YANCHEP PARK... We took a trip to Yanchep Park today. We saw kangaroos, and koalas. It was so amazing. Australia is so beautiful. The plants and scenery is just amazing. I'm so thankful to be here.
I really am so thankful. This morning I read Isaiah 40: 28-31. I love that when we wait on God it is not a time of stagnancy, or complacency, but a time of movement and growth. Not a time of anxiousness, but a time of anticipation. Knowing that God is good. I love that it's not about the destination, but about the journey. Not about tomorrow, but today. It's about Yanchep. It's about these people, and kangaroos. It's about homework. It's about abundance. Lord, I want to pick up these things You've placed at my feet in this time of "waiting" and run with them. I want wings of eagles. I thank you for this time. I thank you for life. I never want to fall under complacency. I never want to fall under apathy. I want to glorify you in all I am, all I have, and all I do. In my words, my time, my actions. I want to choose abundance even when I am tired. Because what have I but you? We are all just flowers fading. I want to shine as beautifully as I can, while I still have time to shine. I want abundance Lord. Because you're worthy. I don't want to walk, I don't want to run, I want to dance. I don't want to live for you Jesus, I want to be completly and utterly undone.

PALPATIONS... We did palpations on four different pregnant women Thursday. It was amazing. Darcy is only twenty weeks along, so you couldn't feel the baby, just the placenta. It was amazing palpating the others that were a bit farther along, feeling the back, the head, the feet. I loved waking the baby up, making it kick. I was in awe. Our bodies are beautiful. I can't believe I'm this blessed. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus.

Test anxiety... Every Monday we have an assessment exam, testing us on the things we learned the previous week. Today we took our second one. I noticed something... I get so affected by tests. All day Sunday, my stomach is in knots, I am terrified to study, then once I do, I have to pray the whole time for God's grace not to get overwhelmed. Especially this week, as last week we learned all about anatomy and physiology. I had to know all about the female and male reproductive systems, fertilization and development, hormones, the female pelvis, the fetal skull, urine testing, and the placenta. All things I find absolutely fascinating, and love to learn about. But tell me I'll be tested, and all of a sudden it becomes a burden, and I just start to sweat instantly. I studied late last night, then throughout today as well. We took our assessment today at 3:45. During it, I couldn't remember a few of the answers. Just a few out of so many... Yet, I couldn't handle the fact that I didn't know all of them. And slowly as I went along, my confidence, or what I had of it, began to fade, and I just became so discouraged. I began to feel so inadequate, stupid, unable. I chose to fail so often in education growing up that it's just ingrained in me that I'll fail. Even though when I did my worldview/theology school last year, I really felt like God broke that in me. He's been so gracious to me here as well. I love all that I've learned. I really understand it. Gnarly, complicated things have made sense to me... Yet I give myself no grace. I love that it's not about marks, or validation, or approval. It's about people. It's about serving. And if I can't remember all three layers of the placenta, It's okay because I can go back and learn it. A test isn't the end all of learning. I am capable. I love that I am capable. I love that I not only can do this, but because of God's grace, I can do this well.

After the test, I did some dishes (which always relieves my stress)and went back to my room. I voiced my struggle, and my roommate was quick to pray for me. I just cried... It was so freeing. Just to have that support. And someone to back me, fight for me in my sadness. Community is so amazing. This morning I couldn't find one of my books, and my roommate looked exactly where I looked and found it. I thought, "what on earth would I do without people?" I love that I need people. That I can't do this on my own. And even if I could, its so much better to do it with friends.

Psalm 133
"A song of ascents. Of David.
How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore."

Anatomy and Physiology... My life for the next week. I love this. This morning we learned all about the female and male reproductive systems, and how they work together to create a tiny little life. I was in awe the whole morning. Just at how amazing it is that in a moment, God created us, and now here we are these intricate, detailed, embodied miracles. It's so wild. I am simply in awe. I used to be terrified of all the terms, all of the definitions, all that comes with "anatomy". It is so intimidating. But as I learn, I fall more and more in love with this amazing God of mine. His creation, His masterpiece. I think about all of my friends that are pregnant right now. Skylana, Amy, Erin, Darcy, Lealah.... I think about what has been happening in your bodies for the last how ever many months... I think about what is yet to happen. And I am in awe. I wish every woman could learn about the wonders of a developing fetus before they get pregnant. I know you learn a bit, but to really know the depths of what is happening in you. Or what happened in you to even conceive. It is simply a miracle. You'd wake up every morning and just fall on your face worshiping God. It's beautiful. He's beautiful. Life is beautiful. The human body is beautiful.
Please pray for my human body... It's not been so beautiful the last week. In fact, it's been producing things that are really the opposite of beautiful. I'm fairly sure my ear drum bursted last night... Which is neither fun, nor attractive... So please be praying that my cells in my ears, lungs and any where else will do like they do, so amazingly, and get better. That I will be able to actually hear the lectures, and comprehend them. This stuff is just too good to miss. Thank you for you're support and your prayers. They are truly felt and appreciated. Blessings.

