"Hey no fair!"

my first week at camp? check!
it's been an interesting week to say the least, including an unexpected position switch, a wonderful handful of a camper, two incredible co-counsellors, and a beautiful group of girls to hang out with. I got switched to being a 1-on-1 counsellor, hanging out with a great little girl all week, singing "do you want to build a snowman" and listening to her pray for extended periods of time. the week started off rough, as I wasn't expecting to be a 1-on-1 and wasn't prepared for the handful side of this great little girl. however, the rest of the week significantly improved and definitely turned quite great towards the end!
so now I have 2 days to relax before going back to camp for another week... though this week should be a lot easier, but not counting on that. what I am counting on is that God will bring me through it and that I will learn so much.

new beginnings | blog titles explained

I've had the privilege of working at camp for the past few summers, and as this camp is a little more southern than where i live, the staff (and citizens of the nearby city) have developed their own vocabulary. this includes many things, such as calling people a gem or saying "i'm peacing" instead of "i'm leaving". i think my favourite one has been "the Jesus life", which essentially means living life for Jesus.
essentially, that was my purpose for my blog. i wanted to share my adventures following Christ, my adventures living the Jesus life in Australia. hence, "the Jesus life down under". however, now that i'm home, i'll be continuing to post on occasion, not about my DTS experience but about my "regular life" experience. it's always an adventure following Christ!
hence the new blog title- "the jesus life". no longer down under, but still following Him! the new URL is www.livingthejesuslife.blogspot.com
blessings to you! thanks for reading :)

thoughts | one week post DTS

well it's Saturday evening... approximately a week ago (taking time difference into account) I was on a plane leaving Australia. it was a rough trip home, but it feels so good to be in my own bed again.
main major differences from my life over the past 6 months:
1) sleeping in a room by myself. will never underestimate it again.
2) having so much space for my things
3) having so many things (read: not living out of a backpack)
4) driving (I LOVE driving)
5) air conditioning- it was 35 degrees outside today. I was wearing a sweatshirt the first time I went outside, decided it was too hot, so I went inside and was cold. what a concept. Australians don't have internal heating or cooling so this is still a novelty :)
6) temperature controlled showers
7) the sheer amount of meat. we had steak for supper today and it was beautiful
8) having free time
9) no dress code- what I was wearing today didn't cover my knees or my shoulders (our dress code in Cambodia) and it was so nice!
10) no one making fun of my accent ;)
11) being by myself most of the time. my family still has lives that went on without me (strange, I know) so I've been alone quite a bit this week as they're still busy. pretty tough!

while these things are pretty difficult, it's so nice to be home. it still feels surreal, like these past 6 months never happened, but I know it did and I can still feel the changes. I miss my DTS family though, and Australia, and I even miss Cambodia a bit :)
Prayer would be so appreciated as I continue to adjust back to jet lag... I get so so incredibly tired in the late afternoon (2-4 am in aus) and the last couple days I have succumbed and taken a nap. and then I go to sleep a few hours later aided by melatonin... I have some exciting news about the rest of my summer though that will be posted later ;)
thank you for your continued interest in my life! i'm blessed to have such a great support network!
-Cailey
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37)

And 6 months later, I'm back in LAX.

So I'm back in LAX.
6 months ago, I was here, and spent most of those 8 hours upset by myself, sure that I was doing the wrong thing.
And 6 months later, here I am!
It's been a crazy 6 months full of meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and new lifestyles, and falling in love with God again and again and again.
Tonight I go home! It may be around 7:30, it may be around 11:30, but I'll be home, in the land of hockey and poutine and polite people and Tim Horton's. I am so excited to see my family again, but I will miss my YWAM family, for sure.

Romans 8:37- "no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

2 weeks | thoughts

today is Monday, March 24. in 2 weeks from today, the second half of my adventure starts- we board a plane to get to southeast asia, where we'll be spending the next 3 months. we'll be working with a local youth development centre, teaching English and other topics like computers and hopefully music.
so how do I feel about living out of a hiking backpack for 3 months? pretty scared, as of right now. it's a whole bunch of new experiences, and my human side isn't so sure it wants new experiences. it wants to stay in my comfortable bed with mostly reliable wifi where we aren't sweating like crazy most of the time... but the rest of me is SO excited for all the new experiences we're going to have!
we're going to work with kids, experience a new country with rich heritage, and most of all we're going to see Jesus move in INSANE ways. i'm going because of Jesus, but also to bring Jesus to those who need Him most.
lately, I've been really challenged by the song Oceans (where feet may fail) by Hillsong, especially the bridge:
Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders
let me walk upon the waters
wherever you would call me
take me deeper then my feet will ever wander
and my faith will be made stronger
in the presence of my Saviour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw
(ps it's 9 minutes, sorry... but it's so good!)
there's so many good parts to that bridge! i'm going to dissect it with how it relates to my life lately.
"Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders"
so often, I think that trust in God is something that holds us back. we don't want to trust in God because we don't think he'll pull through... but yet he's so good! He's SO GOOD! he deserves borderless trust!
"let me walk upon the waters, wherever you would call me"
whenever I picture myself hanging out with Jesus (using Joel's classic exercise for those of you who know what that is) we're always walking on the water together down a river in Alberta that we went white water rafting down, so this line is especially poignant to me. I want to trust Jesus enough that I can walk on water; trust him enough that I would go wherever he would call me willingly.
"take me deeper then my feet will ever wander"
I don't really know what this means, to be honest. I'm spending a lot of time trying to figure out what this line means, because I want to figure out what it means to be taken deeper then my feet will wander... sounds like something i'd want to do!
"and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Saviour"
such a truth. a solid truth that you can lean on.
I think that every part of this song is worth listening to. it's in my heart and will continue to stay there over outreach :) so many parts to cling to.
so I guess that's kind of all I have for now. i'm feeling really blessed, especially by the incredible girls on my dts :) we're planning a trip into Sydney this weekend, and i'm really looking forward to spending time with these girls!
prayer would be really appreciated for the following:
-health (my stomach is still bothering me :(  )
-safety (as always)
-wisdom for leadership
-money for those of us who don't have all of the outreach money yet
-peace about our situation- whether about money or living situation on outreach
-visa stuff to fall into place
-team unity

thanks so much! i'm excited to continue to share my journey with you :)
again, i won't be posting on outreach, so if you want to keep updated, email me at cwieler@ywamwollongong.org to receive emails.
Blessings,
Cailey

"If I were not upon a stage somewhere else I'd rather be *clap clap* if I were not upon a stage..."

Wow! what a crazy few weeks it's been here at base.
we've been frantically preparing for outreach, fundraising money and buying plane tickets and learning skits... we found out our locations typically a bit later then most schools so we're a bit pressed for time. the fact that we were gone last week also meant that we had 6 scheduled outreach prep times left as of sunday, which has now gone down to 4. we leave in approximately 16 days for outreach, (april 5-6 ish) so things are getting tight!
this afternoon, we learned two skits to use as tools while on outreach. we'll be based out of one location but going around to do different things in different areas, and so one of the things that people typically experience on YWAM outreaches is the locals saying "Oh white people! can you sing /do a skit for us?" so we now have 2 in our arsenal in case that happens.
the first skit is called "If i were not upon a stage" (which is where the title comes from). basically there are 6 of us standing in a line on the stage, and we start off saying "Iiiiiiif i were not upon a stage somewhere else i'd rather be *clap clap* if i were not upon a staaaage" and then each person steps out in turn and says a different occupation. "A policewoman i would be." or "a dance instructor i would be." altogether there's 6: a policewoman (me), a dance instructor, a painter, a carpenter, a washerwoman, and a ballerina. so then after they say "a _________ i would be" then they do something with that action (eg. the painter would paint, the dancer would dance) and the rest of the line sings "And as s/he walks a long, s/he sings her/his little song". then it gets a little confusing. each person says a line about their job and they do an action. so the policeman says "stop! come here! get back on the pavement!" and gestures to the front and to the side, etc. the painter says "dip the brush, stir the paint, slap it on the wall." with the appropriate accompanying gestures. the funny part for the people watching (who haven't seen it ten billion times before like us) is at the end when all of them are doing it at the same time. each person is doing their own action while narrowly managing to miss the people beside them so it works! ... it's confusing but i can see how it's going to be such a good tool! then at the end, we all start arguing because we want to be the painter and the painter goes "it's okay! we can all be the painter!" and so then we sing it again with "a painter we would be" and then when it comes to "dip the brush, stir the paint, slap it on the wall" we all turn the same way and everyone gets hit by each other's brush and falls over. the point being that we all have our own gifts that work well because we're different. when everyone tries to be the same things don't work out.
the second one was a little more simple... it's no talking, just set to music. Funny music though, and then everyone acts really silly so it's just lighthearted. one person walks out to a chair in the middle of the stage and starts "painting it" and then puts a sign on it that says "do not sit" then walks off. the next person comes on and, pretending to be tired, ignores the sign and sits on it anyway, getting stuck. the next person that comes on is a "strongman" (or woman in our case) and tries to get the one stuck off the chair, but doesn't succeed so leaves. the next one is too busy to talk (in our skit this is so funny because the girl doing this part is married to the one stuck in the chair so the look on his face when she ignores him is priceless), and the next one is a flirt, trying to tease the stuck one off the chair but they can't follow. then someone with a Bible comes on and prays with the stuck person and they get off right away. the idea is that God is the only one that can get you out of stuck places!
so needless to say, we had an extremely entertaining afternoon.
prayer requests:
-health! my stomach has been bothering me lately :(
-patience for leadership as they book tickets and do visa stuff
-that the price of the tickets will stay down
-team unity
-that God will move through EVERY SINGLE circumstance!
-specifically for our outreach leader... our school leader is getting married so isn't able to come with us on outreach, so one of the staff on our school is our outreach leader. pray for him as it's his first time leading outreach, that he would have wisdom in every circumstances and peace leading up to our departure.
-for the staff staying behind, that they wouldn't be too disappointed and that they would be praying and interceding for us!
thanks so much for reading, and keep us in your prayers :)
-Cailey

