my.journey

Transmission ended.

2007-04-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone
I'm changing blogs, again. But if you want to visit www.tillhecomes.wordpress.com you might find me there...

Kate

blog...quiet...

2007-03-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hey all

you may have noticed that the blog is quiet around here... i'll try to stop by while i'm in India to upload photos, otherwise chuck me an email, its way more fun and easier to write! if you don't have my email leave me a comment and i'll let you know it.

part of our ministry in hyderabad

2007-03-03T15:56:00.001-08:00

http://classifieds.sulekha.com/Hyderabad/alllocalities/personals-matrimonials/seeking-marriage/486.htm

we'll be getting some of our team members into marriage situations to minister the love of Jesus.

just kidding :)

part of our ministry in hyderabad

2007-03-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

YPDTS site

2007-02-21T05:38:00.001-08:00

www.ywamperth.org.au/ypdts
now officially updated :)

Ywam 3

2007-02-20T14:17:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone

I trust this reaches no one twice... I'm saying that at the start before even writing this since I know I will be piecing together my address book from about 3 sources since last email didn't make it out to lots of people... I'm sorry! My laptop died 4 weeks ago and so I've been using the communal computers... time here is going so crazy crazy crazy fast, we're now officially halfway through lecture phase and headed for outreach! Outreach teams got announced on Friday so we can talk about it... the TESOL school was in the middle of their 'special morning tea' outside which was meant to be nice and quiet... and then 107 DTS students got told our outreach teams, and given the morning off lectures... it got noisy very very quickly.

So, it is with great ado (and a laugh at the way it's turned out) that I can announce that in six weeks time I will be departing for 11 weeks in India! We start in Hyderabad, which is like a big city... and then we'll be splitting up into smaller teams for the last few weeks and going to other cities or villages. It's kind of crazy... originally I was going to be going to Mongolia... and then God started speaking to me... and now I'm going to India... long story cut short.

So week 5 was Lordship, with Mark Parker from YWAM New Zealand, and week 6 was Spiritual Warfare with Pete Warren, from YWAM Denver. Both of these weeks were good... Mark was definitely the most energetic and loud speaker we have had... he had absolutely no problems with yelling and jumping and shouting. It was always fun sitting in the first couple of rows in the classroom, and I had no problems with being sleepy. Our application day on Friday was about laying stuff down... being completely surrendered to God's leadership... so for me the big thing that I lay down was New Zealand. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm not coming home after this, but I don't have the right to insist that I can come home.

Week 6 on spiritual warfare was a 4 day lecture week... quite an intense week, the first few days we covered what we fight... and then moved onto how we fight. I missed part of lectures on Thursday due to a headache... I'm not quite sure if this was from the rather hard elbow that hit the back of my head during morning exercises and group bucketball, or if I was sick... either way it's all gone now, but I've got a sore throat at the moment so I'd really appreciate prayer for my health.

I missed youth street two weekends ago... we went to the Subiaco fruit markets which was fun... bought plums and grapes and proceeded to eat lots of fruit that day... and then this past weekend was probably one of the best I've had so far. We had IWT Local Link training on Saturday morning (for those who were involved with the NZ campaign, that's the 'counsellor' training except that they now don't use the term counsellor because of the connotations of counselling.) I came out of that and left straight for youth street... we didn't have a large number of crew but we came back to base and played basketball. I am proud to announce that during the entire 2 hours of playing basket ball, i got the ball through the hoop a grand, fantastic, wonderful total of... one time. That's right ladies and gentlemen... one time. Please, hold your applause. Then on Sunday, it was Angel and Shawn's engagement party... and so our small group rocked along to that... we all looked so pretty... I wore a dress for one of the first times in memory since I was little (excluding school dresses... and the HCCC midwinter dinner last year.)

Laptop is still dead, but seriously a miracle happened... Richard from media hadn't been able to fix it in three weeks so was going to reformat it meaning I'd lose all my unbacked up data... the sweet thing was that I took it back to my room with the intention of praying for it, and it started up this one time... and I was able to burn all my important files to CD. It didn't start the next few times after that, so now I'm just waiting on Richard to reformat it and we'll be back on deck with all cylinders firing...the only thing there is that I didn't manage to back up my email list so this will be pieced together bit by bit.

So this is fun, still have NO idea what I'm doing after outreach ends but I don't actually need to know right now. I'm stoked for India and to get out into the nations and to be loving Jesus and making Him known.

So... outreach fees are due in a month and this is probably set to become one of the biggest trusting-God challenges of my life... but I'm excited to see what he'll do. Basically I need $3300 minimum to come in for outreach, as well as any other miscellaneous expenses that will come up, plus spending stuff while we're there. It'd be awesome if you could continue to be bringing this in prayer before the Lord... and also if you would pray about supporting me financially. I so appreciate everyone that has helped so far with me getting here... and staying here... it means so much to me that you are willing to support me as I follow the call of God, wherever it will end up leading...

I'd love to hear from you... so feel free to email me, and I promise to be better at replying when I have my laptop back as my webmail is really not an easy setup. We've been having some internet issues here on base, so it takes a while to load, but we're getting there...

Bless you heaps
Kate

- do an online or physical deposit... my account is under the name of 'K H Dugdale' at the Lower Hutt branch of the National Bank, and my account number is 06 0529 0667112 00.
- through the YWAM Perth website... remember to put down my name and school>

uhh

2007-02-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

sore throat. going back to bed for all of an hour. no strepsils.

think that says it all.

Hope Centre service

2007-02-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

For everyone in New Zealand (well, Wellington) make sure you go to Hope Centre on the evening of 25 February... guest speaker is Susi Childers who spoke to us for an hour during the first weeks of DTS, and I wish we'd had her as a week long speaker but she was with the SFM for a week. She's one of these awesome photographer missionaries... injustice issues etc...

6.30pm... Hope Centre... 4 Downer St, Lower Hutt... Revival Service... you just gotta be there.

For more info:
http://www.hopecentre.org.nz/ScheduleOfEvents.php
http://www.photogenx.net/

Book report!

2007-02-17T15:54:00.001-08:00

".... I love where Sherrill quotes saying "Read to find the Man between the lines" because to me that's what the whole Bible is about... the God-story, the account of creation right through to the whole end-times saga and the mystery of 'ages to come.' The Bible is our roadmap to holiness... our map for the journey which within itself is the destination."

it works!

2007-02-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

praise jesus, the internet is fast enough to load pages. i'm not sure if that's because i'm the only one on or because it works now, yesterday pages wouldn't load etc but that may have been when everyone was trying to access stuff so i'm just doing a quick update now.

been a good week. missed part of lectures on thursday morning which was stink because we did two days lectures in 1... i had a headache so went to lie down.

i just called a nerd by trina because my favourite pastime in bed is to make her think i'm going to break the bunk. she sleeps under me.

i bought a dress. $10. it's interesting... trina likes it. i think it needs serious adjustment.

il a mort.

2007-02-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

I think that's how you say it in French. I'd ask Vairea but she's not here.. 'it died.' my computer wouldn't start again yesterday morning... I guess there was just grace to get my files... only thing I couldn't access that I wanted was my emails, so if you read this, feel free to send me your email address, to my paradise account i think you all should know it.

doing spiritual warfare in class this week... been a little interesting, prayer for wisdom... and perspective probably wouldn't go amiss. We had a bit of an incident at 1.30am in our room this morning.

oops, i just further cracked the keyboard holder on this computer...

our small group is all migrating to angel and shawn's engagement party this sunday... the other girls were so cute (for lack of a better word) when they found out... they looked like they wanted to burst into tears (of happiness.)admittedly i didn't really plan well for pretty dress occasions... i have my denim skirt... go savemart... teena rocks... and i found another random brown fluffly peasant-ish skirt in the salvo bin which actually fits pretty well

i'm now not sure where i'm going on outreach... i'll confirm details in a day or two I guess, but basically too many people wanted to go on the team I applied for... so I told Q that I'm happy to change if need be. So I could potentially be on my way to South Africa/Durban and Capetown, Mongolia, India or Indonesia/Bali and Flores.

Awkward but happy

2007-02-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

I'm listening to my music. Note, I haven't listened to my music in 3 weeks since I bought no CDs with me.. and laptop died and was unfixable. until like 4pm today when i went to visit Richard the media guru computer dude. who was like 'i can't fix it, but i can reformat it. you'll probably lose all your files.'

(note to self: BACK UP! BACK UP! because my last 6 months at least wasn't backed up with my journal etc or photos on my laptop.)

So me, thinking ''uhhh' says 'can i take my laptop back to my room and like pray for it' and he's like yeah... so i take it back to my room, along the way doing the little 'jesus... please heal my laptop' thing... start it up and it works. it's not perfect, and my outlook express won't open and so i haven't been able to back up most of my emails, but i was able to back up all of my photos and files and journals, praise Jesus, and my mum is sending me over copies of half of my cds so i can now reformat it , with all my files safe, and rejoice and so that's why i'm awkward. i'm on the communal computer for internet since alll my settings were lost, with my laptop on my lap so i can listen to music.

for cell group 2nite we went with quenton's group since angel is hanging out with her soon-to-be-inlaws, and 5 guys and 12 girls... we went down to the river bank and the boys hid chocolates for us... 'valentines day scavenger hunt' and i had SO much trouble finding one... and we ate healthy food... what is it with americans and their obsession with peanut butter on EVERYTHING? particularly dried banana around here. and talked about lordship... and now i should go to bed since its 10.30 :)

IWT

2007-02-11T00:26:00.003-08:00

www.transformperth.org

IWT

2007-02-11T00:26:00.001-08:00

www.transformperth.org

Photos

2007-02-10T02:36:00.000-08:00

look sideways... kind of a picture of the trees at the park... all lit up pretty but kinda blurred. we went here for our first small group.

Angel and Shawn (centre bottom) dance during the talent show...

Australia Day Fireworks

Bridge to Claisebrook Train Station

Cristina climbing a gate... which we weren't really meant to climb over... but Kangaroo island was closed! :(

Worship @ Base

All photos courtesy of Michelle :) and Trina. and perhaps Lionel.

a looooooooooong day.

