So...here is my blog. I am not even sure what a blog is. Certainly never bothered reading one. But I am about to embark on a big life adventure and it just seemed silly to keep it to myself.
To start at the beginning...I am a 30 year old Aussie girl. Currently living in Sydney, but deep down still a beach/coastal girl at heart. I work in a hospital, have amazing friends and family...but the most important thing to me is my faith. And no, this wont really be a bible-bashing blog...but its who I am and therefore is a big factor in everything I do/say/think.
Its funny because I am starting this blog because I feel like I am at the start of a great adventure...but what I have come to realise is that even though this is just the beginning...really, things were being put into place a long time ago. So who knows when all this began.
For me it all seemed to start about 3 months ago when I broke up with my fiancee. Amazing guy who treated me well and who I loved...but it wasn't meant to be, and so when God took his hand off things and they got hard, we both decided to walk away. Which became such an amazing/powerful/life-changing time of my life, as ironic as it sounds. I realised truly for the first time that God sees so deep inside of me. He knows what makes me truly happy/fulfilled/hopeful, even when I can't quite figure out what that is. And He rescues us when we are going the wrong way. I now understand the depth of when people say that He has a plan for my life, and I also realised that He never wants us to settle or put aside our desires to pursue that plan...because He gives us those desires and wants us to experience them! He wants us to experience joy and happiness and all of the good things in life, and amazingly if you simply desire God and nothing else, He brings all those things into your life anyways. Pretty cool! In a very summarized nutshell...
So then I found myself back at 30, and single. And I knew that I had a choice. I could either waste the next season of my life feeling miserable and sitting around "waiting" for the right guy...or I could choose to have a great adventure, make the most of my freedom and great single season...and see what God does through that. So that is what I chose.
So now...in exactly 3 months, I will be landing in Uganda, after packing up my life here for a season. I am heading there not for a holiday, but to hopefully impact some young lives - and I am sure in the process, have them impact mine in more ways that I will ever know. I am going to be volunteering in the Watoto Baby home, where they rescue vulnerable and abandoned babies and care for them and raise them up to understand their value and potential. How cool is that! 7 weeks helping to care for up to 75 babies...now that's a LOT of nappies/hungry mouths/cries to comfort! But...like I said...I am not out to have lovely touristy holiday...instead I want to use this time to make my mark and make a difference. No matter how big or little that is.
From there...I head to USA. Spending time with family there, and then heading to the bright lights of NYC to help build and grow the new Hillsong church we are planting there. Yep...totally crazy move. No...no idea where I will live or what I will do. But for the first time in my life, I am on this AMAZING faith journey where I am coming to accept that I don't NEED to know! God does. And I have been blown away in recent times watching Him open doors and start to make things fall in place in my life. Without me having to do anything! Who would have thought that God didn't need me to be running around in a panic trying to control my whole life!?!? Gee...wish I had that figured out earlier!!
So yeah...I guess this will be a blog of my adventures. The good. The sad. The very ugly. But as the name of my blog suggests...I believe that for the next 365 days...my life will shift. Maybe just one degree a day...maybe more...maybe some days I go backwards. But I believe that by the time this season ends, I will have gone full circle...plus some. And come back a changed, stronger, more passionate and more convicted woman. And maybe with a few cute African babies in my backpack!! Shhh...
http://www.watoto.com/projects/the-watoto-model/baby-watoto
