Well, I first want to just apologize to my readers. It has been for ages since I wrote a blog. I am going to be working on that as always. It is just hard sometimes to just put my thoughts into words.
A lot has changed. I ended the BAS year with delivering 31 babies in three different nations. If you asked me even three years ago if I would be delivering babies I would probably laugh at first then say "NO WAY!!!! Have you lost your mind?" I never thought delivering babies would be my calling at all. Working with babies yes, but not delivering them. This last year has been an eye-opener for me. I love the whole process of birth now. Welcoming babies into the world in Jesus name is quite exhilarating. Being the first person they see into this world is such an honor and privilege. To pray over them in Jesus name and let them know they are made and loved by the most amazing Father in the universe! There was a lot of ups and downs throughout the year as well. To see death on an almost daily way can really challenge you. Do you make your heart hard as stone to death, or do you keep your heart soft and fleshy grieving with the grieving family? At one point I noticed that I had hardened my heart to the death and started to have the same hope as the mothers did, NONE! I of course hoped for the best, but was ready to receive the worst. Not saying this is good in any since. God created us to have a fleshy heart filled with compassion. We should grieve for every loss that we see, because God does! He sees it more than I will ever see it. He sees the injustice in the world every second. Our news rarely covers anything about the injustice in the world, so we are sheltered from it. Once you step out of the comfort of your home, your eyes will be opened to just a glimpse of what God sees. It changes you for the better I think. I can't just go back to my comfort zone and not do anything about what I have witnessed this last year. Every year 600,00 women die each year due to complications in their pregnancy or birth and most of them could have been prevented if there was someone there with the knowledge I have received this last year! 98% of those women live in developing nations. While I was on outreach, God called me to come back to YWAM Perth to staff this school and teach others the knowledge I have and go out into the developing nation with the knowledge they received. I am also doing this to get more experience, because God is calling me to do much more than just teach in YWAM Perth, He is calling me to the nations. I am not sure what nation I will be going to for good, but God will reveal that to me in His timing. For now, I just have to wait on the Lord.
So, I am back in Perth, but as a staff member now instead of a student!!!!! It is crazy how it all worked out! I went home on June 2nd and did a little bit of touristy thing in LA with my dad. We went to Hollywood. It was not what I thought it was going to be. Who knew hollywood could be so dirty and small. I had the movie thoughts in my head.
Then we went to Sonoma Wine Country and went to the vineyards there. Here is a photo of me and my dad eating lunch at the most beautiful vineyard I have been to:
Dad and I had a wonderful time catching up and relaxing!!! Then we headed to Boise, Id so that I could catch up with my friends, family, and church family. I also got my stuff together, minimized it by a heap for my return to Perth. During my time in Boise, I was able to see my cousin Meg pregnant one day and the next she delivered a beautiful baby girl Amelia Claire! Here is a beautiful picture of her:
I also was able to have some fantastic journey's with her son Cole:
While I was at my home church, The Pursuit, I was able to meet with our missions board. It was a God thing, because I didn't know when they were meeting and they just happened to be meeting on my only Sunday I would be there. I was able to share my last year, and to let them know my plans for the future. It was great even though I didn't have my visual aid with me. My church decided to continue supporting me and I feel so blessed to have a home church to support me. After I got my stuff together, I headed down to Dallas, Tx to be with my family there before heading back. I had to get all my visa stuff done that first two days I arrived in Dallas. Through that whole process, God had something else planned for me. During my waiting period of my visa approval God grew me in my relationships with my family and my trust in Him. I was also able to see my friend Clayre pregnant one day and then a few days later she delivered a beautiful girl Emma Clayre. I had to wait an extra 40 days for my visa to be approved. There was a misplacement of my medicals. At the end of the last week I was in Texas my students in the BAS 2012 school on Tuesday interceded for my visa that it would be put to the top of the stack and that someone would stick with my visa till it got approved. Within hours the embassy found my medicals and within the day they had granted my visa!!!!!! Praise Jesus for answered prayers! I booked my ticket that I had been looking at, and it even dropped a few hundred dollars! I got things organized and had a goodbye dinner with my family and a few friends! I then headed to Houston with my mom on a road trip to the airport there in the wee-hours of the morning. It was great to spend that last few hours with my mom! I forgot to take photos throughout the trip:( Oh, well they will just be my memories!
I landed in Perth on Sunday where I met some of my old friends there! It was a crazy day, and would not recommend arriving anywhere the day before things get started! Arrive on a Friday, it is much better! On Tuesday I found out that my Grandpa Mansfield had died earlier that day! It was really hard for me that day to focus on anything and would break down and cry quite frequently. It was a hard start, but it is getting better now. I was able to make peace with my Grandpa's death too. Being on staff is a lot different then I thought it would look like, but it is not bad. Just somethings that I will have to grow in. Which seems to be my life at the moment. Refining who God created me to be. To take the bad and make it better. I love my students in this school! They are so much fun and filled with God's love. I feel very blessed to have them in my life and I just in a chapter of theirs. Here is a photo of all of us, minus Bri- she didn't get in the photo:
We found out where we are going for this school! We will be heading to India, Tanzania, and then (where I will meet the girls) Zambia! It is so exciting to be going back out to the nations and helping women and children as well as helping the students step out in the deliveries!
Our school is needing about $52,000 left for outreaches within 10 days! God is good and God is our provider. He will not lead us to fail. If you feel like you would like to contribute to my outreach fees or even just the school's in general you can donate to www.ywamperth.org.au/ and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the donate/pay link. You will fill in your information and then if for me you will put it is for DaNiell Mansfield, staff member, and that it is for my outreach fees. Or if it is for the school then you can go to the same website and then choose that this is a donation, that it is for other donation and then fill in the comments it is for the BAS outreach fees pool!
I will try and keep this posted as much as possible! Please share with people if you feel led to as well. Hope you have a blessed week! My birthday is this Thursday!!!!! 27 :)
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