School of the Circuit Rider

So this week, we've been down in a city called Newcastle at the YWAM Newcastle base. There are a number of different dts's here as well, from Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, etc. we all travelled here for a "conference" called "School of the Circuit Rider". It's run by these two guys, Andy Byrd and Matt Nelson, and the whole week is focused on evangelism, how to do it and where God is calling you. 

This week has been INCREDIBLE. The worship (led by a guy named David Brymer) was amazing, the speakers were so empowering and radical, and living in community with 250 people kinda feels like SOAR, except for we're from all over the world. 

Let's start with the worship. This guy David Brymer, he's this super humble, honest, vulnerable man of God. He managed to lead us into the presence of God so often, it was amazing. One morning, the band decided we were going to have no music, just voices, and David stepped down off the stage and put the mike down and joined us in acapella worship to our beautiful creator. A bunch of us got to sit down with him at the end of the week to hear his thoughts on leading worship, and it honestly just impressed me that much more. So humble and so not focused on putting on a show. 

Okay, the speakers- Andy Byrd and Matt Nelson. These two guys were so great! They brought the word of God and the challenge of sharing the Gospel in a real and powerful way, and I was so challenged by what they had to say. My favourite day of the week was Thursday, where we got to go up and share where we were putting our "stake" down as a kingdom builder. Some people said things like God was calling them to work with teenage girls, to make films, to learn to tattoo, to open a skate park, all this super cool stuff. People talked about going to certain countries, and learning certain skills. It was incredible! And after each person shared, we yelled "Heart and soul, we are with you!" To show each person that we were standing behind their call. 

I had actually been hearing from God on what my call was earlier in the week, but I wasn't sure if it was Him or what. However, it definitely was- God is calling me to be a mobilizer. To equip people with the tools to be sent out to preach the Gospel. Not to be the mobilized, the one going, but to be the one sending. This is a little more of a compass then a blueprint, but I know my direction. God is good! I'll be attending university in the fall, in the international development studies, and I'm so excited to see where God takes me after that! 

Today (Friday) has been rough, I've been feeling quite nauseous all day and in a lot of pain. I know Satan is trying to discourage me and it's working this far... I need prayer, lots of it. I am becoming a threat to him and he's trying to get me down which I won't allow! Jesus Christ is above all things, and in Him all things hold together. 

Again, if you would like to either watch our fundraising video or get my email updates on outreach (t-minus 3 weeks), you can send me an email at cwieler@ywamwollongong.org and I'll be sure to respond when I can. 

Prayer would be so appreciated, my stomach feels like crap and my body just hurts all over. God is still good, and prayer is still appreciated. 

Thanks so much! 

-Cailey

"It's not about you! It's about how God will use you in spite of your mess." | Week 8

Since I was little, I have always enjoyed sleeping. I was a content baby, rarely upset, that slept for so long my mom had to wake me up so i'd actually be able to sleep at night.
these past few years, I've still always enjoyed sleeping. always the first one asleep at sleepovers, to never fighting when I was instructed to go to sleep, to never being given a curfew when I was in high school because I enjoyed sleep.
last year on a missions trip/conference I went on, there was one day where I crashed so hard I called my youth pastor crying and he came to pick me up. not my finest moment, i'll admit. but it had been months of not sleeping well and that combined with about a week of less sleep then i'm used to... things didn't end well ;)
here on base, I go to sleep around 10-10:30 each night and wake up around 7:30. however, i'm EXHAUSTED! the only other time I can remember being this tired is from that mission trip. I forget how much being in spiritual battle is exhausting. It's hard not to fall asleep in lecture... or really any other time I stop moving really.
the reason i'm informing you on my sleep habits is because it actually has something to do with the title of today's post. The title is a quote from one of our speakers from this week (a married couple that lead a media team here on base). I love it because it's so true- it's not about me! it's about how God will use me in spite of my mess. in spite of how utterly exhausted I am, in spite of my total failure at life. He still uses me and will continue to.
today we got to watch some videos from the country we're going to on outreach. I am SO excited! God is working in the hearts of our team and we leave in LESS THEN A MONTH :)
again, if you want to receive my updates while on outreach, please send me an email at cwieler@ywamwollongong.org and I will add you to the list.
thanks so much! please keep us in your prayers. prayers for continued health and energy are especially needed. next week we have no internet access as we'll be at the base in Newcastle for a conference, so if I don't respond/don't post don't be worried!
blessings,
Cailey

week 7

well, it's week 7.
this week, we found out where we're going on outreach!
however, we're not supposed to be sharing over the internet except over secure connections.
if you would like to get my email updates while on outreach (as I will not be on facebook or my regular email) email me at cwieler@ywamwollongong.org and tell me who you are, and I will be happy to add you to my list! I will reply with where we're going :)
we were in the middle of a fundraising meeting and our leaders were like "we'll show you some examples of a fundraising video that past schools made"
and then we were like "why are our faces showing up in this video?" and it turned out that it was the video showing us our locations :) we were completely surprised, that's for sure!
well, blessings as you serve the really cool God that made our amazing earth!
-Cailey

Monday Afternoons

Every Monday afternoon during lecture phase, we split into two groups. one group goes to do community service/outreach, and the other goes to the local old folks' home to hang out with them. the groups switch every week, so one week you'll do community service and one week you'll go to the old folks' home.
quite honestly, the old folks' home is one of the highlights of my week. I love going to visit them, hearing about their lives, their stories, and telling them why the heck I left my home to come to Australia for so long.
I grew up going to visit family in old folks' homes, even working in a seniors' home for a few months in my grade 12 year, and it's always been something I look forward to. so far, I've gotten to play dominoes with a lovely lady named Sheila a few times (one time she showed us a picture of her when she was young in a "legs" competition, competing for who has the best legs... she won and so she was very proud). today, I went into the dementia ward, and was incredibly blessed by the conversations I had there. the people I was talking to seemed to forget I was there, so I had to keep the conversation going most of the time, but at the end I moved over to join the two other girls I had come with and we talked to this lovely lady who asked us all about ourselves and how we were and where we were from. and she even seemed to remember our answers :)
this week, we have a guy from the sunshine coast teaching on the Bible. unlike I thought, he's actually a really young guy with this intense passion for the Bible and getting us to love it too. i'm excited to learn from him.
God is good :)
-Cailey

thankful | my church family

To my church:

thank you.

thank you for your support.

thank you for listening to my stories, for asking me how i'm doing, for caring so incredibly much.

i'm so blessed to be a part of a church that supports the youth so wholeheartedly.

