Where has the time gone!?

 After four amazing months in tropical Australia I have 3 weeks left. 1 week left in Cairns for exams and then 2 incredible weeks to travel around with my girls to Townsville (for a night), Sydney, Melbourne, and Tasmania. A grand total of 6 flights in 14 days, not to mention the 20 hour flight back into the States. So really I will have about 9 different flights in a total of 2 weeks.. I think I will be set for life. Really though what do I have to complain about, I am in Australia! And I am soo blessed to be here. Here are a few picture updates:

Maya in front of the Tanks at the Botanic Gardens

Caitlin trying out the "silks"

We got to go with our amazing friend Marisa to the tanks and watch her (who does professional shows doing this and in circus's and such) she is pretty much awesome. And Caitlin tested it out as well!

Some ladies from the church!

Addie and I at tea for 2

 Addie and I joined some of the ladies at the church for an event called Tea for Two. It was put on to help raise money and awareness for child trafficking and commercial sexual exploration. It was a great time and had a heart breaking video of what is happening to the Lords beautiful children.

At Josephine Falls, that had a natural rock slide

The big waterfall up at the top of the trail at Josephine

Wee little croc

 The uni put on a "mini" petting zoo with a baby croc, turtles, a python, and a few other animals. I got to pet the croc and hold the python! Thankfully they weren't adults..

Maya, Addie, and I holding the python

Needless to say it has still been a blast and this weekend I get to jet off to Chillagoe to investigate some limestone caves with Addie! Yeehaw, God is good!

Time flies when you are having fun.

It is hard to find the words to express what has been going on in my life for the past 3 in a half months. I can't even begin to say how blessed I am! It has been awhile since my last post but life has been crazy and full of adventure. So I thought I would start by listing just a few of the things the Lord has given me:

 

On top of the Pyramid

1. Bonfires on the beach.

2. Wanting to die when hiking the worlds tallest natural pyramid: Walsh's Pyramid.


3. Swimming at a place called Babinda Boulders (the BIGGEST boulders I have ever seen).

At the Boulders

4. Going to a home bible study.



5. Field trip to a place called Yungaburra where I stayed in my first hostel (which was adorable).

My first hostel!

6. Spotlighting at night for wild animals in the rainforest where I got to see possums in the trees, spiders, bugs, and the deepest crater I have ever seen in my life (I told people it was 100 miles deep buttt I think that may be a little over the top but you catch my drift).

7. Watching my teacher leap across a fence to grab a snake in the pitch black of night. I thought he was jumping to his death so I almost shouted: "Really life's not so bad lets talk about it!!"

8. Seeing the largest Curtain Fig tree in the wet tropical rainforest.



9. Seeing the Tablelands, with kangaroo as road kill. It's kind of weird I always expect deer.

10. Going to Undara to see the dry rainforest and open savannah where we saw black geckos with zigzags on their backs and got to watch the sun set.

A kanga and her joey!

11. Staying in a bungalow! With kangaroo hangin out right next to us.

12. Hiking a crater.

At the top of one of our hikes at Undara

13. Taking the Skyrail up above the rainforest to a place called Kuranda.

These are the carts we road in above the rainforest!

14. 3 day outer reef trip on a sailboat. Which we slept on in the middle of nowhere with no boats around or land in sight.

Our lovely home for 3 days

15. Had the privilege  of snorkeling and doing a guided dive on this reef trip where I saw: turtles, sharks, sting ray, big fish, and the most vibrant colored coral as well as fish. And while diving I got to literally swim inside a school of fish and could have laid down on the ocean floor. AMAZING!

16. Watching dolphins swim so close to our boat that you could reach out and touch them.

17. Catching and eating our own fish for dinner! Never thought I would be doing that. I have been convinced for 20 years that fish=disgusting. Not so much when it's as fresh as you can get.

