Duffy Update

Duffy came back out of nowhere on Easter Monday. All that running around the garbage dump walking through how many different neighbourhoods and she just appeared in the veranda while Jaydon and I were home alone and Jitoko and mum went to visit the church land.

She was practically clean and looked well looked after.

My guess is, God answered one 5year olds prayer. For the two weeks that duffy was missing he was praying that Jesus would bring her back home to him. Faith of a five year old!

I'm a wholly mmammoth

This is hilarious considering we have been watching iceage all week. Thanks to Mr 5years old. 

My results from the Earth Day quiz!

Final Moments

Looking through Tanz's mum's funeral photos today take me back to the day we fare-welled dad. Almost as real today as it was on that day. Even to his final moments. I realise I did not document them. Maybe some part of me is afraid that writing them down will mean I forget or somehow lose these fragments of what ever I hold on to, can remember.
Playing them over and over in my head sometimes worrying that I might forget, that I'll get some part of it wrong. Somehow its becoming sketchy. Some portions of it I try to think back and draw up blanks. If only I could hear his voice one more time. If only I could see him one my time. If only I could touch his hand again. It must be so hard for mum, 46years of her life completely dedicated to this man and then one day he's gone
Didn't help watching that Paul Walker final tribute took me right back to those raw feelings of absolute total finality. I don't know if I was crying because Paul Walker was dead or that those were the emotions I experienced losing dad or the realisation that there was going to be no more dad. For as long as I live and if the rapture was to take place when i am forty then that is another 8-10years of my life without dad in it. Then the realisation that I mum is getting old too. Mum is slowing down. She is tiring out. She is not the same as she was 3years ago. Is slowing becoming snappy. Is getting tired easily. Is becoming forgetful and....I could lose her also.
We went to the graveyard in the weekend. Heartbreaking to think that whatever's left is only that piece of land inside of which you wonder how far along is the decaying process? What must his body look like inside of there? Where is he now. And for months maybe 1 and 1/2years I've been wondering where is dad? Is he alive and with Jesus or is he sleeping? Did he really make it to heaven? What if he didn't. it wasn't until the Easter preaching then I realised Jesus said to the thief hanging beside him. 'Today, you will be with me in Paradise' Today- meaning I can look up to the sky now and find that assurance that he is looking down at me. He is up there with God and Jesus and smiling down, cheering me on. And that is what I tell Jaydon and boy were the questions coming that Easter week when we lost Duffy. If Jesus died and rose again then when will Jesus bring pa back? When we gonna see pa? How God called pa? well we found duffy, thank God and that was a testimony of its own. I mean praying for a dog. A dog collected and taken to the dog pound to be put to sleep but for some reason was not- man that intervention. The same day that was to happen, I remember praying Lord bring her back or bring us some closure for the sake of this 5year old. he has already known loss through loss of his grandpa and a cousin who was buried out at sea and two dogs who had to be put to sleep. So much loss for a 5year old. From the dog pound she ran away but we do not know where she has been. Maybe the guy at the pound who says he wanted to keep her but she ran away really did try to keep her and she ran away from his place. All we know is she did not come back from the direction of the pound and she looked well kept and that was only God sending some angel to help her escape from wherever she was being kept.
Going back to daddy's final moments, maybe I'll leave that for another day!

Missing Dog

Duffy's been missing since Tuesday.
While I hated having 3 dogs, she was a very good guard dog and all that noise in the middle of the night really should have got me out of bed to check but I was too tired to bother.
If she was lying dead nearby I am sure the other two would have smelled her out by now but since she is not and she is a very smart dog I am hoping she finds her way back home soon. It bothers me to think that there is a dog napper out there that we would have to be extra careful with our Ridgeback Scooby. Worse off, dog went missing on my watch. Jitoko dog and Jitoko's away. i wonder if somewhere at the back of his head he'd be wondering if I had anything to do with this. I mean yes I have complained about 3 dogs but this is not how I wanted Duffy or any one of them to go. It would have been hard to give them either too.

That is duffy at the back. She has slick black shiny hair which actually stands when she is on guard. I would definitely understand why someone would want to take her but I cannot see someone actually managing to successfully take her. So here is to hopping that she is ok and that she is fine and will find her way back home. I dread thinking of Priscilla's dog who was taken by someone nearby us and was black like duffy and whom she had to pay $180 to get back.

Youth & Young adults session

 C3 Conference: Second Elective

Youth & Young adults session - Russell Evans

Nothing like walking in the purpose.

Reaching the next generation first.

Your promise always has be tested tested to prove that it is a promise.

What you honour is what you receive from.

The devil will always attack your promise. Your dream and vision will aways be ttacked because it is yours.

But I cant.... - Acts 1:8 You shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you.

Don't listen to the lie. Communicate with his power which gives you the ability and the efficiency and mind.

Church needs people to have encounters as well as the fun programme, not just the fun programmes. 

It is the encounters that

- change lives

- defines people

- transforms people

What God has called us to do:

Matthew 10:8 -heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, cast out demons, freely as you have received, freely give.

Outcasts in society

Do what you feel God wants you to do - what does God want you to do?

Miracles happen at the end of obedience.

