Week 28 (and a little bit of 29)

Last Thursday was our second to last family night, but instead of having an evening activity, we left right after lunch for Lake Tikapo (a 1 ½ hour drive away). We spent the afternoon skating on what I think is New Zealand’s only outdoor skating rink. We spent at least two hours on the ice and I got to learn how to turn properly. We then spent the evening at the Epps enjoying fish and chips and hanging out together by the warmth of their fireplace.

The project that was due last Friday was a written testimony of what we have learnt in class over the year. It was a really tough assignment and it took me quite a while to write up because of the sheer volume of stuff I have learned! I ended up putting it together in the form of a poem.

Werner talked on the book of James last week. It was quite appropriate that Werner, the teacher that always emphasises that most of scripture is descriptive (of what your life will look like with Christ in it) as opposed to prescriptive (telling you what to do). It was really neat though because God gave me a new understanding of what the book of James is really about. Here is a paragraph from my journal entry that describes what I learnt:
“Faith without deeds is dead” does not mean that if I have to earn my salvation but rather James is giving us a way to test if our faith is genuine. If I have deeds (motivated by a love for Christ), it shows that I have a genuine faith (John 14:12a). Other ways James gives to test the authenticity of faith is the tongue (what we say reveals what is in my heart. It is impossible for man to tame the tongue, therefore a tame tongue proves that the Spirit is in a person) and wisdom (Christ is our wisdom). But I am not to concentrate on having wisdom or taming my tongue, but on having Christ. Christ gives me the power to have works, a tame tongue, and wisdom, but I have to use it.

On Friday after lunch, the guys headed out to Akaroa and us girls headed up to Hamner Springs for our last guy/girl weekend. We had rented a little house (that looked just like the Flintstone’s house) just outside of town. It took us almost five hours (instead of three) to get there though because the car broke down (funny how the car broke down on our last girl weekend too!). On Saturday, we had nice relaxing morning, a late breakfast/early lunch, we did some shopping/browsing, and in the evening, we went to the hot springs. We spent most of the day just chatting. In fact, after shopping, we sat in a cafe chatting for about an hour before heading back to the house where we chatted for another hour over tea. After tea, we headed down to the hot springs where we relaxed and chatted for another hour and a half. In the evening, we watched “10 Things I Hate About You.” It’s funny how my perspective on movies has changed. I found it very difficult to enjoy the movie because it displayed very worldly relationships and very worldly ways of dealing with conflict and yet they made it seem as if it could all really work out in real life. On Sunday, we had our own little worship service where we shared about what God has been teaching us.

After tea on Sunday, since we had fellowship that night, we had our ‘quiet hour.’ I knew that I had some issues that I needed to give up to God so I spent the hour in prayer. When I came down for fellowship, I prayed that God would speak to me through the lecturer and I was absolutely convinced that God would speak to me and that it would be exactly what I needed to hear. And guess what? He did speak to me, and it was exactly what I needed to hear, and it was absolutely not what I expected! It was so cool! And then on Monday, God once again orchestrated events perfectly to deal with the issues that had been brought up during quiet hour. What a faithful God we serve!

I think I may have forgotten to mention, we have a new face at the Crossing. Gen (Genevieve), who was a student here at the same time as Hanna, has come back on staff to help Dale with paperwork, to organize missions trips, and to teach a missions class next year. Gen is from Singapore. She loves to wear bright colours that seem to fit her fun personality. Although she would describe herself as an introvert by nature, she tells me that God has been working in her life and teaching her to be more outgoing. She was a missionary in Niger for a few years before coming to Bible college so she has lots of experience that she will be able to impart to future students. She has already been a tremendous blessing to us girls simply by sharing the wisdom God has given her.

For this coming Friday, we will all be working on our final book study on “Be Ye Transformed” by Nancy Missler. It should be interesting as there are very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it is the book that we have had the most fun laughing about and tearing apart. On the other hand, it is probably the book that has taught me the most practically (and there are other students who would agree with me).