So it is time once again to apologise for my terrible blogging and bite the bullet. Looking at my blog for the first time in months it strikes me that I haven't written since August. Nothing will be able to bring me up to date with an absence so long. With that in mind I will write of my amazing time on camp this past week.
I went on Waves camp this week and it was amazing. I was so nervous about going and worrying about how my preparations would go. How would the games I carefully selected be viewed and would I personally be up to the challenge of being a leader and mentor to the campers.
I remember the excitement I felt when I got there and the conningham bushfire loomed. Worrying about whether camp would go ahead. Whether we would have to tramp down to the beach and fight fires. This didn't eventuate but the risk was there and watching our team pray and prepare for this really brought to me the knowledge of God's love for us. Knowing that God was protecting us and had his hand on our camp really settled me.
When the campers arrived the next day I was so excited. Seeing familiar faces and meeting new campers was awesome. But the thing that stood out most to me and did for the entire camp was seeing how some individual campers had grown and matured over the past year. Seeing how these kids who were absolute terrors on the past camp became great assets to the camp. How they interacted in a positive way with other campers and fitted in to the strong social hierarchy that was set up over the week. To hear one say "I know that was bad and I will sit out of the game if you want me to."
My greatest low came on the second day when I was running oval games. Note to self- don't run games you have never played or don't know much about. It was a disaster. I had been looking forwrd to this particular game Giants, Wizards and Elves for almost a month and it was a huge flop. No one knew what was going on. I yelled many times for order and modified it twice to try and get it to work. It was a huge failure and I was very depressed. I lost nearly all my confidence in running games.
That brings me to my greatest high. Mad Proffesors. This was a game I found and modified from a book and after the disaster of the previous day I was very nervous about running it. However it was a huge success and I can only give the credit to God. Seeing how it ran, the many 'coincidences' that helped it to run smoother and the overall vibe during the game I can only thank God for intervening in this. I was so pleased that this was helping to build the teams we had put together and was proud of the kids when the unveiling showed creative and funny inventions.
I cannot mention all the many amazing things that happened on camp as they are too many. But I can say that watching God at work in the campers was an experience I will never forget. To hear a camper at mid week say "I don't want to go home and tell my mother I had a horrible time at camp." Then at weeks end say, "I don't want to go home. I love camp!" Was awesome. To see campers take risks and open up was great. For me to rely on God to help me through camp and to learn more about myself and what I am capable of was a very special experience. Being a leader is not just about leading, but about learning to serve through the position of leadership. Remembering that you as a leader are responsible for the health and wellbeing of your charges. Was a lesson that I discovered on camp and a lesson that I hope I will take with me to the next camp.
Until next time.

So here we are again and it's mid August. What has changed? Well nothing really. Same old. Laura my very beautiful sister had her eighteenth and we all celebrated profusely and with great merriment. Yay! I was very pleased to discover that she left getting id until the last minute and missed out on clubbing at the time. This doesn't upset me. I'm quite happy to know Laura's safe at home and not pub crawling. Not to say she would do that.
I have now got myspace. Miriam has moved into the 21st century. I'm enjoying finding long lost friends and wasting time chatting to people I see on a regular basis and could speak to face to face. Oh the joys of procrastination. Perhaps I should get facebook as well and I could spend my entire day dodging work on the computer. "How can you spend so much time online and not update your blog?" You ask. My response, "I really don't know."
Things I have discovered: The word big is actually quite small. Smaller than the word small. The word bigger is bigger than small, but smaller is bigger than bigger. Big is smaller than little and tiny and petite. How odd. If your confused please feel free to go back and read again, or ignore because really it's completely useless information.
The Beach Boys completely ripped off Chuck Berry songs. So disappointing. I'm currently deciding whether I still like them so much or whether I should go to the source and listen to where the original sound came from.
If you spend all day inside and don't see it get dark for several days in a row, you lose track of what day it is. Or at least I do. Currently I'm trying to get up earlier and actually get into the practice room. But this is proving an illusive task and I end up either rolling over and fall asleep or still getting the school at the same time and not doing anything. At least I'm trying. Maybe I should go to bed earlier.
I must thank you people who replied to my previous post, this was most encouraging and great reads. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou. My christian word of the day: For a long time I have been desperate to get out of the country. Go and explore. Meet new people and discover new cultures. But every oppurtunity dissolved just when the crucial part of the planning arrived. I'm talking about money. Yes, poor starving uni student. What I have learned from this is that sometimes you may think it is the right time to do something but it's not God's tme and though you had all the good intentions in the world God is still saying, Woah slow down I'm in control. That's a good thing because it means that God is interested and does take the time to plan out your life, even if you don't like that plan. If I had left the country I wouldn't have gone to Baywest or MYC or Tas Con. I would never have developed the important lifelong friendships I have now and I wouldn't have grown in my walk with God. Be patient. The plan God has for you will be amazing and though it may not seem great now. Who knows what is coming up around the corner.
With that little diversion I'm off. Till next time....

Yes I do still exist

Well it has been months and my clever plan of continued blogging has failed utterly and completely. So bad in fact that it may take several posts to bring it back up to date. This in fact proves that I have an interesting life. Well, maybe. Perhaps dot points would work better. Where to begin.

Passover: The gang aka: Sam, Alan and Andrew come down to the "family home" to meet my amazing relatives and have a suedo Jewish, Christian passover meal. Later discovering that playing cluedo with my brothers is completely unfair and involves flying peacocks.