I thought it was the norm, having a church who is so supportive of the youth and young adults- financially, through prayer, through emotional support, and through helping us debrief by listening to our stories. apparently it's not... and i'm so beyond blessed.

thank you for absolutely making my day by coming through my till at my old job, chatting about how I was doing and asking about this trip.

thank you for donating financially for everything i'm doing, whether camp or Guatemala or SOAR or YWAM.

thank you for reading my blog, for your emails, for checking up on how i'm doing.

being gone, I have realized how much I actually miss you guys. I miss how everyone sits in the same spot every sunday, youth on the right and c&c on the left and young parents in the back. I miss laughing at church, every single sunday. I've been learning that one of the ways the Holy Spirit can show itself is through laughter, because the joy of the Lord is our strength. I think the Holy Spirit shows up in how you, the congregation of FGMB, love on each other. He shows up in how you laugh, how you care for each other, even if they haven't been to church in a long time, how you invite God into every decision, and how you are so mission focused.

one of the 18 values YWAM has is to go and champion young people. to support them and raise them up to do great things, to pray for them and to give financially to them. You, church, are the living embodiment of what it means to champion young people. it seems like every few months i'm up sharing about something else that I've done and that God's been doing in me... and I can't WAIT to come home and share with you what God's been doing in my life.

to the youth- thank you for being my family. you were the place I always fit when I never thought I fit anywhere else. with you guys, I could be myself. we were a family, where we supported each other, prayed for each other, and loved on each other. you were the best example of faith community that I had. I loved every night we had together; playing alien night squadron, making soup, discussing the just war theory, getting banished to the bottom of the stairs for hanky panky, jamming out to DC Talk and Stryper and U2, dancing together, sitting at the back in the sanctuary at SOAR together every year, and just generally laughing together.

church, I miss you so much. please keep us in your prayers as we continue to serve and learn. keep praying for my stomach, as we're under attack from Satan this week as we learn about spiritual warfare... and I get attacked by bad health quite often.

thank you church for all you've done for me. i'm blessed to be a part of the congregation. thank you for giving me my best friends, my mentor, and the people I look up to. thank you for challenging me, supporting me, and loving me.

you are the church.

thank you.

-Cailey

"Give me all of you! I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU! ALL OF YOU! I have not come to frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it! no half measures will do so. I don't want to prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self- in My image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart." -CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Sunday Morning, once again | week five

I literally can't even believe how long I've been here. it's sunday the 16th, which means I got here exactly 5 weeks ago. Things have changed so much since I left home. I'm working through stuff from my past, but only in the hopes of moving forward. i'm becoming part of a family here, a family that comforts, that sings, that loves hardcore, that encourages to the point of being creepy, and that is very quickly overcoming personal space boundaries. we watch the Olympics together, cheering on our respective countries, and we Skype/facetime/video chat each other's families. life is so incredibly good. we do ridiculous things like spontaneous hair dying, going swimming at the beach when it's cold and windy, and laughing so incredibly hard at movies like Monsters' University. Next week, we have a talent/no talent night where we get to showcase our gifts and our "gifts". we are in routine, and I love it. I got to facetime one of my excellent little brothers today and didn't feel homesick at all, because for this season of my life, this is home.
a lot of people ask me about my taste in music. like what I like to listen to, etc. quite honestly, I would enjoy all kinds of music except screamo and probably most techno. however, the music that I listen to always has a memory attached. for me, that's one of the coolest things about music. it has this ability to call up many different kinds of memories. for instance, the song "Wobble" by Family Force 5. I don't like Family Force 5 at all, their music is a little too weird for me, but I love the song "Wobble" because whenever I hear it, it brings me back to the summer of 2012, where we heard it constantly. And the "Hoedown Throwdown" will always remind me of this past summer because we heard it ALL THE TIME. but I've learned to appreciate it :) "The Piano Man" by Billy Joel will always remind me of Guatemala (because someone sang it while hiking up a mountain behind me for like 20 minutes straight), and anything by DC Talk will remind me of singing in the church van while going... pretty much anywhere.
the song lately that I've been into is "Abide with Me". it's an old hymn, but rearranged by Greg Jasperse in the recording I have. we sang it in choir when I was in grade 11, and it was this phenomenal song that made people cry and gave us goosebumps. we got to sing it in an old church while on a music trip in Chicago, and it was just so incredibly cool to hear it echo like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_x54fSmLJE
this song brings me back to all the good times we had in choir, but also it's a hauntingly beautiful version of a hymn with so much meaning behind it. the last 2 verses are my favourite:
Swift to its' close ebbs, out life's little day
earth's joys grow dim, its' glories pass away
change and decay, in all around I see
oh, Lord who changes not
abide with me

Hold now your word before my closing eyes
shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee
in life, in death oh Lord
abide with me
abide with me

today, I encourage to you be thoughtful about the music that you listen to. is there a reason you listen to this kind of music? do you just like it or is there a memory attached?
I am so thankful for the gift of music :)
Blessings in the One who created music,
-Cailey

10 reasons why I'm proud to be a Canadian

1) We're 2nd in medal count in the Sochi Olympics!
2) this article-  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-united-states-has-a-case-of-olympics-medal-envy-and-is-saying--whoa--canada-114753429.html
3) rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and waterrrrr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxTpIMK5NSo
4) hockey :)
5) "TRUE NORTH!" at Jets games
6) land of the overly polite people (better overly polite then rude)
7) we didn't look totally embarrassing at the opening ceremonies like the states
8) we actually say "sorry" the correct way instead of "sawry"
9) we're more educated on the Americans then the Americans are on us
10) free healthcare

Prayer requests and waterfalls

Hey folks! 

I just wanted to take the time to ask for more prayer. It's been a rough week for my insides, I've been having a lot of nausea every day and it's getting really discouraging... I'm just tired of being sick all the time. It's making me homesick as well as feeling removed from community life here because I just don't feel good at all. 

Otherwise, life is going great! We went hiking yesterday and climbed up a waterfall (so tiring but so worth it... We were all a sweaty mess by the end). By the looks of that waterfall, we're definitely not in Manitoba anymore :) we're at the end of "Father heart of God" week, and it's been really good. Today we head to the beach, and tomorrow is Saturday so we have it free! 

God is good. Even though I'm constantly sick, even though life is hard sometimes, even though terrible things happen... God is big, and God is good. Pray that we would be able to cling to that as we enter into a week of lectures on Spiritual Warfare next week, and as we're all exhausted already! 

"And he will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you." 

Blessings, 

Cailey 

Family hike to a waterfall... Aren't they adorable?? This was before we got sweaty and dirty and bitten :p 

Songs | Man of Sorrows (Hillsong Live)

5 things on my mind:
1)I wish I could play guitar
2)whenever I start a new line I automatically hit tab (too many lecture notes...) and on blogger it doesn't work so well.
3)i'm really REALLY glad I wore my ugly pants today
4) i'm appreciating the song "Man of Sorrows" by hillsong today (more on that later)
5)also looking forward to supper prep today (in a weird way I really enjoy it)

WHOOOOO boy. lots of stuff happening today. the teams from the September dtses are returning from outreach on sunday and so we're sharing the space for a week... it's gonna be full in the bathroom! next Wednesday we have a talent/no talent night (absolutely GENIUS idea) where we present talents but you can also not have any talent at all... Janessa i'm counting on this happening next year somewhere :) I've also been contemplating my summer plans, I get back though on june 28 so it's going to be hard to get things in... and yeah. the weather isn't nice out today really but its still not as cold as Canada! and speaking of which, super proud of my country for being first in the medal count as of right now :) also, we started making London fogs around here and apparently the London fogs I make are better then Starbucks! counting that as a personal victory. so I make a lot of them for a lot of people. according to one of my leaders, "If Cailey and Alanna ask you if you want a London fog, you don't say no." haha!
something i'm really appreciating today is the song "Man of Sorrows" by Hillsong Live.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6jXqdtZi10
if you want to listen for yourself :)
the song is beautiful, with lots of beautiful melodies and simple truths proclaimed.
(the italics are the chorus and the bold is the bridge)

Man of sorrows Lamb of God
By His own betrayed
The sin of man and wrath of God
Has been on Jesus laid

Silent as He stood accused
Beaten mocked and scorned
Bowing to the Father's will
He took a crown of thorns

Oh that rugged cross
My salvation
Where Your love poured out over me
Now my soul cries out
Hallelujah
Praise and honour unto Thee
Sent of heaven God's own Son
To purchase and redeem
And reconcile the very ones
Who nailed Him to that tree

Now my debt is paid
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled

Now the curse of sin
Has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed

See the stone is rolled away
Behold the empty tomb
Hallelujah God be praised
He's risen from the grave

something that's continually come up in my time at DTS so far is my issues with control. I don't really think of myself as very controlling, but there are some things that I don't seem to want to trust God with. I have a hard time giving control up in my relationships, specifically

when my friends are hurting and I can't do anything tangible about it. However, God really communicated to me yesterday that He wants my worries, my trust, and the control from my life.

