12. Time flies when you’re having fun 🌺

G’day mates 🐨

Ik hoop dat het goed gaat met jullie. Deze blog ga ik in het Engels doen, zodat al mn Australische friends ook een keer mee kunnen lezen 🙃 

~ time flies when you’re having fun ~ 💃🏻 

Wow I realised it has been a couple of weeks ago since I wrote my last blog. So much has happened the last 5 weeks, I don’t even know where to start 😅 

At the 4th of May all the teams left base to drive to cairns to catch our flights. I remember that evening was just so stressful 😅I kept avoiding the whole packing process so I had to do everything last-minute. At 10 pm (2 hours before we would leave) I decided to real quick book my flight from Melbourne to Tamworth. After I booked it I saw that I booked it for the 9th of May instead of the 9th of July...... oh crap... thanks to my beautiful friend Alex who helped me calling the plane people 😍

~ this is Thursday island ~ 

5 weeks ago after a nice drive to Cairns, a flight to horn island and a ferry trip to Thursday island, we arrived safe at this amazing island 💫

It is absolutely beautiful. I just love the idea that we are totally surrounded by clear blue water. It is pretty sad though that we are not able to swim, because of crocodiles, but I love to just look at it 💦Me and my team are staying at a building behind the church. Thank God for mattresses, 2 showers, kitchen and just a great place to stay 🙃We don’t have lights in the ‘bathrooms’, the water is cold, but I absolutely love the adjusting. Okay it took me a few days to adjust and to appreciate the change, but I love everything here. The food at the island is very expensive, so we’ve eaten a lot of rice, but I’ll tell you more about food later 💁🏼‍♀️

The first 2 weeks we went to the old age care for 3 hours everyday. I remember the first day there, I felt so uncomfortable and I had been wondering a lot why a youth team wasn’t working with any youth. I’ve always had this weird feeling when I go to a old people’s home, and the first day was definitely a struggle. I had no idea that we were coming back for another 13 days 😁I’ve learned a lot there. All these people have a history with memories. We did a lot of dances and songs with them and that’s really something that makes the people there feel connected to each other; everybody knows the songs and the dances... so AMAZING. Billy, one of the residents, showed me his Christmas cards one day, it had a bible verse on it: Isaiah 46:4- even to your old age I am He, and to grey hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save- WAUW, that verse totally changed my perspective of ‘old’ people, Jesus doesn’t look at them like they’re old, not pretty, boring and like their nothing. No He loves these people, He made them, He carries them. so why would I think ‘negative’ about them? I absolutely love these people now 😍

~ we painted this for the old age care ~ 

Oh men I’ve learned so much. I had been thinking a lot about the next step after DTS: do I still want to study, or do I want to do something with YWAM, or go to Africa. I have so many dreams and I had the idea that I needed to complete everything in the next year... well now I know why I felt so stressed, that’s impossible and unnecessary 😁It’s still a daily thing, but I choose to trust God with the next step, and for now I just want to enjoy my time here and love every second of it and to wait well.

This is something from a sermon of Joyce Meyer: 

If it’s important to you —> it’s important to God. You gotta be patient and faithful, because satan is the one who came up with the idea of abortion. And he is a dream thief. He wants you to abort your dream. And if he can’t get you to abort it, then he wants you to birth early. Premature births don’t always make it. He wants you to do things out of God’s timing. Don’t try to birth something before God is ready. If you want God to use you, He’s gonna have to get you ready  

And if studying isn’t the next step for me, that’s okay, God will show me what to do and I’m totally down for another adventure with God 💃🏻 

I also wondered a lot why we were here at Thursday island. The people here are not really poor, everybody has ‘everything’, at least that’s what I thought. I saw pictures from the teams in PNG and it al looked so wonderful and like they were really helping and doing great things and I felt pretty useless here at this island. Last summer I went to Romania for 2 weeks and we went to this garbage place were people ‘lived’ in ‘houses’ without anything. We handed out food and we did fun things with the kids. I wanted to do that same thing during outreach, but all we did at first was going to the old age care and to the high school. I asked my team “guys I get it that we can be a blessing anywhere we go, and that God brought us here for a reason, but I lost perspective and I just don’t know what we are doing here”. My leader said to me: “everybody deserves and needs the love of Jesus”, “We are planting seeds”. Wauw I love that. 

~ Matthew 19:26 “with man this is impossible, BUT with GOD ALL THINGS are possible ~

After two weeks at the old age home, we went to the high school for a week. We went to the classes to help the teenagers focus and help them with their work. We also helped at the library sorting books. 

The last 2 weeks we also went to the primary school, which I love. It was pretty hard at the beginning, I was helping the year 1 with reading and speaking letters... I didn’t even know how to say the alphabet in English, how was I supposed to help these kids. The other day I went to year 5 and tried to help them with their maths, but all these random English words... I didn’t understand any of it 😂I walked up to the teacher and said “eeeuhhh I think it’s time for me to go and go to the year 6”, so I walked into the class of year 6, this is what the teacher said, “aaah great welcome miss Josie, we were just doing maths, so kids if you need any help, miss Josie is here to help you”...... 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️I really had the idea that was God telling me not to give up that easily, when I said down to help a girl and when I gave it some time, I could actually help her. So that was a great lesson, to not give up so easily when things get hard. 

