No I didn't know...

I love the drive up to Ballarat that we do every Thursday. It's a good time to just hang out with Matt and Jono, to pray for everything going on, and (when I'm not the one driving) to just sit back and take in all the beauty that this place has to offer. It's getting especially beautiful now sine it's fall here, so the leaves are changing into beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow, and the fields get greener and greener everyday. Don't get the idea that I'm driving along the Great Ocean Road once a week, cuz I'm not... going to Ballarat we are actually getting further away from the ocean. It's nothing but country and wide open spaces, and it's next to impossible to count all the horses and sheep that we pass. It's quite different than Southern California, and not the kind of scenery that I'm used to... a comparable length of the drive would be SB to LA, but not the same at all! No 6 lane-highways with massive SUVS doing 85, mainly just a 2-lane road doing about a 100 k's, which is about 60 mph. Much more low-key and truly Aussie :)

This week we passed a house that had a MASSIVE banner in their front yard. The first line read "DID YOU KNOW?" I was intrigued, wondering what this house wanted to so clearly present to its neighbors and everyone that passed by. My mind began to come up with lots of possibilities that this house wanted me to know, some ideas a bit more ridiculous than others. As we got closer, you could read the second line that, in smaller print, said "that Buninyong has 2 bars..." (Buninyong is the tiny little town that you hit before you get to Ballarat, and when I say tiny, I mean tiny) My first reaction was complete surprise that such a small town would in fact have 2 bars in it. When I got done wondering where the bars actually were, the implications of what I just saw began to hit me. I thought about all the time and effort that went into making the banner, the money that was spent to get it produced, and the dangers, and possible accidents, that occurred while hanging it from their second story balcony. It made me sad to think about the fact that all this time, effort, money, energy, labor, etc went into letting people know about these two bars. This banner was sending quite a message about the people that lived in this house and what's important to them, and it broke my heart to think that this is what so many people are living for, and think it is worthy of their lives.

I know what it means to pour time, effort and energy into something; I pour so much into this ministry everyday, and, if I'm honest, it's exhausting and, at times, it can drain me like nothing else can. But I come home everyday knowing that I am working for something greater, something more worthy than I can probably ever comprehend. This banner advertising these bars doesn't have that promise attached to it, for all they know they could put up that banner and not a single person could show up to these bars (which is probably the reality because it didn't actually say where these bars were... poor advertising if you ask me). It broke my heart to see first hand that these people thought this message was worth pouring into, and even spreading to others, and made me all the more grateful that the message I'm "advertising" is one of redemption and hope. Thank. You. Jesus.

For the only message that's worth spreading,
Michelle

A picture worth a thousand words

At our Connexions camp last week we took a few minutes to take a big group photo, and then got shots of everyone with their campuses. I just saw these photos, and can't stop smiling at them.


Everyone from the Greater Geelong area, so all of the campuses that we are in charge of. Pretty good looking bunch, eh? :)

When we started taking our campus pictures, there were many, shall we say "encouraging jests", when they called Ballarat. Keep in mind, as of right now, I'm the only girl at Ballarat. So the picture is me and 6 guys, gotta love it :)



I love these guys, I really do, but I'm desperately asking the Lord for some women... hanging out with these fellas all day is starting to wear me out. I can already see the Lord working, and there are a few women that have been coming around, just weren't able to come to Connexions. I'm grateful for the ways that He's moving, but desiring to see so much more. So many times I feel inadequate and wonder how much the Lord can really do through just one woman, but I know that's just my doubt and lack of faith getting in the way. If you could please join me in praying for more women at Ballarat. I have seen the Lord work in crazy ways when I ask you guys to pray, so I'm asking you, almost imploring you, to join me in interceding for some women.

And I have complete faith that the picture for Ballarat next year will be more gender balanced... shoot, last year there wasn't even a picture for Ballarat, so praise the Lord for that!

I can't thank you enough for praying with me,
Michelle

The beginnings of a fulfilled vision

I read some where that you should update your blog at least once a week.... yeah, definitely epically failing at that. Sorry guys. But I now have a house that has internet so I will be more intentional in trying to update this thing.

So some of you may have heard me talk about this, so forgive me if this is repetitive. The founder of Campus Crusade, Bill Bright, had 2 visions when he was led to start this ministry. The first was that college students are key in reaching the world with the gospel because they are tomorrow's leaders. The second was a vision of a map of the world, and a bunch of arrows coming out of Australia, going into the rest of the world. The arrows represented laborers, showing that Australia is a key sending nation. This makes total sense today, with an Aussie passport being one of the strongest in the world, and the fact that the population here is so international. Our team leaders realized that most of the students in our movements probably don't know about this vision, and thought it would be encouraging to share with them, so I actually got to share it with everyone in my talk at Kickoff Camp.

The reason I share Bill's vision with you is because it has to do with one of my favorite moments from this past week. We were in a meeting with our KVs; there were a few Aussies, a few Indians, a few Americans, one African, and one guy from El Salvador (named Jose). I don't remember what prompted it, but something led Jose to say, "Look at us! We ARE Bill Bright's vision!" All I could was smile and praise God that we get to see the beginning of this vision being fulfilled.

Because our God fulfills His promises,
Michelle


Some of our students at our Connexions camp :)