Being

Here is a peom I wrote this week. I have published another poem on my poetry blog (www.angelathepoet.blogspot.com) called "Lost For Words." This next poem is called "Being."

Who, me?
I have died
To myself!
Am no longer!
After all
I am not,
But I know
I AM

Who me?
I can do nothing
Of myself!
Am incapable!
But can do all things
Through Christ
Who works through me!

And I know that since
He is I AM
I must be
I AM NOT
!

Who me?
I AM NOT!
And how freeing it is
To know
That I am no longer
That I am incapable
That I have died to myself
To know
That it is not what I give
(my life)
But what I receive
(His grace)
!
That it is not by my power
That I DO NOT DESERVE!

I am weak
And so His strength sustains me!
I am broken
And so His glory shines through the cracks!

Week 6

Kris Banes taught on Colossians and Jonah this week. He is a very good teacher. We also finished the video series on the life of Joseph. Here is my journal entry.
- All scripture is God-breathed, God worked in the author’s bodies in natural ways to produce supernatural results. For this reason, I need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of the scripture to me. In God, I will find my self-worth (but not my self-esteem as this is not productive in my walk with Christ), and the assurance of my salvation. In order not to be deceived by false teachings, I need to know my shepherd so that I recognise His voice. I need to spend time in His word and in prayer so that I will know Him so well that I will recognise any counterfeit. I need to have a premeditated plan as to how I will live out my faith and be kept accountable. This is especially important as I am going to university next year. I need to be careful not to get caught up in university life but make a plan ahead of time of how I will live out my faith.
- Mercy is not getting what I deserve; grace is getting what I don’t deserve. God doesn’t just shower me with mercy, He also offers me unimaginable grace! And it is only standing in God’s grace that I can find true peace. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve, so what are we getting.
- Colossians 1:9-12 presents the prayer that God will answer. This is not because it has the ‘magic’ words, but rather because it is prayed according to God’s will. Although God does on occasion answer by yes my prayers that are not of His will, it is in order to teach me. God has, however, a ‘best’ for me, and that is only in His will. For this reason, I want to walk totally in God’s will (although self tends to get in the way) because He works ALL things together for good (His good, not necessarily mine) and for His glory. Also, as I learned form the story of Shadrak, Meshach, and Abednego, it is better to be in the fire with Christ, than out of the fire without Christ. If God can hold the entire universe together, I need to ask myself if I trust Him to hold my life together.
- The only way I can walk in a way pleasing to God is if I walk in faith. In this way, once I have accepted Christ’s sacrifice as the precious gift of the cleansing of my sin, I can come into God’s presence, but He doesn’t see me, He sees the lamb who is without sin and  He is smiling at me – an ear to ear smile!
- I have the same power as that that raised Christ from the dead sin because Christ lives in me. But it is a quiet power, a power that enables me to be humble, forgiving, longsuffering, and joyful.
- There is a danger that legalism will lead to pride and self righteousness in my life. I tend to be one to focus on the rules that need to be followed so I need to refocus and realise that ALL my sins, past and future, are nailed to the cross and I need to stop trying to take them down again. I need to de to my old self, and then I need to stop feeding my old self (with wrong images from the media) and start feeding the new self (with the word of God and fellowship with Him).
When I work, I need to work as for Christ, not for man. I need to work diligently, even when no on is watching.

On Monday, the Te Mapua staff came for lunch. It was supposed to be a surprise, but the word got out and we were all soooo excited (or at least I was :P)! I heard them come in while we were still in class and I was sitting there thinking “Hurry up Dale, I want to get out of class!” When we finally got out of class (:P) they were all in the living room and they had one of the praise songs playing and they were all dancing to it. It was really cool! For lunch, since it was raining, we spread out, some of us eating at the tables and others sitting on blankets on the living room floor. After lunch, we sang som of the songs and they taught us the action to “In the Light.” I was so excited to be ‘rocking out’ to the praise songs again! While talking to Miss Jai about the possibility of continuing to serve with Te Mapua, Miss Jai said that she went to one camp and she was addicted. It thought it was a really good description! Te Mapua has been on my mind ever since leaving. It is such an awesome ministry and I would love to serve with them again.

On Tuesday, we had our ministry (Bible in Schools). I think it went much better this time since we knew what we were doing. Basically, the government has allowed volunteers to go into schools and teach the Bible since there is no religious education. Officially, the school is closed down during the teaching time so that parents have the option of taking their children out of school if they don’t want them receiving the teaching. Ben, Cara, Bryan, and I are part of this ministry. Bryan and I are working with the equivalent to a kindergarten class. One of the reasons one of the teachers at this school is so open to the project is because most of the kids only know Jesus as a swear word. My prayer is that God will use us to plant a seed in the kids’ hearts and that we will be able to teach (without offending any parents or teachers) effectively and truthfully.

For workday, I cleaned the entire student lounge (which is our classroom). Once again, I really enjoyed workday!

Our Progress of Redemption project was due on Friday so everyone was scrambling to get theirs done on Wednesday and Thursday. Adam even pulled an all-nighter on Wednesday night. I had finished mine on Sunday of last week (although I did have to make a few adjustments after showing Dale) so busied myself with reading and getting ahead on other projects while most of the other students finished up their projects.

On Friday evening, Dale and Patti invited a couple of us up to their house to play risk and other board games. First, I played connect four with Isabelle and then I made origami boxes with Patti. I joined in on the second game of risk which was really fun! I was so tired though (since it was 10:30) that I didn’t bother using any strategy and I took all the other player’s advice (which was a bad idea :P) so I did not end up winning, but I had tons of fun anyway!
On Saturday, I went into town early with Ira (who stayed for the week to help Joseph out with the grounds work), Michael and Jonas to go to the farmer’s market. Michael and I each bought a loaf of fresh bread. It is soooooo good! We then met up with Dale and Patti so we went up to their house for tea and coffee (I had Chai tea, which I have discovered to be delicious!). I babysat Justus and Isabelle for about half an hour so that Dale and Patti along with a couple Crossing boys went out to get the Epp’s new piano. Apparently, Michael played the piano, which was in the trailer at the back of the car, all through Geraldine as they drove back! I played dress-up with Isabelle while Justus played air guitar at our “ball.” They are great kids and so much fun to hang out with!

Saturday afternoon was the light party (as an alternative for kids for Halloween) at the local primary school so a bunch of us helped out with that. We made crafts, had supper, and danced with the kids and they all had fun! Once back at the crossing, we had a pumpkin carving contest and we made caramel popcorn balls. I was on a team with Ben, Cameron and Robert and our pumpkin won. We made one of those funky pumpkins with an “uber complicated” design of a dragon on it. One of the other teams made a barfing pumpkin and the third team made an image of possum hunting (it was really funny!).

