/a/muse(d)

Last week was very full.

I worked on Monday and Thursday.
This is a masive answer to prayer, as I have had no work for many weeks, and have desperately wanted to start as a teachers aide at William Rose SSP for ages. It’s a really nice school to work at, and I’ve had the chance to be in several different classes over the past weeks, so am gradually building up my experience base with different kinds of kids and their many and varied disabilities. It tires me out something fierce, but the experience (and money) is invaluable. I had to turn them down today as I was feeling yuckky this morning and needed to do some long-neglected uni work. It’s hard to find the right balance.
I also went to Uni on Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday was uni and then bible study. I think people were pretty tired, so it wasn’t the most fabulous discussion, but it’s always encouraging to meet with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and chat about the Bible.

Thursday Joel came over for dinner.
Joel is Ben’s brother and we’ve been trying to have individual members of bot our families over for lunch/dinner at various times, and this was joels turn. We made vietnamese spring rolls, laughed alot and played cards.

Friday was prac.
A long and chaotic day. Enough said. That night, mum and dad came over for dinner. It was lovely to catch up with them as I haven’t seen them for a week or so, and they seemed to enjoy it. It is funny having your parents over to your house for a meal for the first time…something feels vaguely reversed, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant. On Friday, late at night, Deb arrived from Canberra.

Saturday was busy.
In the morning I had to go to a MK committee meeting, and then rush home so that Ben, deb and I could catch a train to Newtown. Deb wanted to ‘feel the vibe’, so we spent the late afternoon exploring King St. and Enmore St. with the help of Jane who is a well worn Newtown-goer. On the train on the way home we took silly pictures with newspapers on Deb’s digital camera. Deb cooked Pad Thai for dinner that night which was yummy, and we watched Goodbye Lenin.

Sunday was Katoomba.
Sunday saw the three of us trek up the mountain to Katoomba, for prowling in curious little shops, thumbing through dust books, laughing at vintage fashion, and eating Kebabs for lunch. We stopped at echo point lookout to take a picture of a jacket with the three sisters, and then sat and drank tea and ate brownies before going home. Ben and I both fell asleep in the car, so it was a good thing Deb was driving. That night we went off to church, and I sang for the first time at TAC. It went well, but ironically I’m getting a sore throat and it had to coincide with the first time I’ve needed to sing well in about three months!

And here we are at Monday again. My lecture is about to start, Ben is in a Stats lecture and Deb is probably back at our place getting ready to go back to Canberra. And that is all for now.

They really do.

My poor gold (read: poo brown) car died today. Apparently it isn’t all dead, but the distributor is not as sparky as it should be, or not sparky at all according to the slightly unfriendly NRMA man. The tow truck man, who was much more personable, said not to worry too much, but I can’t help thinking that 900 dollars spent on repairing a car that is probably not worth that much, over the space of a month, cannot be a good way to spend our money. I am left with the quandry: fork out some money for a new car, or continue to repair this one until we go broke. I think I have made a decision, although Bangladesh vs new car is a hard call. Maybe this one will hold on just a teeeny bit longer?

Anyway, the incident with the car let me experience the joys of breaking down in peak hour traffic on a very busy main road, the elation when someone came to help me unbidden, the frustration of finding out that the NRMA membership web application, although free at the moment for under 25 year old drivers, doesn’t become useful for five days after application, and the surreal weirdness of talking to a tow truck driver about Islamic tradition, marriage, bad 80s fashion and people who can and can’t drive. It was also embarassing to burst into tears when talking to my dad on the phone, trying to work out what to do. I mean, I’m supposed to be an adult who is able to take care of my own problems without my daddy, but somehow, the care and solidarity (and car-wiseness) of my father won out, and I found myself blubbering away while cars honked and people glared at me blocking the turning lane and talking on the phone.

I missed my lecture, needless to say, although I’m sure one less person in the class would have made it easier for my lecturer (who appears to be violently allergic to everything), to breathe.

I’m exhausted already.

Last Saturday my dad, having recently returned from a trip to Bangladesh with his mission, told us that he was hoping to take a small group of people back there in July on a very short term mission trip (two weeks) to do various mission-type things and have various horizon-broadening experiences. July is during uni holidays, and is the hot, wet monsoon season, when political rebels are too sweaty to cause much trouble, and my feet started to itch in the biggest way.

Anyway, after praying about it, and thinking hard, Ben and I have decided to go. It’s a really big thing for us…a hefy financial commitment, and perhaps moreso for Ben than myself, it’ll be a massive step outside the known into the possibly uncomfortable unknown. I think the first step into a third world country is perhaps the hardest, so I don’t expect this trip to be nothing more than a tropical getaway. We’ll be working in various capacities in an orphanage for the first part of the mission, then going into a rural area where there is a smaller orphanage and hostel set up, which has various purposes, beyond the obvious. Hopefully, our church here will also be positively effected by it, looking outwards to the world and what God is doing out there, and putting into effect their policy of ‘Bringing, Building, Sending.’

I am terrifically excited about it. This will be the first time I have flown in 5 years, and having the chance to go back to that part of Asia is something of a dream for me. I don’t think we’ll be able to do Pakistan at the same time, for lots of reasons, but one step at a time eh? I’m also immensly glad that this is something that Ben and I can do together, and that he can experience perhaps a tiny bit of what I feel towards that part of the world, and that we can step out of our comfort zones together and see how we deal with it. The fact that we can serve God and his people in a practical way while we do this is possibly the most excellent part.

Ever since I came back to Australia, I have had a huge desire to be part of cross cultural ministry again, although now as an adult having a less observationary role, and doing something worthwhile myself. This opportunity to go to Bangladesh, albeit briefly, means that I will be able to experience the challenge of being part of a different culture again, and I think that this will feel like a joyful homecomming for me.

More excited ravings to come.