2007-02-09T06:14:00.000-08:00

6am exercise... 8am duties... 8.30am - 7pm in the classroom. with no breaks. seriously. we were doing lordship week application and it was good but we had music going loud most of the day and i have a headache! we didn't break for lunch or dinner until 7pm, and our single break was about 2pm when speaker needed to go bathroom... apart from that it was a quick-in-and-out trip when we needed something.
so i'm off to bed, have a 2am prayer slot which i'm not waiting up for, tomorrow is ashleys 21 birthday so i not going youth st, we just may do some stuff tgether. a beach trip? praise jesus!

Shut up and die.

2007-02-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

I think that's one of the quotes of the week by our speaker... shut up and die... shut up and listen... good times, good times. :)

outreach options... i'll let you know next week where i'm going... but these are the options:

4 teams (approx 50-60 ppl total) head to India for the 3 months... spend a few weeks together in Hydrabad, split up for the rest of the time, then I think regroup for a little bit in Hydrabad.

2 teams (approx 25-30) head to South Africa... 6 weeks together in Durban then 5 weeks in either Capetown or some other thing i don't remember.

2 teams heading to Indonesia... start with three weeks here in Perth doing follow up for IWT, then head to Bali for 3 weeks, then split into two and one goes to Jakarta another goes to another island... then back to Bali for the last couple of weeks.

1 team headed to Mongolia... 10 people ish... 3 weeks in Aussie then the rest of the time in Mongolia.

We're not allowed to discuss among ourselves where we are going or even discuss the options... so that it doesn't really influence our listening to God... have to decide and let Q know by Monday then teams will be confirmed either late next week or the week after I guess... :)

Waitangi day!!

2007-02-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

It was a glorious momentous awe-inspiring occasion... and I was late. to waitangi day dinner. it was tragic.

there were like 19 of us... kiwis or kiwi heritage... including the aunt and uncle of kirk from church which was weird... and we drank L&P and ate pavlova and i had cadbury chocolate in the fridge i forgot to bring out...

but anyway, angel and i had our one on one which went for a rather long time... we went to the place they are doing their engagement party to confirm some detais, and then went and sat in Koorong. didn't buy anything, didn't look at anything, just sat on their chairs and talked. it was fun. but i arrived bak a bit late... praise jesus anyhoo.

If you read this, please send a copy of your email to my email as all my supporters emails got deleted along with everything else on my computer that went into oblivion... :)

Written a few ays ago...

2007-02-06T05:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone

I'm honestly, honestly not sure where the last two weeks of DTS have gone, and now I've been here for a month. It's crazy how fast this is going, within 2 months we should be overseas on outreach. We find out locations this week... 'find out' being a relative term as quite a few people seem to know already, I'm not quite sure how they do. So I think I know most of them from what people have been discussing... we did get emailed 4 possibilities, but I think one or two of them have changed. I'll let you all know more about that when I know where I'm going...

So, week three was intercession, hearing God and worship with speaker Ruthie Byrne who I absolutely loved... she was fantastic. It was a fun week of lectures because a lot of it was pretty familiar... and not that heavy. My big thing during week three was doing a three day silent fast... I only spoke during my two hours of work duties, and during prayer/worship times with the base or my school. That was a very interesting... hard at times... but good experience. This week my cell group went to Exomod and drank coffee (frappe.. hot chocolate... lattes... canomile tea...) and talked.

Week four we've just finished with Richard Jones from Penang, Malaysia, as our speaker, on the Father Heart of God. Good week, some pretty indepth ministry times happened in class. It's been a pretty hot week this week... so it's quite tiring doing everything we do in the heat. We went kangaroo seeing (I wanted to go kangaroo hunting, but no one would agree with me) on Tuesday... and didn't see a single kangaroo... the place where you are meant to see them was closed off, and even though we walked all around the outside, they didn't come out to play. We did have pizza, so that was okay.

I received mail! So to everyone else... I'm still waiting... :) I'm a little bit limited on communication ability, since my laptop died two weeks ago and wasn't fixed yet, plus the guy who is looking at it has been on holiday for a week. Hopefully this week he can get it up and running otherwise I'm going to have to reformat it meaning I'll lose all my emails and stuff, which, yes, is not backed up from at least the last half year. So, this is being sent from my webmail account to a small list of people whose emails I remember since I have no record of everyones emails. Please feel free to forward this on to anyone who you think may be interested in getting it... or send me email addresses for me to add to my list.

For the past two Saturdays I have been involved with a ministry called youth street which is part of nexwave... and I'm going to try to stay involved as much as I can for the rest of the quarter, all things dependent upon DTS schedule. I've been connecting with the sports team... which means that on Saturday mornings I meet with the youth street team at 10am, we pray... or meet... this Saturday we did a carwash to fundraise... and then head to Kaio and meet up with the crew that comes each week, made up of teenagers aged 13-17. We then split into the four streams... dance, music, skate, sport and go do various things relating to the team... then head back to Kaio. First week we played soccer and went swimming at the beach... this past Saturday the crew played baseball while some of the staff set up for a water balloon fight... then we had a water balloon fight. One of our staff members informed the kids that in America its a tradition after baseball to share with your coach what you have... so the other DTS students who came along to coach baseball completely got attacked with the waterhose, popcorn and crisps. While I didn't suggest it... I did have the hose...

So this week coming up, we have Mark Parker from Auckland speaking on Lordship... praise Jesus, we have a Kiwi speaking! However, I called a couple of people in New Zealand today... and must admit that I did have trouble with their accents! It may just have been a distorted phone line, but that was kind of funny... I know a few people aren't sure how they'll go with understanding lectures, unless he has a YWAM accent.

Well, I think that's about all... the weather has been really hot here, and its expected to keep being hot much of the time. I am sure that when I end up in a winter somewhere I will desperately miss the heat! Hope you guys are all doing well... send me updates on what's happening in your life. If you have myspace, my myspace username is katedugdale so you can add me as a friend. Remember to read my blog... www.katedugdale.blogspot.com

Till He comes

Kate

Prayer requests
1) Grace to stay awake! It's not a problem since we're active most of the time, but in class sometimes I find myself getting a bit sleepy... nothing drastic, it's just that our speakers have very soothing voices... :)
2) Vision... for the future... that I'd really know clarity about where God is leading since some options will need to be sorted out before outreach if I'm being led there...
3) I'll know DTS outreach fees soon... so I can give you a specific figure soon-ish... but I am trusting God for all the costs there... so prayer is always good.

Happy Birthday

2007-02-05T01:23:00.001-08:00

*clap clap clap clap*

a happy birthday to you
a happy birthday to you
may you find jesus near
every day of the year
a happy birthday to you
a happy birthday to you
and the best year you've ever ha-aa-ad

happy birthday
its someones birthday
happy, happy, birthday to you
*pound table twice*
happy birthday
its someones birthday
happy happy birthday to you
*pound table repeatedly so cutlery and everything else makes much noise...*

a happy happy birthday from all of us to you
a happy happy birthday from all of us to you
a happy happy birthday from all of us to youuuuuuuuuuu (accompanied by finger wiggling extended arms in the general direction of the birthday table)
a happy happy birthday from all of us to you!

(person with mic) hip hip (everyone) hurrah... x 3

then for the australians... aussie, aussie, aussie... oi oi oi

i am still amazed. we sing this EVERY time there is a birthday. the full version. it's great.

Lordship week!

2007-02-04T23:46:00.000-08:00

I like this week. We have a Kiwi speaker and it's nice because he makes references to places and people and Maori words and I understand him. His name is Mark Parker, he's from Auckland... one of the 'big 3' (him and two others lead YWAM NZ together.) Today was good and we have another two hours of lectures tonight...

Weekend... Youth street on Saturday... was meant to play baseball for the first time ever but since we had so many on sports team I ended up doing prep work for our water balloon fight... those of you who have done carwashes with me know NEVER to give me the hose... guess who gave me the hose! Mwahahaha (insert evil laugh.)

If anyone wants to call me here, I have a phone that people can call me IN on, just fire me an email and I can give yu the number and we'll organise a time since i need to be around. yesterday i got to make a couple of phone calls back to NZ... managed to miss some... but it sure was nice to hear kiwi accents. when my laptop is back up and running i'll probably buy some skype credit and be able to call out, since yesterday i borrowed a phone card. i have to go use a phone box to call out.

So this week is Lordship... gotta be open to the Lord coming in and completely changing the course of my life... the fact is that this thing is not about me, it's about Him... and it's not about my life it's about His destiny, His purposes, His plans for my life. Buzzword for me would be disrupt... as much as that was part of at home, it's good here as well... God disrupted the course of my life once upon a time two years ago... when I quit school and went to pray, but it was a good disruption. Now, I don't know. Maybe it'll happen again :).

I would like to make a special mention of Linda... my faithful awesome linda. She sent me NZ chocolate, a flag and a cheesy NZ keychain thing. It's fantastic that we have Waitangi Day tomorrow so all of us NZers will probably sit together and be patriotic. Wonder if I can organise a pavlova... :)

Monday mornings we have base worship... it's so good to be with like 300 - 400 people in worship for an hour ... crazy good. The worship teams over here are pretty sweet as well.

well... must go find dinner... :) or something.

Kate

and we're hot again...

2007-02-02T01:08:00.001-08:00

39 degrees today... 40 tomorrow... yay for warm weather. i handled it okay today except for the walk to the prayer room and back... 15 minutes... sweat patches on my tshirt, a shower before dinner tells it all...

this morning. we're meant to meet at 6.45 in the auditorium, no morning exercise... 5.15 someones alarm goes off and i have to climb out of bed to turn it off as it goes from 'beep-beep-pause beep-beep-pause' to 'manic-insane-hyperactive-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep' because shannon had her ipod headphones in and didn't hear it. i for some weird reason have been waking up at like 5am every day from some reason or another, but decided to go back to bed... woke up to my alarm at 6.15, turned it off... next thing i know the light is flicking on and katherine -(staff) is saying girls, its 6.45am. somehow we all slept through alarms and woke up at the time we were meant to meet... but it was okay, eveyrone was late anyway.

we went can shaking to fundraise for ARMS (Aussie Relief and Mercy Services) which is a ministry of YWAM Perth that practically helps families in crisis. So we each had a can and stood at a corner... shaking it. we only did an hour and a half or something, so wasn't too long... problem was that i was at an intersection with 4 people, one on each corner... and mine was the direction they all walked to, so i kind of got very few 'new people.' it was fun though.

today we looked at the 'mother heart of God' in class... his feminine characteristics (e.g. nurturing, compassionate, protective) and that was fun... then this afternoon i rocked up to the prayer room for a few hours, came home for dinner, FNM is in like an hour, and then to bed... wake up at 2am for my hour in the 24-7 prayer chain... :D and back to bed, then get up at like 8am.

and we're hot again...

