Brooke's Australian Adventure Update - Summer 2009 - February 15, 2009

Dear friends,

I think I must stop apologizing for my delays in writing and celebrate the fact that occasionally I do overcome my pride in wanting to write some fantastic news (and when that doesn’t happen I may not write), or my procrastination and laziness and just sit to write to you, as I desire to do. Another season has passed since I’ve last written in the physical sense – weather and so on, the holidays have come and gone – including Valentine’s (much love to you all), and I feel as though I am on the verge of a new season in life also. Since I have last written much of my time has been spent working in Hornsby at Blu Water Grill. I also took on an new venture, selling advertising for a public policy magazine associated with the Australian Christian Lobby titled, “Debate.” I had met the owner of the magazine at the National Prayer Breakfast and she gave me a copy of to read and offered me some work to help market the publication (www.debate.net.au). Although a little outside of my comfort zone, I felt it would be a good opportunity to develop myself professionally and meet interesting people. The magazine, based in Canberra, definitely did allow me the chance to network with many others involved in thinking critically on policy issues that affect the public debate. It has been great to be involved with people of passion. The job itself has not been a very big time commitment, as I have been consulting just a few hours a week, but it has helped me to be open to different opportunities outside of work in Hornsby.

Professionally what has most recently opened up is that I have just begun a new part-time position with a women’s think tank called Women’s Forum Australia (WFA) www.womensforumaustralia.org. Their desire is to “give voice to a broad coalition of women who will effect life affirming cultural change for women’s well being and freedom.” It is an exciting 6-month commitment to serving in two different roles. The first is as acting development director for a lady on maternity leave for the first few months and learning how to connect with donors. The second task I have been given is a brand new position of helping to disseminate the research that WFA produces and work especially on a publication entitled, “Faking It.” This publication is targeted to young women and is created in a somewhat similar format to beauty magazines that would hold interest to girls. However the research is revealing to young women in an attractive way the truth about how beauty magazines actually contain airbrushed images and make them feel worse about their body image. It contains well-written articles about objectification of women and the early sexualization of girls and offers options for help available for girls suffering from eating disorders, depression and other ailments. It is an empowering and freeing body of research that I have the task of trying to get it into the hands of young women by presenting talks in schools and encouraging schools to purchase it as a resource. It is very exciting research and there will be other opportunities to help with other publications on research that WFA is doing as well; for instance on positive work life balance for women.

Thank you friends for your prayers for my professional life. I am still applying for other roles to fill my other 20 hours or so a week, but there are a few very promising and exciting options that seem to be about to become reality.

Luke 17: 5 & 6
“The apostles said to the Lord, “increase our faith!”
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

Hebrews 11:6
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

I often can feel like the apostles wanting to demand that Jesus just increase my faith, but He says that we only need a little faith. I have had to fight between fear and faith in many areas in the past few months when it comes to questions of where my hope lies and where my identity rests. I know I have so much to be grateful for truly: an incredible family to live with, a source of income when so many are suffering economically, a relationship with a man who I know loves me, and on an on… But there are times when I have found myself thinking pessimistically or only seeing all of my unmet desires. That is when I have needed to get my eyes off of me and return my gaze to the Lord. At this point I have been reminded that all that is required is to have a little faith and keep walking forward. One way I suppose I have done that in that past few weeks is to decide to go and volunteer with Young Life at the annual national camp they put on in Jindabyne, in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales. The camp allowed me to have some time outside of Sydney in the country, some space away from working 6 days a week, and a place to try and hear the Lord’s voice without the usual distractions. Brendan’s grandmother passed away the night before I was to go and that was a sad and yet peaceful passing that sobered the beginning of the trip. Even the six-hour drive to Jindabyne by myself allowed me the chance to pray and prepare my heart for what was coming next… Serving again at a Young Life camp – but in a different country (as I have in the past in the US, Canada and Costa Rica), was like coming home. I served on summer staff at camp as a sailing instructor. Sailing has a very dear place in my past, because of my father’s lifelong love of sailing and my first year and a half spent on a trimaran sailboat in the Caribbean. I was also keelboat sailing certified in DC a few years back in order to take out our mentees from the Southeast White House sailing. So it was a joy to be able to put all of this experience to good use with youth from around Australia. Being out on the water can be a peaceful time for conversations to happen with kids, or it can be a scary time with winds blowing a gale and a time for kids to have to conquer fears of the water. I found both to be true during the week at camp. I was blessed amazed that many of the kids I was naturally drawn to pray for at the beginning of the week as they stepped off the buses, were the same ones I had some space with out on the water later in the week and was able to listen to their stories and love them. I really enjoyed serving at the camp and especially the interaction with other summer staffers and getting to learn about Young Life Australia, where it is working, and what the opportunities are to get involved. Plus, it was fun to climb Australia’s highest mountain, Mt. Kosciusko, and experience the beauty of the alpine environment. The challenge there was to encourage and motivate the kids who didn’t think they could do it and the joy of course was to celebrate with them when they did. On the whole it was an incredible week and one that refreshed and reminded me that I am created with people gifts to use and a passion for young people, and when I have the freedom to share about Jesus and point people to him, I feel so alive.

