Blinking and PAINT!

Well... I blinked and a month has gone by!

How to describe the weeks that have passed? Well I'll give you three words: sick, productive, and home.

...I'll explain...

Every few months, my body decides to get sick. Its usually right when I get on a role with work stuff, and the month of May was no exception. We'd been having  record numbers of youth attend our weekly youth program Youth Street and my days were full of writing seminars, calling schools, grants, and finally getting on top of lots of projects. Out of NO WHERE I got a sinus infection which I confess is still hanging on three weeks later! (But don't worry... I finally bit the bullet and went to the doctors so I'm on the mend).

However, in the midst of being home and sick, my flatmates and I had planned to take a working holiday and paint our entire flat. Now for anyone who has ever seen or heard me talk of my flat, it was clear that it needed a bit of loving. Giant cracks in the lounge wall, part of the drywall missing from the hallway from a pipe inspection, and dirty white colour everywhere. No don't get me wrong... I am grateful for my house every day. BUT, after three days of washing and taping walls, and painting some colour everywhere, my house of three years finally became a home!

Me with my new bedroom bright blue accent wall
(It looks so good with the matching art work in there)

Here are some more pics from that week:

Guess what side is painted... we had our work cut out for us!

Lounge room walls, trim, and windows all done

You can see the colour we chose for the kitchen - nice and warm beige.

In the main bathroom we painted the walls a soft grey with a purple accent wall

And the same in the hallway: grey with purple accent and fresh trim

There was a lot more done, but I hope that gives you a snapshot of what I was up to beginning of June.

Since then I have been trying to catch up on all my work from being sick and painting. Apart from that, things are tracking on.

If you think to pray, I would appreciate prayer for wisdom and strength for my mind and body as I'm still recovering. Also, please pray for more youth workers as the 100+ weekly young people who attend our program are currently being looked after by 10 staff!! (Compared to appx 40 staff we usually have). 

Thanks for checking in and being a part of the journey!

~Liz 

April Event MaNiA

Hey friends!

What an adventure this past month has been! In the last 3 weeks we have held: the YWAM YS Dessert Fundraiser, DEEPER camp, weekly Youth Streets, my 22nd Birthday, AND the NYW I Wanna Live Event.

My actual birthday (April 12^th) was quite an eventful day: 

It started with my two wonderful housemates getting up early and making me a wonderful brekkie (complete with a whole bowl of melted chocolate!)

Then, in preparation for the I Wanna Live Event, a local TV station came in to promo the event. Since I am apart of M3 Dance, I got to be apart of them taking some dance footage for the story. Here is a link of the clip that previewed on the 6pm news on my birthday night! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v1Ee5zwRW8 (Note the sketchy quality and my roommate yelling at the TV :P)

Directly after watching the news, my extremely busy housemates had arranged for a few of my close friends to come over and surprise me, and then we all went out for a nice dinner together. We had a great time and I truly felt celebrated!

The evening ended with Gelato on the beach :) Can't really top that!

Saturday held the much anticipated I Wanna Live event. The overall aim was to celebrate local young people and instilling in them to have a sense of purpose. With over 400 people attending, here is a snap shot of some of the happenings:

Art Exhibition and Photo Comp.

Acoustic sets in the Cafe

6ft Half Pipe!

Awesome Live Band Performances

I also got the chance to perform twice during the evening: once with M3 Dance - if you want to see the clip, check it out on my facebook wall (M3 - Snitch - 2012), and once with my YS Dance team. The two dances were at opposite ends of the scales; fast, fun hip hop; slow, confronting contemporary. However, both pieces served the same purpose to connect, relate, and inspire the young people attending to have purpose beyond themselves. 
All in all, it was an amazing end to some crazy past weeks!

Coming up, I have a few more projects on the go. I would appreciate your prayers as we finalize 3 seminars I have been writing to take into schools starting NEXT WEEK! I also would love prayer for two grant opportunities which I am writing applications for – wisdom and the right articulation.

More updates to come soon! Thanks for following and being a part of the journey!

Xo

Liz