2007-02-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

i liked class today.

2007-01-31T23:10:00.000-08:00

we were doing application on god's father heart. i didn't get out until 2.30 so was an hour late for work duty. i had like a 10 minute hug. it was fantastic. seriously :)

Anyway, I must make public, the mail list of honour!
These brave souls sent letters, intrepid pieces of paper making their way through the international postal service...

Esther Irwin
Darcy (Thomas B.)
Cindy Ruakere

So far, ladies and gentlemen, I have received three (3) pieces of mail. I await one from another friend... and I like being surprised...
I also like NZ things. Do please note that edibles are preferred among all items, as I can consume before outreach, but other gifts willingly accepted.

Not sure when we find out outreach locations. I've heard anything from week 5 to week 8. We were talking this morning in the dorm and someone was saying that this base is real oldschool... like we do dinner in family tables, the fact outreach is sometimes left so late... but we like it! This base is crazy good about so much stuff... totally on the edge... they have an excellent graphics and media department. all good. :)

evangelism tonight... i can talk this week, saweet!

Karanga: the call

2007-01-30T04:11:00.000-08:00

Kaahore te oranga o te tangata mo ia anake.

None live for themselves

it's as simple as that.

Thunderstorms

2007-01-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

It rained. For like the second time since I've been here. I don't even remember the first time but Ashley said it did, so I assume it did.

We were in the middle of watching Narnia #1 - of course that is all that's out - and heard rain... so we went outside and there was a thunderstorm and we danced in the rain. while the pavement was still wet. and of course my clothes that were just washed today got all wet as well, so i had to change again...

back to 6am wakeups tomorrow... praise jesus... wonder what happens if it rains :)

Weekly happening

2007-01-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

Nothing really new happened this week... I learnt a lot about being silent before the Lord but I might update that later, I have my whole journal to do today.

Friday was Australia Day so we all took sandwiches for dinner and went down to the river to watch the Fireworks display... I bought a giant Australian flag, and yes, wore it wrapped around myself. Photos will come. 42 degrees... i swear, hottest day yet.

(:: Laptop update. Currently not good. Please pray. intercession and travail appreciated... it's just like dead and media guy can't even read hard drive files... and important ones aren't backed up.)

Saturday I helped out with Youth Street... it's an outreach thing that's run by the nexwave (youth ministry) team here... so we prayed and set up from like 10, left at 12.15, ate lunch at Kaio, then spent the afternoon as part of the sports stream (they run music, dance, sport, skate teams) with 13 people, so we went to city beach. it was pretty darn hot, tho not as hot as it could have been because there were clouds. we alternated between swimming and playing soccer... and despite the fact that I DID mention to K.O carrying Angel to the water (which she said no to), I was NOT responsible for the crew who did make her get in!

Last night was the Talent show... YWAM Perth has some rather hidden talents... :) so that was fun.

This morning, I'm journalling... we have a BBQ for J9s birthday... pancakes, yum..., then journal most of the afternoon, methinketh.

Some substance?

2007-01-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to write a blog of more substance than 'happenings on DTS' which has been the all-too-frequent topic that I talk about on here... but there hasn't really been anything processed... so this isn't a new revelation, it's already been processed a bit in the secret places of my heart...

There's something about the night. There's something about being up when everyone else is asleep, about standing on a field and looking at the stars and asking the Lord, "Who are you?", there's something about being in a tiny little prayer room at about 3am in the morning when you're attempting to do an allnight prayer meeiting with the few and the faithful, and you realise that this is where it's at... this is where I find God.

The DTS schedule doesn't leave a lot of room for the nightwatch.. it doesn't leave a lot of room to be flexible with my schedule. I know that the YPDTS does the Friday night hours of the 24-7 prayer chain which happens here on base, but as far as I know that just means that once every few weeks we'll be scheduled to wake up for an hour and pray for YWAM Perth... but what with a 6am exercise, our room-self-set curfew is 10.30pm so right now I'm up after lights off, and there's still stuff all over my bed so I have to keep this short...

Psalm 63, David talks about how he thought about the Lord 'through the watches of the night.' God comes and speaks in dreams and visions in the night, like the one that Jacob had in Genesis... Jacob also wrestled with God all night... God spoke to Gideon overnight by the fleece thing... Psalm 1:2, the man meditates on the Word all day and night... Psalm 42:8, 'at night his song is with me', ps 119.148 talks about staying awake all night to meditate on God's promises, Ps 139 is about those who minister in the night... in song of songs the chick goes searching in the night for her beloved... anna the prophetess worshipped God with fasting and prayer... you guessed it, day and night...

so the night is good. maybe weekends. maybe after DTS. but i like the night.

i'm a kiwi. it's a nocturnal bird. that explains it...

Pre-dinner update

2007-01-22T23:46:00.000-08:00

Dinner is at some stage soon... I'm not actually sure where my cellphone is, I think I left it in the classroom maybe... or at morning tea in the dining room... who knows. So I have no watch.

Today we got up for 6am exercise... lovely brisk walk with Angel and J9... today was my last day of morning chores in the auditorium, tomorrow I will probably rotate to kitchen or gladstone or 228 or the bathrooms... :) we change every 2 weeks, hallelujah, praise Jesus... we love cleaning... yeah..

our speaker today (ruthie byrne still) spoke on ways that God speaks... its good stuff this week, i've heard most of it before, but its still really good to hear it again...

IWT, i spent making phone calls...

free time... went and laid on the grass, now i'm all itchy!

Just so you all know...

2007-01-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

Laptop died today. Richard, one of the dudes in media, thinks he can fix it, thinks its just a windows xp start up error... but not sure how long it'll take, most media.... most staff... actually, anyone who is a YWAMer is reasonably pressed for time!

Speaker this week is Ruthie Byrne, on hearing God and intercession... she's fantastic. took 45 minutes to tell us the story of how her and her husband got married... big long ywam story... and, ha, guess where they met? DTS... :) they keep emphasising no dating on DTS... no 'special relationships' either... but it's good... but its just funny, the number of people who meet thru YWAM...

10pm, and i'm off as soon as chasity comes to get me, we have a video we're presenting tomorrow in class and i stil need to edit it and i'm not doing it at 7am.

yeah. well. i think that might be all for now i may as well let others use the computers.

YPDTS

2007-01-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

So, this last week has been really really busy... so haven't had much much time to update... 6am exercises started on Monday, Tuesday night we had small group, Wednesday night was free time, Thursday night was an IWT-info/outreach prep night, and on Friday we spent from 8.30am till 12pm in the classroom for application of repentance and forgivenss...

apart from that, all else is good. watching the benchwarmers then headed for bed...

much love
me

i am still alive

2007-01-19T01:19:00.001-08:00

i'm here.
just silent.
will blog on the weekend sometime.

YPDTS photos

2007-01-16T02:07:00.001-08:00

Part of Kaio coffee shop... clothes...

This is the laneway... my living area on the left, dining hall/classroom/auditorium on the right...

The dining room... this is just under half of the width...

Some of our staff... from left, Jess, Alicia, Janine, Megan.

Guys playing beach volleyball

These are six of the girls in my dorm, plus me... we were all the early arrivals...

Communal timtam slamming... last night...

Me and Sage... she lives in a staff house... so we have to walk her home every night...

Train station!

This is cottesloe beach

Interesting things...

2007-01-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

I still haven't been on kitchen duty. And I've been here for two full weeks tomorrow.

The nature of God is the stuff, the essence of who he is... his character is how he chooses to exercise himself, based on the unchanging nature of who He is.

Agape love... sacrificial choice, for the highest good of another.

Cindy Ruakere's new album comes out this week... you should buy it. Yes, this is a shameless plug for a friend.

Angel is lying on the bed next to me. She's tired.

The 'easy jog' this morning (my option for exercise) became a harrowing, torturous run... but we saw dolphins... I think I already said that.

Beka owns over 2000 records (and they're real vinyl.)

Angel got to dance with Britney Spears on stage... she owns a childcare centre with 600 kids... she's engaged to Shawn... loves to shop... love language is quality time... and likes to eat and laugh... has a heart for Thailand. She has three months away from her fiancee... gets back, has a month, then gets married. Angel is my one on one.

Trin has a leopard skin sheet.
I have a sleeping bag in green. forest green. latest fashion accessory.

why last night!

2007-01-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

11.30... get to sleep
4.40am... wake up to the incredibly INCREDIBLY loud snoring of a girl in our cabin... who shall remain nameless for now... and like 5 of us woke up... so I woke her up :) and she stopped.
5.40am... 'beep, beep... beep, beep'
5.41am... (at twice speed of previous beeps) 'beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep....'

yeah. morning exercise got off to a bit of a 'fun' start. i was in the 'easy jog' which became a 'very brisk jog/run' group... i think i may switch tomorrow, we're meant to stay in one for a week but i need a transfer...

got my journal in on time yesterday, which was good... gave it to angel who is my small group leader... she's engaged to shaun...

i saw dolphins in the river this morning... slow jogging has benefits, those who ran fast missed them...

Ellen and I went to the prayer room last night. that was good too. Yesterday was like 38 - 42 degrees, depending on where you were... supposedly 40ish here... it was hot... today is meant to be much cooler. I went to church but because the train tracks were being worked on, I had to get a bus, and both times I just missed the bus (as in, it pulled away as I got to the stop) and so it took forever. Not sure I'll head back there... nice church, still prefer Hope Centre.

Daily Schedule

2007-01-14T03:47:00.000-08:00

My daily schedule kicks in tomorrow... so off to bed early tonight...