On Sunday, I went to the traditional service with Hanna. It was really nice and I got to talk with a lot of the people from Geraldine. I even got invited up to one of the lady’s house for afternoon tea at some point in the future! After the contemporary service, Michael, Cameron, Cara, Jordan, Adam, Jonas and I went out for a picnic lunch with a family from the church! It was tons of fun getting to know them and their four wonderful children!

When we got back, Cara, Cameron, Michael, Patti, Dale, Isabelle, Justus and I went out to pick elderflowers to make elderflower Champaign (it’s not an alcoholic drink, It’s just called Champaign because it’s fizzy). We made up the juice today, we will be bottling it up tomorrow and it should be good to drink in about two weeks! We might go out and pick more flowers to make more juice later this week since most of the flowers were not yet in bloom today

Since we had supper at the light party on Saturday, Adam, Amber, Jordan, and Kelsey are making pancakes with bacon and eggs and fruit pizza for desert. It smells delicious!!!!

Birthday Rap

Ben, Joel, and Jonas (they call themselves "Tripple J") have begun a tradition of writing and performing a rap for each student and staff’s birthday. They will beat box and rap, usually right after supper. It’s really funny!!

Here is the rap for Michael’s birthday which was on the first week we were here:
Guess what’s today
I’ll tell you bab-a
Is it the day you get paid?
No! It’s your birthday! OK

You’re twenty now
But you’re not yet a big-fat-lazy cow
Soon you’ll have a mustache
But then you’ll be rolling around in your Ford Mustang with lots of cash
Now you’re broke though
But now you’ve found some dough, oh. OK

Oh now we are at Capernwray
The place you don’t smoke you just pray
Everyday, especially on Sunday
Then Monday, then Tuesday, not Wednesday (that’s workday),
But Thursday, and Friday, maybe Saturday
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey! OK

Staying up late drinking lots of coke
Writing a rap song ‘cuz we’re in a boat
This is my feeling it aint work or play
I’m just trying to say Happy Birthday! OK


And here’s the rap song for Jonas (Oct. 23rd) and Sheryl (Oct. 24th):
We’re rapping this rap cuz it’s your birthday
And now we’re talking anyway. Hey!
Jonas you’re 21 now
But you’re not a big fat old purple cow.
You love to drink juice and play starcraft
And you know what you’re not that ‘badft.’
King’s corner is your game of tricks
And when you put down six, you say “pick up sticks.”
Now we’ll rap about Sheryl.
Because she’s leaving ‘tomoroel’
She makes really great food
That is really good.
With the help of Hanna
She just ate a Banana.
You are both blond,
But Sheryl you are a little dirtier blond but that’s OK
And we’re rapping for both of you today
Cuz guess what, it’s your birthday! (It’s your birthday)

Week 5

This week, we studied the book of Genesis. Richard Neville taught on the first 36 chapters and in a DVD series Billy Strachan taught from chapter 37 and on (the life of Joseph). I believe we will be continuing the series on the life of Joseph next week. As usual, here is my journal entry for this week:
- God revealed Himself as trinity, even though this is an impossible attribute for me to understand, because it is who He is. The fact that He is three in one means that we, the church, need to be one with each other and one with God just as God is one. Every practical longing of my heart – for community, for love, for acceptance, and for order – is fulfilled only in a triune God. I have therefore been adopted into the perfect community.
- I need to come at the scriptures, not trying to squeeze the answers I need out of it, but understanding the original context of the text. Once I understand why, when, where, and for whom the text was written, I can then get something out of it for myself. I can squeeze any answer out of the scriptures, but it would be the answer I want, not the meaning that was intended. By coming at it with an understanding of context, on the other hand, I can see what it was intended to communicate.
- There are two main worldviews, or stories, and I need to decide which one I will live in: the evolutionary or Biblical story. My worldview will determine the decisions I make and the actions I take. I tend to seek a ‘reasonable Christianity,’ taking bits and pieces from each worldview and making Jesus into what I want. I can only truly live in God’s story once I understand what has come before me (the fall, Abraham, the covenant, Jesus, etc) and what is to come after me (new heaven and new earth). I need to live for God, in His story, and with Him completely indwelling me.
- God is good.
- I can see that God is good in how He provided for all of humanities needs in creation. He created life and loves all of life deeply. God did not intend for us to suffer, but there is still pain and suffering in the world due to Adam and Eve’s first sin. God does, however, use even suffering to further His perfect will. God can and does use suffering in my life to teach me, to mould me, and to bring Himself glory because it is only with His spirit in me that I can withstand pressure. I need to be consistent and faithful and totally trusting that God is in control and that He is good all the time and in every circumstance. It is when I forget that God is good that I am most vulnerable to fall into sin. I need to remember that, whatever may happen, God is always in control and working out His good and perfect will. Through it all, God gets all the glory. For me to claim any of the glory would be as silly as a bottle claiming the glory for the milk inside it!
- I need to be careful not to put my faith in the technologies of this world but in God who can and does work through them. It’s not that I can’t take medicine or use the internet for example; instead I need to constantly remind myself that they are gifts from God and not gods in themselves. I need to live in response to God’s promises, trusting in His guidance, and believing that His plan is better than mine could ever be and not be enticed away by attractive alternatives or impulses of the moment.
- I need to remember that God is all-powerful: if He is for me, who can be against me? Just as God was with Jacob (as He showed in Jacob’s dream of the angels climbing between heaven and earth) God’s armies are still at work in the world today, even though I cannot see them. I need not be afraid because, as Elisha said, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
- I tend to see God first and foremost as a God of love – which He is – while forgetting that He is also a God of perfect wrath. No one in the Bible hugs God on their first encounter. I never realized that God is more like a lion than a lamb: able to tear me to pieces. But I know that, because of the righteousness of Christ that clothes me, I can approach the throne of God with both dignity, but also totally humbly. “The dignity comes from the fact that [I’m] now worthy to come [...] at all times; the humility comes from the fact that [I] had absolutely nothing to do with this worthiness” (Revolution Within, P.63). I realise that I have been worshiping a god that I have made small and nice and gentle. I now realise that I want to know God for who He is, not as how I would prefer Him to be.

I have started making myself mochas for morning tea ad they’re really good! Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure about the ratio of coffee to Milo (the New Zealand semi-equivalent to hot chocolate) at first. The first cup I made was pretty good, so, because the tea cups are pretty small, I made myself a second one but I put in way too much coffee. I couldn’t make it taste better no mater how much Milo and sugar I added! I have now figured out the ratio and really enjoy having mochas.

