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."