~ I love all the flowers here ~ 

~ oh and btw my nickname is ‘Josie’ - made by Claire ~ 

The people at this island are so friendly, so kind and so so lovely 💫we’ve had so much food from many people. Some teachers gave us lobster and turtle. We get cake from random neighbors, bbq with the church people, the people are really amazing... I want to be like that when I get back home 🧁

~ the people from the church ~ 🙏🏼

~ Embrace the process and enjoy your journey ~ 🌻

2 days ago there was this ‘rugby game ‘ between Queensland and NSW. A teacher from the primary school invited us into their house. They cooked us spaghetti, we could have a warm shower, we can also use their washing machine..... and wauw they’re so kind and friendly. Funny story: I went to the bathroom, and as usual I used my flashlight to have some light (at the place we’re staying we don’t have lights in our bathrooms)... when I walked out I saw this thing at the wall and I switched it and wauw there was an actual light in their bathroom, how wonderful 😎✌🏼😂 and oh yeah the maroons won💯

~ When you stumble, make it part of the dance ~ 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

I have so many other stories, Justine and I go at Friday nights to sit next to a bar, to make sure everybody’s okey and to help drunk people and pray for them. Thank God for a cafeteria where we can use their WiFi for free, so I’ll post another blog soon with some more experiences and stories about miracles 💫

I know that this blog might be very chaotic, but hey “embrace the chaos”. 

I’m so thankful to be here, I’ve met so many amazing people, God has showed me so many things, I’ve get to know everybody in my team even more, I’m so thankful for all the things I get to learn... God is so good, God provided with free WiFi, we have great food, an amazing place to stay... 8 more days to go whoop whoop 😍🙌🏼💞

... AND SHE LAUGHS AT THE DAYS TO COME ~ Proverbs 31:25 ~

Okey before I finish this writing, I’d like to share one more thing. I wrote something down at the 21st of May. I’d like to share a little bit of that with you now

“Okey this is a something. This really is a trust-God-thing. So I’m here in the 3d week or my outreach at Thursday island. I’ve been thinking a lot about what my life will look like. I want to embrace this season of waiting and this season of the unknown, to keep seeking God everyday and to trust with all my heart that God can do miracles, that He can do the impossible, that God only has good things in store for me and my future. This writing is to show you guys and to tell you where I’m at right now and to show you someday how God has opened unimaginable doors for me. To let you know from wat place I ‘started’ and where God has brought me/where He is going to bring me. Right now I’m still doubting if I’ve ever seen a ‘real miracle’ happen in front of my eyes. Off course, God has brought me to Australia and He has given me a bible, but I want to see people heal and mountains move. I want to see and deeply believe that God can do the impossible. So I did not go to PNG, and I keep thinking “aaah if I went there I would have seen miracles and it would’ve been so much easier to connect with the people”. But no, God brought me here for a reason. I kinda feel like God is telling/asking me: ‘start loving people now, you don’t have to go to Africa, or be like somebody else to love people, the people who I love are right on the corner, don’t forget them, show them my live. If you cannot show my love to these people here, than why would I send you to Africa? I brought you here to see I you really want to follow and love me even if you don’t always get what you want’. I don’t know if this was God putting this in my mind or not, but it made a lot of sense to me and it really helped me to love people here...          What do I really want deep down in my heart? And is that the same as God’s plan for me? And what is more important? And what if God doesn’t let me know what to do next? And what if God doesn’t has a big plan for my life? What if I am not called to go to other countries... and what if I still go?......        I’m writing this outside, right in front of me is a frog (I love frogs), a frog never jumps backwards, it always jumps forwards, sometimes it can sit still for a long time, than it jumps a little jump and after that it jumps 3 big steps... but it never goes backwards. After that I saw a crab... what is that crab doing so far from the sea? The crab was beautiful to look at. I started throwing things at the crab so it would move. The only thing it did was hide from me. That’s what I’m doing with God sometimes: He is always there, but when I need Him to move and to do something I start getting upset, impatient and angry, instead of just embracing His presence and trusting Him. The difference between God and the crab is that God will never ever hide Himself from me, He’s always right there, even when He might seem far away. God changes life and open doors”.

So that’s what I wrote down that day... a lot of ‘what if’s’. I kept praying and reading the Bible, because I didn’t want to give up: Galatians 6:9 ~ and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up ~ 

After 3 days God showed me something in Yasmin’s (one of my teammates) studybible, it said: 

‘ if we ever stopped to list all the mighty acts or miracles in the bible, we would be astounded. They cover every aspect of our life. The more we think about what God has done, the more we can appreciate the miracles He had done for us individually ~ birth, personality development, loving friends and family, specific guidance, healing, salvation~ the list goes on and on. If you think you’ve never seen a miracle, look closer - you will see God’s power and loving intervention on your behalf. God still performs great miracles.’ 

~ ooohhh yass eating coconuts from our backyard ~ 

That same day I thanked God for everything and I felt this peace that miracles are everywhere and I believed it and trusted God with it and I was just so happy and excited. I laid all my desires down to just embrace the miracles that are around me (beautiful trees, the blue sea, loving friends, birds). That evening Justine and I went to sit next to the bar for the first time and after 2 hours of just sitting we got into a conversation with a man named ‘george’ who couldn’t stop talking about how he does not care about going to hell. Justine did not give up on him and after about 1,5 hours that same men gave his life to Jesus. That evening was so beautiful and at the same time so funny. I’ll tell you more about it in the next blog. 

Btw the reason why I write all of this in my blog is to show y’all how great God is and how He can make beautiful things out of every situation and how faithful He is. I would’ve never believed months ago that I would’ve grown so much and I can honestly say that trusting and choosing God above all else is one of the best decision ever. 

Last but not least: I love my outreach herd so much 😍they’re all so wonderful and such amazing people. I love all the things we get to do together: having funny conversations about Justine’s weird feet, playing secret hitler and making sure nobody hits each other, helping each other out, encouraging one another... I just love all of them😍💫

I love you all and I hope y’all are doing well ❤️