Angela's Kiwi Adventure @ The Crossing

Sweet Recollections

2010-07-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

I distinctly remember my first day at the Crossing. I was incredibly nervous. I picked out my best clothes, tried to look as good as possible, be as nice as possible, basically, I wanted to give a really good first impression. And then I lived with these people for nine months so now they know all my quirks. They’ve seen me on my good days and on my bad days. They’ve seen me living in the spirit and living utterly in the flesh. It would be impossible to even begin to capture all the memories, the laughs, and the learning into ten minutes. So instead, I’ll share with you a bit of my testimony: why I went to the Crossing, what God has been doing in my life over the past year, and what God has been teaching me since I’ve been home.

I could possibly say that I decided to go to Bible College for many of the wrong reasons, but I believe God will use anything to bring us closer to Himself. I think my main reason for going to Bible College was because I was thirsty. I knew I needed a deeper relationship with Jesus, but it just wasn’t working for me. I had always seen myself as a ‘good little Christian girl.’ I’m slightly obsessive about following rules. I’ve never really been ashamed of telling people I’m a Christian. I’ve never been one to take part in wild parties or any of the other extremes. So I was thinking to myself: “If I’m so good, why do I feel so bad? I have an amazing family, I have awesome friends, I live in a town that has three Tim Horton’s within walking distance of each other, so why are there days when I still ache inside?” There is no one reason why I chose New Zealand (although the fact that they made Narnia there was sweet as!) but one of those reasons was that I wanted to get away. And I wanted to find out why my relationship with Jesus had gone stale.

It’s a Heart Thing
The first week just about blew my mind! It’s kind of ironic to think though that everything I heard in that week was all stuff my parents, Sunday school teachers, pastors, and youth leaders had endeavoured to teach me time and time again and yet I had to travel half way across the world before I got it! But I have learned that God reveals His truth in His perfect timing. We learned about the Sermon on the Mount that week and I think it could be summed up as “It’s a heart thing.” I learned that law can only make me aware of how sinful I really am. And I learned that all my actions, whether I’m acting out in anger in response to someone else, worrying, holding a grudge, or being impatient, are not so much reactions as they are a revelation of what is in my heart. And it is only the saving life of Jesus Christ in me that can change my heart. But as a Christian, I also learned that I have a choice. I can either live for myself, fulfilling the desires of my flesh, or I can love for God, allowing Him to get the glory

God Demands all the Glory
And that leads me to my second point: God deserves all the glory, point final. I’d like to share a poem with you that I wrote after my first week at The Crossing:
Lost For Words
I am spectacularly, wonderfully
Lost for words
You amaze me, astound me
Take my breath away
I am lost in Your presence
And now I understand
My life is nothing more than Your story
I live for nothing less than Your glory
I am lost to myself
You indwell me, live through me
You do all things for Your glory alone
I have died to myself
So that You can live through me
It’s not about me
It’s for You
For Your glory!

Seeing God as He is
One of the most important things I learned at the Crossing was about who God is. I tend to see God first and foremost as a God of perfect live – which He is – while forgetting that He is also a God of perfect wrath. No one in the Bible hugs God on their first encounter. Upon further investigation, we found that everyone falls to their face, fears for their life, or is rendered speechless. I never realized that God is more like a lion than a lamb: able to tear me to pieces. But I know that, because of the righteousness of Christ that clothes me, I can approach the throne of God with both dignity, but also complete humility. “The dignity comes from the fact that I’m now worthy to come at all times; the humility comes from the fact that I had absolutely nothing to do with this worthiness.” I realized that I have been worshiping a god that I have made small and nice and gentle. But now I realize that I want to know God for who He is, not as I would prefer Him to be.

Catching my own fish
I realized very early on that the reason I was so hungry was because I wasn’t eating! Don’t you hate those mornings when you sleep through your alarm? You spend the next 20 minutes dashing madly around the house, throwing your books into your bag, splashing some water on your face, picking out something half decent to wear (that’s right, you forgot to put the clothes in the dryer last night!). Finally, you’re ready to go and in your eagerness to leave the house, you almost lock your keys inside. And it’s not until half way through your first class or your important meeting that your stomach begins to growl. “Hmmm,” you think to yourself, “maybe I put on the wrong shirt this morning. That must be why my stomach is growling.” So, during the next break, you head discretely to the bathroom to change (lucky you threw that extra shirt in your bag this morning!). When that doesn’t work, you decide to try giving your hair a good comb. But your stomach is still growling, so you attempt to make friends with the class mate at the desk next to you or the co-worker in the cubicle across the aisle. Ok, so this story is a little dumb, but, unfortunately, it’s true! Yep, that’s me! For way too long, my spiritual stomach was growling and I tried everything other than spiritual food!
God taught me that He doesn’t want me to simply identify with Him, He wants me to Assimilate Him. When Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples, He told them to eat Him and drink Him. In the same way, as I eat my bowl of cheerio’s and drink my OJ for the nourishment of my body, ‘eating and drinking Jesus’ needs to be of utmost importance to me since it is my spiritual nourishment.
I heard about a guy who, for a scientific experiment, ingested a small amount of radioactive substance. Using some high tech scientific gizmo placed by the guy’s toes, they were able to determine that it took 6 seconds for the radioactive stuff to enter his blood stream and make its way all the way to his toes. Thus proving that you really are what you eat! Jesus calls us to “be perfect, therefore, as you heavenly father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). I can’t do that, but God can. And so, it is by getting to know Him intimately – by spending time daily in His word and in prayer – that He can begin to transform me.

My daily quiet time has become very valuable to me and God is faithful and keeps revealing nuggets of gold buried in His word.

The End of Myself
I think that the hardest lesson for me (and the one that I am still learning, will it ever cease?) is that I need to come to the end of myself before God can truly work through me. Because I love illustrations, I’d like to share one with you that really helped me to understand just how much I need to rely on God.
Imagine a glove on a table. Now imagine asking the glove to pick up a book. No matter how many times you ask or whether you say please, the glove can’t do anything on its own. It’s only once you put your hand in the glove that it is capable of anything. In the same way, I can do nothing without God. This has been a difficult lesson for me because I can do stuff! I can tie my shoes and count by twos, but it is only when I allow Christ to work through me that anything of eternal value can be accomplished.

Coming Home
I’ve barely begun to skim everything that God has taught me over the past year. And He has been incredibly faithful to continue to teach me and to show me that He is in control. On my way home, I was meant to fly from Christchurch to Sydney then from Sydney to Vancouver and then on to Montreal. Unfortunately, the plane was two hours late leaving Christchurch because they had shipped a defective part to the wrong airport and so had not finished fixing the plane. This meant that I was two hours late arriving in Sydney and had arrived exactly 15 minutes after the only flight to Vancouver had taken off. So I booked a ticket out for the following day, found a hotel, and spent the night in Sydney. The neat thing was that I could have been nervous, I could have freaked out, but I had a sense of peace the whole time because I knew that God was in control and that He was working all things out for His glory. I had no idea why I had to spend the night in Sydney, but I also knew that I didn’t’ need to know, just so long as God got the glory. It was only two hours into the 15 hour flight to Vancouver that I found out. I got to talking to the guys next to me and eventually He asked what it meant to be a Christian. I then spent the next five hours explaining the entire progress of redemption to Him! All the way from Creation, the fall, Abraham, and the sojourn in Egypt to Jesus’ death and resurrection! God is faithful and God is in control!!!!!!!!!

Fond Memories
I have heaps of fond memories of The Crossing. Like having porridge with peanut butter every morning. Or walking into town along the river bed. It should have taken us about 40 minutes and, according to the director, the river was low enough that we could walk the whole way without getting wet, but it ended up taking almost two hours and we all waded through knee deep, freezing cold water. Then there was the time where I ate a live fish... Or receiving mail! Whenever anyone got a package, we would all gather around as the goodies were unpacked. My Mum sent me a package that included a shirt and some backed goods, but the shirt smelled like cinnamon cookies for a week! I’ll miss staying up late, sitting by the open fire and talking about anything and everything with the fifteen students I grew to know and love. I’ll miss the people, I’ll miss the places, but it’s so good to be home, and God has been incredibly faithful to continue to teach me and guide me.

Travelling Adventures

2010-06-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

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.

As We Leave the Crossing...

2010-05-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

Here's the poem I wrote for grad (called "As We Leave the Crossing...")

Maybe it’s time for a redefinition
Time for a difference, a change of position
We’ve been placed here, brought here, given a mission
For such a time as this

We’ve been taught, we’ve been trained, and now it’s time to go
I don’t want to leave but somehow I know
God has placed us here for just a short time
To tell us over and over “Beloved, you are mine.

“Don’t depend on the future; don’t dwell on the past,
I’ll be your strength to do whatever I ask
Be diligent today with what’s I’ve placed before you
Trust that I’m faithful to call and to do”

Facing the world now seems a daunting task
Dealing with old burdens, is it too much to ask?
But stand firm in His Word and in Him delight
Meditate on His precepts all day and all night.

Allow Him to reveal what’s in your heart of hearts
And trust that He’s good as He cleans your inner parts
Moment by moment, choose what He tells you is best
Give it all up to Him, He’ll take care of the rest!

Remember that God is unchanging, eternal
He loves us the same, He will always be faithful
He’s demands all the glory, He’s the lion and the lamb
He’s our ruler, our king, the perfect I AM

Maybe it’s time for a redefinition
Time for a difference, a change of position
God has placed us here, brought us here,
Now He sends us on a mission
For such a time as this

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-05-26T02:43:00.000-07:00

For my birthday on Wednesday, Sheryl made me apple pie! Not only that, but she saved a piece for me so that I could have a piece reheated for breakfast on Thursday. Joel and Michael did a rap for me for which the lyrics follow:
Angela Tracy
Quebec is where you’re from
4x-2bπr2/501πxz is the equation
Only you really know what it is
Science is the shiz nits

Door knobs are such a great invention
Angela, you’ll probably invent the toaster

The Bible is the Word
My jacket is blue with stripes
It’s been raining for three days
Because New Zealand doesn’t want you to go
Firewood is great for fire
Trees are great for growing
Just like how you are great for us
Don’t worry
Apples, rainbows, bananas
Some of those you eat
Like an alley cat
Angy-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Happy birthday!