On Tuesday, we had a girls/guys night. The guys went out to a muddy racetrack and raced around an old car that had all its windows smashed out, then they went to someone’s house for steak and potatoes, and, once it was dark enough, they went out possum and rabbit hunting. We, on the other hand, got all dressed up and went to the Epp’s house. We had a delicious appetizer of crackers, baguette, cheese, and tons of different spreads (like tuna, pesto, and crab) . For tea (or supper), we had a salad with fried cheese and mango. The fried cheese was really good! It was kind of salty like feta but quite dense. For pudding (what we Canadians would call desert), we had chocolate fondue. Afterwards, we watched a movie while getting a foot spa. It was really relaxing and it was nice to spend some time with the girls!

For workday Wednesday, Kelsey and I pruned the rosebushes around the property. It’s scary to cut these huge branches off the rosebush (especially on the first bush I did) because I felt like I was killing it! But by the end, it was really neat to see how much of a difference it really makes. I really like workdays because it s so rewarding to get the work done and to see the difference it makes.

In the first week of school, the guys thought it would be funny to play a prank on the girls. So one night, they took the mattress from Joel B.’s bed (since he hasn’t yet come to the Crossing) and leaned it up against the girls’ bedroom door with a chair behind it to make it more difficult to get out. We decided we had to get even, but figured we should wait so that our revenge would be unexpected. And so, the night after the possum incident (see the post for week 4), we woke up at 2:30am to set up our prank (I didn’t participate, I just watched). We attached wire to the door handles, tying them to each other in an attempt to make it impossible for them to open their doors. Unfortunately, the wire didn’t stay as well as we had hoped and so the prank kind of flunked. To return the favour, late Friday night, the guys took one shoe from each pair on the shelves just outside our room (and there are quite a few pairs!) and hid them all around the house. There was a shoe between the rungs on the banister, one in the fridge, two hanging from Bruce (the dear head on the wall in the student lounge), some on various crown mouldings around the house, one in a vase in the dining room, one hanging from a light fixture, one beneath the bag of one of the rubbish bins, some in the student mailboxes, some above various cupboards, and many more! It was hilarious!!! I got some pictures of some of the more creative spots. Now we are left with the dilemma of how to get a proper revenge. If you have any suggestions of harmless pranks, I would love to hear about them! You can leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. Thanks!

I must tell you about Adam’s laughing fits, they are quite amusing!!! It started in Werner’s classes in the first week of classes. Werner would make Adam laugh with his way of saying things and Adam would go completely red in the face and laugh, almost silently, hysterically for minutes at a time. It got to the point where he would start to laugh and then the people beside and behind him would notice and start to laugh and tell the people beside them, and it would quickly spread to the rest of the class. I would hear “Oh, he’s gone again!” and would know immediately that it was Adam that they were talking about. Thankfully, Werner took it well. Since then, Adam has had numerous laughing fits which we tease him about but I don’t think he minds too much.

I spent a lot of time this week working on a project on the progress of redemption (which I finished on Sunday, even though it is only due next Friday). Basically, the project consists of finding a way to illustrate the progress of redemption (God's plan and how He has, is, and will be working it out). We can write a poem, make a movie, do an oral, draw a picture, or anything else we can think of. I made a video on windows moviemaker complete with my own photography, funky transitions and text, and even music! I’m really glad I’ve seen Ben fool around on moviemaker because that meant that I wasn’t learning completely from scratch. I really had fun with it!

On Friday, Michael and I started a ‘book club.’ Hanna joined us. We’re reading out way through the chronicles of Narnia, starting with the ‘Magician’s Nephew.’ We each take turns reading a chapter out loud. It brings back memories of reading with Mom. I think it brought back good memories for everyone because we spent the next hour talking about our families. The plan is to read one chapter a night (perhaps more on weekends when we have more time). At the rate we are reading, we might finish the book by next Sunday!

On Saturday, a bunch of us walked down to Keen road (it took about half an hour at a slow pace) and then we decided to follow Keen road since we had heard it came to the Waihi river (which is the river that runs from the Crossing to Geraldine that we have walked along in the past). As it turns out, thr road not only comes to the river, but actually crosses it without a bridge! While we were there, a car drove through the water witch came to about the middle of our calves. It was really neat! We spent about 15 minutes there, walking through the freezing cold water, throwing rocks to try to splash each other and generally having a good time. I really enjoy the walks we take as a group because we get to just goof around and have fun. For supper, it was Michael, Cara, and Ben who cooked and they made chicken put pie that wasn’t quite pie. Basically, it was the pie filling but with dumplings on top instead of a pie crust. It was slightly late, but it was worth the wait!

On Sunday, Ira came for supper. He will be staying for the week to help out with projects aroud the property. Ira was a student here last year and he served at the Te Mapua camp when the Capernwray crew was there. It was really nice reconnecting with him! And I got his Te Mapua pictures!!!!!!! For Sunday night fellowship, Werner spoke on Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. He is such a good teacher!

I have made some changes to previous posts and have made them bold so feel free to go back and read them!

I would still appreciate prayer for Joel B. as he is still waiting for his student visa to come in. Also, I have been struggling to get enough sleep, sometimes by lack of discipline and sometimes due to the fact that we are five girls sharing a room and we don’t all go to bed at the same time.

A little reminder, I would love to hear about your best harmless prank ideas! We aren’t allowed into the boys’ rooms, that is just about the only restriction.

Why I believe that it is important to study creation science

I believe that the account of creation is the foundation of the rest of the biblical truths. If the first Adam did not smear God’s glory by choosing not to believe his Creator, then there is no need for the second Adam, who is Christ, to be the perfect sacrifice and atonement for the original sin. Also, if each of the creation days were in fact millions of years where evolution would take place, this would allow for death and suffering before the fall, and God could not have declared His creation to be very good. I therefore believe that the first 11 chapters of Genesis should be interpreted literally, that God created the earth and everything in the earth in six literal days, that Noah’s flood was a global flood, that the vast majority of the fossil record we have today comes from this flood, and that the earth is six to ten thousand years old as can be calculated by the historic account of scripture.

I believe that it is vital to address the creation/evolution debate from the standpoint that debates will never convert anyone. It must be the Holy Spirit revealing the biblical truths to the individual. Mathew writes “no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (11:27). All of scripture is God-breathed and therefore a proper understanding of the scriptures can only come from God.

