Tim Tams & Tid Bits from Down Under

Impact World Tour

2007-06-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

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

Looking back and random thoughts

2007-02-10T23:56:00.000-08:00

I'm looking back at the last 6 weeks of my life...never before have I had so many cold showers and slept in a sleeping bag for this long. I have not blow dryed or curled my hair for six weeks and make up gets put on half the time. My hair dryer died in Australia. Some of these clothes are going to stay here in Thailand, they just don't get throuoghly clean here and after all this sweat and dirty cities, they are done!

Today I worked with the childrens ministry at a church in Chonburi. I had the cutest little 6 year old girl stuck to me all day. She was really smart, funny, cute and spoke a little bit of English. I loved having her there and made the day so fun!

Yesterday, we went to a slum area and visited a family, some of the adults are sick with AIDS. I got to hold a 6 month old little girl and pray over her as I held her. She was so sweet. Most poor kids in Thailand don't wear diapers or underwear. I'm happy to report the baby peed on Miriam, not me!! About 15 neighbor kids showed up to hang out with us. We sang songs, shared the story of Jesus with them, and made bead bracelets. This is probably the biggest thing that has happened to them in a long time and it is such a good feeling to bring this light into their day. There were four adult women at this house and Miraim and El spent time talking with them, with the help of a translator. All four women were really excited to hear about Jesus and all asked him into their hearts. This is the first Christian family in that area/neighborhood. Our host, Louise, said we planted a church!! How cool is that!

Chonburi brings us back into a city. Ubon was nice because it was in the mountains of Thailand. much cooler weather and beauty everywhere. Chonburi is hot, loud, busy and humid. But the people are amazing and our team is going full force until the last second here. God is using us to pour out his love, what an honor!

Please check out my friend Simon's blog. He posts pictures and writes about our adventures...you will enjoy it! http://www.cheology.blogspot.com/

Off the map

2007-02-05T00:09:00.000-08:00

The last days have been amazing and heartbreaking. I am now in a little town in Northeast Thailand called Ubonratchathani. The people group here is the Isan people and their language is a bit different from Thai, but the basics are the same so I get by. Today is my first time having internet access since Jan 28 and I have really missed it, and you guys!

We have been doing a few different ministries. We are hooked up with a little church in the town that reaches out to the surrounding villages. There are 2500 villages!!! We spent one day in a village an hour away painting the roof trusses of their church. When I say church, I mean a concrete floor and posts, a block wall in the front, hand framed roof trusses and tin metal roofing, and old stools for the seating. No walls, windows, doors, or proper seating. The church looks great after the painting and it was really fun for all of us. We camped over night there and went and worked in a school the next day.
My team is really loving being out of the big city of Bangkok and spendig time in the quiet of the country. Another day we went to a slum village and did a program for the kids. We sang songs, did a skit, danced, played tag and just had lots of fun. It was so sad and eye opening to see where these families live. This particular village is in a flood zone so every rainy season they get flooded and to the top of their shacks. For some, their walls are made out of blankets and their shower is a dirty little hut that half closes.
We have gone and worked in schools on two different days. We do an assembly, play games, play sports and try to give the kids something really fun to remember. At the first school, I helped with SIndre by teaching in the kindergarten, but the teacher left and we did not have an interpreter for part of the time. Thank goodness for songs with actions, and rock paper scisors!!! At the second school, I was marveled by the facilities they are in. The assembly hall have holes in the wooden floor boards that were big enough for a little foot to go through and you could see straight down to the dirt ground below. Later that day we had a soccer tournament with the locals, they are so good, naturals. Luckily the europeans on my team have grown up with the game and put up a good game!
Another day we went to a village to join a home church and encourage them and we did the same thing again last night. Often they end up encouraging us more than we do for them. They have so little and yet they are so heartfelt and firey about Jesus. I wonder if I would be as positive as them if I had as little as they do. Everywhere we go, they give us the best hospitality and cook the most wonderful meals for us. They tone down the spicyness for our team, but they say its not worth eating if it doesn't make you sweat!!
Everyday we are so busy, we start early and go until 8 or 9. The church is so excited to have us here and they have our every minute planned!!
We are here until Friday night, the 9th. Tuesday morning we are heading 90 kilometers out of town to another village near the Thailand/Laos border. We will be visiting a few house churches to encourage them, do some kids programs, probably play soccer and maybe work a school. We will be camping overnight again. We will get to go shopping at the border on Wednesday, but probably not cross over. Then head back for the last few days of service in Ubon.