Encounter & love of youth pastor - what changed Russell Evans life, was an insecure Pastor's kid

Someone went and looked for him and untied him  like the donkey in Mark 11

The Donkey was tied up

Young people today- nobody is looking for them

God is looking for somebody to look beyond where they are to untie them.

The donkey was an unriden donkey

The donkey had never been trained

church for disciples

God needs a generation to be untied.

If this generation does not stand up he will condemn it and use the next generation (Isrealites that crossed the desert different from the ones that entered the promise land)

A need for a generation that will rise up and say yes to his promises.

Even if the generation is not et tried or proven- I want them - God

Our job is to take the mantel of annointing that God has for us and put it on the next generation.

The next generation needs to get a mantel that they can carry. its time to give your mantel.

Else won't receive the victory they had or see the breakthrough from one generation to the other.

"I want what you've got" x 2 - a generation that needs double Elijah

The things that Elijah did, Elisha did double.

After Elisha's life no one was there to carry the annointing because no one honoured it. It died with Elisha.

Jesus sat on the donkey. He could sit on the donkey. He is looking for a donkey to sit on to carry his presence into the city.

The disciples had set that in motion by obeying his command to bring the donkey. For the mantle to carry his presence into the city.

The people shouted Hosana- save us

When we empower the next generation to carry the presence of the Lordt the he city will cry out of their need for something more, something higher. 

Regardless of whether they are in a nightclub, they will realise their need for him. 

We have something higher.

"In his presence there is fullness of joy"

This generation is looking for something that only the presence of God can bring- who is the vehicle that will bring the presence into the city?

Who is the donkey?

Challenge for the next generation to receive.

Challenge for this generation to give.

Challenge for this generation to rise up and be a vehicle.

This is our Time

This song has been playing in my head since we came back. Was sung at the conference as theme similar to conference theme. This is our Day. This is a new era of God's children called to step out and declare his word

I probably should have shared this a while back and its really just being lazy to type it up thats all. 

The first night topic at the conference was A new Day by Russell Evans of planetshakers his church is now 11000 people or is it 22k? 

Anyway he spoke on the new day now meaning a new era. 

1 Chronicles 4:10New International Version (NIV)

10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.

that there are territories that God has given us that still need to be enlarged. 

That in Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. that is our true worship and that God hates rebellion. That we need to stop comparing ourselves to others. That the only thing we are in competition with is ourselves. That we will need to give an account for our call. 

(He spoke about what our call is in a later topic, I will send later)

That like Jabez's prayer God will/has given us a dream and has called us to pray about it and just like in the case of Jabez he will grant it.

How to live in this season? (new era)

Habakkuk 2 King James Version (KJV)

2 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Habakuk 2: 1

stand and watch and wait and see what God will say to me.

v2 write it down- write the vision down and make it plain on tablets.

That God wants to download new dreams and visions to us.

That he wants us to think through a new way of thinking by spending time in his presence where he will download things to you and wants us to write it down.

That we need a moment of encounter with God because its where we will get first hand revelation. That the devil will attack second hand revelation like he tested eve by asking eve- "Did God really say that?" Thats why we need our own revelation. 

he also said that for our dreams that have been sitting collecting dust we need to take it off the shelf and dust it off and put it infornt of us and thoroughly speak otu what God wants to do and be specific with what we want God to do by writing it down. That we need to start with the small thats that God speaks to us about because if we never start with the small we will never do the big and that we need to develop a new listening by listening for the small things that God is speking to us in or we will miss ot on listening to the big things he is telling us.

God gives dreams.

Obstacles come but pray and don't give up. That we need to get into a place where we can believe again.

That when we say Bless me Lord- its the same as saying I believe again.

Enlarge my territory, let your hand be upon me- because we believe him again...and trust him to lead us- positioning ourselves

preparing orselves to succeed.

Everything is created in dreamland.

Put it before you for you everyday- in the thankfulness of God.

God doesn't move- you move.

Big dreamers

Big God

When God speaks to you- new era, new day, more

Keep dreaming in every part.

Jeremaiah 33:9-11

9 And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.

10 Thus saith the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,

11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord.

people will have Fear of the Lord from the prosperity he gives you.

For broken dreams, he said its time to get a new dream

write how to bring them to pass over obedience over small things.

So this was day1. Hopefully in the next few days I can summarise and send like this.

I think this is a profound word for us as a family and as individuals that its our time. We just need to trust him and spend time with him to receive from him then go declare.

Big Job

I guess its like they say life begins at 40 but I'm more excited that I gave him a word right around the time he resigned telling him God had bigger things instore for him this year. In my little head I had no idea it was this big. Oh well next week we find out whether the Lagakalis are spending Christmas in Brazil, Indonesia or Sydney. being abit selfish I want them to be based in Sydney so that we can visit Bin at the same time but wouldn't it be nice to visit Brazil or Indonesia. Wow....and right on the heels of having to save up for Hawaii for the first week of January. Gosh exciting times ahead and I have to save save save every single cent for all these trips. I worry about how this will affect Jitoko, the furthest he has been from his family was when marrying me. Maybe this will open up a door for us too. Big changes for this family, excited nervous, not sure how everything will work out but definitely happy happy happy for these guys....ha....definitely interesting times ahead!