This is Andrea, Becca, Darcy. This week Andrea taught on nutrition, Darcy on maturnal mortality. Becca lead worship, and imparted to me loads and loads of wisdom. These are beautiful leaders I get to spend a year with. Dary is four months pregnant. And adorable.

FREMANTLE... Today we went to frementle, right out side perth. we had grub fish and chips.

We visited the oldest prison Western Austraila.
This is Holly and Becca, they are staff on the BAS. Becca is debatably the funniest person on the continent. And I supleted from her good friend in philly without even knowing of her exsitance.
Me with two Canadians and a German. Jumping. In Austraila.
Eve, Shanon, Michaela, Me, Heather, Anne, Teegan, Holly.


Here is a glimps into the wonderful life I'll be living for the next three months, here in Western Australia. It's so amazing. I am in a beautiful country, with beautiful people. I simply can't be thankful enough.

The last two days we've been talking about nutrition. It's been amazing. Last night I did my workbook all on the female and male reproductive systems. A little akward, but really interesting. We are beautifully and wonderfully made.
Here is my address for the next three months, please feel free to send me mail, and expect mail back. I love pen pals, and take letter writing very seriously. Plus it is one of the best feelings in the world to receive a letter. So personal. We've been talking about love languages a bit in class, just as we are getting to know eacother. I don't know exactly what mine are, but I'm fairly sure words are one of them... So, with that being said... here's my address.
Bess Hunter
c/o Youth With a Mission
po box 8501
Perth Buisness Centre, Western Australia
6849
Love you guys. Bless you.

This morning we talked about mother and child health care. It was really intense. We discussed many different factors that play into maternal mortality. It was towards the end of class, after talking for hours about different stories of women, who died for such avoidable reasons, that I just broke down. We talked about women who didn't take proper precautions simply because they were uneducated. There was just no antenatal care, no understanding of nutrition, or even means of transportation to hospitals. And if they made it to the hospitals, often the hospitals were not equiped to take care of the women like she needed to be taken care of. We had a time of prayer towards the end, just asking God to share with us His heart for these women. I prayed and prayed, not really even able to find the right words to express my brokenness towards the topic at hand. I just began to weep, thinking about all I've been given. The gift of education, the ability to know how to take care of myself, to know about germs, and health care, proper hygeine, to have a family that blessed me with insurance, to know what it is to have a healthy body. To know that my body has value, that it means something. To have choices.

How blessed I am. How much more can I bless because of what I've been given. Jesus help me not to take this lightly.

Class today was amazing. The topic was "A Godly Midwife". So powerful. This trade is so much more than just catching babies. It's about declaring life, and freedom. Finding courage in Jesus, in scary situations, when things don't look good for either mother or child. Drawing so much courage from Him that it flows out of your mouth into the ears of the mother and pushes her to continue laboring. The hands and feet of Jesus. The two handed gosspel. How amazing. Claiming life over the lifeless, dreams and destinies over those "destined to fail" in the eyes of the world. Ushering in lives that could change this world. Looking at a mother, who is deemed "valueless" by her culture, her world, and telling her that she is worth far more that gold. Worth more than even the most costly pearl. Worth fighting for, worth dreaming for, worth praying for. Allowing her to see that she deserves the best care, gentle care, peaceful care, loving care. That she deserves health, and life and happiness. To be the one that sits beside her in the most trying time pouring out the scent of Jesus, the peace of Jesus, the joy of Jesus. To give hope to the hopeless. I am simply blown away. This is far more than i signed up for. But how thankful I am that I did.

I really feel like Jesus is taking me into a season on growth. I feel like I have learned more in the last week than I did all year. I hope that through my words, you can come away with even a small piece of the blessing I feel I've received by coming here.

Thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart, all of you who prayed for me, all of you who gave to my cause, both of which helped get me here. You have helped give me such a beautiful gift. God is so good. God is so faithful. I trust Him. I trust Him for good in my life, for good in your lives, and for good in the lives of those I'll be serving in the next year. Please take up the abundant life God offers us so freely. It is more than worth it. Fight for those you love. Fight for Jesus. You'll learn so much about yourself. So much about what it is to truly love. To love past yourself... what a beautiful thing. Jesus help me love all those around me and in my world with a love that runs deeper than myself. With a love routed in you.
Dream. Be courageous. Take risks. Be blessed.

