Surrender

This past weekend I went to the UNOH (Urban Neighbours Of Hope) Conference...Surrender. It was amazing I got to hear some really great speakers (Jackie Pullinger, Shane Claiborne, Tim Costello) and hang out with some great friends! I really took a lot away with me from this conference. It was a lot to take in over such a short period of time...but WELL WORTH IT!!!!!!!!

I am EXHAUSTED today...however I feel that half of the reason for that is the fact that it is a really dull and dreary day here in Melbourne! Now...just as I've written that last sentence, the sun has decided to make an appearance...in typical Melbourne style. There really can be all four seasons in 1 day here!

I picked up a couple of good books at the Surrender...fools for a revolution conference. I think that I forgot to mention before that it was a fools for a revolution theme! I can easily fit in with that! ANYWAYS...picked up some good books and started reading them over the weekend. SO GOOD. I'll blog more about them later!

For now I should go and enjoy the sunshine for the few minutes that it may last!

24/7 Prayer

The Salvation Army Australian Southern Territory has launched a year of 24/7 prayer this week. The launch was really amazing and the chapel at THQ has been set up so beautifully. I've spent a fair bit of time in there praying...and it has been wonderful. God has spoken to me. He has joined me there in that room and it could not have been better.

Tonight is my first 2Love event since I've been on the team. We are hosting a night out at the movies...our advertisements have been "Invitation to Change the World (and see a movie)" I'm really looking forward to it. We have the whole theatre rented out and we get to play Stop the Traffik video's before hand and have a discussion after. We will also be serving coffee (fair trade of course)! I am anticipating a great night of good fun and learning!

Lately I've had a bit of a chance to catch up with Heather Keeler a few times over instant messanger. That has been so great for me and I'm looking forward to seeing her and Jono in October when they come to Melbourne for a visit! So fun!

Also, this weekend I'm going to try to get to a bit of a conference that is put on by UNOH (Urban Neighbours of Hope...look them up at www.unoh.org...they are a pretty sweet organization!) The speakers at this conference are going to be amazing and I'm looking forward to hearing them speak!

That's it for now!

Weekend Away

Oh my goodness Jordan! I had so much fun in Sydney this weekend that I didn't even want to leave. It was crazytown..in a good way! It was so exciting to see good friends who I'd not seen in ages and to just hang out and have fun together.



Casey's party was a great time! It was so weird walking up to the front door and there was CASEY! It felt like ages since I'd seen her. It was so great! Got to hang out with Sean and Matt and Emma on Saturday and that was just good fun! I laughed and laughed until I thought I was going to vomit!




Matt and Emma also gave me a great compliment this weekend! They told me that I was one of the greatest storytellers ever. That was cool for me! I love telling stories! ...And now I know at least a couple of people like listening to them! How great!

Anyways...the bottom line is...SYDNEY WAS GREAT! FRIENDS ARE GREAT!

I also came to the realization this past 2 weeks or so...that I AM REALLY REALLY REALLY RICH IN FRIENDS! I have amazing friends. Yesterday I got home from work and had a beautiful card in the mail from a good friend. I am constantly getting phone calls and e-mails from good friends, etc., etc. I AM BLESSED!

I'm Off To Sydney!

I'm off to Sydney for the weekend...As I've already said before I'm going for Casey's 21st which is on tomorrow night!

Today was a good day. I had a lot of fun...and a lot of coffee...hmmmm...maybe those two things go together!! We had a great lunch of poutine! All Canadians reading this blog will actually know what that is! So that was a nice bonus for me!

Only 3 MORE HOURS until my plane takes off for Sydney! Yippee!!!! I'm not the biggest fan of flying...but this will seem short compared to the journey to get from Canada to Australia...I'll feel like we've barely even left the ground!

YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! Vanessa - I'll try to bring you something back from your beautiful city!

FINALLY I CAN HAVE A TITLE AGAIN!

First of all...I'm very proud because I made my first Latte ever! Lorelle taught me how to make it...it was fantastic! So the photo above is that Latte!

Obviously my week must be going better cuz I can title my blogs again! Today was crazytown...I went to a meeting with Dave and when we came out to go to the car there was HAIL! So the ground was all white...it felt a bit like home!

Not too much news to tell. I'm looking forward to going to Sydney this weekend for the lovely Casey's 21st! That should be exciting...I'll be sure to post pictures of that after the weekend!

