College// First Days

It’s Wednesday 5pm, I am sitting in my little pad as the rain patters on my roof. You would think it was Winter here. I hear that it’s SO hot in Perth. YUCK!

That is as far as I got last night writing this post.

Let’s start again... It’s Thursday morning. Australia Day! HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! Boy I wish I was home celebrating with family & friends. Anyway... let me fill you in on the last few days...

First day was information overload, people everywhere... hustling & bustling. I felt SO overwhelmed. Where was I? I didn’t know anyone? Where is the toilet? As I began to smile at people, sit next to them... meet them in the corridors I felt somewhat at peace with the fact that this crazy adventure was exactly what God wanted to me do.

My heart is still {getting there everyday} coming to terms with this being where I need to be, where I have been called to, my post for this year. I really have no idea why, sounds strange... but, I REALLY don’t know.

As I sat in Chapel, I felt familiar. Why did I travel all the way over to Sydney, leaving everything to be in a church just like mine at home, to do what I was doing back home? Why am I here? I could have stayed in Perth. This isn’t what I expected, wait... I don’t know what I expected. This is dumb. God, why have you sent me here?

On a practical level, we had Chapel yesterday and it was like being at Colour or a Hillsong Conference. Everything that you would expect. It was a-may-zing! We have the rest of this week off. Next week is an intensive week {only 4 days} and then we are into the swing of things.

I have met some beautiful people. Had a BBQ on the first night at one of the Pastor’s houses. Met some more Aussies. Being an International College people come from ALL over the world. Just to give you an idea, there are maybe 400 students at the city campus {all ranging from 1st-3rd year} and there are only about 20 Aussies. So, the Australians really stick together, and get REALLY excited when they meet another Aussie.

So, as I step out in faith I know that he will catch me. I have no idea what I am doing. I am so far out of my depth...stretching, stretching, stretching! I guess that is where he needs me to be so that HE can do the work. HE can make a way. HE can use me. HE can mould me. Less of me, more of HIM.

I am positive that this is going to be a life changing year. One that I will look back on in years to come and be able to say confidently with HUGE conviction that my God is faithful and he did an amazing work in me. It’s all part of the journey.

...Only 3 weeks till my parents arrive! Yippee!

Sydney// The beginning...

Well, I arrived 8:30pm Monday night 16th January 2012. Just a scared, nervous, excited girl from Perth... Two giant boxes and a suitcase holding pretty much everything I will need for my new adventure. Boy, was I in for a shock.

Up until this point I had been feeling ok...I must say I was very brave at the airport. THere was a bit of tearing up saying goodbye to friends and loved ones. Knowing that this next adventure would be one that, to quote my friend “would get worse before it got better.” And worse it got...

I was met at the airport by a lovely gal named Ange who helped me get all my luggage together and kindly let me stay the night at her house {and Alice}. In the morning I was excited to head to the Real Estate agent where I would pick up my keys to my new pad. YAY! I did that and another lovely lass, Liz was so kind as to drive me there. I arrived, eagerly awaiting to see if what I had dreamed about in my head was actually going to be the reality before my eyes and...

Nope! It was a dingy, old, smelly terrace with cockroaches everywhere. Oh my was I in for a rude awakening. We cautiously climbed the stairs and there it was a big brown door number 3, my new place... Oh my! What would be on the other side? I opened the door and, yes, it was not the place that I had pictured in my head, dreamt about it was far from it.

Liz left saying “It will be ok... it’s got sunlight and with a bit of a spruce and some cleaning you can make it your own. Are you going to cry as soon as I leave?” To which I replied, trying to be a brave, brave girl. “No, i’ll be ok.”

HA! Yeah right. Who was I fooling. I wasn’t brave, I am not tough... I miss my Mommy! I bet you know what is coming, right?

I fell to the floor, clutching my phone, crying my eyes out and called my Mum. I SO desperately wanted to head back to Perth. Anywhere, just not here!

Mum re-assured me that it would be ok. That, unfortunately, unless you have a tone of money, that is the “norm” in Sydney. It’s old and busy and people are just so desperate for housing that they just don’t care.

I felt numb. What had I gotten myself into? Was this really what God wanted for me? Had had called me to Sydney? I felt alone. That night, I slept on the floor. Praying that it was all a dream. Praying that God would say... “Ok, you can go back to Perth now.”

Boy did I try everything to get out. I argued with God. Wrestled with him, pleading! PLEASE,PLEEEEEEEASE... this is HORRIBLE!

After some reassuring from my Mum, best friends and the peace of God, the peace that surpasses all understanding {I know now, not just know but I REALLY know now what that feels like} I strangely felt, ok. Like, this was all going to be ok.

I headed down to the local IGA, bought the strongest bleach I could find, came back home and cleaned and sobbed till those tiles sparkled white again. That night I ate a pre-packed frozen meal, cooked in my oven with plastic cutlery. I didn’t even have my oven mitts with me so I had to use a scarf to get it out. The things you do...