We are staying with the assoc. pastor and his family. They have a pretty big house and the 20 of us (including our interpreter Gan, from YWAM Bangkok who is traveling with us) fit quite well. The 7 of us girls have the master bedroom and for the first time since Australia we have hot showers!! But only the girls!! The boys bathroom does not have a water heater! We also have a tent on the porch off the master bedroom and we take turns sleeping out there if it is not too cold. The weather is much cooler here and no humidity like Bangkok, more my style!! We are having to use our sweatshirts here.

There is so much more I could say, but this is getting long....so it will have to wait. I have seen God move in amazing ways in our time here and it is a privledge that He uses me for his work! We are headed to Chonburi, Thailand on Friday night via an overnight bus. Will arrive Saturday morning. On Feb. 17 we head back to Perth to start working with Impact World Tour. I have no idea what my internet access will be over the next few months. I was blessed by wireless internet and friend's laptops when we were in Bangkok.

Signing out with love, Laura

21 Questions

2007-01-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

My dad wrote me an email with a list of questions which I thought you all might like to know, so here it goes...
What's the weather like? Hot and humid everyday. I've gotten good at wearing sunblock everyday because the sun is very intense. Today when I walked outside at 8 am it felt about 90 degrees. I'm so thankful I have air conditioning in my room and in the church. At least I stay cool at night!
How's the food and what's your favorite? Wonderful!!! Arroy for delish in Thai!! I love curry anything. This morning my friend Oi taught me how to make duck coconut curry, and it was amazing! Sum tam which is a papaya salad. I will prepare it when I come home. As you walk down the streets the sidewalks are filled with little road side carts, some even provide table and chairs, where they fix the food right there, little bbq stands right there on the side walk.
How do people react to you/Americans on the street? First I have to say that we represent 9 nations, so we are not just whities! We have Simone from Singapore, Edwin from Malaysia, El from England who is half Trinidad/Tobago, and Jes from Denmark who is half Egyptian. The rest are Germany, Norway, Finland, and Canada. That shout out is for my teammates!! You guys rock! We get lots of looks because we stick out so quickly. The Thai word for foreigners is Farang (fa-wrong) and anytime we hear it we know they are talking about us! I was very nervous to speak English at first but Thai people love me as an American, even if they don't agree with our politics.
In the area I live in, it is not a tourist area so we rarely see farang and it is so wierd when we do. We just stare at eachother like "what are you doing here??!!!" We try to be a friendly face to travelers who do make it to this area of Bangkok. When we go to the touristy area of Bangkok there are so many white people from all over the world, it is wired to see that many. This is one thing I have realizied I really like about California is that it is richly diverse in cultures. I was the only white person in my group of architecture friends in college and I love that!
What's the transportation like? We walk everywhere! Even home with the groceries for breakfast for 20 people!! Taxis are as common as white cars in the US, they are everywhere...but here they are hot pink, orange, green, and blue. There are truck taxis too, they basicly built a cage in the bed with benches, they are very cheap but I've never taken one. The bus system is cheap as well, but you can't find a bus schedule anywhere so we only use them if our hosts are with us or tell us what number to take. Air conditioned buses are the way to go!
How's your bag and mattress working? My dad sent me a compact sleeping bag and thermarest 1" thick sleeping mat for Christmas. They work great. The church had a straw mat that I put down first, then the therma rest. I brought a sheet with me, I start the night laying on my sleeping bag with the sheet, but I get cool enough that I crawl inside my bag and stay there til morning. Thank you dad!
