting that this Sunday, unless I take a sudden turn for the worse.
Prayer elder is slightly more complex than either Sunday school or Kids Klub as there is still a lot of making it up as I go. My role is basically to be encouraging members of the congregation to pray for each other, for ministry, for national and international issues and for other things they might not necessarily think of. The biggest challenge I've had with this role has been the lack of prayer points that have been shared - it's hard to pass on points I don't have! I am also working on organizing a prayer group meeting for 1 Sunday a month. The first meeting is due in just over a fortnight, but there are a lot of logistical details for me to work out before then.
I have loved being able to get to know some of the women, and lots of the kids, from church better. I've had some great conversations with some of the mothers, and have been really encouraged by some of the newcomers. It's been a real blessing this year to really get to now the new wife of an old youth group leader of mine. She's been a real joy to get to know and I anticipate a long friendship. That's probably the greatest joy at the moment.
The challenge for me is to get in touch with a friend of mine who has grown a little reclusive. I would love to work through one of the gospels (Luke's) with her, but I have no idea how to go about it. Please pray for help with that.
Work
This is the one I've the least to talk about. Mainly because of the absence of it.
I am working on finishing up my qualification as swimming instructor. All I have left to do is my prac hours, but the woman I'm trying to organize that with and I have been playing phone tag. We never seem able to catch each other. Still, we have managed, through a series of voicemail messages and emails, to make some progress. I sent her an email with my availabilities today and hopefully she'll get back to me on that soon. Please pray that I can start doing those hours next week.
The hope is that I can do my prac hours, or a lot of them, before I go to Ireland and Jordan in 21 days. So, yeah, running out of time. So, prayers would be really appreciated. It would also be great if I could be qualified by just before I go, or not long after I get back, so that I can start working in May.
Other things
So, here's some of the other things that are going on. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to Ireland and Jordan for 21 days. And yes, I am super excited.
I'll be in Ireland for a week (with my dad), and whilst I don't have any firm plans or ideas, I am really looking forward to catching up with family and seeing the country again. The only thing I really want to do there is cook dinner for my family one night. I'll then be going to fortnight with the rest of my family (parents and sisters) and some church friends. The first week we'll be travelling around Jordan seeing the sights (SOOOO excited) and in the second week we'll be focusing on visiting friends. I'm keen for all of it, especially the Easter sunrise service on Mount Nebo that we are planning to attend. One thing I really, really want to do though is visit some of the refugees from Syria and get to know some of them.
Speaking of refugees, it has recently been brought to my attention, over and over again, the situation of many of the asylum seekers who have come here hoping for safety. So I have decided to begin working on looking into what we are doing, our policies and the facts more so that I can be more informed when speaking about it. As part of this, I'm also looking into organizing a visit to Villawood Detention Centre and looking into things I might be able to get my church involved with. I have no idea where God wants to take me with this, so the whole thing is a little daunting. Prayers for wisdom and guidance would be very appreciated.
I also want to do more for Destiny Rescue. I only managed to raise a little over a third of what I was hoping to with my birthday party, so this year I'm looking at ways to raise more funds. I'm also considering becoming an advocate, although, that won't really come into effect until next year. I'll give you all more details about this later.
So, fundraising has come up a few times. t had a chance to work out what my target is. I do have to raise funds to help support myself through Year 13, especially with the trip to Fiji later this year in mind (more on that later). I also want to raise funds and awareness for Destiny Rescue. So, I'll be keeping everyone up to date with events that are planned for this purpose. Also, if anyone would like to support me financially by making a donation, I would very much appreciate it. But that is all a discussion for later.
Thanks for reading all of this. Hopefully more regular updates will prevent them from being this long in the future!
So, I figured I should probably start being intentional about keeping people up to date with how I'm going, what I need prayer for and the administration details of, well, fundraising.
This means that this post will be the first of what will hopefully be a weekly (no promises, but I'll try not to let it stretch longer than fortnightly) update.
I have the feeling that most of you don't actually know what it is I'm doing this year, so I'll give you the quick rundown. I am doing a gap year program called Year 13. This is a subdivision, course, I'm not sure what the word is, of the Anglican Bible college Youthworks. It's a great program that involves Bible college study, ministry, and work. So, it's not really a year off... I also have some other things that I'll be doing, like travelling and catching up with friends and writing that I'll be trying to balance in the year as well.
The word that comes to mind here is busy...
Anyway, now that you have the rundown, here's how it is going.
College
College has been a mixture of good and bad so far. I've had six weeks so far, and I've been assured that the community down there will be my dearest friends and family by the end, so it should be mostly good.
I have been loving the studies that we've been doing. One of our classes, Theology for Everyday Living (or is it Life? Whichever, I'll refer to it as TEL from now on), is a thought provoking subject intended to challenge and grow our moral imagination. Which is a fancy way of saying get us thinking about ethics. Biblical Theology of Mission (BTM) has also been very good as we've been studying an overview of the Bible and seeing how God's mission (which is the restore His Kingdom) is revealed throughout the Bible. It is a fascinating subject, and I never realized just how full the Bible was until we had to content ourselves with brief "and this happened, then that happened and it's all really important but this is what we're focusing on" about whole sections of the Bible. Our lecturers are also really engaging.
Class aside, the community is really good. We are split into prayer groups of 3 (or, in my case, 4). I've been loving this as it is an opportunity for me to engage with my fellow students on a deeper level than I would probably otherwise have been able to this early in the game. Chaplaincy groups are similar. Larger groups, but similar. There, we have an older leader who will be looking at different things with as a providing us with a larger support network than just our prayer groups. So far, my chaplaincy group has focused on sharing our testimonies, something that I have been loving as, again, it means that we can get to know each other more deeply. It has also been really encouraging, and challenging. I'll probably type my testimony up here soon and share it with you all.
