Opportunities coming

Back in 2007, I applied for a job. I knew the interview went very well. It would have been for a huge promotion - it was paying $10,000 higher and it was permanent - I was on a contract. Then God gave me a dream. I was on a big black boat at the front and the boat sped through murky brown water filled with crocodiles. It sped into a caged enclosure. I jumped off the front of the boat onto the side of the wired cage and started climbing. I was lethargic and realised I was trapped. I woke up knowing not to take the job, despite how great it seemed in the natural. It was hard trying to explain to the Chairman of the interview panel how suddenly I was not interested in the job I had only just said I was the best candidate for and really wanted! Better to obey God though. The job would have involved allocating funding grants to religious "Christian" organisations. Crocodiles are symbolic of the religious spirit and the murky water was not good.

Then in 2012, I applied for another job, different department. God gave me a dream. I was standing on a platform and had the choice to board a boat. The boat was quite small - it was made of wood and brown and in a really bad shape. It was dirty and full of holes and looked very unstable. As I stood beside it, it capsized twice and then sunk a little bit and then came back up. I knew it would be very dangerous to board the boat. I woke up knowing God did not want me to take the job.

I have not applied for any jobs recently, but then just two weeks ago, I had a dream. I was on the back of a medium-sized boat that was being driven / steered by someone else. The boat was in the river and it was clear water and fine weather. The sun was shining and it was beautiful. The boat was being steered by a very competent person and it was meandering across the river between small boats and lots of things on the water. I was very impressed by the scene and very happy in my heart. I was standing with a guy at the back of the boat - possibly my future husband. I woke up and immediately thought about my last two boat dreams. I am wondering what this dream relates to because i have not applied for any jobs ... but possibly it is a ministry-related dream, as i have felt to transition into a new church.

Dodgy Strata Manager gone

Today a miracle happened that is worth noting down. For the last few months, I have been troubled by the revelation that the Strata Manager employed for my complex is dodgy. Not only is she totally unresponsive to emails and phone calls, but I also suspect she has been taking money from all the villa owners and doing nothing with it. It's been grieving my heart and I have been trying to get advice on what to do about her - complicated by the fact that I am the only owner occupier.

Well, what a surprise to get a letter in the mail today saying she had resigned! Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I am so stoked.

New season

My wonderful Korean housemate moved out yesterday after eight weeks. Kind of sad but happy same time. She was by far the best housemate I've ever lived with - she was clean, quiet, always turned lights off, filled up the kettle after using it, cleaned up after herself, took care of her room, kept all her things and my things in order, pushed chairs in, cleaned the shower drain, loved my cooking, was always respectful, never made noise despite staying up late at night, etc... seriously, could not have asked for a better housemate. It's like God sent her as a blessing to me to pay my rates and get me through a hard time financially.

PRAISE the Lord.

1 Samuel 1

Have spent the last hour reading online sermons about 1 Samuel 1 - going through crises, how to stay encouraged, studying David's response to having psycho Saul trying to kill him, people he was leading wanting to stone him, and facing some hardcore battles like when returned home, only to find home had been destroyed and his family kidnapped. The key to his many victories was always making time for God, worshipping Him and reading his Word, enquiring His advice and will.

I discovered that every time I feel flat and discouraged, the best thing is to pick up a scripture and do a search on it to read as many sermons I can on the topic until I feel my inner man getting stronger and the heaviness lifting off. The devil is such a liar. The bigger the battle, the bigger the victory. The higher the devil, the higher the level of spiritual maturity we climb too once we pass through that trial. God is awesome. He is a God of restoration. No demon from the pit of hell can prevent His amazing plans rolling out before me and my feet following :-)

My favourite meal so far

So here we have teriyaki marinated pork and croutons, served with steamed veggies and rice. Topped with cheese :-) Presentation looks pretty bad, but taste was delicious.

Lunch today - noodles, shitake mushrooms, egg, parsley and lime

Dinner last night - apricot chicken

A sample lunch box for my student

Bills bills bills

Oh my goodness, I just got the council rates for my house. $1,400!!! Wow, that's a huge lot to pay. Then on top of that, I got the water bill - another $300. Ouch .... I'm not liking this home ownership responsibility thing. It's a bit stressful :-(

Asics Gel Nimbus 14

Thanks to my housemate's payment in advance, I was able to buy a very decent pair of these gorgeous shoes. My German housemate earlier this year bought a rainbow-coloured pair of these shoes. I didn't really want pink, but that was the cheapest shoe in the closest location, which was Singapore! I didn't want to buy from USA and wait forever for it to arrive.