Are you starting to understand the language and currency? I have a few sayings down like hello, thank you, my name is, what's yours?, cool, not spicy or a little spicy or nice spicy. I know how to count up to thirty. I pick up new things everyday and my thai friends are so impressed. They seem so honored that we want to learn their language and not just teach them ours. It makes it really fun!
The baht is the Thai currency and its really easy to use. The exchange rate is 35 baht to 1 dollar. Most places (not tourist places) you can eat a nice portioned amazing meal for 40 to 50 baht. Can you believe it!!! A plate is about 15 to 25 baht, sodas are 10 baht, water bottles are 7, a blended fruit and ice smoothie is 15 to 20.
Any McDonald's in Thailand? Yes, there are McDonald's here, and KFC and Pizza Hut. They are a lot more expensive, ends up converting to what we would pay in the US but it seems like a lot when you are used to eating for 40 baht! I have not eaten at McDonalds, but have eaten at Pizza Hut. They don't serve cheese on anything here and you get tired of eating Thai food everyday so on a day off we ate pizza and it was so great!
How about Starbuck's? I've had Starbucks twice. They are in the big shopping malls in the tourist area. I went over there on my first two days off. It was such a treat! Again, the baht price converted to the same amount in US dollars, maybe a little more!
Do you drink tea, coffee, water, soda, etc.? I drink mostly water here. I buy diet cokes, here called Light Coke, at the mini mart but you can't get it in any restaurant. So I've decided to not drink soda unless it can be diet. I make coffe sometimes or buy it at a little coffee shop right by where I live, 60 baht for an iced coffee. You can buy Thai iced tea at almost any road side stand. But it is made with a condensed milk, so I probably won't get it again until right before I leave! So much of the food is cooked in heavy oil, so cutting out treats like the thai iced tea is how I will attempt to not gain weight here. Of course the boys are losing weight and the girls are gaining and they eat way more than we do! Not fair!!
Are you sleeping and where? I'm living in one of the classrooms at the church we work at. There are four of us in my room. Our bags and sleeping mats take up all the floor room. My bed is also my couch, desk, and changing room.
Are you still in Bangkok? Yes, until 29 January. Then we take a 12 hour bus ride to the Northeast of Thailand to the Isan people. We will be in Ubanratchatawnie, for 10 days. Then we will be going south to a city that is an hour below Bangkok called Chon Buri. Then back to Bangkok to the church for one day and we fly back to Perth on 17 Feb.
Are you homesick? I wouldn't say home sick, but I do miss home. Being here makes me realize how nice of a place I come from. I miss the people, friend, family, my gym!, and the city itself. I miss driving down the roads that I know so well. Thailand has opened my eyes to that more than Australia or Italy ever did.

Well, I hope this proves I'm doing well and happy. I miss you all!!

Last day of 2006!

2006-12-31T00:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first free day in Bangkok. I now know right where to go on my next free day...Siam Square!! I reminds me a lot of LA, plus there was good cheap shopping. I only packed 4 shirts so I was happy to find two shirts to add to my wardrobe. The guys all came back with matching Ralph Lauren Polos in different colors, but they were only 180 baht so we are questioning if they are real!!

Things I'm thankful for...
Starbucks
A clean place to live and sleep
Pizza Hut for dinner
Translators
A welcoming host family

Happy New Year!! I love you all so much! Laura

touchdown in Thailand

2006-12-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!! Today is my first Saturday in Bangkok, Thailand, and my fifth day here. Bangkok is very different from Perth, Australia. The city is huge, so many people, so much traffic so little saftey laws, living conditions are much less then what is considered normal for us, and it is very dirty. This is my first time in a third world country, besides the few days I have spent in Mexico, and I am all the more thankful for the state I was brought up in. All that to say, the people are really nice, and friendly. Even if they don't understand you, they give the biggest smiles. I'm learning a bit of the Thai language to fit in as well as customs so I can show them respect.

