Leave it Behind (ramblings)

so tonight at church we had a guest speaker that talked of forgiveness. forgiving doesn't mean forgetting. it doesn't mean making excuses. forgiving doesn't mean approving of the action or liking the person who hurt you. we aren't called to like people. we are called to LOVE them. it seems easy to say that we forgive someone, but saying it isn't enough. i realized that i may be saying that i forgive so-and-so for something, but do i still mention what they did to me to others? yes, yes i do. so i would say that wasn't leaving it behind. i wasn't, i haven't let go. this is what we are supposed to do when we forgive someone. this is what we want God to do for us. maybe, just maybe, this letting go will free us. free us from pain, from frustration. free us to love. this is what we are called to do. LOVE. FORGIVE.

travelling

so i am now in brisbane. have been for a few weeks. i was able to spend my first orphan christmas in the beautiful queensland, with lovely people. christmas in the summer was a bit different as well.
i have been able to go down to the gold coast and up to the sunny coast, bronzing, bludging. good stuff.
this is at burleigh with carlee and her sister, jodie. we also went up and visited tim and lisa mitchell who i haven't seen since 2002. it was amazing to talk with them and hear about their adventures suf coaching in the maldives.

i have also been able to go rock climbing in brisbane at kangaroo point.
we had a lovely bbq there, too. we celebrated new years at our house in brisbane, complete with a mini tramp and foxtel (every channel ever). let's just say we had our own dance party.

carlee and i dancing the night away. of course, we spent some time in surfers paradise, which is quite the opposite of a paradise if you ask me.
carlee strutting in front of the sign.

so basically, i have been really enjoying australia. most of my time has been spent trying to figure out how i can stay here forever (any help would be appreciated). mostly, though, i have just been smelling the frangipanis (plumerias) which are basically the best thing God ever created. God has been soo good to me in these past six months, and it has been such a blessing to share the things he did in egypt and in my own life as well. he is amazing.

Noelle comes tomorrow. i hope the points will be going off in noosa. i go to new zealand next week. i hope it is warm.

travelling is so good.

hello my dear friends and family. i am sorry that it has been so
> long since i last wrote you. i have been really busy and just
> haven't known what to write. first of all, i have three weeks left
> here in cairo. i am excited, but a bit overwhelmed. there is
> still so much that i want to do here. thanks for all your
> pray.ers, because we have been able to go to the island more than
> once a week (as we were before). we are even able to go without
> the woman we had to go with before. we still aren't going
> everyday, and we really want to.

>
> so a quick recap of the past couple weeks...
> we experienced a death on the island. crazy. women were running
> and screaming. i have never seen anything like it. we were able to
> spend the day of the funeral on the island with the women, and the
> boys in our group were able to go into the church and pra.y for the
> men. (women aren't allowed in the church during funerals). all the
> women wear black gallabayas (housedresses) for a long time after
> the death, so we all wore black and it was really a great time to
> spend with the people of the island. since most of the people in
> the community are related, they all felt the loss.
>
> my birthday was last week. it was really fun, i also got some nice
> gifts as well. another girl in my group had a bday a couple days
> after mine,s o we all went on this boat on the nile and (along with
> the people from our hotel) had a nice buffet dinner and watched
> some interesting cultural dancing. we even got to dance with some m
> girls on the boat as it cruised down the nile.
>
> our english teaching is going really well. the family that allows
> us to use their landn on the island to do teachings and stuff has
> been a part of the teaching as well. not only have we had a
> medical team come and do a clinic twice, but we are also doing
> health care seminars weekly. we have a children's program where we
> are teaching values and showing them they are precious. it has been
> really fruitful. our english teaching is with six girls, and they
> are amazing.
>
> i am really excited that our time is almost done, since i miss the
> ocean so much, but i am going to be really sad when we leave the
> family on the island. they are amazing, and we have really gotten
> to know them well. they don't know english, but we have been able
> to speak love to them. one of the leaders and i have been able to
> cook lunch with them every time we go. the three daughters (they
> also have four sons) cook for us every time, and i have really
> loved cooking with them, learning arabic from them. i know how to
> make so many amazing egyptian foods now, and hopefully i will
> remember so i can cook them at home.
>
> well, three weeks. please pr.ay for us.
> p.ray for:
> -health (most of us have been sick the whole time)
> -unity (with our group and with the woman we go to the island with)
> -more woman to come to the health care seminars (as the people on
> the island don't have a doctor, clinic, or hospital on the island,
> they don't know much about health)
> -that the girls really learn the english we are teaching, and grow
> closer to the father through it
> -that the kids begin to respect one another (especially that the
> christian ones treat the m..lim ones lovingly, and vice versa)
> -that the community gets money together so they can purchase a
> plethora of chairs needed for community meetings (we are helping a
> little, but we want them to get as much as possible, so they have
> ownership of the chairs)
>
> sorry this is so long. thanks for reading. prayi.ing. loving. i
> miss you all.
>
> peace and love, acacia

chicken and escalators...

so two things.
first, i ate chicken. yes, shocking, i know. i had a revelation, i basically knew that i needed to let go of my vegetarianism and embrace the realm of meat-eaters. no, i did not like the first chicken i ate. it has been about twelve years, and i think i need to acquire the love of it again. it was in the midst of a curry sauce, so the chicken flavour was masked a bit. then i ate chicken yesterday for the second time, and it was horrid. dark meat. plain. by itself. not good, not good.
well, for the second thing i need to share, i have five stitches in my big toe. this, on the other hand is not shocking to most who know me. unfortunately i am not the most skilled in staying away from doctors and hospitals, especially in foreign countries. in the city of perth there are tons of escalators. inside, outside, everywhere. i was running up one, this sunday evening, my slipper (sandal) got stuck and my foot scraped from the front, teethy part of the step of the escalator across it, leaving a four inch slice from the tip of my toe to the bal of my foot. i get to the top of the escalator, look down, see a pile of blood, notice it is 5:30 and everything in the city closes at 5:30, so i manage to get some napkins from the juice stand, tie them around my toe, holding it together (sort of), then i hobble down to the nearest chemist (pharmacy) by the train station, get the guy to put a bandage that i had to pay for on my toe as i almost faint from loss of blood. then i somehow manage to get on the 5:45 train to the place i live, make if from the station to the base at the end of dinner. i put the two apple pies i had bought in the oven (i was supposed to be celebrating christmas this night with some friends), then hop into the dining room to eat. i find nothing really, and see my school leader, tell her that i hurt myself really badly, then i start crying. her and another leader find the base nurse, he fixes me up and says i need stitches probably. we go to the hospital, get five stitches, head home and two days later i still feel like crap. such is life.

oh and i just read a great book today for the second time this month. it is called THE FINAL QUEST. really intense. beautiful picture of Christ's love for us. This was also after I finished reading 1984 yesterday, too, quite a different picture of hope and life.

so, i am healing up and eating chicken.
God is good. really, He is.