Today started our offical "midwifery training". We learned all about vital signs: blood pressure, pulse and breathing. It was really wonderful to hear it taught with love as the focas. With the idea that taking a person's vital signs give you a reason to physically touch someone, in love. Alot of the people we will be coming in contact with on our feild assinment will have fairly obvious deformities, or won't be used to being touched in a loving and gental way. I feel so honored to be able to be the hands of Jesus in such a practical way. It was nice to "test the waters" this morning, touching on some of the medical terms, and things. They are so itimidating to me, but this morning I just really felt like the grace of God was resting on me, as things were just making sense. I know it will be a long road of practicing taking blood pressure, and really becoming comfortable with vital signs, but this morning, for the first time, I felt confident... like I can really do this. It is going to be probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, I will probably cry alot... I will probably pray alot, at some point want to quit, but at the end of the day, I really think I'll be able to do this. Good thing, I guess, since I already paid for the first half... : )
It's just so wild to me that I am actually living out this dream. I've wanted this for so long now, and it's actually here. The girls in my school are amazing. Two Americans, Three Canadians, One German, One Australian, and then One Australian from last years school. Already I feel like I love them... I'm so excited to see how we'll grow as a family together over the next year. My leaders are so wonderful as well. I'm anxious to glean from them wisdom and knowledge.
In the afternoons here, I work in the gardens. It is so much fun. I really enjoy the girl I work with, and gardening is always wonderful. So peaceful, and productive. So life giving. Practice before I actually have to give life to humans... ahhh... wild.
Anyway... I love it here... I love love love learning. I love loving. It's going to be a really good year.
Please pray for me as I am sick... Ears, throat and lungs. Thank you. I need to be clear minded for class, I don't want to miss a thing... some of my classmates are sick as well, they need prayer too.
I love you all so much, and pray for you daily.
Bless you.

Today has offically made it one week since I left California. Words cannot tell what I feel like I have learned in this week alone. Things about love, about selflessness, about life. Tonight was our first "friday night meeting". Simply people from around the community, and everyone involved at the base, coming together to worship Jesus. Since it is the start of the July quarter, and many of the new students do not know what took place last July quarter, we had a night devoted to talking about it. The birth attendant school running last July was on feild assignment in Nigeria this past December, and was involved in a terrible van accident. This accident took the lives of two of the birth attendant students, and the lives of six people from the base in Nigeria. It also badly injured most involved including the school leader who is still recovering from about six months a semi-coma state. One of the girls with some of the worst injuries has been staying with us the last week. I have fallen inlove with her, as well as some others involved. Tonight they showed a slide show of the two girls who were killed. I watched as i sat next to the girls also involved in the crash, mourning the loss of dear dear friends. My heart broke as i saw them break. At the end of the time, we started to worship again. One of the girls still badly injured, using crutches to walk, scars covering her stomach, stood up, and lifted her hands as high as they could go, singing at the top of her lungs to Jesus. Just behind her another girl involved in the crash, not as badly injured physically, but lost one of her closest friends from the school, stood just as tall, just as sure, unashamedly praising God. I watched, in awe, broken, encouraged, speachless. We had just earlier in the room, looked at pictures from the crash. My mind was brought to those images, then to pictures of new born babies, then back to these girls worshiping God in the middle of their brokenness, and I was changed.

I am not sure I'll ever understand why I stayed in Connecticut and didn't come here for last years school. I know I'll never understand why such beautiful lives had to be lost that day. I know I'll never understand the magnitude of the choice those girls made tonight in standing and worshiping, choosing to see God's character over circumstance. But I do understand love. A love that casts out all fear. A love that conqures death. A love that never fails. A love that longs for healing and wholeness. A love that gives beauty for ashes.

Thank you Jesus for your love. Thank you Jesus for this time. Thank you that I have the honor of serving along side these amazing women of You for the next year of my life. Allow me to be your arms to them, that I could hold them as you long to. Allow me to be your mouth to them, that I could speak life, truth, healing and peace, as you long for restoration in their lives and hearts. Allow them to teach me what it is to be courageous. I commit this time to you and say I am more than forever greatful. You truly are a wonderful God.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Here I am in australia, safe and sound. I spent 32 hours traveling here, 12 spent in awe driving around New Zealand. Thank you so much Kate and Phil for showing me around your beauiful beautiful country.

Now I am here in Perth. It's a big base, something I'll have to get used to. But even though it's big, everyone seems very family minded. Everyone is so kind, and welcoming. I am excited to get to know people here. Already I've met some really amazing people. It'll be wild to see how much I learn just about love and life from these people, let alone about midwifery. We got our books today. It's becoming a reality. Although, the fear is fading as it becomes more real, and excitment fills it's space. This is so amazing. I can't believe I get to be so blessed to be here, to learn from these women, and to get to know such a beautiful trade.

Please be praying for me, or thinking of me, that I'll have strength, grace, understanding, and the ability to take it all in. I'm not going to lie, it's been a bit of a rough transition... my heart is lost in thoughts of the future, as it usually is. I want to remember that I've been dreaming of this for 3 years now. I want to be able to live today for today, and be thankful for what i've been given. to grow as a person, a women and servant. I want to love those here at my finger tips as I love those I miss at home. It's not easy to move as much as I have this past year, or four years rather... but how blessed I am to do so. Please pray for me. How excited I am to deliver babies, to grow along side of these girls, and to come away from this knowing God just that much more.

Jesus, make me an instrument of your peace...

God bless you. I love you all so much.