My team of 19, 12 guys and 7 girls, is staying at a church. We are sleeping on mats in the classrooms and living out of our bags. We will be here for 4 weeks. The church is very small and in a three story building. The meeting hall on the first floor, classrooms (our rooms) on the second floor and third floor is where Pastor Sanguian, his wife Papah and their three kids live. They also run an English teaching program three nights a week, which we will help teach. We, the farang (foreigners), are the desired teachers by the Thai people because English is our native language. Yesterday we went to Ram kam hand University, a school of 600,000 students, and had lunch at the canteen so that we could meet students and tell them about our english lessons. We had many who are interested, and some who want to meet for lunch again. We talk to the students with a translator, who are different people from the church. Some students ask why we have come to Thailand and then we can share about what we have been doing in Australia and how God gave us a heart for helping people because of His love for us. Thailand is a country that is 95% Buddhist and a lot of people have never heard that there is a God or about Jesus. We met a girl yesterday who thought that God only cared about western culture and didn't love the asian people. When we shared with her that Jesus was not white, but that he traveled throught Asia and that He love all nations she was amazed. She had never heard this before. Many of the people we talk to also feel like they are locked into Buddhism because it is their family's religion; this is where we share that everyone will be accountable for their own decision, again a concept they have never heard. I'm finding it surprisingly easy to talk to people, they will sit for 15 to 30 minutes with you and really have a nice talk with you. We talk about all different kinds of things with them.
The next awesome thing that was waiting for us in Thailand is the opportunity for sports. We found on campus that every night there are many soccer, basketball and tennis games going on. When we showed up the first night to play, I went with the basketball group. We started shooting around on an empty court and within 5 minutes a group of Thai students came and asked if we wanted to play 4 on 4. Then more people came over and wanted to play the winner. This went on, swapping in and out, for 2 hours! While we were out we got to meet all kinds of new people and they are so friendly. We went back again last night and the same thing happened again. The guys from my team who played soccer experienced the same thing. We are all so excited about this! It is so much more than we could have asked for.
Tomorrow is Sunday. We will be joining the church for their Thai service at 9:30, to show them support even though we won't understand it!! Then lunch afterward. Robert from my team says two hours of church is worth it if their is food after!! We are all really loving the Thai food!!! A few questionaable things, but so far I have not been in a situation that I had to eat them! Back to Sunday...then we have the English service at 7:30 and we will be doing a skit during the service...we crack ourselves up when we do it so I hope they like it too!!
Today, Saturday is a free day so I am headed to downtown or China town with a few people to do some exploring of this enormous city!
I am now two hours behind Perth. Gotta head out! I love you all!! Don't worry too much, I'm safe and I go everywhere in groups of three!! Laura

P.S. Thank you for the Christmas gifts!! The money will go far here...35 baht to one dollar and most meals are about 35 baht. I just bought a pair of addidas sport shorts for 250 baht, about $7.30!!

two more nights

2006-12-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

I sat down to write you all to tell you about Thailand, but got distracted with helping someone download pictures. See what I mean, I'm a busy girl! It is late now, I just looked at my watch and see that it is 12:20 am!! I'm tired, I'm going to bed. I'll write tomorrow, I have lots to share!

Lots Happening

2006-12-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

We are in our last week of lectures. Last night was Commisioning Night, when the base formally prays for us and prepares to send us on outreach. 19 of us are headed out to Thailand on Dec. 25. Over 100 students are leaving this base on outreach to 10 different countries. We have seen over $500,000.00 come in to pay for everyone's outreach!! Isn't God amazing!!! Will write more details later, gotta head to morning exercises! Love you all!

Funny times

2006-11-08T05:40:00.000-08:00

Every Wednesday our school plays sport together in the afternoon. Today we learned how to play touch rugby. I really like the game and am starting to get the concept of the strategy. Our group all works pretty good together and only one injury; Roman's (from Germany, 22) pinky finger got hit and popped out of the socket. The bus ride home consisted of some very funny moments on the part of our 11 guys that I just have to share. We were going to get back to base just in time for dinner and someone expressed there would not be time for a shower (unfortunate for everyone else b/c we were sweaty and gross!) To that Robert (from Canada, 19) replied, "Showers are for people with girlfriends!" ...laughter throughout the whole bus!! Awesome! Also, the guys are working on their language skills and have learned how to say "I farted" in 9 different languages, which they proved to us in this short bus ride! So us girls decided to learn some different ways to say it so that we can join in! I love this group of people, we have such great laughs together. Even the ones who are new English speakers manage to be amazingly funny and the broken English makes it even better!

