Arrows




"Your siblings are your best friends."

I'm so thankful our parents taught us this. 

I think I must’ve signed a life-long contract before I was born that I’d be committed to the relationships in my family like never otherwise seen in external friendships.

I'd fight tooth and nail for every one of you.

You've seen me at my best, experienced me at my worst, loved me all the way through, and vice versa.

Some of the best times of my life have been with you. We have been through a lot of crap, made each other mad as a cut snake and laugh like no other person on earth can, sometimes broke each others’ hearts with our honesty, had a damn lot of fun, told the truth about our faith journeys and told the truth when no one liked it, faced our insecurities and confronted our fears together, helped each other heal in places we didn’t know were broken, dealt with conflict in healthy and unhealthy ways, became adults in a world we don’t understand, learnt to have what it takes, respected and still now continually understanding the need to appreciate the differences in our make up… and raised to know we are loved by God!

He has fired these 7 very different arrows into so many different places. Places I never imagined we’d be, location-wise, faith-wise, health-wise, life-wise.

Mum has always said "I have no greater joy than to know my children walk in the truth." 
(3 John 1:4)

I grasp hold of that as well. It really struck me when I saw this photo, though it hasn’t got all of us, and I have been thinking about this for a week now: I am deeply grateful for how God is growing each of us and teaching us in unexpected ways. I know I am still learning what “unconditional love” and “hope” and “faith” means in this hard, very real and broken world. And through the struggles, joys and tears, I’m getting there slowly. Thanks for being the ones I can count on and for how you’ve shaped me into the person I am today.

Don’t ever give up gang. We’re in this for the long haul and we’ll make it with God’s strength of Spirit. 

And I happily echo what Dad has always said, "If you need me, call me and I'll come get you."

I am so grateful for you and I love you very much. 

                                                                     <3  

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Net/notworking

 networking

/ˈnɛtwəːkɪŋ/

noun: networking

1. the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts.


It's weird how normal social skills have had to become a part of what I do for work. In one way, it is amazing the connections that can be traced to and from every which and way through so many different avenues of faith to similar interests to work to church to mutual friends & acquaintances. It's sooo exciting to meet people and find where we all fit in this great big world.

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A Piece of My Journey, A Piece of My Mind..

 I guess you could say it started with the attempt at hiking Flagstaff Mountain in Tamworth, a 5km round trip from the top of Oxley Lookout. Except it did start awhile before that. 

The end of last year (and most of this one!) was hectic for me.

Tamworth had been working its way into my heart since Country Music 2020, and perhaps even before then. It wormed its way down and out, resulting in a job offer to work for Scripture Union in the North West of all places. 

October saw me serving at a leadership conference with my future boss, the purchase of my first car, resigning from my much loved church office job. 

November saw my start with SU, taking on afternoon oosh shifts at home when I could get them (afternoon so I'd have enough space for driving time), covering two days of chaplaincy in the north west region, travelling back and forth from Tamworth to home several times a week, finalising work with my parents and the office, handing over leading a bible study. 

December saw preparation for Christmas carols at my home church, the start of packing up my belongings, resigning from oosh, spending as much time as I could with my Maitland crew. 

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Fall in Love

🍂
I thought I knew what love was:
feeling the dying summer sun’s kiss on my warmth-craving skin;
when the earth feels like a warm embrace to my bare feet,
the air tastes like reminiscing.
Love like a spring fever, turning cold and winterish so slowly,
so gradually I can hardly tell that the season’s changing at all,
as autumn results in a fall;
that’s all I know.
April invites the mountains,
the rivers and birds May call for attention,
on the brink of the most beautiful destruction and preparation,
enough to be felt within my bones;
the sun on my skin like a lover gazing into my eyes,
trying to tell me something true,
this is what autumn is:
the breeze gently asking this world
are you ready?
Make the most of me.
Green sprouts of hope,
blue skies of purity;
it really is so simple!
Creation at its finest,
tainting memories with its beauty.
Love, like fall, doesn’t always stay
a bittersweet taste;
but heartbreak is cared for in the sweetest way,
Fall in love.
Fall:
the years March into the past, but fall
is always just around the corner,
to sweeten the break,
to soften the ache,
to gently heal the pain
and remind me that beginnings
sometimes start with a fall,
to take me deeper
and deeper;
to give courage
for the winter.
Because love lingers
where I least expect...
and fall reflections
will once again
lift my spirits.
🧡
- olivia jane

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Lips





Nothing feels as good as lips without cold sores.