A marlin! One of the many fish caught by the sailors

18. Going to school (yes I go to uni) having group projects, tests, quizzes, and portfolios. Well technically I only have to go to school 2 days a week so lets be honest other people have it wayy harder than I do.

19. Glow stick run in the pitch black, lets just say it wasn't a super organized run and we were told to stay in the middle of the road because, "there are a lot of ditches on the sides and last year we had one guy fall in". Aka that ditch is probably filled with creepy creatures that could potentially kill you. Why? Because this is Australia.

Addie, Caitlin, and I gear-in up

20. Most importantly out of all these adventures is that our amazing Australian roommate, Laura, accepted Christ as her Savior as Addie and I got the privilege of praying with her.

Our beloved Laura!!   

Roommies (Addie, Me, and Laura)

Needless to say the adventures and blessings here have been endless. The church is like a home away from home and every time we go the Lord surprises me. Even though by now I shouldn't be shocked by the fact that our God is so good. Every time I feel like I should be condemned or be getting in "trouble" the Lord reminds me of His compassion and love for me, which I am so undeserving of. There have been a few downs to my adventure but of them only come good:

1. I had a parasite in my intestines for 3 weeks, lost my appetite and motivation to move.
2. Got strep throat and was out for 2 weeks.

Yet He still managed to heal me before all my tests, trips, and crazy days. He reminded me how good of friends He blessed me with. Who would stay in and watch movies with me or tuck me in before they left and through that time not once did I feel homesick which usually I would. Now I am healthy as a horse (fingers crossed) and ready to hammer out these last 4 weeks of school and exams. Then on to my 2 week adventure to the south! Where I will be going to Townsville, Sydney, Melbourne, and Tasmania. Booyaa!!

Faithfulness

It has been a roller coaster ride for me thus far. Before I left I was sure that I was coming here and would be involved with the church right away I was more excited for it than school. Then I got here and was so confused because the church had seemed to be a dead end, no contact with them or anyway to get there. This caused me to wonder why I was here because, I was so sure it was to get involved with the church. Silly me, I have a tendency to get fixed on one thing and cling to that. By doing this I miss out on all the other really great things the Lord brought me here to see and do. I really believe that He used this first month to rock my world and remind me that it isn't MY world, He is in control and sometimes what He has got in store is wayyy different than I ever thought (and so much better). Slowly my confidence for being here slipped away, He was teaching me how to live by His confidence. Now this may not make sense or may not be a complete sentence but what I mean is that I thought I had it all under control. I made the mistake of allowing my confidence in what I thought was His plan become cockiness in a sense. By taking my confidence away it forced me to rely solely on Him and forced me to have confidence centered around Him and His plan for me here. I struggled a lot the first few weeks with letting go of my old ways and how I did things back in the States. I was so used to having an excellent support system and a community of believers around me at all times that it was hard to have no one to talk to about the way I was feeling. Maybe it was a little bit of my own pride that was getting in the way of me being real and facing the fact that I was way more scared than I ever thought I would be and lets be honest.. I miss my baby blanky! Yes, I am 20 years old and still love to snuggle with my blanket. My only hope is that this doesn't become an issue for my future husband.. this could be a make or break it situation. The blanky always wins. Okay not really (but really). The great thing about being scared is that it causes us to cling to something else and for me that something else was Him. Being scared actually is and was a blessing to me because it is childish to be scared. Why? Because God has got it. Trust. Trust is one of those things I have to wake up every single day and choose to do. I have to consciously choose to trust the Lord multiple times throughout the day and maybe even every 5 minutes. It is a battle and not an easy one at that but trust, well it is everything.