Our school is going camping this coming weekend. Somewhere a few hours South of Perth. There will be time for team building, relaxing and beach swimming! I'm looking forward to our adventure. Look for pictures next week.

A few pics

2006-11-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

Sports DTS boys in our bus, this is how we travel around as a group.

Cathy and I, welcoming people to our weekly Friday Night Meeting. It's church, just on Friday!
A peek at downtown Perth through the front of our bus. Notice the steering wheel on the right of the bus!

Too see more pics, visit my
friend Cathy's blog:
www.catharinelise.blogspot.com

The Jury Is In

2006-11-06T05:40:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and family,
I'm excited to tell you we have been given our outreach destination. We will leave Dec 27 for Thailand. We will be in Bangkok, doing ministry via sports on the university campus and in orphanages. We will also be doing work around the orphanage, street dramas, help existing YWAM ministries and one that is being pioneered and teaching english on the university campus. I'll share more as I learn more. We will come back to Perth Feb 17, 2007. Then we will be volunteering with Impact World Tour here in Perth for 6 weeks. So my school that was supposed to be March 17 just got extended to April 8. Check out the websites to get a better understanding of I.W.T.
I thank you for your prayers for our team. I promise to share more as I find out more.
I am in my sixth week of teaching, this week on the Father Heart of God. Looking at how our earthly father reflects our view of our heavenly Father, if it is accurate and what we can do to correct it.
http://www.impactworldtour.com.au/

Much love, Laura

Copy and Paste

2006-10-31T05:28:00.000-08:00

I am taking this from an email I just sent to my girlfriends at home, but thought it was good general info so I'm posting it.

I just got back from Tuesday night indoor beach volleyball, which I love! The walls and ceiling are all netted in and you can play off of them.
I had my one on one today with my school leader, Trisha. I meet with her every Tuesday afternoon and I really enjoy our time together. I realized how much deeper the teaching has gotten since last Tuesday and how much I have been pushed in a week. A lot of new teaching to take in, process and decide what I am going to do with it. This week we are studying lordship, giving God total control over your life. Crazy to think that even Jesus gave up His will and went to the cross! Good stuff!!

I've been meaning to share...when I flew here in September I flew to Sydney, then to Perth. As we were descending into Sydney it was sunrise and as I looked out my little 1 by 1.5 foot window I could see the Sydney harbor and the opera house. I was looking for the bridge, just hoping I would see it and then there it was! It was beautiful in the early morning light.

I'm headed to bed, this is one exhausted lady! Love you all! Laura

Four weeks complete!

2006-10-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

I knew time would fly, but I amazed to say that I have already been here four weeks.

Life on base is good. I'm very busy during the week. Our schedules are packed from 6 am to about 9 pm everyday except Wednesdays. And that night we are supposed to use as a study night! Hopefully this explains why I am slow to write people back. Today, Sunday is very mellow for me now that I have finished all my work that is due tonight. I'm headed to a coffee shop with some gals to have more relaxing time.

Last week we had teaching on evangleism with Ross Tooley who has been a missionary for 41 years. He is originally from New Zealand, but has lived all over the world with his wife and four sons. Ross was a great teacher and told the best stories that really drove home his points. I bought one of his books, We Cannot but Tell, which I highly recommend.

This week I will be recieving teaching on lordship, which is looking at what you place as your highest priorities in life. I'll tell you more as I learn more. Our teacher will Colleen Noblet, who was one of the first staff members here at YWAM Perth 21 years ago. She came over from Sydney with Pete and Shirley Brownhill, the founders, to help start the base. Colleen spoke at the first friday night meeting I was here for and I really admired her heart and passion for knowing God more.