That's it for now...10 points for me!

Still can't get a title to work on my blog...DOH! So...just to finish off the story of yesterday. MY DAY DEFINATELY DID NOT IMPROVE. My car broke. I could not get it to start...due to my OWN STUPIDITY! I left my lights on and it drained the battery. Luckily I knew who to call. Danielle...she saved me. She came and boosted the battery and then it was all good.

Today was much better. Minus the whole not being able to title my blog thing!

Tonight I'm having dinner with Cate. That will be fun. Then we are both going to a fun movie night with some friends! Good times!

GRRRRRRRRRRRR...for some reason I could not make this blog have a title. Not sure why! I might go back and try to fix it later. Today was one of those very interesting days. It felt like my head was going to explode. I just had too much racing around my mind at the same time. Oh well! Tomorrow will be better.

I had the most random day. I got my business cards...but they were wrong...DOH! And I also got to talk to Shannon on the phone which was good. That was so the most random thinking...but that's seriously what it's been like for me all day today. It is really funny!

Tonight I am down to make dinner at home. Who knows what I'll decide to make! It could be interesting. There are only 2 of us home this week anyways because my other 2 housemates are in PNG visiting their parents who are officers stationed there. So it is pretty weird having half of the house away.

I think that maybe this weekend I might try to explore Melbourne a little bit...I'm not much of an explorer on my own...so we'll see how that goes. It could be fun! It will at the very least be an adventure of some sort. Life is crazytown...but good!

Slack Blogger...

Arrrgh! I am such a slack blogger the last little while. I get really good for a bit and they I die down...then I get good again. So hopefully we've entered the good phase at the moment...only time will tell I suppose!

I had a good weekend. On Friday night I got to hang out with a fellow Canadian. That was great fun! Then on Saturday I went over to Cate's to help her set up for Leah's 21st...and then I went to Leah's 21st. It was all good fun. Cate and Michael got puppies which is really very exciting. They are SOOOOOOOO cute! I will try to post a picture of them another time. I don't have my camera cord with me at the moment.

On sunday I had a good day also. I ended up going to a couple of different church services. One was definately more boring than the other...but both were pretty good. I also spent some time in the afternoon hanging out with friends which was fun...and later that night I went to see the movie knocked up. It's pretty funny but has some pretty foul language in it.

Well...I will try to be more faithful in my blogging...but I'm not making any promises. I just don't want to have to break them.

Yippee!!! My First Thing Is Done!

The first part of my job here in Aus. was to get the 2Love website information ready...and that is now done! Yippee! Ben, the guy who actually did the webpage, did an AMAZING job and it looks so good! I am really really happy with it...

Check it out at www.2love.salvationarmy.org.au

Things are going really well for me here. I am happy and I am loving life! I do need a new supply of Tim Hortons coffee though because I drank the last of it yesterday...so I'll have to get someone on that for me!

Today I got to spend some time with Noah, who is my boss Dave's 5 year old son. He is just too cute. I still can't get over how cute kids with accents are! Then this afternoon I got to meet Kaja, who is Sonia's (the assistant TYS)little girl. She was so adorable...so outgoing!

Well...I should go...I'm watching a movie with my fellow Canadian Esther tonight! That's it...that's all!

Footy, Sam's 18th & Canada Day!!!

I had a very very eventful weekend this weekend! On Friday night we had "God & Pizza" which is the youth group at Shop 16 (Reservoir Salvos) and we had a fun night playing Karaoke video games and it was great! Then on Saturday I went to my second ever Footy game. I saw St. Kilda play. It was great...I went with Cate and her husband Michael and some kids from Reservoir. That was so much fun!

Following that on Saturday night I went to Sam's (a girl who goes to shop 16)18th birthday Party. It was so much fun!

THEN on Saturday I hosted a Canada Day party with Esther (from Toronto!) at my house. We played Canadian Trivia (with prizes to win I might add!) and we had Canadian music playing and Esther had downloaded some great Molsen Canadian commercials and we watched them! Hilarious! Then Esther and I taught all the Aussies the words for O Canada and we went out onto the front lawn with sparklers and sang O Canada! It was so much fun! Oh...and we also had Poutine and Burgers and a great time!

So...as you can see my weekend was absolutely fantastic! Yippee!!!