The Real Nicole.

Last school holidays I had the pleasure and privilege of telling and facilitating space for some of God's Story to be experienced at NCOH Youth's camp in Walkers Flat on the Murray.  NCOH is the Northern Community of Hope - a church in Daveron Park with a real heart for the community around them, a church for some of the real broken people just coming as they are and experiencing God.  I was there as part of the Access the Story team - speaking out the meta-narrative of God, and to be honest I was pretty excited to have been asked to go because I felt validated by the Access the Story crew as a capable communicator, leader or maybe even just as a leader.  It was an amazing week, of ministry opportunities, of trying things a little out of my comfort zone, of watching and responding to the community and culture and of new friendships and perceptions. My friend and colleague Trav whom I accompanied on camp shared his reflections here . There was a few things I learnt abo...

One thing I've really struggled with since being Is Naracoorte is making friends. Don't get me wrong I've got some mates. But every week at church it's a real struggle to know who I should sit with. I pray that youth will come and not have their family with them to sit with. Often I sit alone. It's not nice. A few years ago I wrote for the New Times (Uniting Church SA magazine) about being a young adult in church and not being treated as an adult because its the church you grew up in and older members of church don't really realise you have grown up because they remember you as a kid. I thought when I moved churches and started in leadership I would be treated as an adult. But I still find that difficult in my new context. Not because people are horrible but I think because the age gap is big. Most of the church congregation is 40 years old and older. In fact I think there are maybe 5 people aged 20-40 in the congregation. Then there are youth.  Now these ot...

One thing that totally blows my mind and overwhelms me is how much my life has changed in 6 months.  Now I don't mean that in a bad way, because some of the things I've done and achieved is awesome. But it really does shock me.  6 months ago I was living at home and leading in the youth group of the church I grew up in. I wasn't unhappy, I fact I loved it, I was exploring what God wanted me to do though. With my whole life for a long time. I like details, and I don't feel like I have very many in that category. But God has sent me on this awesome journey to the country and I really love it here. I love the community and the slower pace, I love that I feel safe walking around and generally being here and there is loo worry about doors not being locked and stuff.  I love the sporting community and atmosphere, I totally would have done sport growing up if it was like that in the city and you didn't have to pay a million bucks and be elite to get good sporting communi...

It's been a long time since I've blogged. My life has experienced a lot of changes recently. Last year I really struggled with study and life, it got the better of me and I ended up spending a lot of time curled up in a ball crying. One thing I really learnt in that time was that I really did wanna trust God wholeheartedly and follow all He had planned for my life. I also realised that I had a wider support network and friends than I thought and that these people were prepared to stay with me no matter what I faced.  The biggest thing in my life probably ever was that I got a job as a youth pastor and moved out of home and 400kms away from where I had spent my whole life so far. I moved to the country.  The story isn't as easy as that though, God totally blew my mind with the way He revealed himself to me and its kinda been a crazy adventure. - I'll give you the whole story in my next post! Also over the summer i was involved in CE Camp as a leader as well as B...

I have this friend. She is great. One of my best friends I'd say. Probably my closest friend. Why? Well I meet her at the start of this year when she started attending at my church. Funny story actually when we first met we joked around quite a bit, I thought she was great. I was talking the the youth pastor about how awesome she was - he knew her from a previous church - he was like she's great, be her friend and get her to youth lead with you. Now my youth pastor was only joking when he told me to befriend her so she will be a youth leader. But that's exactly what happened not like that though. The first night we lead a small group together was awesome, I loved having someone who just seemed to so naturally bounce off what I had to say and finish my questions. We were Bert and Ernie the youth ministry world. We road tripped to Sydney for hillsong together and it was some of the best fun I've had. She encouraged me, laughed at and with me, danced with me, support...