Personal | Sonya Noonan

Returning to Study

Disclaimer: Please be aware, these are just my thoughts and my points of view. I do not have the authority to judge anyone, to preach to anyone or to try and convince anyone of anything. If you are offended by Religion, Faith or God please do not read this blog. If you are not a Christian please read this with an open mind or do not read it at all. if this blog offends you in any way, please accept my apologies, it was not meant for you.

So I’ve started studying a Certificate in Evangelism. Mainly because I want to learn more about the Bible and God. I feel there is so much to learn and just ‘reading’ the Bible won’t cut it 🙂

As you all know from previous blogs, I have grown up with a strong Faith and totally believe in God and can tell you about how/when God has touched my life the most.

When I decided to ‘return’ to the Church I was ‘told’ by God that it would change my life… and it has 🙂

BUT I am someone who loves to study, loves to learn and likes to know and understand things that I am doing or are interested in. So, since returning to Church I have struggled with what I am ‘meant’ to be doing. I know that might sound strange to you, but it sometimes eats me up.

I often say to my Pastor (well anyone who is in the Church that wants to listen really 🙂 ) ‘Give me a checklist”, “I just need to be told what I am and are not allowed to do”.

I feel so ‘dumb’ sometimes. I can never remember feeling like this as a child going to Church. Perhaps it’s because I am older now, or it interests me more. I’m not sure really, but I really really really want to understand the Bible totally and try my hardest to live for God.

I have a lot of strong opinions on a lot of things and if I am going to need to change them, then I need to work through why/how etc to get me to the changing point. I can’t do that if I don’t understand or even know what I’m meant to be doing.

I also stress about not being able to help people with their own journey towards God if I don’t fully understand. I sit with people and talk about all types of things, but each time the Bible and/or God comes up I stop having input. I judge myself, doubt my knowledge and therefore stop contributing to the conversation.

I love God so much, and I know my passion would fascinate so many people, but most of them won’t see it, as I won’t share my thoughts in fear of saying something wrong or advising someone incorrectly.

I can’t have a discussion with you about anything to do with God and the Bible and I really want to be able to do that… So many people have so many ideas/beliefs/questions around God and the Bible and I need to be able to have open discussions with them. I want to be able to help them love God the way I do.

So wish me luck… 🙂

And if you want to talk to me about anything, life in general, my faith or anything else, connect with me on Social Media 🙂

p.s only a quick blog today to set up for the coming ones 🙂

These blogs will not have the ability to comment as I do not want to have any negative comments on here. But if you would like to reach out to me, you can by direct messaging me on Facebook (Messenger) => https://www.facebook.com/sonya.noonan1

How God Saved My Boy

Disclaimer: Please be aware, these are just my thoughts and my points of view. I do not have the authority to judge anyone, to preach to anyone or to try and convince anyone of anything. If you are offended by Religion, Faith or God please do not read this blog. If you are not a Christian please read this with an open mind or do not read it at all. if this blog offends you in any way, please accept my apologies, it was not meant for you.

A lot of my friends know this story, as I have not ever been quite about telling it. On the 29th of September 2006, God showed his presence and saved my son. – To get the whole of Riley’s story you need to click HERE. This part is only about how God saved his life 🙂

On the 29th of September, we were informed that our son had a brain tumour and needed to be transferred to Melbourne. As you can expect we were all quite devastated. Seeing your son lying in a hospital bed, unconscious and just having been diagnosed with a brain tumour, was every parent’s nightmare.

We had 2 other children that we had to organise, family to notify, friends to get help from. Life was a mess.

In the middle of all this, my Aunt walked into the hospital room. She came up to me and gave me a hug and said ’Sonni, God has sent me to pray over Riley, can I please?’ My answer was instantly a yes. This was my Aunt, whom we all called God’s Angel. We knew she was special, we knew she was one of God’s children sent to earth to work for God.

So, myself, a friend of mine, my ex and his partner all stood in Riley’s darkened hospital room without heads bowed while my Aunty stood next to Riley with her hand on his head in prayer. I remember sending a prayer of my own as well. Then suddenly there was this overwhelming feeling in the room, I had goosebumps and then this calmness took over me. I knew in that instant that my boy was going to be OK. I knew that he had just been saved.

