Home in Heaven :-)

This week heaven got a new occupant, the lovely lady pictured here. I saw her the night before she died, hooked up to tubes, struggling to breathe and know that death was a release from that pain into the arms of Jesus whom she loved, but I can't help feeling sad that Earth is now a little emptier without her.

I owe a lot to Lynn, she played a big part in my journey with God. I grew up in quite a traditional Baptist Church (which I loved, it was like a family), but for me it was pretty much just doing church, there was no passion for God, no intimacy with God and my whole view of God was very boxed in. Watching someone lifting their hands in worship felt like freaky land and I had never heard of any inner healing ministry or prayer where you sat and listened for God's voice. Yet not long after we started going to the church where Lynn was the pastor's wife and a worship leader my life started to change. It was very gradual at first and I resisted it! Lynn and my mother went to an inner healing conference in New Zealand  and came back literally like new people. My mother was dancing around in worship and praying in tongues and I thought she was possessed, but I couldn't argue with the fruit in the lives of these women as they embraced the cross not just for salvation, but for healing and life and it unleashed a freedom and passion in them that became infectious!!

I remember the very first pilot group we did for an inner healing course called 'The River' and Lynn was leading worship, she put on a song called 'undignified' about David dancing before God, 'I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my king, nothing Lord is hindering this passion in my soul'..... and I remember her utter frustration out at our inability to find any passion and stop caring about what each other thought to just let go and worship God. And yet she was patient and gentle as she tried to help us break free of having God in a box.

In order to get out of that box I needed lots of healing, and Lynn was the first person who I ever had prayer ministry with. I had no idea what to expect and was a bit wary of it all but that very first time I saw God at work. I was struggling to hear God past my own voice and Lynn said she was hearing something but wasn't sure it was right and she decided to be brave and tell me anyway and risk being wrong. She said she kept hearing Elvis singing 'let me be your teddy bear' and I laughed, because my teddy bear has been my most treasured possession in the world. I've had it since I was a baby and I slept with it every night right up until I got married, it was my comfort, but Lynn didn't know that or how relevant it was to me for God to ask me to let Him be my teddy bear, to run to Him as my comfort. That day I saw that God really could speak to me, that He knew me really well and that intimacy with Him was possible, all because Lynn was brave enough to share something she thought might be from God but sounded silly.

A few years down the track things changed at church, her marriage fell apart and she came to live with our family while she got back on her feet. I was also living back at home at that point with Jaden as I had been going through a hard time as a single mum and needed some extra help for a while. There were a lot of us squished into that house and at times we all got on each other's nerves, but there were also lots of times of laughing, crying and just being there for each other as Lynn walked through a very difficult time in her life. Then Lynn went to Indonesia and found a new place to call home. She came alive again by embracing others who needed to know they were loved.

A group of us from church visited her there (the mission trip I mentioned a couple of posts back where my best friend met her husband) and it was an amazing time in her world. We did craft with young orphans in an orphange, we worshipped in a graveyard with young people who all crammed into a tiny shack as their home, we visited places where the organisation she was working for were ministering to all sorts of people, and we learnt to be very flexible as things never ever went to plan. It was great to spend that time with her and see her love and passion for God helping even more people in another country to find the heart of God that she helped me and others to find here.

Then sickness struck and Lynn came home. It has been hard to watch her health decline and see her so frustrated with a body that could no longer do the things she wanted to. We have prayed and prayed for healing and nothing happened, and then this week things got bad, quickly, and she was gone. I have to admit I have questioned God many times as to why someone so willing to give up everything to serve Him would be sidelined like that, and I don't have any answers, but I know that God knows more than I do and that even though Lynn struggled with those questions too she still clung to God as her hope because she knew there's no real life or hope anywhere else! And now she is home, dancing freely in worship on the golden streets of heaven. I look forward to joining her dancing there one day, uninhibited, and undignified, just like she tried to help me do here.

Thanks lovely lady, you will be missed!

Playing Fair :-)

On Friday night I had some friends over for a 'party', not a tupperware party or undercoverwear party or anything else like that, it was a Fair Trade party called 'Hearts and Hands'. It was amazing!! My house was transformed into a marketplace of fair trade handcrafts made by some of the world's poorest people whose lives are transformed through finding a market for their skills and products. The lady who runs it, named Ros, turned up with heaps of boxes of the most beautiful stuff. I was overwhelmed by the range, quality and reasonable prices of the things she had here and wished I had lots more cash on hand to stock up for christmas, and so did everyone else who was here! So we have rebooked her for a christmas shopping afternoon in November and I will come complete with my list to make sure we have a beautiful and ethical christmas!