Since it became known that, since I was really young, I wanted to get married when I was 20 years old, Gen tried to convince Joel (as a joke) to propose to me. They were bribing him with a chocolate covered coffee bean. I knew about the whole plan (Gen made sire I was ok with it :P), so don’t worry! Anyway, he didn’t end up doing it, but I thought it would be really funny! Other awesome things that happened on my birthday: my family called (thanks for calling even though I wasn’t there to answer!!!), people sang happy birthday to me in French, I got French birthday balloons, I had white bait for supper (the same kind I ate raw at the beginning of the year, only this time they were cooked), and we watched “how to find a spouse” by Charles Price (ironic? Lol!).

Week 29

2010-05-24T01:48:00.001-07:00

This week, Lincoln Badger taught us on the book of acts and we had a DVD lecture on servant leadership by Satish John. It was an excellent way to finish off a year of classes. It has been tough over the past week realizing again and again how little time we have left.

On our last night at the Timaru youth group on Wednesday, the kids had a mini birthday party for Adam and I (Adam turned 20 on May 15th and I will turn 20 on the 26th). Bethany brought us sacks, fruit, and chocolate cheesecake.

On Friday night, Joseph got permission from Dale to show all three “Back From the Future” movies in a row. We started at 8:30pm (after Adam and Kelsey got back from Kids Alive) and finished the last one at 2am. They were super stressful but it was tons of fun! Needless to say, I was rather tired on Saturday. It didn’t help that I had to get up relatively early to clean up from breakfast.

On Sunday evening, we had our last Sunday night fellowship. All the Capers prepared and shared a testimony of what we have learned in class this year. After fellowship, we went to Patti’s for our Secret Sister revealing. We made sushi (under Gen’s instruction) then exchanged gifts.

Journal Week 29

2010-05-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

- I need to let God be God in my life, then He can begin to transform me into someone useful for people and for God. I will be ineffective if I choose my own plans, my own missions, and what I am comfortable with.

- As a servant leader, I need to walk in fear of God and always have the Word of God on my lips. To serve God, I am to worship Him in every aspect of my life, to study His word, lay it on my heart, and meditate on it, and to be a witness to others of the hope that is within me.

- Saying “I have no time” is basically saying that I am still in control of my time, not God. It is saying that I am not available to God.

- One person on their knees is more powerful than a thousand pastors who don’t pray!

- Our goal shouldn’t be to bring the best men and women into the church to build the ministry, but to equip the best men and women to send them out into the world.

- Prayer should be my priority!

Week 28 (and a little bit of 29)

2010-05-18T01:22:00.000-07:00

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).

Journal Week 28

2010-05-13T03:09:00.000-07:00

- God has clothed me in a robe of righteousness. If I try to stitch my own robe (by obeying the law), it’s like a hospital gown. It looks perfect from where I can see, but when I turn around, it’s wide open.

- Trials show me where I am at and bring conviction. They don’t produce faith, they simply test whether my faith is genuine. Trials without faith lead to bitterness and resentment but trial with faith lead to spiritual maturity and dependence on God. I simply need to persevere (“remain upright”) under trials and allow Christ to be my sufficiency through them.

- “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.

- My responsibility is to exercise the spiritual gifts God has given me through the natural talents and abilities He has given me. I also need to not be ashamed of the people of God, of the name of Jesus (because He is what distinguishes our God from every other god), and the gospel of Christ (I need to be willing to ‘pull the trigger – present the gospel – whenever God gives me the opportunity).

- When self-thoughts or emotions come up, I need to immediately confess them to God, repent, and give them over to God. I then need to refill on God’s word.

Journal Week 27

2010-05-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

- In 1 Corinthians, Paul emphasises that both marriage and celibacy are gifts. The most important thing is making the most of where I am now. As a single person, I can have ministries that a married person can’t have or I can serve in such a way as to bless married couples by taking jobs that would normally take away from their family time.

- As a single person... I need to work on being the right person (totally focused on God) than finding the right person to marry. I need to have a realistic and biblical perspective on marriage. I need to be wise concerning who I marry, desiring nothing less than God’s best. I also need to remember that marriage will become my first and most important ministry.

- Doctrine (established truths in the scripture) is extremely important. I need to make sure that any doctrine is fully supported by scripture.

- When God calls a person to ministry, it may feel as though at first they are backsliding. This is because God allows a period of testing and a period where He is preparing them for the ministry He has called them to. I therefore need to remember to serve God where I am, regardless of circumstance.

- In Paul’s description of deacons and elders in 1 Timothy, there is nothing about talent or giftedness but only with character.

- The best diet is the Word, the best exercise is righteousness! (1Timothy 4:8)

- If I am in ministry some day, I have to remember to feed on the word for myself.

- I need to flee from and get as far away as possible from any form of temptation. This includes the temptation that comes from money (1Timothy 6:6-10)

- True contentment is coming to the point where I need nothing else in addition to my relationship with Jesus in order to be satisfied and fulfilled. True contentment is independent of external circumstances. It is not freedom from the battle but peace in the midst of the battle. It has to do with perspective: whether I am looking at life through my eyes or through God’s eyes.To be content, I need to constantly build a relationship with Christ that is independent of external circumstances. And it is through the tougher circumstances that God will teach me to be content in Him. I need to learn from the past but not dwell on it. I need to make the most of today and not depend on tomorrow. And I need to surrender myself to God.

Week 27

2010-05-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

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!

Journal Week 26

2010-05-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

- I need to lay scripture on my heart by memorizing it then I need to meditate on it: I need to receive it, personalize it, and apply it.

- The purpose of studying the Bible is to obey! I need to not only learn God’s commands but put them to practice. God is not impressed by my intentions. Imagine if Noah had said “Well, I really tried to build that ark...”

- The word of God is complete, totally inspired by God, without error, unchanging, profitable, practical, POWERFUL, it cannot diminish or decay, it is indestructible, and it is eternal.

- The belt of truth: the belt was the piece of armour that held every other piece of armour in it’s proper place. Therefore, I need to be grounded in Christ (that is truth). I cannot tolerate even a little bit of error mixed in with His truth (it would be like putting up with just a tiny bit of dog poop in a batch of brownies).

- I should be more excited by the person of Christ than by deciphering prophecy.

- No one can be deceived until they first reject what they know to be true.During the thousand year reign of Christ, tribulation saints will still be having children and repopulating the earth. Although everyone will outwardly serve Christ, it will be from the children of the tribulation saints that Satan will construct his army when he comes back one final time. This shows that even given the perfect circumstances, man will still do wrong!

Journal week 25

2010-05-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

- Samson was an idiot! But his account makes it obvious that God will use us, whether we do what He wants or run in the opposite direction. In all situations, God is in control.

- The primary role of prophesy is not to tell the future but to reveal the person on Christ.

- Christ must be preeminent in my life, not prominent (one among many)

- Living the Christian life is not what I’m being delivered from but who I am being delivered to and that is Christ.

- When Daniel had to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the first thing he did was call his friends to prayer and fasting. In the same way, I need to view prayer as a first resort not as a last ditch effort.

- God reveals things to me, not so that I may have more information, but so that He can transform me.

- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were obedient to God even though it meant a trip through the fiery furnace. They based their obedience not on the perceived results, but rather simply trusted that God’s plan was best. Also, they knew God could save them from the flames, but they trusted that God would bring about the outcome that would bring Him the most glory, even if that meant death for the three friends.

- When I go through the fiery furnaces of life, the only thing that God burns away are the sins that keep me from intimate fellowship with Him. The safest place was the fire because that is where God is.

- Am I in complete submission to God? Who decides where I live, what I do, who I date, who I marry, what I eat, what I wear, what I say, what I think, what I read, what I watch...

- Brokenness, what God desires from me, is simply ‘no will of my own,’ total submission to and dependence on Christ.

- Children should be included in prayer meetings so that they can learn how to pray. Also, children should be taught to ‘eat’ and memorize scripture and the truths contained in God’s word should not be dumbed down for them.

- The role of the tribulation is not judgment but mercy because it will bring a great multitude to Himself.

- When I complain, it is basically saying that I think that what God is doing is not good enough

- Christ needs to be my sufficiency: everything I need to sustain, support, and nourish myself should be in Christ. I need to abide in Christ through moment by moment decisions to rely fully on Him, not simply doing a one hour quiet time each day. It must be a lifestyle, not a ‘good habit’

- I look forward to seeing my family again because I know and love them, how much more should I then be looking forward to the appearance of Jesus? Do I have eyes only for my bridegroom or am I distracted by the world?

- Pride is the sin that cause Satan to fall. If I aim ‘up,’ God will make it His aim to bring me down. Instead, I need to humble myself (meaning “no will of my own”).

- I need to recognize that I am in a spiritual battle. But God is not simply an equal but opposite opponent to Satan, He is ultimately in control and even Satan can do nothing that God does not allow Him to do.

- Demons first agenda is to tempt us to sin, but God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle through His strength (but not all temptation is from demons). Demons can also possess (but as a Christian, I cannot be possessed because I have the indwelling spirit of Christ).

- Demons can deceive unbelievers (causing them to worship idols), but an unbeliever cannot be deceived until they first reject the truth. As a believer, I can also be deceived. Demons will attempt to sidetrack Christians by corrupting the truth.

- When it comes to angels, we have a completely passive role. I am not to pray to them or to worship them in any way. They never initiate anything, they are simply God’s messengers in carrying out God’s will.

- I need to respond to these spiritual truths, not with fear, but by firmly planning myself in God’s truth (Eph 6:10-18)

Week 26

2010-05-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

This week was our second week of teaching by Jerry Benjamin on end times prophecy (he would correct me here saying that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ through end times event). It’s been good to get grounded in the proper perspective of Revelation, which is as showing the character of God rather than primarily about a sequence of events.