I know that I am suppose to trust the Lord, I get that. But it is way easier said than done, I think I am trusting Him and then I find myself one second later planning the rest of my life again! I then proceed to give myself a mental slap in the face. I would look like an idiot if I really slapped myself but maybe that would work better.. anywhoo. I realized that I needed to stop pitting myself and the fact that things were not going like I had thought they would. I came to the conclusion that sometimes God gives us callings but He isn't just going to lay it all at our feet, that would just be too easy! We have to do some work too, we have got to fight for it. So I decided to ring the church up and see what would happen after that (I probably should have done this earlier but of course my thought process was, "Oh if this is something the Lord wants He will make it known to me or they would answer my email if this was what the Lord wanted"). I think as Jesus followers we have a tendency to think that way. Talking to the lady, Denise, on the phone I got a swift kick in the behind that was reaffirming what I already knew: things won't just be laid in your lap. Denise and I quickly got to talking and I found out that there is indeed a bus that goes near the church, that her daughter lived in Texas (where my sister lives), and get this her husband led Younglife in Melbourne!! I think I just started laughing when she said that not because it was funny but because the Lord is so funny. It reminds me that He has personality, I could just imagine Him smiling down at me. I think He and I both had been waiting for that phone call a long time. So once again I am astounded by the faithfulness of my Savior, He is everything good. After waking up at 7 o'clock to get ready and make an 8 o'clock bus to take us into town (might I add that service wasn't until 10), after waiting for the wrong bus that was suppose to show up at 9:30 and never did, and being told that the right bus wasn't to come until 10:30 which ended up really coming at 10 (such a blessing), and running across the Australian highways, we made it. I walked through the doors of Cairns City Church with three amazing people at my side this past Sunday. The song that hit our ears right away was a familiar one to me, the Revelation Song by Phillips, Craig, and Dean. Here is a tiny part of the song if you need a refresher:

"Filled with wonder,
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your Name
Jesus, Your Name is Power
Breath, and Living Water
Such a marvelous mystery"

 Needless to say there was a fountain of emotions running through me when I got there and as I stood and watched all of these people lift their hands up to the Lord I was filled with immense Joy. I was so overwhelmed (in a good way) that I began to cry. The last 10 months from beginning this journey until that moment, washed through me like the raging sea. I had so badly wanted to see that their were believers somewhere else than the States and what I was familiar with. I know that may sound naive but I have read in the Bible about so many believers all over the world in different countries and since I had never been out of the country before I had never witnessed it (typical human wanting to literally SEE everything) and I had only seen the believers who I was surrounded by from my own community. That may sound stupid and I feel kind of stupid for saying it but I swear it makes sense in my head! After I was done with my sob fest the rest of the service went great and one thing that has come to a surprise to me is the longing for partaking in communion. It is something I take advantage of back in the States just because I have a church and I know I can go whenever on Sundays. Being here in Australia that privilege was taken away from me. Communion is just such a symbol and acknowledgement of what Christ did for us and it is so apart of who I am. I know that He would love me anyway if I took communion or not but for the first time I actually missed it. Who would have guessed out of all the things to miss it would be that?! Oh wait I know who. Lame! I wish I could be that cool and "all-knowing". I bet everyone would want to be my friend then!! Anyways, after the service we went to lunch with some amazing women and had some great food and chats. They even offered to pick us up every Sunday for church so we wouldn't have to take the bus. Wow. He spoils me.

So lets just say that it was not easy getting there and lets be honest it wasn't any of my doing that got us there. It was quite an adventure if you ask me.

P.S. here are some fun random pictures:

Mossman Gorge -Daintree Rainforest

Hiking in the Daintree Rainforest

Crazy, awesome, ride!