Teriyaki chicken

Cooked this tonight .... bit disappointed at my lack of presentation skills, but my housemate assured me that it was delicious! haha It comprises chicken, red capsicum, onion, snow peas and rice with the teriyaki sauce / soy sauce combo.

Bathroom fan that got replaced today

Kitchen fan that got replaced today - yuck

So totally revolting. Covered in thick brown grease. Urrrgh, yucko

Homestay

So last week I thought I had arranged for my dear friend June to take over my housemate's accommodation after her one month was up. I emailed Letitia, the homestay coordinator. Strangely, I got no reply. Not like her at all. So then on Friday I rang the school. It turns out that Letitia has resigned and some very abrupt guy has taken over her duties temporarily. He said to me that was fine for my student to move into June's house and told me he would talk to her.

Well Friday arvo, I get a very distraught message from my student in broken English saying she was a mistake (haha) and would pay me when I get home. I tried to explain that June would accommodate her and as she knew, June had a much nicer house and it was only one road away and she had a TV and nicer room and better food, etc... well my student just insisted she stay with me! I was so baffled. She then handed me all the cash for one month. Actually more than what the school pays because i worked out that the school takes $20 commission.

How can i refuse her now? I just really wanted time out from having to race home every day and feed her and not being able to stay longer at work. It's a little bit annoying how I can no longer do an extra 30 to 60 minutes and then build up to a day off, simply because I have to go home at a reasonable time to feed her.

I guess on the positive side, it is good training for my future marriage and I have never eaten so well in my life before. My housemate is amazingly clean, neat and sensitive in that she always refills the kettle, turns off lights, pushes chairs in and just minds her own business every day. All she does every day is studies. She is not interested in anything else. Haha ... she even goes to bed at a reasonable time, never wakes me up and never gets in my way. She obviously really appreciates my cooking and eats anything. Totally amazing!!!

I guess God wants her to stay in my house for whatever reason.

Her cash in advance was handy for paying the electrician today and the Holy Spirit led me to give $400 to Leonard. Then I bought a pair of totally amazing high quality gel runners and went grocery shopping and bought a couple of cheap tops. What an unexpected blessing.

Replacement remote car key

Can't believe I could come so close to being fooled into parting with money simply for the reason of making some greedy person rich! My remote car key broke a few years ago and so I put it aside and used the spare non-remote key. Well, this week gone by I rang up a toyota dealer to enquire about getting another key - they quoted me $400 for a new remote copy that has to be programmed to my car! ... well then the guy said that if I bought the broken key pieces in, he could salvage the inside components and give me a replacement key for $200. Another guy told me he could get a new shell for about $100 but then I would have to bring it in to get programmed and that would cost $70.

Well, I went ahead and asked him to order a shell .... but then out of curiosity, I looked up the shells on eBay. It turns out they cost simply $4.50!!! AND I examined my key pieces. It turns out the remote and metal parts are totally intact and working well - it is just simply the case that doesn't work, but if I simply get a new case shell and put my pieces in, it will work! Gosh, I cannot believe I was so stupid to almost part with my hard-earned money.

I'm not going to collect that ridiculously expensive shell I got the guy to order. No way. I have now ordered a shell off eBay for $4.50.

Volunteering for Kathmandu Urban

Discovering how much I love cooking!

So here we have some pretty random, yet delicious dishes made in my kitchen ... miraculously by me!!! Haha, who ever thought that being a homestay provider would turn me into a chef and bring out passion for cooking!

So the first dish is honey soy chicken wings served with rice and sesame seeds wrapped in seaweed and some salad. The second is probably my favourite dish of all time - it's bbq marinated chicken cooked in a slow cooker with chicken stock, chinese veggies and served on rice with salad. The third is the chicken curry I made tonight in the slow cooker. It has chicken, sweet potatoes, onion, orange capsicum and is served with rice and coriander. Praise the Lord for quality food :-)

Tour of the the food-tasting places in Swan valley

I had so much fun today. June and I took our beloved homestay students out to Swan Valley to have a bit of free food tasting. We had chocolate, honey, lavender products and coffee. It was great. Japanese Yoko, Korean Inhye and I had fun posing in some coffee lounge while June read some tourist brochure. Then we all had some of the curry I cooked in the slow cooker all day. They all thought it was delicious. I didn't really like it. Not really into curry! haha I am so grateful for June's friendship and all the new friends God is bringing into my life. Hallelujah!