6.00 am Morning exercise! Hallelujah! So we'll be up at like 5.40 to get to the park in time...
6.20/6.30?? Exercise ends, we have time to do a devotional, shower, breakfast, and look pretty for the day. Breakfast is supplied... partly... oats, bread, and spreads etc... anything else we buy ourselves... oh yeah, there is milk powder. We just get it in our own tiem.
8.00am Family chores... we all work to keep the base and dorms clean... so we're responsible for our own dorm, and then we have work assignments for all communal living areas... my current one is the auditorium.
8.30am Varies each day... Monday is base worship, Tuesday is announcements/intercession as a base, Wednesday and Friday are worship as a school, Thursday is school worship.
9.30am Somewhere in here we have a break... Tuesday and Thursday we do 'creative presentation' with our school, Wednesday we work on our memory verse application.
10.00am Lectures... with a couple of 5 minute breaks every hour or so.
12.30pm Lunch. :). This is where different stuff is put on each table... tuna, eggs, salad, leftovers, meat pies... and you just choose a table and start and finish when you please...
1:30pm I head over to the IWT office for my work duty... admin...
3:30pm ish Finish work duty... free time...
5:30pm Dinner... bit more of a formal meal, families sit together, the rest of us just fit in somewhere... wait for the official end of the meal... we sing the longest happy birthday song I have EVER heard (it has like a full three different songs combined.)
7:30pm Mondays is lectures, Tuesdays is small group, Wednesday is our 'free' night... Thursday is evangelism... Friday is the FNM (friday night meeting)

Summer is here....

2007-01-13T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's a huge contradiction... it's hot outside, but I need to carry a sweater or jacket with me, because they put the airconditioning on in the auditorium, classroom, and IWT office. At night, I sleep in my artic-conditions sleeping bag, because the aircon blows straight onto my (:top) bunk bed. It's kinda crazy when you consider that yesterday it was about 35 degrees... and my roomies well and truly got fried... crispy... bright red.

Yesterday we all headed to the beach... took a packed lunch... I came home at about 3 to do some washing and work on my journal, this thing takes a while! Still not done... its due tonight... so will finish after church. This morning I'm going to Subiaco Church of Christ, although I've just found out the buses are running on a weird timetable, so guess I'll travel earlier than I need to so I can get there on time. The train line we use to take to get to the beach and to the church is not working this weekend, replaced with buses, and they don't give me the bus timetable... and they say alow extra time.

I'll blog deep stuff later today... better go get dressed... still in my pyjamas in the computer lounge...

Work duties and FNM

2007-01-11T23:24:00.000-08:00

Well... my work duty has been revealed... for the next 3 months I shall be working in the Impact World Tour office... well, at least 6 weeks, I don't actually know what will happen when the tour officially kicks off... our evening schedule goes out the window for 6 weeks cos we'll all be supporting IWT. But its fun, its me and another CDTS lady, Sharyn, and then all the IWT staff here... funny one... it's mainly an admin role.

Friday Night Meeting is tonight... it's the local church service that YWAM Perth runs... only lasts like 90 minutes... and again, we only have 6 of them because for the second half of the quarter we'll be at IWT...

Right. off to do my journal, its due in on Sunday and we're all going out tonight after Kaio, and to the beach tomorrow.

Write to me!

2007-01-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hey dudes,

For those of you wanting my postal address, it is:

Kate Dugdale
YPDTS, c-/o YWAM Perth
PO Box 8501
Perth Business Centre
Western Australia 6849
Australia.

Now, if any of you know of those old ladies who like writing to missionaries... or if any of you secretly want to be like them... write to me! Email is great, but its nice to get letters and packages and stuff in the mail at times...
especially since we have actual mail boxes, kinda stink when they stay empty...

Kate

"This is an amazing smell"

2007-01-10T05:02:00.000-08:00

I have no inspiration for a blog title, so here is a shoutout to Michelle. She is 19, from Washington State, has multicoloured hair, 5'2", and doing a handstand in the room people are asleep in.

We didn't end up starting work duties today... we just had morning chores explained to us, and had a free afternoon and evening... so we just hung out and went to the city to buy journal stuff for our CIRs. The official term is a Creative Integration Record... but basically we have to answer lots of questions each week and do some extra stuff this week.

Sometime soon I'll post about our curriculum... its very cool for an actual qualification I can use in NZ... :)

Anyway. I'm going to go sit with Michelle, and eat bread. or something. i'm not going to play pingpong fullcourt again... we broke the last ball in the gear box...

Laters, homies.

Lines... on base?

2007-01-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

At many times, it seems that there are lines... yesterday was a day of lining up for things.

We have announcements as a base at 8.30 tuesday mornings, so we all meet in the auditorium... they also happen @ dinner every night. Then we spent yesterday lining up... to talk to the accounts people, the registrar people, the book people... all these lovely other people... the extended base tour people... and that took 3 hours to get all my boxes signed off... o yea, the work duty people... haven't heard back from them yet, have a feeling I'll be on admin... I put down admin or Kaio and I'm probably more of an admin person, all my staff were like 'Kate... Kristen's assistant' when they met me... fun times, fun times

But yeah, afternoon we did YP specific orientation.. I need to get in to town and buy a journal, its a reasonably big assignment... we have quite a few questions to do each week, and more this week. Guess how long it takes will depend on the size of the journal pages :). Then at 3.30 we all went to the park for our base BBQ, but only stayed an hour and a bit because it began to rain so we came home and ate dinner here... more lines... usually food is just on the tables and you sit at one and serve yourself.

Last night was free, so is tonight (?), nothing scheduled... work duties and cleaning start today.. oh yay...

Am I a YWAMer yet?

2007-01-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was day one of orientation... meaning that we had our first base worship session which was really, really good. I like worshipping with like 300 people, the majority of them young. Next every new student had to introduce themselves... like 180 of us...

Then we had a break... and they fed us nice morning tea... tim tam balls in hot chocolate are SO good... and then we sat thru a couple of hours of talking on YWAM Perth, YWAM values... lunch break... intro'd to the base leadership team here, heard the word from the Lord for the Jan quarter from Caleb Brownhill, and prayed for our staff teams.

I then rocked up to thefurnace for a bit and had a couple of random divine connections while I was there... came back, dinner, then the whole YPDTS headed down to Kaio which is the YWAM Perth cafe outreach thing. Very, very nice smoothies. They live up to their international reputation... I want to try a timtam thickshake though, they looked really good... or was it a timtam frappe... a timtam something.

A group of us walked home, and Sage and I kept freaking out at cockroaches... and dark places... and shadows... where cockroaches can live. Me and a couple of the guys walked Sage home, and then sat on the street and did our very first 'tim tam slam.' This is a bit of a tradition around the YP, from what I know... you bite a corner off each end of a tim tam, and suck up some hot drink thru the biscuit and either put it in your mouth as soon as you taste the drink, or have competitions... who can go the longest without it crumbling into your drink... i'm sure that it'll taste better with hot chocolate, but tea was pretty good.

Then this morning, I was woken up at 6.20am... far too early...

20% off!

2007-01-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah... i forgot to mention... I get 20% off at Koorong, which is fantastic, cos I'm a YWAMer. Actually, maybe I already mentioned this, I don't know... but we get 20% discount at the local Christian bookstore which is 15 minutes walk away, because we are YWAM. The other day I was meant to get 15% in the sale, then I mentioned I was YWAM student and he was like 'yeah, YWAM gets a bigger discount.'

Internet here kicks me off at 12... shut down 12-5am every day which is healthy but will not be conducive if i ever manage to do nightwatch. which is unlikely. tho the prayer room here doesn't allow chicks to do nightwatch alone...

does anyone use skype?? if so, my username is kate.dugdale and so you could add me... or if you want my MSN messenger address, send me an email.

Audience of One

First Sunday

2007-01-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

The prayer thing keeps coming up. I met a guy named Adam, although I keep wanting to call him Justin, who works with IWT here, and we had a bit of a chat at lunchtime which was good. He's from somewhere in the USA. This morning Ellen and I went to metrochurch which was about a 20 minute walk... somehow I manage to be the one who knows where we are going and how to get there, so I ended up leading the group to church, and somehow ended up organising a beach group the other day, but that wasn't by myself so all good. Kinda cool, service @ 9.30, finished by 11, then we all went to the guest lounge where they had free food and orange juice. Doesn't that sound like such a YWAMer thing to say tho? But yeah, they do it to welcome the new people who are visiting. May go back again, I have another church (Subiaco Church of Christ) I want to visit but Ellen didn't want to go so far today.

So, we start this journey together tonight... over 100 DTS students are here (some still to arrive) at 6.30 in classroom 1, just off the auditorium/dining room. I think for the next couple of days we begin to integrate our usual schedule with the orientation schedule, then on Wednesday start classes, but I will know more after tonight, obviously. It seems everyone I meet is Canadian... or American... but there is one NZ'er on staff (see previous blog about Pablo the Dunedin-ite) tho he isn't even here right now...

I have a prayer room!

2007-01-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

I got access to the prayer room :):):) this chick I emailed sent me the details, and Shannon from my bedroom came up with me and we sat in a prayer room and talked. and prayed for a bit. and it felt like home. and i'm the happiest i've been in a while :)

I found a prayer room!

2007-01-06T02:25:00.000-08:00

It's called 'the furnace prayer studio' and was locked, so it's not 24-7 obviously. I've asked a few staff members around here but none of them really know much about it and I'm not sure who to ask, so have emailed an address I found online. It's about a 15 minute walk from the base, sure I won't have much time to get there, but there's Sat/Sun... Weds nights... and some afternoons, I think.

Here's hoping this works out.

Australia Video

2007-01-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

Names, names, everywhere

2007-01-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

I like nameless and faceless, because trying to learn names here is a mission!

Close to 400 on base from what I hear for the quarter... 111 on YPDTS... so like, yeah, lots of names. I think I've got maybe 60-70 since I got here except now I'm asking people twice. And I'm the annoying girl who will call your name out and if you respond, I'm right :)

Went to Koorong today, the local bookshop. Also discovered there is a prayer room somewhere near here, but I have to get a key to go there, so that's tomorrows plan... or at some stage... none of the staff I've asked yet know much about it... from what one told me, it wasn't as well used as they hoped... but who knows. I don't think we'll have too much time during DTS to use it, maybe afternoons when work duties are done??