After a while, my Aunt turned to me and said, ‘He is going to be OK Sonni, I just removed the Angel of Death and have brought the Angel of Life to watch over him. He is going to be OK.’

We walked out of Riley’s hospital room after that to have a chat. It turns out that a series of events lead to my Aunty getting to us.

My mother was living with my Aunt at the time and so she knew that Riley had been diagnosed with the Tumour. For some reason, her daughter’s car was playing up and she needed her mum (my Aunt) to pick her up from work that night (at around 11pm). The only way to get from my cousins house to my Aunt’s was to drive past the hospital that we were at. As she was coming towards the hospital she got a ‘message’ from God that she needed to go pray over Riley.

Now, this was around midnight, so the hospital was all fully locked up with no access unless going through security and pleading. My Aunt was wondering how she was going to get in, but as she walked up to the front doors of the hospital a Nurse walked out of them, so my Aunt just walked on in.

Then the next thing she needed to work out was where to find us, she had no idea, what floor we were on, let alone what room we were in. Next thing she sees my sister coming towards her, on her way to a vending machine. So my sister was able to bring her to us.

I have no doubt what so ever that God sent my Aunt and opened all the ‘doors’ to get her to us.

I have told this story many many times since then and it is interesting the reactions I get. Some people will tell me their story about how God saved their lives or their children lives. Other people will not believe the story or say if I want to believe that then that’s good for me, but they don’t believe it. I even had someone say to me that God didn’t save my son, the Doctors and Nurses did. And although I will be forever grateful for EVERY Doctor and Nurse that worked on my son and gave him the care and treatment he needed. I totally believe that God gave them those skills and God put them in our path to save my son.

Miracles happen all the time and for that, I am truly grateful.

One of my favourite stories in the Bible is where Peter and John healed a lame man – Acts 3:1-12

1Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

2And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

3Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

4And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

5And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

6Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

7And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

8And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

9And all the people saw him walking and praising God:

10And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

11And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

12And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

These blogs will not have the ability to comment as I do not want to have any negative comments on here. But if you would like to reach out to me, you can by direct messaging me on Facebook (Messenger) => https://www.facebook.com/sonya.noonan1

Do Not Sit In Judgement

My Background

As I have probably mentioned in earlier blogs, I have grown up in an era where being intolerant was the norm… Catholics vs Protestants, Blacks vs Whites, oh and in Australia, we had Australians vs Wogs (Italians & Greeks), not to mention the hate on Gays and Lesbians… Then we move into the Rich vs the Poor, the Skinny vs the Fat and so on and so on…

I spent a lot of time listening to my Grandparents, Parents and people of their generation being intolerant of many things. This rubbed off onto my generation. And to be honest I probably said some horrible things as well.

Even within my church, there was judgement and intolerance. The town I grew up in had a very very strong English heritage and were intolerant of many things. If you were Catholic you looked down your nose at the Protestants and any other religion. If you were Protestant you hated the Catholics and any other ‘weird’ religion. Within each Church, there was also intolerance of Financial status etc.

The older I got the more I felt uncomfortable about all the intolerances. I believe that all people have good in them, that no one person is 100% evil. That everyone deserves to be loved. We are all sinners, we all have skeletons in our closet. It is not our responsibility or right to judge people, make comment on how they are living their lives.

I walked away from the Church for many reasons, but one of them was because of peoples intolerances. I couldn’t cope with people coming to Church, looking down their nose at other people in the Church, how they sat there pretending to be nice to them, knowing that the minute they walked out the church they would spend time judging them, talking about them, about either the way they dressed, the way they spoke, how much money they had, what status they had in the community, how smart their children were, what their children are achieving in life, who their children were mixing with, or how much they contributed to the church…

I have always believed in God, can give quite a few testimonials about how God has been in my life. My love for God had never changed, I have ‘talked’ to God my whole life, sometimes more than others. Many of my conversations with God have been around peoples intolerances. It sits so uncomfortable with me how we talk behind peoples backs, how we judge people, how we believe we are better than them.

