Count down on and ticking.

Count down on and ticking. Only two days to go before I fly out. I plan to be so much more faithful in keeping up the blog with pictures and some sort of ongoing diary while I'm away. I leave from Brisbane on Friday morning at ten minutes to one am. Not a very appealing time to be heading overseas but I'm ready and rearing to go.

I have already ten kilos of supply for the mission and the other ten kilos is a combination or really light clothes and really heavy vitamins and medications.

My goal now is to complete as much of my ongoing workload at school before I have to leave. I will then need to get back healthy and energetic so that I can hit the ground running and finish the year meeting all the deadlines.....

I'll keep you posted.

An inspirational woman.

I was encouraged to read this article in the Courier Mail last Friday. This is a woman after my own heart. Her name is Kerry Huntly. She went to Cambodia to help out for six weeks, came home, sold her house and went back to open a home in Siem Reap. That was two years ago. She is working with the slum dwellers on community development and teaching English. Her organisation is called New Hope Cambodia.
I'm delighted to be visiting the area close to this part of Cambodia and would love to spend time with such an inspirational person.
She does speak of how she misses her adult children back in Australia. I can so understand where she is coming from. That is the one thing that will be the biggest challenge of leaving Australia, especially if I end up going away long term.

A legacy of compassion

It was so great last Sunday morning to have the chance to hear Andrew Merry talk about Compassion Child Sponsorship. He spoke from Mark 9: 33 - 37 and focussed on why Jesus talked of greatness as it relates to the way we respond to children. He emphasised the relationship that we as adults have to adapt to when we have responsibility for children. Children demand so much of what Jesus values. They require that we learn to be selfless, humble, others focussed and protective. In fact we become the servants of our children. Our role as adults is to protect the voiceless ones and fight for the rights of children. We are to ensure that our children are given every opportunity to ensure that they can be the best that they can be.

Jesus was also being strategic when he told us that children are the key to the kingdom. Children are so open to the Gospel. They are impressionable; which gives us an incredible opportunity, but also a huge responsibility. The 'millstone around the neck' and the 'disposal into the lake' are appropriate for how I feel about so many adults who show they don't have any pace around children.

Giving

On a visit to the local library last week Talitha found Amy Grant's memoir called 'Mosiac'. Talk about a blast from the past! We are the same age and had our first children at about the same age. I grew up listening to Amy Grant and enjoyed reading her musings about her life. We are both at a real interesting stage in life for looking both forward and back.

Her thoughts on giving..............

'The life which gives, multiplies itself; the life which absorbs, destroys itself and others. All nature is build upon the plan of giving. The sun gives its light and heat, the bird its song, the lilac its odour, the orchard yields its fruit for the good of us, the field its grain for the same purpose. If one is not a giver, she is out of harmony with her surroundings. If she makes a Dead Sea of herself, she becomes fatal to anything that seeks life from her.'

My attitude and approach to giving cannot be separated from how I view God and, consequently, my fellow man. Do I believe in God? Do I believe that my needs are met by God? And if He can supply my needs, what about everybody else's?

Trust is doing what you believe you are called to do and trusting that God will provide. But here's where it gets personal: God provides through people. Am I willing to be connected to the people in my world, the people at work, the people in my house, the people I encounter in everyday patterns of living? Am I open to the possibility of my life, my gifts, touching another life? My life touching another, the domino effect of God's goodness rippling through so many other lives, is a powerful, far-reaching concept.

I am challenged by these questions. I can't make a difference everywhere and I can't make a difference for everyone but just like the little boy throwing jellyfish back into the ocean, 'I can make a difference for that one'. My desire is to make a difference for someone somewhere.

Cambodia - Here I come

Earlier this year I felt compelled to investigate mission opportunities in South East Asia: specifically the work of Destiny Rescue. DR are a Christian organisation committed to fighting human trafficking in a number of our poorer Asian neighbours.

It has taken until now to book and pay the deposit on a two week mission experience. I will be in Cambodia and Thailand from 23 October to 7 November visiting rescue homes where young girls (eight years old is not uncommon!) rescued from brothels are housed, fed, educated and loved.

I have applied for leave from work and while this has been granted, I'm not entitled to any pay during the period I'm away.

I have started this blog to allow family and friends to stay up-to-date with the planning, the trip and the impact of the trip as it could just be the beginning of something much bigger :)

If you would like to become part of the adventure I would appreciate your participation through prayer, financial contribution and emails of encouragement as I don't mind admitting that I'm going to need plenty of all three as well as the unlimited grace, mercy and provision of God to see this through.

Travel account details:
S.E.Lawson BSB: 014263 Account No. 525471155

Watch this space for updates and may God bless you as we reach out together to the precious young girls of Cambodia with God's love.

Passion for Mission

I have become impassioned with the needs of the victims of human trafficking in South East Asia. It all began with information about young girls rescued from brothels in Cambodia, and has continued becoming gradually more all consuming. I am planning to travel to Cambodia and Thailand in October to see first hand the work of Destiny Rescue, which is exciting and frightening at the same time.

I also heard on Tuesday of the work of Help International and their projects with the indigenous minority people in Thailand. I could listen all day to stories of lives saved and freedom regained, but experience a sense of deep sadness at the residual damaged done to young lives by selfish exploitation.

I would love to have the opportunity to contribute in a real and practical way, using my skills to make a difference. 'One step at a time' I must keep reminding myself as my mind goes much faster and further than my feet have travelled.

I often feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of the problem of human trafficking and the many facets of human corruption that feed this despicable activity. With so many contributing evils, the job of eliminating trafficking seems impossible. I take inspiration from the life of William Wilberforce and how long he struggled to have slavery outlawed in a society which gained economic benefit from slavery. I have been influenced in a similar way to the quote from Wilberforce in the movie 'Amazing Grace':

'You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know'

Weird Aspie Dream

As part of how annoying it is to be Aspie even my subconscious reacts in Aspergers fashion. I have had 2 days at an in-service conference for teachers, in a really crowded auditorium. I struggled with the overcrowded space, the strong lighting, the noise, (especially other members of the audience whispering while the speaker was speaking). I waited in long crowds for food, which while it was tasty, was not part of the diet. There was only cow's milk for coffee and no salad veges, (which are what I live on at the moment)

The stimulation must have all been just too much for my system. I didn't realize until I woke this morning just how stressed I must have become during the day. I dreamt (as I have a couple of times before in such situations) that people I didn't know came and moved into my home. I wouldn't be surprised if I was calling out in my sleep as I remember yelling out over and over, 'Get out of my house. You have no right to be here. Get out!' The dream went from bad to worse because as I moved whole families out of one room of the house they simply re situated themselves in a different part of the house. They invited friends in and had parties, left mess and wouldn't leave, in fact they became more and more sneaky in where they were hiding and places they were using up.

I must have become quite out of control as I remember I began to become physical, pushing people out the door, with their belongings, shutting doors and locking them, only to find that people had entered a different way.

I woke tired and didn't want to go back to the conference again today to be greeted with the same thing again. I planned to sit at the back out of the assigned seating, attend sessions in smaller groups if possible, and even brought my own lunch and soy milk for coffee. I wasn't going to struggle again a second day. However, other people must have thought the crowd was too stressful as today it had visibly thinned and I was able to enjoy my day a lot more.