Week 23

This week was slightly insane. I probably didn’t make it better by spending most of last weekend working on putting together a recipe book of all our favourite recipes at the Crossing. This week, Gordon, the pastor from the Life Church in Timaru, taught us on the book of Nehemiah. What an awesome book! And it’s been so encouraging to hear that he teaches the truth and therefore that the attendees of the youth group I go to on Wednesdays are hearing solid truths every Sunday!

On Monday and Tuesday, we prepped and practiced for a service we put on Thursday evening to get the word out about what Capernwray is. Cyril had booked Stonebridge (a beautiful hall and property just outside of Geraldine) for the Thursday night and then came to Dale saying “I’ve booked the hall and now I’d like you to put on a service.” We had music, a short message, and some testimonies (I gave my testimony), four guys sang in beautiful harmony (the ‘Capernwray quartet), and we did a skit. Cyril tells us he prayed over every chair before the service asking God for a bottom on every chair. We had to go get more chairs from storage! I pray that I will have simple faith like Cyril’s!!

On Wednesday, we (Ben, Adam, and I, that is) went to our last youth group meeting before Easter break and since we weren’t sure if we’d be coming back and since Ben is leaving for ABS, they had a big ‘goodbye party’ for us. We played games and they made cards for us. Some of the students even bought us gifts! And I got to share with them how encouraged I have been this week after being taught by their pastor and tell them a bit about the awesome truths God has been teaching me from the book of Nehemiah.

Thursday afternoon was spent running through the Stonebridge service and exploring the Beautiful Stonebridge property. The feedback from the service was really encouraging and people were really generous in the love offering they gave to support our mission’s trip to Fiji. After the service, Gordon told me that he can see me in a teaching role in the future. The interesting thing is that he’s the second one to tell me that this week! It’s definitely something I will have to take to God in prayer! After the service, a bunch of us stayed up really late chatting and laughing. It’s been really neat to see the awesome fellowship we have. It seems that God has given us the unity and community we felt we were lacking just a few weeks ago. It will be sad to see Amber, Ben, Cara, and Jordan leave after Easter break for ABS up at Monavale on the North Island.

On Friday evening, a bunch of us watched ‘The Passion of the Christ’ on the big projector in the student lounge.

For supper on Saturday, Cam, Rob, and I cooked tea. We made cheese blintz and applesauce for the main course and Welch cakes for pudding. It was a wonderfully delicious piece of home!

Saturday night, a bunch of us decided to pull an all-nighter. We started off the evening with an activity organized by Patti: ballroom dancing lessons. A lady from the church came in and taught us a bit of waltz, some samba, and some cha-cha-cha. It was sooooo much fun! Sheryl, Michael, and I are planning on attending her courses on Friday evenings in Geraldine. Later in the evening, we played a few rounds of body-body before heading out on a scavenger hunt that JB so generously put together for us. Unfortunately, this activity was cut short by some drunk people at the skate park who dumped a beer on the seat of Sheryl’s car and took our list of clues. (We managed to leave peacefully without a fight though.) I decided to go to bed at 3am which meant that I missed the “silent” capern-rave and toilet-papering the Epp’s car (they took it well). We had a blast just chilling and hanging out.