Dear Family and Friends

This has been a little overdue but it's finally here now :)

Brief overview on what I'm up to:

I'm still working with Ray White Invest (property fund managers) and really enjoying it. It's a great company and the people are really nice.

I'm part of a fiery church called Miracle Christian Centre and am constantly being challenged by mindsets I have versus what the Bible teaches. My church strives to teach on Bible principles and leave out church doctrine.

I've left my sister's house now and have moved to Cranbourne which is on the other side of Melbourne city. I now live in the area of where my church and social life is. I'm sharing a house with a girlfriend from church. She is a lovely girl and we get on really well. I'm very happy with this because the travelling was really starting to get to me. I catch the train to work and this keeps things a lot simpler. I live 1 minute away from Glen and needless to say I enjoy this :)

So, I've finally attached a picture of the lad. We are very happy together and are growing in getting to know each other and God. One of our pastors is providing oversight for us and accountability. I'm excited to see how God leads us.

As usual a lot has been happening for me. I'm looking forward to Christmas and slowing down a bit. My eldest brother, Mark, is coming from the UK to visit us so that will be really cool.

I have been attempting to respond to your emails and so if you've not had a response back yet, you will soon :)

I'd appreciate your prayers and I continue to pray for you as God puts you on my heart.

May He bless you richly and draw you closer to Himself!

Rach xo

My darling friends and family

I thought I’d better update you all before you send out the search party. Yes, I’m still here in Melbourne, Australia. I will not be returning to Hawaii as God, once again (You’re funny God!) has redirected my path. I’m sad to not see my very good friends there but happy knowing that I’m in the best place that I could be.

I’m loving being at my Da’s church. It feels like home already and the people are my family. They are so on fire for God and so practical in following Him and demonstrating their love for Him.

I’m now working full time. I was meant to be temping with a property group for a couple of months but then they offered me a full time role last Friday so I’ve accepted. I’m working for 4 guys but primarily as Personal Assistant to the Project Director. Sounds very posh but at the end of the day it pays the bills J They are very nice and I feel so blessed to be working there. We’ve been having some great conversations about God and I’m excited to see what He does in their worlds.

I’m sorry but there won’t be any pics with this update. I will try harder next time though ;)

My family are all well except that my sister is still struggling with her health. Please keep praying for Liz. I know God wants to heal her but I guess it’s a matter of His ways and timing. I’m staying with her but will be moving house in 2 months to be closer to church. I will be living with my Da.

I’ve saved the best news for last. I have a boyfriend now (I hear the surprised gasps J). But it’s true!! His name is Glen Travica. He has blue eyes and black hair (for all my girlfriends out there ;). He belongs to my Da’s church and is full of the Holy Spirit. He is 25 years old and is a very sweet and gentle man, yet with such fire of God. A very potent combination!! I feel very happy and at peace with this. It came as a complete surprise to me when he told me he like me. I liked him too so that settled that. It went through the leadership of our church and my Da and it became official on the weekend. So now everyone has license to tease us, or so they seem to think!! So it’s kind of easy to start to see some of the reasons why God has changed my travel plans back to Hawaii J I’ll post some pictures of him soon (assuming that he’s not camera shy J ). Please pray that we’d continue to walk in God’s Will for our lives and not stray from His blessed path.

I’m sorry for not been too good with responding to emails lately. I’ve no excuses really, but I can think up a lot J I will try to be better.

Well I love you all and miss you all.

May God’s peace, joy and love burst in you and through you this week. I pray that He will give you fresh and new revelations of His heart towards you and other people.

In Him

Rach xoxoxoxo

*Knock, knock* "Housekeeping!"
Farewell treat in Hawaii - whipped cream on sweet bread with fruit and cherry tomatoes. Simple but delicious.
Port Melbourne bay - home sweet home!
My Dad and sister - what good looking ppl! :)
Me and my sister - guess who is who :)

Hawaii: Aaron *we come in peace* and Me.
Hawaii: Aaron and Me - pls don't eat me!!
Hawaii: Me and Marina - peek a boo!
Hawaii: Me, Gracey and Marina - good friends.
Hawaii: Me and Eun Seol - partner in housekeeping crime.