New friends just for one day in my life

New friends - Fabien from the Carribean and a French chick, also volunteering at the Kathmandu Urban challenge yesterday in the City :-)

Tonight's dinner

My housemate totally makes my day every day with her facial expressions and emotive sounds she makes when I make dinner :-) Hahaha ... i guess when you barely speak any English, that's the best you can do to describe your feelings about a meal you like :-) lol

A typical dinner for an extremely appreciative korean homestay student :-)

Homestay

Well it turns out that my two students from Brazil cancelled, so they gave me a student from South Korea! What an hilarious change in plans. So suddenly all my food preparation plans changed to an Asian theme. Haha

Well i am so grateful to God for the change because I just love my korean student and couldn't think of a better one to have. She is the sweetest, purest, most respectful girl. She is gentle and really quiet because she speaks almost no English. That's ok, we have learnt to communicate with very minimal words and drama, which is kind of fun. I am re-learning the Korean phrases I used so frequently in South Korea.

Yesterday, my friend June who has two homestay students from Columbia and Japan and only lives one road away, decided to combine our students for an outing. We took them to Hillarys for coffee and then to Pinneroo to see the kangaroos and then to June's house for a yummy dinner. It was so nice.

Getting involved with hosting a student has resulted in new found joy. I am just so thankful to God. He is so worthy to be praised. Hallelujah!

Selling these B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L boots cos I need the cash!!!

Two new students to move in!

So after bidding farewell to my housemate, I met with the homestay coordinator at the English school nearby and she liked my house :-) Then Friday I hadn't heard from her so I called her and we decided that I would take in two young girls from Brazil who have opted to do twin share half board. In the middle of the night last night, I shuffled furniture around and came up with this! It turns out that my sofa bed squashes in very nicely into the room and I had a valance spare and a matching quilt cover :-P I think the room is just gorgeous. The girls move in 6 July 2013.

Final cuppa at Dome in the international airport with Miriam and Tri

Farewell to my housemate

Feeling sad as I bid farewell to my German housemate who is heading home today - well home for her is Switzerland. I have learnt a lot from her. I will be getting two more international housemates in to live with me. My life will change a lot soon! I need change.

Putting up a curtain rod

My housemate cracks me up - I was using the drill to put plugs into the wall and then screws so I could put up a curtain rod and then some curtains. She snapped me in action! haha

Earlier this week, some random person just decided to cut all the trees along my wall so now you can see straight into my house! Thank you so much dear stranger. So today, I raced out and bought some curtains on sale in Spotlight (~$21 for one pair of ready to hang curtains) and the rod from Bunnings (~$47 with 21 rings).

Formal marathon results

Today they posted all the results online and in the newspaper. It turns out Daniel and I both got exactly 25.23 minutes as out time! How bizarre - what are the odds of getting the same time. I was very impressed that the photographers managed to catch every person on film and they have made available a video of the race for each person crossing the finishing line - so in my personal video it has Daniel and I crossing together. Pretty amazing media team.

I look a bit retarded in the photos because I had a very daggy headband and long pants to keep warm. The majority of people wore their HBF fun run shirts. These are the photos the professional photographers put up that are for sale!!!

HBF Fun Run

Somehow I miraculously managed to run 4km in 25 minutes!!! AND I won a raffle with my C25 orange ticket. I got a fitness ball. God is so good.

After that week of training where I ran 3km four days in a row, the next week I was in much pain when I ran, to the extent that I couldn't run more than 2km. I found out from a fitness magazine that I had achilles tendonitis. It's when you train too much, more than what your body can cope with and the tendons in your legs become stiff and immovable. So for the rest of the week, I simply had to rest. Saturday, I went to a prayer meeting and I think I somehow got miraculously healed, though I didn't even ask for prayer!

