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i said i was going to post more often didn't i? haha, i'm sorry, i'm such a slacker. thing is, my life is kind of boring right now, i dont' really know what to post!!! all i can think of is lists (i heart lists). so here is a list of things i need to do before i go back to ywam in october:
1. start and finish a massive fabric painting thing for the hertime night on wednesday night.
2. get my car's bonnet re-painted and sell it.
3. pray lots and figure out a financial plan for living and working at ywam with no income.
4. get rid a lot of STUFF.
5. sell stuff in a garage sale.
6. write, write, write.
7. read the pile of books i share a bed with.
8. finish scrap-booking my photos from my mission trip. (there are 500 photos!!)
9. write up testimony from my trip.
9. and do a powerpoint presentation thingy!
10. write a zillion letters i owe people around the world.
wow, there's a start. i know there is more, but it's just going to stress me out if i think too hard.
so here's the plan. i will be on staff at ywam in october. i now have exactly two months to organise my self, my stuff, everything! i am such a procrastinator, i seem to find any excuse to avoid doing any of these things. ('I'll just finish this season of veronica mars so it's out of the way', 'today can be a relaxing day'...).
but like writing this post, the only way anything is going to get done is to just DO IT!!
- Location:my room
- Mood:
lazy - Music:linkin park
Sunken down so far
So scared to fall
I might not get up again
So I lay at your feet
All my brokenness
I carry all of my burdens to you
All of these things
I've held up in vain
No reason nor rhyme
Just the scars that remain
Of all of these things
I'm so much afraid
Scared out of my mind
By the demons I've made
Sweet Jesus, you never ever let me go
Oh, sweet Jesus, never ever let me go
So happy to love
Yet so far to go
You lead me on to where I've never been before
- much afraid, jars of clay
i dont know, i just like these lyrics. i relate.
- Location:my room
- Mood:
calm - Music:paolo nutini
ok so one of my mid-year resolutions is going to be to post more. and now that i am back in western australia and not working i think i am going to have a bit more time to blog, write, email, read, paint, create....sounds amazing. my kind of resolutions :)
i'll be back.
love harry
- Location:my living room
- Mood:artistic
So, week six is about over here at YWAM, which marks the half-way point of the lecture phase!
Some exciting things have been happening over the past two weeks:
1. We have had lectures on the fatherheart of God and relationships.
2. Outreach locations were announced.
1. As usual, the lectures have been amazing.
Week five's topic was the fatherheart of God, which, when I heard about it, confused me slightly. I didn't really get what fatherheart meant. But we learnt about how God is our Father and Jesus is our Big Brother, who leads us to the Father. And while God's love for us is like a father's, it is beyond what any earthly Father could give! It was a real healing week for many people who were experiencing and receiving that love for the first time.
Week six was relationships. I thought this was going to be a 'lighter' week, but it was just as powerful and life-changing as all the other weeks have been! We were taught about what right relationships look like and how to be a good relator. I realised there are many things in my life that I do which are not good for my relationships with the people around me. It was good to see that and then turn from it!
2. Outreach locations!
Last week we were told where the Compassion DTS would be travelling to on outreach. One team would be going to Asia and the other to Africa, as well as both of us going to J-City. (I can't write exact locations on public websites sorry!).
So we had to seek God about where he wanted us to go to. I had a strong pull towards Africa (surprise, surprise) so I told my leaders and put it in God's hands. This week the teams were announced and I am off to J-City for April and May and Africa in June! Woohoo! (If you wanna know exact locations, send me at email harrietjcs@hotmail.com)
I am really excited about putting into practice what we have been learning in lectures as well as the practical skills workshops - I can now treat myself and others with oral rehydration solution when they get diarrhoea! Yay!
Of course going to these places and doing these things requires money but as a school and individually we are trusted God to provide these finances. We have been dong some fundraisers, such as car-washes at local service stations. People have been very generous and interested in what we are going to be doing.
Now we have been here for six weeks, the friendships that have formed are getting deeper and we are getting to know eachother really well. Although I was maybe a bit concerned about it at first, it has been awesome living in a room with 10 other girls. They are like my sisters now :)
We are still really busy during the week with Hands on Compassion (feeding ministry), small group and city evangelism, which have also been incredible. I really love he feeding ministry. Same as with the friendships with the girls in my dorm, now we have been going for five weeks, friendships are being built. There is one couple who I really enjoy seeing and the man, Terry, always has a new joke to tell me.
