Welcome to my new blog! I discovered my love for math and science in the first grade. The humanities quickly fell to a distant second. As a scientist, I'd rather be mixing chemicals than typing a lab report about it. Thus writing has never been my favorite past time. While I love reading and have followed the blogs of many others, I never felt the need to write my own, until now. Many of you have requested to be kept up-to-date on my adventures in Australia and the progress on the Catch the Fire Sydney church plant. I figured the easiest way to communicate with everyone at once would be to create this blog. So here I hope to share my photographs and record my thoughts and observations as I embark on this new adventure of moving to Sydney, Australia. As I mentioned before I am a chemist not an English teacher. Please keep this in mind as you read this blog. While I will try to proof my posts before I publish them, I make no promises to all of my grammar policing friends.
Why did I name my blog Favored Confident Expectation? I chose to leave my comfortable hometown, my amazing family, a wonderful job, and my beautiful house to answer God's call by moving to an entirely new country where I don't have any friends or family, no job, and no place to live. It sounds kind of crazy, but the peace of God has so comforted and brought security to my heart that the knowing that this is God's will for me has been enough. While this has been a big step of faith, in one way it has been easy and almost felt like cheating because the Holy Spirit has refused to let me be anxious. God has been inviting me further into hope in Him and challenging me to test Him with confident expectation, knowing that He will provide immeasurably beyond all that I could ask or imagine. I have also seen the favor and faithfulness of God in my life in all of these questioned and unknown areas before and I know He will continue to proceed and follow me to Australia. When I looked up the meaning of the word Hope "Elpis" (Greek) I found out that the verb form of the word 'Elpizo' is often translated "to trust". Webster's dictionary defines hope as "to expect with confidence" and Strong's concordance lists it as "favorable and confident expectation".
Thank you so much for all of the support that I have received so far. I have started making connections online with other members who will be on the team for the church plant. One of the couples has graciously agreed to let me stay with them upon my initial arrival. Here are some current prayer requests:
-to adjust to the time difference (15 hours) and recover from jet lag as soon as possible
-to quickly find a great job that I enjoy and that pays well (cost of living is double)
-to connect and create community and friendships with the other members of the church plant team
-to find a place to live long-term
-to learn my way around the city and figure out the public transportation system
-to adjust to the new culture
-to rent out my house in Cary as soon as possible
-to make connections with the community during our Pre-launch service on April 28th
Why did I name my blog Favored Confident Expectation? I chose to leave my comfortable hometown, my amazing family, a wonderful job, and my beautiful house to answer God's call by moving to an entirely new country where I don't have any friends or family, no job, and no place to live. It sounds kind of crazy, but the peace of God has so comforted and brought security to my heart that the knowing that this is God's will for me has been enough. While this has been a big step of faith, in one way it has been easy and almost felt like cheating because the Holy Spirit has refused to let me be anxious. God has been inviting me further into hope in Him and challenging me to test Him with confident expectation, knowing that He will provide immeasurably beyond all that I could ask or imagine. I have also seen the favor and faithfulness of God in my life in all of these questioned and unknown areas before and I know He will continue to proceed and follow me to Australia. When I looked up the meaning of the word Hope "Elpis" (Greek) I found out that the verb form of the word 'Elpizo' is often translated "to trust". Webster's dictionary defines hope as "to expect with confidence" and Strong's concordance lists it as "favorable and confident expectation".
Thank you so much for all of the support that I have received so far. I have started making connections online with other members who will be on the team for the church plant. One of the couples has graciously agreed to let me stay with them upon my initial arrival. Here are some current prayer requests:
-to adjust to the time difference (15 hours) and recover from jet lag as soon as possible
-to quickly find a great job that I enjoy and that pays well (cost of living is double)
-to connect and create community and friendships with the other members of the church plant team
-to find a place to live long-term
-to learn my way around the city and figure out the public transportation system
-to adjust to the new culture
-to rent out my house in Cary as soon as possible
-to make connections with the community during our Pre-launch service on April 28th
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