Well friends, today was my first Action Plan Review Meeting with my boss. It was a one on one meeting with her and Im proud to say it went fantastically.
The point of an Action Plan review is to of course review the action plan we set up with my 'tween' (mentor-ee) before we started working together.
WHAT is an Action Plan? It is a set of goals that the Mentor and mentor-ee are to work towards in a specific time. In relation to my work here at Panyappi, the point of our work is to reintegrate the teens back into their communities - whether it be a family, sports club, or whatever kind of community. Bc a lot, in fact most, of our clients are in the justice system, it means trying to teach the kids a new way of viewing the world; a new way of spending their time. Helping them learn about responsibility, choices, consequences. Im really excited as this is the kind of thing I am all about.
I have struggled a little the last two weeks with my tween as she hasn't wanted to do the things we had planned. It makes it really hard finding things to do when she has no idea what she feels like doing. Last week I showed her the Hungry Jacks app and we went to three different Hungry Jacks just to see what we could get for free. Kinda fun and silly, but it passed the time.
So, back to today. The feedback I have received has been glowingly positive which is just wonderful and I left feeling all warm and fuzzy!
I love working with Panyappi. I was reflecting on it today with my boss. It feels like a whole new home. It seems like I have been there for years. It gives me a sense of belonging like nothing else I have had. I guess it's the feeling of being with 'my own people'. As I have never grown up in the aboriginal community I guess I never knew what I was missing. It has only been when I have been around other indigenous people that I have felt completely 'whole'. And that is the feeling I get with my co-workers. As a bonus, all of them are incredibly open and welcoming. My boss puts herself on our level even though she is the Panyappi supervisor. She is incredibly aware of our and my limitations (and the fact Im a bit green) and eases us all into the roles we are employed for. An extremely considerate boss if you ask me!
Next week our school holiday programme begins. I am working 4 days of the programme. Exhausting but sooooooo much fun!
Just goes to show that God really DOES provide for me in ways I never even imagined!!!!
So, that's all for today! I just wanted to share a relatively short (for me) fun positive little post for you today.
Love
L xo
Thursday 28 June 2012
Wednesday 27 June 2012
The 'Persecuted' Sunflower?
Hey there guys, it's been a while (again).
I just wanted to write about something that I believe has been happening to me of late.
Persecution!
What is it?
It's not something you hear about much these days. The way I understand persecution is that it is when you are bullied/attacked/killed/etc because of your faith.
Why do I think this has happened to me and what do I think of it?
Well, a few weeks ago I was incredibly bullied on Facebook (yes, I hear you all sigh and ready to launch into the arguments about FB). A person who I knew in real life (but not well, I thought we were developing a friendship) had a problem with me but never spoke to me about it.
Instead, she decided to delete me (no problem) but then went on to publicly slander me, accusing me of cyber bullying HER all because I was trying to support and encourage a new friend. This happened in a group we are both in where we have at least 30 mutual irl friends.
Now I understand that people interpret things differently to how they are often intended - and I believe this woman did that. She seems to be someone who has quite a few issues as well as going through some incredible grief and I can understand she is probably lashing out and attacking people as a way to deal with the loss of someone very close to her.
I tried to ask her via private email a number of times what her issues were with me only to have the question never answered. Part of what she did tell me was that she was sick of my crap on FB. As I have no idea what she meant and as I have been incredibly positive on FB the last three or four months, I deduced the 'crap' was one of four different things. The only things I really post about nowadays:
a) My faith, which I am pretty vocal about. I don't ram it down other's throats but I love to share when something awesome happens with me and God.
b) My brother, who I am incredibly proud of for all the growing he has been doing this year.
c) Scrapbooking - which SHE is a part of so I can't imagine it's that
d) My new job mentoring teenagers.
As she never gave me any indication as to which one of these her problems lie, the more I pray about it, meditate on it and speak to close friends about it, I can only come up with ONE answer.
That answer is that she can't handle seeing my 'God posts. One thing I haven't mentioned is that she is a non-believer. She has asked at times on her own status things like "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good ppl?" I, of course, understanding perhaps where the qu stems from, tried to answer as gently and compassionately as I could.
So anyway, now onto the real point of this pondering post.
The entire incident with this woman had left me raw, hurt, angry, wanting revenge, and many other emotions. I guess the biggest one though, was genuine confusion. How could somebody who I believed to be an honest, open up-front person BE so nasty to me when I have never done anything to her?
