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.