We've been playing a lot of volleyball and I coming to really like the game. I go down mountains on my bike and am not scared, but that little white ball scared me!!! It hurst when it hits your arms!! But now I'm learning the right way to hit, set, serve, all that jazz and I'm really having fun with the game.

Time to head out for a cup of joe!

At last...pictures

2006-10-15T03:18:00.000-07:00

First trip to the beach.

This is the park where we have morning exercises
play our games. Group picture of my Sports DTS.

Saturday hike at Serpintine Falls. My first sighting of kangaroos and a joey in the pouch!

Week 2

2006-10-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

Week 2 Update:
This week we had a guest speaker, Cliff, an American who is a missionary in China. He taught on worship and prayer. What they accomplish between you and God and what they mean. Cliff is a great teacher, very interactive and kept our attention. He also talked to us about joining them in China for a two year commitment of full time missions. Sounds interesting, but don't worry yet Mom! I didn't sign up for it! But I am definitly praying about what God wants for me after these 6 months.
We are also getting underway with our sports schedule. Playing indoor beach volleyball on Tuesday nights, a sports activity on Wednesday afternoons, morning workouts at 6 am M-F. I'm having a lot of fun, learning a lot, getting to know the tons of new people that I have met and so looking forward to where we will go and what we will do on our outreach for the second three month segment. We don't know where or what yet.
Here on base we all have work duties for two hours every afternoon. Some examples are dinner or lunch dishes and prep, hospitality, vehicle maintenence, gardens, reception, our coffee house downtown, media, etc. Mine is on the property/maintenence crew. I'm starting out with designing the new wardrobe closets for one of the new student dorms called Gladstone Street House. Then I will design storage shelves for the bathrooms there and then help build everything. I'm having to figure out the metric system and try and design using the length and width of boards as they come so we can save time on cutting and not have wasted materials. I'm having fun with this project and people are quite impressed with my hand drafting skills! No autocad here! I should be able to draw and letter correctly since I taught how to do it!
Our time here is pretty programed throughout the day and sometimes on Saturdays too. This weekend we are completely free so a group of us are planning to go to the beach of Saturday. There are several birthdays in this group of days so I have several birthday party and dinner invites for that night. Sunday I'm going to church with a gal, Gwen, who is a friend of my aunt and uncle from Texas. Gwen is on staff here. The church is in Fremantle which is a suburb of Perth. She invited me to go kiyaking (sp?) with herself and a friend after church so I might get to do that.
Thanks so much for all of your replys. They mean so much! I think of you and pray for you all the time. Laura

Wednesday match

2006-10-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I have some to spend on the computers so I thought I would give somemore info about my days here.
Today we met to find about about family/base chores. We all work together M-F from 8-8:30 to keep the base and surrounding living units clean. My assignment for the next two weeks is 228, which is a dorm just down the street housing students here for the general October DTS.

Our school, Sports DTS, met at our classroom at 8:30 to 9:15 for worship. Then we had morning tea, which consists of tea and a muffin or roll. At 9:30 we met in the main lecture class room for our first session of teaching. Peter Brownhill, our base director, spoke on this first topic, the Nature and Character of God. He will lecture two or three more times on this topic this week. I'm soaking in the content, it's so rich, deep, and moving. I wish I could share all of my notes with you so you could understand what I mean! We broke for lunch at 12:30. Today my school met at the park down the street for a game of soccer at 1:30. It was so much fun and I did better than I thought I would! Usually we will do work duties from 1:30 to 3:30, but we don't have those assignments yet. I signed up to work at the coffee shop the base runs downtown, CAIO (pronounced kie oh), or working in the yards and gardens on the base grounds.

Now I'm back at base. Just put in a load of wash. Will walk to the office supply store to get the proper notebook for my weekly assignments, C.I.R.s (creative intergration record). It's an in depth reflection on the weeks teaching and how it impacts or moves us. It is due every Sunday night at dinner time. Yes, that's right, I have homework again! And we have three books to read in the next three months along with reports at the end. Go ahead and laugh! I will say the book topics are great and I'm really excited to get this knowledge deep down inside of me!

