fall is here! fall is here!

So its finally here! My thesis year of fine arts, I feel like I have been waiting for this since I was a little kid making watercolour paintings at the lake all summer. So this is my lovely little space... its not very well moved into yet, its quite clean and un-cluttered which is sure to change soon.

I am excited to begin this year of school and have the opportunity to paint and create! It is a huge blessing and a rare chance to make a body of work that really speaks to people. I am also taking spanish this year y yo soy muy emocionado para mis classes! (and I am very excited for my classes). I hope to improve my ability to write and speak the most, because for some reason I can understand a lot in spanish... I just can't hold a conversation.

That being said I was a little sad to see summer go, but I had the privilege of witnessing many friends get baptized on a very chilly labour day! It was a great way to end off a summer that went by way to fast.

This past week full of my new normal also was the launch of KOZ & College and Careers joint service at Dakota Community Church. We have worship all together as a youth group and college age group and then split off into our seperate services. It was a great time and I feel like this is going to be a great thing for the young ones and those who might be a little too old for youth group but love being active in discipling the teenagers who are a part of our church. Exciting stuff! Little Nae is a happy camper at her first KOZ ever!

I initially started this blog in order to update people while I was away from home but now I am keeping it around to keep everyone who is now close to my heart but far away, updated! I will do my best to update as often as possible.

Much Love,

-Julie

summer break

So I've been quite lazy about the life updates as of late... maybe because its summer and my schedule is all over the place or maybe just maybe there hasn't been all that much going on. I'll leave that for you to decide.

Mostly what I've been up to is working, church stuff and having a bit of a social life. I must say it still feels weird to have all of the things I used to take for granted big time like warm showers, air conditioning, clean water; there are days when I catch myself whining about the littlest thing and I have to remind myself that I've survived and thrived in much worse. But for the most part life goes on in a fairly normal fashion. I'm getting more and more excited to start school again in the fall which will bring on all kinds of new challenges; which include learning spanish and having my own thesis space. Also I'm graduating this coming May which is something that I've been working on for, well around 16 and a half years, I'm not sure if my brain can grasp being finished with school yet. I'm sure I'll find some way to keep learning new things once I'm "done".

Its been a great summer so far; I have been able to get out the lake a few times and I got to see my wonderful chelsea back from Victoria for a visit. My church (Dakota Community Church) has moved to Provenche, so I've been checking out the "new" neighbourhood. We have College & Careers every Thursday and we either meet at the church or a local restaurant; its really been a great place for me to have fellowship with other people my age (coming out of living with Christians for 5 months then back to reality can be really tough). SO I am really blessed to have people around me who support me and want to hear my stories :)

I've also been struggling with food issues, I havn't felt 100% healthy since being home and since a powerful round of anti-biotics to knock out any possible parasite, the only thing that I know for now is that I might be developing a wheat gluten allergy. Which means no bread, no oats, no to a lot of things. I've been trying a gluten free diet to help figure this all out but I'm not sure if that is whats wrong or if its somthing else. Anyways I have to wait about another month to go back to the doctor to see if anything has changed. But until then I'm kind of in food limbo. Hopefully this will all be cleared up sooner than later, so I can feel like myself again. But yeah thats all for now... I'll do my best to keep everyone posted

Much love,

-Julie

being home

So my return to Winnipeg has been a little crazy, and now that my "adjustment time" is coming to an end, its back to the real world (I start work next week.) I figure I should write this all down before I get too busy. My first weekend in town was spent a little out of town actually, at the Niverville Fair! It was a great to see all my little peoples smiling faces again and get to spend the day with some of my favorite families. Though I'm not one for rides myself, I do love the ferris wheel, watching everyone do crazy things and of course taking pictures.

I was also very excited to meet Joels new little cousin Azalea who was born right before I got home. She is absolutely beautiful and has two amazing brothers to look out for her :)

My wonderfully talented sister has been practising all of the things shes been learning at hair styling school on me. Which is why I am now somewhat blonde and have a new little stud in the top of my ear. I will also be her before and after model for her total makeover competition in July which I am super excited for (I havn't got my haircut since september, its getting kind of weird.)

Other than all of that I have just been trying to enjoy my time off. Get to all of my favorite restaurants that I've been missing, see peoples new places, see everyone, go through the mountain of photos I've taken over the past 5 months, and get my tummy issues diagnosed (it still might be a parasite, I'll keep you posted.) Last night Joel & I finally went to the BDI the best ice cream place in Winnipeg which happens to be in walking distance of my house. Despite the mosquitoes it was a beautiful night.

As for whats next in my life, as I said I start work next week. I'm back at the sbux and could not be happier, I love to be busy. My church is moving buildings, so I have a new neighbourhood to explore. This summer looks like its going to be a pretty great one. Thats all for now.

-Julie

look ma i made it

So I made it. To Costa Rica and back with very little damage done and a LOT of progress made. It was and generally still is very weird to be home. But before I get into that, lets just got over my last week in CR. I had an oh so sweet "team day" with the Haiti Outreach 10 plus a few very lucky friends who came along to Volcan Poas! It was a much needed after a difficult and challenging outreach to Saint Marc and Port Au Prince Haiti. Costa Rica is beyond beautiful and we had amazing weather, food and company.