Here are a few pics of some of the things for sale. Beautiful pencil cases...

photo frames, jewellery boxes, journals, bags, belts, soaps...

lots of jewellery, bookmarks...

bags...

more bags (the comic book one is now my new handbag :-)  )

there were bibs, wooden puzzles, stuffed toys, wall hangings, cushion covers, wallets....

This is Ros telling us about the people who made some of the products and the difference it makes to their lives, she was so passionate and excited and it was infectious!!

These stuffed rabbits were gorgeous and only $15 each, most of them got sold!

Ros also showed us how to make paper bags, something that some very poor people have to make hundreds of in a day just to try to feed their family!

It was such an incredibly affirming experience to be able to make some purchases for upcoming birthdays and events (plus a new handbag) and know that I was helping people in the process. It was the most fun I have ever had shopping!! Plus the hostess rewards for this type of party are totally different too, 5% of sales gets used to purchase a gift from Tears's useful gift catalogue, in this case I picked an organic vegetable garden, and Ros also has a tin there for people to pop their change in if they want to and that money supports a girl who has been rescued from prostitution!!! So many lives impacted by the whole experience!!!
If you want to learn more about it then you can click on the 'fair trade' tab here on Ros's website :-)

Princess for a day :-)

This is me as matron of honour for my dearest friend in the world yesterday. It was my 8th time as a bridesmaid (I think i'll do a bridesmaid post in the near future to show off my long bridesmaiding career LOL). It had been raning during the week but yesterday the weather was perfect!! I had been very stressed the day before cause my little 1 year old Elora was very sick was croup and I was fretting about leaving her, especially when the doctor had given her a time frame to improve before hospital was called for!!! I had lots of people praying and she managed to avoid hospital and since I had no intention of leaving her with babysitters my hubby stayed home with the kids so I could enjoy the wedding and not be anxious about my bubba!

This is my Karen, didn't she look absolutely stunning, I LOVED her dress!!!

The happy couple :-)

This is my little sis, Esther.

and my mum and dad as well.

My beautiful partners in crime for the day, Michelle and Alison. It was a pleasure being bridesmaids with thse ladies! :-)

Heading into the reception.

As matron of honour I had to give a speech and very out of nature for me I didn't actually prepare anything, just got up and spoke from the heart and from the feedback I think it went well. It started with laughing and ended with tears, I couldn't help myself!

So in love :-)

The bridal party.

My beloved best friend and I.

and with her new hubby.

Karen has been amazing friend to me. She is the person who has sat and prayed with me through some of the hardest things i've had to walk through. We can talk for hours about anything and everything, we laugh a lot togther too cause we're both super silly. I have watched her journey with Rico right from the start. I was there 5 1/2 years ago, in Indonesia on a mission trip, in a small orphanage house in the middle of a graveyard where they first met. I saw the way he looked at her and knew it was soemthing special. He was there as a mentor to the kids in the house and brought his guitar along to sing worship songs and as he watched Karen worship his face lit up!

When we left Indonesia that time I knew her future was there and it broke my heart knowing I had to let her go. God very clearly placed it on my heart that she would be going back and that Rico was part of her future and so when she was offered a teaching position over there I very tearfully (VERY, VERY tearfully actually) said goodbye knowing it was the start of a new life for her. It was not a straightforward journey for them and there were many bumps along the way when it looked like they would not end up togther, but I knew God had brought them together and it was so amazingly beautiful to watch the unfolding of that yesterday.

As they head back to Indonesia at the end of this week to live as husband and wife I am sad to see her leave the country again, never knowing how long it will be before we can see each other in person again. But I am also excited to see the journey ahead for her and Rico. I said in my speech yesterday that I felt like Lizzie's dad in 'Pride and Prejudice' when he told her that he could not have parted with her to anyone less worthy. I have clearly seen Rico's love for Karen and his heart for God, he genuinely desires to put God first and learn and grow as a disciple of Jesus and as a husband and I know that despite the culture and language challenges they will flourish together. I am thankful for the technology that allows us to frequently keep in touch despite the distance and I am so blessed that God brought Karen into my life!! I was honoured to be a part of her special day yesterday and to stand beside my dearest friend as she looked like the beautiful princess that she is :-)

Out and About!