Chicks aren't allowed to walk anywhere by themselves after dark, so I'm really glad that Western Oz intro'd daylight savings here for the first time or something, its really good being able to go out until like 8.30pm or even after that by myself. We can be on the back side of the base, there's like a field where I hung out for a bit tonight. I also got told that if we ask a guy to walk us somewhere, he has to take us... like they have to... but that's unconfirmed rumours from YWAM Perth so I'm not quite sure how that works.

So tomorrow is Sat, no def plans, Sunday I'm hoping to check out a local church... Subiaco church of Christ, its not that near, but its the only one I know of so far cos we don't get given orientation books till Sun night/Monday... Sun night, we start...

Ellen has arrived!

2007-01-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

My friend Ellen flew in to Perth today... she's here to do the YWAM Perth TESOL course... yay! So I won't see her that much, cos she's TESOL (teaching english to speakers of other languages) and I'm YPDTS, but all good.

Intercultural committee....

2007-01-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

My little sister got on school council for 2007... she's the head of the intercultural committee... but hanging out with so many nationalities is a bit of an eyeopener within itself.

The other girls find 'jandals' to be hilarious, to them they are flipflops, sandals or thongs. Have made sure they know alternative meanings for that last one though. A faucet is a tap, trash or garbage has become rubbish, petrol has become gas...

Last night, Becka, Michelle and I embarked upon a new adventure. We went dumpster diving... which sounds worse than it is. I needed a sheet for my bed because I'm just sleeping on the mattress right now, but wasn't that enthused about paying $20 for the cheapest set I could find at target yesterday... anyway, on base there's a salvo bin. Stuff from lost and found ends up there after a week of not being claimed, and students and staff can put stuff there... the idea is that the bin goes to the salvation army opshop... but we went and paid a visit, and found sheets... a duvet inner thing... a sleeping bag (we each got one of the above. i found my sheets, they just need a wash.) and then some random clothes which we bought back to the room and examined in the light... i'm sure it must have been the funniest sight, these three girls digging thru this wheelie bin in the moonlight.

I'm starting to learn names, with all the new YPDTS girls arriving today, tomorrow and the next day, I'm sure we're going to have a bit more difficulty, even though at 8pm last night I knew the name of every girl so far... all 15 of us...

Still not sleeping great at night, I'm waking up heaps... not sure whether its the top bunk thing or the other people thing...

And they're off

2007-01-04T05:15:00.001-08:00

The last of the October DTS is all leaving for outreach... they're all being quite noisy and excited out in the laneway...

photos to come sometime soon.

Having reached Perth...

2007-01-04T04:45:00.000-08:00

Yup! I'm here! And this is going to be a fantastic six months, methinks... except that its 10pm here, and so 2am at home, and makes the whole MSN-thing very difficult... especially to catch people... we'll see.

So. Yesterday's flight was slightly boring...okay, really boring. Jetstar is NOT fun... you have to pay for everything on the plane, and it's just totally totally budget and cramped. But it was okay and I arrived and Alicia and Rob, who are two of my staff met me and another girl Ashley from the airport and we came to the base and had dinner straight away at 5.30.

So. I'm staying on the actual base, just across the laneway from the auditorium... I'm in dorm 1, and we have 11 girls so far in the dorm. There's me, the only NZ student on DTS as far as I know, and 5 Americans, 2 Canadians, a girl from Singapore, a girl from Tahiti (French Polynesia) and a girl from the French part of Switzerland. There's only 12 beds, and I've ended up with a top one which isn't ideal, but everyone else likes bottom bunks and doesn't want to swap... :)

Last night, at dinner, they intro'd new people so had to do the whole stand-up-embarrased thing... that was okay tho... then after dinner I was in my room and I hear a voice saying 'Kate?' and Lisa Cole turns up... she's a friend I met a few years ago and we talk on MSN sometimes, and she was visiting over here and actually left last night so I got to spend some of the evening with her. It was nice to see SOMEONE familiar. Went to bed sometime around 10pm... got woken up at 4am with the arrival of Lily from America and Lara from Switzerland... so met them and went back to sleep.

This morning we got up and I had oatmeal for breakfast! Basically the base provides us with free oats... and they get a bunch of bread and stuff from places where its like a day old and can't be sold, so heaps of it is really nice. So we can have that as well at breakfast, but all my roommates intro'd me to oatmeal. Basically we had oats, and then we added boiling water and microwaved it... and added brown sugar cos it had no taste. I guess it's kind of like porridge without milk?

Of course, its all milk powder...so I'll see how long I last on milk powder, before buying my own milk!

Today we went to the beach and to the city. Treena and Candace and I went swimming in the ocean at the Cottleston beach or something, I can't remember the exact name. It meant we had to try to learn the Perth rail system, and first we went the wrong way cos we saw a train and ran to get it... but eventually got back to the beach. Then we got fishn'chips and gelato... and came back to base then went to the city and went shopping :) for some essentials.

Then after dinner tonight, we went down with a bunch of the YPDTS staff and students that are here, and played 'two truths and a lie' at the riverside carpark... and happily got my internet connected.

Leave me a comment :)

Live from Melbourne Airport

2007-01-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

So this was perhaps the most random stopover that I've ever had... I flew out of Sydney at 7.45am this morning and got to Melbourne just after 9... funny funny thing was, I have a 6 hour stopover. I thought that I was going to a normal airport... then I find out that the airport I came to is like this tiny little deal in the middle of nowhere, 30 minutes from the nearest part of the city, an hour from the actual city of Melbourne. So I'm trying to find somewhere to store my bags... for 6 hours.. airport won't let me, bus company won't let me... security reasons?

So I go and talk to both the bus and shuttle companies, they say no point going into city, you won't have enough time, bus will pick you up very early. Then the chick at the bus counter, when I told her my story, said that she was going to the bank, would I like to go with her? So I ended up going with Dawn to Geelong, and out to some random little country hicktown named Drysdale (lovely place. The sale at the surf clothing shop was STILL overpriced.) and had pineapple fritters which have left me feeling slightly nauseous... so did lunch yesterday at the Asian place. May be the heat.

So yeah, then came back to the airport... I was so surprised, my bag was 22.7kg @ Sydney and exactly 20kg here... I was like, hang on, then realised @ Sydney they used a bag tray for my backpack, and didn't here. Sweet job of packing, right on the mark... checked in, freaking out a little cos for every person before me they weighed their cabin baggage, but the chick didn't weigh mine, which was awesome because I think its too heavy.

So... onto Perth, onto DTS...

Let's go somewhere together

2007-01-02T04:49:00.000-08:00

"Have been praying for an outbreak of revival across this whole campus this week... thought I might as well shoot for the moon if you know what I mean"

Kristen wrote that to me in an email two years ago when he was first speaking on the YPDTS... since then he's been back to Perth a few times, and will be speaking on the YPDTS 07.

I was thinking about that email tonight... and want to ask you guys to pray with me... that God would do something massive in YWAM Perth... revival, signs, wonders and miracles... but even before He shows up in power, that He'd develop his character in us, that we'd be ready to stand when the storm hits. IWT (impact world tour) which came to NZ two years ago, is going to be in Perth during the second half of my outreach phase... so that's a massive opportunity... and I believe that God can, and will, do something significant in Perth, and in YWAM Perth.

C'mon... bring it on God.

An ode to Sydney

2007-01-02T04:36:00.000-08:00

I was going to put 'farewell to Sydney' in my blog header, but visions of meteors crashing into Sydney or some freak earthquake here paraded thru my head... I plan to be back in this city... I'm not sure 'an ode' is any better however.

After the museum today we went to the movies and watched Happy Feet... it was okay, not that great. Storyline needs some work, lots of gaps in it. Then came home... went to Lou's for tea... hung out... came back here. Now its 11.37pm, I'm packed-ish... just realised I have to fit my pyjamas in my bag still... i have too much stuff, but it's the story of my life, i'll lose a bit of it and send it home with people I know travelling back and forth, so tis all good.

So, 6.30am pickup, so off to bed very soon...be in Perth this time tomorrow.. so we're outta here... and off to the nations...

Live from Powerhouse Museum

2007-01-01T16:24:00.000-08:00

I have a really weird computer here... I'm at the museum with my parents, because we ditched the idea of going to the Blue Mountains because the weather is ultimately crappy today... but I've just discovered the 'computers and electronics' section at the museum, and while every computer here - they're all macs?? - has ahomepage of the museum website, you're able to access other sites through them.

I'm listening to my ipod, so it doesn't bother me, but anytime I press a key an automated computer voice reads out the letter or name of the key which I'm pressing. It's kind of funny... maybe that's why there is no one else at the computers next to me! hehe... free internet.

So far today, I led my family on a 'find the Starbucks' expedition, because there is NO STARBUCKS in Perth, which is a tragedy only equal to running out of toilet paper when you're in the bathroom and have already completed your business... but we found it, eventually, they all thought I was lost, but I wasn't... so I had a beautiful cinnamon and raisin bagel, with cream cheese... haven't had a bagel in months... and my standard double-choc-chip frappuchino.

oh gosh, now this thing is reading out loud what i've written on my blog, it's hilarious!

this afternoon we're meant to be going to see the new penguin movie Happy Feet... then home to Lou's for dinner, then I'll be going to pack, and leaving early tomorrow morning. At like 6.30am for the airport, why did I book my flights so early?? I have an hour flight to Melbourne... then 5 hours in Melbourne so I'll go into the city... then another 3 1/2 hour flight to Perth and I get in at 4.30pm Perth time... 6.30pm Sydney time... 8.30pm NZ time.

I should probably go look at some more exhibits.. so far I looked at the HSC (that's like Year 13... grade 12... final exams) design and technology display, and the Great Wall of China exhibit... now I have an hour to kill.

Live from Bondi Beachouse

2007-01-01T02:13:00.000-08:00

2 more nights till I go to Perth... and tomorrow is a day of travelling with my family, we're going on an expedition to the Blue Mountains... which requires a three hour journey there, and three hours back, by the time we get there and sorted! Long day... and then we'll be home in time to see Louise and Andy and Holly (cutest niece ever!) and say goodbye... next time I see Louise there'll be another baby in the household since she's 16 weeks pregnant - my 11th niece/nephew!

Is there a word... like brothers/sisters are siblings... what are nieces/nephews?