"Hi, my name is Cailey, and I have control issues."

haha the first step to recovery is admitting the issue right? Yesterday I was able to spend some time with the Lord and really get into the heart of why I have problems with control. I want so badly to be able to help people (mostly friends) and be able to do something right away that helps them. BUT God is really the only one that can help them. He wanted me to give him the control over my friends' situations, to give Him my worries AND my trust. I was worried that as soon as I gave Him my trust, that He would just leave me out to dry. God does have the power to do that, but he has the morality to not. He has the choice not to love us (which is scary and intimidating to me) but God is so good that He wants to. I can't even comprehend why He loves me and wants to take my worries and cares. i'm not even close to good enough! but God is a relational God and His desire to have a relationship with us overwhelms what could be a choice not to love us. I don't actually even think that God could choose not to love us, He (in all his infinite wisdom and power... that's his nature) is BIGGER and greater and He realizes that loving us is the best option, for whatever reason. the biggest truth I learned from Character and Nature week was that God is big and God is good and that's something to cling to. I was worried about God leaving me, but now I know He won't. because of Him, I am free from my issues of control and trust. Because of the precious blood that my Jesus spilled, sin's curse has no hold on me anymore and I can trust Him. the most poignant part of this song for me is the bridge-

Now my debt is paid

it is paid in full

by the precious blood

that my Jesus spilled

now the curse of sin

has no hold on me

who the Son sets free

oh is free indeed!



what a beautiful phrase.

I am free.

because of my Jesus.

also this song will always hold a special memory for me because I actually sang it at Hillsong (freaks out) and it was amazing!!

today, revel in the simple truth of who God is- our Father, who spilled his precious blood on the cross for you, because of which you are FREE.

Amen!

-Cailey

"Wait.... Are we watching the hunger games or the Olympics?"

Well, it's Sunday, the end of week four and beginning of week five. Today marks 4 weeks of being on base, as exactly 4 weeks ago (7:50 am on Sunday morning) I was getting off the plane for the first time in Sydney. 

Since then, I've gained a new perspective on things. Australia is BEAUTIFUL. It's a weird mix of things that seem to fit together. It's lush and green, but then there are deserts. It has beautiful mountain views mixed with industrial-ness such as the steelworks right out our window. The beach is beautiful and long and flat if you turn around there's hills and mountains everywhere. So many different pieces but they fit together really well. 

I really love living on base for many different reasons, but one would have to be the variety of cultures. Along with myself and Alanna, there are 2 staff and one student from Canada, and we are hardcore repping Canada! There are many people from the states, people from Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Colombia, Germany, and England. Yesterday we watched a rerun of the Olympic opening ceremonies and it was hilarious, cheering for all the different nations as they came on the screen, and commenting on their outfits... Canada obviously looked the best with their spiffy jackets, Germany's athletes looked like Popsicles, and the US looked like they were wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. Not quite sure what they were thinking on that front haha :) 

Yesterday, we went to the zoo in Nowra. If you know me at all, you'd know that I actually don't like zoos because I don't like animals, and we also have gone to a whole heck of a lot of zoos because my youngest brother loves them, so I just really don't enjoy them at all. Overall, this one was no exception, but it was cool to see the kangaroos and all the other weird animals, like an echidna and a wombat. There was even a baby wombat that FOLLOWED THE ZOO KEEPER AROUND AND IT WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER. We got to spank the wombat because the trainer was telling us about how the wombat has a hard piece of bone or cartilage on it's butt to protect it from predators, so she carried it around and let us pet it and spank it haha :) 

After that we stopped for donuts, and then stopped again at what they call the "blowhole" in a city called Kiama. It was pretty much a hole in the cliffs that water from the ocean went under and splashed up into. When the waves were really strong, one guy was telling us, the water coming up from the blowhole would actually go a couple hundred metres into the air which would have been so cool! But the waves weren't that big so they barely splashed at all. But Alanna and I got to climb down some rocks right by the water and it was BEAUTIFUL :) we serve such a creative God, whether it's through the animals or the water or the mountains. So cool. 

And that brings us to today! We have a day off to relax a bit, and tomorrow we get right back into it. For those of you who were wondering, we're not sure where we're going for outreach yet, and we don't know for sure when we will, but other dtses have found out during week 5 at the earliest so there is a possibility that it would be this week! 

That comes to the end of my blog post. I have to go eat breakfast before they put it away! 

As we continue life here, prayers would be appreciated for continued health and safety, patience (I live in a room with 4 other girls and they're all really clean hahaha), an open heart and mind for lectures, and just being able to wait on God. There are some health issues happening at home and it's hard for the people that are here to be here and not there. God has been faithful before and he'll be faithful again! 

God is big and God is good. 

Amen! 

-Cailey 

The ugliest pants in all the land

I just realized I haven't written a post in a few days... Where do I begin? 

Life on base is wonderful. I've been blessed with beautiful new friends, people that challenge me in my views (although I'm having trouble seeing that as a blessing right now...), an amazing 1-on-1 that listens to my thoughts and then challenges me, good laughs, and a new coffee shop up the street. This week our lectures are on authority and submission (which is super interesting) and our lecturer is fantastic. He jumps around and waves his arms and I find him fascinating :) it's a little bit less of a purely intellectual week but I'm still learning so much, and I'm excited for next week :) 

Last weekend I went to Sydney with a few people to see a friend from high school which was sweet, went to Hillsong, and spent Sunday at base without power so we got really bored and moved all the mattresses out of the guys' room which was highly entertaining. I've gotten to sing with a new friend (literal goose bumps, or "chicken skin" as the Spanish speaking people call it) and we've been having just a great week. 

Probably one of the best parts of my week was the pair of pants that I bought at darling harbour last weekend. We've been seeing these ridiculously ugly pants in every single clothing store in Australia, they're baggy and patterned and we really don't know why people wear them, but they do. So Alanna and I both bought a pair, and I must say they're super comfortable. My mom calls them "harem pants" and I'm wearing them right now, and they're so incredibly ugly that I've just decided to embrace the ugliness and wear them anyway. 

They're really stretchy and comfy and I love them but it's a constant decision to rock them haha :) 

So that's all, I guess, it's time for work duties... Happy now, mom and Hilda? 

-c

Thoughts | the end of week three.

today came with the revelation that we've now been here for three weeks. it literally feels like we just got here yesterday, not three freaking weeks ago... it's been three weeks since I cuddled my dog, since I hugged my family, since I wore a parka, since I complained about being cold, and since someone told me to have a great 6 months, because it's now closer to 5 months.
This week was a great one. we had "character and lecture week" (as referenced in my last post), we went to the beach a few times, played some Swiss games, we went to Hillsong church (I KNOW RIGHT), we spent yesterday in Sydney, and we had a grand old adventure losing contact with people and then finding them again!
Let's go through the week. Monday afternoons are community service and evangelism, so we went to the beach (it was also a holiday because it was Australia day) and talked to people there. Tuesday afternoons are bonding time with the separate DTS's, so we played some Swiss games, led by a married couple from Switzerland (my turn is coming up this week, going to dust off some drama games :) ), Friday we went to the beach yet again, and then yesterday Alanna and I went to Sydney for the afternoon to meet up with a friend we graduated with. we spent a few hours walking around Darling Harbour and then went to Hillsong (Life dream fulfilled) for the evening service. it was incredibly cool.
So where our base is here in Australia is a little bit sketchy, especially after dark. so the girls aren't allowed to walk alone after supper, we have to be in groups larger then 3 people and there always has to be a guy in the group. when we were planning to go to Sydney, they told us that we weren't allowed to walk back from the train station after dark (because our train got back at like 10:30 pm) so we had to take guys with us. the two guys that came wanted to spend more time in Sydney then we did, so they came a few hours early. So as they left they came and asked us where we wanted to meet. I ran to ask some staff a few questions pertaining to hillsong and when I came back they had left. so the only thing we had was Alanna asking them to meet at the train station at 5:30. the train stations in the surrounding towns to Sydney are quite small, but the train station in the middle of Sydney is huge. so that really didn't help. at 5:30, we were at the train station, obviously not at the right place because they weren't anywhere. so we moved about 20 metres down the road to the bus stop that hillsong runs a free bus transit service to/from their service locations, and waited till the last bus at 5:45 to get on without them. sent up a few prayers that we'd find them because walking around after dark is still sketchy in Sydney... our friend from high school had a phone so we texted our leaders and arranged to call them when we got to the stop we had to change trains at via a payphone so they could come get us from the train station. our friend left to go back to his school, and then we got on the bus and were talking to some sweet people we met when I looked out the window and saw our two friends! Jesus pulls through even in the small things. they got on and were like "we never thought we'd find you ever" to which we totally agreed. every thing went great after that, both guys fell asleep on the train ride back to base (which was about 2 hours), I got some great pictures of them, and I borrowed a new friend from hillsong's phone to text our leader which was hilarious because it was in dutch or german or some European language and i'm pretty sure I sent a few half finished texts.

so all in all, life is good. we're at base, I now own some super ugly pants that everyone in Australia seems to own, we have a day off to write a paper and go to church in the evening, and I have an excellent beginning of a tan. this place finally feels like home.