I watch it in my family, in my friends, in acquaintances, in strangers, how conversations always turn towards how people are. They are judged on their religion, their skin colour, the amount of money in their bank, their job, their beliefs etc etc…. Over the years I have started to point out to people that we do not have the right to sit in judgement, that everyone deserves our love, how everyone is special…

Intolerances of Race/Skin Colour

No human being is inferior. It doesn’t matter what your skin colour is, God created us all and gave us our skin colour for reasons only he knows. What right do we have to judge someone because of their skin colour? Tell me, how is it Christian like or God-like to judge someone on their skin colour, we are all Gods children and he loves us all no matter what colour skin we have.

Intolerances of Sexuality

This is not where I am going to debate about homosexuality and Gods thoughts, this blog is about our (the human race) judgement of others. And I just have to say that it breaks my heart when I read/see/hear about people who say they are living for God and then turn around and are intolerant of the LBGTQ community. How can you say you love your children, love people and then disown them because they are gay? What right do you (we) have to judge someone’s sexuality? If we are living for God we love everyone and judge no one.

I am not saying that we have to be comfortable with homosexuality, I’m not saying we shouldn’t educate people on what the bible says about sexuality, what I am saying is that we do not have the right to sit in judgement of someone because of their sexuality. Well, because of anything, their skin colour, their religion, their financial status, their anything. It is not our job to judge.

It is God who will be the judge of our lives, it is God who we have to stand before while he judges us. It is not up to us to judge others.

Romans 14:10 (ESV)

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;

Intolerance of different Religions

What right do we have to be intolerant to people who are a different religion to us? There is bad in all religions, but there is also good… some of my best friends are Jehovah Witnesses and I have the most amazing conversations with them about God (Jehovah) and they have been a great influence on connecting me back to God. Although there are things that the Witnesses believe or ‘practice’ that I can not understand, I will never judge them or look down on them for their beliefs. But I do turn to them when I need help understanding some things within the bible.

I have some clients who are very strong Catholics, who have amazing testimonies on how the Holy Spirit has entered their lives. I have friends who are part of the Church of Christ and can tell you about how the Holy Spirit has been a part of their lives since they were children.

The Christian faith is in many Religions, but they all worship the one God. We do not have the right to judge anyone because of their religion…

Let’s look at Acts 10:44-48 NKJV

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.

And let’s also look at Acts 15:6-21 NKJV

Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:

‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.’

“Known to God from eternity are all His works. Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

Coming back to the Church

After many years fo not wanting to be part of a Church because of my uneasiness of peoples judgements, God reached out to me through one of my Jehovah friends and guided me back. After I received the message, I reached out to Pastor Jason and had a coffee with him… Over that coffee, I bared my soul about all the things I was going through at the time. He told me that he knew that I had a strong faith, but sometimes it was better to worship God as part of a community of worshipers, that it will help strengthen my faith and support me in my journey.

He asked me to make a 4-week commitment to coming to Church and after that 4 weeks decide if it was for me. My Jehovah Witness friends supported me in this and said that if for some reason I wasn’t comfortable at Pastor Jason’s Church they would welcome me to come and see if being a Witness would fit me better.

Before I could make a decision, there were lots of questions that I had and most of them were mainly around the Pastor’s Church’s treatment around people, what were their thoughts on different religions, what were their thoughts on different races, what were their thoughts on the LBGTQ community. Because I swear that if there was any type of intolerance towards any of this then I would not be going. And Pastor Jason turned around and said to me ‘it is not up to me or my church to judge anyone, it is our job to lead people to God. God will judge them when it is their time for judgement, it is up to them and God what the result of that judgement is.’ (or something similar to that).

