Hi everyone,
I have experienced a lot of amazing changes in my life over the course of the past 3-4 months that I feel extremely grateful about, and I realised that I hadn’t yet written any kind of update style blog post as of yet, so here goes!
Volunteer Selection Programme
Both Bex & I registered and took part in the latest instalment of the VSP in Wilkesdale, AU that ran between April – May 2019. We left our old life in London behind giving up our jobs and apartment to follow a desire (and dream of ours) to hopefully become volunteers and stay in Australia for an extended period of time.
My leaving doo at work – we all went to a vegan restaurant
It was a very challenging yet hugely transformational period of time for me, where I learnt a lot about a wide variety of issues, both personally and in regards to various projects that are happening in Divine Truth & God’s Way Ltd, and the principles involved in them. It was a lot of fun getting to meet the other participants on the programme as well as getting to know the current volunteers and members of God’s Way who also got stuck in and worked alongside us for many of the days.
Cleaning tools after the day’s activities – photo courtesy of God’s Way Ltd
Through the course of the programme, I experienced a number of significant breakthroughs from an emotional perspective, and feel as though I have worked through some large areas of my personal facade, developed a greater level of humility, desire for personal truth and faith in The Way.
As a result, I ended up passing the programme alongside Bex and 4 other participants which we were extremely delighted about! I will share on this blog another post specifically about my personal experience during the VSP from the perspective of a participant in the coming weeks.
Chilling out at the hostel, falling asleep after shovelling woodchip all day!
However, for now I would just like to say a massive thank you to Tristan Miller & Eloisa Lytton-Hitchins for everything they did in regards to the running of the programme, and co-facilitating the entire event. It was a huge effort on their part in terms of organising everything, the logistics involved and everything in between as well as pointing out issue of love that arose throughout the project activities in a very kind, but clear and direct manner.
I’d also like to thank Jesus & Mary for their role in the VSP (mentoring Tris & Elo) and for gifting me plenty of personal feedback as well as offering a few of us the opportunity to stay in the eco tents on their property (which was bloody awesome) during the programme. It was so cool sleeping in the tent at nighttime and have all of the wildlife come so close to us as we were laying in bed, as well as all of the birds acting as our alarm clocks at dawn!
I’d also like to give a special thanks to Catherine Spence for her generosity in providing us with a hostel on her own property where some participants slept, but also where we did all of our cooking, laundry, cleaning and computer work throughout the programme. As there were a significant number of us who came from overseas to participate in the programme, the rural location would have made it difficult for us to find suitable accommodation nearby, so Catherine’s gifts were hugely important to us and very much appreciated. The hostel was a great place to spend time, and it was very comfortable.
Gecko vs Moth showdown at the Hostel. No geckos or moths were hurt during this incident
Finally, I’d like to thank all of the God’s Way directors, members, volunteers and helpers who worked on preparing the hostel and eco tents for us before we arrived. As I understood it, a lot was involved in these tasks from cleaning, painting, moving furniture, and completing some renovations to the hostel, alongside the cleaning of the eco tents. Again, I very much appreciate it.
Volunteering For Divine Truth & God’s Way
Upon the completion of the VSP, I have since remained in Australia volunteering full-time for Divine Truth & God’s Way Ltd, whilst Bex has temporarily returned to the UK due to her visa restrictions and needing to tie up some loose ends before she hopes to come back to join me. I have been missing Bex a lot, though this period of time has been a benefit too, as it has provided us with opportunities to work our way through some co-dependancy issues that have been highlighted to us in greater detail as we have spent time apart.
It is a hope for both of us to start changing our relationship from feeling a “need” for the other person (where they fill our emotional injuries and holes, and we theirs through co-dependant addictions), to instead, feeling a desire for the other person (where we gift our love to other without expectation or demand for anything in return).