I believe that every person should be treated with a great respect of his/her beliefs. I have seen (in myself included) a condescending attitude created by a faith in creation science. Without a complete understanding of the scientific evidence, a person can be led to believe that they have all the right answers concerning creation and therefore look down on others who hold different beliefs. I now believe that the evidence can point both towards creation and towards evolution. The main difference between these two belief systems is the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Neither argument can be proven because neither can be disproven, except by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when presenting creation, I believe one should fully rely on God’s guidance and present the message in love and never with contempt. A belief system, no matter how different from my own, does not make another person to be of lesser intellect than myself, no matter how illogical this belief system may seem.
Ex: “[...] The little known Laws of Information Theory [...] completely destroy the materialistic concepts that are taught as fact in schools and in the media. [...] The only explanation for the incredible complexity of the biological information in living things is that the incredible God of the Bible created it that way!” -excerpted from a schedule of a “deconstructing Darwin” seminar (http://creation.com/sherbrooke-dd-conference).

I have always believed, however, that it is vital to study creation and to present the scientific evidence of creation to make people aware that Genesis can be taken literally. I personally do not want to have a blind faith by believing in something that has no scientific grounding. I also believe that it is important for Christians to realise that scientific evidence does support the truths of the Bible.

Having said this, I am still left with a few questions:
- Is the study of creation science a valid and good science?
- Is there any real value in ministries that promote creation science? Is the study of creation science a vital ministry?
- Should such ministries promote the fact that Genesis chapters 1 to 11 are vital to the Christian worldview? Are these chapters vital to a proper Christian worldview?
- Is my dream to study and teach creation a valid one?
- If so, how should I approach the study of creation? What should be my attitude both towards Creation science and the first 11 chapters of Genesis?
- Is there danger that teaching a limited amount of information about creation will cause a believer to feel contempt towards unbelievers? How should this issue be approached? How can the material be taught differently so as to create a healthy understanding of scriptures and science?
- What about the balance between faith and science? Is there any value in studying science at all?Some creation science ministries claim that the teaching of creation is the most basic and important element of a proper Christian worldview, is this accurate? What about other ministries (e.g. balloons and tower in CMI image of creation vs. evolution)?

A joke!

Michael (who studied in engineering at the University of Fairbanks Alaska before coming to The Crossing) told me this joke and I just had to share it!
Two men went out hunting and killed a bear. Unfortunately, they couldn’t figure out what kind of bear it was. Was it a brown bear, a grizzly bear, a polar bear, a cinnamon bear...? So they took it into town and asked everybody there what kind of bear they thought it was, but no one could tell them. Finally, they asked the chemists at the University of Fairbanks Alaska what kind of bear it was. The chemists responded: “Put the bear in water and if it dissociates, it’s a polar bear!”

Week 4

This week in class, we have been learning about God’s awesome plan and how He uses anyone who is simply willing to come to Him His way. In a DVD lecture given by Billy Strachan, I learned that God wants my life to be free of leaven which gets in the way of my relationship with Him. He wants me to ‘eat Him and drink Him,’ not just to associate with Him. In other words, He wants me to assimilate Him. Just as when I eat a loaf of bread, the bread becomes a part of me, so God wants to become a part of me. He wants me to be intimate with Him. Billy used the image of a business transaction, saying that all the best deals are worked out over a meal because there, you can talk freely, it is an intimate setting. In the same way, Billy showed that there are many examples throughout the Old Testament of God appearing to someone and then this person would bring the Lord meat (a perfect sacrifice) and unleavened bread. So God also wants the same thing from me. Jesus is my perfect sacrifice, and now God wants me to come to Him as bread without leaven because just a small portion of leaven mixed in with the rest of the loaf makes the whole loaf puffed up and full of air. To give an idea of what I have been learning, here is my journal entry for this past week:
- God’s plan for me goes beyond my wildest dreams! In the beginning God was. Then he created our universe to perfectly mirror His awesome glory. When Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, God could have ditched us and started again, but instead He began writing the story of history, the story of redemption. He made a promise to Eve that through her seed, a saviour would come to atone for the sins of the world. He made a covenant with Abraham that a nation would come from his seed and that from his descendants would come one who would bless the nations. Throughout the Old Testament, God worked out His perfect plan, providing a leader for the people of Israel, providing land for them to settle, providing a law for them to follow and providing conditions under which the people could thrive and form a great nation. But Israel’s sin led to division and captivity at the hands of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. But God used even their captivity for the furthering of His plan by allowing the Jews to spread our and construct synagogues that would allow for the rapid spread of the gospel eight hundred years later. Finally the scene is set for the arrival of Jesus. The promise that was made 4000 years ago to Eve was fulfilled. Tracing the progress of redemption really showed me that God is in control of every situation, both good and bad, and that He works all things together for good and for His glory.
- God will use anyone who is willing to come His way. He doesn’t want me to be something else, He wants me simply to let Him work through me. He used big mouth Sampson, cry baby Japhthah, ‘never sure’ Gideon, scaredy cat Barak, adulterer and murderer David, filthy mouthed Isaiah and so many more. God lets me run away and hide when He calls, but if I realise that God can use me and am willing to come to Him His way, He will use me. Also, I don’t need to see or feel what God is doing through me, if it’s God doing it, He gets the glory and I don’t need to know about it. I simply need to fully trust Him.
- God doesn’t want me to identify with Him, He wants me to assimilate Him. When Jesus shared the Passover meal with Hs disciples, He told them to eat Him and drink Him. In the same way as I eat and drink for the nourishment of my body, ‘eating and drinking’ Jesus should be more important to me as it is my spiritual nourishment. God wants the first fruits of my time. He wants me to come to Him simply to be with Him. He wants an intimate relationship with me. He doesn’t want any of my leaven: Herodinism (making myself and more important) my Saduceeism (rationalizing my way out of faith) or Phariseeism (making pretences and wearing masks). He wants me to get rid of every trace of leaven so that He can start using me – weaknesses and all! And once I have an intimate relationship with Him, He can make me fruitful. But I must never forget the bread, the unleavened bread of fellowship with Jesus Christ. Just as I would never skip breakfast, I should never skip enjoying the living Jesus.

On Tuesday, we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. We celebrated it on Tuesday so that we would be celebrating it on the actual Thanksgiving Day back in Canada. We all dressed up, although Ben and Joel seemed to understand “dressing up” in the same way as Natania does and dressed as Samurai with their kimonos and bandanas. For supper, we had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes (TONS of mashed potatoes :P), carrots, peas, stuffing, gravy, garlic bread, and even cranberry jelly! It was sooooo good and we were all really full after. It was really nice to feel connected to everyone back home by celebrating though. Before supper, we went outside and got some group pictures (which I will endeavour to upload next time I am at the library in Geraldine). The dining room was all decorated for thanksgiving with nice tablecloths, centrepieces made of evergreen branches, leaves, and pinecones, and there were even maple leaves (or the closest NZ equivalent to maple leaves) with our names on them as place markers.