So I thought long and hard about going to Pastor Jason’s Church… I had many conversations with God… the night before I went God spoke to me ‘If you do this you will be changing your life forever, are you ready to make that change?’ that was the message I got… I sat with that for a bit and at around 3 am I decided that, yes, I was ready to make that change. So at 11 am that morning I turned up and walked into the most amazing Church 🙂

Connecting all the dots

A few months after I started attending church regularly, I had a private bible lesson with Pastor and his wife Janie. I have had many of these sessions and I am forever grateful that both Pastor and Janie are very understanding, tolerant and loving people because I have lots of questions and they both give me all the time I need and answer all my questions 🙂

This one night though connected all the dots for me 🙂 I explained to me why deep down in my heart I knew it was wrong to judge people. This was definitely a light bulb moment… This is also one of my most favourite bible verses 🙂

John 8:1-11 NIV

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

When Jason read this and we talked about it, everything just fell into place… let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her… that sentence said it all… we have no right to sit in judgement of anyone, we have no right to look down our nose at anyone, to believe we are better than anyone else because we are all sinners… and all sin is equal.

Other Verses

There are other verses that also talk about judgement that I would like to share with you…

James 2:1-13 NKJV

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

If you really fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

ROMANS 14:1-12

1As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6The one who observes the day, observes it in honour of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honour of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

10Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

12So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Judgement and intolerances come in many forms – Bias – Prejudice – Stereotypical treatment… It is up to all of us to decide not to sit in judgement of others, to love all human beings and God creatures.

This blog is so close to my heart, but still, I feel like just by writing it I am sitting in judgement of people. So let me ask you something. How do not judge people?

Walking with God – My Childhood – Part 2

Disclaimer: Please be aware, these are just my thoughts and my points of view. I do not have the authority to judge anyone, to preach to anyone or to try and convince anyone of anything. If you are offended by Religion, Faith or God please do not read this blog. If you are not a Christian please read this with an open mind or do not read it at all. if this blog offends you in any way, please accept my apologies, it was not meant for you.

P.S. If you haven’t read part 1, perhaps start there 🙂

Where do I start?? I grew up in a ‘Typical’ Australian family, mother, father, my sister and myself. I was the youngest in the family. Australia is not a very religious country, there are probably more people who don’t believe in God, or don’t attend church than there are believers/attendees at church.

I grew up in the Uniting Church, going to Sunday School with all the other kids in the neighbourhood. I don’t have a lot of clear memories of Sunday School, but I do remember starting in the kinder room and moving up from age group to age group. I remember some of my Sunday School Teachers, the fact that we had a concert/play at the end of each year, we received a Christian book for Christmas and one day every month we had to go to church for family service.

As a family we often talked about God, sometimes we prayed, but we never said Grace or had any structure around our faith. I do know that I have always had ‘conversations’ with God, not sure exactly if it’s praying, but I know that I have always thanked God often and turned to him for support when needed.

Most of my parent’s families were not involved in the church and didn’t go to church or Sunday School, expect my favourite Aunty and her family, but more about her later 🙂

In the Uniting Church, children needed to be confirmed before they can take Communion, so when my sister was old enough to be confirmed my mother thought it was a great idea to have me confirmed at the same time, even though I really wasn’t old enough. Before we could be confirmed we had to do a 12-week extensive bible learning class. And looking back now, I really can’t remember anything I learnt during those 12 weeks.

I remember also deciding I was going to read the bible from front to back. It started off well, think I got through the book of Genesis in no time, then just gave up. 🙂

My Mother and my Grandmother were the biggest influences on my Christian upbringing. But I find it fascinating looking back now 🙂

My Grandmother was born in Australia to English parents, they had just recently migrated to Australia before she was born. She believed in God, made all her children go to Sunday School, but never attended church herself. In her era, there was pretty much the Church of England and the Catholic Church, so if you weren’t a Catholic you were a Protestant and let me tell you, there was no love lost between those two.

I have always had trouble understanding why there was so much hate between religions. As stated in part 1 of this blog, I am someone who loves everyone and believes that there is good in everyone, so I have always watched from the sidelines with fascination this ‘rivalry’ between all religions. I mean, if you are Christian and you believe in God, then it really doesn’t matter what church you worship God in, as long as you worship God. Well, that’s how I think anyway.

