Week 24

This week has been rather hectic as we’ve all been packing and preparing to leave for Easter break. Ben, Amber, Cara, and Jordan will not be retuning after break as they will be going to ABS (Adventure Bible School) up on the North Island.

On Tuesday, we had our secret sister revealing party. Hanna was my secret sister and I had Kelsey. We chatted, laughed, exchanged gifts, ate a chocolate fondue (minus the chocolate because none of us actually wanted the extra sugar), and watched Julie & Julia.

On Wednesday evening, after an afternoon of intense cleaning, we had a formal diner where Patti taught us formal etiquette. We had way too many forks and knives, three courses, and three glasses for ‘wine.’ For the first course, we had the option of Greek salad or ???. The main was chicken au vin or steak cooked and served beautifully. For desert there was Panna Cotta or Tiramasu. Dale showed us how a proper toast is done. The guys were wonderful and escorted the girls down and seated us and stood whenever any of us stood. It was tons of fun! And the staff were amazing because they prepared the meal, served us, and even did the dishes afterwards so that we could all hang out!

In the evening, we had out ‘un-talent show’ and it was quite the success! We had several musical number including Justus on the drums accompanied by Michael on the piano (Justus is doing incredibly well on the drums!) and several original compositions. Us girls put on a snow white skit that had everyone laughing uproariously. I recited some poetry. And the crowning achievement of the evening was the guys doing the Haka. They did it out on the lawn so they were just illuminated by the lights on the porch and they were all dressed in black. It was quite intimidating!

Today, Thursday, after a final room check and our Thursday ministry (Bible in Schools), we will be heading out for our two week Easter break. I’ll be traveling with Cara, Bryan, and JB down towards Queenstown, Wanaka, Dunedin, Milford Sound, and Teanau. For the second week of break, most of the students are heading up to the North Island where they have rented a beach house. I’ll be staying in Christchurch to volunteer at the Easter Te Mapua camp (the same camp my team went to for the first ministry week in the first semester). I would really appreciate your prayers over the week of camp!

This morning (April 1st) we were woken up to the sound of the fire alarm at 6:30. It took me until we were all leaving the building to realize that it was a drill and it took me until we were all coming back in to figure out that it may have been an April fool’s joke! Oh well! At least I now know that my reaction time was good!

I will attempt to blog over break, but I may not have access to computers so for now, au revoir until the 18th of April!