Dinner is in 1 1/2 hours so I need to get moving. No class, lecture, street evangilism (thursday nights) or meeting (friday night meeting) so I'll be relaxing and working on my C.I.R.

I do plan to write you back individually to those who emailed me. I'll maybe be able to start on that tonight. Thanks for the updates. Laura

Arrival to Orientation

2006-10-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends,
There is so much new to share, so much I want to tell you...I'll give you as much as I can!
Staying with Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jack for a time before leaving was so wonderful. Exactly what I needed, when I needed it! Thank you so much for your support, mighty prayers and for making sure I got on the plane! I want to share every bit of this time with you because I know strongly you prayed for me and with me leading up to this.
I arrived here Thursday afternoon and there weren't many new students on base. That's what we are considered, students, as we are participants of the Discipleship Training School. Over the next few days, 14 other students would arrive for my school and about 80 students for the schools that are running concurrently. Plus about 100 people on staff as teachers, local daily ministry members , base directors, maintanence, and support. Thats way too much of "Hi, I'm Laura. I'm from the US. I'm here for the Sports DTS." Plus trying to remember there name, rank and country, but I'm doing pretty well with that.
I thought the first thing I would do was shower, but instead I went to town with a girl, Andrea, who was back in Perth YWAM to do the School of Art Evangelism (SAE). I didn't really need to go to town, but knowing how to get there seemed like a good idea. So how I get to town: walk about 5 minutes including on a foot bridge over the freeway to the train station, Claisebrook stop. The train is similar to the Light Rail in Sacramento. Two stops in brings me to the Perth city center stop. There are 4 main lines that radiate into the town from the city center. The train is free for the first two stops, which luckily includes us! After town, I finally showered and made it to dinner at 5:30. Dinner is another experience. A dining room which can hold about 300 people. They let the YWAM families sit together and the rest of us sit at a table with them if there is room or together at the other tables. Almost everynight there has been a birthday and this is celebrated for each person. They get a special table set for them and 7 friends with nice plates, napkins (which we don't use here b/c they are a waste of money, if anyone wants to send me a cloth napkin or two it would be welcome!) and snacks. At the end of dinner, everyone sings a special birthday song and they bring you out a homemade cake. My roommate, Elle from England, is having a birthday next week so I'll get to share in the festivities with her! Ok that enough about that day.
Roommates:
I live with 5 other girls, in a room about 12'x14'. We have 3 bunk beds, and wardrobe closet and a shelf unit. You can probably see why on the frist night I was asking myself why I left my nice apartment, income, and friends to come live in these conditions!
My bunkmate, Verena. She is 19, from Germany. Today I realized this is equivelent to having my little sister with me!
Another 19 year old, Jes, from Denmark.
Elle, 22 355/365 (her math) from southern england. She is an absolute kick!
Kathy, 30, from Canada
Coriana, from Holland, but she is leaving tomorrow as she did the last school and has just taken her time leaving. We get a new girl in a few days who is arriving late for our school.
All of the girls are in the Sports DTS with me.
I have made friends with so many others too. The ones closer to my age group offered for me to go hang out at their house if I ever feel like the younger gals are getting to be too young!! Everyone here is so friendly and look out for eachother. As Elle says with her British accent, they are sound as a pound! There have been so many signs that I was headed to and am now in the right place. It's so amazing!
Today was orientation where we paid fees, got our books, took base tours, and filled out interest forms for our work duty assignments. Class in the afternoon. Our days are going to be so busy! Then we all went to King Park, which is a huge, beautiful park and garden and wildlife sanctuary all in one. We all, students and staff, played a few games together including slip and slide tug of war. It was a lot of fun and I will go back to the park to explore more. We were supposed to have a bar b (bbq) at the park today, but the weather was very tempermental , rainy and windy today so they brought us back to base for a feast of burgers and hotdogs. The experienced ones tell us don't get used to that much food! There is plenty to eat, but our plates are not overflowing with food. Makes me realize how in American culture we are used to having so much on the table, even if we don't eat it.
It is now almost 11 pm my time (8 am tues morning your time) and this is the latest I have stayed up since I've been here. See what having the internet does to you! Good night! I love you all!!