Now unto the Lamb, who sits on the throne
be glory and honour and praise
all of creation resounds with the song
worship and praise Him,
the Lord of Lords

In Him, the Lord of Lords,
-Cailey

"Character and Nature week"

Well, we've reached the end of week 3 on DTS and also the end of January. These past few weeks have been crazy, to say the least. We've met loads of new people, experienced things we wouldn't have otherwise in Canada, we've seen a new side of God, and we've started to become a weird little family. We've all seen new things and joined together in the things we haven't experienced before.

This week's lectures were on the Character and Nature of God, aka Character and Nature week for most YWAMers. This week, for me anyway, started off on a pretty negative note. The lecturer we had this week is so incredibly intelligent (like he has a doctorate kind of intelligent) that sometimes I felt like he has trouble dumbing down the thoughts in his head for the rest of the people of normal intelligence. However, on wednesday, things clicked for me.

The main focus for the week was on the Fear of the Lord and how we need to have both the fear of the Lord and intimacy with Him to have a solid relationship. Going a little more in depth, he asked us if we thought that we were created in the image of God's nature or God's character. Nature being the things about God that cannot change, such as His power and His wisdom, and Character being the things that can change, like His love and His goodness (more on that later, don't freak out yet). The answer was character, because we can't have the wisdom and power of God. His illustration of that was asking one of us to float upside down with your foot on the ceiling for 5 minutes, and us saying we couldn't do that. Which makes sense. So then, someone asked if God's love was part of His character or His nature, and this is when the discussion started. We as humans want to think God's love is part of His nature, because we want to know that it's always there, etc. Our speaker raised the point that if it's a part of God's nature, that means that He has to love us, which we didn't like either. However, God's love would actually be a part of His character. He chooses to love us every single day. So then of course, we asked why. Why would God choose to love us and choose to be good to us? We are such failures, and we can't even comprehend why on earth He would want to love us and would choose to every single day. Somewhere in his wisdom He knows that it's best to love us, but where? That question stumped the lot of us as we left class. And then at lunch, while in discussion with some of the leaders, one mentioned that how she got through that question on her DTS was by realizing that God is a relational God (which we went over last week), so in His infinite wisdom He knows it's best to love us and have a relationship with us. It was a good feeling to realize this. In 2 Corinthians it says “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” He loves us and wants us even when we fail really hard, and He can still be glorified in our weakness.

So then yesterday, the one idea/thing that I really took out of lecture was this: We need to live in a way that honours the price that has been paid for us. Jesus gave His life for us and we need to live to glorify that ultimate sacrifice.

So then that takes us to now, 2 pm on Friday January 31. It's a good day. We had base intercession this morning where the Holy Spirit moved like crazy, and in half an hour we leave for the beach.

I am blessed.

I am blessed.

I am blessed.

Our speaker challenged us this week with the idea that blessings actually come from being obedient to the Lord. I really hope i have been, and that's why i am so in love with my Creator.

I hope today that you live to honour the price that was paid for you on the cross.

In Him, our powerful and loving God,

Cailey

The gift of music.

Something cool I've been experiencing lately is the gift of music. For me, music is a way of life. I've been around it since I was young, playing piano and learning the theory behind music. 

Since coming to base, I've realized how much of a gift that actually is. I take for granted that God gave me the gift of music when in truth not everyone has that gift. I got ahold of a ukulele soon after coming to base, and getting to play that and get that constant from home on the other side of the world is a huge blessing. Also, I've been allowed to play a piano on base which has also been really amazing! 

Something else that I've been blessed by is the people who have never heard me sing before. At home, especially at church and in choir at school, I've been playing and singing for so long that it feels like I (and everyone else) take my skills and talent for granted. When I first started playing here, everyone told me how talented I was... And it was really great to be reminded of! I consider myself a very mediocre singer/musician so I was hugely blessed by the encouragement of these people. 

Since I am an extrovert and I come from a family of mostly introverts, my family always wonders where I get my enjoyment of being on stage from. My dad's side of the family is quite musical, but prefers being in the back and not speaking. I quite enjoy performing, and I often jumped at the opportunity to make announcements for my parents at church because I enjoy being on stage and they do not. I wouldn't necessarily say they're introverts, because my parents are some of the friendliest people I've ever met, but they just don't enjoy the stage. 

We eventually figured out I got my stage presence from my paternal grandfather, my dad's dad. I really love this because a lot of my favourite memories of music come from him and my grandmother. Whether singing with them at church, or singing carols at Christmas, or listening to my grandpa's quartet, or singing the same song in my choir as he was in his, my favourite musical memories come from the wielers. 

This song, I recently found in one of my music books. I read the chorus and instantly remembered standing next to my grandpa sharing his hymnal and listening to his deep voice belt out this song. My grandma and I sing the alto line together and play piano together and we just generally have a really great time. 

Music has a way of crossing boundaries. It defies age, gender, class, and religion. People can come together over a song when they wouldn't have through anything else. In choir in high school, my absolute favourite memory is finally mastering the Hallelujah chorus. I can just remember every time I sang it, finishing and just having the biggest smile because of how good it feels to master that song. So many people come together to sing such a beautiful, intricate, complicated song. When we sang it, people who knew it would sing along. When we sang "great is thy faithfulness" for LCS Sunday, people sang right along with us, no matter the age or stage in life. 

So today, appreciate the value that music gives. It triggers memories, crosses boundaries, creates joy, inspires change, and brings people together like nothing else can. Even if you're not musical, enjoy some music today. Maybe play a song that triggers a memory for you for someone you care about. Most of all, never take the gifts God has given you for granted. He has made each individual person so incredibly talented and don't forget that. 

In Him, the joyous mover and festive dancer, 

-Cailey

I stand amazed in the presence 

Of Jesus the Nazarene 

And wonder how He could love me, 

A sinner, condemned, unclean. 

How marvellous! How wonderful! 

And my song shall ever be 

How marvellous! How wonderful! 

Is my Saviour's love for me!

Songs | Cornerstone (Hillsong)

My hope is built on nothing less 

Then Jesus' blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame 

But wholly trust in Jesus' name 

Christ alone, cornerstone

Weak made strong, in the Saviour's love 

Through the storm, He is Lord 

Lord of all 

When darkness seems to hide His face

I rest on His unchanging grace 

In every high and stormy gale 

My anchor holds within the veil 

My anchor holds within the veil 

When He shall come with trumpet sound

Oh may I then in Him be found 

Dressed in His righteousness alone 

Faultless, stand before the throne 

Christ alone, cornerstone 

Weak made strong, in the Saviour's love

Through the storm, He is Lord 

Lord of all

I had the privilege of learning this song at camp this summer and I absolutely love it. It's also the focus of the Bible study we're doing once a week here on base. There are so many good lines that apply to many different stages of life, and they all speak truth. 

Here's a YouTube link to the song if you want to hear it for yourself: 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLxZEU02uI 

So what is a cornerstone? The cornerstone of a building is the one that the whole building leans on. It's the stone that if you were to take it out, the whole building would be compromised. When you're building a house, they first have to dig the supports so deep that they hit rock, and then the cornerstone is put in. 

One thing we talked about this week at Bible study was what we were putting in as the cornerstone in our lives instead of Jesus. There were a lot of different answers, such as money, family, relationships, mental illness, drugs and alcohol, all these different things that we're choosing to lean on instead of Jesus. We're building our lives around these things instead of the best cornerstone of all, Jesus. He's the only one that will never fail you, or compromise your "building". 

