Week 12

Our main lecturer this week is Lincoln Badger. He is a really good teacher with a passion for the material he is speaking on. He often goes off on tangents but even these are relevant to our Christian walk. We have also been listening to a DVD lecture by Sonny Westbrook called “How much can Jesus do.” So the focus of the week has been mostly on Jesus (not that that is different from any other week... :P).

This week has been fairly busy since our second Bible study was due. Many students spent most afternoons researching, looking up Greek words, and digging into God’s word. I am so glad to be learning how do create a Bible study. It’s not easy, but it’s such a valuable tool and it is allowing us to learn for ourselves from God’s word rather than always relying on our teachers and pastors to ‘feed’ us.

On Tuesday, I got my first bingo. Basically, if you are the only girl at a table with all guys or the only guy at a table with all girls, you have to stand up on your chair and yell bingo. Sheryl is pretty good at getting bingos and Dale has gotten one or two. Just another way the students here at The Crossing have fun...

Wednesday workday was really fun! I went to the Epp’s with Jordan and Jonas. We got tons of ivy and weeds pulled out and we started laying down hay to prevent new weeds from coming up. It was tough work and I got stabbed by several rose thorns, but iwas really rewarding to see the difference! And the best this about workday is that we get pudding (that’s the Kiwi word for desert) after tea!

After Wednesday tea, Cam and I went out for what has become our regular after-tea walk. It was super fun because we got to walk in the rain! We’ve had tons of good conversations and tons of laughs. On Tuesday, Cam and I started skipping/running/laughing/spinning our way down the drive on our way out for our walk. Apparently, Lincoln (our teacher for the week) watched us go by and then turned to Jordan and asked “What is that?” and “Is that a common occurrence?” Needless to say, I thought this was quite funny! As one of the students here pointed out, being willing to do stuff you would never be seen doing with people who weren’t your friends, to be crazy, and do wacky stuff with people can break down barriers and create stronger friendships. And besides, it is so much fun to run/skip/etc down the drive and let out some pent up energy and insanity!

On Friday, after a sumptuous Mexican meal put on by the staff, we had our last girl/guy night of the semester. The guys stayed at The Crossing and played a night game outdoors that seems to resemble capture the flag. The girls went to the Epps for our final “secret sister revealing party.” We each tried to guess who our secret sister was and then we revealed who ours was. I guessed right: Patti! But Sheryl didn’t guess that I was her secret sister. Just in case I forgot to explain what that was in a previous post, I will do so now. Basically, towards the beginning of the semester, we all filled out a sheet indicating out favourite candy, color, bible passages, etc, as well as specific items we would like prayer for over the course of the semester. The sheets were then distributed so that we each had someone else’s sheet and then we were to pray specifically for our secret sister throughout the semester. We also gave our secret sister notes and small gifts to encourage her and remind her that we were praying for her. It was tons of fun!

When we got back to the crossing, we decided to play an awesome game of sardines. It was so dark that there were areas in the house where I actually couldn’t see me hand in front of my face! And since we had rearranged the dinning room for the Mexican dinner, I ran into quite a few chairs on my way through. I ended up going to bed at midnight...

On Saturday, a bunch of us were planning on going white water rafting but since the water level was too high, it was cancelled. Instead, we went to castle hill. Our first stop was at a spot with tons of huge rocks. We climbed over, around, and through the rocks, exploring and playing tag. The wind was insane so at times I actually had to sit down to keep from being blown over! Afterwards, we went to a stream that ran through a cave. We followed the stream through the cave and out to the other side of the mountain, wading through water that was sometimes waist high, climbing down tiny waterfalls, scaling rocks all in complete darkness (we did have head torches, that is flashlights). At one point, I lost a crock while climbing down a small waterfall (I missed the memo indicating that we needed good shoes...) but it floated down stream and caught up with me about five minutes later. Unfortunately, I got the other crock stuck between two rocks shortly thereafter and the straps broke so I spent the majority of the walk with only one shoe. We were told to dress warmly (togs, that is swimsuits, with a long sleeve shirt and/or sweater) so I was expecting it to be really cold but it turned out not to be that bad! Once we got out at the other end, we went swimming in the river. We had a blast trying to fight our way against the flow trying to get up the river (as Joel said as he struggled against the flow “I’m a Christian!”). We would also climb along the bank and the get into the river further up and then let ourselves be pulled by the current down to the ‘pool’. The whole day was soooooooooooo much fun!

The day was very well finished with a hilarious game of volleyball. My coordination wasn’t very good though (probably because of my late night combined with an exhausting day...).