Tuesday evening, we split up into our two family groups for family night. My group went to the Epp’s house this time. We played a game, kind of like the ‘out of the box’ game I’ve played at home, where we each pulled out a question from a box and then we answered it or talked about it for a while. We didn’t play any intense games like the last family night, but it was fun just to hang out around the fireplace and talk. Colin told one of the funniest stories I have ever hear and we all cracked up, it was hilarious! And we got to have apple and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

For workday on Wednesday, Joel, Robert and I went to the Epp’s house and got some gardening done. Joel, Justice (Dale and Patti’s son), and I seeded grass. It was funny because the grass seeds were bright pink and blue. I also weeded a large portion of the garden in their backyard. I really enjoyed it because I could work in silence and just spend some time by myself and with God. In the evening, most of the students went to play soccer at the local high school. I didn’t go, hoping that I could get to bed early, but that didn’t happen :P. I have been trying to catch up on sleep all week but since we are five girls sharing a room, there are always people coming in after I have gone to bed and turning on lights and making noise. We all try to be quiet and let people sleep, but it can be challenging to work around each others schedules.

On Thursday, we skyped Joel B. who is still waiting for his student visa in order to come join us at the crossing. Joel didn’t know that Dale knew it was his birthday so we all surprised him by singing happy birthday to him over skype. He told Dale later that it made his day.

Speaking of sleep, last night (Saturday), we were all in bed by 9:30. I was so excited to finally get a decent night’s sleep and to be able to recover from camp a bit more. At about 10:15, Amber and Kelsey jumped up on their beds screaming, turned on all the lights, opened the door to the room and ran downstairs because they had hear a rodent (probably a possum) crawling around on the roof and squealing. Both Cara and I were slightly annoyed at being woken up, but there was no way we would be able to fall back asleep just yet. After telling the boys and everyone downstairs about the rodent, the Amber and Kelsey came back upstairs and jumped into bed together since they were scared. Once Cara heard the rodent, she got scared too and joined them in the single bed. We then all decided to go back to sleep and the room got quiet. That’s when Cameron opened the door and walked into the room. Kelsey grabbed Amber’s arm, screamed and sat bolt upright in bed and of course, because she screamed, she scared the rest of us so we all screamed. Cameron kind of stood there wondering who her crazy roommates were. That’s when the boys decided to prank us. They took a ladder, propped it up against the roof and began scratching at our windows and throwing rocks at the wall to make a pitter-patter sound. Of course, all the girls freaked out, until we went to the window and heard one of the boys yell “ouch” when he fell off the six foot ladder and onto the hedge. We spent a lot of time laughing hysterically and finally went to sleep at about 11:00. So much for going to bed early!

During the day on Saturday, a bunch of us went on a tramp just outside of Geraldine. It was a beautiful trail that started off at a kiln (that Ben scaled) and then followed a river for a while before climbing a hill and finishing at a pinnacle with a panoramic view. We ate out lunch at the top of the pinnacle. During the hike, some of the guys had a ‘role play’ going where we were all on a ship and the were assigning tasks to each person. Joseph (who was leading the expedition) was the captain, Joel was first mate and Jonas was second mate, Colin was the judge/elder/wise guy (I think it’s because he has a beard), Ben was the scout (and was promoted to super scout because he climbed the ‘balancing rock’), Cameron was the spokesperson but got demoted to cooks assistant, Robert was the cook but then claimed kingship, Adam was the spy, Bryan was the assassin, Jordan was weapons specialist, Michael was the spokesperson because Cameron was demoted, and I was the foreign affairs minister since I am bilingual. It was really funny to play along and everyone was talking (or trying to talk) like we were on a ship. It turns out that our captain doesn’t know much about sailing (as we were leaving the pinnacle, he instructed us to “tighten the... ropes that pull the thingy and move the sail.”). Cara, Amber, Kelsey, and Sheryl drove into Christchurch to get some shopping done.

I have been trying to go for a walk every day or every second day. The area around the school is perfect for walking or running since there are very few cars (and lots of sheep :P). A bunch of us often walk into town if we have a free afternoon. It’s about a

It was Cameron, Robert, and Joel’s turn to cook Saturday tea so they made gyros. It was delicious!!!!! For desert, they made brownies. Not only that, but they managed to get supper done on time (unlike Jonas and I :P)!

For church today, we drove into Timaru to Life Church. It was a very young church and I really enjoyed the more upbeat worship songs. The sermon was on the gospels and eyewitness accounts. It was very interesting!

This coming week, we will be studying Genesis. I am so excited! I am amazed at how much I am learning and how much my relationship with my creator is changing!

A Day at The Crossing

Here is a description of a typical week for me:
I like to wake up at about five to seven so that I am out of the room by 7:15. I then go outside for 45 minutes of quiet time. Breakfast is from 8:00 to 8:20. We get porridge and toast every morning except on weekends and Wednesdays. Amber makes the best porridge!!! At the moment, I am on clean up duty after breakfast, but this will change next week when we get a new set of duties.
Classes run from 8:45 to 9:35 then from 9:40 to 10:30 with a break in between. 10:30 to 11:20 is morning tea where we have devotions, book studies, or prayer time all together. The last morning class goes from 11:30 to 12:20 and is a DVD lecture (all the other lectures are either skype classes, or done by the main lecturer). Lunch is at 12:30.
There are no classes in the afternoon. Instead, we have time to prep for our ministry, we are out doing our ministry, or there is free time. Wednesday afternoons are work afternoons where we all have tasks to do in the house, on the grounds, or at the Epp’s house (Dale Epp is the principle).
Tea (what we would call supper) is at 5:30. We have evening classes from 7:00 to 7:50 and from 8:00 to 8:50 on Monday and Thursday from the main lecturer. On Tuesday evenings, we either have family night which is tons of fun) or classes. On Wednesday evenings, we rent the gym at the local high school gym and we go play soccer.We get Saturdays off, but there tends to be an optional organised activity we can take part in (like going to Timaru, the beach or on a hike). Sunday mornings, we go to church in Geraldine. The afternoons are free. In the evening of every second Sunday, we have Sunday Fellowship, where someone (usually the main lecturer for the next week) comes and presents a message that introduces the material for the next week and we sing some praise songs. After that we have supper (which here essentially means an evening snack). The hour between tea and Sunday night fellowship is spent in silence so that we can spend some time with God.

