Progress

So the townhouse was ok, but really, there is no way i would put all my hard earned savings into that place... it wasn't the quality of the townhouse that was the problem, but rather the dodgy neighbours and the fact that there were 79 adjacent townhouses .... that's right, 79!!!! ...so 80 in the complex. May as well be a high density block of cement flats filled with derelicts, druggies, etc... When i walked around the block, there were all sorts of tattoo-covered creepy men roaming around, some pottering in the miniture couryards out the front smoking. I felt very uneasy just walking up the driveway, i can't imagine living around these guys. They would have to pay me to live there, and even then, i am not sure i would want to take up the offer. So, the house hunting continues.

We had a lunch meeting with the three Commissioners on Monday, which was tense and uncomfortable for me... and the worst part was that i had to eat lunch with them. I just don't know what on earth i am meant to say to these men in regard to social chit chat. I guess it is probably better just to say as little as possible, only speak when spoken to! On Tuesday, my boss told me off for greeting the Chief Justice with a "Hiya". I am apparently meant to greet him with "Good afternoon your honor, how are you?". How crazy. Well at least i didn't say "hey dude, how's it going?".

My sister's operation went really well. She had all the cancer taken out and the follow-up scans have shown no sign of any remaining abnormalities. She's recently found a new bf ... i have totally lost count now on how many she has had. I don't even know where she finds all these guys. One leaves and another seems to drop into her arms within a week.

My exercise routine is going well. However, i have started to note some growth in the old frame - my back seems to be widening longways, so i have split a few work jackets. Very strange and mysterious.

Over and out.

Could this be my new house?

I've been looking at so many city apartments to buy over the last year ... but each time I have walked away feeling utterly miserable at how what I want and what I can afford, are just so different. I have contemplated robbing a bank and other fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes, but being a Christian means I can't go down those paths, because my conscience would kill me, if someone else didn't get me first! ;)

I realise now how stupid I was so many years ago when friends on similar salaries at work bought their first homes. Three friends got: a gorgeous little two-bedroom partment in Crawley for $185K, a gorgeous two-bedroom apartment in Shenton Park for $150K and a stunning three-bedroom villa in Mosman Park for $162K. To get equivalent places like theirs will cost about double what they paid now. Ahhh, why was I such a fool with my money back then?

Last week, I went to look at a unit in Mount St in West Perth. I missed the home open, so I went outside the complex and it was just so beautiful that I almost fell over when I rang the real estate agent and was told there were no offers. I made an appointment to see the unit the next day, then went home and looked at the ad again. It turns out I somehow imagined the advert said the unit was on "Mount St" when, in fact it was "Malcolm St" ... BIG difference!!!! One houses millionaires, the other the not-so-well endowed! I think I was just dreaming of living on the beloved steep road that I run up on my lunch breaks, that somehow was reading Mount Street in every cheap ad. The actual unit was this crappy little rundown unit on the seventh floor of a huge apartment block with the option of either a very unsafe-looking spiral metallic staircase or a dodgy small lift to lug my furniture up. No thank you!

Anyway, so i'm now thinking I need to get out of the City, cos anything in my price range is pitiful.

Today, I had a flash of hope when I stumbled across a really cute little place. My sister, who is obviously an expert with real estate, rang up and asked them a million questions and thinks it sounds like a really good deal, so we're going to check it out on Tuesday morning. I can't wait. I am so excited. Oh please Lord, let this be my home. It looks stunning in the online piccies.

Repairing the foundations

Yesterday I went to Manduarah with Narelle and I got to meet her mum and explore the area with them, which was great, despite the intense heat. I think it was about 40 degrees down there!

Anyway, the main reason I went down there was to talk to Alice, who is a mighty warrior, who sees herself as a Prayer Lawyer for God. Prior to seeing her, God gave me a dream in which I was at the top of some very high scaffolding, like about 14 floors high. Strangely, instead of climbing down it in a normal manner, I hurled myself over the side and found myself swinging like monkey on the outside, climbing lower and lower from bar to bar. I didn't feel any fear, despite seeing the huge distance below me. I was strong and confident and I had a lot of courage. At the bottom, I found myself standing behind a guy holding a torch, and we were looking at the foundations of the building, which had a few cracks in it and needed repairing.