Hawaii: Me, Aaron, So Jin, Simon - last night.
Hawaii: Me, Aaron, So Jin, Ben, Janet and Grace.
Hawaii: So Jin, Aaron, Me and Simon - last visit to Lava Java coffee house.
Hawaii: So Jin, Me and Marina - gonna miss u girls :(
Hawaii: So Jin, Me and Simon.

Dear Friends near and far

I am now back in Melbourne in the lovely continent of Australia. It’s been 9 months since I’ve been here and I’m very happy to return home. My family picked me from the airport and I could hardly contain my excitement. It was so weird to see them there waiting for me. Wow! I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

It is winter here and so a rather drastic weather change from warm Hawaii. I enjoy the cold weather and have missed wearing long coats and warm clothes. The leaves are still falling from the trees and the wind can get very strong at times.

I’m staying with my sister, who lives about 30mins from the city. She flats with two other girls and their house is right on the tram route so it is very good access into the city. The rest of my family live within walking distance of the city and my church is just another 10min tram ride so things couldn’t be better situated.

I’ve been here just over 2 weeks now. I’ve been taking my time slowly. I’ve been officially accepted to staff the French World Focus DTS with YWAM in Hawaii starting Sep 07. I don’t want to rush with things that I could organise but rather let things settle within me. I’ve experienced a lot with the last 9 months and I feel like I need some time to consolidate within myself.

I had an interview with a temp agency and I’ve been registered onto their books. The same day they offered me a job which I’ll start on 16/07. It’s a PA position filling in for a lady on maternity leave for 7 weeks. The pay is very good and it’s a God setup really. The job just fell into my lap.

So I will continue to fill up my days with catching up with friends over hot chocolate, learning guitar and teasing my Daddy until work starts. Rather a relaxing time!

I’ve attached some pictures. A few were taken here but the rest are from my last couple days of being in Hawaii.

So wherever you are, I pray that God will richly bless you and keep you safe within His arms.

Until we meet again…

Rach xo

PS - Have updated my contact details.

Housekeeping team (from left): Eun Seol, Jimmy, Johan, Me & Michael.
The gang's all here - Johan's farewell party *sobs*.
Just in case you've forgotten where I live atm.

Yeah, pretty amazing huh? :p
Princess club (from left): Snow White, Belle, Cinderella.
Exploring their feminine side - scarryyy!!
Oops - so occasionally we brush our teeth.
Profound... ;)

- Hailing all my delightful family and friends - humans, animals and vegetables.

- Ok, so it would only be fair of me to preempt this blog with the note that it's right now 10:48pm, which means that it's past my bedtime and so you'll have to excuse any lapses of mental coherence that may slip out.

- You'll be glad to see that I'm back to my weekly blogging AND you have pictures. Yay, three cheers - hip hip hooray!!

- God is Good. Amen! I have made some cool updates (at least I think so) to this blog site, which include but are not limited to...drum roll... "favourite quote of the week", "deep thought" and "praise report". You'll see these on the left hand side of the screen. I've also decided to open up my "please pray" section and make it available to all of you beautiful people. So if you have a prayer request (hello! we all need prayer!) please email me and I'll put it on my blog. I want to encourage us to be praying for each other. It's so important and so often I forget about the powerful impact of prayer. More prayer the merrier. I'll then be tracking them and adding the outcomes to the "praise report" section. I'll do this on a trial basis to see how it works out.

- On that note, I have listed three items for which I've been praying for and the outcomes. So thanks to those that prayed along with me. We have a God who enjoys listening to prayers and then answering them.

- So I guess you actually want to hear a little about what I've been up to lately? Oh my goodness, such pressure :) I have been working away like a little beaver in housekeeping. I enjoy it cuz I like laundry and keeping things clean. Funnily enough the monotony of the work doesn't bother me, which is unusual.