Wednesday was a really cool day for Adam and I because we got to lead the Timaru youth group. We really just wanted to present something in a way that would keep the kids focused, involved, thinking, and hopefully excited about the Word of God. While reading through Ephesians, I came across a passage (1:15-20) that basically summarized our prayer for the kids so we decided to do that. But other than what passage we were going to study, we really had no idea where we were going with the message so we spent tons of our prep time simply praying that God would reveal to us what and how He wanted us to present. The night before, after at least an hour of prep, we both went to bed kind of bummed thinking that either the whole thing would flop (according to our estimation, we had enough material to fill half an hour of the hour and a half we were meant to fill) or God would do something awesome and it would be amazing. As I was falling asleep, God seemed to ‘suggest’ that we should let them tear the passage apart by simply giving them guiding questions and then allow them to come up with their own applications. Anyway, our Bible study ended up finishing right on time (taking the full hour and a half) so that we didn’t have to use our time filler game. The kids were focussed, listening, and giving their input. Some of them blew us away with the depth of the stuff they were coming out with! Basically, it wasn’t us, because if it had of been, it would have flopped. Instead, God totally used us! We were pretty excited!

On Thursday, we had our first family night of the semester. With four of our student body gone, we all do family night together now instead of splitting into two groups. We all learned how to lawn bowl and it was tons of fun! Bryan and I lost every single game, but we did have some pretty good rounds! My legs are now really sore from the repeated kneeling!

After the game, as we got back to the Crossing, Dale was driving by so a bunch of us jumped onto his car. He actually drove us half way into town with three of us hanging on to the back, one of us on the hood, and two of us handing onto the side windows. At the highway he pulled over and we all crammed into the car (three of us were in the trunk!) and Dale drove us to town where we got ice cream (at 10pm!). We had a blast, laughing the whole way!

Jenny, a lady from the church, invited us girls to sleep over at her house for the weekend. It was really refreshing to have a good conversation with her and her daughter. I’ve found that it is increasingly difficult to have a deep conversation with people at the Crossing. Us girls will often talk like that when we’re alone, but as a whole group it seems to be a challenge, making for rather quiet meals.

On Saturday, I went with Jenny and her grandchildren to Josh’s rugby game (Josh is the son of Werner, one of our teachers). And on Sunday afternoon, Jenny took us all for a drive to Mesopotamia (that’s the name of a place an hour outside of Geraldine). The drive was beautifully scenic and we had tons of fun and lots of good conversation. It was such a blessing to get away for the weekend and it actually felt really good to come home afterwards.

On Monday for quiet day, I went out to Peel Forest where I hiked, prayed, read, fell asleep (only for a little while :P). It was a nice relaxing day simply spent with Jesus, especially after two weeks of hearing Jerry Benjamin’s teaching (which Colin described as drinking from a fire hose).

A few photos from Easter break!

2010-04-29T19:33:00.001-07:00

"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

2010-04-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

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)

Week 24

2010-03-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

This week has been rather hectic as we’ve all been packing and preparing to leave for Easter break. Ben, Amber, Cara, and Jordan will not be retuning after break as they will be going to ABS (Adventure Bible School) up on the North Island.

On Tuesday, we had our secret sister revealing party. Hanna was my secret sister and I had Kelsey. We chatted, laughed, exchanged gifts, ate a chocolate fondue (minus the chocolate because none of us actually wanted the extra sugar), and watched Julie & Julia.

On Wednesday evening, after an afternoon of intense cleaning, we had a formal diner where Patti taught us formal etiquette. We had way too many forks and knives, three courses, and three glasses for ‘wine.’ For the first course, we had the option of Greek salad or ???. The main was chicken au vin or steak cooked and served beautifully. For desert there was Panna Cotta or Tiramasu. Dale showed us how a proper toast is done. The guys were wonderful and escorted the girls down and seated us and stood whenever any of us stood. It was tons of fun! And the staff were amazing because they prepared the meal, served us, and even did the dishes afterwards so that we could all hang out!

In the evening, we had out ‘un-talent show’ and it was quite the success! We had several musical number including Justus on the drums accompanied by Michael on the piano (Justus is doing incredibly well on the drums!) and several original compositions. Us girls put on a snow white skit that had everyone laughing uproariously. I recited some poetry. And the crowning achievement of the evening was the guys doing the Haka. They did it out on the lawn so they were just illuminated by the lights on the porch and they were all dressed in black. It was quite intimidating!

Today, Thursday, after a final room check and our Thursday ministry (Bible in Schools), we will be heading out for our two week Easter break. I’ll be traveling with Cara, Bryan, and JB down towards Queenstown, Wanaka, Dunedin, Milford Sound, and Teanau. For the second week of break, most of the students are heading up to the North Island where they have rented a beach house. I’ll be staying in Christchurch to volunteer at the Easter Te Mapua camp (the same camp my team went to for the first ministry week in the first semester). I would really appreciate your prayers over the week of camp!

This morning (April 1st) we were woken up to the sound of the fire alarm at 6:30. It took me until we were all leaving the building to realize that it was a drill and it took me until we were all coming back in to figure out that it may have been an April fool’s joke! Oh well! At least I now know that my reaction time was good!

I will attempt to blog over break, but I may not have access to computers so for now, au revoir until the 18th of April!

Week 23

2010-03-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

This week was slightly insane. I probably didn’t make it better by spending most of last weekend working on putting together a recipe book of all our favourite recipes at the Crossing. This week, Gordon, the pastor from the Life Church in Timaru, taught us on the book of Nehemiah. What an awesome book! And it’s been so encouraging to hear that he teaches the truth and therefore that the attendees of the youth group I go to on Wednesdays are hearing solid truths every Sunday!

On Monday and Tuesday, we prepped and practiced for a service we put on Thursday evening to get the word out about what Capernwray is. Cyril had booked Stonebridge (a beautiful hall and property just outside of Geraldine) for the Thursday night and then came to Dale saying “I’ve booked the hall and now I’d like you to put on a service.” We had music, a short message, and some testimonies (I gave my testimony), four guys sang in beautiful harmony (the ‘Capernwray quartet), and we did a skit. Cyril tells us he prayed over every chair before the service asking God for a bottom on every chair. We had to go get more chairs from storage! I pray that I will have simple faith like Cyril’s!!

On Wednesday, we (Ben, Adam, and I, that is) went to our last youth group meeting before Easter break and since we weren’t sure if we’d be coming back and since Ben is leaving for ABS, they had a big ‘goodbye party’ for us. We played games and they made cards for us. Some of the students even bought us gifts! And I got to share with them how encouraged I have been this week after being taught by their pastor and tell them a bit about the awesome truths God has been teaching me from the book of Nehemiah.

Thursday afternoon was spent running through the Stonebridge service and exploring the Beautiful Stonebridge property. The feedback from the service was really encouraging and people were really generous in the love offering they gave to support our mission’s trip to Fiji. After the service, Gordon told me that he can see me in a teaching role in the future. The interesting thing is that he’s the second one to tell me that this week! It’s definitely something I will have to take to God in prayer! After the service, a bunch of us stayed up really late chatting and laughing. It’s been really neat to see the awesome fellowship we have. It seems that God has given us the unity and community we felt we were lacking just a few weeks ago. It will be sad to see Amber, Ben, Cara, and Jordan leave after Easter break for ABS up at Monavale on the North Island.

On Friday evening, a bunch of us watched ‘The Passion of the Christ’ on the big projector in the student lounge.

For supper on Saturday, Cam, Rob, and I cooked tea. We made cheese blintz and applesauce for the main course and Welch cakes for pudding. It was a wonderfully delicious piece of home!

Saturday night, a bunch of us decided to pull an all-nighter. We started off the evening with an activity organized by Patti: ballroom dancing lessons. A lady from the church came in and taught us a bit of waltz, some samba, and some cha-cha-cha. It was sooooo much fun! Sheryl, Michael, and I are planning on attending her courses on Friday evenings in Geraldine. Later in the evening, we played a few rounds of body-body before heading out on a scavenger hunt that JB so generously put together for us. Unfortunately, this activity was cut short by some drunk people at the skate park who dumped a beer on the seat of Sheryl’s car and took our list of clues. (We managed to leave peacefully without a fight though.) I decided to go to bed at 3am which meant that I missed the “silent” capern-rave and toilet-papering the Epp’s car (they took it well). We had a blast just chilling and hanging out.

Journal for week 21

2010-03-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry about all the journals being out of order! I seem to have forgotten to post some...

- Honesty with God bring intimacy with God, therefore, I need to be completely honest with God in my prayer life. It is dumb when I try to conceal the truth because He is God! He already knows what I am going to think and why and nothing I ever do will surprise Him.

- I also need to remember to be reverent as I come into God’s presence. Too often, I rush into prayer without pausing to recall that I am coming into the presence of the almighty God through the blood of Christ.

- If God was small enough to understand, He wouldn’t be big enough to worship!

- My worship of God needs to be active, not passive!

Journal for week 23

2010-03-26T00:29:00.002-07:00

- The main thing I have gotten from Nehemiah is the importance of committing everything to prayer and the fact that if God calls me to do something and it succeeds, it has nothing to do with my ability to communicate, my speech skills, or my intellect, but everything to do with God’s hand upon me.

- Vision begins to develop when I know whose I am (God’s), when what concerns God begins to concern me, and when I face the truth about what is happening around me. And it is this vision that will drive me to petition God and will be my motivation to press on.

- How big I perceive God to be will determine how big I determine my problems to be. Realizing how awesome God is will put everything into perspective!

- Just like Nehemiah, I need to realize that my ministry is not my ministry and that I cannot do it on my own strength and therefore need to continuously come to the Lord in prayer.

- Just like Nehemiah, I need to fully trust God but also be fully dedicated to the task He has called me to.

- I need to be faithful where God has placed me by starting by doing what is there to be done.

- Like Nehemiah, I want God to teach me to always bring everything to Him in prayer.

- When I am doing what God has called me to do, opposition will come, so I need to have a deep conviction of where God has called me and then I need to defend myself by always remembering to turn to God, by allowing God to strengthen my ‘exposed places’ and by being vigilant.

- No vision can be accomplished by an individual, which is why God calls us to work as a team as part of the body of Christ.

- The more I try to deal with my fleshly/sinful appetites, the more they will have a hold of me. I therefore need to live by the spirit and stop working in the strength of the flesh.

- What I have gained spiritually this year must be maintained: I need to guard myself against attacks by the enemy by focussing on God and living in the spirit, by worshiping God, and by making sure I have strong spiritual leaders in my life.

- The three indispensable qualities required of a Christian leader are integrity, fear of God, and a submissive spirit.

- I am not responsible for the outcome of the spiritual harvest (I cannot make seeds grow), but I am responsible for planting seeds.

