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