- My adopted brother, Lenin Michael Manirajah aka "BB" has returned to the land of the living. After not hearing anything from him for 6 months he suddenly turns up here in sunny Hawaii! Talk about freaky. So for all of you who know and love him you'll be glad to hear that he's doing really well and is excited to be returning to Australia soon. He's not too sure on his return dates but I suspect it's anytime from early to mid June.

- It's Monday night here now. I enjoyed a great weekend. Went to the beach (I know you guys think I do that everyday just because I live in Hawaii but I really don't!!) and tried really hard to not overuse my brain cells. That was easy :)

- It was a campus holiday for some today and so I got off work earlier than usual and spent the afternoon with some great people. I feel really blessed from having being able to listen and share with them what the Lord has been doing in me.

- So for y'all (Americanism) that weren't sitting in on my conversations today, here's a recap: God has really been opening my eyes to different hurts in my past which He has been wanting to bring out to the light to heal. It is a painful process but a very necessary one. I'm so grateful to be going through it even though it's not fun. However, I can already start to see the benefits and am so excited for some of the outcomes: deeper intimacy with Christ, more freedom, fuller joy and peace. I wasn't aware of most of the stuff and it's really made me think about how many people like me there must be.

- I want to leave you guys with a challenge this week: Would you pray and ask the Lord to expose anything that may be hindering your walk with Him?

- I pray that God will fill up any dry cups, wipe away any tears, bring smiles of delight to any glum faces, renew the passion and woo you even closer to Him.

Love

Rach xo

- PS Just in case you didn't know, each one of you is a very special person. You are dearly loved by God and cherished in His heart. He already knows what is going on in your world but loves it when you decide to talk to Him anyway. He has a special plan for you which is unlike anyone elses. He sees you as a unique and individual person. He longs to get to know you better. Will you let Him?

- PS1 I think you're pretty special as well :)

Hey Guys/Gals

The masses have been after me as they've become accustomed to my weekly blogs so I figure it's about time to do one! Maybe next week I'll be back into my usual routine.

Though this blog will be brief and lacking in pictures I'll try and make up for it with wit and humour (arrhhh...maybe not!!).

I'm going to be returning to Melbourne, Australia mid June. One girlfriend lovingly told me that she'll believe that when she sees me. It's okay girl, I won't hold that against you :)

I've been asked to staff French World DTS so I'll be returning to Hawaii in September to do that. It's a real God opportunity and something I'm very excited about.

Me, myself and I are keeping very well. God is continuing to do the healing work within me and though some challenges have been cropping up He has been giving me the grace to overcome.

I'm excited to be coming to Australia soon and seeing all your pretty faces again.

Love and hisses

Rach xo

FYI - My contact info has been updated.

Hyung Rang - such a lovely smile!
Aaron - having his green tea.
Marina and me - having fun.
Simon and Marina - friends.

Melbourne photo no.1
Melbourne photo no.2
Melbourne photo no.3

Melbourne photo no.4
Melbourne photo no.5
Melbourne photo no.6
Melbourne photo no.7
Melbourne photo no.8

My Daddy (50yrs).

My Mommy (47yrs).
Mark (25yrs) - my brother.
Michael (24yrs) - my brother.
Elizabeth (20yrs) - my identical twin sister.
Matthew (18yrs) - my brother.

Aloha dear ones

I have been in Hawaii this week. Hawaii is a group of islands and I’m on the “Big Island”. Just in case you want to drop by ;)

My focus this week was to change my tickets to return home to Australia (yeah Ozzies!!) but that was changed when my luggage was left in London because of an overcrowded plane. So I have had to extend my stay in Hawaii from the previously planned 2-3 days in order to wait for my luggage. I have been in Hawaii now for just over a week.