- “The joy of the Lord is my strength” can also be translated “Delight in Jehovah is a strong refuge.” Way cool!!!

- In my walk with Christ, it is important to keep the joy alive (mourning brings repentance, but continued mourning is only self-centered), to remember what God has done in my life, and to maintain fellowship with other believers.

God
- My priorities shouldn’t be 1. God, 2. Family, 3. Church, 4. Me... but

Journal for week 22

2010-03-26T00:29:00.001-07:00

- I learnt from 1 and 2 Kings that, even though Israel had strayed ‘further’ from God than Judah, God sent His most powerful prophet to Israel. This shows that God is always willing to provide a way back to Him, no matter how far I have strayed. And He loves His people so much that He is willing to send His best to our worst.

- It would have been humanly impossible for the prophets to go through what they did without God as their strength. God also provided rest, He proved that H was in compete control of every situation, and He directed and provided in every situation.

- If I say “God, I’ve let you down,” that implies that I actually had something to give God in the first place. Instead, I need to rely on God as my sufficiency.

- The account of Elisha shows that God is interested in the small things in my day to day life.

- I have to be wiling to bring God the little I’ve got and trust Him to work with and multiply that (like in the account of the widow who took care of Elisha).

- I want to be like Elisha who was still preaching on His deathbed: I want my life to be 100% submitted to God.

- God tests me to reveal what is in my heart, to convict and to bring me to repentance.

- It makes sense to try to do things on my own until they begin to fall apart and I are forced to rely on God. But God wants me to rely on Him for everything.

- It is brokenness that brings the power of God in my live.

- True faith is believing that God is who He says He is. If I just have ‘faith’ that all things are going to go well, it is not true faith.

- My horizontal fellowship with others should be completely linked with my vertical fellowship with God. This fellowship with God is living and joyful.

- To have fellowship with God, I need to walk in the light because a compromising Christian is one of Satan’s most powerful weapons. I also need to confess my sin because the purpose of coming into the light is to reveal sin. There can therefore be no secrets. The love of God should motivate my obedience.

- The characteristics of fellowship are righteous and pure living, consistent victory over sin, assurance of salvation, discernment, and love of others as Christ loved.

- I am not to ask the Lord to walk with me but instead ask that I may walk with Him!

- I need to love God and enjoy the world, not love the world and enjoy God.

- I need to come to God recognizing that I have nothing to offer and thirsty fot His living water just like the woman at the well.

- The consequences of fellowship with God are burdenless obedience (motivated by love!), victory over the world (because God is in control, not me!), assurance of salvation (because my salvation is based on Christ’s work on the cross, not my own effort!), confidence in prayer (yay!!), and the strength to persevere.

Week 22

2010-03-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

Two more weeks till Easter break! Please pray that plans will come together! So far, I am looking forward to touring for a week with Bryan, Cara, and JB before spending a week volunteering at the Easter Te Mapua camp in Christchurch. We have to be out of the house on Thursday afternoon (April 1st) and we are allowed back Sunday afternoon, two weeks later.

This week, it really hit me how little time we have left in this beautiful country. It made me realize that I really need to be faithful with what God has given me here and now. It’s been really neat to see the relationship here evolve over the last semester. We are all becoming more real with each other. This means that conflicts are arising, but it also means that friendships are growing deeper.

Highlights from this week include a youth service in Geraldine, a rugby game in Christchurch and star gazing.

This week saw most of us scrambling to get our final Bible study of the semester finished. We got to study the passage in John 4 about Jesus healing the nobleman’s son. Since our afternoons were filled with ministry prep and practices for the youth service, this meant several late nights.

On Tuesday for family night, my group went to Dale and Patti’s for supper and and evening of games. Patti fed us scrumptiously, as usual, with pasta, bacon-wrapped chicken, barbequed corn and carrots, and two delicious salads. For desert, she made us white chocolate panacota with raspberries. Mmmmmm...

On Wednesday evening, I got to share my testimony at the youth group in Timaru.

Friday evening, half of the Capers put on a youth service in Geraldine for teens from all around the area. Michael gave a really good talk on apathy, Cara shared her testimony, and Adam, Cam, and Joel shared a bit about what they have been learning this year at The Crossing. I preformed in one of the skits. All of us here at the crossing would greatly appreciate your prayers for the youth in Geraldine. Some of the regular youth group attendees are starting to get excited about their faith and are wanting to take it to a deeper level while others don’t even know the difference between the old and the new testaments. It’s really exciting to hear how the God has been using the Capernwray students through the youth group and to see the youth group start to come alive.

After getting home from the service, a couple of us headed out for a walk. The stars were beautiful so we lay in the middle of the road (only in New Zealand!) for at least half an hour watching the sky and seeing the occasional shooting star and marvelling at God’s awesome creation.

On Saturday, we packed up the van and the flower power car and headed into Christchurch for a Crusaders (rugby) game. They were played the South African Lions and, of course, the Crusaders won! We all painted our faces red a black and waved flags and swords to cheer on the home team.

Week 21

2010-03-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Week 21! Wow! This semester has been flying by! That means only three weeks till Easter break. We’ve begin making plans, applying for camps and booking flights. Highlights from this past week were the guy/girl weekend, an awesome game of ‘body body’, a long, wet, beautiful walk in the rain, French lessons, and lots of warm fires.

For the guy/girl weekend, us girls headed out to a camp just outside of Christchurch in a bay similar to Akaraoa. Debbie Bryson from San Diego was our speaker with lectures on ‘Moments with the Master.’ We enjoyed some encouraging and challenging lectures, ate some delicious food, swam in the pool, and went for some beautiful hikes. Our cabin was at the top of a really steep hill so it was really nice to be able to get some exercise climbing the hill several times a day. We also took the opportunity to make a day trip to Christchurch for some shopping since prices are way better there than here in Geraldine.

Apparently, every single one of the guys plans for the weekend fell through. They had been hoping to go possum hunting and boating, but both cancelled at the last minute.

When we got back on Sunday evening, we all played a few rounds of ‘body body’. Basically, all the lights get turned off (and we play relatively late at night) and one person is the murderer (we chose by picking cards from a deck). If you get touched on the head by the murderer, you have to simply drop, limp, to the ground without making a noise. The murderer then has the option of dragging you to another location or hiding your body. The game continues until someone finds a body and yells “Body, body!” at which point the lights are turned on and everyone meets around the body. A vote is taken as to who the murderer is (after much debate and logic). The person chosen is eliminated. If the person chosen is the murderer, the game is over, otherwise, the game continues and the person chosen must sit out while the murderer is still on the loose. The game continues until the murderer (or murderers, depending on how many you choose to have) is eliminated or manages to kill everyone. We played until at least midnight.

On Wednesday morning, I got the opportunity to teach French to a bunch of 5 to 8 year old homeschooled kids from the area. We learned about farm animals and memorized John 10:11. I get to teach French to them twice more before Easter break.

On Thursday, the rain came, and with it came the cold. I enjoyed a wonderful long walk in the pouring rain (and discovered that my raincoat is not completely waterproof) followed by a nice warm mug of Milo (NZ’s almost equivalent to hot chocolate). It was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits.

The cold weather has continued and we have built several fires. The formal lounge has therefore once again become the favourite hang out place as we congregate around the fireplace to attempt o restore warmth to our fingers and toes. This has given me the opportunity to perfect my new favourite snack: apples over the fire. They are quite simple and quite delicious. You will need: one apple cut into 8ths, one warm fire, and a utensil with which to roast the apple. Peanut butter and graham crackers are an optional treat to accompany your roasted apples. Simply roast the apple wedges over red coals (you definitely want coals because if there are still large flames, your apple will taste like smoke) until the edges start to go slightly black. The end result is a wonderful treat that tastes like apple pie without the crust! You may also want to try it with a graham cracker topped with crunchy peanut butter or even dipped in cinnamon.

On Thursday, we had been warned by the electrical company that they would be turning off the power from 9am to 4pm, so in the morning, we filled countless jugs and buckets of water and set the table with paper plates and plastic forks.

On Saturday, we got together with the Geraldine youth group for a game of soccer, which my team won! (Although I was off the field for the last minutes of the game.)

Although I had meant to blog and work on my Bible study on Sunday afternoon, I fell asleep after lunch and slept till supper. And yet I still managed to fall asleep at a reasonable hour and slept in this morning! On Sunday evening, Amber, Cam, Adam, Hanna, and I drove into Timaru for Isabelle’s ballet recital. They kids were quite good and the younger ones were really cute! They were almost synchronized.

Journal for Week 20

2010-03-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

- If we – the church – believed what we said with our mouths we believed, it would revolutionize the world. The gospel of Christ is not just knowledge, but doing something about it.

- To those much has been given, much will be required. Much has been given to me, what am I going to do with it?

- I need to ask God to break my heart with what breaks His. I should live simply so that I can support missionaries who are changing the world, one life at a time. I should spend time in prayer and fasting on a regular basis for the people around the world who have not heard the message of the gospel.

- I cannot rely on my own knowledge. Instead, I need to rely on God’s wisdom and He will give me only as much as I need for the situations He places me in.

Oups!

2010-03-08T00:27:00.000-08:00

I realized (in retranscribing it) that I made a rather crucial error in one of my journal entries. It should read:
- No matter what authority I am under, I am to submit to it for the Lord’s sake. This is the key to a right attitude. I should never demand justice for myself but I should never stop being just to others.

Week 20

2010-03-04T16:45:00.000-08:00

This week was our missions focus week so we had different speakers come in from different missions and tell us about what they are doing. We’ve also each had to prepare a five minute presentation on a country and have been presenting it to the class after meals. I did my project on Senegal.

In order to get a taste of what people eat around the world, Sheryl has been making special meals for us. On Monday lunch, we all sat around a picnic blanket on the floor and had a bowl of white rice which we ate with our fingers. On Tuesday, we got upgraded to chopsticks and we even had soy sauce to put on the rice.

Tuesday night was our family night. For the first time this semester, we did a small event, just in our family groups. We played spoons and a game where you had to bend over with only your feet on the ground to pick up a Tim Tam (a small chocolate candy that is only about three centimetres off the ground when it is lying on its side) with your mouth.

