Meredith Rounsley

Anniversary

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen. Here it is. The one year re-cap.

Just over a year ago I packed most of what I owned, cautiously put it on a plane (I’ll always be nervous for my guitar), and boarded a flight to Sydney, Australia. The only people I knew in this country were my aunt, uncle, and the handful of people I had asked questions of over facebook. I distinctly remember standing in my empty bedroom and surveying the sprawling suburbia of the Hills district from my window. “This is home,” I thought to myself. Perhaps then I was just trying to be convincing. Now I know that it was more of a prophecy.

Over the past twelve months, this little corner of the world has become my world. Here dwells my second family. They are a group of incredibly loyal, passionate, fun loving, and faithful individuals. We have held each other up while our collective lives get turned upside down. Even now, we gather around tables and talk about the crazy living situations and sheer miracles it takes to keep us alive. We may have been put together simply because we’re in the same class, but we have stayed together because we believe in each other.

Living with these people has made me, if anything, more faithful. Nothing beats sitting across from a professional opera singer, a lawyer, a physical therapist, a father, a graphic designer, a marketer, or a writer and hearing about their journey to Bible college. I am inspired daily by their lives and the strength of their faith. Week after week I get to walk into church and witness them BEING the Church. It has been an honour to serve alongside them and learn from their example. It would be an understatement to say that my life has been radically changed by their wisdom and leadership. Never have I been more convinced that God put people in our path for a reason.

This year has been one of triumph, trial, provision, and lack. My heart has been pushed to it’s absolute limit. Sometimes, when it’s really quiet at night, I am convinced that I can hear it beating stronger inside my chest. I have been carried in my weakness, comforted in my anxiety, and reminded that dependency can be the best thing of all. Especially when it is on grace that has been so freely given.

On Friday I officially enroll in my second year of Bible college. I am certain that this year will be full of just as many incredible, impossible, and unfathomable things as the last. And though I walk into this year as a woman, I have fond memories of the scared little girl that got off of that plane last July. I pray that I never lose her sense of expectation.

Here we go!

Here We Go…

I’ve thought a lot about how to start off my first blog on this new site format. One of my friends told me that he absolutely detests the “welcome to my blog!” entry. I have a bio page for all of that goodness so I suppose I’ll spare him and just dive into a real, honest to goodness, blog entry.

My move to Australia is now imminent. There are suitcases to be filled, travel documents to be photocopied, and people to see before I leave my homeland. I am listening to old Bethany Dillon songs as I begin to throw away trash in my room (don’t want anything to mold while I’m gone) and gather things that need to go with me. I never realize how much stuff I tote around until I pack for a trip. Now that I’m paring down to the necessities I find the whole ordeal slightly comical. To buy SPF 50 in Australia or to bring it with me…that is the question!

Something in me has always desired to be adventurous. I’ve left the country on a mission trip before and I have dragged my parents along with me on car and plane rides to places like Nashville or Colorado. This time, however, is a very different deal. No one boards the plane with me. I will spend almost a day with the acquaintances (hopefully friendly and believers in deodorant) that sit to my right or left. My decisions go from “What time should we all meet for dinner?” to “How am I going to get to the grocery store without a car?” Scary as that may seem, I’ve never been more excited!

Though I have seen a few different places in my lifetime, I know that I will never have seen them like this. Australia is going to become home. There will be a barrage of new traditions and cultures. Hillsong College is flooded with international students that I am excited to meet and share a common goal with. I will be seeing my Uncle Kevin for the first time in years and meeting his Australian wife, my Aunt Jo, and getting to know a side of my family that I may not have known existed. My life is going to flip upside down. And not just because of the hemisphere differences.

God has been so faithful in bringing me to this point. I’ve had some big dreams during these nineteen years, some of which seemed downright impossible. And now I’m about to see the biggest one of them all come to fruition. Some nights I can barely get to sleep. I’m too psyched about all of the incredible things that I will experience this next year. I am absolutely humbled by the kindness of those who have helped me pay for tuition, sent me encouraging letters, given me travel advice, given me a place to sleep when I get to the country, and prayed for me as I prepared for this journey. There are things that I didn’t even know I needed…and you all have been there to lend a helping hand. You are incredible, wise, and honorable people. Thank you so much!

So this is it. I’m going to Australia.