Week 27

Joseph decided to put up a swing in the yard this week. As he walked through the house with rope and swing in hand, Joel (H.) jumped up and offered to help. On the way to the back yard, they debated whether the sun or dogs were man’s best friend (Joel saying that it was the sun and Joseph debating the position of dogs). After laughing at their crazy antics for a while (Joseph trying to throw the rope over a very high branch and Joel just being his own wacky self), Michael ran to grab his camera before joining them by the tree. Soon, Kelsey joined the group by the tree and her laughter drifted over to where I sat watching. It wasn’t long before Rob came out of the house to observe that was going on and he too watched and was soon helping the group create makeshift belaying equipment to get Joseph up to the branch so that he could secure the rope. That’s when I went over to take pictures. And by the time the swing was finally in place, Adam and Kris (our teacher for the week) were also out there giving advice on the best way to make the swing even. And throughout it all, the ten doves that live in the tree watched from the roof or the house, a safe distance away. Such is life at the Crossing.

This week, Kris Baines taught us on a variety of topics including ‘Marriage, Divorce, and Singleness,’ 1 Timothy, ‘Keys to Contentment,’ ‘How to Biblically Evaluate a Movie and Have Fun Doing It,’ and ‘Eternal Death, Eternal Life.’ I think that the main thing I got out of lectures this week was the importance of being faithful and content where I am right now. I shouldn’t be living in anticipation of the future but rather using every opportunity God places in front of me today knowing that He is good. After all, by complaining, I’m basically saying that what He’s doing isn’t good enough.

Saturday evening, the Geraldine youth came over for an evening of soccer, capture the flag, worship, devotions, campfires, and an excellent bbq supper. I spent most of the evening in the kitchen preparing and cleaning up and had a blast doing it. After they left, we watched ‘The Soloist,’ a very touching movie about a man who was once a professional musician and who winds up on the streets because of schizophrenia. I got to put into practice what Kris taught us about biblically evaluating a movie!

On Sunday afternoon, we went over to the Andrews (a family from the church) for a Maori style Hungi. Basically, we dug a hole in the ground while chunks of iron (I think it was iron...) and large rocks were getting hot in a blazing fire. While this was happening, a bunch of us were chopping and preparing meat and vegetables which we placed in a wire basket lined with cabbage leaves (to keep the meat from burning but to allow some heat through). When the rocks and iron were hot, we put them in the hole and put the basket on top covered in wet blankets. We also put some water in the hole so that the food would cook and remain moist. We then covered the whole thing with lots of dirt so that no steam was escaping. While the food was cooking (it took 3 hours) we took turns tearing around a track the Andrews made in their old beat-up car, doing 360s, spitting up clouds of dust, and just having a blast!