My Mother went to Sunday School and the made sure she attended Church at least once a month when she had my sister and she made sure we went to Sunday School every week and then went to church monthly for family service. She had her faith, but I wouldn’t say she was overly religious if you know what I mean. She made sure her Grandchildren went to Sunday School and now she is making sure her Great Grandchildren are also brought up in the church.

I remember growing up as a child often overhearing conversations between my mother and my Grandmother about different religions and their opinions of them. They didn’t really understand any ‘non-mainstream’ religion and were maybe a bit intolerant to them, but that could have just been my interpretation as a child.

The concept of Tithing was also talked about often between my mother and Grandmother. My mother always, without fail gave generously when she went to church, the amount of money she has put into offering would be quite substantial and then also in food donations to the various church charities etc. She is a true giver, but the concept of tithing was something I didn’t understand and how I interpreted my mother and grandmothers conversations, it was a bad thing that only ‘those type’ of church’s made you do. This has stuck with me for many years and until recently I didn’t understand, but now I do 🙂

Another thing that use to fascinate me was the fact that people would go to Church/Sunday School and then during the week be really horrible people. I could never understand why you would go to Church and claim you are a Christian and then turn around and do the most unchristian things during the week. I remember one time someone saying to me that you don’t have to go to church to believe in God and be a true Christian and this really stuck out for me.

At this stage in my life, I didn’t really understand a lot about the bible, so for me ‘being Christian’ meant that you loved everyone, treated everyone with kindness and you were never ever horrible. So the older I got, the more upset I would get at these people who went to church on Sunday only to be mean and nasty on the other 6 days. It was easier for me to accept mean, nasty and horrible people if they didn’t go to church than it was if they did.

I can still remember the day that my sister and I negotiated with our mother about not ever going back to Sunday School, we were in our early teens and felt that we were just too old for Sunday School anymore. Finally, my mum gave in and did make us go, but we still had to attend church at least once and month and we were both ok with this, cause we did believe in God and we did want to go to church, just not every week.

The first time I turned to God for help, reached out to him for his love and support was when I was 15 and my Nanna died, she was just 66 years old. I felt I didn’t really have a great relationship with her, but really wanted one and then all of a sudden I couldn’t have one with her. So I turned to God, prayed for him to keep her safe and to love her until I could get to heaven and be with her. I prayed every night for months, increased my conversations with God during the day and even reached out and ‘had conversations’ with my Nanna. God got me through that time and was there to support me and help me grieve. The strength of his arms around me is what got me through.

And so began my true journey with God, one that I influenced myself and I controlled. There has been many ups and downs over the years and you will get to hear about them all 🙂

Walking with God – An Overview – Part 1

The day I write this, I am a 49-year-old woman, who is currently on another journey in my life. At this age, I can sit back and realise that my life has been full of journeys and they have all created who I am today, either good or bad. Like everyone, my life has had different stages.

Childhood, where I was a daughter trying to work out my independence and where I stood in life while trying to please my parents.

Late teens/20’s, where I was still trying to work out my independence, figuring out how to be a partner/girlfriend/wife and a mother, feeling like I was not doing a good job at anything. While still trying to please everyone.

30’s/40’s, establishing life as a single mother, seeing what independence looked like, just surviving as best as I could while life threw everything it had at me. And still trying to please everyone.

To now. My ‘now’ started in 2016 and has had so many twists and turns that its been quite traumatic. BUT it has to lead me to today, where I am very aware that God is walking beside me and supporting me. I always knew this, but now I can feel it and I so so need him right now.

I have been ‘told’ to write my story. When I say ‘told’, I mean every day I have a little voice in my head telling me that I need to share my spiritual journey with people and it is getting louder and louder every day.

I am a questioner, someone who needs to understand all things that interest me. I am also a very spiritual person, who has ‘talked’ to God nearly every day of my life. I plan to live till I am 105, so I guess what I’m going through right now is what we would call a ‘midlife crisis’ 😛

I am a sharer. Not in a pushy way, but if people can benefit from my knowledge I will share it. If it helps people to get through something then I will share my experience. BUT I am also a very private person, so I do not openly let the whole world know about every part of my life.

