Settling In

These early days have been all about settling in to life at Moore in Sydney. It has been really hot, around 30-34C degrees most days and 25-28C degrees during the night. All in all it is manageable although the afternoons are a write off given the high heat which only makes shaking the jet lag more difficult. It is hard not to want to sleep the day away. Anyway, I will try now to give you a run down on the last few days.

January 31st...

...marked the end of a long 24 hours of travelling and the beginning of my settling in to Sydney phase.

Two heroes, Kate and Beth (ladies from church) picked me up from the hotel I stayed in overnight and said that priority number one was proving to myself and the world that I had actually made it to Australia. So before heading to college we detoured across the bridge to catch a glimpse of this iconic Sydney Harbour view.

We did a quick shopping run at Kmart for bedding etc and then went to Moore College to collect my keys for accommodation. I spent the next few days making trips back to Kmart in the mall for various bits to make my room more liveable. The mall is about 14 minutes walking from school - ideal!

I am staying on campus in John Chapman House, a residence for singles studying at the college. It is directly across the street from the main college building and houses about 50 people. The building is set up around a triangular green space: three corridors, two floors. Upstairs are 2 female corridors called Park Lane and Sherwood Forest. I am living on Park Lane.

Unfortunately Park Lane is not airconditioned, but the blessing is that it never gets direct sunlight and has the constant shade of trees outside the window, so though it is quite dark, it stays relatively cool, provided I keep the lights off. The exciting thing about the room is that the wardrobe doors have been signed by room occupants every year as far back as 1967!

We have a shared kitchen, bathroom and common room. I think there are about 15 or so women living in JCH. Not all are first years which is nice to be able to get advice and guidance from the second and third year women. I have to admit that it is really strange for me to be living back in a dorm situation. I miss my plants, pillows, double bed, housemate, kitchen, bathroom. As some of you may already know I encountered the local wildlife in the corridor late one evening when I left my room to go to the toilet. I had never seen a spider this size before. Normally, if I encountered a spider in my room, housemates would come and rescue me but this one was so big I doubt any of them would have attempted to remove it!

The blessing of dorms is the range of people I have had the joy of meeting. The girls here have all come from a variety of backgrounds and a range of motivations and circumstances have led to them studying here. One thing we all have in common is the doubts of "what am I doing here?!" but thankfully we share the same answer to this question - God, in his sovereignty, has brought us each here for his distinct purposes. We find comfort in knowing we each are feeling very much the same and can be an encouragement to each other in these early days. The other night a couple of us had a movie night together! We popped the corn and watched the Princess Diaries - a classic! I was battling the jet lag but the girls kept encouraging me to stick with it and made sure I stayed awake.

February 3rd...

...marked the start of orientation.

Many of you may be wondering (like I did) why we would start on a Saturday. This first day of orientation was for the wider community of Moore College. So wives, husbands and children of those attending college were given support groups. Students were placed into chaplency groups. We met the whole staff team. We shared together and ate together and ultimately had a lovely day morning.

A little note on chaplency groups - these are like small groups and an avenues for pastoral care. We have a chaplin and a staff member leading each group. In my group there is a young newly married couple from Northern Ireland, a languages teacher, a part time student studying the same track as me - you can tell they thought long and hard about who to put in what group! The main goals of chaplency groups are to pray together, support one another, and prepare for mission week in April where we will serve together at a church running programs etc. Some chaplency groups will head to Western Australian, Queensland, Solomon Islands. My group will be staying local and supporting a church in Sydney. More about this later!

Orientation continues on Tuesday, February 6th for 2 weeks. During this time we will have lesson intensives and seminars about college life and community. The organised parts of the day finish with lunch together.

February 4th...

On Sunday I made my way to Vine Church which is where I will be doing a training placement while I study this year. The service was lovely. Vine church runs 3 services on a Sunday, I only attended the first service this week. On Monday (5th February) I was able to sit in and observe a staff meeting, then the other trainees arrived and we did staff training with the whole team and finally went out to lunch with everyone. It was such a blessing to get to know the team a bit better and learn from their wealth of experience.

On Sunday I bumped into Sarah who I met earlier on in the week. She does not attend Moore but has just moved to Sydney and is close friends with one of the girls living on my corridor and starting first year with me. It was lovely to get to know her better through church. I was really struck on Sunday by the fact that the passage of Matthew 13:44-58 was the same passage we had presented to us at the start of orientation the day before. I should point out that both talks were given by 2 completely different people with no connection to each other! It soon became clear that God was confirming his message to me. I reflected on my earlier doubt: "what am I doing here?" and the words that really touched my heart were those of the first verses:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."

The answer is right there. I am here because Jesus is worth it.

I think we as humans are treasure hunters. We are all searching for something of value. Maybe more money, job security, fame, success, praise, more cool stuff, acceptance, frienship, family. But what I found in these verses is that there is only one treasure worth finding. One that brings great joy. The ultimate treasure that puts an end to our search for more. The treasure that is worth giving up all that I currently have. That treasure is Jesus, the King of the kingdom of heaven. You see, the reason I can give up the comfort of home, closeness to family and friends, my double bed, my plants and pillows, my job security is because God called me here, to learn and experience more of who he is and who he can be to me. How could I give up such an invitation? Jesus is worth it and it is with joy that I can walk the path before me.

Many of you have commented or written to me this weekend saying things like "you look so happy!" Well, let me tell you, the joy you see is only because of Jesus! It amazes even me! I mean, this week I have experienced exhaustion. But I am sure Jesus is worth it. I have missed the comforts of home. I believe he is still worth it. I have been uncomfortable, dreading the "getting to know you" conversations and been anxious and overwhelmed meeting lots of new people. But I believe that Jesus is worth it. I have been lonely and homesick for friends and family. And yet I know Jesus is worth it. The joy you see is my belief that all of the discomfort is worth it for knowing more of Jesus.

Friends, I pray that you will know that there is a priceless, immeasurable treasure to be found in God. If you have never discovered this for yourself, I encourage you to get a bible and read through the gospel of Matthew to find out more about who Jesus was and is. I pray that you discover this gift and can experience the true joy of the treasure of heaven.

Prayer and Praise Points

To those of you who are praying for me while I am gone, please consider these prayer points:

• Praise God that I am finding joy in knowing more of Jesus, the treasure of heaven

• Praise God that I have been able to settle in, God has provided the material things I need to make dorms livable

• Praise for lovely girls on the dorms

• Praise God for successful start to orientation and church

• Pray for upcoming orientation weeks where we will be in intensive courses and seminars.

• Pray for managing the jet lag, the heat and the spiders.

• Pray for coping with the distance from friends and family at home (time zones are really annoying)

• Pray that God would provide for me at least one good friendship that is mutually supportive and fun. A friendship where I can let my guard down and be myself. I am very friendly but I'm also very shy (believe it or not). I struggle meeting new people, if you could hear the internal dialoque going on when I am meeting new people you would understand! So I actually tend to keep people at arms length, especially in situations like this when I know that I am only around for a short time. I struggle to invest meaningfully in people as a means of protecting myself when it is time to say goodbye.

Thank you for your continued love and support.

In Christ Alone,

Britt