Anyway, I'm repacking, kind of. Trying to put stuff into my bag and make it look smaller than it is, and thus take up less space than it really should. I'm trusting for a miracle of where Jesus fed the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish... or was it 2 loaves and 5 fish... ? Memory blank there! But I don't trust for my STUFF to expand, I just trust for the ROOM in my bag to expand.

At the same time, I'm attempting to add my entire CD collection to my computer as I had only added about 5 of my 70... but then I realised that to take all my CDs overseas is a) a waste of space, and b) dangerous... if I lose them... so I'm adding them to my itunes. My ipod mini has a battery life of about an hour when fully charged, so I'm just trusting for a new ipod or mp3 player if I need one.

Things we learn: suntanning

2006-12-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

It's amazing. I'm actually a darker shade of brown than when I came to Australia... you can tell, because when I came, we had no summer in New Zealand and I had no tan, whatsoever.

Now, I have a tan mark from my purity ring... :) so this suntan thing actually works. I've been reasonably lucky in that I got burnt, but it didn't hurt so bad, and then it faded to brown instead of peeling. All I have to do is continue this trend in Perth (maybe I should wear sunscreen... go gradual instead of instant) and I'll turn up back in New Zealand all nice and brown.

Of course... if we go to somewhere cold and wintery for outreach, that'll negate that... but if my current intentions of what to do after DTS work out, I'll be happily chasing summer... and avoiding winter... for the next year, since it'll be summer when I'm in the UK and USA, and I'll get back to NZ sometime around the end of spring in 2007.

Of course... my parents said "See you next year" to me last night... and the rather weird thought is that when they say goodbye to me on Wednesday am at the early hour of 7.30, it may again be 'see you next year' if they don't come visit me in Perth... and I don't make it home in 2007.

My New Year's... 2007.

2006-12-31T05:02:00.000-08:00

Oh I don't understand Your ways
Oh but I will give You my song
Give You all of my praise
You hold on to all my pain
With it You are pulling me closer
And pulling me into Your ways

Now around every corner
And up every mountain
I'm not looking for crowns
Or the water from fountains

I'm desperate in seeking, frantic believing
That the sight of Your face
Is all that I need

I will say to You
It's gonna be worth it
It's gonna be worth it
It's gonna be worth it all
I believe this
It's gonna be worth it
It's gonna be worth it
It's gonna be worth it all

I believe this
You're gonna be worth it
You're gonna be worth it
You're gonna be worth it all
I believe this
You're gonna be worth it
You're gonna be worth it
You're gonna be worth it all

Jeremiah 29:11-13 // For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Sunday in Sydney

2006-12-30T21:14:00.000-08:00

I find it really interesting the reaction to the video of Saddam Hussein's hanging... people want to watch this stuff. I wonder if one day when the saints are being beheaded, they'll put that on mass tv... as the world gets darker, people will become more bloodthirsty... the worst kind of reality television. I don't know if it'll go that far, but I know that it will probably get worse.

We met at Lou's this morning... and went to Sydney's Paddy's Markets... I bought a shoulder bag... went on the monorail, had lunch, came home :).

Doing nothing for NY's... I'm boring...

The final countdown

2006-12-30T02:19:00.000-08:00

I had never heard of the song 'the final countdown' until I did the Forerunner Internship. I learnt more about music from the 80s in that 5 months than I had in my entire 17 years so far.

But I guess the title is apt... I'm now on the final countdown to actually getting to Perth... tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and I have no plans except to go to bed early. Sunday or Monday we're going to Paddy's Markets, and Tuesday the idea is to go to the Blue Mountains... basically a nice-scenery place 2 hours north of here... then I fly out really early Wednesday morning.

DTS doesn't actually start till January 7th (Sunday) but it'll be good to have a few days in Perth beforehand, methinks...

Onething broadcast

2006-12-29T03:55:00.000-08:00

It's good stuff. A little weird... the 8pm broadcast is at 2pm my time and I'm usually out... but the 5am broadcast is at 11pm, and I can get that, or the 2pm one is at 7am... talk about bad times aye. Might try to be here tomorrow for the 2pm one... i'm watching the 5am ET one now... it's good stuff.

The other option was going clubbing with my sisters... right now, i don't drink... i don't actually have any theology formed on that, it's just that most of the people I hang with, and the type of ministry and path I'm on... yeah, drinking just doesn't make sense..

Perspective on $

2006-12-28T04:31:00.001-08:00

www.globalrichlist.com.

Silent fasting.

2006-12-28T03:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, if anyone reads this who knows anything about silent fasting... the theology of being silent (?), practical stuff, how you deal with needing to answer questions and what counts as 'noise' or communication... please leave me a comment, i very interested.

Heart-connect

2006-12-28T02:53:00.000-08:00

It's only been a week... but it's been a week with just my family who don't all neccessarily 'get' what I do... most of them don't... and it's not the same as being with people I'm doing this journey with.

So yeah, right now I'm feeling a little lonely... a little like I need someone to talk to... to hang with over a Starbucks frappuchino or a McCafe hot chocolate or in the prayer room with the beanbags, raiding the communion supplies at 1am on a cold but still night in the middle of Lower Hutt. Maybe just a phone call... someone who gets the journey... someone that can kind of understand what's going on... because community is what this thing has largely been about, and I'm not yet connected to a ywam community... someone I can dream with and scheme with...

Any volunteers?

A new year....

2006-12-28T01:46:00.000-08:00

I keep trying to get inspired to write new posts about a new year... they're burbling away... watch for a post soon.

Yesterday I met up with Jenni, a friend from school who has lived here in Sydney for two weeks... we got burgers, and a Starbucks double-choc-chip frappuchino with extra cream base, and whipped cream (there is no Starbucks in Perth... but there is the Perth YWAM cafe, Kaio.)... went and spent an hour with a homeless kid on the street, gave her my bible... came home last night and watched movies with my sister.

Today Lisa, Drew and I (sister, brother-in-law) went kayaking with a group from the backpackers we're staying at, and spent a couple of hours out on Sydney harbour. I got real real tired so on the way back I went in Drew's double kayak, Lisa took my single, and we towed them back together. Spent the afternoon watching tv at Louise's with Andrew... tea with family... back to the backpackers. Hopefully an early night tonight.

Technical difficulties

2006-12-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

My cellphone is playing up... I'm not actually getting a lot of texts until quite a few days after they got sent (e.g. yesterday I got texts from 5 days ago.) So if I love you all very much, text you, then you don't reply, you know they've gone into cyberspace... which unfortunately seems to be quite often.

Rather nteresting jokes... fantastic music

2006-12-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

What do a cat at the beach and Christmas have in common?
Sandy Claws.... (aka Santa Claus, in case you didn't get that.)

I'd like to promo one of my favourite music people... I'm never quite sure what you call worship-leaders-who-release-CDS... because worship artists never seems quite right, because worship isn't an art, it's a lifestyle. Anyway, her name is Cindy Ruakere, and she's like one of my all-time-favourite New Zealand worship leader and speaker peoples...

She's done a few conferences and the like with Onething and Hope Centre... she's been doing itinerant ministry for over 7 years, as I understand it. She and her drummer (Maryanne) and bass guitarist (Anita) are headed overseas on a nine month international tour in 2007, so hopefully we'll run into each other somewhere in the nations.

So check out the nice website at www.cindyruakere.com... visit her myspace at www.myspace.com/cindyruakere... and buy the new CD that they're releasing in January. It's called Karanga, and I was in the studio for some of the time when they recorded it, it sounded great then, and once all the BVs and editing and mixing and mastering (I don't get what they do exactly. Make it sound more beautiful?) are done, it'll be amazing. I think the release date is Jan 15...

Boxing day

2006-12-26T01:28:00.000-08:00

Summary of my day: in bed till 10am, online in bed till 12pm, went to the mall, mall closed for Boxing Day (have they never heard of Boxing Day sales???), back to Louise's house, watched non-stop Spongebob Squarepants on Cartoon Network, went to play lawn bowls with the family, went back to Louise's, had dinner, came back to backpackers, am now online email and myspace.

Fascinating, huh?

Christmas day in Sydney

2006-12-25T04:52:00.000-08:00

Well, the Christmas thing is over and done... it's just not that big a deal for me to be honest... I'd far rather live remembering the fact that Jesus was born, lived, died, rose again, and is going to be coming back seated on a white horse, to judge the nations of the earth, than set aside one day a year to feel like a stuffed duck after some big meal, and attempting to make family be nice.

All the same, today was okay... we did breakfast together at Louise and Andrew's this morning, and then opened presents. Holly got the most... she's the two year old... she's so cute! But we did secret santa... kind of... we knew who it was, and just bought a main present for one person to save buying for 11 people... ended up with about $50, some body shop stuff, some playing cards, and my parents bought me my new bible a couple of days ago.

Spent a couple of hours at the backpackers, then went back to Louise's, watched a movie... parenthood or something? kinda random, cheese factor of 9 out of 10... went to the shops to see if anything was open and only the petrol store and fruit store were... went home, had a BBQ dinner, the family watched the pink panther movie while i was on my laptop, then came home.

It's now midnight... latest I've been up in a week and a half... but I just got a myspace. www.myspace.com/katedugdale... so hook yourself up to my account if you have myspace :).

Photoblog (click on photo to see large.)

2006-12-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know. Touristy, but hey. That's the harbour bridge... my parents did the bridge climb where you go right over the top part, but we just walked along the flat footpath.

Left: guys from church.. :)

Left: Cindy, Anita and Maryanne rock it up at the park during Christmas in the Park.

I need a tshirt that says "I'm with the band."

Currently Listening

2006-12-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

International House of Prayer - live audio broadcast... 24-7 prayer from the Kansas City prayer room... I mainly listen to nightwatch, due to the time difference, but hey, that's the bunch of people I kind-of spent six weeks with last Christmas :).

Jason Upton Radio - officially I think it's 'KOD Radio', King of David Radio, but hey... Jason Upton songs, and you can even request them and hear them within a reasonably short time! My internship was officially the 'Forerunner Internship' but we were going to make tshirts saying 'We love Jason' on the front, and 'Jason Upton Internship' on the back, because our leader... and eventually we, had a bit of an obsession with Jason Upton tracks in the prayer room.

