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.

Chrissy time

We all made an effort to wear red or green to church last night :-) lol My red top I scored for $3 from an op-shop yesterday!

Making progress

Got my TEFL certificate in the mail today - woooo hooo, I passed! What a miracle. 

Work meeting went well today - it wasn't as overwhelming as i was expecting. In fact, I actually quite enjoyed it. I didn't feel stressed at all and the meeting members were really friendly to me :-) One of the members, Joyce, came and said congratulations to me for getting the job. That was sweet of her. Another member, Mary, chatted to me about her brother who went to teach English in Japan and there met his wife. Her brother is blonde and they now have two teenaged Eurasian kids! Amazing. I also talked to Ross who worked with my former boss at DTF and also thought highly of him. He told me Col was now in the Office of the Auditor General. They all seemed nicer to me than previous Committee members I have interacted with.  

New season

Gosh, I prayed so hard for a job and prepared so well, then God granted me my desire and got me a great job, but suddenly now i am so unbelievably busy. I get up early, go to the train station, pray, then catch the train, then work my guts out, then leave, catch the train to my car, then pray, then go home, have a shower, make lunch for the next day and then go to bed! What a life. Oh my goodness, i didn't quite anticipate being so busy that I would have no time to think about anything else. Lol

BUT I love it - my boss, Brooke, is lovely and the lady swapping jobs with her is also very easy to get along with. Other than that, I don't really deal with anyone else much yet anyway.

So true!

Season of blessings

Wow, how awesome is God. Today, my new boss rang me up and told me that they decided to waiver the two-month probation and just give me permanency straight away, even before I have started the job! I am so in awe of God. He obviously wants to bless me so much.

Car sticker

Bought this cute car sticker off eBay today 

Jobs are gifts from God.

Got a phone call last Friday to say the top applicant declined ... so the job was offered to me! Now I know for sure that I heard the Lord's voice the day of the interview ... get a job, buy a house and only then consider finding a spouse and having a family. Wow! By the time I get to the final stage, everyone I know in my age group will have finished having kids long time ago. Kinda sad really, but i know God has set me apart and has the most amazing husband He's set apart for me - no matter how doubtful everyone else is, I know that if He can get me the first job I applied for after five years of not applying for a formal job, then He can get me a great husband! Nothing is impossible for those who believe in the One who made the Universe!

So step one s complete now :-)

Fellowship

Praise the Lord for bringing me some lovely friends in this season. My housemate and I cooked a simple though delicious dinner for them:

• Garlic bread
• Pasta salad with sundried tomatoes, feta cheese and spinach
• Fresh green salad
• Marinated beef with rice
• Hot chocolate with marshmallows and ice-cream, caramel crowns and chocolate bullets for dessert