Call the Midwife Phil

Where to begin.....
11 days till I fly back to Perth!
This last 6 weeks have been crazy. God provided open doors in Maternity clinics in our area, allowing us to work in them, one even calling us when a women comes in to give birth. When the phone rings, birth kits and uniforms are hurriedly packed, and the necessary paper work found. we then hurry out to the road where we hail the local transport, which is a motorbike with a side cab, before zooming through narrow crowded streets to the little clinic where we will comfort a mother and welcome a new child.
   We have seen 15 beautiful Filipino babies brought into this world! They have all been prayed over, cared for, and had follow up care from one of our teams.

We have also got to go into the community; loving on the locals, sharing the gospel, helping provide food for families, praying for the sick, the lame, the blind and the deaf and seeing them all healed!
we have had the privilege of seeing hundreds of salvations, conducted open air services.
The other day God told us to feed families, and he put on my heart a specific single mother that I had heard about.
we went to what we thought was her house( it turned out it wasn't), but we didstart talking to a young woman, who was a passionate Christian. We talked with her a lot then asked if there was any thing to pray for. She brought out her mother because she had a prolonged cough. As we went to pray for her, we realized that she was blind with cataracts, so we asked to pray for her sight to be restored. She was excited for us to do so. After the first prayer, she said we no longer looked like shadows, and she could see our faces! She couldn't see the details, but she was already. We prayed again and she said she could see our faces clearly! She tried reading her Bible and was super happy, though it was still a little blurry!We prayed a third time, and there was a real sense of Gods power in the room! she was weeping, thanking us again and again. She kept reading her Bible, though she had to keep wiping her tears away. We talked a little more, and we told her that God was directing us to look for a single mother struggling to look after her family. The daughter disapeared and came back in with another woman, saying that this was who we where looking for. We got to pray for healing for her heart, a deepened trust and relationship with the Lord and let the spirit work. There was a sudden move of God and she started weeping. after a lot of prayer and working through things with the spirit, we got to have her premission to help her family obtain food and provisions that they needed as they had nothing


After the second week, I had a relapse on my concussion, and have been struggling with the nausea, dizziness and trouble focusing both my vision and my brain.
We have been to a doctor and had an MRI taken The MRI showed nothing abnormal, just a concussion, and I am now on medication to help with my dizziness. I'm doing OK at the moment, but I just tire easily.
We are working things out with doctors, leadership and parents, what my next steps look like in this school.
So life is like a box of chocolates....I have no idea what the next one is going to look like, so please pray for wisdom for all those involved to hear God's voice and guidance and grace.

The crooked made straight, the lost found.

Hi there every one! We are now finished with the last bit of our first lecture phase, and are heading for the Philippines tomorrow! aaaaggggghhhh! I'm so excited and extremely nervous too.

In the last month and a half, so much has happened. One of the coolest things, was that God straightened my spine! I have had a very crooked spine for most of my life, this causing a variety of skeletal and muscular problems. We had a day on healing, and along with a lot of inner healing came the physical healing. I can now walk straight, and don't suffer from any muscle problems!

Through my healing, I got lead to an older gentleman and was able to testify to him about the love of Christ, share with him the gospel, and then he said he wanted to give his life and all his drug addictions to Christ! 

We have learnt so much in maternal and infant care, but I think the teaching that has stuck with me the most was on the Fear of the Lord, by Joy Dawson.

 We learnt that the Fear of the Lord is to hate all sin, even the idea of sin. This study, was a huge conviction, and a heart check for me. To check my motives, my heart attitudes etc....I see the freedom of purity and holiness, and the completeness and simplicity that it brings. Though it will require a great sacrifice, it is worth every bit of it.

I have been challenged in instant obedience and walking out my faith with out the Fear of Man.

Many things have transpired over the past six weeks, the latest requiring a fair bit of prayer.

A week ago, I had an accident whilst swimming and ended up with a lacerated scalp and a nasty concussion that I am still slowly recovering from. I ended up with four stitches along the front of my head just above my hair line, and a woozy, and tiring week of recovering and packing for Manila.

And that brings us to now!

I am currently en route to Quezon City, Manila, Philippines. I will spend the next eight weeks, working with mothers and children, providing basic health care around the city, and just loving on anyone and everyone we can find.

We are believing for open doors into the Health Care Department from the Government, miraculous healings, lives brought back from the dead, and for 2,000 salvations during our time in the city. 

So bon voyage and good bye folks, I shall hopefully update you in the next two months some time if I get internet. 

Blessings,

      AmberLeigh.

Life, Death and Child Birth........

Week 7!!!
Six of the most intense, awesome weeks of making friends, exploring a strange city and learning about one of Gods greatest processes, the process of bringing life into this world.
we have studied everything from medical lingo, to the labor process, and to the complications that can arise during pregnancy, and the spiritual dynamics to pregnancy and childbirth.
with six more weeks of the basic course to go and we will go on outreach.
so hold on for a bit there and Ill tell you where!

The Lord has really started challenging me in the core of my world view, and how much I trusted that He is really good no matter what the circumstances are.
He has been challenging me in my devotion to him, my pride, and my heart attitudes.              

