A few photos from Easter break!

"Tell everybody I'm on my way, new friends and new places to see!" Bryan, Adam, me, Cara, and JB heading out in White Betty (the car we borrowed from a couple at the church).

JB and Brian taking a break on the way to the glacier near Mount Cook


Cara and I at lake Tekapo


Waking up surrounded by mountains after freedom camping in Wanaka (JB, Bryan, Jonas and Michael. Cara was there as well, she just didn't make it into the picture)

Michael lost in the maze at Puzzling World in Wanaka

The sign at the exit of the church we visited on Easter in Queenstown

Fergburger in Queenstown!!! (That's Cara and me) And yes, the burger is really that big, it is not trick photography!

Adam, Bryan, Joel, and JB on the luge in Queenstown

Milford Sound, some black and white photography


Me, JB, Cara, and Adam at Cadbury World in Dunedin


Penny and I at a bay just outside Christchurch

Week 25

It’s been good to be back at the Crossing. We all miss Amber, Cara, Ben, and Jordan. Cara and Jordan’s banter is absent from mealtimes. Joel (Hepner) has gotten louder without Amber here to be the loudest. Bingo is slightly less lively without Ben as the leader of the pro-bingo party. But from the news we have received from them so far, ABS (Adventure Bible College) is fun and the people are great.

This week, Jerry Benjamin has been teaching us on the book of Daniel. Next week he will be going over Revelation. I think that the main ideas that I have come away with is that the most important thing about prophecy is not the events that it speaks of but the sovereign, faithful God it points to. Also, while pointing to Christ, prophecy should cause us to worship and thank God.

On Friday evening, Michael and I went to dance lessons in Geraldine (given by the lady who taught ballroom dancing at the Crossing one evening last semester). We learnt/perfected the waltz and she taught us a form of swing (the lindy hop).

On Saturday afternoon, a bunch of us went out shooting with one of the guys from the church. We shot at clay pigeons and targets placed at various distances. I managed to hit quite a we of the clay pigeons but those guns have quite a kick so I didn’t spend too long shooting.

Saturday night was wonderful, just chilling out by the fire listening to Joel (B.) on the guitar, JJ (Bryan’s friend) on the base, and Bryan on the drums jamming and worshiping God. Jonas sat by the fire carving a knife out of a chunk of wood. Michael, Sheryl, and Joseph were lost in their own books. Alex and Stephen (two more of Bryan’s friends) were chatting. All of this inspired the following poem:

A Familiar Scene

Sitting by the fire
Huddling in the warmth
Lost in a good book
Embraced in music
Played by those we love
Sipping a hot drink
Letting time pass by
Living every moment
Hearing every heartbeat
Singing every song

On Sunday evening, we had an open fellowship, meaning that we invited people from the community to come in for an hour of teaching followed by supper (an evening snack). Jerry Benjamin taught us on the Jewish wedding and how it paints a picture of our relationship with Christ.

Pikelets

I am compiling a book of all our favorite recipes here at the Crossing and thought I'd share a few of them with you! This one is the recipe for Pikelets, which are basically like sweet pancakes topped with jam and whiped cream. They make for an excelent snack to serve to guests (but they may be a tad messy :P).

Pikelets
1 cup Flour
¼ tsp Salt
1 tsp Cream of Tartar
½ Baking Soda
2 tsp Sugar
1 Egg
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
¼ cup Milk
¼ cup Water

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add sugar. Drop in egg and syrup. DO NOT MIX. Pour in water. Mix well, but do not overmix. Cook in large frying pan. Top with jam and whipped cream.

Te Mapua Camp, Easter Break Week 2

For the second week of Easter break, I volunteered as a counsellor at Te Mapua. This camp had a very different vision behind it than any other AmyBoss has ever run. This time, the camp, instead of being an evangelical thing, had the purpose of discipleship. The fifty campers were selected by the Te Mapua staff from their ‘God’s Warriors’ kids (a youth group that meets every Tuesday night) who have professed Jesus to be their saviour and were demonstrating a hunger to go deeper in their faith. This meant that the camp was much more relaxed because the staff knew all the kids and the kids knew the staff and knew the Te Mapua standards from attending God’s Warriors.

We got to talk to the kids about the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives, we got in depth into worship and what it is and what it means, and we had sessions on how to approach the Bible. It was really neat to see the kids getting excited about reading their Bibles and worshiping God.