Where in the heck did these 3 weeks go?! As I approach my month mark for being in Australia my mind is baffled. It has been go, go, go. I have been fortunate enough to see some amazing things that words cannot describe, God's beauty is written all over this land. Things are now finally starting to slow down and mellow out a little bit and the newness of it all is starting to become familiar. Sometimes we will be walking down the street or I will wake up in the morning and forget where I am at. I feel as if I am still back in the States and a lot of us wonder if it will ever sink in that we are here. This trip has been nothing at all like what I expected. Everything I thought would happen or had "planned" to have happen.. hasn't. Which is what I should have expected because I have this tendency to think up brilliant plans and set my mind to it. The moment I stepped off the plane I knew it wasn't anything like I had planned it to be. The first three nights I was utterly alone, no one was here. I am serious literally NO ONE. The 5 students that I met were amazing Australians who were so nice to me but had school all day and I only saw them at dinner. I have never felt so alone in my life, the first night I wanted to jump right back on that plane and go home to my family and friends. So lets be honest.. I cried myself to sleep a few nights. Yeah, yeah I know what a loser!! I don't think I have ever prayed so hard for the Lord to make me feel His presence and each night I new He was holding me as I tossed and turned. I even woke up in the middle of the night and forgot where I was, thought I was at my Grandparents house in the Queens room. Then the slow and painful realization came over me of where I really was. Okay enough of the sob fest! So basically it was way harder than I thought it was going to be. My saving grace came to be this prayer from a book my dad gave me to read on the plane ride over called: The Prayer of Jabez. Every morning and night I would close my eyes and call on the Lord and say: "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." The Lord has so many blessing in store for each of us through out the day but in order for us to see them we must open our eyes and follow Him. Enlarge my territory by allowing friends and people to surround me so that I may bless them and love them the way that He loves me. I know that He is always with me but sometimes I forget or can't feel Him so I would ask Him to make Himself known to me and walk with me. I would ask Him to give me eyes to see evil and stay far, far away from it and to protect me against it. And I would ask that I would cause pain to no one, that I would never say a word to hurt someone else and that I would love them right and make them feel known. It was a simple prayer and by George it worked! The third day after I was tired of being a lameo laying around the room, I went to the beach, the city, and worked out the crazy bus system. I saw and met some of the nicest people who were fishing and throughout the malls. Every night at dinner I was meeting more and more people and I cannot say one bad word about any of them. By Friday I was surrounded by people! Yay!! We ended up going to town and watching one of our guy friends play the fiddle at an Irish pub that had an Oregon license plate in it!!

 

 
From then on it was person after person or what I like to say blessing after blessing that was coming into my life. This was the first night I met one of my bff's Caitlin otherwise known as Lloyd, and we hit it off right away. Then my roommate came.. who just so happens to be a Jesus believer (coincidence? I think not!) and just about the sweetest girl. I like to call her Adds but officially Addie. Every place I have ever gone in my life I have been blessed with the most solid group of guy friends and I wasn't so sure that would happen here being a different country and all. Yet once again the Lord proved to be faithful and I have met some of the most amazing guys ever who remind me so much of my guy friends that I miss back home. And then came Maya or Maya papaya! This woman with the most beautiful voice and a point of view and love for the world that I envy. Each one of these girls possess qualities of my bestest girlfriends back home that fills my heart with so much Joy.

Caitlin, Maya, Me of course, and Addie

At the lagoon

 This is a picture of us snorkeling on the great barrier reef off of Green Island! The water was so clear here that you could lean over the side of the boat and see the fish and coral, it was stunning. I felt bad for the people with us because it just so happens I thought I was drowning the majority of the time out in the water. So lets be honest I kept envisioning a shark swimming toward me the whole time, it was like a bad Nemo nightmare. We have been all over Cairns into the city multiple times, to the markets, different pubs and places, to the many different beaches, up to the rainforest, waterfalls, hiking in the hills behind our school, the lagoon (the pool to the right), to the new batman movie, and then some. School has finally started and we are all on week two. I some how got the most awesome schedule ever and only have classes 2 days a week? Can you say 5 day weekend! Whoop, whoop. But sadly I am a little bit of a nerd and miss having it everyday..