It really rocked me to my core. It caused me to doubt who I am in the deepest parts of me. It had me questioning every single person and their motives of me in that craft community. I know she has her little 'posse' who also have deleted me and not even told me why. I know that it's bc of this 'thing' between her and I, and while it hurts, I look at the kind of ppl they are - lovely ppl, but their believes and values are polar opposite to mine. They are just not the kind of people I need in my life. People who I believe in the long term would be unhealthy for me.
So, once a friend told me - in a beautiful gentle visual story, to grow up and move on, I started to see things in a different light. Actually, I had juuust begun looking at it differently when she sent me this story but she was the kick up the butt I needed.
As I stopped being angry, I began to see that this isn't even about me. I honestly and truly believe that this is actually between this lady and God and that I was just the physical thing that was 'attackable'. Because let's face it, when you don't believe in someone, it's really really hard to be angry at them so you look for something else to let your anger out on.
As soon as I realised it wasn't me but God who was being attacked, a LOT of the hurt and anger went away. And you know what? It actually started to make me feel kinda cool.
Why you ask? Well, the devil is soooo mad right now that I am having some breakthroughs between me and my God, and he HATES that and so he does things to throw my whole little universe into chaos.I am making him so angry bc he knows that he has no power in my life and he will do ANYthing to make me suffer.
On a more human level, I look at it in the context of the book of Acts in the bible. Jesus' apostles were all martyred because of their faith. I am definitely not saying Im about to be killed, lol. But it does say a few times in the bible that especially in the end of times, the saints will be persecuted for their faith.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Matt 5:10
In another way, I can also say, this isn't about the woman and Me, it's about me and God and OUR relationship as He obviously was trying to teach me something here. And honestly, the more I think about it all, hear God's calling in my life, utilise the wisdom of the people he has placed there for me, I can see that this entire thing is a good thing - it has made me go to him more. It's opened me up to whatever God has planned for me. It has reconfirmed (yet again) that I am doing ok.
It was never about her and me. It was all about the eternal war between good and evil, heaven and hell, God and Satan.
If I am being 'persecuted' bc someone doesn't like me, then my only hope is that God is shining more brightly than before and that His spirit in me can not be contained but is spilling over and touching others.
I understand how confronting that can be for some. For me, it's so exciting. And now most of my hurt and anger is gone and I am back to living in the confidence of my Lord.
Don't get me wrong, I am still human and at times I still smart over her horrible false words, but now I have a way out of the hurt. I just crawl up into my Holy Father's lap, have a cuddle and maybe a cry and remember that it's for Him I'm experiencing this. And that can only be a good thing can't it? I think so!
"The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted as worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" Acts 5:41
I am worthy! And so are you!
L xoxoxo
Disclaimer: Please don't leave comments saying that I shouldn't share this story and that I need to move on. I had many people telling me I 'should' or 'should NOT' be doing many things where this story is concerned on FB - this blog is not seen by many of the people who know about it irl, and this is the way I express myself. If you don't like what I've written, or think I should have kept it to myself, look at WHY I have shared what I have shared. It is not about slandering this girl back. It's not about getting 'my side' out there in my defence. It's not even about changing people's minds. This blog is about a wonderful lesson God has taught me over the last month and a half. Please take it the way it was intended to be read.
;)
L xo
Just a second note: Somehow this girl *did* see this post and wrote some pretty awful things in the comments section. Again, I was not writing this to hurt you! Please see it as my way of having a voice, and sharing the wonderful things that God can do when a person is obedient to him. :)
I just wanted to write about something that I believe has been happening to me of late.
Persecution!
What is it?
It's not something you hear about much these days. The way I understand persecution is that it is when you are bullied/attacked/killed/etc because of your faith.
Why do I think this has happened to me and what do I think of it?
Well, a few weeks ago I was incredibly bullied on Facebook (yes, I hear you all sigh and ready to launch into the arguments about FB). A person who I knew in real life (but not well, I thought we were developing a friendship) had a problem with me but never spoke to me about it.
Instead, she decided to delete me (no problem) but then went on to publicly slander me, accusing me of cyber bullying HER all because I was trying to support and encourage a new friend. This happened in a group we are both in where we have at least 30 mutual irl friends.
Now I understand that people interpret things differently to how they are often intended - and I believe this woman did that. She seems to be someone who has quite a few issues as well as going through some incredible grief and I can understand she is probably lashing out and attacking people as a way to deal with the loss of someone very close to her.