During my first day at the YWAM base here I was offered to stay and staff on a photography school. So I was praying about that last week. I don’t see returning home as a lesser option (heck, I miss you guys :( ) but I needed to check in with God to see what was the plan. So after much pray last week (and contemplating at the beach, yeah!) I felt to stay in Hawaii. I need financial provision in order to stay so my confirmation in staying will be in receiving that otherwise I will be returning to Australia. So please keep praying that God will direct my steps. I do long to see you guys in Australia but it may be a little be later than expected. Will keep you guys posted or just surprise you at church one day :).

I enjoyed a very relaxing week. Have been able to catch up with friends here and have had some very good prayer partners that have been very encouraging. I’ve been catching up on returning emails so if you’ve not had a response yet, then you’re probably next on my response list :)Yesterday I went to my first Western church service. I really enjoyed it. The sermon was on faith, which came as no surprise to me seeing as where I’m at right now. God certainly has a good sense of humour!! Then afterwards I had four friends come to the place I’m staying at to have a pool party. The weather was not tops but we had a lot of fun anyway. After feasting on a vegetable and fruit platter we braved the cold water and jumped in the pool. It was a pool party after all :). I’ve put up some pictures of that for you to see.

What I thought I’d do this week is introduce you to my lovely family, whom I love and cherish. So I’ve put up pictures and a bit of info about each one of them. For my Ugandan and American friends this will be your first opportunity to actually see my family. You get to see enough pictures of me each week so I figured that this would be a refreshing change.

My Family:

Da – 50 years old
He works as a financial planner and has been in the industry for the last 20 years. He is actively involved in his local church. He is a super cool guy. He wants to go to China as a missionary to mentor pastors. One of our favourite things to do together is to drive along the beach, listening to good music and chatting. We share a common bond in our love for sweet treats (hhmmm…Daddy, long overdue :) ) and enjoy investigating new bakeries.

Mom – 47 years old
She is a financial planner, has been in the industry for the last 20 years and runs her own business. She loves traveling and is always visiting some new place. She loves driving and testing the limits in her Volvo. She has a new guy in her life and is very excited about that. Our favourite thing to do is having tea and toast together. (Kettle on the boil Mama?) Not just any tea and toast mind you. You have to have all the right jams and at least three of them. Very particular way to do it.

Mark – 25 years old
He is a total computer genius and does both hardware and programming, though programming is his specialty. He lives in London, UK and has a girlfriend. His passion is snowboarding and wakeboarding. He chases the everlasting winter and has been around the world showing off his snowboarding skills. When he has to face the reality of summer he then heads to the nearest river/lake to wakeboard. I’ve not seen him for a few years now but when he lived at home our fav thing to do was to brag about who’s hair was the softest and longest (I think you may win the longest now Marka but mine is still softer :P ).

Michael – 24 years old
He has a very brilliant business mind and has been working in stockbroking and is now working with my Mom in her business. One of the many things he does is to be responsible for the cashflow of the business and all the financial dealings. He also manages the staff and oversees the day to day running of the office in a managerial position. He is a very bright cookie and has always been good with numbers. We love to go to one of the many cafes in Melbourne and have a nice coffee, something to eat and then chat about our many schemes and dreams (Missing those Mikey :( ). Have had many fantastic ideas come during these chats.

Elizabeth – 20 years old
This most beautiful and charming creature just happens to be my very own identical twin sister. She is older than me by 4 minutes, something she never made me forget as we were growing up (haahaa Lol, you remember? :) ) I wouldn’t trade her in for the world for anyone else. She has a very artistic view on life. She is at university and has nearly completed her Bachelor of Arts. She is great at so many things. She has done a DTS (Discipleship Training School) and then staffed a DTS with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She is currently involved in our local church and has a passion for youth in particular. She is very gifted and is at the moment refocusing to see what she’ll do next. We have so many things that we love doing together but our favourite is to just be together. We can chat for hours without a problem (as long as it is outdoors where we can see nature) and love hanging out with each other. When we are apart we clog up the Hotmail servers with the amount of emails we send back and forth. So if you’re a Hotmail user you know why it sometimes gets slow :).

