Impact World Tour

James and RK at a school assembly. The kids loved the helicopter trick that RK is doing.
The stage and GX international skate ramps are ready for the first big show in Perth. We worked long hours to get this ready and it was well worth it.
Praying before the show, holding the Australian flag to remember to people of this land: Salena, Kevin, Luke and James of Team Xtreme. This is the team I worked the most with and who I went with to Ohio.

Tesimony, from Tonga, doing the Fire Knife dance. An amazing talent and he never complained if he got burned!

Cathy, Emily, El, Salena and myself..The DTS girls and the Team Xtreme girls unite. El joined Team Xtreme, performed with them for the last few shows and plans to go with them to Fiji for the next tour in September.

Pictures from Perth

The Team: Our final BBQ, at Scarborough Beach, together before everyone started to head home.

Henry and Vrenni's birthday lunch.


The Sports DTS girls, a day out at the park. We were helping a city-wide church event, but we found a minute to relax together.

Myself, Reianna from Holland and Cathy from Canada: out to dinner to celebrate Cathy's birthday.
Beautiful! I always say the sky is magical in Australia, see what I mean! This a 1000 meter jetti/pier in Bunburry, Western Australia. This beach was one of our stops on our school camping trip in November.

Pictures from Perth, Western Australia

Skyline of Perth: downtown and Swan Bay.
My 28th birthday at Scarborough Beach!

Picnic dinner @ King's Park with my small group.
Girls Night Out! Perth in the background at sunset. We are on the bridge to the train stop, headed somewhere cool!
Enjoying the view of Swan Bay! That is Henry, Trisha and myself on the bench.

Thailand pictures

Bangkok, Thailand: Buddah statues that Buddhist pray to.
Ubonratchatoni, Thailand: Kindergarten girls in a class in which we volunteered. The teacher left us, we had no interpreter and the kids did not speak any English!

Ubonratchatoni, Thailand: Little girl in a slum village with her treat for the day. We did a kid's fun day here with games, songs, and playing tag. Ubonratchatoni, Thailand: Our transportation while in this city. We squeezed into it everyday as we would travel all around doing ministry. Lots of good memories in this bus/truck!
Chonburi, Thailand: Going into a home to do a kid's fun day. The father was sick with AIDS. All of the little kids from the neighborhood came and joined. This house sticks out in my memory of poor housing conditions (holes in the floor, no glass or screens in the window, no real bathroom, poor water conditions if any at all) and is part of the reason why I want to do more work to improve living conditions in my future.

Pictures from Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand: Sitting at the front of the King's Palace on our temple tour day.

Chonburi, Thailand: Kid's fun day with games, songs, stories and crafts. These kids' parents all have HIV or AIDS and some of the kids do to.
Bangkok, Thailand: New Year's Eve: I ate a toasted cricket and silk worm. Both disguting! But Silas was right, I'll never forget that night!
Bangkok, Thailand: Buddah statue on top of a temple.


Bangkok, Thailand: DTS friends and Thai friend, Palm, hanging out after a soccer game at the stadium. We met a lot of people playing sports at the stadium almost every night.

It has been awhile!

Hey loved ones! I am now home from eight months on the mission field, eight months that I am thankful for and would not change for anything. After my six month DTS, I headed to Toledo, Ohio with Team Xtreme for a six week tour. I went and the team leader's personal assistant. It was an awesome time. We saw many lives touched and changed by learning the love of our Heavenly Father. I am so thankful that God used little old me to make a difference and share His love. I learned a lot from our team intercessors and made some amazing friends along the way.
Upon returning home, I waited on God to light the next path He wanted me to persue. After just a short time here is the deal. I see architecture being a way I want to change the world, doing projects like orphanages, health clinics, schools, and churches for ministries across the world. There is a ministry I want to get involved with called Engineering Ministries International that does this very thing. I learned that you have to apply to be chosen to go on their missions trips as the architect and through prayer decided that I needed to get experience with those types of projects. This means persuing an architecture job doing health care, education and civic projects as opposed to the housing I was doing before. Then the question layed of where to live for this job. This is followed by a phone call from my friend, Cambria, who is moving down to San Diego, California to get her masters degree in nursing. Awesome! I have wanted to go to San Diego for some time now, and I have a friend to do it with. God is so good to me and I'm so excited!
I'm now ready with an updated resume and impressive cover letter to send out to about 12 firms I have found interest in. I'm about to start putting together a portfolio that I will use in the interviews and am hoping to head down in the beginning of July to interview. Cambria's program starts at the end of August, so we are looking to move down at the end of July, although I may go a little sooner than that depending on my job situation. Did I mention I am really excited about this! God is sending me to a beautiful city, with mountains close for mountain biking and the ocean close for surfing. And it is in California, so that makes my family very happy!
Thanks for your continued love and support guys. I am so lucky to have you in my life. Laura