It has also been great having a few visitors!! Jodie came up on the week four weekend! It was sooooooo gooooood to see her :) Sarah has come to a couple of the open friday night meetings, but each time I have been on dishes duty or something so I have put her to work! It was great to see her last night :)
Wellllll that's the update on the past two weeks.
I miss everyone lots. Even though I am not that far away, it feels like I haven't seen you all in so long!
Please email me or comment back and let me know what has been happening with you!!!
Love yas,
Harry
- Location:my room
- Mood:
giddy
wow...i have an hour's gap in my day. i was going to shower, but that's not toooooo important, really.
just kidding, i will probably get around to it sometime this week...
so anyway...how's it going?? i am now into week four at ywam perth. it has gone so fast! this week we are hearing about sprirtual warfare and fear of the Lord. it is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, as each week's topics have been. after week one (the character of God), we had repentance and forgiveness (very full on, very emotional week BUT so good and life changing and amazing). week three was hearing God's voice, intercession and worship. that was great, answered so many questions i have had and i have already been able to apply the teaching to my life.
in between lectures we have been writing in our journals (which are sort of assessed each week). at first writing the journal was a bit of a chore, because it's not just writing whatever i want, but following a list of questions. but i've realised that the journal has helped me to apply the teaching properly and really gets me thinking.
we have also been getting out and about for 'hands on compassion' - the feeding ministry. i have met some amazing (yes, i know i am saying amazing a lot!) people there. many of them live on the streets and come into HOPE (helping people out everywhere) for a hot meal, food hamper, financial assistance and clean clothes. i have been three times now and already friendships are forming, its awesome.
in the arvos i have been in the media office, putting my journalistic skills to use. i have written two news-type stories for the ywam perth media website and one for the ywam perth general website. i am gonna be working on another one this arvo about all the different schools that are running this quarter.
i have been teaching all the foreigners aussie lingo and how to speak lazily, like saying 'expenno' - they love that! all the other aussies here call me hazza but it's funny when the foreigners call me that!
last saturday we had a great australia day. i felt a lot more patriotic this year, being surrounded by foreigners! in the morning we held a car wash to raise funds for our outreach (which is only two months away!) and it was very successful. later in the evening we headed down to the foreshore and watched the fireworks and tried to teach 'advance australia fair' ("what does girt mean?") to the non-aussies. check out my facebook page for pics :)
it has been great to see a few peeps who have visited me :) (hint, hint). millie, ebonie, nicola and tom came up for one of our open friday night meetings (yay i love youse) and mum and dad came and took me out for breaky and lunch the following day, which was really nice. i am looking forward to jodie coming up for a friday night meeting this week! yaaaaaaaaay!
well i feel like i have only scratched the surface of what is happening here but this email is getting pretty long and i still haven't had a shower.
please write to me!! send me an email or write to YWAM Perth, PO Box 8501, Perth Business Centre, WA, 6849.
i am aiming to write more regularly so i can go a bit deeper. i would love to share the AMAZING stuff i have been learning in our teaching every day!
love youse all
peace out
harry
- Location:my bed
so i am making my new online home at lvejournal. cos for some inexplicable reason, ywam has vox.com blocked so even tho i had already made an online journal, i have to make a new one so i can actually update in once in a while.
so anyway, please log on here to see my updates and adventures :)
peace out. harry.
(copied from original vox.com journal!)
heloooooooooooooooooooo
sorry this has taken me a while to write my first blog at YWAM. here is my explanation: the internet at the base i am living at has no internet for two weeks!! two weeks!!! so today i made the long trek to mount lawley to this awesome cafe called exomod which gives u free internet connection to your laptop when u buy a coffee. it's a God-send, seriously.
so anyway. I can't believe a week has gone by already.
i arrived on sunday to the YWAM base in claisebrook. mum, dad, tom, nicola and millie all came up to drop me off and we had a quick tour around the base with one of my leaders, nirina.
then i was shown to where i would be sleeping for the next three months - a room on the base with 11 other beds in it (i had been expecting to be in a room with maybe two other girls!). i met two other girls who had already arrived - anna from denmark and summer from hawaii.
then i realised that the rest of my family were going to be going home, to my house, to my cat, to my church, to my friends, to my mandurah without me. without me :( so i had a bit of a teary moment (okay, maybe more than a moment). we said goodbye and i started to unpack (struggling to fit all my stuff into three small shelves - my hair care, makeup and new skin products took up a shelf on their own - i'm blaming u petrina!).
