Recipe of the Week: Chilli con Carne!

Arriba! Arriba! I was feeling spicy this week (and I also had meat and beans that needed using up) so I thought "Hey, let's make some chilli!" Also this week has been a bit rainy and cold so it just felt like chilli weather!

I didn't have a specific recipe to go off of, (although I wish I had my dad's recipe from back in the states, his chilli is seriously the best) but I used good 'ol Google and found a recipe that worked with the ingredients I had in my cupboard. This is what it ended up looking like:

Yum-o!!!! It was a pretty simple recipe, and since I didn't have any chilli seasoning I had to make due with the herbs and spices recommended in the recipe. I use just plain old beef mince (the lean stuff is expensive!!) and the recipe doesn't tell you to drain the fat from the meat once you've cooked it but I definitely did because my husband will not eat mince with the fat oils taste still there, plus its a way to make the meal a bit healthier!

I used quite a bit more paprika and cumin than was in the recipe, mostly to compensate for the fact that I didn't have any chilli powder on hand (oops!) and I also added a bit of plain old taco seasoning to try to give it that Mexican edge. After simmering until half of the liquids had steamed off, I was left with an amazing pot of chilli that filled both me and my happy, meat-loving husband with plenty of leftovers for lunches the next day!

I definitely recommend it topped with heaps of shredded cheese and sourcream! YUM!!!

For the full recipe, click here. This website actually has a lot of great recipes to do with chilli and different dishes and ways of making it. Enjoy! Let me know how yours turned out!



Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

As some of you may know, Oceans is a song from Hillsong United's newest album, ZION. The song has had an amazing, unexpected response as one of the most popular songs from the album, as well as a church-proclaimed "God song". The lyrics tell a story of a similar account of Peter walking on water in the Bible. But it is portrayed poetically to relate to the listener and demand a response from the soul. Our church loves this song, and I know it has moved many people. I want to take a minute to expand on how God has used this song to speak to me personally.

Last May at Colour Conference here at Hillsong (the annual women's conference) the song Oceans was unveiled for the first time at Hillsong in congregational worship. I was at a point of complete surrender to God and what He is doing in and through our lives here. I wanted so much to hear from Him at this conference about a few different things and to break more barriers in my heart that were keeping me from fully trusting Him. This point in the worship service was such a beautiful moment, singing to God and letting these new words sink into our hearts as we sing them almost as an anthem

Those words are from the pre-chorus of the song and so powerful. When the storms of life roll in, we keep our eyes above them and fixed onto Jesus. He is ours, our saving grace ad our hope. This was the first night of the conference and I was already crying, this was so powerful as I raised my hands proclaiming this level of trust in my God.

But it is in the bridge of the song where God chose to speak to me that night.

 

At this point in the worship, the lights went dim and the instruments dropped down quietly. The vocalist sang out this refrain over and over and the entire room filled with people singing, declaring this over ourselves and inviting the Holy Spirit to come do a work in us. To myself I was thinking about trusting God in the hard times and keeping my eyes on Jesus and stepping out in faith (which we had done to come to Australia).

 

But in one moment, those words struck me so hard in a new way; "Where my trust is without borders" had a new meaning all of a sudden. An image of the whole world came into my head and I felt God asking me, "Will you trust me outside the borders of America? Will you trust me that if you don't go back there, I am still leading you and I am trustworthy?" And I realized that I had this mindset that was keeping me so focused on our stability, our comfort, and our destiny being locked up tight in us living America that I hadn't opened my heart to trust that God will lead us and care for us no matter where in this earth we go.

 

It was at that point I sung out that refrain with a new heart, answering God's question by asking the Holy Spirit to help me to live without limiting God's dream for us or His sovereignty to one geographical area, but allowing the whole world to be open for God to call us and use us. Now, I honestly believe we will be in Australia for a while and I hope to end up in America again to settle for good, but I am no longer limiting my trust of God's will to a certain place. This decision, this declaration has led me to so much peace ad joy in my life here, and even getting to the point that I can now honestly say that I love living in Australia! I had to let go of the part of my heart that was not fully surrendered to living here before I could fully enjoy this beautiful country.

 

Every time I hear this song now, it is a beautiful reminder of the decision I made to trust God no matter where we go. And to trust Him no matter what circumstances we are in.

 

That's all from me for now! I hope you were encouraged and check out the full version of the song below!:

 



Whale Watching Fun!

I haven't posted in so long! Sorry about that, readers. This post will be an exciting one though!