My favourite line of this song currently is "when darkness seems to hide His face / I rest on His unchanging grace" 

I really love this line because it reminds you to rest on the unchangingness of our Saviour. Our Saviour never changes. He never goes anywhere, and His love never becomes any less. Something that He's teaching me is that even though there are some areas of my life that I'm not ready to give up control to, He will wait for me forever. He won't go anywhere, He's gonna stand there and knock until I let Him in... Even if it means getting a chair. He won't love me any less then if I do let Him in right away. I'm so lucky to serve Him. 

In other news, it's not very hot in Australia. Haha. Kidding. But it has been raining and really windy for most of the week, so it hasn't been too hot, which is nice because it gives my sunburn a chance to heal up... 😳 yesterday we took the train into Wollongong for the day and went to the botanical gardens for a picnic and then went to the shops in Wollongong, which was so much fun! Picked up some much needed things (and even some things I didn't need but were cute😉) and had a great time bonding with some of the girls. Came back to a birthday party for one of our amazing fearless leaders, and finished up the day having a great time laughing and chatting with one of my excellent fellow YWAM students. All in all, an excellent day. Today is a lot of nothing and then church in Wollongong in the evening! 

Blessings for today! 

What is your cornerstone? 

-Cailey 

A picture from the botanical gardens at the university of Wollongong from yesterday! 

Ongoing Sagas | my stomach

This past summer, I had the privilege of being on staff at a local Bible camp back home. It was my fourth summer working on staff, and every year I looked forward to spending my summer serving God with my fellow staff and loving on the 2000 plus kids that came through our programs. This year, however, was a little bit different. I had a rough time with camp summer of 2012, and I didn't plan to be back in 2013 unless 2 very specific things happened, which was my way of saying "this is how I know God wants me back at camp". So the year progressed, and sure enough both things happened. So I sent in my application and (very late) got offered the job of food aid coordinator. I was excited about this, because I had pretty much only counselled and I felt that that time of my life was mostly over. As the food aid coordinator, my main responsibilities included putting together food for the cook of our secondary site, running night snack every night for the kids at the main site, and pretty much anytime one of the staff needed food outside of the main three meals at the main site, they talked to me.

It was a great job. It kept me mostly busy, but not too busy. I had time to help out the cooks every once in awhile and also had time to spend with Jesus, although that never seemed to happen as much as I wanted. 

So that was the first week. At the end of the first week, they asked me to also take on the responsibility of Dining Hall Coordinator, which meant I was also in charge of the people doing all the dishes. A normal DH crew consists of 5 people and a DHC, but that week there was 3, not including me because 90% of the time I was doing Food Aid stuff and I was only there to direct. This week was really hard, though I was blessed with three really great, hardworking guys that I actually had a great time with. I often left them by themselves to go run things to different places, and they were totally fine. 

Honestly, things went downhill from there. After week 2 and 3, the hardest stretch of my summer started. I was asked to take on canteen, which took many hours because I had to make hundreds of these ridiculous gummy bags every single day, as well I had to put each cabin's order together to feed them and all the staff... I often pulled staff that had free time in to make gummy bags and still didn't have enough. 

As well as doing canteen, I was helping in the kitchen with every spare second I had, and even still people were calling me asking if I could do things for them. I hate saying no because I feel like I'm letting people down, so I always say yes to things... -> downfall number one. 

Doing the work that during a normal summer 3 or 4 people would be doing took its toll... I remember feeling totally exhausted at the end of that week. But unfortunately for me, I wasn't done working. I had agreed to work weekend camp, the one weekend of summer that we run summer camp for all the kids who don't want to stay for a whole week. Weekend camp is always the hardest to staff because everyone likes their weekends and wants them off. I agreed to do it because my cousins were coming and I wanted to see them... But of course, my campers for that weekend were 5 and 6 years old, which is the youngest, and my junior counsellor was fresh from the training program... Literally on Friday she was in training and on Saturday she was a counsellor. She did really really well and for that I'm so thankful, but that still meant I was carrying a lot more responsibility then usual.

Then on Monday, we started camp again. Ridiculous right? That's 12 days of non-stop campers, and for any of you who have ever worked at camp, you know it's a long long time. 

And that's where I started to feel really sick. It had happened like that before, when I had been really tired, but this just didn't stop. I felt constantly nauseous... They had asked me to take on another week of canteen, and I had agreed... But it was too much. I walked out of canteen one day because I was so nauseous, and I spent every morning lying in bed till like 11 before I could convince myself to get up. I moved like I was 90 because I felt so constantly sick, and I stopped eating totally which was a huge mistake. I knew that part of the reason I felt so sick was because I feel nauseous when I'm hungry, but feeling so incredibly sick meant I didn't want to eat. I lost weight and totally stopped eating. I fell asleep sitting up because I would wake up in the middle of the night otherwise, and I was almost constantly on anti-nauseant medicine to hopefully make me feel better. None of it worked, and I spent the weekend in bed at home before returning yet again to camp on Sunday evening. I had come up with a theory that this was the result of acid reflux, and decided to tell the camp that I was on an acid reflux diet. Which meant no fatty food, no butter, no spicy food, no fried food, no especially acidic food, and no artificial sugar. Which left plain chicken and carrots. Every meal. I had also started on an acid reducer pill, and was really hoping that the combination would reduce my sickness and help me feel better. I had yet to lose the contents of my stomach at any point, but lived in constant fear of it. 

Week six passed and I felt slightly better, but Friday was just really bad and I felt so sick the whole day. I ended up walking in a parade the next morning, but ducked out early because I felt really sick yet again. The next day, Sunday, my mom took me to a doctor, who confirmed my thought of acid reflux and prescribed me a much stronger medicine that I started taking later that day in hopes that I would be able yet again to return to camp that evening. I got to camp before realizing that there was no way I could make it through that week feeling the way I was. I had been resisting before because I was the only one who knew how to do my job, but I gave up and told the programming staff that I couldn't do it. They said they could find someone to do it, and told me I could go home Monday evening which was fine with me. I typed out an 8 page summary of my week for my replacement, which turned out to be one of my closest friends at camp, and then spent Monday walking it through with him. Well actually I didn't really move, I more gave him directions and tried not to move. He did really well, and when I still didn't feel up to returning for Sunday night of week 8, he took on my responsibilities for another week, which was awesome. I ended up going back to camp Tuesday morning and working on the kitchen for the rest of that week, which was difficult, for a number or reasons, but I still enjoyed it. 

I went to see a different doctor a few weeks after camp ended, and he ordered a test for h pylori, a stomach bacteria (which I didn't have) before confirming that it was indeed acid reflux. When my symptoms still didn't go totally away, he ordered a barium swallow test from a local hospital where I had to drink multiple different things and they would watch them go down my esophagus. This test though, came back totally healthy. No one had any idea what was going on. I was a total disaster. The next step was to go see a gastrointestinal specialist, which I wouldn't have been able to see until February (which was too late at this point because I had been already accepted to my dts at this point), so we were out of options. I was still on the same medicine, and we had no idea what to do. I stopped the medicine at the beginning of December to see how much of an effect it had on me, and felt the same. 

So I guess that takes me until now. I'm almost 2 weeks into dts, and loving every second. My stomach keeps telling me what it does and doesn't like (example lots of onions and artificial sugar, like pop and candy). I still can't participate in things as fully, such as crazy dance parties, because I can't jump for that long, and doing anything really really active makes me still feel sick. These past few mornings have also been really hard as I've been feeling really sick, so prayer would be highly appreciated. 

However, despite the Enemy's attacks to my immune system, I absolutely love life on dts. Whether it's crazy dance parties, or worship you can belt out, or day trips to super cool islands, or just life here on base, I love it. I trust my new family here a lot and I love connecting with them. 

Today, (since it's almost 8 am on Friday in aus) I challenge you to live life to the fullest. Don't not do things because they make you uncomfortable. Look for God in everything, and love everyone that comes your way. 

Blessings in the best Heavenly Father of all time, 

-Cailey

Thoughts | Mordor

I realize for those of you that know me well, titling my post referencing Lord of the Rings is probably a little confusing. I really don't enjoy LOTR. However, the smoke stacks here in Port Kembla are nicknamed "Mordor" by our base staff because they're constantly spewing smoke and fire. 

