Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Beautiful Naomi in her element.

Bev looks so small compared to the towering trees and gigantic boulders.


A family portrait of all of us crazy, feral hippies at a weekend in the wilderness.


Sunny looking very much like herself.


Some of the students who are doing the Deep End School.








This is what my "dreadies" looked like after Ely worked on them for 6 hours and three movies.









These are the five wonderful girls I lived with. This was our last house dinner.








Rosie on our tour of the tea tree plantation maze where they had self proclaimed art.








Me and Tom who was a student at the Deep End School. He is loud and always a party. Fun tends to follow closely behind him.










Ruthie in the tea tree lake.








Roger and me eating a nice curry soup at the Rails park.










My van that decided to die in protest of my leaving the country. Pray for a high selling price.








My house that I shared with five other girls.








A group of girls at the wedding of Ben and Jodie. Ruthie, Me, Kristie, Rosie, Danny, and Michelle.







My flight was long, over 30 hours of traveling, but happened without any major quirks or bumps. It went very smoothly. It was funny because I was in a secluded terminal and was going through pictures on my computer when all of a sudden I heard my name called over the intercom. This has never happened to me before and I quickly gathered my bags and wheeled the cart towards the Quantas desk between gate 79 and 80. All sorts of thoughts flooded my mind in this short 2 minute walk . . did Simon change his mind, did they find another error in my passport, did I space on the time and miss my flight? I approached the guy at the counter and he had been expecting me. "Oh, there is someone here to see you, I've forgotten their name, but hold on I get them on the line for you." he casually said as my heart was trying to bump it's way out of my chest. It seemed to take forever as he apologized for the difficulties they were having with the system today. Finally I got through and it was my friend Amanda! She had arranged to have off her afternoon shift and quickly drove two hours to surprise me at the airport only find that I had already gone through the gate. She had even brought me some peanuts as a special parting gift. We got to say goodbye through a wire fence with her on the top floor and be below. It wasn't a long goodbye given everyone around us was included in our conversation. It was so sweet of her to go out of her way like that. Later on during our boarding process I was almost up to the front of the line when I heard again the intercom come on and my name was announced again! I made my way to the counter and there was a woman holding the bag of peanuts for me. She has brought them down for me since Amanda and I didn't get to see each other in person. The rest of my flights were pretty uneventful after this.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

One way ticket

Did you know that I have an amazing mother who supports me in any and every decision I made? I called her last week in tears and as I sat on a water drain on the side of the street I told her I couldn't do this any more. I felt clearly that my time in Bryon had come to an end and that I needed to return home. She was so supportive and said "Well, I probably can't get you a ticket for this week but maybe next week."

So, it's offical. I leave sunny Byron in a couple of days and maybe before you even check this I will be back on that side of the world. I feel really good about this decision and while I do wish I had more perseverance to finish the school and complete what I've begun, it just became too challenging.

I am confident that I'll come home transformed. God has been doing really solid reconstruction in my heart and He is putting a new song into it. I'll have to tell you the whole story over a cuppa.

In all honestly if you are near by me in Portland or Tacoma I will need your love, support and welcome when I return. I'll need good company.