The best way to share, for me is by blogging/writing something. That way I can pour my heart out and be 100% honest without seeing the look of judgement on people’s faces. So often I will have conversations with people, hold back my questions, or thoughts and then think it over for a while. Then in the next day or so, I will write them a message offering my thoughts or asking my questions.

I also have a policy that I will not express my hurt or anguish or thoughts with people until I ‘sit on it’ for a while. If in a few days I still feel the same way and I can not let it go, then I will send the person a message.

Oh, and I am someone who believes that there is good in everyone. I love everyone (some more than others 😛 ). Everyone is on their own journey and we do not have the right to judge anyone. We should be celebrating everyone’s success and supporting everyone when they need support. Just because people do, say, act in ways that we may not necessarily agree with us, does not make them ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ and us ‘good’ and ‘right’.

I was sitting talking to an Aunt one day shortly after I had had my 2nd child and she said to me, always remember to tell your children that what they did was naughty, not that they are naughty… no one is bad, their actions may be bad, but it doesn’t mean they are bad. This really sat with me… I have always remembered it. No-one is bad or evil, their actions may be bad and evil, but deep down they are just like all of us, trying to find their way in the world.

My mind is always thinking, always processing, always searching. I love learning 🙂

God has been in my life from as far back as I can remember, he has been a constant. Sometimes he is there as a very strong presence, other times he is in the background, with me knowing he is there if I ever need him. Like all of us, I have probably not lived the best life I could, but God does know I’ve tried.

I have struggled with religion, peoples opinions and actions. But I have never struggled with my belief in God, he is real, he does love me and he has my back. I have known this forever. This doesn’t mean I understand him or understand why somethings happen. But I do know that he is ‘real’…

I feel there is a lot to go through here, so over the next few blogs, you will hear about all the stages of my journey with God. You will receive as much background as I can remember and I will share with you my journey in the ‘now’…

Cruise 2016

In April 2016 I went on my very first cruise. I must admit I was very unsure about how I would go as I suffer from very bad sea sickness, to the point where I feel sick just walking along the sand as the tide is coming in. But it was a cruise that my good friend Jackie White from Being Divine organised and so I really really wanted to go.

The cruise was a Spiritual Transformational Journey of Self Discovery. Who could resist that type of cruise?

So off I went, with 7 other women to transform my spiritual self discovery, totally unsure of what I had got myself into, but willing to give it a go and see what happened.

Day 1

We set off from my house at 6.15am in a mini bus, went and collected the rest of the women who where leaving from Bendigo and headed to the Melbourne Airport. On the way to Melbourne in the Mini Bus, Jackie presented us with a bag of goodies, which was very exciting.

The bag contained – a cap, a Dr Seuss book, a Journal, a pen, a Crystal Pack, an Essential Oil Pack, a Mindfulness Colouring Book, a Chakra Healing Test (to monitor our progress throughout the journey), a puzzle & activity book, a Daily Timetable, Pencils and a little Angel.

Once our excitement from getting the pack abated, Jackie read us a story called ‘Oh, the places you’ll go!’ by Dr.Seuss. It was great to experience.

When we got to the Melbourne Airport, we ventured off to check our luggage and have some breakfast. Checking luggage and going through the security checks is something that I don’t really enjoy doing, in fact I find it quite tiring.

After we had something to eat we made our way to the departure lounge and boarded the plane. It was great to all sit together and the Stewards were amazing. They were very interested in what we were doing and where we were headed.

Arriving at Sydney Airport saw us connect with the 8th person of our group and head to the P&O Transfer lounge, where we boarded a bus to be transferred to the ship.

We had hoped to be boarding the ship at Darling Harbour, but it was not to be and we boarded from the White Bay Cruise Terminal. As this was my first overseas trip it was quite an experience going through customs and learning all that we had to do. It was great to have the support of Jackie to get us through it.

Around 4pm we headed through the harbour and out into the deep waters. If you would like to look at some photos of this you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a scroll through.

That evening after we settled in we had a little cocktail party for the 8 of us, just so we could connect and get to know each other further. At this stage I had started to feel sick.

