Armidale, Australia

Armidale, Australia

We have arrived in Australia!

We have arrived in Australia!
Our Team!!! This is in Brisbane. Meagan, Amy, Savannah, Alicia, Gabe, Sarah, David, josh, Kendall, Ben, Courtney, Joseph, and Jared. They are amazing!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Reflection.



What is the Gospel?
"Only those who are aware of Gods wrath are amazed by Gods grace."
C. J. Mahaney

Do I know how much God hates sin? How much that I deserve His wrath? Do I lie my life like I am privileged to be born again?

God is just and my sin deserves my punishment. But Jesus made a way when there was no way for me to get to Him. I was hopeless and dead in y sins and He knew me. He chose to me on my side and defend me to the wrath of the Father. He paid for me and I did nothing.

This alone should motivate me to serve Him and live righteously. Bit that am motivated for Him to love me more. Because I can do nothing to make Him love me less or more than He does already. How can He? He sent His Son to die for me. How can I live like that wasn't enough?

I hear the accuser roar of sins that I have done. I know them all and thousands more, but God remembers none.

Twas Grace that taught me wart to fear and Grace my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear the hour that I believed.

He has done it all for me. Yet I often live like I am working for His approval. But I have it.

Jesus forgive me for not trusting you every moment. Help me to do that. Soften my heart more to you.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

how ya goin

Well we are about halfway in and I have made some awesome friends! I love this city so much already, even though it has been a bit rainy. I have seen rugby and netball- which is similar to basketball, but extremely different. I enjoyed netball very much today in the sun.

I have gotten to know the Patrick family very well and I adore them and their hospitality to me and our team. We have come to the realization that the chocolate is definitely better here and the best thing I have eaten so far has been a roast pumpkin and lamb pizza!

We have had great times with people that we have met in the college including winning trivia at the whitebull pub one night, which we will return to regain our title, and an 80's themed birthday party with some of the girls that we have met and they are hilarious. I hope that we can hang out more in the next few weeks.

We are riding the bus a lot and being chauffeured by our friends here and that has been cool. We are not allowed to drive the cars that are opposite in almost every way from home, but maybe we can work something out lol.

We are now off to dinner in town and then team + Aussie bonding at bowling!! more soon!

Friday, May 28, 2010

some lingo!

here in Australia they have a few new phrases for me... here is what they would say for some of our common words

idiot-nob
trunk of car-boot
tons (lots)-heaps
front of car-bonnet
awesome!-cracker!
shopping cart-trolley
sprite-lemonade
fries-hot chips
cookie-biscuit
biscuit-bikky
breakfast-brekky
get "f'd"-get stuffed
yield-give way
how ya doing?-how ya going?
McDonalds-Maccas
guys-blokes
friends-mates
stupid Americans-sepos (septic tanks bc we are full of sh*t)
football-gridiron
jacket-jumper
sneakers & jeans-sneans (they say this is characteristic of americans..and they make fun of it)
dorm-college
gum-chewy
good time-banta
small truck-ute (as in utility)
tell me when youre ready-sing out when youre ready
suspicious (scandelous or promiscuous)-sus

enjoy

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Hear the royal decree!

So for my personal development plan, I have been studying security and this begins with how good the gospel is and where my identity is. I have been reading a book by my favorite author, John Piper, called God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself. The goal of the Gospel is to see and savor God Himself, being changed into the image of His Son so that more and more we delight in and display God’s infinite beauty and worth.

So here are some excerpts that just speak volumes for themselves. Be filled with hope and joy!

God is the Gospel. The good news is that the King himself has come, and the enemies have been defeated, and if we trust in what He has done and what He promises, we will escape the death sentence and see the glory of our Liberator and live with Him forever! This hope fills us with hope and joy (Rom 15:16) and frees us from self-pity and empowers us to love those who are suffering!

The biblical meaning of the Christian Gospel includes the existence of the living God and His coming into history with imperial authority over all things as the long-awaited King of Israel and lord of the universe. This King was Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. He fulfilled the Old Testament expectations of the Son of David, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again triumphant over Satan, death, and hell. He promised His own Spirit to be with us and help us. On the basis of His death and resurrection, the gospel promises a great salvation- eventual healing from disease and liberation from oppression, peace with God and others who believe, justification by faith part from works of the law, forgiveness of sins, transformation into the image of Christ, eternal life, and the global inclusion of all people from all nations in this salvation.

