Jo's News

Wow... time is flying by fast, seems like yesterday we were still on out-placement in Darwin (NT)! Since then we've had holidays, which was a week off (bludging) followed by a week at Hillsong Conference with the Werribee Corps Crew...

Hillsong was awesome, we had planned to take a guy with us from our time in Darwin, but that fell through, so we took Shauny from Altona Corps who had never been (one word - 'road-trip'!). By far the highlights of the conference was hearing Judah Smith and Joyce Meyer preach, also the awesome worship leadership of Joel Houston and seeing an increased focus on Social Justice throughout. God really worked in that place and it was a huge joy to see the hunger and response in the Werribee crew. Personally I felt God doing a new thing in me... a deep refreshing and a new empowerment of love (holiness) - a huge blessing to my personal spirituality and for facing this last long semester in college!

College has also started back classes, it actually took a while to get used to the old routine again! Some great news, is that we have two cadets from Indonesia staying here for the next couple of months, Olwin and Nilla are two special "Witnesses" who already feel like part of the family!

Baby news - I finally had my first ultrasound! It was awe-inspiring to actually see a tiny life on the screen, moving around and hiding from the 'camera' (to the the utter frustration of ultrasound technician!). I can't believe a baby can be so beautifully formed even at the 20-week mark - human life really is a miracle... I have a DVD and some photos, so for those who see me often, ask me for a look! (I promise I'll post them on my blog soon). Not feeling any kicks yet, but thats ok... I'm healthy, the baby's healthy and everything's 'normal'. The due date has changed to early December, which is a bit of a relief considering our commissioning/graduation is the 30th of Nov! I'm trying to figure out maternity uniforms now... the joys of pregnancy in college!

We're all just Bush-kids in a Plastic world!

I didn't drop off the planet, just 'unwired' myself and got close to nature. I spent a few days recently in a National Park camping area where there are no showers, no conveniences apart from a few spider-webby toilets (and I was SO thankful for them!). A brown creek ran along the camp site, feral bush kids got wonderfully dirty, mixing between families and catching taddies, the adults sat around talking about the heat and swimming in the coca-cola coloured creek with leeches (I wasn't that brave!).

It really gives you a bit of perspective to 'rough it' for a bit. Not only from the stinky, itchy, buggy gross-ness of the outdoors, but from realising that there are still stars in the sky, frogs aren't extinct yet, people are friendly and fires are the best conversation-starters ever! But the biggest revelation I had in the 'rough-as-guts' part of my trip (that was REAL camping on a 41 DEGREE CELSIUS day), ....without all the man-made stuff we have built around us, like houses with insulation, air-conditioning, fridges etc... we are still COMPLETELY at the mercy of the environment. That sense of vulnerability helped me to realise that the poorest, most undeveloped peoples of the world have an incredible gift - appreciating their true weakness and God's true strength.

Aren't we so smart that we can control our own finite environment, hot, cold, whatever we like it to be! But we've somehow lost our humility in that sense of power found in technology and 'advancement of the species'. Personally I enjoy the life of air-conditioned comfort, but it carries a sacrifice, disconnection from the environment (the outdoors) and how God is revealing himself through every part of it. Taking a walk on a bush-track finds you at the mercy of whatever animal trod the clearest line in the ground in front of you. The uniqueness of nature is breathtaking, no production line involved, no 'made in China' tags, just the unmistakable fingerprint of God.

The challenge? rediscover your vulnerability by getting back to nature and discarding the 'comfortable'. Then listen for the whisper, look for the fingerprint.

With great Power...

I'm a bit of a perfectionist about my own stuff. I like everything I do to come out exactly the way I intend it. Now this is a bit of a problem when it comes to blogging... (already I've deleted the first paragraph four times and re-written it!).

You see, I'm not really sure my whole motivation behind blogging... its partly an outlet for my frustrations and passions, partly a way to be known, partly an offering of my 'stuff' as a gift, partly an opportunity to debate and share with people. A lot of the time I worry what people will think of what I say (considering the college thing), but what I also wonder is what God thinks of my blogging...

Because he knows which parts are deeply painful, which are soul-baring therapy, he knows the motivations that got me typing. God knows the difference between my holy discontentedness and my child-like whining. He recognises my pridefulness and my desperate hope to make an impact on the world.

I hope I am being real to God more than anything else, more than my fear of being judged and my fear of being less-than-perfect. But I am judged sometimes... I need to get over it - its what humans do, I'm not perfect at everything I do... and God's ok with that. He's especially ok with me being who he created me to be, me growing and stretching for him. And if blogging does that, perhaps he likes it after all.


(sdjkhkjhfuvuibfdf - this is me rebelling against perfection!)

SalvoJo - the Story & the Call...

Someone once told me that if you had been part of the YES team (mission), the Youth Internship program or had studied in the training college, you were destined to be an officer. If this is true, it seems there was no choice in the matter - I have attempted all three! (help Lord!).
Let me tell you a story about the journey....
(adapted from my testimony as published in 'College Friends')

Over the past five years I've got myself 'involved' in:

• the Salvo Youth Internship program,
• studying both at The Salvation Army Training College and @ Whitley (Baptist Theological College)
• travelling with the YES team's one-month Sri Lanka mission (2004)

These experiences (and other edge-of-your-seat ministry adventures), have grown in me a passion for Jesus and ministry in his name. Mind you, I haven't always had this passion!

My early years of faith were spent at Preston Salvos, the family (Marshes) then moved to Werribee Salvos, where my love for God grew. In 1999, my faith took a hit when I met now-husband Peter Brookshaw, who was a non-Christian. His interest in my faith led me to begin questioning how much I actually wanted to live my life for God. Praise the Lord! Pete was awesomely saved and we began our journey of ministry... (who said 'flirt&convert' was a bad thing... whoops!)

Together Pete and I have discovered the awesome power of the Holy Spirit (still constantly blown away by the way the Spirit works!) and committed to serving God whatever the cost. Married in 2004, we recently gave up the best jobs in the world (at Werribee Corps as Youth & Children’s Ministers) to follow God. Let me explain...

Last October (2006), I was involved in an event where I acted the part of 'Mrs' Commissioner Nellie Coombs. In the lead-up to this, I prayed and read the word to prepare for God to use me in this role. I read Isaiah 58 the night before the performance and spent half that night crying out to God for the future of our Army (read it and you'll get what I'm talking about!). Playing a commissioner was strangely comfortable, although the costume definitely wasn't! Within a week, I had my 25th birthday and felt a sense in my heart that God's plan for my life was so huge that I hadn't got past dreaming about it! I was 'spending' my life (Isaiah 58:9-12) on waiting for my big future and distinctly felt the Spirit say to me "What are you waiting for?". I knew there was no way I could hold that call off... so I talked to Pete about it, he confirmed it for his own life and we immediately got into the journey(Four months later, I'm here in college!!!).

The heart of the early Salvos influences me in a powerful way... their fiery passion is what I hope to emulate in an explosive ministry to the lost! My heroes of the faith are Catherine Booth, Reinhard Bonnke and my all-time number one– Jesus! I have a strong sense that God is leading this next generation to be part of a spiritual revolution in Australia and the world (see my blog about it). God has been faithful, the journey ahead is both exciting and scary. There are things I can see God has for us to do in future that I don’t think I can cope with…. But God in his faithfulness equips us for every task he calls us for....

...to life as an officer I say, ‘bring it on!’.