Week 11

Two more weeks till Christmas break!

To give you an idea of the other students I am staying with here at the crossing, here are some links to their blogs. I would highly recommend checking out Adam’s blog, especially the guest post by Jordan Lee.
Adam’s blog: http://www.newzealandspiritparade.blogspot.com/
Cara’s blog: http://www.caraleekiwi.blogspot.com/

On Monday, Hobart (our dishwasher) broke which made lunch cleanup (my daily duty for the next three weeks) slightly more difficult. But the quality of Sheryl’s cooking was in no way diminished by the “hardships with Hobart” as Joel put it. Hobart is feeling much better now to the relief of all of the concerned students.

Our teacher this week, Lew Meyers (teaching on apologetics), has a really dry sense of humour so we have been quite enjoying his jokes! I think the final count on Wednesday was 49 jokes in four classes! And I think the total at the end of the week was somewhere around 90 (that we managed to pick up on, and that was only in class, not during meals and morning tea)! He mentioned that, if at all possible, it is a very good idea to become friends with an undertaker... because they will be the last ones to let you down. When discussing demons, he made sure to remind us always to make sure you pay your fees... otherwise you might be repossessed. He also told us about his sister who married an Aussie (and Australian). He would have preferred a human, but that’s ok (the NZ/Australian jokes can be quite funny!). And one more: A mother skunk had two sons, In and Out. And sometimes In was out and Out was in. And sometimes In was in and Out was out. But she always knew which was which, do you know how? Because In-stinked!

We also had a DVD lecture by the director of the Capernwray school in BC. He taught on the book of Deuteronomy. I though he was really interesting and it was quite neat to hear that he had a testimony quite similar to my own!

I have been trying to run every second (or third or fourth) day. It’s been tons of fun and I have actually noticed an improvement! Cara and Cam often invite me to join them on their runs.

We had workday on Thursday this week since it was raining on Wednesday. I got to trim rosebushes again! Joseph was trimming the big hedge and so I got to climb up on top of it. The branches are so dense and thick that I could actually walk around on top of the hedge! Although Robert, who climbed up with me, did fall through once or twice :P. Apparently (and I will have to try this some time), it is possible to scale the hedge directly without using a ladder!

I have spent quite a bit of time this week working on a Bible study on Titus 2:11-15 which is due next Friday. I am having much less difficulty on this Bible study than I was having on my first!

On Sunday, we went into Timaru to attend the Life Church and in the afternoon, we helped out at the “Christmas Carol Cafe” put on by the Life Church. I read Isaiah 9:6 in French (they had several people reading different passages in different languages to emphasize the fact the message of the gospel is a global message). Robert, Colin, and Michael sang a few songs with Joseph on the guitar, Cam on the piano, and Bryan on the drums. It was beautiful! It’s really cool to hear the musical talent here at The Crossing! The entire event was really well done (although it was kind of weird at one point when Santa and Jesus were dancing on the stage together for the final song :P). What struck me most was that it wasn’t just a manger scene story, but they actually told the entire story, from Jesus’ birth to death to resurrection! What a good reminder that this season is not about a cute baby in a warm cozy stable but about the Son of God who came down to restore His name and to restore His creation to Himself for His glory!

On Saturday evening, after some encouraging, I went out to join the girls who were dancing on the road a little ways from the school (don’t worry, we stopped and got off the road long before the cars got close). It was wacky and fun and we laughed a lot!

I finally got a picture up of the awesome gang here at The Crossing in the header for my blog (sorry about the wierd colours, I have yet to find a color that is legible for the title). Just in case you were wondering, the people in the picture from left to right are (top row): Joseph, Dale Michael, Adam, Jordan, Colin, Joel, Jonas, Robert, Ben and Bryan. The second row, from left to right: Cam, Patti, Justus, Sheryl, Hanna, Isabelle, Kelsey, Cara, Amber, and me.