I just wanted to throw this picture in here because what are the odds of having a jumping picture with everyone in the air.. on the first try. Slim to none. This is at a beach called Trinity Park where most of the locals go. There were maybe 4 other people out there with all of us. The water here on the beaches is so warm that you can just swim around like it is a pool. This was the first for me usually I would never in a million years swim around at the Oregon coast. Mainly because I would probably die from hypothermia or be eaten by something. I can see the bottom of the Ocean here so I think that is one of the main reasons I feel a little better about swimming in it. Minus the fact that there are salt water crocodiles, box jelly fish, and irukandji jellyfish that are the size of your finger nail and I am pretty sure they can kill you.. minor detail. Thankfully we are not in the "jellyfish season" and the crocs are supposedly lazy this time of year but I still find myself looking over my shoulder every other second.

Some of the Australians told us about these things that are called Drop Bears. They sit in trees and when you walk under them they drop on you and maul your face off. Fun right?! I'm pretty sure I almost pooped my pants right then and there. Come to find out 15 minutes later that they aren't real and Australian just like to tell Americans that because we believe what ever they say. My response: who wouldn't? Everything else here can kill you.

As I look back on my three weeks I thank the Lord for those first three days because, if I didn't have those I think I wouldn't appreciate all the people and blessings I have been given since than as much as I do now. To my disappointment the church has not emailed me back to the multiple emails I have sent them and there are no buses that go there. So needless to say my plan to be so involved with the Church must have not been the Lords. Which is so exciting to me because that just means there is something so much greater in store for me. He blessed me with a roommate who loves Him just as much as I do and we get to spend some time together listening to podcast's from back home by John-Mark from Solid Rock. As John Mark talked about in his sermon Philippians 2:14-18, "Do everything without complaining or arguing.." so I will not complain about my "hard" days or being homesick or school. Did Jesus complain or argue when He was being crucified by His own children? No. And if He can endure the most excruciating death known to man kind without grumbling than I can survive this. And now I feel stupid for ever complaining about anything in my life when I think about Him... but that's okay because He still loves me when I do! So my goal: Do everything without complaining or arguing. What is there to complain about when I get to see things like this:

I made it!!

This is right after take off flying over Portland

So after 20 hours of flying and 6 hours of layovers I am officially in Cairns, Australia! For my first time flying it was not half as bad as I thought it would be. I had a window seat from my very first flight from Portland to LA and it was beautiful and really exciting, even take off was fun. Kind of like a roller coaster. I was praying the whole time basically because the first time I hit turbulence I was pretty sure we were going down. In the LA airport I met the nicest Australian older couple in line, when about to board for Sydney, who has family here in Cairns and had nothing but nice things to say about it. The lady reminded me a little of one of my Aunts and it was very comforting. The 15 hour plane ride went faster than I thought I sat next to two younger girls one from Brooklyn and one from New Zealand who were very nice and I didn't have to worry about beatin anyone down for stealing my stuff. Virgin airlines was super nice all the way around, and from LA to Sydney we were able to watch unlimited movies for free and were served dinner and breakfast. The food was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and thank the Lord I didn't get sick. If you know me you know exactly what I am talking about by "sick". If not than you can use your imagination. I took the red eye from LA to Sydney and arrived in Sydney at 6:15 am their time. The view from the plane was breathtaking flying in. The sky was an almost blood red and the sun was barely rising, the city was still pitch black and all you could see were the thousands of lights all over. Coming into the Sydney airport was a little intimidating I knew absolutely no one the airport was BIG. The girl from Brooklyn and I helped each other out and she ended up giving me a hug goodbye which I thought was just the darndest thing! I had to take a bus from Sydney international airport to their domestic airport. I left the Sydney domestic airport and boarded for my last flight (finally) to Cairns where I ended up getting placed at the Emergency Exit window seat.. "in a time of crisis ma'am could you assist passengers to their safety".. Ummmmmm maybe?? I said yes of course but when the time came I would probably be the one yelling: "Every man for himself!!" and then proceed to jump. The flight was 3 hours and wasn't as bad we were above the clouds pretty much the whole time which was amazing.

God is so good!

