Man it's hot here. I thought coming from cold America to hot New Zealand to super-hot Perth would be a nice gradual transition. It wasn't. It was forty degrees the first day I arrived, and that was in the evening! And after a few more days of forty-plus degree heat, we had a cyclone, which unfortunately didn't cool things down. But nor did it do much damage, so not such a bad result. The weather takes a bit of adjusting to, but don't worry, we're not having any of the problems that the east coast is going through. I'm safe!
It's great being back in Perth after being away for such a long time. I was away for over four months, what with outreach in Mexico and holidays after that, so I was ready to get back into things. Which is good, because I'm right back into it! I'm working with Property again, which I have missed, and it feels good to be fixing things again. It's always a big switch between staffing DTS and doing property, they're kind of opposite ends of the spectrum, but I love them both and it's good to be starting a new season. There's something so satisfying about holding a big drill.
I had a good trip to New Zealand, too. My Australian visa expired while I was on outreach in Mexico, so my time in NZ was a holiday/visa run/fundraising trip. It's actually been really cool how God has provided for me to visit home twice in two years, because I came to Perth on a one-way ticket and never had a plan on how to get back, but He has been really generous in that respect. So I got to spend three weeks with the family, which we all enjoyed. The other major benefit of being in Auckland was that I got to build relationship with and join a church. I have never actually been part of a church in Auckland since we moved there five years ago, so for the whole time I've been with YWAM in Perth I haven't had a spiritually supportive community back in New Zealand. I really felt like that needed to be dealt with, so I got plugged in to Eastview Baptist, and I'm really pleased to be a part of them. Obviously three weeks is only a short period, but I got to know a number of people and also introduce myself and my ministry to the whole church, so we've got a base of relationship and can build on that!
Back here the next challenge is to really get plugged back in to base life. When I asked God why He called me back here, He reminded me of a word my leader got for me more than a year ago- God has called me to serve. In that service, He's going to teach me more and more about leadership (because leadership is service), but I am to concentrate and spend my efforts on serving. So that's my focus for this season, serving wherever and however. And Property exists to serve and support every vision that comes out of YWAM Perth, so that's why I'm doing what I'm doing!
Happy February!