Life FM - for those moments when I'm just desperate to hear a kiwi accent... I don't like Life FM that much in general, but it's all good.

I want to ride a yak.

2006-12-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

... I wonder if I'll get to ride a camel? Do they have camels in Nepal or South Africa? I don't think they have them in India or Indonesia... and probably not in South Africa or Nepal... I think they have yaks in Nepal! :) Who knows. But if my team ends up going to Nepal... I want to ride a yak.

Home is where the heart is...

2006-12-23T03:26:00.000-08:00

If, as the song says, 'they say that home is where the heart is... so follow your heart, and know that you can't go wrong.' then I'm not quite sure where I should be... I'm not sure whether this journey is one of a six month duration and I'll be home straight after DTS... if its just 8 or 9 months, and I'll travel for a bit then go home to Lower Hutt... or if it's like a year or more...

I guess it all comes back to this thing of community... nameless, faceless... placeless?

I'll let you know when I work out my theology on this.

You want to watch this

2006-12-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

The cool thing... it's not just for Americans who can actually get the channel... watch it online thru broadband!

YPDTS

2006-12-22T12:27:00.001-08:00

I thought it might be an idea to let my *cough* faithful *cough* blog readers know the latest that I just heard from the lovely emailers at YWAM Perth. There are like 100 students on the DTS.... I've also heard that the majority of them are females, and aged between 17-19 (the age range for DTS is 17-25.)

Countries that are being looked at for outreach are India, Nepal, Indonesia and South Africa.... there's a couple of others.... we'll find out closer to the time confirmed locations, and that's when teams will be sorted out. Since the DTS is so big we split up into smaller teams.

Base is going to be pretty busy when we get there... Summer of Service outreach is happening, other schools ending, our school beginning with some others... full on!

YPDTS

2006-12-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

Sunburn!

2006-12-21T22:19:00.000-08:00

Yup.. I used no sunscreen today... bad me! Today was 26 or 28 degrees? I didn't realise would be in sun for so long...

I'm loving having the wireless internet activated on my laptop here at the backpackers... at night time its crazyhard trying to sleep... so I put IHOP audiostreaming on. will be better when i buy myself some new headphones, so my sister doesn't mind. It's always weird listening... and hearing voices... and its like, they're 15 hours flight away, I'm here, but I hear them just a few seconds after they pray?

I need to clean my room, really really badly!

Songs in the night...

2006-12-21T03:22:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking again... I've wanted to do the FITN internship at IHOP-KC for ages... and ages... and ages... like maybe three years? That's ages in terms of the fact I'm 18, and I've only 'done prayer' for three years!

These things have a way of happening... I've been fascinated with nightwatch, and it never really managed to be a reality this year because of the decision I made to serve at Onething in admin staff, which did mean that to some extent mean that prayer room time was sidelined, which is a bad thing... but it happened... but yeah... know what? I know that God's gonna raise up 24-7 in the Hutt... but I also think that at some stage in the future I'll be back in KC to do the FITN internship. Maybe June... maybe Sept... maybe 2008.

Get some depth people!

2006-12-21T02:15:00.000-08:00

The 100 minute Bible: So many people know about the Bible but so few have read it at all, let alone from cover to distant cover. This version of the Bible has been written to bridge that gap. THE 100-MINUTE BIBLE picks out the essential elements of the Bible from Genesis through to the Revelation of John using universal language. Most people will be able to read it in 100 minutes, making it the ideal read for that upcoming rail or plane journey, or for an enjoyable evening of enlightenment.

5 Minute Theologian: Five Minute Theologian explains one hundred essential beliefs of the Christian faith in short, five-minute daily readings. In about three months, you can absorb the major tenets of Christianity and greatly improve your understanding of God's Word.

One-Minute Prayers For Women: These simple, one-minute prayers will help you align your heart more closely with the God who made you, loves you, and wants to walk through the day with you.

7 Minute Remix Jesus Devotions: Putting a modern spin on the concept of a quiet time with God, these seventy devotions include insightful readings that build students? faith

Christian bookstores

2006-12-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

My mother and father are taking me to visit Koorong (local Christian bookshop) today, so I'm in the process of 'navigating.' Only problem is that I have no concept of Sydney geography so think I'll just pick one and go there.

What do you think about Christian bookstores? They're awesome, but also funny little things... some Christian fiction is no better than non-Christian fiction, its all just trashy novels... but on the other hand, there are some excellent resources out there, and one of the worst things about packing was that I could only bring two books! I just pray YWAM Perth has a library... or I'll be visiting Koorong there too, as I can't really buy lots today.

The famous two... my Metal NLT Bible... I lost (how do I lose a bible! it's insane? i think someone borrowed it... or stole it... and I never saw it in all my packing!) my mini pink NIV one, but don't like the NLT translation or the cover (try airport scanners). However, I need a bible, so bought that one.

The Vision and the Vow, Pete Greig. I must admit that Onething, Dwayne Roberts, was a close second, but at the last moment it was a case of 'oops, didn't pack this yet. Guess I'll just take this with me.'

Holiday ?

2006-12-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

I'm tired... don't know whether it is just because the year has finally caught up with me or because its hot or because we do so much walking... yesterday and today we went to Bondi Junction, wandered for like 3 hours, and came home. I'm not used to so much walking.

Now, the funny people-incident of my day... I've been letting people know I'm no longer on Onething staff so they don't get hold of me about stuff. Anyway, one of them was this guy, Caleb, from Dunedin who I met at a couple of things, and saw him in Invercargill. I knew previously that there was an NZer on staff on my DTS, called Pablo, from Dunedin.

Texted Caleb, and let him know I was in Sydney headed for Perth... he was like, say hi to my brother... so I asked what his brothers name was... and he said 'Pablo.' Now Pablo, is staffing the YPDTS07.

Funny one...

Baby-making

2006-12-18T20:14:00.000-08:00

Pray for the chick I sat next to on the plane yesterday. i prayed for a divine appointment, and got one... she's a Christian, going home to the UK for a week... was able to pray for her that she'd be able to have babies, because the doctors think its very unlikely she will.

In the nations

2006-12-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

I flew Qantas, which was nice, because they actually fed us. On the real budget ones, you pay for food on the flight, and on Air NZ they sometimes will give you meals, but they're not that great. I've only ever flown Qantas twice before, maybe I should consider converting considering it's likely we may end up flying with Qantas since its the Australian airline.

I bought some crocs last week - everyone in m'family calls them the ugly shoes... well, everyone that has seen them. They're nice for just wandering around at the backpackers in.

We're staying at the Bondi Beachouse which is pretty nice actually... really really noisy because my room is just outside the courtyard so people don't shut up until kind of late at night.... but I'm sharing a room with my sister Abbey. I got here early, so I'm on the double bunk :) and we each have a wardrobe and some drawers... and an ensuite bathroom that isn't scungy! I was amazed!

So we're meeting the parents at 9... haven't seen them yet, I went to bed early last night because of the time difference plus I haven't slept well in ages... and travelling and stress and leaving is tiring... it'd be good if people reading this could be praying with me about my finances, I'm still trusting God for quite a bit before lecture phase starts... but that's me. I'll be updating this quite a bit over the next year... so leave me comments, stay in touch.

Kate

leaving.

2006-12-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving.

Simple as that.

Won't see most of my friends for at least 7 months... then hopefully not for another few (just because I do want to do some travelling after DTS.)

Who knows though. I had another idea... I could get a visa and go to IHOP and do internship there... or I could get a working holiday visa and go get a job somewhere. So it could be ages...

My laptop smells like perfume. I spilt some yesterday all over it when attempting to demonstrate the length of my travel washing line... now it smells pretty but I just hope its not doing anything weird under the keys.

8am. 4 hours till we leave for the airport... so next post will be from Australia.

Laters, homie.

It's only just beginning...

2006-12-17T01:52:00.000-08:00

That's it... all the goodbyes (except a few) are done, the bag is (nearly) packed, the option to back out of this was gone a long time ago...

I was thinking today about mindsets... because I believe that how I go will set the tone for much of the trip (or at least, the first part, until I finally get over myself and get into God.) There's three parts to this new journey...
Leaving the old stuff behind
Going where I haven't gone before
Coming with God as he whispers and invites me on the ride of a lifetime.

If I solely focus on the leaving... then it all gets ropy pretty quickly. I can't live in the past, or on what God has done... because water becomes stagnant pretty darn quickly if it isn't moving.
If I solely focus on the going, then I forget where I came from... my values, who I am, the lessons I'm still learning...
So I think the best part is the 'coming.' In Song of Songs, the words are whispered 'Come away with me' and I think in some way that's what's going on right now. Over the last year, there have been lots of times... lots of long periods of time... where my heart has felt reasonably dead, compared to a six month period last year when for the first time my spirit felt fully alive. All week, I've been rotating CDs in my car a lot more than usual, and I keep getting little snatches of where this thing is going... a heart fully alive, doing what I was designed to do, being out in the nations.

The thing is, nations has been in my blood since I was in the womb. Missions has been in my heart since I was like 5 or 6... even though for the longest time I ignored both of those, and the fact that one of my primary callings is to serve. I didn't have a paradigm to do this thing in... but now I do. It's not just going and being a missionary... it's about missions AND prayer, missions TO young people... this thing is about allowing the disruption that's taking place in Lower Hutt to catch me up and hit the nations hard and fast with my testimony of what God is doing here, and the expectation that what He's doing is for the nations of the earth. It's about knowing God... but now I'm heading out to make Him known, and I'm so excited to explore the future, this fusion of prayer, and missions, and nations, and young people, and the fact we're living in the last days. That adds a whole new dimension... pretty soon, international travel is going to be expensive as petrol prices rocket through the roof... it will literally be 'I go on mission, prepared never to come back' because the chance of getting killed or martyred will be way higher...

Those are the days I'm looking to. When mission isn't just a short-term summer trip or a year-long OE... when it becomes that you can only go if you really hold no value to your life, and are willing to lose it in order that we may gain eternal life...

Well, I'm off to finish packing, it's a bit of a battle I'm not sure I'll win. I'll have my cellphone in Aussie on roaming... so keep running the race hard. Give it all that you have.

He's worth it.

The first casualties....

2006-12-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

The pineapple lumps. My bag to take with me.