My Testimony

I am a science student because I love figuring things out. I love having the solid facts, the evidence. I love finding the values I need, plugging them into the right equation and coming out with an answer. For this reason, I think that explaining my testimony in terms of a mathematical function makes sense. So let’s start with a variable, something that changes depending on its position on the x-axis, on the y-axis, on the z-axis, and if you get really advanced, in time. That variable is me: Angela. Now what good is a variable if there is no function? If I were a variable, I think my function would be a sine function. So now we have sin(Angela). For those of you who for whom trigonometry is very far back, a sine function looks like a wave. This, I have found, is a pretty accurate description of my walk with God. Too many times in the past, I have come to a point in my life where I was way down (at y=-1 on the sine function) and have turned back to God, realizing that I couldn’t do anything on my own, and have given my life back to the Giver of Life (I would now be at y=1 on the sine function). And too many times, once the difficult time was over, I would take back control of my life, letting God take back the roll of co-pilot. With that said, here is my story.


When I was six years old, I remember sitting on the couch in my living room, following my mom in a prayer of salvation. After growing up in a Christian home and attending church and Sunday school regularly, I had decided that I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart.
Thirteen years have passed since that day. Never once have I doubted that I had a saviour in Jesus Christ, or that the Creator of the universe had a plan for my life, but my faith slowly became stale.

I spent the first 12 years of my life in Montreal, attending church regularly with my family. In fifth grade, my Sunday school teacher taught about Noah’s ark. I was introduced to creation science and this strengthened my faith. I became convinced that the first chapters of Genesis should be interpreted literarily.

Since then, God has taught me so much about Himself through my study of creation. I never wanted a blind faith, simply believing because my parents had told me to, so studying creation has strengthened my faith because I can see that the truths of the Bible are, in fact, supported by scientific evidence. In many of the times when I have felt most distanced from God, a reason has come up for me to study creation and once again, I have become excited about what God has done and is doing.

When I was twelve, my family moved to Sherbrooke. I started high school and I entered into what I now see as a darker part of my life. I felt lost, lonely and confused. Having left all my childhood friends back in Montreal, I craved true friendship, which I wasn’t finding in my friends at school. And so I began looking for friendship. I joined my church youth group, but felt that I had only found superficial friendships with people much younger than myself. I began attending women’s lunches and outings with my mom, but found I couldn’t associate with these women in the way I needed. I developed huge crushes on guys. None of these satisfied me. I pleaded with God to give me one good friend. Looking back, I think I spent too much time pleading with God to give me one true human friend and not enough time strengthening my relationship with him. I felt distanced from God, but I still believed in Him and believed that He had a plan and a purpose for my life. As a pubic declaration of this faith I was baptised in 2007.

Two years ago, I started cegep. The significantly increased workload caused me to come out of the ‘lower point’ I had been in for most of my high school years. I once again became fascinated with creation science and studied it at every possible opportunity. I have had some wonderful debates with both my peers and my teachers on this subject. This was great for my faith in God but my relationship with my creator was still lacking. I read my Bible and my motto was “pray without ceasing” but it was more religious than anything else. I desperately wanted to be close to my creator but nothing I did seemed to make any difference. And so, throughout this time, I would give my life back to God. I would get so down that the only way I could turn was to Him. But after turning back to Him during the low points, I would keep falling back into life without the satisfaction I craved because I kept taking my life back.

And so, in March of last year, I decided to apply to Bible College, hoping to find there whatever it was that I craved. And now, as I sit here, two days into classes, I have no idea what to write. I think I should start by saying that I have now realised that I have been getting it wrong this whole time. It has always been about me: “What can God do for me?” “God, please get me out of this tough situation” “God, please give me just one good friend” “God, please, please, please... Do this for me.” But I get it now! It’s not about me! It’s about God and His glory. I think the verse that really spoke to me this week was “seek first,” or ONLY, “the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.” So this time, I didn’t give my life back to God, because I could just keep doing that and it would get me nowhere. Instead, I decided to seek ONLY God.
I have really seen God working in my life over the past nineteen years simply by my own failure to realise the point of my existence. More recently, I have realised that, by my attempts to follow all the rules in order to (subconsciously) earn my way to heaven, I have come to a point where I now understand that it is utterly impossible for my to live up to the standards that God has set for me.

A verse that has really stood out for me in the past is in Isaiah 40 which really talks about God’s supreme glory. In verses 25 and 26, we read “(25)’To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. (26)‘Lift your eyes and look to the Heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.’” I used to read this verse with the emphasis on verse 26, marvelling at God’s awesome creation, but now I see that it is not so much about what He has created for me, but what He did and how He deserves all the glory.


So, as you can see, God has slowly been taking my sin(Angela) function and is moulding it into His function, maybe even an exponential function (Say x7) where I can continuously grow in Him, depend solely on Him, and value Him above all else. I don’t quite get the whole ‘God is all about Himself’ concept yet; I am still trying to wrap my head around it. In fact, I doubt I will ever fully grasp it, but at least now, my spiritual asymptote has been moved closer to infinity –or eternity.

Week 3

Ministry week was amazing! The school was split into two groups and we each went to a different camp. The other group went to a CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) camp. From what I have heard, it sounded pretty ‘chill’ and fun. Our camp was a Te Mapua camp at the Woodend campsite. Te Mapua is an organisation that runs camps and extracurricular activities for underprivileged children. We were working with children aged 5 to 10, most of whom came from very difficult backgrounds. During the two days of training, the staff told us about some of the children’s backgrounds. It was terrifying and heartbreaking to hear about some of these kids who had live through physical, sexual, and mental abuse. We learned of the neglect that some of these children face on a daily basis and of the poor living conditions of some of the poorer families. Each child is sponsored by the government, so they are children who would not be able to attend camp under normal circumstances. Many of the staff and volunteers were in tears as our hearts broke for these precious children. For confidentiality reasons, we were not told which children came from which backgrounds, but we heard about children who were not yet potty trained, children who did not know how to use utensils, children who had never seen a vegetable, and children who were commonly referred to by swear words. We were also told about some of the results of such neglect: some of the children were ADD, ADHD, ODD, and bruised and scared (mentally and physically). Needless to say, after the two days of training, I was terrified to meet these kids that I subconsciously though of as little dirty monsters. But during the training, we were given half an hour to simply spend some time in prayer and in ‘God’s special book, the Bible.’ During this time, I came across a passage in Psalms talking about how God cares for the outcast of society. Reading this helped me realise that I needed to let God take control of the week. I realised that there was no way I could love these kids enough, I had to simply let God love them through me. Knowing that there was nothing I could do to make this week be a success and knowing that it was all in God’s hands and for His glory gave me the sense of peace I really needed.