 It has been a crazy beautiful time. I have learnt so much about the body that has just put me in awe of God and His phenomenal handy work.




He has surrounded me with a class full of amazing women who have a passion for God, and women and child health care. They also love each other and are there to support us through everything,to pray for you at a moments notice,to be a shoulder to cry on when it has been needed, and a confronting, honest, loving rebuke as you need it, and believe me, I have need all of the above and more of the last couple of months.

Thank you for all of those who have been praying for me and my struggles in the class room. I have been finding it easier and easier, and have lost all of my fight or flight instincts that used to kick in at class time.

I just need prayer now to focus on the present and the time I still have here in lecture phase, my mind is in the future, to the other countries that we will be in in the next year. I need to settle in the time I am in at the moment.
With that I suppose that I should tell you where that is shouldn't I? Or should I just tell you as I leave for them.... Just Kidding!

Drum roll please!!!

September 24th we leave for Manila in the Philippines!  We stay there working in communities teaching health care, in clinics doing prenatal checks, and in hospital delivery wards. An we will begin the advanced portion of our training

In December we return to Perth for a Christmas break and to finish our Advanced Lecture Phase, Then just before New Years we will fly to......

Hyderabad in India! Where we will be in the delivery wards in 3 different hospitals, in the prenatal clinics and in the HIV clinics. 

Then 15th of April we will splitting into smaller teams and my team will travel north into the Rural Districts where we will pioneer places for further teams to connect with and work in.

then on the 25th of May we will return to Perth for a debrief and our Graduation!

I hope to update you all again in few weeks, closer to the time of my departure, and hopefully also through out my time overseas.
  Blessings on you all!!!

Cupids Arrows and Cobras.

Hey! Im finally in Perth!
    I just finished my first day on the YWAM base here and feeling excited, and cant wait to get into class!

    But  before I get carried away I'd better back track a bit and give you some other exciting news.
For those of you who dont know - drum roll please....... Im dating!
Yes! Little me has a boyfriend!     
God brought this amazing Irish man Stephen in to my life nearly 2 and a half years ago, and through a crazy series of events including me losing my job and having to move across the country, God opened our eyes to eachother in a new way, and now we have been together for 2 and a half months. ❤❤❤

Does this affect my plans for the next year? Yes and no.
No in the fact, as stated above, I am still attending the YWAM Birth Attendants School, which will go for the next 11 months.
Yes in the aspect that, I will now have to learn to develop a healthy long distance relationship with him, and means I am also learning to be more intentional with praying for,and about my - now our - future when I finish here.

And Yes it was harder to leave NZ than it would have otherwise been, and yes, multiple times I did consider not attending this school. In the end though, I realized that the best thing for us and our relationship was to do as God had called me. That He knew that this was gonna be a factor and He has things for us to learn through all of this.

Well I left beautiful New Zealand to a chilly 6am winter sunrise on the 18th of June,  bound for the balmy Sunshine Coast of Australia.
The next 7 days I had fun visiting friends and staying with my Cousin. I got to see and hold  my first Black Headed Cobra, explore city of Brisbane, spend time in Maloolaba, and get scared by the size of the insects in this crazy country. I got to spend my last day there with my brother and his beautiful family.

Then yesterday afternoon I crossed the vastness of Australia to the stunning West Coast, and into Perth.
After a few dramas I arrived safely in one piece and have spent last 26 hrs exploring, settling in, and getting to know the staff and a few students who like myself arrived early.

So here I am looking forward with eager expectation to what God has instore for the next year and ready to go!

I just want to thank all those who helped me in so many different way to get here;  my Mum and Dad, my family, Kerry, Oz , All of you at KCF who have been with me from the begining, and most of all my amazing man Stephen.

If any of you want to know more of the story or want some prayer points, or just want to talk, let me know and I try my best to catch up!

Cheers and catch you all soon!

stephen and my self

Sunrise of the NZ coast

Green cobra 

Black headed Cobra

Cafe at YWAM Perth

Back again!

I thought that since I have been quite for a little too long, and things have started moving again, I thought I'd better update you all!

I have spent the last 8 months in the beautiful Far North, Re-connecting with precious family and friends and making new friends that I'm going to hate to leave.
  During this time, I turned 21! Yay! And had the perfect 21st, thank you to all who participated.
I started teaching at St John youth again and got a job (finally one that pays ;), rode in my first rodeo fun day and had heaps of larks with every one!

Now, as the summer drys up and farming up here quiets down, I am moving on, yet again!
 this time the adventure takes me back to the green Waikato where I will be setting up home for the coming months, on a farm in Morinsvile!

As I move down, I will also now start looking at the next phase of my journey! Perth.

   In June I fly out to Australia to begin my School Of Birth Assisting!

 My Nurses scrubs arrived the other day, so its getting soooo real! 

This phase will include 3 months of intensive training, and then 8 months practical and class room over seas, in a yet undecided location!

 I am super excited for this and hope to maybe carry on this line to obtain a degree in Midwifery on my return home.  

So Cheers for now!
     You shall hear from me soon.....