Travelling Adventures

Day 1
So, it would seem that traveling is always an adventure and it’s always the things you least expect that seem to go wrong. I seem to remember that on my way here, the only part of my trip that fell through was the only confirmed part. Ironically, that seem to be what has happened again this time! I was excited to find out that I had a confirmed seat number on the flight from Christchurch to Sydney two hours before the plane took off. Unfortunately, due to engine problems, the plane took off two hours later than planned, meaning that I completely missed my transfer out of Sydney (the only flight that day).

On the bright side, I did get to see two beautiful postcards from God. Since we left later in the morning, the sun had already risen and was beautifully illuminating the snow covered mountains that draped themselves across the island. The clouds spilled over the mountains into the valleys in small cascades. And from my vantage point, I could see right across New Zealand, from the west coast right to the east coast! The second postcard was delivered as we descended towards Sydney. As we came through the clouds, we discovered the brightest rainbow I have ever seen, right before our eyes!

Once in Sydney, I found a reasonably priced hotel, bought some tea (supper that is), toured around the area on foot for a while, then settled into my hotel room for the night. We will see what adventures tomorrow brings! I have found much comfort today in Psalm 127:1-2 and, as we were taking off from Christchurch, I paraphrased it to suit the circumstances: “Unless the Lord holds the plain, the pilot flies in vain.” It’s so awesome to know that God is in control. I don’t know why He had me stay the night in Sydney, but I don’t need to know just so long as He gets the glory!

Day 2
I know why God had me stay the night in Sydney! I got to spend somewhere between 5 and 7 of the fifteen hours in the air explaining the entire progress of redemption to the guy sitting next to me! He was asking tons of questions and was really interested. WAY COOL!!!! I didn’t get to witness a miraculous conversion, but obviously, God wanted me on that plane, so we will see what He does. Who knows, maybe, hopefully, I’ll meet this guy in heaven some day!

Because of this really long conversation, I didn’t get any sleep on my fifteen hour flight and only slept fitfully on the short flight from Vancouver to Montreal. Needless to say, I am slightly tired at the moment. But oh well!! I’m uber excited that God allowed me to share His gospel!!!

Oh, and I’ll share two God-incidences with you: once I had rebooked my flight in Sydney, I sat down to figure out what I should do next. When I looked up, I was sitting right in front of the prayer room. And, before going to bed, I set the alarm and just put it on the only radio station that was playing music. It turns out it was a Christian radio station so I got to have my own mini worship service! I guess God was just showing me that He is in control of every circumstance and that none of what was happening was random circumstance.


Back home
Ok, so I’m really tired now! I couldn’t get to sleep last night so at 4am, I got up and made pancakes for everyone for breakfast

JumpStart

As you may or may not know, I decided a while back to stay in New Zealand for an extra week at Dale’s request in order to help out at JumpStart, a camp for high school aged kids held at and run by the Crossing. All the kids were home schooled which meant that they were an incredibly easy group. In fact, just after everyone arrived, Amber, Kelsey, and Joseph were heading out so we left all the kids in the formal lounge to hang out on their own as we said our tearful goodbyes out side.

For the majority of the week, I got to work with Sheryl in the kitchen. I made cookies, chopped and fried way too many onions, washed dishes, cleaned, and generally had a blast. On Tuesday, I also got to share a devotion with the kids. I shared on Numbers 13, where the spies come back from the promised land and give a bad report, convincing the Israelites not to enter the land. God then tells them that all of them will die in the desert and that only their children will enter the land. At this, they decide to muster up their courage and enter the land, even though neither Moses nor the Ark went with them. Basically, the point was that God wants obedience, even when we don’t understand, not courage and self effort. It was really neat to have Dale and Kris (the two teachers for the week) tell me afterwards that what I shared nicely emphasized what Kris had just shared and led in to what Dale was about to share. Pretty cool how God works, eh?

I believe Jordan was in charge of most of the JumpStart activities (probably because he will be coming back to the Crossing as an intern next year). He got the kids playing some pretty awesome games like capture the flag and the plate game (a crazy game that involves tackling and getting pretty dirty).

On Thursday, Dale let me go to Bible in Schools one last time since a replacement for Jonas and my class had not yet been found. Thankfully, God provided a replacement just in time and she was able to come sit in on the class so that she will be able to take over right where we left off.

On Friday, I said a teary good bye to everyone who was left at The Crossing and headed into Christchurch with Sheryl’s family to begin my trek home.