A cold sore is an infection, generally on the lip, that begins as a hot itchy tingling, until it becomes swollen from the inside, showing up like a puffy blister on the outside of the affected area. It has the ability to make the victim feel very miserable, lethargic, depressed, irritated, and upset. It’s like an entire head cold condensed into one tiny spot. And if you touch it at all, it will spread double across the lips. 

They are very painful and take more than a week for the wound to fade, if it’s picked at during the healing process, the cold sore will scar the lip, leaving traces of uneven pink dots on the lip  that show up when in different temperatures. 

Generally you either get them or you don’t. I’m the former. I have always managed to get these when I am either very tired, had too much sugar, change of season, touching my lips too much, being upset too often, stress, or instead of a cold.

Often as soon as I would feel the tingle I knew what would be coming and no pill or remedy has been quick enough to stop it once the hot tingle is felt.

I’ve tried pressing onion halves against the lip until it burns like mad, lipsyne pills, cold sore pills, bepanthem cream, carmex, lip balms, scratching them to speed up the process, different poultices, drinking a lot of water, etc etc the list goes on, and none of those manage to reduce the infection quickly and effectively.

Knowing that there is no quick fix, over the past years I have simply let them be when they come, try not to touch my face, and lastly, pray for my lips.

And from years of experience I know for sure and certain when I’m about to get a cold sore and not just a pimple etc, but I’ve found the more I’ve prayed over my lips and rebuked the cold sores from coming upon them, the outcome of my prayers have become more obvious, as I find the faith to choose to believe that no, I don’t have to put up with this any longer.

A prayer that I’ve prayed and memorised a lot has been from various scriptures speaking into my current issue:

Lord, thank you that you love me, thank you for your healing power that resides within me by your Holy Spirit. Cold sore, I speak to you in the name of Jesus, you have no right to remain in my body for I am a child of the most high God. He himself in his body on the tree bore my sin, sickness and disease that by his stripes I would be healed and made whole.
I speak to any infection trying to come upon me, be healed in Jesus name, you have no rights for I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. I speak to my lips to function as they were created to function, to the skin cells to be normal in Jesus name, I speak to the tingling and itch to be gone in the name of Jesus. Thank you Father for your provision of healing and the power that you have given me through your son Jesus, thank you Lord.
In Jesus Name, amen.

Literally just last night driving home from work I could feel a cold sore coming up and I felt my heart sink, that’s the last thing I need or want! But after I got home I looked at myself in the mirror remembering who God has called me to be. It’s not about works so no one can boast, but His victory is in my identity now and He does not withhold good from those He loves. I need to remember these things when the devil comes at me saying that I shouldn’t bother praying because I don’t deserve it. So I prayed anyway. I woke up this morning to a smooth lip. I said to God, I don’t think I’ll ever stop being astounded by His goodness, not that I doubt He can be so good, but because of the fact that He still is, despite all that I am.

God hears our prayers. He doesn’t desire our demise, He is but a breath away, and is urging us to take up our true identity of authority over darkness, confidence in the righteousness won for us, trust in the power of the name of Jesus, honest faith in the face of adversity by believing what He says, glorifying our Saviour with how we live our lives.


1 John 4:4
Isaiah 53:4-5
1 Peter 2:24
Luke 10:19
Matthew 10:8
Matthew 28:18-20

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Home

I've watched the sparks fly upward
I've caught the sunlight rays
I've hiked the hardest mountains
And raced the emus on the plains

I've seen the natives of this nation
I've met Aussies here and there
I've trekked across a sunburnt land
Where the precious water's rare

I've camped upon her rocky earth
I've howled the dingoes at night
I've heard how loud the foxes bark
And I've watched the wedgies fly

I've felt the outback's bitter cold
I've smelled the summer breeze
Travelled over gravelled roads
From desertland to trees

I've dusted red my riding boots
I've been to where I've never been
For what it's worth I know they're fair
Our colours of gold and green

In my heart I swell with pride
For this country wild and free
To know that I will always belong
In this wide brown land for me

- olivia jane 

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Withheld Words


Take me back to when I was a child
Where the insecurities hadn’t found me
To when I was oblivious and free
From the weight of responsibility 
No one told me that as an adult
I would fail under pressure
And no one knew that I’d become
Afraid and insecure
I’d like to know what I’d be like
I’d like to know if I’d be different
If my childhood growing up 
Had an alternative previously written
I cannot place the blame
For I’ve never had all the answers
But I know there’s things I wish I could change
That I know would be for the better
Do you believe me when I say
That I’m not like this in my head?
My actions have always lined up with
All the things I’ve said
But you haven’t heard the half of it
I am better than you think
I’m afraid that as I live my life
Half of me will continue to sink
This breath I keep replenishing
Always forces me to live
But I find no joy in having to withhold
The words I want to give

~ olivia jane

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