Christmas in Wonderland

A few Christmas snaps...more on facebook :-)

Re:

As i pack and finish up things here i can't help but do some girl-guide-camp-warm-fuzzy-"write yourself a letter and we will send back to you in a years time" thinking. Someone who knows me very well has spent much of the last 6 months suggesting that i both over think and find it very difficult to do so on my own (most of my over thinking gets run by a faithful committee of listeners). I'm certainly not suggesting there is anything wrong with wisdom and advice but it has been kind of cool over the last 3 weeks of my trip, facing disappointment and challenges, as well as witnessing Gods grace and infinitely great plan and processing these things on my own. There have been prayers answered and changes of heart that i could never have manufactured or designed in enough clarity to even ask for.

Here's to a year of being less burdensome to others and getting things in order for the future, that i might enjoy his plans and sing his praises.

Holy and Faithful

The book of Colossians opens with this:

^"1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

²To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father."

Throughout the week i have been thinking through what it would look like to be "holy and faithful", as the believers of Colosse are. I've done so by looking at different categories, the first being time. What might it look like to be "holy and faithful" with ones time? Here are just a few thoughts that i'm going to give a go...

Prioritising - Reading God's word before accessing the distracting world of cyberspace. My natural reaction to turn on the computer when i wake up, throughout the day continuously checking on the happenings of pop culture and society, demonstrates a willingness to be fed by the world rather then urgently reaching for God's word each morning in an on going attempt to extinguish the flame of sin that fights to lead me through the day.

Procrastination - I have come to realise that there are plenty of Godly things we are required to do with our time, these vary due to differing circumstance (eg. work, study, caring for children, dealing with illness, maintaining a home, obeying your parents). There are also plenty of less specific godly things that we are required to do as believers out of an earnest love for one another and our maker (eg. calling people, writing cards, showing hospitality, reading helpful books). Procrastinating and wasting time is like throwing away a resource God has given you to do his work and can often lead to sin.

Discernment - Being "Holy and Faithful" with your time doesn't mean doing everything. Saying yes to every good and Godly thing can mean doing all these things really poorly. If we look at the roles God has placed us in (student, parent, son./daughter, boss, spouse, employee etc.) and follow on from these we are more able to choose wisely the things we must first use our time do to well. This may look less glamorous (sometimes there is something more exciting about being on the church music team, prayer roster, administration committee and youth group program rather then faithfully sitting at home doing your studies, or caring for your own messy family) but it demonstrates a loyalty to true Godliness over a loyalty to keeping up Christian appearances.

Going Cold Turkey - There may be things that get completely cut out of your day,week or life altogether due to their ability distract or drain time (in a way that far outweighs the benefits of said thing), These would be completely different for different people at different stages of life but may include Facebook, TV, magazines, computer games.

Fiery Feasting

HSC results came out yesterday. Last night we went out for dinner in order to celebrate the closure of my schooling life. I must say, The Japanese Steak House, was quite an experience. The food, that gradually got piled onto your plate by the entertaining chef, was great. as always i took a few happy snaps to show you how it all went down.

Sorry about the lack of blogging, i have been getting into colossians a bit lately and will share some things will you soon :-)

Bye jen

This morning we took Jen to the airport so she could commence her journey home to the place where it's not -11 degree's at 7:30am when you get up to take your friend to the airport.

I have been immensely glad of her company over the last 3 weeks and I shall miss her dearly. I don't really have anything else to report...so far today i have cleaned my room, cleaned Jen's room and downloaded a better version of itunes.

I have also been working on some youth group and Maitland/Singleton Alive stuff...please be praying that God's work would be done faithfully and with boldness.

Life.

Today was nice. Jen and i headed down town with Angel to the mall there, where we were dropped 0ff for a while. Between the hours of 8 (when we got there) and 10 (when all the shops opened) we wandered through the shopping centre, ate bagels and sat chatted about life. It was nice talking to my dear friend about the stuff of my heart, and listening to her ponderings. I was glad we got to hang out like this before she leaves tomorrow...Sometimes you can share space with someone without sharing life...it is conversations like the ones we had today that make me honoured to share life with her.

They're here...

Front bangs. Today we also went to Bob Evens...a breakfast restaurant...there's something about eating bacon and eggs at 3 in the afternoon. An afternoon viewing of "The Princess Diaries 2; A Royal Engagement" topped off the day.

Bangs

Today i am getting a hair cut...Fat front bangs in America? I think so

The Windy City

Ok now, prepare yourself for a big one...I have quite a few stories to tell you.

This past weekend we went to Chicago. It was Awesome. Insanely awesome. Our trip began with a 3 hour drive to South Bend where Beth lives and goes to collage, after our lovely dinner Johnny and Beth taught us the many wonders of "Beer Pong". It was the quintessential friday night American collage experience really. While Jen and i had "beginners luck" essentially

Johnny and Beth dominated every time.

