A Time to Thrive in 2025...

The subject of this blog might feel a little catchy, or even childlike, but I feel it adequately is how I feel about this trip.

There were many blessings to begin with. After taking a very long flight to get to Melbourne (roughly 2.5 hours to L.A., followed by 15.5 hours to Melbourne), I actually felt pretty good about the hours of sleep I got on the plane, even if they were on-and-off and not deep—I’ll take anything I can get! What I also felt as a benefit was that there was a whole day before we truly began, which was great as I could relax and catch up some on the time difference.

We spent that weekend in “preparation,” by praying for each of the missionary women, preparing the materials and gifts, and growing together as a group. It ended up that not only did I know quite a few volunteers from the Thailand trip last year, but there were three from Black Mountain, North Carolina! (That’s where my parents and I used to vacation some summers when I was growing up.) And in fact, another woman is moving to Weaverville, NC, which is where the Young Life Camp, Windy Gap, is that I worked at in 2006.

These are pictures of us before the missionary women had arrived...

These are a few pictures of where we were in downtown Melbourne... as well as those from a boat tour...

(Just wondering... doesn't the walk sign at the intersection look like he's walking in the wrong direction? It also kind of seems like they're all heading in the opposite direction while driving... who know, who knows.)

And then on Monday, the missionary women started to arrive. In the end there were only 24 women who attended, which was such a contrast to the 98 women who showed up last year in Phuket, Thailand. I believe it might have been because Australia is a little bit out of the way for a lot of countries? As well as no land around it? However, for me it was nice to be back in the land that I used to live in…

Here is a picture of all the missionary women + the volunteers...

For small groups, due to the little size there were only 8 total groups, each with 2 leaders and three missionary women. I was the co-leader with a woman from Iowa, and we were well-paired. One of the missionary women was in her 20s, the other in her 40s (just a few years older than me), followed by one in her 60s (who was a bit younger than our leader). One served in India, and she had lived there before for one year, but then the government made her and her husband leave. Yet, they recently were able to renew their visa and were aiming to fly back after the retreat ended! Another one served near Perth, Australia, and she had been on the field for 10 years. And lastly, one worked in Southern Taiwan, and she had lived there for 38 years (so I have lived for a short time near two of them!).

Therefore, even though they were very different ages, spent various times on the field, and in varying countries, I felt our group was well-knit. We saw a lot of interaction, encouragement and words of wisdom among them all. I am so thankful God works that way: even though you could think they might not be able to relate, God used each one in their own way to be a part of the group and build each other up.

Here is the time when one of the women from my Thrive group got her present! (my Fellowship Group and I purchased all that went into that gift for her!)

For the schedule, there was worship and a talk from the speaker in the morning, followed by “soul-care appointments” in the afternoon, and a light-hearted evening session. These soul-care appointments included counseling, pedicures, prayer times, mini-facials, massages, health consults, and my task: spiritual direction. You might have read in my previous email that even though there were supposed to be three spiritual directors, the other two couldn’t make it, so I was the only one physically present.

As I was at the sign-up table where the women arrived, and I wasn’t sure who would know what spiritual direction really meant, I was so glad and enthralled as all of the sessions were filled up! In fact, there were a few extras, so they had to meet virtually with other Thrive spiritual directors back in the U.S.

How you signed up for spiritual direction...

The sessions were each 50 minutes long, and due to the schedule, there were 3 occurring on Tuesday and 5 more on Wednesday. Now, know that I am not a professional counselor, so I am not used to meeting with that many people on one day, and definitely not back-to-back. So, I must admit I was a little nervous. Would I be able to last that long and engage with each woman intimately and individually?

So, there was a lot of prayer to go deep with each woman rather quickly to know her and learn about her walk with the Lord. It was so incredible as each woman was working in a different country of the world—Japan, South Africa, Thailand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Swaziland, and Israel. I loved learning about their lives and the different parts of life they were in—women who were mothers and unsure how to spend their time, or dealing with health problems, or struggling with her relationship with God, or nearly retired and not sure what to do next, or needing direction from God, or not feeling right with the organization they were affiliated with, etc. Each of these were a variety of situations, and I strongly pray that God gave me the words to say, knew when to listen, or just be silent and let the Holy Spirit do His work.

I truly pray each session was God’s work and not mine. Whenever I have that realization, it is truly an activity I thoroughly enjoy. I am so relieved that I don’t have to strive to be perfect or say just the right thing at the right time. Instead, I pray it’s God speaking through me. Granted I also pray if I say something that’s not helpful or wrong, that the person will totally forget it and move on. Through it all, I feel God did His work, as each woman seemed appreciative and grateful after each session ended.

These are pictures showing the speaker, the attendees, volunteers, and everything that was provided for us all...

Overall, I know the trip was such a blessing to each woman who attended and volunteered with me. I heard many times that the missionary women there were so grateful it was such a small group, as they felt they truly got time to meet with God alone, as well as feel cherished and blessed with the other women around them. And all the volunteers said they felt the trip was greatly covered by God’s love and care for each woman who attended.

What was fun was that after the final morning session, we had the afternoon free, so I spent time with the two women I know from YWAM Perth! (as well as another woman serving in South Africa) It was so good to truly catch up, because even though I saw and talked to them occasionally throughout the retreat, I didn’t really get enough time to see how they were. In particular, one was my previous manager in the communications department, so I knew her more closely, and we talked about some old memories, changes and the current layout with similarities/differences, as well as know how to pray for her. Although I’m not sure if or when I’ll be in Perth again, it was so good to see them again, and like last year when I saw two other YWAMers in Thailand!

Here I am with the other YWAM Perth-ers!!

For completion, we spent the next day endeavoring on all we had seen throughout the trip—which included the changes we saw in the missionary women’s hearts, ways we saw God move in their lives, and prepared how to talk about our time there, as well as affirming each other in how God used them throughout the trip.

Finally, on our last day, we went on the “Great Ocean Road Tour,” and I am so grateful I got to go on it as another volunteer paid for my participation. It was great to see different viewpoints from the southern side of Australia. On the side of a hill looking out to the ocean, we even saw a home Nicole Kidman owns, and where she and Tom Cruise were seen together (although not recently, obviously). It was so crazy to me as our tour guide once pointed over the water and said that was the way to Antarctica… which totally makes sense, but I’ve just never thought about it being that close.

These are pictures on the Great Ocean Road Tour we took on our last day in Australia...

These last ones are quite a few pictures of my roomie (at the hotel) and I, a picture of a lot of the volunteers, our stop for lunch, and a picture showing what I'd look like if I stuck my fingers in a socket... just fyi.

Let me conclude that I feel so extremely blessed and grateful for this trip. I can’t thank you enough for your support—whether that was monetarily, or prayer, or encouragement. God taught me a lot throughout the entire time: that missionary women desperately need renewal. He can use women who are not current missionaries to support and encourage them—wherever they are and in whatever situation they’re going through. Personally, I also learned that God really can use me in whatever way He wants to—even though sometimes I’m speculative if I’m qualified. It is a time He lets me “thrive.” (look again at the subject of this blog)

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The image below is of a verse I ran across a while ago, and I think it is entirely perfect to give to missionaries. So, I wrote it out, placed it on some paper, scanned and printed enough copies to give to each of the missionary women. I pray this encouraged them…