On Thursday, we had our quiet day. I was feeling pretty rotten and tired, but that meant that I had to sit down and just focus on God. He gave me some good reminders. Last semester, Joseph was teaching on one of the letters to the churches (in Revelations) and he encouraged us to write ourselves a letter like that, so I did that on quiet day. Here is my letter:
These are the words of the creator of the heaves and the earth, of whom all creation sings praises day after day. I know your deeds, that you strive for justice and obedience. Yet this I have against you, that you are lazy and do not seek Me with all your heart, soul, and mind. I see your desire to live a holy and blameless life, but you put your hope and seek strength in yourself and the fading things of this world. You want to do big things, but I tell you this: you must first be faithful with the things I have already entrusted to you. For to him who is faithful with little, much will be given. But to him who is not faithful, even what he has will be stripped away. He who has ear, let him hear.

Today (Friday) we all leave for guy/girl weekend. The guys are heading down a little past Queenstown (a 7 hour drive!) and us girls are going to a women’s conference just outside of Christchurch that a lady wanted to pay to send us all to (to say thank you to Patti for some conferences she has organized in the past).

Week 19

2010-02-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

This week, most of the Capers have been coping with colds from which we have coined a new term: Post Ministry Week Syndrome. Peter Thomas (the son of Major Ian Thomas, the founder of the first Capernwray) taught us this week on 1 Peter and we had a DVD lecture by Charlie Mcaul on the Life of Solomon. God used both speakers to teach me heaps!

On Friday night, we had a Plegm Philm Phestival where we were split into four teams and given two hours to film and edit a movie. We were given a genre (foreign film, romantic comedy, thriller and sci-fi were the ones that got picked out of the hat), a prop (a laundry basket, a coffee press, a ‘caution wet floor’ sign, and a shovel), and a line that had to be used at some point in the movie. My team (Jordan, Hanna, Kelsey, and I) got foreign film, which was perfect since I speak French, Hanna speaks German and Jordan does a brilliant Asian accent. Since foreign films are often very difficult to follow, we had very little plot but instead incorporated lots of humour. When we cam together at the end to see each other’s films, I was blown away by the quality of the acting, the filming, the plots, and the editing. The thriller actually gave me shivers and the sci-fi one was really sweet. Amber made a beautiful trophy filled with a green cornstarch and water mixture for the winners (the thriller).

On Saturday I competed in the South Island Open, a tennis tournament organized by JB for the Capers. We were split into teams based on our experience and skill, so stronger tennis players were matched with beginners. I spent a few hours on the court this week practicing with JB (my teammate). And it paid off: we won the tournament! The tournament started at 9am and finished at 5pm. It was really fun! Amber made the trophy for the winners out of ice cream (so I couldn’t eat it since I have given up all deserts for lent).

PT (Peter Thomas) shared a story about a guy he knows in class this week that really challenged me so I thought I’d share it. This Christian guy had been praying that his colleagues at work would be saved for several years when one day, one of his colleagues came to the office super excited telling everyone that he had become a Christian. The guy who had been praying was overjoyed and went over to give his new brother in Christ a hug. He said to him “I’ve been praying for you and everyone here for years that you would be saved!” At this, the new believer said, shocked, “You’re a Christian?” The guys answered “Yes, couldn’t you tell by the way I acted?” To this he replied “You’re the reason it took me so long to become a Christian. I saw how good you were and I figured that if you could be that good without God, why would I need God?”

That really hit me and challenged me, not only to live my faith boldly, but to speak of my faith boldly. Romans 10:13-15 reads “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

Journal Week 19

2010-02-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

- In God’s economy, an asset is something that causes me to come to Him. What the world calls an asset, God calls a liability and what God calls an asset, the world calls a liability.

- My success in life is dependant upon my relationship with God, nothing else.

- When I come into situations where I know I am inadequate, I have two options: to run or to turn it over to God.

- When I ask for wisdom, God won’t make me feel wise, but He will give me wisdom, I simply have to trust Him.

- I need to live out my faith, but I also need to tell others by what power I am living just like people didn’t turn to God by seeing Solomon’s wealth but by Solomon’s testimony of what made the difference in his life.

- Solomon didn’t fall away from God because he didn’t know better but because his heart was in the wrong place. I need to ask myself what is captivating my heart and give it all over to God otherwise He will never be first in my life.

- It is never my knowledge that will protect me from sin but Christ in me.

- The way I live will affect generations to come.

- Peter was an apostle, meaning messenger. In other words, it was not about who he was, but who sent him.

- I am an alien in this world, in other words, this world is not going to protect me.

- “Grace is the God initiated and humanly underserved divine provision that removes our falleness and imparts Jesus’ righteousness.”

- Shalom (peace) is not the absence of something (warfare or tension) but the presence of someone: God!!!

- Belief that doesn’t behave is not belief.

- A sign of maturity is an appetite for God and His word.

- The ultimate purpose of my life is to reveal God. This should be evident in all I say and do.

- No matter what authority I am under, I am to submit to it for the Lord’s sake. This is the key to a right attitude. I should demand justice for myself but I should never stop being just to others.

- I am called, as a woman, to be submissive to my husband in the future because the goal of marriage is not ultimately happiness or fulfillment but bringing glory to God.

- Beautiful women in the Bible (like Sarah) were not beautiful because of outward adornment but because they put their hope in God.

- I need to have an answer for the hope inside me for anyone who asks but I need to but it’s not worth winning an argument to lose the war so my heart and attitude need to be right.

- I need to beware of prayer becoming ordinary because it is a dynamic interaction with the Living God, not just a passing acknowledgment.

- Our responsibility is to lift up God. I need to be careful not to disguise Him to make Him seem more appealing to the world.

- I may be robbing myself of rich Christian experience and growth if I put my personal safety as my highest priority. Instead, I should rejoice in suffering (1Peter 4:13)

- I am to clothe myself with humility. This requires a continuous effort but will have eternal consequences.

Ministry Week!

2010-02-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

This past week, Amber, Cam, Hanna, Michael, Ben, Bryan, JB, Joseph, and I all headed down to Christchurch for our ministry week. Having written at least five letters/postcards since then describing the events of the week, I will keep this description short.

We arrived on Sunday evening in time for the youth service at the church that was hosting us. The worship was great and it wad really neat to meet the youth, but none of us really appreciated the speaker. We had our doubts when, at the BBQ preceding the service, all the youth were talking about how the speaker was really awesome and how she was a prophetess. Hmmm, first a woman speaker, then one who claims to have the position of prophet, not a good start. She seemed to start on the right path, talking about David and goliath and how David excelled at what he did (watching sheep and that meant that he could also excel at what was to come (fighting Goliath and being king). Unfortunately, she missed the most important part: Christ! I would have to say though, she would make an excellent secular motivational speaker!

One Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings, we helped out at 0-800-HUNGRY, making and delivering food parcels. On Thursday morning, we helped out at Voice of the Martyrs stuffing envelopes for their monthly newsletter. And on Friday morning (after sleeping in J), we headed out to the city center with some surveys to do some street evangelism.

In the afternoons, we visited people of different faiths to find out what they believed and why. We visited a Unitarian Universalist (What’s true to you is true to you so long as it makes you happy and doesn’t hurt anyone), some Mormons (otherwise known as Church of the Later Day Saints), a Thai Buddhist temple (their goal is to reach a state of not desiring anything but simply acknowledging every thought and sense, and a Baha’i couple. We were able to come to a better understanding of these faiths and have some pretty good conversations! I’d love it if you could pray for the people that we met that God would work in their lives so that they would see the truth and so that they would ask questions as a result of our visit. It was sad to see how most of them had no hope; their “admission to heaven” was (for the most part) based on good works and depending on God’s mercy and boundless love for all people. Meeting them, however, really made me grateful to know that we have the truth.

On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we went to a drop-in center in one of the tougher parts of town and hung out with gang members, playing ping-pong, foosball, pool, x-box, jamming, and just hanging out with them. It was Really fun!! And it was really neat to see the ministry that Richard (the guy who started it) has in working with these kids and young adults. He not only runs the drop-in center as a safe haven in the evenings, he also has some of the older guys doing construction, fixing up cars, and cultivating ferns to get them working and earning money legally and he does Bible studies during the week.

On Thursday night, we went to a men’s soup kitchen. We made them a soup (out of chicken in a broth and any cans they had in the cupboard), sang a few songs for them, and mostly just hung out and chatted with them. Some of the guys even player chess and checkers. Some of the men there were pretty cool and they were all happy to see us.

It was really neat to be able to do practical work to show Christ’s love. And it was really neat to see how united we are through Christ.

On Saturday, I went cliff jumping with a bunch of people. The drive there was almost more exciting that the jump itself since the flower power car kept bottoming out in all the puddles along the dirt road. The pool where we jumped was beautiful with the waterfall falling about ten meters into a pool surrounded by huge cliffs. A bunch of the guys even jumped off the highest cliff which they estimated at about 50 feet (in meters, that really high!).

On Sunday evening, us girls got to go to Patti’s to continue our series on “Holy Women of God.” I am being challenged in my assumptions of the role of women in the church and in society. It’s really cool!

Week 17

2010-02-13T00:27:00.001-08:00

This week, Ian (the pastor at the local church) taught on 1 Thessalonians. We also had a DVD lecture by Russell Kelfer on the importance of memorizing scripture. Was I ever convicted! We also had several ‘random’ classes, like some by Dale on the results of Christ’s finished work on the cross and a DVD by John McArthur on Jesus as Lord.

We are all getting excited for ministry week next week. I’m in the group going to Christchurch. We get to help out at a local food bank, meet and talk with people of different faiths and do other acts of service.

Most of us spent the week working on finishing up our latest Bible studies. When it gets monotonous, I thank God that we live in a country where we can study His word freely and without fear. I also prepared and presented a devotion on our bodies as God’s temple to the Timaru youth group (which I attend every Wednesday with Ben and Adam as our ministry). Hanna says that if I had been graded on this devotion, I would have gotten the grade I had wanted on the Bible study that I presented at the Crossing last week (I got a B and I was hoping for an A). I also did something pretty exciting on Wednesday afternoon: I applied for Universite de Sherbrooke!!!!

For workday I got to work outside picking up rocks in the freshly tilled dirt so that it will be ready for seeding. I really enjoyed it because it was difficult enough that I was actually getting some exercise.

