Relational highlights - Brendan and I at Harbor Bridge, Kiwi's going away, Carrie and I in Canberra, Bug and I in Sydney

Great Ocean Road & Melbourne

Adealaide, Handorf & 12 Apostles

Brooke's Australia Adventures Update #3

Brooke’s Australia Adventure Update #3 – Monday, May 7, 2007

Dear Friends,

What a difference a few weeks can make! I feel so much different now than I did a month ago or so when I last wrote. Although I was enjoying myself, I was really struggling and seeking to push through to believe and trust and it is just where I was at in my heart… but now things have shifted. I am feeling with greater presence the warmth of the sunshine on my skin and the gentle breeze of the wind off the water here. I am observing the beauty and depth of the color blue as it varies from the subtleties in the sky to the different bodies of water – oceans and bays I have seen in the past few weeks to the iris of someone special that I find myself found in… It has been an incredible journey and it started with deciding to push through whatever lost expectations I had and seek to engage regardless.

Psalm 62:8
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour our your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”

My trip around Australia on my 2-week holiday was definitely a blessing and helped me to have some refreshment and encouragement. I spent the first week in the large country town of Adelaide, South Australia’s capital city. I stayed on Henley Beach with a fantastic couple – Dee and Don Fleming who graciously opened up their home to me as well as another friend (Nichole) who ended up joining me a few days into the time. Their home was my home and they were as parents and I was folded in among their 5 children and 23 grandchildren for the Easter celebration and remembering the resurrection together. I wrote in my journal on Easter: “We celebrate today the resurrection- the power of love and grace and mercy to triumph over the powers of evil and sin and darkness!” It was a very special time for me in this season to have walks on the beach with them, late night talks and just rest and be rebuilt. The area here is very beautiful and I was able to enjoy the hill country surrounding the city, the Barossa wine country with a few friends and the fall colors in little towns like Handorf – a tiny German town that is historic and so interesting to stroll through in the late afternoon. It was a joy and such a great start to my break to have been built up through friendship in this town and I am so grateful for it.

Psalm 18:19
“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

Nichole, my Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar friend from earlier adventures, and her friend Emily and I all set out from Adelaide for an adventure in a camper van next – to drive to Melbourne along the famous Great Ocean Road (similar to the Pacific Coast Highway in California). Along this trip we were able to see the famous and much photographed (now by me also) 12 Apostles, rock structures standing in the ocean. We arrived in Melbourne- the state of Victoria’s capital city after 2 days of driving and began to enjoy Nichole’s house there and her friends. Nichole and I even attended a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar conference while there together and it was incredible to meet other scholars from around the world studying in other states of Australia like Tasmania and Western Australia. It was an encouraging time to remember collectively the amazing opportunity we have all been given this year, to serve, and I was spurred on by the time. Melbourne is a lovely city and Nichole lives in a funky area called St. Kilda – near the beach on the bay. We all enjoyed the city sights including Lygon street Italian cafés, salsa dancing, botanical gardens; tiny back alleys that you would think you were in Europe, the zoo, etc. It was a special trip to spend with two other fellow travelers – Emily and Nichole are both fellow Americans studying towards master’s programs in Australia (Nichole in Melbourne, Emily in Adelaide). It was also to be honest a somewhat strained trip at times as there were many moments in which sarcasm was the communication tool of choice rather than loving honesty or truth in love. I found myself at the end of the time realizing that some boundaries should have been set in my heart regarding my own need for personal space and rest on the trip. To be honest the three of us didn’t know one another so well and sometimes respect wasn’t given… there was some hurt in it all, but praise be to God reconciliation and healing was also present at the end of the time. I am grateful to be in friendships that can withstand conflict and seek to help me grow. I will see Nichole again soon in Melbourne and look forward to continuing to engage in a meaningful and multi-faceted friendship.

