Happy Eardrums

I bought the new live CD by Misty Edwards titled Fling Wide last week. It’s an amazing CD and it has been dominating time on my iPod. This album has a different sound on it than most of Misty’s albums as the songs have a strong anthem feel to them while still maintaining the intimate worship melodies and lyrics that makes her albums so amazing. My favorite song off of the CD right now is Resting Place. It’s a simple repeated chorus that soars and draws you into a place of worship.

To buy this CD or any of her other ones, click here. It’ll make your eardrums happy and your heart long for more of Christ in your life.

What album has been dominating time on your iPod lately?

Money Money Money Money

One of the new things that I’ve been learning about and will continue to learn about is being financially responsible. I’ve spent some time discussing with my parents how much money I’m going to have on me and how to make sure that that money lasts.

I heard a great quote about budgeting that said, “Budgeting tells your money where to go instead of later on wondering, ‘Where did my money go?’” (or something like that). And one of my goals while I’m in Sydney is to use the finances that God has provided for me responsibly. I’m trying to be very intentional about making sure that I manage my finances well.

A tool that has been very helpful for me in setting up a budget and spending plan is an iPhone app called Ace Budget. It’s a simple finance app that lets you setup individual budgets for certain things and then shows you the total of how much you have budgeted for everything, and as you update each budget with transactions, it’ll show you how much you have left overall and in each category.

There are more sophisticated budgeting apps out there, but as of right now, this is been a great help for me in planning out how to responsibly manage the money that it’s going to take to live once I am settled in. I’ve never had to live on a budget before so this is all uncharted territory for me.

Do you have a budget you try to stick to? How long have you had one?

A New Year // A New Season

I decided that since I have a rather big change in my life coming up with my move to Sydney, Australia, I would couple that with a new blog to document my time there and to become my new creative outlet for sharing life. Either that or I decided that I didn’t really like Shaggy Worshiper and wanted something new. One of those statements is true, though, and that is what brings me/you/us here today.

It seems like it was a week ago that I found out that I would be leaving this place to go to the other side of the world. In that time I have really tried to prepare for what’s to come, for what’s to come physically, emotionally, spiritually, and to ensure that I leave things here in a good place.

I still can’t believe that I’m actually doing this. To leave everyone and everything I’ve known to go chase something half a world away. It’s crazy is what it is. But this is going to be the biggest adventure of my life and I know that I’m going to be stretched, pulled, blessed, and made uncomfortable more than I have in the last twenty-one years.

Vision Statement

In under two weeks, I leave here to go to Sydney, Australia to be a part of Hillsong College and Hillsong Church. I decided to start a new blog from scratch. For those who have kept up with and read my previous blog(s), this blog will be similar but different in some areas of content as well as the goal.

The biggest thing is going to be my attempt to keep content within one of four main categories:

1. Australia
2. Church
3. Hillsong College
4. Life

The purpose of these categories is to not only keep friends, family, and loved ones in the loop as to what’s going on, but to also serve as a resource for anyone who is thinking about going to Sydney to be a part of this college and this church.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me. And please pass along this blog to anyone you know who is interested in going to Australia and attending Hillsong College and make sure to subscribe to posts via this little guy in the sidebar:

or by clicking on “subscribe via email”.

God Bless,
Dustin