After our lovely Sunday at the volcano we had a crazy week ahead of us. The other outreach teams were on their way back to the base (aka the place formerly known as home), and I was excited to catch up with people and hear all about their crazy adventures in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico City. We only had a few days until graduation and everyone heading home so we all went about making the most of that last week. We all got a chance to present about our different locations on family night and it was really cool to see peoples pictures and hear their testimonies of their time away. Grad seemed to come to quickly on Thursday night, but everyone looked amazing and we had a great meal together with "awards" lots of hugs and picture taking. I couldn't believe that my DTS was over.

I feel like in a lot of ways I'm still processing; the lectures, Haiti and the culture shock of being home. But I do know for sure that it was exactly where I was supposed to be for those 5 months of my life. I met so many amazing people, and learned so much. I can't wait for this upcoming year of school and change. Again I feel like I'm standing on the edge of something huge and I'm about to dive into it. But its a very good thing. Thats all for now...

-Julie

A little preview of Haiti

I just wanted to put up a few pictures to help the blog I posted while in Haiti come alive a little bit. I hope these help to get you all intruiged to hear my stories when I come home.

the base in St. Marc

living in the refugee camp

little Emanuel

baptism in Balage

demolishing a church in Port au Prince

my team at the base in St. Marc

See you all soon,

-Julie

Haiti Update

So I'm finally updating you all on my outreach in Haiti!

After touching down into Haiti almost 3 weeks ago we all knew it was going to be a crazy new experience in this nation that is like no other. The customs at the airport is in a converted hanger, it was chaotic and hot and everyone was speaking creole. A weird welcome, but we were all excited for whats to come!

The first week in St.Marc we worked a lot at the base, helping with different projects. We were living in tents in a field on the base property, getting to know Haitian culture, and just how things work around here. During our first week my team was having a hard time being all together, as people kept getting really sick. Once they were better another person would be sick; Ingrid, Regi, Jenelle... one after another (it was so weird). After our orientation for new teams we were all pumped on the vision that this base has for the nation of Haiti. There is so much opportunity for teams here to work with people living in poverty (victims of the earthquake or not). God has huge plans for Haiti and its exciting to see the Haitian people rise up and take ownership of their true identity. Needless to say we were waiting for what we would be doing the next week with a ton of anticipation. We got assigned to go out to a refugee camp called Timonette, and live there for the week along with a team from Switzerland.

Our first week in Timonette was full of hard work for the team, working on a "Homes of Hope" house in a nearby town called Bellaguay. I instantly fell in love with the kids in the camp. There are about 23 tents with families from Port au Prince who have been displaced because of the earthquake. Out of around 120 people there are about 50 kids. Most of the kids don't go to school and are really bored during the day so we would hang out and play with them, and take pictures (they all love having their picture taken). Sadly I didn't make it past Wednesday morning, I got really sick and had to be brought back to the base. Rayme came back with me and played nurse, thank God for all the relief nurses staying here at the base! I got medicine right away and was back to normal by the weekend.

Our second week in Timonette we were working with the DTS from Panama. It was great to go back knowing some people already, the kids were happy to see us return and we had more of a plan of projects we wanted to complete during the week. As a team we constructed a "tippy tap" for each tent to encourage good hygiene, set up a garbage/ compost program, had an amazing womens ministry where pretty much every woman in the camp came out, had a couples teaching, had numerous kids programs, took family photos for the people, put up signs with scriptures on them around camp, had 2 amazing church services and had a big community dinner were everyone in the community got a brand new bowl with chicken & pasta. It was so cute to see the happy little faces munching on their chicken! In Bellaguay this past week we finished the "Homes of Hope" house, put on a kids program, had a mini clinic AND had an amazing time participating in a 24 hour prayer and worship "burn" that the Kona team was a part of. We felt like for our 2 hours of prayer to go to Bellaguay, a town living in a lot of poverty, that needs a lot of prayer. It was an incredible time as we began to pray for the people of the town, which lead to some serious preaching, new Christians and a river baptism! It was so incredible to see God move so strongly in a place that has been over run with voodoo and an incredible spiritual heavyness.

Anyways so we are back at the base in St.Marc today but we are leaving tomorrow to Port au Prince to do ministry there until Saturday when we fly back to Costa Rica. Its been a crazy ride here in Haiti and I am excited to see what happens in Port au Prince!

Lots of Love from Haiti!

For more info about the "24 hour burn" check out my friend Jasens blog:
http://jasenchung.squarespace.com/blog/2010/5/20/24-hour-burns-really-do-light-places-on-fire.html

HAITI!

So I'm leaving for Haiti in the morning! Very very excited!
My team will be staying at the YWAM base in St. Marc from May 4th- May 29th.
I'm not sure how it will be there for internet access so consider this my last update for a while. Please be praying for protection and provision for my team. As well as unity for my team! We will be staying in tents on the base, its really hot about 35 degrees, and it is the rainy season so its going to be a bit cozy. But yeah I have to go do my last minute packing and planning.
Talk to you all soon,
Lots of Love from Costa Rica!