Alice said the dream was symbolic of my life and the fact that yesterday marked the start of some restorative work in me, where God would strengthen my foundations. For the last few weeks, I have had many flashbacks of my childhood and some awful experiences I had. Alice said it was because the Holy Spirit was revealing things to me in the lead up to meeting her, stuff that, after so many years, I needed to revisit and deal with.

The weird thing is, in the dreams I have, I am this super fit, super strong athletic person with no fear and I am dressed differently to how I would dress in real life. I would never wear clothes like that. I would never do the things I do in my dreams. My journey, my life, is just so strange.

I am so grateful God has finally brought a whole group of people into my life who understand dreams and visions, who know their calling and their purpose. Most of the young people in this church, if not all, have been to see Alice. God uses this lady in a realy amazing way. I don't really know much about her, just that she has managed to empower and set free so many people. Imagine her CV. Haha, what a funny thought.

Australia Day Breaky

This last week has been busy. I have worked long days at work and then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night, I went to a conference held by Chris Harvey, a crazy high profile dynamic Christian dude, who has led massive revivals in America. He also has a rather uncanny talent of being able to play the Indian Flute, which was nice to listen to, but very bizarre. It is a hard deal maintaining a full-day-at-work and then night-out life style. I have had to race home each day, have a shower, gobble down dinner and then fly out the door to his meetings.

This morning I dragged my tired self out of bed, waited for my sister to arrive at my house, then drove up to Floreat Beach, where a lovely couple we met on Chrissy day, invited us to share breaky with them. Funny how you just meet people and make friends with them without planning to. Kim and I worked in the same work place at different times – she started after I had left for my current job. She had a desire to help out at the Mission Australia lunch on Chrissy day, so some of people at work passed my details on to her. Then she and her hubby, Mark, came along on the day and we became friends. I‘ve been meaning to catch up with them, but my life has just been so busy. Then I got this email yesterday, inviting my sister and I along to this breaky this morning…. so I though, well why not! I don’t generally hang out with my sister, we are very different in every way and just having a conversation that is riveting to both of us, is a real struggle.

So we went along. Kim and Mark have only been in Perth for three months. They are one of those crazy couples that travel extensively, house sit all over the place, work many different types of jobs and make friends easily everywhere. They invited a few work colleagues from their current workplaces and then all their diving buddies (sitting around the table). They are very passionate about diving and they go to different States in Australia or different countries and compare marine life. All their diving buddies do that! Mark was saying that it is like going to a jungle and coming face-to-face with all the animals, only it’s below the water and they have no fear of man, so they come right up to your face and you can stroke them and play with them. How cool is that. They have also gone diving to places where there have been ship wrecks and where they've found treasures, like old china plates.

Talking to all their diving friends sparked my interest in diving and I think I’ll take up their offer and give it a go some time. Two of the big fellas were diving instructors and apparently they all go diving every Friday night and they catch prawns and crayfish and eat them together. Apparently, you have to do a four-day diving course before you can give it a shot though, which costs about $250. An all-inclusive 45-minute dive costs $50 and if you want to buy your own gear, that costs around $1,500.

I think i'll try inviting them to church next time I see them. It would be nice if these guys were Christians, given their exceptional abilities to make friends so easily and make everyone feel loved and welcome.

RVTV Crew Team 1

Last night was the last night on RVTV Crew for both Michael and I. Michael's jumping the State boundary to settle in Adelaide, where he'll be helping to establish the new film crew ministry for the Paradise church (which is where Guy Sebastian apparently came from). What a blessing for South Australia!

As for me, i've just had so much stuff on my plate for the last couple of months. I've been like a juggler with way too many things in my hands and I guess it's the start of a new season in my life, letting go of a few things in order to face new challenges and overcome new obstacles. I feel a bit heartbroken to withdraw from crew, because there is such a strong sense of community within the crew and it is awesome just sitting around in the green room and chatting to people that I probably wouldn't normally step out of my comfort zone to introduce myself to in a normal church service. I guess I am not leaving the country and everyone will still be around and it's not like I am banned from entering the green room, well I hope not anyway ;-) so I can still see everyone.

Recently, I have thrown myself into a new phase of prayer, where i've been praying for at least two hours a day. I just think it is so important. I know God hears me, because He's been answering so many little things... and i've got this list of people I pray for every day and I get this deep sense of satisfaction when I hear that their prayers have been answered. It fuels me into more prayer time.