So then today, amazingly I completed with run without stopping (except for a drink break) and I just couldn't believe it. I ran past lots of people and finished same time as Daniel. Yukari, his wife, beat both of us!!!

Three laps around the park across the road from work

Miraculously managed to run 3km today in 22 minutes. What a miracle, given I could only run 2km last week :-) Somehow I have to work my way up so I can complete the HBF fun run in 2 weeks. Oh my goodness, what was I thinking when I registered?!?!? lol

God is faithful

God told me that everything would come out well and I believe him :-)

Prayer connect

Last weekend, Ps Anne asked me to teach on prayer at the Prayer Connect, which is a once a month gathering of intercessors and prayer warriors. I started by sharing the story about the farm workers I heard in South korea.

Then I gave a 15 minute testimony about how I used to be just like those workers who tried to please God without seeking His perfect will. I rose to a high permanent position in govt and got to a state where i was very unhappy and dissatisfied with my life, feeling like I had missed God's perfect will. He spoke to me in a dream and I obeyed His leading to quite my job, despite it meaning giving up financial security for the rest of my life and laying down my desire to buy a house.

I gave an overview using powerpoint about following the Holy Spirit's leading to Mexico, America and South Korea and showed a few photos and shared little gems about what I had learnt about prayer in each nation. Then I shared the testimony of coming home, God restoring my employment to get me an even better permanent govt job and then buying a house one month into my job. What a God of restoration!

Then I showed the promo video from my IHOP internship and shared some teaching on apostolic prayer and how to apply them. I broke down Ephesians 1:17-19 and showed how you can look up each key word in the dictionary and find scriptures for each one. Then I demonstrated how you can pray it as a comprehensive extended prayer. Then I played some IHOP recordings on two other apostolic prayers and got them all to write down the words they heard, basically to expand their prayer vocabulary. Then we prayed in tongues for 10 minutes before I broke them into small groups to pray for the church while IHOP music was playing in the background.

It was received so well and everyone seemed to get into it! So now Ps Anne has asked me to lead the next Prayer Connect at the end of May!

I really don't want to do it, but decided to take on the challenge of waiting for the Lord to provide an inspiring message to me to give.

I went to Ps Anne's house to pray yesterday and she prophesied over me. She said this is a preparation time and I will go overseas again. Wow.

Calling words of encouragement into our lives

A really cool thing I learnt to do at bible college was to call those things that be not as though they are and specifically to call words of encouragement into my life. On Friday, i called words of encouragement into my life and scored this beauty to my boss about me :-) 

From: Christianne White
Sent: Friday, 3 May 2013 3:07 PM
To: Alberts, Ruth
Subject: excellent customer service

Good Afternoon Ruth

I thought that you should be aware of the excellent customer service that I and my colleagues at the WA Centre for Health and Ageing have received from Michelle.

Michelle, not only provided us with helpful information, she was patient with our endless questions and dealt with our questions in a helpful and professional manner.

I would like to thank Michelle for her excellent customer service, she truly went over and above to assist us with our Ethics submissions.

Best regards

Christianne

Business Development Manager

What a day!

Had such a lovely chilled out day. Went to the Post Office and mailed Brisa's pressy (it was her b'day almost two months ago - dulp!) and a little note to Jess in South Korea with some teachers reward stickers. Then I went to the op shop and scored a pin-up board and a couple of lovely formal dresses for work, then I went to Officeworks and bought Paul a present. I got him this really cool-looking book that is really a lockable hiding place for valuables. It is very clever and appears to be a book on Australian wildflowers.

Then I went home and typed some receipts out and did some washing and then headed out again to donate some stuff to the op shop and buy some groceries and get Chester a bone (Chester is the cute dog that comes with the rollershutter guy). Then I went home and filled almost two bins full of leaves and prunings and cleaned up my courtyard some more. Then i cleaned the window for tomorrow's rollershutter and had a shower and spent some time in prayer. I am so grateful for a day off. I really needed it.

Tonight my housemate and I are heading to Tri's house for an Indonesian dinner.... and there begins a busy weekend! Tomorrow morning both the rollershutter guy and plumber are coming. Then I am having coffee with Lill and Tri at 4pm and then possibly going to hear a great speaker in Subiaco at night. Then I'm taking Viola out for a bday breaky at the Pines buffet restaurant in Scarborough, then going to Paul's b'day party. Praise the Lord for good friends.