Rest in Peace, pineapple lumps. You sure do make good comfort eating before I leave.

(I'm packing. or trying to. my bag has shrunk, I swear.)

who else blogs?

2006-12-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

Honestly, there is like no one down here in New Zealand that I know that has any kind of regular blog... there are some wannabe bloggers, and we all love reading about who kissed who at the last party, but there's nothing of depth... or substance.

I've been thinking a fair bit recently about what's going on here at the ends of the earth... leaving puts things in a bit of a different light... especially when in 53 hours I'll be headed for the airport. I have to admit, I don't know what mainstream groupie Christianity thinks... there's this one church here, which shall remain nameless... and they do actions to songs... now that's all good, but when the actions become more important than actually going somewhere and going somewhere of depth in worship... not cool. So all I know comes from the voices I hear and the God I know.

2007 is going to be a year of significance in this nation, and to that end I don't completely understand why it is next year that God wants me out in the nations... but I guess in faith I'm going based on the fact that as a daughter from the nation of New Zealand, I'm not going to miss out on the prophetic promises that are written in the Word.

See, Isaiah 24:16 reads, 'What is this we hear? We hear singing from the ends of the earth, "Glory to the Righteous One!"' Psalm 22:27 says, 'All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, all the families of the nations will bow down before him. Psalm 2:8 says 'Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.' Psalm 65 says, "You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our savior, the hope of the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.' Psalm 67:7 says, 'God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.' Isaiah 45:22 says 'Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.'

There's a bunch more verses... but New Zealand literally is here at the ends of the earth... hop on a plane, and the fact that you have to FLY anywhere to get anywhere... and that unless you want to go to Australia, Fiji or the Pacific Islands, you have at least a 10 hour flight to Asia, or a 12 hour flight to America, to get anywhere, kind of proves the point... so... I think that revival for the nations begins in New Zealand. I believe it could very possibly begin with a crazy little crowd of young people in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, that are in the middle of allowing God to come and disrupt our lives, our future, our little church comfort circle... as we redirect our passion to one thing: to know God, and to make Him known in the earth.

Even if revival does start here while I'm overseas, I don't care. I don't have to be at home to get it... I'm carrying it with me as I go.

Bring it on God. We want it, for real.

4 days and counting!

2006-12-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

For the last week I've been living at my sister Lisa's house (she's married, and she and her husband live about 10 minutes drive from Lower Hutt central.) It's getting slightly frustrating... I don't like hills... and find myself making two or three trips up and down each day, but it's all good.

This week has just been finishing off bits and pieces... I'm still in the church office each day, organising the Christmas Eve service and some internship stuff and youth church stuff for early next year... have been finishing off work... finish tomorrow morning... and I've been shopping lots for stuff that I'll need to take. I was going to buy some sneakers today, but made the executive decision to buy some crocs... and I got them on sale, since my friend bought a pair, and I got to do the 'second pair, half price' part. I think they'll be good for summer... in Perth... because there's only so many hours of wearing jandals I can take!
hurch
So tomorrow is my last day of work... tomorrow is Friday, and no youth church, so I'll do any last shopping I think of. Saturday may be packing or socialising, not sure... Sunday will be church and goodbyes and packing... Monday I leave :)

All growed up!

2006-12-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

The first sign I'm 18...

I got a credit card.

Despite turning 18 in July, I still have not bought alcohol, voted, been into bars, bought cigarettes... all the things that being 18 signifies... I don't know of any others?? Oh yeah, haven't got a mortgage either.

But, I got a credit card. For emergencies overseas.

Does one ever escape?

2006-12-08T23:06:00.001-08:00

8.05pm. I'm in the church office. :)

On my way...

2006-12-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Technically-semi-officially I’m on my way. I guess we all are. My flatmate Tiffany heads to Chile for summer outreach in 3 days….Sarah moves to the place she’s boarding today… and I’ve been back and forth between Lisa’s and Drews, and the flat, for 4 nights.

Yesterday was in many ways my last ‘official’ day, or as official as you can be when you spend the entire day running around, and don’t even finish being a PA until like 10 at night, or later… and I finally figured out why it’s tearing me up to leave so badly… or at least one of the reasons… or a few.
I’ve been so rooted here… Gina, a lady at our church, told me last year to consider myself planted. I must admit I didn’t look at that at the time, and in many ways I completely disagree… but I’ve found a base, a home, a community here with Onething and in the wider scheme of things Hope Centre/Hutt CCC.
I’m in like what is my perfect role… and to be honest, I don’t know that it being paid would be any better… except I wouldn’t have to work another job… working alongside Kristen this year has been absolutely fantastic… it’s been an incredible privilege to be able to do what I’ve done with who I’ve done it with.
This is my life… this is my community… this job is my lifestyle. I honestly have no conception of life without Onething, simply because that’s community… I live with Sarah and Tiffany, at least three or four nights a week we’re out at youth or church stuff, the prayer room is always there, I spend my days in the office and see the same crowd at night, and any leisure time pursuit I have always seems to be after God or with these people.

But yeah, I finished up as Kristen’s PA yesterday, even though I’ll be working out of the office this week to organize some stuff for him anyway… Christmas Eve service, emailing him stuff and following up with speakers and schedules for the first 3 months of next year… I have to teach Jo how to ‘be me’ in some ways… not be me, she’ll do a far better job than I have, but just show her some stuff… I think? Pretend I get to pass something on at any rate J

Last night at youth church was pretty good… we did some awesome awards… the ‘Public Explosion award for flatulence’…. The ‘most eligible bachelor(ette) of the year…’ (so this ain’t a meat market / dating service?? Lol) … the Ford award for driving (which went to Iain who drives a V8 Holden Ute)… just funny awards and some serious ones… so I spent a crazy two hours yesterday at the packed mall trying to find stuff for the awards….

I never actually got a job description. Once or twice we tried to clarify my duties… yeah.. I just did what needed to be done and made ‘stuff run smoothly’ I guess. I won’t be back in the same way, since we’ve got someone taking over what I’m doing… but I’m out of here… J Phil 3:14 in the message says “I’m off, I’m running, and I’m not turning back!”

Let’s get moving.

Sarah is going to be a bridemaid!

2006-12-05T01:48:00.000-08:00

My friend, Sarah Victoria Hart, informed me that no one will read this, but I told her I'd blog it anyway. She's going to be a bridemaid in a week and a half... and she only got asked tonight.
"Ugly bridemaids make the bride look better... pow, got you! We actually look really hot!"

It's funny. I find this incredibly funny. My flatmates are running around squealing... talking in high pitched voices, going through makeup and skin products, talking about going on a fruit, vegies and water diet only for the next 10 days, putting on fake tan.... suddenly I feel very unfeminine... because I'm not doing any of that...

I went for a walk earlier. I couldn't concentrate on my schoolstuff which I NEED to get done... so I drove towards the beach, but then God was like 'go to Petone' so I followed this random path around... ended up at the top of a hill but there was nothing there so i kept going... then it came to a dead end so I turned around and parked at the top of the hill. Got out, saw nothing, but then I found this path... walked down it and ended back up at the beach... so stood and threw stones into the water and walked back up.

and He whispered... and I heard...

A star for me...

2006-11-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

There are moments when I get caught out by God. When he breaks into my thoughts, and I have to brake, and go back and think about something because it came from nowhere.

Matt says:
thanks for being my test
Matt says:
you have earned yourself....
Kate says:
nothing?
Matt says:
a star!
Kate says:
i want a star STICKER

And I had this random God-break-in as I typed that... (star stickers were what you got in primary (elementary) school for being good. ) I heard this little voice whisper to my heart 'I named a star after you.' :)

In other news, I now have a backpack. It's a Kathmandu interloper v3, and stores 70L + another 15L in the detachable daypack. It cost lots of money... $341... funfun... yeah... Perth finances are going to be fun!

'Leaning on her beloved...'

2006-11-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more posts with the 'dependence' tag at some stage in the next year of my blogging future...

All I know right now is that God's begun the process of stripping stuff away... and it gave me a little bit of a theological dilemma last night... in some ways, I suppose the 'why does God let bad stuff happen' question. There's stuff going on in life and relationships right now that hurts a lot... but the thing is, that God didn't make it happen, he's just letting bits of my life be stripped away and I'm realising afresh my own humanity...

All I know, is that when I ask him to cause me to be dependent upon Him, is that I'm giving Him permission to let stuff happen that may not have been allowed to happen before...

Crazy busy

2006-11-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

This week, I have to do all my work before the weekend, I'm putting together a surprise project for my Mum (actually, its okay to post this on here since I don't think she has my blog address? not many people do yet. maybe I should publicise...) since its her birthday when we go to Sydney, I have a schoolwork assessment to post by tomorrow, and we have summer camp on Friday so we're going away to Taupo!

It's going to be fun, but the problem is, I'm moving 2 days after we get back, and I haven't even begun packing most of my stuff yet. This thing is going to come up on me so fast... 3 weeks and I'll be on a plane, 2 weeks and Tiffany will be gone, 1 week and I'll have moved. I foresee a few late nights... actually I can reasonably accurately know that the next few weeks will be crazy.

I'm really nervous to be honest... I don't know where this ride goes from here, and I don't like it.

This thing is real....

2006-11-27T14:07:00.001-08:00

20 days, and I'm leaving.

Free broadband?

2006-11-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting at home, and my computer has picked up a broadband connection called 'linksys.' This is weird. For 5 months I have searched every corner of the house with my laptop attempting to connect to a neighbours broadband on occasion when my dialup died, but I have never found one. I know theres a couple round, but they're all secured networks. Now, just sitting at my kitchen table, I have connection. This is strange.

Summer is kind of here. Except its windy. High of 20, low of 11. Right now, its about 15 degrees but feels colder cos of the wind. It's 11am here.

Of course, right now in Perth, its 5am...16 degrees... and it'll be much warmer cos of the no wind and humidity!

PHOTOS!

2006-11-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

meet... Big Red.

Shopping, singing and surfing...

2006-11-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

I went outlet mall shopping... it was fun :) although I could have bought SO much more, but didn't really have much $.

Spent last night at the studio again with these guys from about 4pm thru till 11.... then today we've been here from 12 and will be done by about 6pm.

I fly home tonight (NO BUS! YES!) at 9pm...