Dave and Cate led me to an awesome little book called "Scripture Keys for Kingdom Living", which is a book filled with verses from the Bible that have been categorised into topics. If you feel really low one day or you have a bad headache or you're in dire need of finances or something, you go to the relevant section of the book and pray the scriptures that relate to what you need, over your situation. The word of God is life, it is nourishing to the soul and there is something mysteriously powerful about praying verses over your situation. You read the verses out loud and pray them again and again and it's like it empowers you to see the situation from God's perspective and it stirs up your faith and dispels your doubts and negativity and it enables miracles to happen. Definitely worth a shot!

This is a partial team photo from last night (some people hadn't showed up or had gone home already). I don't usually label my piccies, but seeing it's one of my last shots of crew, i may as well. In this piccy, left to right, we have Erling, Leanne, Micky, Karen, Michael, Me and Joelle. Then there's a collage capturing our dinner at Sebastians afterwards ;-) In this piccy, clockwise from the top left, we have Joelle, Rob and FrankPol, Liesel, Mathys, Lachlan, Joelle, Micky, Leanne and Michael. Praise God for He blessed us, and the hands that made our delicious pizza.

Mrs O'Donohue-to-be

Last night we went to the Olive Tree Restaurant to celebrate one of our last days with young hen Malone ... before she transforms into Mrs O'Donohue on 3 Feburay 2007! It was such a beautiful venue with little fairy lights decorating the room. We all had a lovely time. Congratualtions Joelle. We are all so blessed to have you as our friend.











This would have been a good shot if the waiter hadn't blurred it! ;-)



...and a final parting shot to sum up the night. Funny how all Joelle's film crew sisters wore black last night!!! Must be built into our default systems.

Plodding along

Work is going really well lately, although it is still very busy and the pressures will increase when we start a critical work process that is bound by very tight legislative deadlines. I'll have to do some weekend work then, and have frequent meetings with the Chief Justice and other high profile gurus. I am sort of dreading those meetings ahead, but then at the same time they are exciting. I hope during the year, my legs will stop shaking in the presence of these people! I find that as i go through more intense work tasks, i pray a lot more and i also push myselft much further through rigorous exercise. It seems to give me this incredible rush of adrenaline that gives me the clear mind and energy i need to make it through long days. Praise God! I know He promised us that if we commit our plans to Him, He will make us succeed.

I was pretty amused when my boss came back from holidays recently and put the Chrissy present i gave him, on his desk. So many people have said to him "What on earth is that?!?!" and he's replied that i gave it to him. What a funny guy. I never expected him to put it on his desk or even bring it back to work.

Living in style

This is my sister's very unique house.

Caring for those less fortunate

“The righteous care about justice for the poor …” [Proverbs 29:7]

Yesterday in church, Dave was saying how when he was in America recently, Mike Bickle from the International House of Prayer (IHOP), had suggested that we consider supporting a small orphanage in Africa. Support would include paying $1,400 per year to ensure the basic running costs were met and contributing to their spiritual development by praying for them, encouraging them through writing letters and visiting them to tell them about Jesus and to give them gifts.

As Dave has said many times, we only have one life to make a difference. If we build into the lives of these kids in Africa, visit them when we can and encourage them, they can impact the people around them and that will change their communities. Then we can all be rejoicing in Heaven together.

There were only about a dozen of us yesterday, but by the end of the service, we were all stirred up and we decided to commit to acting out our dream by raising the money within two weeks! How exciting!!!

I love the way these people are so on-fire for God. They get out and do things, they direct their time and energy and resources to things which make a difference in this world.

Christie also shared about how she had recently spent time with her 82-year old grandmother and was deeply saddened when she heard her say that she felt as though she had not done anything meaningful with her life. Her words really touched me and I think they aroused a new determination within us to make a difference with our lives.

What was also amazing is my sister came with mum and I to church yesterday and hearing Dave speak reminded her of a dream God gave her some 14 years ago. She said she saw herself working as a doctor in Africa, surrounded by kids! My sister’s life has been so tainted by the devil and the things of this world. It would be so incredible if she got her life back in order and turned back to God to serve Him whole-heartedly and fulfill His purpose for her. She has so much potential. As a qualified GP, her skills would be invaluable in a third world country. I think she was meant to be there yesterday.

I could definitely see myself going on a missions trip this year, though i'm not sure what i would contribute!