i was still a bit teary, which i felt silly about, seeing as i am in a much better position as everyone else in my school, who has crossed wither states or countries to get to YWAM perth and will therefore not be able to visit their family in the free time, as i will hopefully be able to.
but as soon as i actually talked to the other girls in my room (by then i had also met natalie from melbourne, hazel from hong kong, yoonhee from south korea, lizzy from canada, dana and tori from the usa and later on faith from queensland and dominique from canada/new zealand), i realised i could make YWAM home for the next three months.
there are 24 people (8 of which are aussie, i am the only person from WA) in my school, the compassion DTS. those who aren't living in my room are living in accomodation near to the base. (they may have more space, but i glad that i dont have to wake up earlier to walk 15 mins to get to the base for the 6am morning exercises!!).
on monday and tuesday we just had information overload - a lot of orientations and registration stuff.
on wednesday lectures started, which are amazing. this week we had them on the character of God. i am learning so much and i feel like i need to take a day off just to sit there and process it all!
i'll give u a run-down on what a basic day-in-the-life of a ywamer looks like:
5am: wake up - do quiet time
6am: morning exercises (this hasn't started yet, but it will on monday ugh)
6:30am: fight about 15 other girls to get into one of the two showers, get dresses, to makeup etc, have breakfast etc
8am: morning chores - cleaning toilets, sweeping floors, making sure everywhere is tidy etc
8.30am: worship/announcements etc
9.30am-12.30pm: lectures
12.30pm: lunch
1.30pm-3.30pm: usually its time to do weekly journal, homework, one-on-one time with leader. on tuesdays i have 'hands on compassion' (HOC)*, where i will be working with a ministry that feeds the hungry in the city.
3.30pm-5.30pm: work duties. everyone in ywam does 2 hours of work a day - everyone in my room except for me and another girl, lizzy, have to do kitchen dishes etc. lizzy and i have the 'work' duty called media (cos we both have experience in that area). we basically have to design brochures, edit wording, play with photoshop etc etc. who would have known those four years at the Mandurah Mail could get me out of doing dishes for three months!!
5.30pm: dinner
6pm-7.30pm: the other girls in our dorm have to do dinner dishes so in this time lizzy and i are the only ones in our dorm - an answer to prayer! not cos i don't like them, but cos God knew i needed some alone time!!
7.30pm: either free time, school announcements, lectures etc. on thurs nite all the ywamers go to the city for evangelism - something that will start next week. i am pretty nervous about it! on friday nites we have an open-to-the-public friday nite meeting (FNM), which are really amazing. its like a big youth church service or something. great worship. u should come along!!
*everything in YWAM is shortened to an acronymn!
on weekends it is pretty much free time to go to the shops, for the foreigners to visit all the WA sites (by the way, pretty much EVERYONE is a foreigner. its rare to actually talk to an aussie. its weird being the minority in my own country!), do homework (we have three book reports, weekly journal questions, a research project etc), and do washing etc. sometimes we will have weekend chores, like today i am on cooking dinner duty. sometimes the school will do an activity together, like today we are going to the beach for a BBQ dinner.
i am really hoping i will be able to go back to mandurah some weekends to see my family and friends. at the moment everything is so full on and busy tho. maybe next weekend!!
my leaders are amazing. i feel so comfortable sharing my weaknesses and fears with them.
at the same time as my school is running there are about six other schools running, (including the young people's DTS, with 50 or so teenagers) so there are always A LOT of people around.
okay, this is a lot of info, but i thought u might wanna know a little bit about what i am doing or will be doing for the next three months while i am in perth before the three months overseas.
i will hopefully update again soon, but time is very scarce. i apologise in advance if i don't reply to comments/emails/facebook messages!!
love u all and God bless,
harry
- Mood: crazy
heloo!!!
welcome to my new blog. i am starting it so that i can keep in contact with people while i am away for six months doing a compassion discipleship training school with youth with a mission.
the first three month will be in perth, where i will be living at the ywam base. the second three months will be the 'practical' phase of the course and the group will be travelling overseas to put what we have learnt into practice!!
i hope i will regularly update this blog and that u will keep in contact with me by commenting!!
i will try and upload pics, but there are heaps on my facebook page if not!
love u heaps and God bless always,
harry
- Mood: crazy
