Christmas Greetings from the Sunny WA!

Hello Friends! Merry Christmas!

I wish you all well during this holiday season. I know the holidays can bring mixed emotions, or bring up different memories and feelings. But my hope is that you may all find some joy and encouragement from loved ones, near and far. Know that you are loved and cherished!

Things are busy here as I'm finishing up the lecture phase at YWAM Perth. My school team has been busy learning more about the outreach locations we are soon leaving for. Christmas events have been piling up, and all of us are scrambling to finish the book reports and last minute travel details we need to accomplish before the end of the month! Last weekend our base hosted a free community event in the park called, "Carols By Candlelight".  It was a blessing to be a part of the choir singing carols with the community, and to see all of the people there enjoying time together and being blessed by the music and refreshments. There were over 400 people that came out to the park for the event, and all of them were able to hear about Jesus and the message of hope he brings.

The sun is getting hotter (as I can attest to from a series of unfortunate sunburns.. all really my fault as I did not put on sunscreen!...  Lesson learned!) I'm reminded lately of how blessed I am to have such incredible family and friends in my life that have made all the difference. Especially as the holidays are here, I am reminded of how much of a blessing it has been to grow up with the support and friendship from all of you. For that I say, "thank you!" You are in my thoughts now, especially!

As for Christmas in the sun, it has been quite funny to me to see different people walking around the city, in the sun, in the heat, wearing mix-matched attires of Christmas sweaters, shorts, santa hats, and flip-flops! There are festive decorations among the palm trees, and Christmas music playing in the stores as they have bathing suits and sunscreen on sale. It will be a Christmas of firsts: 1st Christmas away from family, 1st Christmas on the sunny side of the world, and 1st Christmas celebrating with a BBQ on the beach! I am excited for a new experience, although I admit to missing that cold white stuff that falls from the sky back home by the foot. And although I miss being close to family and friends that I love back home, I am thankful for the new family I have gained here in Perth. I've learned to really appreciate the heart of this season, regardless of what the cultural norm is for how it is celebrated. Christmas is about family. It's about giving. It's about peace. And it's about sharing love with one another, just as we have been shown the most incredible love by our "heavenly" Father.

Grace and Peace to you all as you are celebrating this season in your own favourite traditions! My hope is that you will be blessed with time together with your families and loved ones. May you be blessed with a new or renewed understanding of real love, real hope, and real joy.

Love from, 
Melody



 - Here are the teams from my program that will be heading out the week after Christmas for missions!

 - These photos were from our "commissioning night", where we gathered together as a whole school with the other DTS teams who are leaving soon for their missions trips. We had a time of presenting and sharing about the past 3 months of lectures, as well as about what we will be doing on our outreach coming up. The base leaders prayed over us as a school to send us off officially with their blessing.

-We will all be going first to Kolkata, India for 6 weeks, then each team will head to a different location to serve for 5 weeks.

The "Great Commission":
"Go into all the world and share the Good News!" (From Mark 16:15, and Matthew 28:19-20 in the Bible)



Christmas Tea and "It's a Wonderful Life" with the school:

Indonesia Team:

 Northern India Team:

 Nepal Team:

"There Is Some Good In This World... And It's Worth Fighting For."

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

Yes.. I recently watched the Lord of The Rings.. The Two Towers, to be exact. On our saturday last week we had a school-wide showing of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy after a long week of classes. I find it funny that my mind keeps playing back to this scene from the movie. But I think it rings true, in so many ways. (Heh heh.. "rings" true...)

"There is some good in this world.. and it's worth fighting for."

We are in week 9 already of the lecture phase of this DTS ("discipleship training school"). The whole school is gearing up to leave for their different mission locations. We have classes up until the week of Christmas, then will be flying out from Perth in our teams around the 27th or 28th of December.

My school, "Frontline", has a vision to support the "hard to reach" places. We are split up into 3 different teams, all of us spending time in Kolkata, India for 6 weeks, then splitting off to go to 3 different locations for 5 weeks. One team is going to Northern India, one to the "Spice Islands" in Indonesia, and my team, who is going to Nepal.

In Kolkata, we will get the opportunity to work with YWAM's ministry called, "Megacities". The YWAM Megacities team has been working in Kolkata alongside the local churches to make a long-term investment in the city.  I'm really excited to get to partner with what people are already doing in the city of Kolkata. Here is some more information about Megacities if you are interested in what I will be apart of for the first 6 weeks of my mission:
http://www.ywamperth.org.au/missions/megacities/


After serving in Kolkata I will be on "Team Nepal" for the second half of my missions trip. In Nepal, my team of 8 will be trekking into different Nepali villages to share the message of Jesus, parter with local churches, volunteer with different community projects, and do some basic health care and training. This will be more of the "frontline" part of my trip. I am looking forward to the opportunities we will have to bless the people of Nepal, especially those in hard to reach villages that may not have much access to outside help. Our speaker this week is a missionary from Nepal, who has been working with YWAM for over 20 years. Hearing his story and seeing his passion to serve the Nepali people has been incredibly inspiring.

India will also be an incredible opportunity to encourage and bless people tangibly and spiritually. We will be partnering with the local churches in Kolkata, and will be working in the main city areas, as well as in the slums. We have been spending some of our week each week learning about the history of Kolkata, and praying for different issues that are currently taking place there.



Through my time here in Perth, learning about different areas of need in the world, I feel like I've had a re-kindling of a desire to do something about it. I am reminded more and more of how privileged, and how blessed I am to be living the life I am, to come from the places and family I come from. It could be very easy for me just to go home and forget about this chapter in my life, this "travelling the world" phase. But I think this is just the beginning.

Like Sam wisely says in the Lord Of The Rings film, "There is some good in this world.. and it's worth fighting for." I can't shake how strongly I believe this to be true. I have been so greatly blessed in my life, in innumerable ways, by so many. And I can't shake the desire in my heart to use this life I have to bring some good into the world, however I can! - Because it's worth it. There is enough negativity, there are enough terrible things happening in the world.. why not be some good? Why not bring some hope? People are worth it. People are worth fighting for.

Peace be with you, and thank you for following my adventure, for your support and encouragement. May you and your loved ones be blessed! I encourage you to look for how you can bring some good into the life you are living - to be the good for others - whether in big ways or small. It's worth it!