The gospel is not good news without the spirit:
>John 14:17-18- You know [the Spirit of Truth] for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
>In other words, when the Spirit comes, he will be the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit will be for us the presence and power of Christ himself. The fellowship of Christ, promised in the Gospel, happens by the Spirit’s presence in us.
>The Holy Spirit is the down payment, a guarantee of the fullness of joy we will know in the perfected fellowship with the Father and the Son in the age to come (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5). What makes the gospel good news in the end is the enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit provides the present experience of that enjoyment. Therefore the promise of the Spirit in the gospel is what makes it good news!

so sus..

Well we have been on campus a few days! It is so beautiful here, chilly, but comfortable! We have to walk everywhere, but that is wonderful and it warms us up! We got to go the the Australian version of 'step sing' last night and that was so cool. We are already making ground meeting key students to pour into in the colleges (resident's halls) at the uni (university) and the staff here have been serving us soo much!

The people in this town are amazing and I have adored the welcome we have received in the church! The Lord is already doing a lot here, and I am reminded that He does not need me or this team to get His work done, but He has sent us here and I am so thankful that He is equipping us and preparing us to be used to further His Kingdom!

The goodness of the Gospel is that He is the end result, the ultimate prize and our job here is be be immersed in the culture, to meet students, and to build relationships that will glorify the Lord so that they will know Him! Thank you all for your prayers and for your support and getting us here.

I got to get coffee with Nick, an Australian Staff guy, and Courtney Kelly- Courtney Kelley, yesterday at Booloominbah and it was soooo cool! Nick and the staff guys, Steven, Tim, and the Chaplain, Martin have been great to teach us a lot of the differences to watch out for and prepare for in the culture, our histories which influence how both Australians and Americans view the world and religion, and of course some terminology. Some of these include fairy floss=cotton candy, sepo=american, paying out=making fun of someone, sledging=teasing, and sus=suspicious. I love it.

Keep us in your prayers to have fruitful conversations and that our motives will be purely to spread His good news so that the nations would be reached :)

Excited to be Down Under,
Savs

Tim is cute. Holla at me.

5/21/10

Tim is cute. Holla at me.

We are in Armidale!!!!! The bus ride from Brisbane was so long!

We went straight to Steven’s house for dinner with their staff and it was fantastic. He is the staff guy at UNE and he let us use his internet and we flocked to it as if it were food and we hadn’t eaten for days! The highlight of being there has to be the conversation about how to remember names of students because they had already done a great job of getting to know us in just a few hours. So a team member who shall remain nameless proceeds to use the tactic she had been told to try, using new friends’ names in sentences to remember them…her example in conversation was “Tim is cute. Holla at me.” Tim is a staff guy at UNE…who happened to sitting no less than 6 feet behind her watching her and listening intently. Upon hearing this, he shrugs, smiles, and walks away. Hilarious!! We have quoted this many times…

Anyway, we are staying at the dorms and they are amazing! Seriously these are the nicest dorms I have ever seen in my life. We have our own rooms in the international hall- and there was space for us all to be together in the same hall. We do have to share unisex bathrooms but even that has worked out. The Lord’s provisions are everywhere!!! The rooms are huge with lots of space and a desk. We don’t have internet, so I am writing now with plans to post when I get a chance. This means that my blogs will just all appear at once lol.

Today is our first day to see the campus in the daylight. Its absolutely beautiful from my window. It is autumn here and the leaves are falling and it is gorgeous. There is a deer park behind our building that we are going to get to see today. Some kangaroos got into it several years ago so it has turned into a habitat for deer and kangas! I am thrilled!!! We are going to get to see the Booloominbah to see the school! This is the picture that I have put at the top of my blog. Yes that is our destination today. There is a bistro there that I will most likely get lunch or something nearly everyday lol.

I am looking forward to being here for the next 40 days learning all that the Lord has in store for the team and I in the security department.

Thank you for all your prayers and I will get more updates to you as soon as I can!!

That all may know,
Savs

Sneans...?

5/20/10

Sneans!!!

We are in Australia!!!! We left the US on Monday, skipped Tuesday altogether, got to Brisbane on Wednesday hung out and went to the shops and slept for 12 straight hours, went to orientation at the University of Queensland on Today. At orientation we learned several things about the culture to prepare us for the weeks ahead. A staff girl taught us the basics…no spitting, drop bears, and sneans! Drop bears are bears that WILL attack you from the tree tops so watch out for them…and their poo. Sneas are characteristic of Americans…people who wear sneakers with jeans. They think that is kind of gross lol. A third of our team was fitting this on orientation day haha. We stayed with the Brisbane team in their apartments for a few days and will return there just before we leave for home. We will drive to Armidale to the University of New England tomorrow morning!