Life's insights

Life is such a wonderful gift with so many lessons great and small in even the seemingly mundane things that may look as though there is no significance in them, but then when you look closer, you see a whole lot of profound and practical insights to help you through this journey of life. This blog is a celebration of life. 

Going back o Brisbane...

WE have begun in our hearts and minds to make the journey back to Brisbane from our new home in Tonga! I can't believe that it has only been a year since we moved here, because so much has happened in such a short span of time. These pictures here are of my children's school in Tonga - I am so very proud of them adjusting to school life here. It has been challenging and extremely different for them, that is for sure. But somehow I think they will each cherish and miss their time spent living in Tonga. I know I will.....

Neighbourhood Watch TONGA...

It's after 3 in the morning and I'm blogging! Can't sleep. :)
We arrived back from our holiday in NZ about 3 weeks ago, only to find out that someone had stolen our stereo, satellite tv tuner and a few other odd bits and pieces that were in our lounge room.
A couple of days ago, we were robbed for the second time and this time it was my cellphone that was stolen. After midnight tonight, some of our neighbours called out to my husband over the fence and through our kitchen window wanting to talk to him. He went over and spoke to the family who told him that they have just found out who has been stealing from us! One of our neighbours, a young boy/youth has been breaking into our house and taking things from our lounge, the rooms and even tried to steal our car stereo while we were away on holiday! All this they realised when he came over to their house looking for a nokia phone charger to charge his phone that "his sister sent him from NZ"!!! When they put the phone on the charger, they were shocked to see Cyrus' face smiling at them on the screensaver, and realised that this guy had just stolen it from our house! About half an hour after THAT conversation, one of the brothers of this family dropped by to tell David the whole story saying how this guy has been bragging about stealing from us. But this family and some of the young boys from our other neighbours didn't feel right about it, especially as David is a man of God and they believe that curses may come upon them for their friend doing this! They then disappeared into the night and came back 10 minutes later with some of our goods, saying that they know where this boy stashes his stolen goods.
Tomorrow David is going with these boys to the police to get our stereo, phone and anything else back, and bring this young man to justice.

Stay tuned for more updates on our neighbourhood watch saga's..... :)

My life in Tonga

It's been three weeks today since we arrived back to Tonga from our holiday break in NZ. Two weeks away from returning, I think I was a little apprehensive and unsure of what to expect of myself on coming back to Tonga. But I'm happy to say that it's been nothing but positive, exciting and adventurous! I think God really had to give me a new heart for the nation and to readjust my whole perspective on us being here and even His purpose for sending us here in the first place. 2010 felt like a marathon year on so many different levels for me, that I had to do a whole lot of soul searching over the holiday break. BUT.... having done that, all I can say is that it's good to be back and that I'm as ready as I'll ever be to finish the task at hand.

Praise the Women!

I was recently blessed to go on a quick short trip to NZ this last week to sort out some things for my husband's campaign. On the plane back to Tonga, I had time to reflect on the short trip and this feeling of praise, honour and enormous gratefulness welled up in my heart for the many wonderful women I had met on the trip who had helped tremendously in getting things done for this campaign. Without them, it would be sheer hard slog and labour!

This feeling then overflowed to encompass all the women I know and have met, many who do so much behind the scenes and may not be in the frontline, yet without their tireless work, support, commitment, dedication and loyalty..... much of what is seen on the frontline would not be possible!

So this blog is simply to say.... PRAISE THE WOMEN - because without all of us, it would be a boring, harder-slog world..... and probably an emptier world as reproduction would be pretty darn impossible!!!

And all the men say..... AMEN! LOL.

Happy Days...

Yesterday we celebrated Eden's 3rd birthday. It was an awesome day and has been a weekend full of just celebrating her life and even just spending quality time with our kids! So proud of Chizzy and Omega for taking on the responsibility of organizing her decorations, games and little party things. It's awesome seeing our kids grow up and I am loving who they are and who they are choosing to be. Even at this young age they are making choices and seeing things that I know for sure I didn't choose or see at their age.... nor even at an older age. Thank God for His grace and wisdom.

Life in Tonga

It's been 4 months now since we've moved to Tonga to live. We're loving it here - especially the challenges of a different culture, mentality, language and dying to self (my neverending process! Lol). We have been really blessed living here, just seeing God move in this nation during this crucial time of change and transition. We have been praying for this whole transition to take place exactly as He desires, and exactly as He wills. We have been absolutely humbled by Him and His ways in this nation.

We have Lynette from Auckland and Josh. S. from Brisbane here at the moment. Josh is here to stay, and Lynette will fly back next week. But we're launching ICON forums tonight, and there is a great sense of excitement and anticipation as we step out to run this programme for the youth here. Definitely everybody that we have spoken to has confirmed the need for this programme to help with all the youth issues here in Tonga. Very exciting!