The reason I titled this post "thoughts | Mordor" (the other option was "murder, murder!" Because that's the game people are playing right now, running around me and screaming) is because I just really enjoy how unique my base is. I obviously don't know if other bases are as weird, but I just feel like I'm among my own kind here. There's constant dance parties to a song called "interlude" by attack attack, which is hilarious, and we play Dutch blitz and laugh about stupid things like whether Oreos are qualified as cookies or biscuits in England. We are quickly becoming a weird little family that talks about cricket a lot and argues which sport is better to watch. (Obviously hockey but I'm the only canadian that weighs in) we make fun of each other's accents, stare into each other's eyes for 4 1/2 minutes (literally happened today), and talk about our lives back at home. I really enjoy life here, and I'm excited to see what God has in store for us. 

God bridges gaps. He makes the weirdest assortment of people feel like family. He gives us connections so we have something to talk about. God doesn't only want a relationship with us, but he wants us to have a relationship with others. The kingdom of God feels like a such a small place when we're all connected ;) 

These next few days, I challenge you to put as much time into your relationship with The Lord as you do into your relationship with others. God doesn't speak to you unless you ask him to and ready your heart to hear what he has to say. He wants to have a two way conversation with you, not just listen to you talk. 

Get to know Him. 

Blessings from the other side of the world, 

-Cailey 

Thoughts | Sunday morning

Hello! 

If you're reading this blog, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the interest you've taken in my life. Thank you for your support as I embark on probably the most difficult 6 months of my life so far. Thank you for your prayer, it's kept us safe so far. Thank you for your encouraging words, they've gotten me through homesickness and a lot of doubt that I don't think I would be able to get through otherwise. And most of all, thank you for being a Jesus community for me, whether you realize it or not. 

It's Sunday morning here, and since I'm up early (typical), totally ready to go, and have nothing to do for the next hour and a half, I decided to write a little update. 

Week one has been difficult, but great. I struggled a lot with leaving my family behind, but they tried their best to make it easier for me (which included one of my brothers sending me 17 hilarious pictures while I was sitting in LAX so I wouldn't cry) and they definitely did. My mom snuck cards into my backpack (sneaky lady) which is like having a little bit of home and it's great. I've been mostly messaging them, as wifi isn't so great here, but I got to Facetime them once and that was awesome. I've been really enjoying living on base, it's really awesome living with many people from different places. Listening to how everyone talks and making fun of them is one of our favourite pastimes. For instance, Canadians say "SOrry" as opposed to Americans who say "SAWry" and it's really funny for everyone. Also the American "bahg" to the Canadian "behg" (supposed to be "bag" in case you can't tell). 

We've started our lectures, our connect/TAWG times, our 1-on-1 mentors (Fort Garry youth! We get mentors! I just really love mentors!), our work duties... Everything. It's great. This next week we'll be getting into our full time schedule for the next 11 weeks and it's great. Yesterday, we did an "amazing race" around Port Kembla, and while the idea was good, it was way too hot to be running around, and my non-competitive spirit didn't like the animosity between teams. Also I got burned even though I reapplied sunscreen twice! Pffft Australia. 

In the evening, I was playing a ukulele that belongs to someone who lives on base but is currently somewhere else in the world (typical YWAM) and this Aussie guy that's staying here for a few days on his way somewhere else went and got his guitar and we had a sweet jam session in the common room. It was so much fun being able to come together and praise God even though we're from different parts of the world. Also apparently my accent sounds cool when I sing. Who knew? 

This morning, both dts's are on the way to the local baptist church, where we'll outnumber the congregation. they asked us to do the service, and since this seems to happen to me everywhere, I'm playing on the worship team. I'm really excited for it though, don't get me wrong :) 

We've been asked to think about our "theme" for this season of our life. I posted on this a few days ago, but mine would have to be how God is a God of immeasurably more. God is so much bigger and greater then all we can dream of or imagine. We don't need to settle for anything less then God! How cool is that?! This season of my life, I'm going to choose to focus on trying to comprehend how great God is, and how much He loves me. 

I guess that's all for now. I'm so blessed to be able to be here in Australia, serving God by using the talents Jesus has given me. 

Thanks for everything! Keep us in your prayers, especially as we're really not used to the sun... And everyone is burnt. And slightly dehydrated :) 

To our God who is able to do abundantly more then all we can ask or imagine. To Him be the glory forever and ever! 

Amen. 

-Cailey 

Our God of Immeasurably More

This has to be so fast because the wifi turns off in 5 minutes.... But today, the thing on my heart is God's immeasurable love. If God is a God of immeasurably more, why do we settle for anything less? These past few days in connect time, I've been listening to Louie Giglio speak in a podcast called "The God of Immeasurably More". Please please please please check it out! He's such a good speaker. 

Today, I challenge you not to settle for anything less then God. Our God can do anything beyond what you can imagine. Don't settle. He can do anything. 

To our God of immeasurably more. 

-Cailey

GOOD NEWS, FRIENDS!

Good news, friends! Alanna has arrived! My other half is here! She got in this morning after her first set of flights got cancelled on her so now she's finally here! I'm excited, can you tell??

Life here on base is pretty good, and getting better by the day. as we get into the routine of base life, we feel more settled and more like a family. I just really like it :) we've been spending time at the beach and outside and life is just glorious in the sun! There are still times where I feel really homesick, but I know God has brought me into this season for a reason. I have to focus on Him and His heart and giving this time and this season to Him. Every day He's making me more excited to learn about Him and dive into His Word! 

Today in lecture we got a bit off topic and started talking about the layers of theology. This was super intriguing to me and made a lot of sense! The inner layer is dogma, the core beliefs of Christianity, the stuff everyone agrees on. The next layer is doctrine, which is a group of beliefs that tend to be agreed upon by a certain denomination. So like beliefs on baptism or war, things that differ depending on the church. The last layer is opinion, so like personal things that depend on your experience. I found that super interesting and probably did a really bad job of explaining it... 

Let me totally skip around and tell you about this other cool Australian thing we do here at base. Every weekday, from 10-10:30, every single person from YWAM stops what they're doing to go and do "cuppa", where we all go to the front door area and stand around and drink tea and coffee. It's a tradition based around a love of hot drinks and fellowship, where we talk and meet people and see how everyone is. I love cuppa, as do most people on base. 

That's about all I have time for today, blessings from the beach! 

-Cailey 

Vegemite, cuppa, sunscreen, and all things Australian.

Greetings from down under!
it is now our second official day of dts here at Wollongong. we haven't really settled into a solid routine yet, and probably won't for a few weeks. we're doing different things every day, doing a lot of introductory things this first week. i'm not as completely emotional, but talking to my mom does make me tear up a little :) i'm blessed to be a part of this base! on sunday, I was at the beach with a girl from Washington and another from Alberta... we went swimming, and I swear even though we were only outside for an hour I have tan lines on the top of my shoulders from my bathing suit! sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. we have "cuppa" every day at 10, where we literally have a break to have tea :) it's pretty great! we have base worship every Monday, and lectures every afternoon. they fly a different lecturer in every week for the week. i'd hate to fly 14 hours just for a week!
here's another weird thing about Australia- vegemite. I tried it once in Canada because my mother thought it was funny, and I really don't know how on earth people eat this stuff all the time. I wasn't expecting it at all to show up, but it actually was on the table at breakfast and yuck. it's like yeast extract and onions and carrots and a whole lot of other nasty things. ew.
right now, i'm listening to "Set a Fire" by Jesus Culture. This song so personifies how I want to be in my dts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujQJQnxTFjc

There's no place I would rather be
there's no place I would rather be
then here in your love,
here in your love, Lord

So set a fire down in my soul
that I can't contain, that I can't control
'cause I want more of you, God
I want more of you, God

that's literally the whole song. but how powerful is that? I want to want God. I want to need Him. I want to want Him so bad that I can't control it. how crazy is that thought?
another thing that is really on my heart is how God can still use us when we fail.