Psalm 15:1-3
“LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman…”

From Melbourne, I was off to the nation’s capital of Canberra to help organize with a few others the National Student Leadership Forum’s community service projects for this year. I was excited to build on the foundation others have set and met with folks from Kawaree Retirement Village and Axis Youth Center as well as door knocking with a team of folks in the community of Queanbeyan, NSW. It was a fantastic fall day that day and the response we received from the neighbors about having the students back to serve on Saturday, June the 2nd was encouraging and truly showed that the spirit of service was a welcome one and had built up the community over the years even bonded them closer together. I had a great time re-living my memories of community service over the years and dreaming together with the other volunteers what the students could experience by getting outside their comfort zones and meeting with people face to face in this type of relational dynamic of service. Please keep in prayer these projects as well as all the other teams surrounding the forum and for the students in these few weeks before it takes place. The dates are May 31-June 3, 2007 and I know my life was deeply impacted at a similar forum in the US and will pray other students will have just as significant times.

I finally made it back to Newcastle (albeit a stopover in Sydney) on April 22nd and found myself really appreciating a sense of home and looking forward to stepping into the commitments, relationships and even school responsibilities I had waiting for me here. Travel is such an incredible way to grow by meeting new people, being confronted by new ideas and having so many decisions to make along the way, but it can also be exhausting so I found a sense of peace even awaited me entering back into life in Newy. I feel it has taken me so long in some ways to feel connected and at peace here, but was so excited to enter back into the relationship with people who had been on similar adventures over the holidays. We were all glad to see one another again and I find that I have felt more connected since then and have a greater opportunity and authority now to speak into the lives of those around me. Time is such a funny thing here in that sense though because we only have now 5 weeks until the end of the semester and let me tell you the class load is “full on” until the end and yet many of the young friends I am making will go back to the US, Canada or Europe at the end of the semester because they are only on study abroad programs. So, you can pray that I will have the wisdom to know how to spend my time effectively between the studies and social commitments and using my influence in the lives of those who are at important places of decision in their lives. It was also great to get back to the Rotary club here and the relationships built around service, my job at the gym with all the little children I get to engage with and friendships based around the Lord that I have made at church – whether it be going to a rugby match (Newcastle knights vs Brisbane Broncos) or having coffee with ladies at a Warner’s Bay café, I am feeling known and as if I have a specific place here and I am so grateful for that and for your prayers that this would be the case.

“Keep reminding yourself that your feelings of being unwelcome do not come from God and do not tell the truth. So you have to keep unmasking the lie and think, speak, and act according to the truth that you are very, very welcome.”
- Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love, pg. 102

I also have a deeper sense of the preciousness of all of this because of the hardships I came through to get to this place and an appreciation for my friends and family back home that I had to call or e-mail to pray and encourage me in the down times. I have also come to realize more fully that I can’t allow sin to be part of my identity or to wear my brokenness as a badge, but continue to seek the Lord’s healing and peace and this is what calls other to deeper places.

Luke 22:32
“But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

In my classes I have also been challenged to question the motivation I have towards serving the poor. We have been looking at the root and nature of poverty and all the complications of development efforts –whether they have been seemingly motivated by altruism or for more obvious political reasons or even just greed and it can be overwhelming to study the complexities of history. I see much optimism that fueled naïve decisions being made that were very costly for the poor and indeed have kept them in harsh conditions, yet even in the theories and heaviness of all that I am learning, I have been re-motivated that there is hope. I pray my motivation will remain pure to love and serve out of that and as I learn all that has gone wrong in development, or as I go further academically and begin to understand anti and post-development, post-structuralism, etc. I continue to believe that a heart that seeks to be pure can be used.

Psalm 33:22
“May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.”

I will leave you friends with this scripture as a prayer and thank you for remembering me in your prayers. These next 5 weeks before the end of the semester will be a busy time and I do appreciate you lifting me up to the Lord. Again, to see photos from my time here, look at my blog: www.brookesintladventures.blogspot.com.

Much love,
Brooke