Greetings from my new home in Perth. I have now been back in Perth for one month exactly. It's funny to think having experienced the hottest summer in Ireland in over fifty years that within the my first week back here it was over 35c on a spring day. No Irish summer prepares you for that kind of heat. But I quickly got used to the heat again and I must say that I'm loving being back especially being reunited with my girlfriend Liz after five months apart.

I'm presently in Perth on a tourist visa which allows me to volunteer but not to work. On my visa it states that as a volunteer, the work I do would not otherwise be done in return for wages by an Australian resident. In my last blog I talked about how I was thinking of doing the course on Community Service Work in TAFE on a student visa but that's something I'm not really considering anymore. This is because I failed to take a loan with both my Irish and Perth based banks to be able to pay for the course. I'm now trusting God to provide me with a visa that will allow me to work legally in Australia through an employment sponsorship. The ideal job that I would love to get right now would be something along the lines of financial planning. This was a particular area of finance that I was always interested in working in while I studied finance a few years ago. But I would also be happy with any job at this stage whether in a finance or accounting position or as a youth worker. If you know of anyone worth me meeting in Perth or passing my cv onto then please let me know. I will leave my email at the bottom of this blog.

Looking back at my five months in Ireland there was a number of highlights. At the top of the list would be simply the amazing time I got to spend with my whole family over the five months. We haven't had such a long period of time together in years and it was truly special. Another highlight would be taking my sister Emma (I mean Em as she calls herself these days:)) to the Will Reagan concert in Dublin followed by our surf trip to Lahinch. Another very special moment was having the opportunity to share my faith and pray with my uncle Michael who is a Freemason who my mum and I visited in England. Lastly the two nights of street evangelism and worship were both very special times to be involved in and I look forward to getting involved in something similar here in Perth.

I'm loving being back in my home Church in Scarborough. Every second Sunday we have lifespace instead of your standard service which involves having church in a house instead. I attend my friend Byron's lifespace which he runs in the morning over breakfast. After the meal we watch a short teaching by our pastor Derek which we use as a platform to have an interactive conversation with one another. I love this style of Church as it's active rather than passive. My Church does a thing called Beach Chaplaincy in the summer which is very similar to the street pastors who help the police on the streets at night. It involves walking around the Scarborough area between 11 and 2 every weekend through the summer working alongside the the police and local council. We received first aid training as part of the training for this. We are their to help people who may have been in a fight and to help people who might be dehydrated etc. Myself and Liz will be doing this together once a month and I'm really looking forward to starting.

That's about all my latest news and hopefully by the time I write my next blog I will be telling you all about the awesome new employment sponsorship I have. For those of you who I have still not caught up with yet in Perth I look forward to catching up soon. Please keep my hope of an employment sponsorship in your prayers. Shalom.

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