One other exciting thing we did this week was prepare for our surprise Valentine’s Day supper for the guys. We had tons of “secret” meetings (we call them our nothing meetings and the guys seem to think that we just hang around and talk). Little did we know that the guys were also preparing something for us! On Thursday, we received formal invitations to supper and desert on Friday accompanied by entertainment and we were told to dress formal.

So Friday at 6pm, all us girls came down the stairs (after at least two hours of curling hair, doing nails and makeup and picking out dresses and shoes) to the dining room which had been closed off for the afternoon. We were greeted at the door by Adam, Joel, and Jonas, all dressed quite handsomely escorted us each individually to our place at the table. There were candles and flower arraignments on the table and a rose on each of our plates. Then the boys came out with a beautiful salad and offered us sparkling juice. They even got out the good dishes! We then got a sorbet to clear our palates before the main course of chicken wrapped in bacon, spinach with cucumber, and couscous moulded in a heart shape with a delicious sauce in the middle and two chives placed elegantly on top. The whole thing was presented Beautifully!! The boys had eaten before so that it could be just us girls and so that they could serve us. We chatted and laughed as we were serenaded by Michael and Bryan on the piano. While we enjoyed a delicious desert of chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream, we were entertained by JB and Robert who each wrote a “love” song to all us girls. Joseph and Colin (AKA Hot Play) then played us a song followed by a beautiful solo by Joseph. Joseph finished off the evening by telling us that he had hoped to plan a dance but that he had been unable to and so promised to organize it for a future date. A few of us were in tears and we were all completely blown away by how awesome these guys are!

The evening was finished perfectly when all the students received valentine’s letters from God (made by someone who wished to remain anonymous). Each one was hand made with a personal message inside. And each message was sooooooooo accurate as to what each of us had to hear it was almost creepy but in a wonderful sort of way. Apparently, the person who made them doesn’t know us but simply asked for a list of our names. There was obviously a tremendous amount of prayer and time put into each card. They were so personalized that some people didn’t want to share what was written inside them because they touched some issues that are so real to each of us right now. I’m having trouble describing just how awesome it was, but hopefully you are getting the picture! I plan on framing the card because it is definitely a keeper!

We then all stayed up till past midnight chatting, reading each other’s cards, worshiping God, and just hanging out.

On Saturday, the girls met in the kitchen at 2 to start prepping the herbed potatoes, steak, nachos, ‘Patti’s Awesome Sauce,’ and chocolate and caramel sauce for desert. We had a couple of close calls when Joseph walked into the kitchen and all the girls were in there working. But he bought the line that we were having some ‘quality girl time.’ Another time, Joel came in to get something out of the cupboard and saw the candy (which was for the sundaes) and decided to try one. We rang the bell as if it was a normal supper and everyone sat down. Amber came out of the kitchen and informed us that they would be running slightly late. And every single guy was totally surprised when, instead of walking out of the kitchen with supper, the girls walked out of the kitchen with blindfolds and proceeded to blindfold each of the guys. We led them out to the van (and threatened extra duties if they took off the blindfolds) and Hanna drove them around Geraldine for twenty minutes while we rushed to set up the formal lounge. We decided not to decorate too much because we figured that wouldn’t be something the guys would appreciate. When they got back, we led the guys to their spots at the table. We only had one accident: JB (who is the tallest student) whacked his head pretty on the door frame.

We gave them an appetizer of nachos. I had asked them, under the guise that I was doing character sketches for my blog, what their favourite soft drink was so we brought them each their favourites. For the main course, they had steak (thanks Amber for managing the BBQ!) and Patti’s awesome sauce (which they absolutely adore!). And for desert, we made them ice cream sundaes with tons of toppings and a choice of either caramel or chocolate sauce. And after their desert, we read them a short poem we had written for them (which I will post at a later date). We spent the evening in the kitchen (and had a delicious salad and their left over’s for supper) so that they could have some guy time. And we thoroughly enjoyed hearing tons of laughter and lots of talking.

I’m not sure, but I think the girls were almost more excited about the whole thing than the guys. But I must say, the guys were really grateful and really appreciated it too.

I think I will have to say that this has been just about my best Valentine’s day/weekend ever!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave for ministry week! I’m off to Christchurch to do some street ministry, some visiting of other faiths, some work at a local food bank, and a few other activities. There is another group heading down to Dunedin.

Journal for Week 17

2010-02-13T00:22:00.000-08:00

- As Christians, we are to have faith towards God, hope towards the future and Christ’s second coming, and love towards one another. A true faith in God leads to good works. Hope is the anchor for our souls (Hebrews 6:9). And it is by our brotherly love towards one another that others will know that we belong to Christ.

- God’s spirit without His word is weaponless and God’s word without His spirit is powerless. Therefore, I need to constantly seek the spirit’s leading and hide God’s word in my heart so that I can be an effective steward of the gospel.

- As a believer I am a steward of the gospel and therefore I have a responsibility to be faithful to the gospel, not using deceit, without impurity, free form error, so that I can have a clear conscience. I am not accountable to any man or even to the church, but first and foremost to God. I need to share the gospel gently, without being a burden on anyone, but proclaiming it boldly, without fear of rejection, opposition, or persecution.

- My goal in life needs to be to please God, not people. This will mean going ‘against the flow’ but the only alternative would be to displease God or to grieve the Holy Spirit. So I need to strive for holiness and self-control.

- Even though afflictions are not enjoyable for me, they are good for me because they bring me to a state of lowliness and humility so that I am completely dependent on God. Affliction also takes away any arrogance in my life that says I can do anything on my own. I need to know God’s word before I am afflicted so that He can encourage me when I am afflicted.

- God has given me the raw material – the word of God – and the vehicle – the Holy spirit – but I will never change until I take the initiative and inscribe the word of God on our hearts by memorization.

- God commands me to hide His word away in my heart therefore I need to be diligent about memorizing scripture!!!!!

Comment on Week 16

2010-02-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

A week after writing the rant on street work, I think I will have to disagree with myself. Street work is still something that scares me because I am awkward in those situations, but I think that if God really is the most important part of my life, and if I really am all for Him, He should be the one I spend my time thinking and therefore talking about. And so it should be only natural that when I meet up with people on the streets or on the bus or flying half way across the globe that I would want to tell them about the God who created them and who loves them infinitely. I also think that the ways we learned about for how to present the gospel can be a very useful tool to present the gospel visually so that people can understand. I need to know God first though before I go out to tell others about Him (‘know’ as in an intimate knowledge). And I need to seek His voice when I go out so that He can direct me to the people who need to hear and the people whose hearts He has already begun to prepare. I also need to stop relying on myself to say the right things but rely completely on God. That way, the conversation will flow naturally and won’t be forced.

I think that one important thing I learned from Roy was that it is always good to give people a way out. That is, if it comes up in the conversations, to say something like “If you don’t want to talk about it though, that’s fine, I’m really not into Bible bashing.” That way, people feel more comfortable discussing it and more free to ask questions that may have been bothering them. I love the illustration of the cure for cancer: if I discovered the cure for cancer, I would be super excited about it and I would want everyone to know about it and I would b telling everyone about it. In much the same way, I have found the cure to death, so shouldn’t I be equally if not much more excited to share it with everyone I meet, no matter when and where I meet them? That is something for me to chew on!

Something that hit me today is that we, as Christians, are stewards of the gospel. Remember the parable in Matthew 25:14-30 about the master who was traveling to a far country and so entrusted different amounts of money to three of his servants? I won’t write it out here so I’d encourage you to read it. Basically, I think that although this parable is talking about our material possessions and how we are going to use them to further God’s kingdom, I also think that there coins can symbolise the gospel. We have been entrusted with a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of the gospel. We can either keep this knowledge to ourselves (like the servant who buried the talent) or we can share it and ‘get interest’ from it (like the servant who put the money in the bank). This ‘interest’ is ‘calculated’ in terms of people coming to Christ and in people deepening their relationship with Christ.

So to finish my rant, I would encourage all you faithful blog readers to be bold in proclaiming the gospel of which you are a steward so that when we meet Jesus face to face, He will be pleased to say “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Week 16

2010-02-06T16:43:00.000-08:00

For the first half of the week, Werner finished his classes on 2 Corinthians and we finished the DVD lectures on 1 Samuel by Charles Price. And on Wednesday, we had classes with Dale and a really cool Skype class with Wayne Weismann, Joseph’s dad on the three temples (the one in Jerusalem, Jesus, and us as Christians).

During morning tea on Wednesday, I got to present my first Bible study on Psalm 46:10. It was slightly nerve wracking but I made it :P. And I managed to get at least a B.

On Wednesday afternoon, after thoroughly cleaning out one of the Capernwray vehicles, I got to rake rocks out in the back yard with a bunch of the guys. It really felt like we were slaves working in a mine so the guys were making tons of jokes about forming unions and going on strike and such. But it was tons of fun (and a good workout!). When we were done, we all jumped into the pond (in our work clothes!) to cool off.

Right after Wednesday supper, Hanna, Adam, Ben, and I headed out to Timaru to assist with the youth group at Life Church (our ministry this semester). This time, we just listened and watched (although Ben led them in two worship songs). Next week, we get to lead the whole thing, so one of us will present a Bible study, someone else will probably share a testimony, and we’ll do a bit more worship. I’m excited to get to know these kids and be able to impart to them a little bit of the wonders God has been revealing to me about Himself over the past year. Unfortunately, because the youth group is in Tiamru (which is half an hour away) it means yet another late night for me. I think I am pretty close to giving up trying to wake up early and I’ll just become a night owl so I can get stuff done in the evenings.