I flew into Cairns and the hot sticky air hit me like a freight train, the air here is kind of like being locked in a little room with 4 other people with no windows or ventilation. Needless to say it's a little stuffy but really not unbearable. I took a bus from the airport to Cairns student lodge, my final destination. All along the way it reminded me of Oregon very green with lots of trees and plants. It was raining when I got here which was kind of a bummer because everyone kept saying how unusual it was but it was still really warm. I got to the lodge and managed to get lost within the first minute with a 50 pound backpack on my back, with a rollie suitcase, and two other small backpacks. But I made it!! Whooo who! They even found someone to carry my big backpack for me! I kind of felt bad though because I ended up being on the second story.. whoops.

I took a little video of my new place that they call a "cluster".

I hope the video works! If not I'll try something else. I brought some pictures and my own pillow case from home to make me feel more comfortable. The Lord has been great and solid through all of my travels allowing me to get there safely and even calming me down when I wake up in the middle of the night to what I think a hurricane might sound like. It was the loudest and biggest rain storm I have EVER seen. Huge! And when I asked someone about it the next day they said: "what rain storm?". I mean seriously you would have had to been deaf not to hear it or maybe just not American. But anywayyyy the campus is beautiful and I can see the rainforest from my bedroom window. The town city center, Smithfield shopping center, was great and I found everything I needed and was a lot of fun to walk through. Similar to our malls or shopping places they even had a food court! But the only difference was that they had this outside next to them while they were eating:

And there is no glass in between you and that! But it was beautiful and nothing screams tourist more than some weird girl standing and taking pictures where everyone is eating. Well there is a little taste what it has been like here for me in the last two days and I am sure there will be more to come! It is amazing to see God's talent and greatness outside of the U.S.

Am I prepared?

I think the question is not if I am prepared but is anyone ever really prepared? I mean am I prepared to encounter giant spiders or kill poisons frogs? Am I prepared for a 15 hour flight with the possibility of getting blood clots from sitting so long (unlikely. But really. It could happen). Am I ready to be graduated from college? Am I prepared to be a wife? Am I prepared to be a mom? Am I prepared to change poopy diapers? Am I prepared to trust the Lord completely with every aspect of my life? Am I prepared to go to heaven? I don't think there is a hand book on how to deal with giant spiders or even how to be a good mom or how to change a raunchy diaper. The only thing I know is that, it's okay not to be prepared. Why? Because I trust the Lord to keep me secure and safe and to guide me. You can tell me a thousand times what I need to do to prepare for a test but in reality when it comes down to it, it is by the grace of God where I pull those answers from. So like in many situations in my life it is agian by the grace of God that I am prepared. And my idea of prepared may be different than His idea of prepared. But I mean if I was prepared for EVERYTHING in life, life would be straight up lame and boring. My mind can not possibly prepare itself for being on a different continent than literally everyone I know but am I scared? For some reallllyyy odd reason, no. The only explanation for it is: Jesus. Shocked?! I know. Me too. It's not like I talk about Him all the time or anything..

I know that His presence with me is a guaranteed promise (just read Psalm 139 and you will see what I mean by always being with us). Now the thing about this is it can either be seen as a blessing or a curse. At times I see it as a blessing and than at other times not so much, I mean if He is always with me what happens if I have to go to the bathroom? Talk about a major breech in the personal bubble space. I joke about this stuff but I know I am never separated from Him and the challenging part about all of this is that I must see Him through eyes of faith. I don't get to see Him face to face until I see Him in Heaven but I know that when I do my Joy will be off the charts by any earthly standard (Jesus Calling). I am okay with having Jesus in my bubble and that is the only reason why I can explain this lack of fear to take off on my adventure. I can't wait. Who wouldn't be excited!! I would have to be a crazy person not to be! Okay, well I am a little bit of a crazy person but everyone is in their own way, which I love. Or maybe I would describe it not as crazy just, "special". So here is a peek into my little bit of crazy:

Keep in mind these are all PILES of clothing and I am just getting started.. I'm in some serious trouble

So I am doing my very best to never forget that the Lord is with me because when I do fear starts creepin up on me.