I absolutely love that. he is so much higher then everything. in 2 Corinthians 12:9, it says "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." the most incredible :)

a piece of advice that my dad gave me was to always look forward and to throw myself into everything. I've been able to go to the beach and go for a walk to the shore so far, and play dutch blitz... it's been amazing!

it's hard to remember sometimes why i'm here, why I've left my comfortable life to come here and serve. why I left my family to move to the other side of the world for 6 months. it makes me sad sometimes. but i know that God is so much greater and he is going to get me through this.

here's another relevant thing about living on base with people from all over the world. we're constantly asking about where people are from. so all the people from the states, whenever people ask where they are from, say the states. so like Oregon, or Washington, or Minnesota, or wherever. but the few of us who are from Canada just say Canada, because i guess we assume that no one knows where any of the provinces are. so one of the leaders asks me and this girl from alberta where we're from, and of course we both reply "Canada". he goes "i'm from BC" and we go "Oh! i'm from Manitoba! i'm from alberta!" it's apparently called the "Canadian curse" :)

also, the sand on the beaches here is just really nice. apparently they ship the sand from port kembla beach all over the world, to beaches in Honolulu and everything! it squeaks when you walk on it :)

i have to go eat breakfast before they put it away, but the one thing i'll continue to ask for is prayer for homesickness. it's been hard adjusting without Alanna here and it will probably continue to be hard for a few weeks.

thanks so much for all your continued support!

serving our beautiful and colourful Lord all the way from down under,
-Cailey

Now that I'm actually down under

It's so humid here! I'm hot and sweaty and apparently air conditioning doesn't really exist. However it is beautiful and sunny and I'm so excited for what God has in store for my next few months here. This is a place where God is present, I can feel it in the peace. I may not really know what perfect peace is, but how I am feeling now can only be described as God's peace. It's a good feeling. 

To our God of immeasurably more, forever and ever. 

-Cailey

I hopped off the plane at LAX... Why am I still crying again?

This is a lot harder then I thought it would be, not gonna lie. Tears have come on and off all day, probably because I only got around 4 hours of sleep last night, and when I think about the awesome people I'm leaving behind. Including my great parents who drove me to the airport and my incredible mentor Hilda who surprised me and showed up at the airport at 5 am to see me off! I'm travelling by myself so I'm lonely. I keep starting to worry about whether I'm on the right flight, whether I have my boarding passes, and how I'm supposed to get to where I'm going. It's very humbling to always have to ask for directions ;) 

As I sit on the floor at LAX, questioning why on earth I'm leaving everyone and everything I love (except Alanna :) ) to go and serve for 6 months, my incredibly wise mother (who I've been messaging all day) raises the point that maybe this isn't about me leaving behind my awesome life in Canada, but maybe it's about seeing the awesome things that God can do through me and the rest of my dts. God is greater then I am, right? I have a tattoo of it, I should probably remember it. 

2 funny stories from today because I need to laugh to myself a little. 

1) on the flight from Minneapolis to LA, I overheard a conversation between two other guys on the plane. the first guy says something about how cold Minneapolis was. The second guy says "I'm from a city about 60 miles south of the Canadian border. We've had minus 35 degrees so far this winter. (in this case Fahrenheit and Celsius are roughly similar)" the other guy seems impressed by how tough this guy is with his -35 winters. What about us who have had multiple -50 Celsius (-60 f) days so far this winter, and for whom -35 is a normal winter day? I was so tempted to pipe in... But I refrained ;)

2) everywhere I go, people see the Canadian flag on my bags. So I was getting food for supper and the girl sees my flag on my backpack and she's like "you're canadian? What's it like?" I was thinking "seriously?" But I gave her my typical answer, "cold". She actually asked me to tell her more about Canada but then her boss called her away. So funny. 

Then I went to Starbucks because Starbucks makes me happy (I know Tyson, I know) and the guy was going to give me 3 cents change (because pennies are still a thing in the states) and I was like "I don't want those, I'm from Canada and we don't use them" and then the other barista pipes in, "that's cuz you're all ballin". Yep buddy that's it... 

Also my family is great. My youngest brother iMessaged me telling me he'd score me a goal, and my other brother is sending me a storm of hilarious pictures. My parents are still giving me important advice from home, and I miss them all (and dog cuddles) dearly. Also, I've been so sweaty all day... I have to say I miss the cold a little! Who knew? 

I think the thing that I'm the most scared of is being sick all the time. I feel sick when I'm tired, when I'm hungry, when I'm over full, when I'm in cars... Even sometimes in between all those too. Prayer for that would be beyond incredible. 

Here's the most updated list of prayer-items, for both myself and Alanna.

-Alanna gets really sick on airplanes coming down, so prayer for that would be awesome. 

-healing for my stomach (I'll post the whole story soon) 

-homesickness (especially for me) 

-lack of anxiety symptoms (upset stomach, excessive worry) 

-no carsickness 

-safety (for my family, for me, for all my fellow dts participants) 

-that settling in to community life in Wollongong would be smooth and easy

-that we'd be able to sleep on the planes! 

"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own." 

(Matthew 6:34) 

"Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" 

(Matthew 6:27) 

"Now to Him, who is able to do immeasurably more then all we can ask or imagine, according to His mighty power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen" 

(Ephesians 3:20-21) 

"But he said to me, "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 

(2 Corinthians 12:9) 

5 things on my mind- 

1) I wish I had somewhere to warm up my Starbucks 

2) I need to sleep so bad 

3) I brought a ridiculous amount of sleep-aid things 

4) there are a ridiculous amount of people around me right now with Australian accents... If everyone sounds like this I'm so pumped oh man 

5) I am admitting that I'm excited for Australia (see that mom?) even though I've been crying all day. I'm excited, I'm just tired and overwhelmed. 

And I guess this is my last post from North American soil, as it's 6:50 in LA and my plane boards in 2 hours. Thanks for all your support and prayers. 

To Him, the God of immeasurably more then all we can even think to dream of or imagine. That's who my next 6 months belong to. 

Blessings in our Lord, 

Cailey 

Five Things.

5 things currently on my mind-
1) how on earth did I get such a big list of stuff to do today? never mind the fact that I spilled some tea on my bed last night in the middle of the night and now my whole room smells like someone threw up in there... not even close to what I need right now
2) I suck at life. I need an adult. oh wait, I am an adult... I need an adult who's more successful at adulting then I am. I'm just really bad at being an adult. I shouldn't have a job ever haha
3) books take up way too much space and are way too heavy. it's 2014, can't books be waterproof and light and small? e-readers don't count.
4) why the heck am I leaving for 6 months? oh wait. I just looked out my back window. there's four feet of snow in my backyard and it's like -50 million outside. and I really just don't want to be a cashier forever. and Jesus.
5) i'm going to miss my piano, and my dog, and my church, and my mom. probably the rest of my family too. yikes.

Thoughts | "perfect peace"

Isaiah 26:3 (NLT) 

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you." 

(MSG) 

"People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, steady on their feet, because they keep at it and do not quit." 

As I prepare to leave for Australia, this verse has popped into my head a number of times. I'm a worrier, so obviously while I'm gone everything will go wrong... Or at least that's what my brain tells me. Whenever I start to worry about something else, that my credit card won't get here in time, or that I'll be sick the whole time that I'm away, or that carsickness will be a huge problem, or that something will happen to my family while I'm gone... See? Already getting a little carried away. What I need to do is to put God first, absolutely first. When I'm upset, my mind needs to first go to Him, because as this verse says, that's how I'll get "perfect peace". Trusting someone other then myself is not my first reaction, it probably wouldn't even be my second or third reaction as a matter of fact. 

But serious question here. What is perfect peace? I know what peace is, I think everyone does to some extent. Is there a difference between peace and perfect peace? 

www.preacherscorner.org (because I'm that person that googles things I don't know) had a really good post on the topic. The author writes about how nowhere in the Bible does it say that we will be free from the negative things in life. Instead, God promises us peace during the storm of life. In the midst of the fiercest of life storms, provided we are trusting in God all the while, we can still experience God's perfect peace. 

Peace can look like it's perfect peace, while under the surface lies deception and lies. People can be deluded into thinking they're at peace, when really they're being tricked and lied to. However the peace you get with and through God, is more then anything you can imagine. It's worth the jump, it's worth putting yourself out there. 

So next Friday, I leave my comfortable life here in Canada for 6 months. One side of my family celebrated my birthday already because I'll be on outreach when it actually happens. I leave my family, my dog, my comfortable bed in my own room, the food I know, certain medications that I need, the lovely flat prairie roads, and my church family. Even just thinking about it makes me nervous, but seeing just how perfectly things have fallen together over the past few months makes everything worth it. I know that God has my back, now I just have to believe it. 

Some prayer requests- 

-being able to believe that God is taking care of us

-no carsickness! Winding mountain roads means nasty carsickness, and we don't have to accept that as it's not from the Lord. 

-no general sickness 

-that we would get enough water 

-discernment for our leaders as they began training this past week 

-discernment for the people that are determining our outreach locations 

-PEACE! As we prepare to leave our families and our lives behind, that each person in our dts would experience perfect peace. 

Blessings in this new year, and keep us all in your prayers as we prepare for the journey of a lifetime. 

Thanks again, 

-Cailey 

"And you will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."