I tried to ask her via private email a number of times what her issues were with me only to have the question never answered. Part of what she did tell me was that she was sick of my crap on FB. As I have no idea what she meant and as I have been incredibly positive on FB the last three or four months, I deduced the 'crap' was one of four different things. The only things I really post about nowadays:
a) My faith, which I am pretty vocal about. I don't ram it down other's throats but I love to share when something awesome happens with me and God.
b) My brother, who I am incredibly proud of for all the growing he has been doing this year.
c) Scrapbooking - which SHE is a part of so I can't imagine it's that
d) My new job mentoring teenagers.
As she never gave me any indication as to which one of these her problems lie, the more I pray about it, meditate on it and speak to close friends about it, I can only come up with ONE answer.
That answer is that she can't handle seeing my 'God posts. One thing I haven't mentioned is that she is a non-believer. She has asked at times on her own status things like "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good ppl?" I, of course, understanding perhaps where the qu stems from, tried to answer as gently and compassionately as I could.
So anyway, now onto the real point of this pondering post.
The entire incident with this woman had left me raw, hurt, angry, wanting revenge, and many other emotions. I guess the biggest one though, was genuine confusion. How could somebody who I believed to be an honest, open up-front person BE so nasty to me when I have never done anything to her?
It really rocked me to my core. It caused me to doubt who I am in the deepest parts of me. It had me questioning every single person and their motives of me in that craft community. I know she has her little 'posse' who also have deleted me and not even told me why. I know that it's bc of this 'thing' between her and I, and while it hurts, I look at the kind of ppl they are - lovely ppl, but their believes and values are polar opposite to mine. They are just not the kind of people I need in my life. People who I believe in the long term would be unhealthy for me.
So, once a friend told me - in a beautiful gentle visual story, to grow up and move on, I started to see things in a different light. Actually, I had juuust begun looking at it differently when she sent me this story but she was the kick up the butt I needed.
As I stopped being angry, I began to see that this isn't even about me. I honestly and truly believe that this is actually between this lady and God and that I was just the physical thing that was 'attackable'. Because let's face it, when you don't believe in someone, it's really really hard to be angry at them so you look for something else to let your anger out on.
As soon as I realised it wasn't me but God who was being attacked, a LOT of the hurt and anger went away. And you know what? It actually started to make me feel kinda cool.
Why you ask? Well, the devil is soooo mad right now that I am having some breakthroughs between me and my God, and he HATES that and so he does things to throw my whole little universe into chaos.I am making him so angry bc he knows that he has no power in my life and he will do ANYthing to make me suffer.
On a more human level, I look at it in the context of the book of Acts in the bible. Jesus' apostles were all martyred because of their faith. I am definitely not saying Im about to be killed, lol. But it does say a few times in the bible that especially in the end of times, the saints will be persecuted for their faith.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Matt 5:10
In another way, I can also say, this isn't about the woman and Me, it's about me and God and OUR relationship as He obviously was trying to teach me something here. And honestly, the more I think about it all, hear God's calling in my life, utilise the wisdom of the people he has placed there for me, I can see that this entire thing is a good thing - it has made me go to him more. It's opened me up to whatever God has planned for me. It has reconfirmed (yet again) that I am doing ok.
It was never about her and me. It was all about the eternal war between good and evil, heaven and hell, God and Satan.
If I am being 'persecuted' bc someone doesn't like me, then my only hope is that God is shining more brightly than before and that His spirit in me can not be contained but is spilling over and touching others.
I understand how confronting that can be for some. For me, it's so exciting. And now most of my hurt and anger is gone and I am back to living in the confidence of my Lord.
Don't get me wrong, I am still human and at times I still smart over her horrible false words, but now I have a way out of the hurt. I just crawl up into my Holy Father's lap, have a cuddle and maybe a cry and remember that it's for Him I'm experiencing this. And that can only be a good thing can't it? I think so!
"The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted as worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" Acts 5:41
I am worthy! And so are you!
L xoxoxo
Disclaimer: Please don't leave comments saying that I shouldn't share this story and that I need to move on. I had many people telling me I 'should' or 'should NOT' be doing many things where this story is concerned on FB - this blog is not seen by many of the people who know about it irl, and this is the way I express myself. If you don't like what I've written, or think I should have kept it to myself, look at WHY I have shared what I have shared. It is not about slandering this girl back. It's not about getting 'my side' out there in my defence. It's not even about changing people's minds. This blog is about a wonderful lesson God has taught me over the last month and a half. Please take it the way it was intended to be read.
;)
L xo
Just a second note: Somehow this girl *did* see this post and wrote some pretty awful things in the comments section. Again, I was not writing this to hurt you! Please see it as my way of having a voice, and sharing the wonderful things that God can do when a person is obedient to him. :)
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