Easter: A flying Sydney visit with Al and Sam. Krispy Kremes, strange late night bus rides, sydney con and the biggest church I have ever been to. Thankyou Rob for putting us up in your amazing house.

Alan's Birthday: Monopoly at it's cruelest. I'm still stumped as to how Andrew managed to get hotels on Mayfair and Park Lane.

Andrew's Birthday: The worlds biggest serving of spagetti. Yum. Am I the scum?

The Wakeover: Staying up all night watching movies and the wii. Personally quite a feat for someone like me who craves sleep.

Mid Year Conference: I can't begin to put words to this experience. 60 christians on camp for a week. Need I say more. Well actually I do. The soccer games were intense the teachings mindblowing and the company amazing. I feel so much closer to my friends from this experience and have made so many new ones. I'm so glad I went.

That's it for the huge ones. I will elaborate on these things in future blogs. Hopefully this won't take too long and I will keep up to date. I do apologise for the many in jokes.

Lately I have been mulling over the role of women in society. Specifically the role of christian women and God's plan for our lives. Is having a career ok? Or is God's plan that we be housewives. If so what is the point in higher education?
I know staying at home and raising children for many women is an ideal job and I don't disagree with this opinion. I believe that there is a place in society for this and it is a full time job. Not to be seen as anything less than the work of a doctor, lawyer or any other occupation. But do we all have to do this? I'd like to think no. I have always envisioned for my life a good career and respect from my coworkers. I want to have children at some stage but not yet and I have no idea how to balance them with the life I already have. Do you stay at home until your children get to a certain age and what age is that. Is it 8 weeks old like some mum's do or 5 years when they are at school or is it university like one mother suggested to me. Should it be a compulsary age? Is it wrong if a Christian woman chooses not to have kids?
These and other seemingly unanswerable questions run through my head on a daily basis. The only answer I can presently give (apart from this doesn't apply at present so I won't think about it) is that God is bigger than that and he does have a plan. It may not be our plan or easy but we can be confident that what ever the plan is it will be God's will. Maybe I will end up being a house wife. Or maybe children aren't part of God's plan for me at all. Who knows. I'll just take things as they come.
What is your opinion on this?

Well it's been a while and just about time for another update on life in the world of Miriam.
The past few weeks have been filled with uni stress spontaneous escapades and bakehouse runs. My body aches for the fulfilment of real food but who has time to cook when your gallivanting around the countryside making music. We are in the depths of tech exam week and I feel so free. Mine was yesterday and though it brought some expected slipups I am glad to be out of the practice room for a time and into the second hand bookstore for a whopping eight dollar spending spree. Yes I am perpetually broke but you would be surprised how many books you can buy with eight dollars.
I am happy to announce that practice is finally underway without too much complaint, there's nothing like a deadline to encourage musical growth. Speaking of growth in recent weeks my friendship with two unamed (but certainly not undervalued) people has grown a lot and in many ways I didn't expect. I'm so honoured to have them as my friends. They have shown me how to trust and put others above themselves. Patience, kindness and love. I see so much Christ in them and in the way they love each other.
I can't help but see God in the trees. In the everyday. On Monday I wanted to catch a bus to town. I had no wallet and nine dollars in my pocket. I was afraid that nine was not enough and I would be stranded in Huonville. The bus came, I got on and anxiously said "Student fare to hobart please." the bus driver replied "Nine dollars thankyou."
I laughed, enough said.
I am going to Sydney with friends on Friday to see a long lost con student. Well maybe not lost, just relocated. I have no idea what our plans are once up there but that is so exciting in itself. The only organised events are the plane arrival and departure. Oh and a trip to Hillsong church. I have never been to a congregation that size. How exciting.
I read a passage in one of Dan Brown's books yesterday. It was a conversation between a Swiss guard and a priest on how God can be omnipotent and benevolent. How God could be good and loving and yet there was still pain in the world. This brought me back to religion class in grade eleven and the study of the problem of evil. I remember Ruth handing us a piece of paper and saying "Many theologians have spent years studying this problem and it has never been solved."

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to
Then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing
Then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing
Then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing
Then why call Him God?

Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270BC)

I realised that this small riddle had been a catalyst for my time time away from church and God. Though I said to myself at the time I will solve it. This won't damage my belief. It took years for me to stop seaching and accept that I don't need to know. Only to find now three years after religion class ended that the answer was in this book and reading it I had known for quite a while subconsiously what the answer was.
For those few who are interested it is in Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Who would have guessed that this biblical truth could be hidden in a book famous for its promotion of catholic conspiracy. With that faure into the mind of me I will depart. Until next time.......

As this is my first post and first blog I should just apologise for any mistakes I make in the coming weeks. I am not particularly technologically minded and computers scare me a little. You may ask then why did I make a blog? I figured that it was about time I entered the 21st century and give myself yet another way to procrastinate. I will attempt to blog my thoughts on God, life and general issues I have encountered. As it stands life is great. I have great friends that are keeping me accountable, a full schedule at uni and church and music overflowing out of my ears.
Yesterday I spent Anzac Day on Mt Field with Alan, Mark and Andrew. So much fun. I never expected to have such a great time crawling around the rocks.
I just realised it is twelve thirty and i haven't done any practise. Whoops.