Because We Love Our Life

I was buying our groceries on Sunday afternoon (alone… which is another glorious story entirely, even though I only had 30-45 minutes round trip… can all the mama’s say amen!?) and the checkout girl asked me if I had any plans for the evening.

“Yes, I do, actually!” I said, “I’m going on a BBQ on a ship!”

I was surprised at her reaction, “Really!? That is SO cool! You just don’t hear about people doing THAT every day!”

And you know what!? She’s right!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we do. (Might be in part due to the stretches of time I’m awake in the quiet of the night with a certain baby girl).

The good news is, I’ve re-decided that I really do love it.

Jared is spending early mornings down at the ship and has had some late nights and Saturdays as well. We didn’t have “a weekend” this week and that’s not uncommon for us.

But what we did get to do was take our kids to the National Youth Week event put on but our Youth Teams on Saturday night. This means that Max got to watch skateboarding teenagers doing cool tricks on a half pipe, dance to some awesome tunes, and eat pizza. Hello!?? Does he not have an awesome life!?

As for us, we got to watch some of the fruit of labour in action as we saw hundreds of young people swarming our centre finding a positive place to have fun… and maybe learn a lesson or two about life or maybe even their purpose! It was particularly amazing to see Kate Martin perform… this girl was a youth street crew herself years ago and now she’s starting to get pretty popular in the Australian music scene. Ummm… awesome?!

And for Sunday, we had a BBQ on a ship getting to know 20 new students who have just arrived for the YWAM Medical Ship DTS. What a delight to meet a heap of new passionate young people who are not only eager to learn how to serve the people of PNG, but also to hold our babies and be-friend our family. We are blessed.

Last week I was teaching on our Staff Internship and sharing with them about some of our values and culture here in YWAM – how its not just an 8-5 “job”. Its a lifestyle.

And the reality is, despite the fact that I get tired, sometimes feel like I’m not doing a great job, feel torn between family and community, or “work” and “kids”, miss home, etc… I really am grateful God gave us this lifestyle.

Because its not every day you get to go to a BBQ on a ship…

That Other Guy In Our Family

We’ve written a lot about Max and a little about me…

But can I just say Jared has been a champion all the while too! We’ve moved some things around on our centre and he was busy building a new chapel and relocating our recording studio. The results are fantastic, stunning, and we’re really excited about the change in culture it brings to our centre and the impact that has on all of our staff and students. Its funny how rearranging the furniture just a bit can make just the right change to our home and I think that’s what these projects have been about.

Our ship is still doing phenomenal things and I thought I’d share a short video clip that had me in tears (and I don’t think its just the hormones) from one of our DTS outreach teams who were working alongside the ship in PNG.

For those of you who get behind what we do, know you’re not just championing our family but an entire nation. And the results have been astounding – not just statistically – but in the way they are changing individual lives, families, and communities.

Good work, team!!

No One Likes to Sit Next to a Crying Baby

My travel buddy

I was expecting dread, dirty looks, the evil eye, and not-so-subtle sighing.

So imagine my surprise when after 13 hours in the air in a small and confined space, I was greeted instead by… relief… delight… smiles… and statements of overwhelming gratitude for my awesome parenting (which I refer to as “luck” and “the grace of God”)?

Evidently, no one likes sitting next to a crying baby. But when the baby doesn’t cry (at all!), people are very very happy. I mean, SERIOUSLY happy. Its like their dread gives way to a waterfall of gratitude and joy.

My little Max is an exceptional traveller.

Overall our trip, was amazing. Profitable. Insightful. Worth it.

We met some amazing people – like these guys, who run a garment factory in Cambodia where people who have been trafficked can have a paying job and rehabilitation services. And  these guys - who ship medical supplies all around the world… and maybe even to Papua New Guinea?!

And we launched the very first Not For Sale DTS. Anyone know someone with 6 months to change the world? Send ‘em our way!

We were reminded of the 27 million people around the world who live in slavery. The ones who are making products that you and I get at bottom bucket bargain prices…

Maybe that whole underground railroad, abolition thing isn’t quite over yet.

We don’t want to be radical. We want to be smart.
We don’t want to be condemning. We want to be responsible.
We don’t want to be naive. We want to seek truth.

We’re not hopping on the bandwagon… we’re asking questions… learning… and remembering that the whole “set the captives free” thing is a bit more literal that we realised… but way too important to ignore.