Looking Backwards or Forwards?

Hello!

I hope you are enjoying a lovely spring, or whatever season life finds you in wherever you may be in the world. :)

I am currently sitting in Canada on a beautiful Monday morning with a mix of sun and clouds and a promise of more throughout the week. Trust a Canadian to discuss the weather, eh? Haha, on to the important stuff.

These last few weeks have been spent with family, meeting friends that I didn't get a lot of time with before, and lots of desperate prayer. When I didn't board my Australian bound flight on May ninth, I had a funny feeling these extra weeks in Canada weren't just about a visa. After all, I had been telling God I thought I hadn't had enough time to truly reconnect with the people I wanted to see. Brilliant idea to tell him that, huh? Well, I have gotten that extra time and it has been really good. Though the next weeks were far from easy with the stress of getting all the paperwork put together for a visa leaving me in tears on many different days, and finding me asking God if Australia was where I was really supposed to go.

Happy Day! All the paperwork is nearly done and now I am just waiting on the mail to send one of the last puzzle pieces and once that is in, I'm just waiting on the green flag telling me that I can board my plane. Yes, I rescheduled my ticket for this Saturday so hopefully I'll be seeing Australia again soon as well as all of my friends who are currently there. The fight hasn't been easy, but I am believing that victory is in sight!

Thank you for reading and supporting me through this time!

Prayer Requests:
- That the last two pieces of paperwork would come in soon
- That I get the "yes!" that I've been waiting for and be able to board my plane on Saturday
- That I would be able to pack everything I will need
- For the last few days (hopefully) to be full of laughter, good times with friends and family, and so much more!

Fun Fact:
When I got home from my Discipleship Training School I was looking through some things that I had put into storage and trying to downsize. I can across a list of countries that I wanted to visit which I had written when I was roughly thirteen. I was out to prove that I had not ever really thought of going to Australia. Wouldn't you know that not only was Australia on my list, but the planned outreach location for this School of Evangelism was on there too! But, more about that later, so "sssshhh...."

A Slight Delay

Thank you for all your prayers concerning my trip to Australia to do a School of Evangelism! I am happy to say that so far everything is working out, even if it is not according to plan. I went from a green light go, to a proceed with caution yellow light, to a full stop at a red light. All that to say that the trip is being postponed and I am no longer leaving today as planned, instead my flight has been rescheduled to the end of the month.

Learning to wait for the sun to shine

Why the need to postpone my departure and miss the first few weeks of this next school which I am still hoping to join? This is where it gets complicated. To make a rather long story a tiny bit shorter, I have two visa options to enter Australia. One is a tourist visa, but the three months of study time allocated to this specific visa were used during my Discipleship Training School and you are not to apply for one right after another. This brings us to option two: pay more money, do health tests (first opening being in the last week of May), and hope and pray that I can still join the SOE at the beginning of June.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and partake in the teachings that I miss by having them recorded and then listening to them here in Canada. I will also continue to spend time with family and friends, while hopefully getting my job back.

Thank you so much for standing with me in this time with your prayers, words of encouragement, and so much more. You have been such a blessing!

I am excited to say that I have gone from $650 to $1040 towards the roughly $8000 school. I am trusting that God will continue to provide, even with all the extra fees coming into play at this moment.

Thank you for reading!

Please continue to pray for:

- Peace for everything to come together smoothly
- An opening at the doctor's office for the health tests to get done quickly
- For all the details with the visa to work out
- Finances
- And to clearly hear God for what I'm supposed to do in this time, as I'm at somewhat of a loss

The Final Countdown (Five Days!!!)

Hello!

The time is once again quickly approaching (Friday) to do laundry, pack, do last minute shopping, say farewell to family and friends, and board a plane in search for new friendships and more adventures! In the meantime I'll be double checking everything in my luggage and hoping I didn't forget anything too important. :)

My emotions are honestly all over the place when I think about being back in Australia in a week (is it really only a week away?). I'm excited to for the School of Evangelism, and to see many of my friends from DTS and meet even more amazing people. I'm also wishing I had just a little more time to roam this town that I have called home from the past few years and spend time with friends, or talk and laugh with my family. Alas, deadlines wait for no one and onward I go. I have a funny feeling getting on a plane Australia bound once again, will not feel like reality until I get off. Haha, but what can I do except make the best of it and make memories along the way?

These last five weeks at home in Canada have passed in a bit of blur. I must confess that upon entering the country I already had a decently long "to-do" list. That list has since been revised at least three times and believe it or not I've been able to check off a thing or two! The list wasn't ever nearly as important as meeting up with friends and spending time with the few members of my family that live here (we like to spread out around the world). Though I wish I had more time to meet up with so many others friends,

the time that I have had here and the conversations, or companionable silences, have all been cherished.

This beauty joined me in the greenhouse for a little while.

Work has been great, it came with a few challenges but I believe God has grown me through it. A small testimony from work would be seeing my boss smile and laugh. He's a really good businessman, yet after two weeks I realized I'd only seen him smile once or twice. For some reason this really bugged me and I began to pray that God would give him joy. This last week as I was asking him how long he wanted me working till since I fly out on Friday, he told me five minutes before the plane left and laughed. I was so shocked and ecstatic all at the same time. God answered my prayer!

Another small praise report is that I officially have $650 towards my roughly $8000 school! Whoohoo!

Thank you for reading!

Prayer requests:

- Knowing what to pack :)
- Health
- Safe travels
- A great last week with friends and family
- Finances for the SOE