T minus 7 days

2006-09-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

Wasn't I just telling people I'm leaving in two weeks? Now it's one!! If the 6 months of DTS moves as fast as these past few weeks, I'll be home in no time! I'm glad I gave myself two weeks of not working before I left; there is a lot to do, ends to tie up, people to see and things to pack before one leaves the country.

Praise Reports:
The fundraiser dinner, on Sept. 9th, was perfect! It met and exceeded my expectations. I had RSVP's for 45, 35 showed up, and I had cooked for 55!! That ended up being ok because my guests were happy to buy a little take home box or two to help the cause! My expected support goal to raise after the cost of food was $700. At the end of the night after ticket costs, silent auction prizes, doggie bags, mailed-in and additional donations was $1500!!! Double the amount! Thank you all so much! My friends who helped me plan, cook, set-up, run errands and clean-up...you made such a difference and I really could not have done this with out you, nor would I have wanted to. I enjoyed the excuse to spend extra time with you. Thank you for your time, energy and commitment to see the event through.

Support status:
Goal: $9000 ($5000 before I leave and the rest by Christmas)
Current amount: $7800
You'll find a big smile on my face as I share this with you!! Thank you all so much!! This is really happening!

Prayer Requests:
Please pray for my Discipleship Training School and the members who are coming to be a part of the program. That we would all be safe in travel, visas would be granted, money would be provided, friendships among us would grow quickly, that God's will would be done and that we would be effective to make a difference in the lives of many. I know currently there are 16 people in my program, from 9 different countries. A few other students arrive on the same day as me, Sept. 28.

Please pray that I get everything done and that it goes smoothly. This weeks goals are to get my car oil changed, put the rest of my stuff into storage, write thank you letters, haircut, pack, spend time with family and friends, say goodbyes and try not to cry to much!

I love you all and you are so special to me. I have the best people surrounding me...I'm so lucky!!! Thank you for your support and excitement for this new step!

Laura

Trust, Work Hard, Relax

2006-08-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

Time for an update...

This week finds me sleeping in my temporary home at my friend Laura's. Everynight this week has been spent packing, emptying, and cleaning my apartment, ending tonight. The week started out hard and I again felt like there wasn't enough time to get everything done. But with the words "what can I do to make this easier for you?" from a friend's mouth and recieving my visa in one day instead of the stated 14, things picked up quick. We are all so busy, but it's amazing to see and experience my friends gathering around me to help me on this journey. You all impress me so much!

Next at the top of my list:
Plan the details of my fundraiser dinner
Figure out what to do with the stuff that's in my friend's garage (garage sale or donate)
Make a ton of phone calls to cancel gym membership, cell phone, car insurance, etc.

I've been keeping my ears and eyes open for inspiration to help verbalize my goals, desires and dreams for this missions trip. This is new territory for me and I'm learning more about my own heart and strengths. I'm ok with not having it all figured out or knowing what to expect. God is the Alpha and Omega, He goes before me and behind me. He's already been there, so I don't need to worry.

6 weeks to go

2006-08-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

I have 6 weeks and some change before I make my way to LAX for a two day flight that will set my feet in Perth, Australia. My list of things to do is long and a lot of it needs to be done in the next two weeks! Mail my support letters, plan a fundraiser dinner, move out of my apartment and put my things in storage/friend's houses and finish my Australian visa process...those are the big things. Today I'm checking buy my plane ticket and start a blog off my list!

Welcome all who will be a part of my journey and my support team! This is where I'll be posting updates and pictures to keep you informed of all the amazing things that are awaiting me. Please check in often and I welcome all comments and emails. Any contact from home is more than welcome and appreciated!