Love my Jesus who directs divine friends into my life.

Psalm 91

Yesterday I awoke from a very unpleasant dream. The devil is such a liar. So then I gave him a headache by praying loudly in tongues from when I got up (about 4:20am) to 6:00am. In the car, as usual, I prayed Psalms 23, 27 and 91 over my family and the pastors and my friends and I.

Amazingly, I had the best day at work. I wasn't tired at all and I was really productive. I worked 8.5 hours. On the way out, I slipped in the rain and went crashing down the concrete stairs. I remembered praying Psalm 91 and I knew God was faithful. My body was just stunned for a moment and two ladies  and a guy witnessed my fall. One came to help. She said "oh thank goodness us ladies have fat in our b..." then she stops, looks me up and down and goes "Ohhhhh", as if to imply I had no fat! hahaha Oh it made me laugh inside, though my body was in shock. It took me a while to get up and I felt a dizzy cloud of nausea come over me.

As I crossed the road, I began to declare Scripture over myself and thank God He is my healer and protector and that He sent His angels to lift me up in their hands so that my feet would not strike stones. I started to sing in tongues and felt the deepest joy as I walked to the train station. I got home and could feel pain and swelling in my butt, but overall, I was in great shape. No serious damage - just three bruises, no cut skin. I thought I had torn my skirt, but actually it was fine.

As I lay down to sleep early at 8:00pm, I could feel pain. I woke up to see the HUGEST bruise on my butt and decided to use my fall as an excuse to take the day off work, as one of ten free sick days we are entitled to when we work for Government. Praise the Lord.

Another testimony of God's special care and protection over me. I am so grateful to my beautiful Jesus.

Earlier in the week, one of my bosses was hit by a car on her bike. She hasn't been back to work since. Poor thing. My heart is grieved she doesn't not know Jesus.

Wonderful spiritual parents and my lovely German housemate

Isaiah 54:17

How awesome is God. Well after this ridiculous misunderstanding with Simon, he went around telling everyone a very distorted view of what happened and spoke many unkind and untrue things about me and it seemed that he got so many people worked up and against me. I was also thinking of my sister and her unkind and untrue words against me. I was feeling deeply distressed. So I talked to my spiritual parents, Pastors John and Tri, and John wisely said this scripture that "no weapon formed against me will prosper and any tongues raised against me will be condemned" (Isaiah 54:17) and he said weapons will be formed against me and tongues will be raised against me, but they will not succeed.

For the last day or so i've been meditating on the latter half of that scripture wondering what exactly God meant by He will condemn any tongues raised against me. So I did a little google search and this is what I found: 

Basic English Translation (BBE)

No instrument of war which is formed against you will be of any use; and every tongue which says evil against you will be judged false. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.



Wow - I am so incredibly encouraged by this scripture. PRAISE THE LORD. So even though my photo has been put up in various places with lies about me, saying i am abusive and a threat to my sister's kids, and even though it feels as though a huge crowd has been stirred up against me at church - all these lies will be rightly judged false! Thank you Lord Jesus. What a relief.

Reconciliation

Love my new home

God is so good to me. New home is amazing! I had every room (walls, ceilings, cornices, doors and frames) painted, mouldy carpets ripped up and gorgeous wood floorboards laid down, rollershutters installed on the three bedrooms, then a fourth one done yesterday, new gutter guards put in and a couple of down pipes replaced, my eaves painted (mind you, doesn't look like it now), ugly plants ripped up and soil removed and rocks put in instead. I spent $70 just on rocks! Haha

I'm VERY happy with the renovations and love living with Miriam. I'm sad now she is moving out two months earlier... but I guess it's to make way for the best housemate ever. He's on his way.

Settlement has arrived!

TODAY is settlement day!!! Settlement is booked for 2.00pm. I am so excited.

The flooring guys are going to start 3.00pm. They were meant to start yesterday, but obviously we had a little misunderstanding. Not to worry though. I am so grateful for a wonderful real estate agent, Jeff. He is just awesome. I think of all my helpers (buyer's agent, mortgage broker, settlement agent and real estate agent) he is my favourite. What a legend. He is just super nice and friendly and overall, wonderful.