Just a lil' sum sum

Sooo my purpose in life is to obey the Lord. Easy right!!? Heck to the no. Well at least not for me anyway. As the count down begins for the "great adventure" or whatever you wanna call it I find preparation being my biggest obstacle for my obedience. If you have ever heard or read the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10:38-42 (if not that's okay but you totally should), I am Martha. I wish my mind worked liked Mary's. I like to be prepared, if you know me than you know that spontaneous or dare devil is not my middle name. Some may know me as the Mother Hen of the group. For example, people like to go cliff jumping because it is exhilarating and crazy, I however jump off I five foot cliff and get a bloody nose from anxiety and yes this did happen. When people are explaining how they got this totally awesome scratch or scrape from this unbelievable wipe out my first words are: "Holy crap did you disinfect that!!?" I am the type of person who plans a "hang out" two weeks in advance, needless to say I am not very good at just flying by the seat of my pants.

Martha and Mary are sisters and Martha opened her home to Jesus and His disciples to come eat and rest. Martha was, "distracted by all the preparations that had to be made" (Luke 10:40). Let's be honest, I would be running around like a chicken with its head cut off if Jesus was coming over to my house. I mean this is the Son of God, everything would have to be perfect, Right? Wrong. Nothing would have to be perfect. Mary the other sister simply sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to what He has to say (Luke 10:39). And when Martha sees this she is pretty much angry with her sister for just sitting there and doing nothing to help her. I would be guilty of the same. But when Martha runs over to Jesus to complain about her sister Mary being a lazy-bum He simply says, "Martha, Martha". "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42) I get so caught up in and fixed on the preparations for Australia and trying to make sure that I can control as much as I possibly can before I get there I forget to sit and listen. I forget to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what He is preparing me for. I forget to let Him prepare my heart in a way that I could never possibly.

My whole life I have been a worrier, a lot of times a silent worrier, but for the past few years I have been working with the Lord to give it all up to Him. When I do, it is the most freeing experience to just trust and not carry these unnecessary burdens. So when I picture Jesus talking to Martha I instead interpret it like this and replace my name with hers so that He says to me: "Karri, Karri". "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Me." So this journey beckons me to be this spontaneous, trusting woman of God, to fly by the seat of His pants (What? awkward.) but really. Bring on the adventure and bring on the crazy cause this girl is goin for a crazy ride that begins and ends with Jesus.

Here is the deal: I am embarking on a new adventure to the great down under! I will be flying out July 7th to attend James Cook University in Cairns Australia for a study abroad program for 5 months. The Lord has taken me on this crazy ride to get to where I am going today a.k.a Australia so here is how it all started:

Back in November I was sitting at Grace City church, here in wee little Corvallis, and we had this awesome guest speaker named Bernard come in and give the talk. I was mesmerized by the sound of his voice, he talked about his ministry and church in Christchurch New Zealand. They had been having earthquakes shake up the town and were getting hit pretty hard with devastating loss, the people's hope was diminishing as well as their faith. Bernard and his crew at Christchurch had a mission to save these people with the love of Jesus. I immediately knew I was going! Or so I thought..