I was assigned to the bus team, meaning that I got to go meet the kids at the church where they were being dropped off and then I accompanied them on the bus back to camp. Seeing the precious children made me realise that they were just kids. They had all the same quirks, fears, expressions, and ‘cutensses’ as any other children their age. I was delighted to meet the nine beautiful girls who would be in my cabin. For safety reasons, there are always two leaders to a cabin and it is essential that a leader never be alone with a child. My co-leader for the week was Penny. She was amazing with the kids and she was so good at keeping our group on track. We balanced each other well: she was great one on one with the kids and I felt more comfortable managing them as a group.

Te wonderful thing about the camp was that it was ALL about the children. They were put first in everything. They were the only ones to do the activities – such as go-karts, climbing wall, archery, and water slide – while the adults supervised and made sure the kids were enjoying themselves and were being kept busy. The kids got seconds, thirds, and fourths if they wanted and the leaders only got more once the kids were completely satisfied. This is because many of the kids don’t get to have three full – or healthy – meals a day. We had to keep the kids entertained all the time: even free time was very structured, with leaders interacting with the children. This was partly because, left to themselves, they would get themselves into trouble, and also because we wanted them to really feel loved and be able to just be kids. We had about 45 minutes away from the kids for a leaders meeting in the evenings and we had a few minutes to shower – there were scheduled showers so that there was only one leader per cabin showering per night so that the other could be with the kids – and get ready for bed.

The leaders got to lead ‘Power Hour’ each day, which was where we would explain the gospel in terms that the children would understand, sing praise songs, and perform skits. The theme of the week was ‘Sent to Save,’ so we had mailboxes, giant envelopes, and huge packages as props and as a background for the stage. We also had a mailbox for each cabin and the children would receive letters, such as instructions for activities, throughout the week. There was a new them each day: sent to love, sent to show, sent to save, and sent to share. The first day, we learned that God loved us so much he made everything in the world for us and he sent His son for us. The second day, we learned that Jesus was sent to show us to go God’s way and we learned that when we sin, we can’t be close to God. The third day, we learned that Jesus was sent to save us from our sin so that we could be close to God again. On the third evening, the kids had a special party in their cabins where they were invited to ask God to be the boss of their lives. Both cabin leaders shared their testimony (in a child friendly way) and explained how having God as the boss of our lives has changed us. In my cabin, all but one of the girls – who had run off and was playing in the hallway – said that they wanted to make God the boss of their lives. My prayer is that this decision is not just a camp thing, but that it will change their lives. On the fourth day, the kids learned that they are now sent to share God with the world. Power Hour was tons of fun! The first day, I got to present the sentence from the Bible (the memory verse). I got to be silly and make the kids laugh. We got the kids yelling, whispering, and chanting the sentence from the bible. The second day, I got to play Zacchaeus in a skit we presented. I think my favourite part, however, was the kids praise. We got to be crazy and do awesome actions and it was tons of fun! I loved to watch the kids rocking it out! They were awesome!

It turned out to be an amazing experience to pour everything I had into these children and it was so rewarding at the end when they all asked God to be the boss of their lives.

We were all exhausted and quite hungry at the end of camp. When we met back at Amy Boss’s house for the debrief, we devoured at least ten pizzas in 15 minutes! During the debrief, we filled out a form on each child that will help the Te Mapua follow up well on each of them. There is a Tuesday night program for all the kids and the staff also visit the schools and homes on a regular basis. I think it is so cool how well the kids are cared for before camp (the staff meet all the kids and learn tons about them before camp even starts) and even after camp. They keep a file on each child so that they can minister to them in the best possible way. After the debrief, we went around the circle and we each shared one thing about how God had worked in us that week. We then got to honour one person and one person got to honour us. The group from Capernwray had to leave right after the sharing circle so the staff gave us a bag of lollies (which are just candies and treats) – which we devoured on the way home – and after many hugs and thank yous we left.

It was amazing how tight the bonds were that had formed in that one week at camp. I think there are two reasons for this. The first is that camp is so intense, since we are interacting with the kids at every moment, that we had to rely completely on each other for so much. The second is that we were constantly building each other up. So many times during the training, we had the opportunity to honour people and tell them what they were doing that was so amazing or simply thank them for some thing they did that really impacted us. Also, during our short meetings in the evenings during camp, we had the chance to honour our fellow leaders. We even received letters from Amy Boss in our cabin mailbox just pointing out some of our strengths and encouraging us in our work. It was so cool to be able to tell build each other up! It was even more fun to honour someone else that it was to be honoured!

This ‘honouring’ system was also used with the kids. We would build them up at every opportunity. I had one girl who would not sit still and who would always get up from the table or leave the group so whenever she was sitting quietly at the table or during an activity – even if it was only for thirty seconds – I would tell her how amazingly she was doing. After any activity, the staff would have lollies that they would give out to kids who were listening well or doing awesome actions during the praise and everyone would cheer for them.

I think God used this week to teach me to fully rely on Him. It is once I came to the end of myself that He could fully use me and love these precious children through me. Hanna gave each of us a slip of paper at the beginning of the week with a quote by Major Ian Thomas on it. It read: “I can’t. He (God) never said I could. He can and always said He would.” This was a real encouragement to all of us as we struggled with the seemingly impossible task ahead, and throughout the week, fully trusted that God was in control. I also had to give these children up to Him because, after camp, it is only Him who can make a lasting difference in their lives. As Amy Boss put it, He lent these precious children to us for a week. It was difficult to send the kids home on Friday knowing some of the backgrounds, but it was made easier knowing that the Te Mapua team will continue to support them and knowing that God is still holding them in the palm of His hand.

I have spoken quite a bit about Amy Boss. She is the one who began the Te Mapua ministries. She has such a beautiful heart and such an anointing for taking care of the ‘outcast’ children. She is so passionate about what she is doing and it is obvious that she truly cares about each one of the kids. It was a wonderful experience to be able to learn so much from her. I think one thing that I learned a lot about was discipline. It was so rewarding to first encourage the good behaviour before trying to correct the bad. Even when we were ‘angry’ with a child, we would make it positive. For example, if a child was climbing on another child’s bunk, instead of saying “You are not allowed up there,” we would say “Sweetie, I would love it if you could come down from there.” I had one child whom I had asked to come down from a bunk but she had not obeyed so when I asked her the second time, I said “Honey, I’d love it if you could come and sit here with the group, thank you for being such a good girl and coming down right away when I ask you, you are such a good girl.” She gave me a surprised look and came down immediately. This form of discipline makes it so that the children are so much more willing to do as they are asked and they are less likely to resist. Aside from discipline, Amy Boss taught me the importance of building people up. She is so good at making people feel right at home, accepted, and valued.

The Te Mapua team has said that they might come down to visit us at Capernwray at some point this year. It would be sooooooo cool to see them all again!