One of the things I get asked a lot about home schooling is but how will he socialise? I also get asked do we stay in our pj's all day (that has happened once or twice) and do we just sit at home and do bookwork all day. The whole point of our home school is not simply to replicate school at home, but to make learning part of life, this includes how to socialise with children of all different ages, and getting out and exploring the world around us! Some things we do have specific learning goals and some are just for fun.

 Each week we go to chat n play at our old church. It's all younger children but Jaden enjoys the sandpit and the craft activities too and it has been a good place to help him learn to be kind and caring to younger children!

We also have a local homeschooling group that have 'homeschool hangouts' each week at the park and finally made it last week for the first time as it wasn't raining and no-one was sick! We fed the ducks, played on the equipment and Jaden actually did really well at interacting with the kids and even made a friend with another 12 year old boy who also loves lego and computer games so Jaden is excited to go back again and this will become part of our regular weekly schedule. I also enjoyed chatting with other homeschooling parents!

Bethy went up and down this quite a few times and resisted any attempts to help her, she was very proud of herself!!

Elora climbed up on this thing several times, she's a clever little monkey!

Bethy seemed to think she was driving home and was most unhappy when she was put in her carseat.

We also had a random experience on the weekend of coming across a climbing wall operated by the local scouts group and Jaden wanted to have a go. This is a child who suffers from a lot of anxiety and yet he was determined to make it to the top and he do it twice!! I was so proud of him. The guys operating it were so encouraging to him and Jaden has decided he would like to give scouts a try so we brought home a leaflet and will be looking into that in the near future.

Of course Bethy wanted a turn too so daddy let her have a quick climb at the side with his help.

So do we stay home in our pj's all day doing bookwork and not socialising??? Hopefully you can see the answer to that for yourself :-)

Living History!

My last couple of posts have been very internally focused on what God has been doing in my life so it's time to show you what else has been going on around here. One of the things we are doing as part of our schoolwork is Australian history (my fave subject, yay!). Jaden did some lessons on the gold rush last term with distance ed but it was all worksheets and didn't inspire him terribly much, so once I officially took over his schooling we picked up where we left off when we were home schooling before and instead of endless worksheets have been looking at Australian history through novels and outings and there are more hands on activities planned head. Our first novel is "Mr Hornbeams Treasure Hunt".

It is the story of Mr Hornbeam coming from England to Australia to search for gold and he ends up with some tag alongs, such as a young orphan girl wanting to escape her miserable life in England and a young boy who worked on the ship but got left behind when it sailed back. Jaden read the whole book in a couple of hours but we are now going through it a chapter at a time discussing what happened, what it teaches us about life back then, and what the characters might've been thinking and feeling. Empathy is not something that comes easily to Jaden (a common aspergers trait) so seeing things through a character's eyes in a book helps him understand history far better than any textbook could!

We have also been out and about looking at Autralian history. We signed up for some homeschooling excursions even before we were offically home schooling and Jaden really enjoyed them. We went to Muru Mittigar Aboriginal Cultural Centre, and Jaden also went to Australiana Pioneer Village with my father in law because the girls were both sick the day that outing was on.

Jaden enjoyed the boomerang throwing.

This is Elora watching it all, snuggled up in her lovely beanie that only ever lasts on her head about 2 seconds before she pulls it off!

An exampl of an Aboriginal camp.

Jaden getting his face painted.

Bethy wanted a turn too!

These are Bethy's dots which mean happiness.

Bethy was also very fond of one of the artefacts that got passed around which was this baby carrier, the kangaroo skin was soooo soft!!

This is Jaden painted as a 'show off', I think it's official purpose in tribal life is to attract the ladies.

Having a go on the digeridoo.

They got to piant their own boomerangs too.

Jaden got some paint added to his face to turn him into a warrior.

This was in the driveway when we got home, as you can see the girls were totally worn out by it all!

This is Australiana Village. A whole town set out to explore!

Jaden learning that life wasn't as easy back then as turning on the kitchen tap.

We also got to learn about some history in context of our local area recently as the public school that Jaden attended for kindy, year 1 and 2 just turned 150 years old and we went along to their celebrations.

The building behind Jaden is the original school building built back in 1861. It is now the office and staffrooms.

They had people dressed up in costumes from different periods throughout Austrlia's history including some lighthorsemen from World War 1 and some soldeirs from the times of early settlement.

I hear people say that history is boring (history lover me is always horrified at that statement), but I think it's all in the approach. Get kids immersed into the world of days gone by and it takes on so much more meaning and relevance, and the bonus is that the information you want to impart actually sticks in their heads because it's attached to something fun and interesting!!