On Thursday, after an informing class by Roy (who works for Open Air Campaigners), we went out into the streets of Timaru in groups of two to do some street evangelism of our own. After approaching one lady and being rejected, Michael and I walked around until we came across a ‘spiritual shop.’ We hesitated before going in because we could sense that there definitely was something spiritual going on. But we did end up having a really neat conversation with the owner. His beliefs seemed vague and hazy (actually, the whole shop had a really mind-numbing feel to it), but Michael did an excellent job talking to the man using his own language to portray the idea of what we believe. I kind of just stood there and listened and prayed. When we came out about half an hour later, Michael said he felt like he had just been in a fencing match, not because they were arguing – in fact in was a really nice, real conversation – but because it was very spiritually demanding. Afterwards, we talked to one other man (who had no interest in talking about spiritual things) before meeting up with the rest of the gang. I must say that I don’t think street evangelism is for me. (Warning, I am about to go on a rant, if you’re not interested, please skip to the next paragraph) It seems to me to be such a pushy way to talk to people (although we did try to start the conversation by telling them that we were Christians but that if they didn’t want to talk to us, that was ok). In my mind, it seems better to get to know a person personally before sharing the gospel with them because our lives speak volumes and our words can so easily be just that: words. And, although Jesus did do ‘street evangelism’ it seems to me that because He is God, He already knew each person intimately so He knew where they were coming from and where they were going and so He could speak the words that their hearts most needed to hear. Whereas I, on the other hand, had no idea who the people I was talking to were. I don’t really know much about this, but I get the feeling that it is almost more important to really invest in a few people instead of trying to convert someone in five minutes in the streets. Of course, I think that if I end up beside someone on a bus for example, the conversation would probably naturally turn to ‘spiritual things’ because God should be the most important thing in my life, but I don’t really see the value/benefit/(I’m not sure exactly what word to put here :P) of going out with the express intention of approaching random people on the streets to tell them a watered down message of the gospel. Sorry about that random rant (written after my exhausting day out in TImaru). If you have an opinion on this subject, I would love to hear it!!

Ok, so we just finished our debrief after the day of street work in Timaru and I am now feeling a whole lot better about the whole thing. It was really neat to see how God worked out certain situations. For example, one of the groups met up with one girl and presented the gospel to her then another group met up with the same girl a little later and by then she had a whole bunch of questions that the second group was able to answer. There were also a few people who were really searching who seemed to be really grateful for the conversations and for the information.

On Friday, Barbara Neville (Richard Neville’s wife, the guy who taught us on Genesis) taught us on Children’s ministries and how to prepare a presentation for children. It was really informative and at the end, we got to prepare two presentations of our own.

Saturday was a nice lazy day. A bunch of people were out working for the people they had rented a car from over Christmas break and a few people went out boating, wakeboarding, water skiing, and tubing with the Geraldine youth group. That gave the rest of us a quiet day to get some work done on our Bible studies (or sit around pretending to work on our Bible studies but actually chatting, playing solitaire and just hanging out). After supper, Joseph, Michael, Adam, and I went for a walk along the riverbed. It was a nice quiet walk and by the end, everyone had managed to get their shoes wet.

Journal for week 16

2010-02-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

- The role of women in the church and in society has been tainted from what God originally intended it to be. In fact, a woman should not be teaching or in any position of authority where she is above her husband, father, or someone else’s husband. This includes leading worship, preaching, or even reading scripture. Just as Christ is the head of the church and the head of the man, a man is the head of his wife, and until a woman marries, she is under her father. (This is just a summary of what I learned; there are verses to support it. Check out “God’s High Calling for Women” by McArthur for more info)

- Faith means entrusting myself to God, not positive thinking. There is no power in faith itself but in the object in which I put my faith. If I am praying with a preconceived outcome, I am not totally entrusting myself to God.

- Being unequally yoked can lead to compromise. This can be in a marriage relationship, in a friendship, or even in a business transaction. So I need to be careful not to have such an open mind as to let my brain fall out.

- The difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow is that worldly sorrow works under the assumption that, as humans, we can achieve perfection and leads to guilt, whereas godly sorrow comes from an understanding that we are fallen and leads to brokenness, genuine humility, and repentance. Repentance involves a 180 degree turn away from the sin and a complete turn towards Christ. And because of this, godly sorrow leaves no guilt because I know I have been forgiven completely! Regret, instead of causing me to be angry at myself, should cause gratitude for God’s amazing grace!

- A sacrifice is something that costs me something. In other words, it means giving up something that I want and if I am not giving up something I want, then it is not costing me something and it is therefore not an acceptable sacrifice to God!

- In history, there have been three temples, three places God has displayed His glory. The first was in Jerusalem, the second was in Christ, and the third is in every believer.

- The best of what God has condemned is still condemned. When Saul kept the best of the sheep and cattle after destroying the rest of the Amalekites, he was obeying God selectively, which was still disobedience. I kid myself if I think I am the master of my own sin. If I do not give it up to God to deal with it, it will only continue to grow.

- I am not indispensible to God, but He is indispensible to me and so I need to make sure that I am where He is.

- A woman after God’s own heart is someone who does not make her own plans (therefore I need to seek God’s will in every situation and delight in the Lord in every situation), who doesn’t manipulate her own process (I need to trust that God will bring about His purposes in His timing), and doesn’t manufacture her own path (I need to get all my power from God).

- In life, I can’t stop driving to look for a green light but instead I need to keep driving in what seems to be the right direction until I hit a red light. The same is true in following God’s will.

- When sharing my faith with people, I need to rely completely on God to say what they need to hear. I also don’t need to fear rejection and this fear shouldn’t stop me from telling people about my awesome God. I need to make sure that I am not ‘Bible bashing’ and that I am listening to the person and not putting them down in any way.

Did You Know?

2010-02-01T19:34:00.001-08:00

Did you know (5) that the rivers here are described as being 'braided shingles' because there is a bed of rocks but the river does no take up the entire riverbed, instead, it winds back and forth making it look braided?

Did you know (6) that Den Heath's custard squares were first made and sold in Temuka but have grown so much they are now made in Timaru and exported all over New Zealand? In fact, these delicious squares are a NZ favorite!

Did you know (7) that in 1903, Richard Pearse constructed and flew an airplane along the highway in Pleasant Point? He made it a few meters before crash landing in a gorse hedge (ouch!). There is speculation to the fact that he may have flown before the Write brothers but this cannot be confirmed since Pearse was a hermit and his flight was not recorded and no one knows the exact date it took place.

Did you know (8) that, to avoid having to heard the cattle accross a busy street, some farmers in New Zealand ahve built underpasses to get their livestock from one field to another?

Did you know (9) that an eagle's nest is called an eyrie (and this is a great word to remember for 'bananagrams' if you have a y to get rid of!)?

Journal Week 15

2010-01-31T18:27:00.000-08:00

- When involved in public speaking, I need to approach the task with particular attention and prayer because it is teachers who will be judged most severely. I need to make sure that I am pointing people to Christ.

- Any ritual, even rituals that God ordained, is void of meaning and power if God is not in it. The rituals are merely symbols and are nothing on their own. When I start to rely on the ritual and not on God to whom the ritual points and of whom the rituals speak, I will be running towards failure.

- Hardships will reveal whether God is really in me and whether I rely on God alone.

- Integrity means “the same all the way through.” As Proverbs 28:23 says, I need to be truthful in all I do and say – loving, but truthful.

- When I serve people, ultimately, they will let me down, but when I serve God, He will always be faithful.

- My “letters of recommendation” are the fruit that is bourn in my life. Because human nature can never be changed, if there is any real change in people’s lives, it must be of God. So for Paul, the Corinthians were his letter because their lives had been genuinely changed showing that it was not Paul’s doing, but God’s doing through Paul.

- When God changes us, it is not to make us better, shinier people because that would then remove our need of Him. Instead, it is to make us reflect His perfect glory more and more (2Cor 3:18).

- If I (or the church) opts to ‘sell’ Christianity on the basis of its benefits, people will accept Jesus solely on the basis of what He can do for them (instead of what they can do for God) and as soon as the benefits are gone, they will want their money back. I need to tell others the whole truth about the gospel. And if the message of the gospel is veiled for them, that is too bad, I cannot change it!

- If I understand something after class, it is not by explanation but by revelation. Therefore, when something new and fresh is revealed to me, I need to thank God right then and there because He did it! And do I ever have a lot to be thankful for!!!

- I need to check myself under pressure. In normal circumstances, both the wise man’s house and the foolish man’s house appear identical. But under pressure, only the house built on the sand crumbles. It is pressure that reveals what is truly inside me. It is not my problems that are the problem, but the way I experience the problems.

- It is when we are faced with trials that we discover if our Christianity is language or life. The natural reaction to circumstances that seem bigger and stronger than me is fear, but I need allow God to work in me and teach me in the situation.

- Although I am in the world, I am not of it. So I need to be careful not to be unequally yoked because this could lead to compromise.

Week 15

2010-01-31T18:26:00.000-08:00

So, what to blog about this week? Life at the Crossing has gotten back into the routines we became so familiar with last semester. Classes have been awesome. We had Warren Duncan teaching on public speaking for the first half of the week and Werner was teaching on 2 Corinthians. We also got to have a DVD lecture on 1 and 2 Samuel by Charles Price.

For the most part, this week has been spent getting ahead on Bible studies and reading.

Both Thursday and Friday night were rather insane for me because I stayed up until 1am! On Thursday, it was simply because I couldn’t’ fall asleep so I stayed up and chatted and laughed and then sat up writing poetry. On Friday, it was because I stayed up to watch a movie with everyone else. And was it ever worth it!!! It’s called ‘The Prestige’ and it’s about these two magicians competing for the best trick or performance. Most of the story had me quite confused, but the end is insane!!! I really hope to watch it again soon to try and understand it a bit more. As Colin described it, you come out of this movie thinking “What just happened?” and so we spent an hour or so after the movie discussing it and going “Wooooooooooo!! Way cool!!!!!!!!!!”

Saturday was a ‘lazy day’ where we all kind of sat around and worked on getting some assigned reading done or got started working on our next Bible studies. Cara, Kelsey, and Bryan headed off to the North Island at 3am on Saturday to attend Parachute (a huge music festival) and Sheryl and Michael headed down to Christchurch for Sheryl’s sister’s engagement party so the house has been rather quiet this weekend.