Matthew – 18 years old
He is my baby brother but is taller than me so that kind of puts a damper on things. He is such a fanatic fitness guy. He is a bicycle courier and delivers packages around the city for 8 hours a day and then he comes home to work out in the gym, have a swim and maybe do some pilates. He’s not an exercise junkie but just loves challenging his body and pushing it to the limit. Last time I was home he was sporting some very nice muscles and so I’m expecting to see a substantial growth in those by the time I return. He loves studying languages and is very quick at picking them up. He is currently doing a degree focusing on his language study. My Da always thought He’d make either a good lawyer or a clown but he’ll be great at whatever he does. He has a great sense of humour and makes me laugh so hard that my ribs hurt. He loves taking many photos of himself with different facial expressions that I’m sure he’s set a new Guinness World Book of Records. We love mucking around together and just having fun. Sometimes he coaxes me out for a bicycle ride with him and then laughs at me when I’m struggling to make it up a hill. When I’m tired he’ll play something beautiful on the piano and will lull me to sleep. We also enjoy going out for a good dinner (hhmmm…Lemongrass restaurant Matty is a must do again :) ).

So as you can see, I am blessed with not only a very good looking family but also a very diverse and talented one. They are all so special in their own way and no I’m not putting them up for sale or sharing them :) None of my siblings are married yet but I’m very excited for when that starts to happen. Bring on the expansion of the kingdom!

I’ve also posted some photos of Melbourne so you can see where I live when I’m in Australia. Such a beautiful place.

Until next week when we may meet again, may “The Lord bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you (Numbers 6:24-25)”.

Love

Rach xo

(LA) What more needs to be said??
(LA) Me and the sign.
(From left:) Becka, Katrina, Me - having fun in LA!
Chilling in Hawaii.
(Hawaii) Marina and Me - mucking around!

(Uganda - From left:) Mags, Me, Bri - miss you guys :(
(Uganda) Me and Cory - lad from Oregon.
Last meal in Uganda: Fried cassava, peas on rice and sweet potato.
(Uganda) Me and Amon - smiling it up!
(Uganda) Georgie and me - getting him to smile.

(Uganda) Robert and me. Miss you bro :(
(Uganda - From left:) Sachias, Pilla, Me and Julius.
(Uganda - From left:) Me, Lupeti, Job and Pilla.
(Uganda - From left:) Tara holding Matty & Scott holding Caleb.
(Uganda) Crazy Sarah and Me. Love you gal!

Hi guys and girls :)

Have been receiving the lovely emails from Uganda and am missing you guys too. Hang in there :)

I've had a good trip so far and am now in Hawaii. Spent a night in London and in LA before reaching here. Was able to catch up with some girlfriends in LA which was great fun. We went to Hollywood and spent a day seeing some of the sights. Was pretty cool.

In Hawaii I'm enjoying languid (neat word, hey? :) ) days at the beach. I'm staying with a ladyfriend who lives up on a hill. Her house has a great view of the ocean. She lives 6mins away from the YWAM base here. She has very kindly lent me a car so I spend a lot of time at the base each day catching up with friends. Then in the afternoons I head down to the beach for some chill time with God.

It is rather bizarre being back in the Western world. It's taking some time to adjust. Went into a supermarket the other day and was astounded at the choices available. Not used to being around so many white people either! But I'm glad to be here and am enjoying myself.

I have been asked to staff the PhotogenX DTS (photography based school). They are in their fourth week and lecture phase ends in late June. This came as a complete surprise to me because I was not even looking for it. I'm going to be praying about this this week to see whether this is something God wants me to be doing. It's an amazing opportunity but so is going home :)

That's about all for this blog update. Enjoy the photos. May you all be blessed wherever and in whatever you are doing.

Love

Rach xo

PS - Also thanks for the comments posted on my last blog. They were very special to me.