Some other highlights of the past season include the holidays with both the Saxton’s, as well as Brendan and his family. It was my second Christmas in Australia with both families and it is amazing to see how the relationships have grown and increased in intimacy. Speaking of intimacy, Brendan and I have been deepening in our relationship through really working on honest communication and expectations, being vulnerable and asking for prayer and help from a few others, and have pressed closer to Jesus and continue to commit to working through things together. Over the holidays his family felt that it probably would be his grandmother’s last Christmas, which it ended up being, and they used the time well to really enjoy being a family together this year. We shared a fantastic feast at Angela, Brendan’s sister’s house that culminated in many of us jumping in the pool (remember, Christmas is in Australia’s summer!). The next day, Boxing Day, took the family to Nelson’s Bay, a gorgeous turquoise watered bay surrounded by the ancient rounded tops of former volcanoes and a BBQ was held that again celebrated family. I know Baba’s death (Brendan’s grandma) was, and is still hard on everyone (she died on the 13th of January), but I feel that her last holidays with the family were well spent and she at that point was physically well enough to participate in all of the events. Life at the Saxton’s has been very full and fun, as the eldest Saxton child, Ed, moved back in after the boys’ house here in Sydney had to be closed due to the rental house complications. Ed brought with him Peter Arky, a friend I had gotten to know through volunteering at the National Prayer Breakfast office who also is from the US. He is a North Carolinian, and it has been indeed a full and warm house having these two additions bringing more youth, life and fun. Rupert Saxton, the second eldest has just graduated high school and celebrated his 18th birthday, and it has been fun to observe him mature and hear his dreams. I too celebrated a birthday, turning 29 last week and I continue to be amazed at living in community (all 7 of us) from our different walks of life and sharing together. Friendship has also been celebrated at the beginning of the New Year with a small, intimate group of friends at a party at a friend’s apartment over looking the Sydney harbour. It is our second new years’ together with this group of friends including Annemaree Twyford, Steve Baird, Ryan and Alice Richards and Matt and Kath Gamble. It is so wonderful to know Brendan and I have friends we are walking alongside with here in Sydney and I am excited to enter into a new year with friendships like these continuing to deepen.

Another highlight of friendship has been that my friend Angela from Rez, my DC church home, came to stay for a week. I was able to arrange with the restaurant to not work much and had time to show her around. We ventured to places I hadn’t been yet, including the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves – two World Heritage sites. It was spectacular enjoying the beauty of creation here through the bush walks and also experiencing the hospitality of the people here that have become like family – the Saxton’s, Brendan’s parents in Newcastle, and a new young couple I got to know through Young Life, the Sharpe’s who live in Bathurst. Angela was a prayer partner with me during my last days in DC and being able to spend some time in prayer for one another was such a gift for me, especially as it was my birthday week and provided lots of fodder for reflection and the week before beginning my new job. The Lord’s timing for encouraging me with a friend was also perfect in that I was of course beginning to miss DC as the National Prayer Breakfast was happening that same week and was so appreciative to have someone with me to share with me stories of friends back home in the US. I realized again at the end of that week that although it is fun to do things and explore places with other people, that just being together in the mundane times of life often develops lasting friendship also. Relationships, particularly those forged in and formed through prayer have a longevity and intimacy to them that can seldom be achieved through other means in my experience. I am grateful to be able to share my life and prayers with friends like you reading these reflections and hearing back from you over the Internet. But what I also realize is that being present and available to those in the flesh around you in real time is so valuable and necessary. I do have many desires to live a big world life, but am also realizing the desire to go deeper in the life I am living with those around me, particularly with the Lord that loves me… deep calls to deep (Psalm 42:7), even when what I am doing may not seem to me “big world”.

“It is not for you to understand My ways and My delays. It is for you to keep on looking to Me for your daily needs, and to be faithful in holding up the bundle of concerns I have laid on your heart… Turn every sight of pain and hurt into prayer.”
- Echoes of Eternity

Thank you again friends for your faithfulness to our friendship and for your prayers. I continue to look forward to celebrating with you the big dreams that I am hoping for in my life, and those that you are hoping for in your hearts and life. In the in-betweens of life I pray that we all learn to appreciate and celebrate God’s faithfulness in quiet places. He is worthy to be praised and His timing is perfect, regardless if it makes sense to us, or our timetable.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Learning together, with love, Brooke