About a month ago, our dear friends Bryon and Shelby booked us a whale watching tour out of Sydney Harbour as a birthday gift to both of us! Needless to say, we were SO excited! And good timing, because winter is peak whale watching season :)

Here are some photos from the trip! Enjoy :)

 

 

We had a blast! Until next time!

 

Happy Birthday, My Love

I am taking a day to make much of my amazing husband, Alex. It's his 26th birthday!!!

He is my favourite person ever. He is incredibly thoughtful, puts others first on a daily basis, and is so gentle and sweet. Alex sees the world differently than other people; where most others see opportunities to barter, grab, and get the most money or fairness from other people, he sees an opportunity to bless people and to be humble and helpful. I love that I get to be married to him and be doing life so close with him, because seeing the world through his perspective and seeing his beautiful heart long to bless people has helped me be a better person, Christian, friend, and wife. He has the most wonderful heart towards people, God, and our marriage. His character is profoundly mature, pure, honest and humble. And I love him more and more every day!

Happy birthday, beebe! This year has been amazing and I am excited for whatever is ahead for us :)

 

 

Hiking: Wentworth Falls!

On Thursday this week Alex and I were invited along on a hiking trip with our good friends Bryon and Shelby. It was about an hour drive into the heart of the Blue Mountains in Sydney where Wentworth Falls is located. I was so excited to have a day off of work and to be doing something so adventurous and exciting! (We don't get out much...) My goal is to see more of the beautiful country in which we live and this excursion was one step closer!

 

 



Look at that view!!! Wow, right? The trail we took was about 9 kilometres in length, including many steep stairs down a rick cliff to the bottom of the waterfall, through bushland and crevices carved out of the mountainside and then more stone steps scaling up the other side of the mountain.

 

 

 

We stopped for a nice lunch break in the middle which consisted of pre-packed peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, home-made trail mix (Thanks Shelby!), and lots of water! Then we made our way up the steep, stone steps up rocky terrain to the top!

 

 

 

 

It was an exhausting and incredibly fun time with our friends! Another great adventure down under! Keep checking in for more updates and adventures! Love, A&J



 



Hey everyone! Thanks so much for following our blog :) Keep checking for more updates to the layout and about our lives down here!

As you might notice, over on the right side of the blog you can click on the blue image and it will take you to our fund-raising web site. If you feel at all able to, we would appreciate any donations to getting us plane tickets so that we can spend Christmas at home with our families!

Thanks, and keep checking or more updates :)

Love from down under!

Down-Under Update!

Hello family and friends! I'm still getting used to this new blog site so don't be alarmed if the template changes every time you read.

So it's almost the end of April. Wooh! Where does the time go? Alex is halfway through his first semester of second year at Hillsong International Leadership College and he is still loving it. He is growing and serving and loving life in this season! As am I. I have continued to work 30+ hours a week at Brothers Café (where I am now a trained barista!) and that has been going well. And for those of you who don't know, we are looking into saving our money to stay another year. Yep, that's right! The Beyer's down under will be staying for third year of college, God willing we can come up with the finances! Visas and medical insurance cost a lot. Who knew? Anyways, we have a budget and are working our tails off saving for that goal. And within that, we are REALLY hoping to fly home for Christmas 2013 for at least a month of visiting! I think we will be trying to raise money for the tickets through an online fund-raiser so if you're keen to donate stay tuned! I know our family and especially us would LOVE to come home, see everyone, experience America again (aahhh) and enjoy that time before taking on yet another year far away.

We celebrated Easter in the city with Hillsong Church as they hired out the massive 12,000 seat arena for their Easter Service and subsequently PACKED it out as all of the campuses and guests alike gathered to celebrate the day of resurrection! There were many salvations and many baptisms on stage! Alex and I do what we always do, which is serve in the kids program. I was a kids leader and Alex played drum box for worship with the younger kids. It was an amazing night! And as always we stopped to get some well loved Starbucks since we were nearby!

 

 

Alex had had a cold the week leading up to Easter and the following week ended up catching a flu-bug which had him bed ridden with a fever for a few days. Afterwards, his exhaustion and cough lingered so long he decided to finally go to the doctor. And since we waited so long to get him in, we discovered today that he has bronchial pneumonia, which is treatable and not as bad as real pneumonia so at least we caught it soon enough! Needless too say, he is now on many medications to set his body right and was given orders to be on bedrest.

 

 



 

Other than that, we are doing fantastic! God has really been showing us His grace and favour in this season and my faith has been strengthened so much in this time. We love to dream about our future and where God might be taking us and we are so excited to be on this journey!

 

Keep checking for more updates, I will be posting an amazing story of how God is working in our lives and one incident in particular involving the resurrection of our computer.

 

Aussie Beyer's signing our for now!