Last night I went to Bunnings and bought some butcher paper and masking tape to cover the windows with. This morning I went to an op shop and bought a whole pile of tupperware. Actually, this is my third tupperware bulk purchase from an op shop. I just know that it is so expensive brand new and carries a lifetime warranty, regardless if picked it up secondhand :-) hehehe Praise the Lord. He is so good to me and is gradually restoring everything the devil has stolen from my life, like 100-fold!

Praising God

Well it turns out that the sofa bed seller was a guy! He works as a research associate at UWA and he studies and photographs rocks all around the world. My initial thought was "oh grossssss", but it turned out to be a really clean guy who has looked after it amazingly well. He bought it in Germany two years ago and it has only been used twice as a guest bed in the spare room in all that time! Wow. One of Viola's friends, Jean, helped me pick it up. It is so lovely. We were both amazed at how great quality it was. The two mattresses and two "L" shaped cushions all zip together. Wow, such a wonderful trendy product. I am so happy to have bought it. THANK YOU GOD!!!

New bed

Just bought this gorgeous funky red sofa bed off eBay! It came from Germany. I am guessing the seller is German because she is also selling some other German products. I wonder what her story is. This will be my bed until my husband arrives later in the year and we buy a nice double bed together.

Jehovah Jireh, My Provider

Well today I heard I got the approval I was after for the First Home Buyer's Grant! Yay. THANK YOU JESUS!!! AND as if that wasn't great news already, my painter finished all his work today! So then I drove to the flooring guy, paid for the rest of my material and then asked if he could perhaps start the flooring next week and he said yes, so then I checked with the real estate company and they said yes, so now my flooring is being done Thursday!

The painting looks absolutely amazing. Ryland did such a marvellous job. Praise the Lord. The walls are all one colour now. The smell of fresh paint, as opposed to rotting disgusting putrid smells from the last tenant is therapeutic.

I am so happy in my heart today. I even managed to get off work at 12pm. God is soooooo good to me.

Then as I was driving along Scarborough beach road, I suddenly took a right turn down a street I had never been on before and there on the verge was a FREE set of drawers. Absolutely gorgeous and absolutely perfect for my housemate. I am just so stoked. God is so very faithful to me. He just knew that for the last few days I have been thinking about how expensive everything is and how I really can't afford to keep buying little things when my renovations are so expensive.

Almost moving in!

Almost three weeks later and now the painting is almost done, i have sorted out new laminate jarrah-looking floorboards, rollershutters for two bedrooms and some new furniture... well not new, as such, but great second-hand stuff from gumtree. I have two desks, a loft bed for my housemate, a set of drawers, a coffee table, a kneeling chair!, some kitchenware and a painting from Tri (to be honest, i don't really like it, but the fact it came from her is what makes it special).

This girl is painting a "V" for victory!

I am praying my first home buyer's grant approval letter comes today cos then i can go ahead with settlement next week. Oh God, let it be!

I bought a house!!!

I FINALLY had a house offer accepted. I am so totally wrapped. I managed to get one under $500K to take advantage of the stamp duty exemption and first home buyer's grant. I bought a cute villa in Scarborough. It is actually pretty large for a 3 bedroom villa with a big open plan lounge and dining area and courtyard area. God is so awesome. It was owned by a 91 year old retired doctor who rented it out.

The place looks totally amazing outside, but unfortunately, the inside looks like an absolute wreck (kind of looks like what my life was like before Christ! - haha). I don't think anyone could possibly live in it at it's current state, so i'll be ripping up the carpets and getting the house painted, as well as doing some handman repairs.....

I think the previous tenant must have had an anger problem because there are holes in the walls (looks like they were made with a broom handle), paint chipped off, liquid (probably alcohol) stains on the walls, gross stenched and stained carpets, lights broken, door handles missing ... but I actually think this place is really beautiful. I see amazing potential and it is a really great deal for this area. I have been researching the market for months now and if this place was painted and new carpets put in, it would easily be worth a lot more! Seriously, it is a great first home and i am totally thrilled. I'll be moving in late Feb or early March.

Once it is renovated, i'll be having a prayer/fasting/worship get-to-gether in it (prior to a house-warming). I may not own any furniture by then, as i sold it all before i went to America, but i'll have some cushions for kneeling on and new floorboards by then! Yay.