God taught me one really cool thing through one of the kids at camp, and that is that these kids are capable of understanding so much more than we give them credit for. So often in kids ministries, I try to dumb down the content and bring it down to their level when in fact, they are perfectly capable of understanding complex spiritual topics. The only way material needs to be ‘dumbed down’ is the time since kids can sit and concentrate for much shorter periods of time than adults.

Anyway, there was this one girl there who was the same age as my sister, had the same name as my sister, looked like my sister, and even had similar hobbies and interests to my sister. Because she reminded me so much of my sister, I was able to talk to her like I would my sister and that made me realise that I could do that for all the kids there.

The last evening of camp, a bunch of the kids’ parents and neighbours came out and the kids presented the gospel to them through dance, testimony, ‘wordless book’ beads, and worship. The kids even led their parents in a prayer of salvation.

As is the norm for Te Mapua camps, all the leaders spent the night after camp at AmyBoss’ house for debrief. In the morning, since it was one of the leader’s birthday, we celebrated by having chocolate cake and left over cooking (from camp) for breakfast.

I met up with Jonas and Michael and later Colin at Sheryl’s family’s house and we all drove in a very full car) back to Geraldine on Sunday, thus concluding break!

Easter Break, Week 1

To avoid going into great detail about my first week of break, I will simply share with you the highlights of the trip. As I may have said previously, Cara, JB, Bryan, Adam, and I borrowed White Betty, a car belonging to a couple from the church for our first week of touring. After a day of intense cleaning and tearful goodbyes on Thursday, we left for Mount Cook. I have dicided that I love driving at night through the mountains because it makes them look so much more majestic as you weave around tight corners with their dark shape looming over you and the stars overhead.

We had a guitar at our first hostel so we had a spontaneous worship session under the stars. It was really neat to see how God answered our prayers to give us opportunities to witness because as we were worshiping, a guy came out and started asking Bryan questions about God and stuff because he recognised some of the songs. We also met up with Michael and Jonas at our hostel and stuck with them till Monday in Te Anau.

While in the Mount Cook region, we visited the Franz Joseph glacier and had a quiet time somewhere between Mount Cook and Lake Tikapo.

On Friday night, we camped in tents on the side of the road (with JB and Michael sleeping in the cars) since all the hostels in Wanaka were full (because of an air show that was happening while we were there).

In Wanaka, we went to Puzzling World where we saw tons of awesome illusions and tried to make our way through a maze.

On Easter Sunday in Queenstown, we attended St. Andrews church in the morning and a ‘youth’ church in the evening. And in between, we did the luge (kind of like go-karts without a motor on a hill). And I almost forgot to mention, we all went out for lunch at Fergburger where they make the hugest burgers I have ever seen! And each burger was definitely worth the 10 to 15$ that we paid for them!

On Monday, we were in Te Anau (where we split up with Jonas and Michael). We drove from there to Milford Sound (2 hours), stopping occasionally on the way to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. Milford Sound is actually a Fiord (somebody woopsed in naming it...). It was absolutely beautiful! We took a cruise through the fiord and on the way out to the ocean the mountains were covered in clouds making them seem huge and majestic. On the way back in, the sun came out and shone beautifully on the numerous waterfalls creating rainbows for us to enjoy. In the evening, we (we being Cara and I) took a cruise across the Te Anau lake to see the glow worm caves. They are quite fascinating creatures and it was like staring at a sky filled with stars only each of the stars was within out reach.

While in Dunedin, we took a tour of the Cadbury’s chocolate factory where we were given tons of ‘free’ samples.

On our drive from Dunedin to Christchurch, we stopped by the beach to see the Moeraki Boulders. What an awesome creator we have! (I would highly encourage you to google pictures of these boulders.)

On Thursday, we had nothing else to do so we drove to Hamner Springs for some relaxation in their ‘natural’ hot springs.

On Saturday, I met up with Penny, my co-counselor from Te Mapua (Cara, Adam, JB, and Bryan flew up to the North Island on Friday where they met up with most of the other Capers and spent the week at a beach house in the Cormandel). Penny and I chatted, explored Christchurch, went kayaking along the river that runs through the botanical gardens, and went to an improve show.

I really enjoyed the first week of break. God taught me a lot about myself through interactions with the people I was traveling with. I was blessed to be the first one to wake up every morning (by like 2 hours) so I got to have some really good JAM time every morning (that’s the Te Mapua way of waying Jesus and me time :P)