We decided to go and look at the spa and book in our massages that Jackie had arranged for us all. When I got to the spa I really wasn’t in a good way and decided to have acupuncture to help with the sea sickness.

I had never had acupuncture before and so was a little bit worried, but knew that I had to try anything to stop from being sick. When the needles where in, I felt amazing and could have concurred the world.

After the acupuncture we went to tea and had a lovely meal. Jackie then handed around affirmation cards (which we did everyday) and she also distributed to us a challenge that we had to complete for the next day. It was interesting how we all reacted to this, fear, uncertainty, but also quite determined to achieve it.

Each day at dinner time we were given a new challenge for the next day, things like – sit on the deck an have a conversation with a passenger about their childhood – or – give compliments to three people you don’t know. They were all designed to push us outside of our comfort zones and grow a little bit more.

Day 2

The 2nd day wasn’t a good day for me, we all got up and did a dawn meditation, which was amazing. But then I spent the day vomiting. I had an injection for the sea sickness and then swallowed tablets all day. I slept most of the day and missed out on so many activities, but there was nothing I could do about that.

Day 3

Day three I was feeling much better, didn’t get out of bed until mid morning, so missed out on the morning activities, but had lunch out on the deck with the rest of the group and enjoyed the afternoon sun.

Around mid afternoon we attended a workshop that Jackie put on for us. She put on a daily workshop, but this was the first one that I could attend. Each day the ‘lesson’ was different, from affirmation writing, to learning about oils and crystals. They were great and informative and really helpful with our spiritual journey.

That evening we went to an Italian Restaurant called Angelo’s, it was great, the food was yummy and the staff were nice and cheerful and entertaining. The ship had 5 restaurants and a place they called The Pantry which had about 9 different places where you could get food from. Everything was included in your price except the top 2 restaurants where you had to pay a surcharge.

Day 4 – Noumea

This day was our first encounter with land since we set sale. As we were getting off there was a welcoming from the native people to Noumea, we then looked through their local market and just generally looked around.

Nouméa is the capital of the South Pacific archipelago and French territory New Caledonia. Located on the main island, Grand Terre, it’s known for its beaches and its blend of French and native Kanak influences. The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre showcases Kanak heritage, and the Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie has exhibits from across the Pacific region. The Aquarium des Lagons introduces local marine life. – Thanks Google

Then Jackie had organised a special surprise for us. We jumped in a bus and went up into the hills of Noumea to Cat Davies place – Ayurveda Rasayana. Where we learnt about Ayurveda eating and how to balance our body through eating correctly and being more healthy. We all learnt so much and took so many notes and we are all keen to start applying this method to our lives.

Ayurveda is an Indian health practice thought to be more than 5000 years old. It consists of a number of disciplines, including aromatherapy, diet, herbal medicine, acupuncture, yoga, massage, meditation and balancing of energies. The word “ayurveda” is translated from Sanskrit to mean “the science of life”. – Thanks Google

We finished the afternoon learning hand massage and then we did a meditation, before getting back on the bus and heading back to the boat.

That evening was at another restaurant with awesome food and company and discussions about what we had learnt and how we are going to apply it all.

If you would like to see pictures of our day on Noumea, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look

Day 5 – Lifou

Day 5 took us to Lifou. To get onto the island we had to go by tender. Tenders are basically the life boats. When we docked at Lifou we walked down the pier and into their local market. We looked around there before getting on a bus and doing the Malaysian Island Tour.

Lifou is a commune of France in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. – Thanks Google.

The Malaysian Tour was great, we got to see the traditional hut that is used for ‘council’ meetings and smaller versions of these are also used for sleeping in. Most of the places don’t have a ‘house’ but they have several buildings, the sleeping quarters (like the tradtional hut), a kitchen, a toilet/bathroom/laundry.

After looking through that traditional hut and learning about more about what goes on, we then went to an area around the back where we were shown how to cook one of their traditional meals called the Bougna – Bougna is a traditional feast dish of the Kanak people of New Caledonia. The word “bougna” comes from the Drehu word “puhnya” meaning “bundle”, “pack”.