We got home from camp on Friday night, well, more like Saturday morning at 12:30am, to find the other half of the student body had waited up for us! There were tons of shrieks and a huge group hug. We were so happy to see each other again (it’s amazing to see how we’ve become so much like a family in only three weeks) and we were also relieved to be home from camp. Camp was extremely difficult and challenging, but I got a lot out of it and I am very glad I went. I think the Te Mapua organization is such a blessing and it would be so cool if it eventually became international. After the reunion in the student lounge, us girls went upstairs and talked till at least 2am about our experiences.

On Saturday, most of us spent the day simply recovering. We had breakfast at 11. Jonas and I made poutine for supper (every Saturday, a different group of students makes supper) with fruit salad for desert. Unfortunately, it took way longer than we thought so it was an hour and a half late, and I killed the gravy (the recipe I got of the internet was kind of gross). But we still got a few compliments and Sheryl did manage to save the gravy.

Today (Sunday), after church I went out for a photo shoot to get some pictures of the school, the grounds, and the surrounding mountains. Tonight, we will have Sunday night fellowship and Werner will be speaking (yay!!).

I would really appreciate prayer for the children whose lives were made better for four days at camp. My prayer is that Te Mapua will be able to support them and that God would continue to work in their lives and in the lives of the people around them.

Week 2

This week we started actual classes and it was amazing! I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know! Werner Schreiber taught on the Sermon on the Mount (Genesis 5-7). Basically, what we learnt was that these passages, although often interpreted prescriptively (telling you what to do), are actually descriptive of what our lives would be like if we had Christ indwelling us. We also watched a DVD series titled ‘History’ by Louis Giglio and Andy Stanley. It was all about how God is full of Himself – and if He weren’t, He wouldn’t be God – and how God deserves all the glory. It was an amazingly powerful DVD! I plan on buying myself a copy so I can watch it again. We also read the first two chapters of two books we will be reading throughout the semester. The first, ‘Revolution Within,’ is also about how God deserves all the glory and how we can be transformed from the inside out if we admit this and seek only His glory. The second, ‘Knowledge of the Holy’ by A W Tozer, explained why it is so important to know God’s characteristics and then goes on to explain some of them. The one we studied this week was that God is Incomprehensible: that we tend to bring Him down to human sizes when in fact He is too big to be understood by human minds. We also got a class by Dale on the importance of the scriptures.

Every two weeks, we have to write a journal entry about what we have learned. We have to summarize the parts that seemed most relevant and important to us. To give you an idea of what I have been learning, here is my journal entry:
- Acting out in anger in response to someone else, worrying, holding a grudge against someone, or being impatient with someone are not so much reactions as they are revelations of the heart. Therefore, I must, as well as asking for forgiveness for the action, ask God to reveal what is in my heart that is the real cause for the action. Only once the problem with the heart – which is the true problem – has been identified can I confess and can the heart be changed.
- The law of the Old Testament can only make me aware of my sin. I cannot be righteous by observing the law (Romans 3:20) because it is unable to change the heart. Jesus shows in the Sermon on the Mount that it is utterly and completely impossible to abide by the law, but with His Spirit in control of my life, the desire to please Him is much stronger than the law. The Beatitudes are not prescriptive (telling me what to do); rather, they are descriptive of what my life would be if I had the Lord in my heart. If it were prescriptive, it would be the same as the law: unable to change the heart. So the only way to bring about true change in my life is to be changed completely from the inside (Ezekiel 36:24-27).
- Either I can live for me, or I can live for God. I need to abandon my “what’s in it for me” mentality and focus on bringing God the glory because I cannot serve two masters. I need to completely die to myself. I need to drive a stake through the heart of ‘self’ so that God can completely live through me and transform me.
- God demands all the glory, point final! If he didn’t demand all the glory, He wouldn’t’ be God. If He didn’t put all His value in Himself, He would put His value in something greater and He would therefore not be God. God loves me more than I could ever love myself, but He loves me much, not most. Everything God has ever done for me is really only for His glory. I tend to make God small so that He can fit into my plans when, in fact, it is Him who is making a place for me in His amazing plans. He doesn’t need me, He would get His glory with or without me, so I can choose to live for myself, trying to steal a piece of God’s glory, or I can die to myself, realising that I am not God, and live only for I AM.
Aside from classes, we had a few fun activities this week. On Tuesday, for family night, we split up into two groups, one group staying at The Crossing with Hanna, Sheryl, and Colin and the other going to the Epp’s with Dale, Patti, and Joseph. We played games, talked, learnt more about each other and generally had fun! We played midnight madness – where each person rolls a dice and when you land on 6 you start writing numbers from 1 to 100 until someone else gets a 6 and takes the pen from your hand, the first one to 100 wins – and another similar game that involved putting a hat, scarf and mitts on and trying to eat a piece of chocolate with a fork. We also played a really fun game, kind of like broken telephone, where each person has a stack of papers and writes a sentence on the first page. You then pass the stack to the next person who reads the sentence and then, having put the first page on the bottom of the pile, draws a picture of the sentence. The next person gets the stack, looks at the picture, and writes a sentence about it. The final result can be quite hilarious. We finished the evening with hot chocolate, brownies and ice cream.

On Friday, we had a comedy night and we watched a Brian Regan act. It was not hilarious, but we all got a good laugh.

On Saturday, we all went to a beach in Timaru (Brown’s beach or Winchester beach depending on who you ask). We parked the vans and walked (or rode Joseph’s motorbike) about half an hour down the beach to the mouth of a river where we could fish for whitebait (which is a delicacy here). You had to stand by the water with a net and wait for a wave. As the wave went back out, you put the net in the water (it is a pretty solid metal net) and caught the fish as they were pulled back out to sea. I didn’t actually fish because it involved getting very wet in frigid water. I did, however, try one of these tiny see-through fish. It was really gross because the fish was still moving when I put it in my mouth. It didn’t taste like anything but salt water, but it crunched when I bit it. Some people swallowed them whole and said that they could feel it for a few seconds squirming in their throats and stomachs. There were some really neat clay formations, made by the waves hitting the beach repeatedly, which looked like little peninsulas. Along the beach, I collected some multicoloured rocks. I even some green ones! The others were orange, red and pink. The beach was super windy and cold, but even so, Jonas, Kelsey, Amber, Ben, Michael, and Joel actually went in. I had a wonderful time, and I will sleep well tonight!

Tonight, Amber, Colin, and Bryan (the three redheads :P) are making pirogees for supper and banana boats for desert, it should be good!

Tomorrow, we leave for camp (for our ministry week). Your prayers for lots of sleep, for patience with the kids, that we would be able to minister the gospel effectively, and for safety would be greatly appreciated! We will be working with kids aged 8 to 12 and hopefully, we will have a blast!