I was determined that New Zealand was where the Lord was going to take me. I told myself I would give myself a week to pray about, during that week I researched the heck out of Christchurch, immediately emailed Bernard in the hopes that he would jump at the thought of me coming and magically everything would fall into place! But what I came to find out was that what I wanted and what the Lord wanted for me were two completely different things. May plan since I was in middle school was to study abroad going into my junior year but as soon as this New Zealand idea popped into my mind I got the itch in my pants to make my study abroad experience happen ASAP as in I would go to New Zealand in March.. I soon found out that was not gonna happen. I quickly began to meet with advisers and scramble for any possible way to get my plan to work but it didn't. Going over there was extremely expensive, I was told there was no way to make it happen this year, and to be honest I wasn't gettin the vibe that Bernard was as excited as I was to move in. As I began to pray and really actually listen this time I felt the Lord leading me in another way. Australia. My first reaction: "NO way have you seen how big those spiders are." Not to mention Australia is home to the 8 deadliest creatures in the world. Awesome. I am afraid of deep water, spiders, snakes, alligators, not to mention I am the whitest girl ever and would burn to a crisp without out wearing a whole bottle of sunscreen, and it is the longest flight in the world.

But what do ya know, slowly but surely the Lord began to soften my heart to the idea. I had no idea of what I was going to be doing this summer, I had been wanting a change and a challenge for a long time in my life. All of winter break I frantically did as much as I could do to apply for the Australian program, I got my passport, talked to my parents which was huge because I had no idea what they would think but of course the Lord had my back and they took it as lovingly as parent could (but seriously dad if you are reading this I was freaking out about talking to you.. I even had a paper written out with what I was going to say and answers to questions I was anticipating you would ask). By the end of December I was completely done with the entire application and now had the daunting task of waiting for a reply until March. The great thing about this James Cook University program was that they had things called exchange programs. Where this picked 3 students that could do an exchange through the universities meaning that I would be paying the same amount in tuition I paid here but just over there. A.k.a I would be saving thousands of dollars if I got the exchange spot. So for me the only way I could go was if I got selected for this spot. I was 1 of 10 applicants, the odds were not in my favor. I kept saying to myself, "okay if this is what the Lord wants than I get one of the exchange spots, that way I know for sure this is His plan and not my own". Deep down the Lord continually reassured me that this was right, I just kept denying it.

The next few months were my kind of hell, if you haven't noticed I am kind of a planner. I have never in my life had to be patient for so long, I was so used to driving through and making things happen. Taking the reins into my own hands. But this time the Lord was bootin me out of the drivers spot. I was not so graceful during this time, just ask poor Kelley (my awesome mentor) who had to listen to my insanity. The Lord had placed me in the right spot at the right time randomly throughout these few months. The first time I was in the study abroad building and was able to meet the lady that chose who got the spot face-to-face. We ended up walking together and talking for almost 20 minutes where she told me what to write about and things to put in my exchange essay, we clicked immediately. Little did she know that I would be her worst nightmare. I am pretty sure I emailed her at least twice a week about anything that I could possibly think of. Finally after 3 months of waiting I got the letter.. "Congratulations Karri Heacock you have been selected for an Exchange spot to James Cook University in Australia". My roommate Ashley was in the room and I am pretty sure I made her almost pee her pants because I was so excited. Months and months of waiting and praying I finally knew that the Lords plan was to sweep me off to Australia, just Him and I.

The next best thing about this was that I had been searching for a church down there, I had no idea how I was going to find one because the one organization I thought would help me out turned out to be a dud which was super discouraging. But one day I came across this church called: Cairns City Church. And I could immediately feel the Lords presence. I decided to email them and see if I would get anything back. I felt really awkward saying I was from the U.S. and all this other random stuff but oh well. Four days later I received an email say, "We are so excited for you to come and will welcome you with open arms" amongst other things. 

I booked my ticket for July 7 and am leaving Portland Oregon at 4:05pm and arriving in Cairns Australia July 9th. All together making it over a 24 hour flight, 15 hours straight from LA to Sydney. Oh and did I mention that I have never EVER been on a plane or flown before? Yeah I know I was a deprived child. My parents took the term "road trip" extremely seriously, as in driving on the road.

So that is a little taste of what the beginning of my adventure looked like, there are so many other unbelievable details that go into because God has been so good to me. So I hope you enjoyed my little bits and pieces (sorry I know it was really long) and will stay around to hear about the journey to come!!