Bougna often contains taro, yam, sweet potato, banana, and pieces of either chicken, fish, crab, prawns or lobster. The contents are wrapped in banana leaves and are then buried to cook in a ground oven, which uses red-hot rocks heated by fire. After about two hours of cooking, the banana leaves are unearthed and unwrapped, and the contents are eaten.- thanks Google

We then got to see inside their local church. We just missed out on seeing a wedding being held in the church. I was a bit disappointed in this as I would have loved to have seen what they wore for a traditional wedding in Lifou.

We then headed back to the marked and the pier, where we were going to go swimming and snorkelling for the afternoon but it started to rain and by the time we got back it was pouring down. So we went back on the boat and did our workshop and meditation on the boat instead of doing it on the island.

If you would like to see pictures of our day on Lifou, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look

Day 6 – Mare

The 6th day saw us land at Mare. Once again we got off the boat via a tender and were greeted on shore by a local natives group performing for us.

Maré Island (French: Île Maré) is the second-largest of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The island is part of the commune (municipality) of Maré, in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia. – Thanks Google

This island was beautiful, although very primitive. The bus that took us to the beach was old and dirty and the toilets had a lot to be desired. But the beautiful beach made everything else seem insignificant.

Here we swam, ate, snorkelled. We did a mediation sitting in the sea and then we did a workshop where we gathered things we could find and created a word that represented us all. Our word was ‘Grateful’.

We had a fantastic time, got very sunburnt and didn’t really want to return to the ship. But back we went and then after having showers we attended our yoga session. We did yoga 5 times during the trip, but as I was sick the first two days I only ended up doing 3.

If you would like to see pictures of our day on Mare, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look

Day 7 – Isle of Pines

We had high exceptions for the Isle of Pines, everyone had told us how great it was, that it was the best of all the islands. The weather was awesome, but there was a huge swell so getting to the island via a tender was a bit scary, but we did get there, an hour later than expected, but that was ok.

The Isle of Pines is an island located in the Pacific Ocean, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France. The island is part of the commune of L’Île-des-Pins, in the South Province of New Caledonia. – Thanks Google

We jumped on a bus, that was much newer and nicer than the one from Mare, and did a tour of the island. This took around an hour and a half. Then we had lunch, swam, snorkelled and just chilled out. We did a meditation under the trees before heading back to the boat.

This was our last island stop, which we were all really sad about as it meant that our trip was coming to an end. We had 2 days left on the boat before we had a day of travel to get home.

If you would like to see pictures of our day on Isle of Pines, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look

Day 8

Day 8 was about coming to terms with our trip ending. We did a workshop, meditation, yoga and completed our challenge for the day. I also had a massage. The massage was amazing and made me feel so relaxed.

We sat around talking and connecting and genuinely just enjoying each others company.

Each day of the trip we did meditation, here is what they were

Dawn meditation,
then.. (I don’t know as I was sick).
A meditation with Cat in the Mountains of Noumea
Meditation in our conference room on the boat – was meant to be a beach one but it was raining
Sea meditation
Forest meditation
Sunset meditation
Moonlight meditation

Day 9

Day 9 was basically the same as Day 8, yoga, workshop, meditation, dinner. We were all very much aware that this was our last day and we had to spend time packing, buying photos the ships photographer took and spending as much time with the group as we could.

We loved sharing with each other the different ‘animals’ that the house crew left in our rooms each night when they turned down our beds. They were made from towels. We had an elephant, monkey, rabbit and dog.

Day 10 – going home

The last night on the boat was not a good one, they had 6 foot swells and the boat just rocked and rocked and swayed and swayed all night. Things crashed and banged and it was quite scary, but we got through it and were up early packed and ready to disembarked.

This day was the reverse of our first day, we got off the boat, went through customs, caught a bus to the airport, flew to Melbourne, got a bus home to our house. And although we had an amazing time, it was great to be home.

We have all come back from our spiritual journey more connected with ourselves, more relaxed, more focused and ready to take on life and make ours better, happier, healthier and more connected.

If any of you every want to go on a retreat, I would suggest you get in touch with Jackie White from Being Divine and go on one of her retreats, it was truly amazing.