So, that's been a lot of the good. The bad, because I did say it's been a mixture, has mostly been my own struggle with connecting with the other students. It has been getting better as people get more comfortable and I start getting to know people in my prayer and chaplaincy groups, but it has still been a struggle. I am really, really atrocious and just meeting people. So, you know, there have been many weeks when I've felt very much like I'm on the sidelines looking in. Still, it's early days. And my chaplaincy leader said she had a similar experience when she did Year 13, so I'm positive it will get better.
This week was the best. What we do is go to the campus early Wednesday and leave on Thursday, staying the night in between. This week, after dark, a group of us wandered down to the chapel (which is open air, in the bush) and spent an hour just chatting, absorbing the wonder of nature and marveling at the Creator, with the occasional bursts of insanity. It was a great evening, and was really encouraging. Something about hanging out with other people my age, who I would probably not be able to associate with anywhere else (seriously, at school, they would have been "the cool crowd") and seeing the love and passion and wonder they have for God was extraordinarily encouraging. It was suggested later that maybe we should have an after dark worship service one week. I'm all for it.
So, that's the basic update for college.
Ministry
Ministry has been going well, I think. I'm involved with leading Kids Klub, helping/teaching Sunday school and am prayer elder (a position not as fancy as it sounds) at the evening service. I am also involved with worship leading, logistics and welcoming.
Kids Klub has been great fun. I've loved getting to know the kids who come more every week, as well as being able to engage with them on topics of God, faith, the whys and the hows. The children are all so inquisitive, it's great!! I was due to do the talk this week, but sickness unfortunately made finishing writing the talk impossible so the youth minister is covering it.
Sunday school has been quite similar to Kids Klub as I was in with the same age group as come to Kids Klub. I was due to start with a younger age group on Sunday, but again, sickness got in the way. I'll be starting that this Sunday, unless I take a sudden turn for the worse.
Prayer elder is slightly more complex than either Sunday school or Kids Klub as there is still a lot of making it up as I go. My role is basically to be encouraging members of the congregation to pray for each other, for ministry, for national and international issues and for other things they might not necessarily think of. The biggest challenge I've had with this role has been the lack of prayer points that have been shared - it's hard to pass on points I don't have! I am also working on organizing a prayer group meeting for 1 Sunday a month. The first meeting is due in just over a fortnight, but there are a lot of logistical details for me to work out before then.
I have loved being able to get to know some of the women, and lots of the kids, from church better. I've had some great conversations with some of the mothers, and have been really encouraged by some of the newcomers. It's been a real blessing this year to really get to now the new wife of an old youth group leader of mine. She's been a real joy to get to know and I anticipate a long friendship. That's probably the greatest joy at the moment.
The challenge for me is to get in touch with a friend of mine who has grown a little reclusive. I would love to work through one of the gospels (Luke's) with her, but I have no idea how to go about it. Please pray for help with that.
Work
This is the one I've the least to talk about. Mainly because of the absence of it.
I am working on finishing up my qualification as swimming instructor. All I have left to do is my prac hours, but the woman I'm trying to organize that with and I have been playing phone tag. We never seem able to catch each other. Still, we have managed, through a series of voicemail messages and emails, to make some progress. I sent her an email with my availabilities today and hopefully she'll get back to me on that soon. Please pray that I can start doing those hours next week.
The hope is that I can do my prac hours, or a lot of them, before I go to Ireland and Jordan in 21 days. So, yeah, running out of time. So, prayers would be really appreciated. It would also be great if I could be qualified by just before I go, or not long after I get back, so that I can start working in May.
Other things
So, here's some of the other things that are going on. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to Ireland and Jordan for 21 days. And yes, I am super excited.
I'll be in Ireland for a week (with my dad), and whilst I don't have any firm plans or ideas, I am really looking forward to catching up with family and seeing the country again. The only thing I really want to do there is cook dinner for my family one night. I'll then be going to fortnight with the rest of my family (parents and sisters) and some church friends. The first week we'll be travelling around Jordan seeing the sights (SOOOO excited) and in the second week we'll be focusing on visiting friends. I'm keen for all of it, especially the Easter sunrise service on Mount Nebo that we are planning to attend. One thing I really, really want to do though is visit some of the refugees from Syria and get to know some of them.
Speaking of refugees, it has recently been brought to my attention, over and over again, the situation of many of the asylum seekers who have come here hoping for safety. So I have decided to begin working on looking into what we are doing, our policies and the facts more so that I can be more informed when speaking about it. As part of this, I'm also looking into organizing a visit to Villawood Detention Centre and looking into things I might be able to get my church involved with. I have no idea where God wants to take me with this, so the whole thing is a little daunting. Prayers for wisdom and guidance would be very appreciated.
I also want to do more for Destiny Rescue. I only managed to raise a little over a third of what I was hoping to with my birthday party, so this year I'm looking at ways to raise more funds. I'm also considering becoming an advocate, although, that won't really come into effect until next year. I'll give you all more details about this later.
So, fundraising has come up a few times. t had a chance to work out what my target is. I do have to raise funds to help support myself through Year 13, especially with the trip to Fiji later this year in mind (more on that later). I also want to raise funds and awareness for Destiny Rescue. So, I'll be keeping everyone up to date with events that are planned for this purpose. Also, if anyone would like to support me financially by making a donation, I would very much appreciate it. But that is all a discussion for later.
Thanks for reading all of this. Hopefully more regular updates will prevent them from being this long in the future!
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