Let’s just say, it didn’t get any easier. From that moment, it got harder. After a TERRIBLE night’s sleep on the floor I was comforted by the fact that the furniture guys were delivering my furniture. At least I will have a bed! YAY!

I need to interject here and explain something: My wonderful friend Jenny B, had been running around like crazy trying to secure me somewhere to live. She had been to a few properties, looking and asking questions. After I had missed out on a place, after putting down a deposit and everything... we quickly realized that the rental/housing market in Sydney is very VERY different to Perth. It’s a “dog eat dog world”... for lack of better words. She had been trying to get my a place before she, herself, made the big move to Melbourne. So, she had been a huge, HUGE blessing. Whilst she was finishing her time working for a place that looked after a bunch of Op Shops she managed to arrange for some furniture to be delivered for me. Such a HUGE blessing. The furniture was free, the delivery just needed to be paid.

So, to continue...

I was waiting for the guys to come with my furniture. They arrived and the furniture wouldn't fit up the stairs. Oh my! I thought I had hit rock bottom before... No! THIS was rock bottom. The guys at least got a fridge and a microwave up the stairs, but, as for my bed and table... No can do.

After waving the guys off, trying to keep it together I couldn’t help myself and yet again, found myself crying on the phone to my Mommy. Gee, I am really painting a picture of being a HUGE Mommy’s girl. Stuff it! I admit it! I TOTALLY am! haha

Not in love with the fact that I would be once again, in a house that I wasn’t fond of, with no bed and no one to talk to something needed to be done.

Thank the Lord that my cousins live in Sydney and they are SO generous and Julie has a WONDERFUL sister, Nicole. Unfortunately my cousins are traveling in QLD so because they haven’t been around it has made this transition a lot harder than I had expected. After a call to Dave & Jules they sent Nicole on her way to come and pick me up and drop me at their house so that I could be somewhere relatively familiar, cockroach free and have a comfy couch to sleep on. WOW! Did I need that. I was so emotionally wrecked and so disgusted with Sydney that I just needed some time out.

Nicole and her beautiful family invited me around for tea, that at least kept my mind of missing home for a night.

The next day after some encouragement from my Mum and good pal, Jeanie. I ventured out into the big city. Trying to be a tourist. Just forgetting momentarily all that seemed to face me, smack bang, right in my face! Trying to fall in love with the Sydney that I told people I fondly loved {after making short trips here over the years}. After some Retail Therapy and sight seeing, I met my new friend, Renee’...a beautiful young woman of God who was SO encouraging. We had a delightful dinner at Darling Harbour. God has just set up opportunity after opportunity for me to talk to people, whether they are randoms I have met in a coffee shop or on the bus, family and friends on the phone or friends of friend’s back home {Thank you, beautiful Holly} there has been someone to vent, cry or talk to. It definitely makes the whole journey a lot easier.

I think, I know that I still love Sydney as a place to visit, stay a while. Perhaps, not live. Unless I meet a billionaire who has money for us to live out in the burbs in a beautiful house. I aint staying here to, one day raise a family. No siree!

The only way I can really describe the housing situation, that most people face is... It’s like State Housing {Homes West] back home. It’s a real eye opener. Even on my trips abroad, Japan, Thailand, Singapore I have experienced NOTHING quite like this. There is such a shortage of properties that Landlords don’t really care what the state of the house is in, condition etc... they just want money, money, MONEY!

It might have a lot to do with the fact that I am SO blessed, I have a wonderful family, I have grown up in a GORGEOUS house, that was HOME! That this is just SUCH a huge extreme that it was just such a shock to the system. Maybe I am a bit of a princess but... gee! When people have prayed over me, prophesied over me leafing up to my trip and they have said “This will stretch you...” They were SO right.

Like my incredible Pastor, Sarah said when I spoke to her today, she said... “If this is the worst it’s going to get like, imagine how much better it can be?” SO true!

I am convinced that God, though it seems like he is far away... he is right here! I am convinced that I am in the will of God and that I am doing just as he said and I am TOTALLY convinced that it is all going to be ok.

Sarah, spoke over my life on my last day at church... “This is just an interruption...” An interruption by nature isn’t supposed to be pleasant. It isn’t suppose to feel amazing. Yet, I know that it will be an interruption that changes my life. An interruption for the better.

After being so distressed on the phone to Mum, she got into her prayer closet and fought for me. Praying and breaking things in Jesus name! I have an incredible, Godly Mom who is SO passionate about God she is truly an inspiration. I am SO blessed! She received a vision from God that this year was going to alter my destiny, change my course and be incredible.

So, as I am pressed down on every side I will NOT be discouraged or deterred. I will not give into an enemy who would just love it if I packed my bags and went home. I will see out this year, praising my God for he is good. He is in control. He knows what he is doing.

I am SO excited to go to College, meet new people. Get into a groove!