When we woke up in the morning it was snowing. I'm sure your imagination can devise some sort of representation of our reactions, so i will leave that up to you =)

Once we had spent a few hours on the train we arrived in Chicago and mad

e our way to Millennium Park and...the Bean. The Bean is a large metal, reflective, structure that you can walk through...i had a little writers moment while i was there, dreaming of a story told from the viewpoint of all the reflections trapped in the bean...i go a little nuts like that sometimes.

The park was full of sculptures and other fun things like an ice skating rink. The architecture in Chicago is amazing...The blending of old and new infrastructure is quite unique.

Our first stop was the Art Institute of Chicago...This place was brilliant. There were many a treasure there i can't really convey in words but the most exciting part was seeing those paintings i've studied in art for years, that you see on the front books, that even the least artistic person recognises...The most exciting part was seeing these...Not the picture on the front of the art book, but the real one!

I should, at this point, point out that it was freezing, so our cold feet and empty stomachs made their way to "Giordano's" for some of Chicago's famous deep dish pizza.

After clogging every single artery in our bodies we made our way alon

g Michigan Avenue A.K.A the "Magnificent Mile". Here we spotted some famous names and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Chicago's city life as the sun set.

By the time the Sun had well and truly set we were on a bus beginning the endeavor to find the only "Threadless" t-shirt store in the world. Jen and i have been buying shirts from the Threadless website for a few years now, together we own around 16. Our friends shop from there and each friday we are greeted with a fresh batch of t-shirts to check out in our inbox's...so to actually be there was incredible. In accordence with their humerous T-shirt slogans and general fun-ness the store itself was full of quirky hilarities. below is a photo of the shops office (the place where you work...behind a desk) and "office" (the place where you

work...on a toilet)... i must admit i loled a little.

We then made our way to Navy Pier, which is a theme park-esque pier drenched in lights and games and shops. Here we rode the Ferris Wheel, one of the coolest things ever...the pictures

speak for themselves really.

Hot Dogs for dinner. I'm not such a fan, here is a picture of Jen's, it was kinda gross really...but as they say, when in Rome...

From this point on in the adventure things became less fun...they were certainly exhilarating...but the combination of swiftly eaten hot dog and fries, with a power walk across the city and some hectic sprinting didn't suit my stomach so well. I'd like to say i vomitted, i feel it would more acurately represent the drama of the last hour of our trip but alas i didn't, things actually went down a little more like this...So we knew we had to walk quickly to get from navy pier to the city centre to get the train in time, so trusting our trusty GPS system off we marched, after about 25 minutes we hit trouble, realising we had no idea where it was. I

speedy walk to the station turned into "The Amazing Race; chicago Style". After lots of running and back tracking we made the last sprint to the train as it began to pull away from the platform. Upon arriving home and being asked why we couldn't find a train system with a gps in our hand, the unfortunate truth was conveyed, the train station was under ground, the gps kept telling us we were there because the whole time we were on top of some part of it.

So exhausted and ill we boarded the train and headed back to South Bend. It was ace hanging with Johnny and Beth and i'm fairly sure they enjoyed the trip as much as we did, we were very blessed with friends who would take us. Chicago certainly stands as my favourite city to date.

"Thrills, Kills and Sunday Pills Wo-oh"

YAY FOR SLEEPING PILLS.

Last night was my first night of medication and it appears to work...It's nothing like the solid nights sleep one could get in the old days but it was certainly more restful then my other sleeping patterns so far into the trip.

Last night also earned me $10 (...the phrases "earned" and "last night" can really only lead to a fairly incriminating sentence). A friend Kim reckoned for sure that i would cry during "My Sisters Keeper"...i reckoned for sure that i wouldn't, due to my hear of stone and my previous inability to show normal female emotion during films, so the bet was on...needless to say i won. I actually really liked the film, others wern't as keen but i thought it was well played out, well written and sufficiently emotional. The point still stands, wether the film was good or not i got myself $10 ( and that's in American dollars not Australian).

In other exciting news we are off to Chicago this afternoon! We're are pretty pumped. Johnny, Jen and i are driving up to Beth's place tonight and then hitting the train to Chicago early tomorrow morning...I'll let you know all about it when we get back :-)

Oh and this is Jen warming her feet with a lamp...If you know Jen and her feet well i thought this might make you giggle...

December the 3rd

The new American discovery i made today is a highly convenient thing i (and the whole country) like to call "drive through banking". You simply pull up the little shoot, whilst remaining in your warm and comfortable car

grab the plastic capsule, insert your cheque and shoot it right on up...

There are also drive through ATM's which are fairly cool...it's like driving through a toll, but instead of giving your money away, your getting your money back...Fun times all round.

Other activities today included further Walmart shopping, where i got some more photo's printed and embarrassed myself in front of a stern looking staff member...my 3 second recovery period alerting my brain to the fact that it was infact the same stern looking staff member i embarrassed myself in front of last week...stupid Australians. Exciting purchases included Jen's camera (woot), sleeping pills and a coke bottle that looks like a christmas ornament!

Once we were home i got to some decorating :-)