joiningthedots

  voices of compassion

This time last year I walked hand-in-hand with a tribe of children along a dusty, rubbish-lined street on our way to perform carols at a senior’s home in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Our accompanist was ill with food poisoning in his hostel; we brought the guitar along anyway…not quite sure why! Somehow we stumbled through the performance, me out front conducting, not knowing whether to laugh or cry as the majority of my choir experienced stage fright and forgot the lyrics.

I was stunned too, not so much by the unfamiliar crowd as by the  incredible compassion of these children. As a group of young girls surrounded a frail elderly woman in her wheelchair, one of them reached behind to pull a blanket across her shoulders. I suddenly realised the capacity of children, especially those who have experienced poverty themselves, to make a difference in the lives of others. This is what I hold in my heart every day, particularly now as I am back in Australia. My home is where they are, the children across the globe who have a story to tell—and a river of love, compassion, and inspiration to share with the world.

  everything's official

In May, we officially registered 'joiningthedots international' as a non-profit organization in Australia. This could not have happened without the dedication of an amazing team of people who came on board this year to support my effort.  It still seems surreal to me that I left Australia with an idea and now have the beginnings of a world-changing program and a board of directors with the most phenomenal people from all over the globe. In particular, none of our official documentation would have gotten under way had it not been for Mark O’Neil sharing his time and expertise with us. Thanks Mark! Oh, and we launched the website, which was nine months in the making!

  travels this year

2010 was a year of immense privilege for me - volunteering, learning, experiencing the lives of others and being adopted into families in every continent! I keep thinking to myself, 'who gets to do this? What a blessed life I have!' Early in the year I attended numerous courses and conferences, including auditing a course at Berea College, Kentucky USA, entitled 'Faith in Action' and the first ever international ecumenical conference in Bethlehem, Palestine, entitled 'Christ at the Checkpoint'. About the same time I also graduated (finally!) with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies.

I volunteered in various programs in Palestine, Peru, and Mexico–where I fell in love with a place called San Cristobal, a Mexican town that has more non-profit organisations per square metre than anywhere else in the world! I attended the World Social Forums in Mexico City and more recently in Detroit, USA and began to feel quite at home amongst the sea of activists and peacemakers. It was here that I learned about many other grass-roots organisations that I would like to build partnerships with in the future.

Coming home after twenty-one months of such extraordinary encounters was a somewhat difficult thing for me. It was lovely to catch up with family and friends but has been rather challenging to settle into the Australian life once again. However, this is where I believe the universe has led me to be for now and there are many amazing things unfolding here. I feel privileged that I have a profession (teaching)  where I can choose to work casually so that I can invest time into joiningthedots and other volunteer activity.

  what 2011 holds

In June I went to Philadelphia USA to do an internship with a non-profit called BuildaBridge and to co-ordinate their annual Institute for artists and musicians learning how to use their art for social transformation. I had absolutely no idea what would unfold for me there, but as most of you now know, I met the love of my life, Jason Nicholas, and three months later we were engaged! I foresaw many things about my journey, but coming home with a fiancé was not one of them! The richness of life is overwhelming at times!

The coming year will be another exciting one – our wedding will be in March (if Jason gets his Australian visa in time!) and we extend an open invitation to all family and friends. The joiningthedots team is currently building our 'future plan' which includes such things as:

• opening an office for joiningthedots
• the launch of an intern program
• designing of a joiningthedots training course and education curriculum
• an international conference for young leaders
• further improvements to the website, including the addition of a wiki which will be online very soon!

I will launch a personal website as well which will outline ways that organisations can book me for talks, retreat programs and the like. And the other thing, how could I forget! is fundraising – there will be lots of fund-raising!!!