Bex & I at the Bunya Mountains during one of the “off weeks” of the VSP. Thanks to Rahni for taking this photo of us
As I am a UK citizen, I am currently holding a Working Holiday Visa (subclass 417), which allows me to stay in Australia for 2 years, though if I wish to stay for the second year, I am required to complete 88 days worth of regional farm work in my first year, which I will be aiming to complete before the end of this calendar year so that I will then have 15 straight months of being able to volunteer my time free from further obligations.
I have absolutely loved my time being a volunteer thus far. I have been very busy and there is most definitely no shortage of work to be done, where the days seemingly whiz right by! I have had the opportunities to be involved in a wide variety of different projects, and have really enjoyed getting to know all of the current directors, members and volunteers more.
At this stage, I have been involved in the below activities:
Production Team
- Audio editing Divine Truth Assistance Group material
- Trialling & testing new camera equipment
- Training other members & volunteers in using new cameras
Audio editing in the Divine Truth studio – photo courtesy of God’s Way Ltd
Environment Team
- Green waste collection & waste management
- Assisting in terracing project (pegging areas, cleaning machinery, sowing seeds, raking terraces)
- Labourer of various environmental projects
Emptying scraps to be put into holes to attract insects and create soil – photo courtesy of God’s Way Ltd
Construction Team
- Levelling of sites to aid in the development of new volunteer residences
- Labourer of construction projects
Corny supervising me as I insulate the walls of the Caretaker’s property at the Function Learning Centre – photo courtesy of God’s Way Ltd
I have also been spending time responding to the emails people have sent in to the Divine Truth Office account, which I have been enjoying too. I’d like to thank both Mary Magdalene & Tristan for training me up in this area and giving me advice and pointers. If you would like to know about the current projects happening in God’s Way, then you can read the blog post updates on the God’s Way website by clicking HERE.
At this stage, most of my time is being spent assisting Jesus in the Divine Truth studio audio editing the most recent Assistance Group material. Jesus spent some of his time training a small group of us in the audio editing procedure, so a big thanks to him for doing so, as well as a big thanks to Kate Eckersall who trained a group of us up in getting to grips with the audio editing software.
The audio editing is a very large project, and it involves being very thorough, methodical and precise in the hope that the final videos when they are uploaded to the Divine Truth YouTube channel provide viewers who were not present at the groups with the highest quality audio for them to enjoy the same material as I very much did being there in person.
I have heavily relied upon the creation and sharing of Divine Truth material on the internet historically as I have lived outside of Australia all of my life. Because of this, I have always felt a large degree of gratitude for the effort of others involved in making this possible. As a result, I desire to do the best job that I can and pay what was done for me beforehand, forward to others.
Everyone has been very kind and patient with me here, training me up in various practices as I have settled into the flow of everything, and I am really learning a huge amount about being of service to others in a real way by desiring to offer gifts to others, rather than being expectant upon just receiving gifts.
For me personally, I feel as though I am in the best place in the world right now to keep growing and learning more about God, Love, Truth, myself, others and the environment. There are so many exciting projects currently happening with new ones in the pipeline, and I honestly would not substitute where I am and what I am doing for a billion dollars, or anything else for that matter!
I feel a huge sense of gratitude for being here, for the many gifts given to me by Jesus, Mary, and the directors of God’s Way (through accommodation, and donations being a few examples), and for being able to contribute to the team effort in what we all hope to achieve.
Website Changes
You may have noticed if you had not visited my website for a while that I have made a few changes to it lately, particularly the colour scheme. It was mostly black before, and as I recently looked at my site, I felt it was a bit dull and boring so decided to change it up with a bit of blue, gold and white.
I have also made a few changes to other pages on my website, fixed the forum link (which at one time I created and administered but have since closed) so it is still available to be viewed as an archival resource, and updated the donation page which now accurately reflects the work I am currently involved in through being a volunteer for Divine Truth & God’s Way Ltd.
Anyway, that is all from me for now, and wherever you may be in the world, I wish you well.
‘Til next time,
Nicky
A few days before the VSP started, somebody plopped this down on my table at a cafe – great song!