Saturday night, after a hilarious game of volleyball (I most definitely need to practice...) a bunch of us had a campfire down by the pond. We had s’mores with real graham crackers and real marshmallows which I had brought from Canada. We were all pretty excited about that! Then Jordan got a can of gasoline and the guys decided to have some fun. They made ‘marshmallow bombs’ by dipping the marshmallows in the gasoline and they threw small amounts of gasoline on the fire. The first time he did it, Joel fell off his stump because the brightness and heat surprised him so much. After a suggestion from Robert, we got an empty spray bottle from the cleaning cupboard and filled it with gasoline (yes, we had Hanna’s permission and supervision). We would then spray the fire to create a fireball. Then we could spray the fireball repeatedly and essentially keep spraying it or right above it so that we could we bring it upwards. It was so cool!! But when you were the one spraying, it got pretty high and we had some close calls (a stump and some grass on fire). When it started raining, we all came in a J.B., Cam, Amber, Robert and I had a ‘spontaneous’ worship service. It was really refreshing (although it meant that I had another late night)

Sunday after church, Mr and Mrs Davey invited Adam and I up to their house out in Temuka for lunch. They had two other guests there who had been staying there for the weekend so we chatted, played some games and ate a delicious meal with tons of fruit and vegetables. After the meal, they toured us around Temuka then we drove out to Pleasant Point where they bought us Den Heath’s Custard squares (which originated in Temuka but have grown so much that they are now produced in Tiamru and shipped all over New Zealand). They gave us tons of history and info about the region (I will write it up in a ‘did you know’ post at some point in the (hopefully) near future).

On Sunday evening, the girls (minus Kelsey, Cara, and Sheryl who were missing) went to Patti’s for some ‘girl talk. This time, Patti talked about women’s roles in society, what they are now and what God intended them to be. We are basing the study on Titus 2 (especially verse4 and 5). It has been really interesting and has brought up several issues that I never would have though needed to be brought up before. I must say that I may have been getting women’s roles in the church all wrong although I think I still need to do some research of my own before I come to a definite conclusion. I really enjoy our Sunday evening meetings although I always stress a little before going because I know that Patti will challenge me and that God will convict me of something.

Others May, You Cannot

2010-01-29T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here is an excerpt from the book we are reading together this semester (“Be Ye Transformed” by Chuck and Nancy Missler) that really got my attention. The following text, which was quoted in the book, was originally written in the 1800s by G.D. Watson who was a Wesleyan Methodist minister.

“Others May, You Cannot

If God has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you to a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways, He will seem to let those other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honoured and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others do a work for Him and get credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing, and then make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. But if you absolutely sell yourself to be His...slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule [entrance] to heaven.”

Bible verse of the week

2010-01-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have been putting up a new Bible verse every week in the left hand margin. The older ones have been moved down to the bottom of the page. I hope to keep them updated with verses that speak to me each week. Enjoy!

Week 14

2010-01-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

It has been so good to see everyone again! We have been swapping stories, laughing, talking, hanging out, and generally having a great time! Getting to know Joel B. Has been tons of fun and he seems to be fitting in just fine!

This week, Dale taught on the book of Joshua and we started a DVD series by Russell Kelfer (the same guy who taught on Joseph last semester) on “What God’s Word says about God’s Word.” I have posted my journal entry, but here is what I have learned in a nutshell:
This week, there are two main points that have stuck out for me. The first is patience. A verse that really spoke to me this week was Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” Last semester, several things started to make sense for me as God revealed Himself to me and softened my heart. This week, He has been reminding me that walking with Him will take time and patience. He cannot change me overnight, but He is ready to start the slow process of moulding me into who He wants me to be if I am willing to come to Him His way. This means putting Him first and seeking Him only. It means setting time aside to be still in His presence so that He can teach me to discern His beautiful, quiet voice. The second point that has stood out for me this week is the foolishness of sin. The illustration that comes to mind is sin as chocolate covered dog food. It may seem appealing at first, but to consume it would just be dumb. But it is more than just dumb, it is dangerous. Because all sin - whether intentional or unintentional - has consequences. And the consequences may not affect only me, but people around me as well. And any sin compromises my holiness. God has set me apart for Himself (has made me holy) and when I sin, I am putting myself before God and therefore am guilty not only of the sin, but of idolatry, which God equates with adultery!

On Tuesday for family night, we all stayed at the crossing and played volleyball and ‘four on a couch’ and had ice-cream floats. It was fun (although I do think I need to work on my volleyball skills a bit more)

On Saturday, we finally got to go white water rafting at Rangitata Rafts! We were supposed to go towards the end of last semester, but the water level was too high. We had tons of fun despite the cloudy sky! I had no idea what I was getting into and so was slightly apprehensive at the beginning, but with the enthusiasm of the other Capers and the careful instruction of our guide, I very quickly became comfortable. At the end of each set of rapids, we would lift our paddles in a ‘high-five’ and yell “Ou-Ah-Ou!!!” We started out with some grade 1 rapids, which means the water is basically flat with a few waves (but no white peaks) and gradually worked our way up to a few grade 5 rapids. These had waves that basically swallowed up our tiny raft. We just had to dig into the wave with our paddles and pull ourselves through. But we had to make sure that our paddles were actually in the water because with the waves, you may think that you’re going to dig into the water but then you put your paddle down and all of a sudden, there is no water there! To keep ourselves in the boat, we had to ram one foot under the seat in front of us and one foot sideways in the seat behind us. Then we had to brace hard! I almost fell out once! But thankfully, no one fell out (from our raft at least :P). There was even one section where we were allowed to stand up in the boat while we went over one of the rapids! That was pretty cool except that I couldn’t keep my balance and only managed to stand up once we were through the big wave :P. I think the coolest part though was that at one point, we got to jump into the water (which was rather cold!) and float down the river for a section. I got sucked into a whirl pool and had to climb on shore and walk around so that I could get out, but it was really cool to go down the grade 1 set of rapids like that because you could really feel the movement of the water and how it was pulling. The last thing we did was cliff jumping. First, we jumped off a four meter cliff (as a qualifying jump) and then off an eleven meter cliff. It really didn’t seem that high from the bottom! I was soooooo scared to jump!!!!! But I finally did and it was tons of fun!!! Our guide (Muz) was really nice. I think was made this rafting experience unique was that it was a whole day thing. They served us an early lunch before heading out and a barbecue supper at the end (after a nice warm shower!). So we really got to know our guides and have tons of fun with them!

For the Bible study that is due next week, half the group gets to choose what passage they want to do it on, so I chose Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” It’s been a really good reminder for me to just shut up and listen to God. I have been ‘bombarding’ him with worries and questions, and now He has been teaching me just to be still, to stop talking, and to listen.

Journal for week 14

2010-01-21T22:04:00.000-08:00

- The book of Joshua is not about Joshua. In fact, it is about the same thing as everything else: God.

- I need to go where God tells me. I can’t just sit around waiting for God to do something, I need to get up and start walking. As the American Bible Society says, “I prayed for years but nothing happened until I started praying with my feet.” God calls me to be strong and courageous to do what He calls me to do, but this strength does not come from my ability. Rather it comes from Christ’s presence in me.

- I need to remember what God has done for me in my life. This way I will be reminded of God’s faithfulness and will be encouraged to continue to trust Him.

- God’s instructions to the Israelites for the ‘battle’ of Jericho may have seemed outrageous, but God was teaching them to wait for His instruction. In the same way, I need to be patient before the Lord and wait for His instruction. He has a plan for my life, and although I may not be able to see it, I need to be patient and wait for His instruction because His timing is best!

- God is passionate about holiness. I need to ask myself if my relationship with Him is as exclusive as that between a husband and a wife. In my life, there are still things that I place before God so I need to put God as my first priority and as my first love. Idolatry is like adultery to God and so I need to ask Him to show me any areas in my life that I am putting before Him. Only then, once I am truly passionate about God and His Word, can He really begin to show me wondrous things.

- Achan’s ‘little sin’ caused the death of not only his family and his livestock but also the lives of 36 soldiers. This put into perspective the stupidity of sin. Not only is it harmful to me, but it can have devastating effects on people around me. I need to ask God to reveal my hidden sins and to continue to change me. Whether it is by accident or on purpose, sin has consequences. It is only by running to Jesus and taking refuge in Him that I will be saved and it is only by His death and resurrection that I can have new life.

- Although God had already given the Israelites the land, it took five years of war before all the organized resistance was overcome. In the same way, my relationship with God will take time. I need to daily, constantly, devote time to Him and ask Him to teach me. It is only with time and commitment and faithfulness that I will begin to learn. Even though it may seem as though I am in an interminable battle, I can rest in the assurance that I don’t know the end of the story, but God does! There will always be small pockets of resistance in m life, but if I give the battle to God, He will fight and be victorious.

- When I come to the word of God, whether it is for my quiet time, during a sermon, or while listening to a podcast, I need to come with a sense of awe that the God of the universe is speaking to me (I need to ask God to create this sense of awe in me). I then need to ask God to show me wondrous things and to teach me. Every time I come to His word, He wants to reveal Himself to me, but I need to ask Him to make me open to His teaching. Then He will make His word come alive for me. But I need to be patient and keep asking as He teaches me to hear His voice and understand His teaching.

Back at the Crossing!!!

2010-01-17T14:26:00.000-08:00

Back in Geraldine after two days of travel! I made it on all my flights. Ironically, the only portion of my trip that glitched was the only confirmed part! I was supposed to take the bus to Methven and I was going to meet up with Ben and Robert there and hopefully get a ride back with them to Geraldine on Monday. Unfortunately, I was waiting for the bus at the wrong spot and so I missed it. But the lady at the travel information desk was super helpful and booked a hostel for me in Christchurch and a bus to Geraldine on Saturday. And it turned out to be a really good thing because Ben and Robert had run out of cash and were tired of travelling and so they never went to Methven but instead pitched their ‘tent’ on the grass on the side of the road outside of the Crossing. (Their ‘tent’ consisted of a tarp and a piece of carpet for a mattress.) So it was a pretty cool God-incidence that I didn’t make it to Methven! I guess this is God’s way of reminding me that His plans are far greater than my plans!

And as an extra bonus, Dale and Patti called up a lady from the church who let me stay at her hostel at almost no cost! And she even has been providing me with meals over the weekend!

Hanna let us move back into the crossing a day early since we were back in town. So Ben, Robert and I have been helping out a bit with some of the cleaning like making of beds and vacuuming (And I got to short sheet a bed!).

Cam just walked into the library, and Joel and Jonas are here (And Joel got a haircut!!!). Everyone should be here by supper tonight, I can’t wait!!!

Porridge

2009-12-23T06:17:00.000-08:00

I made poridge yesterday from memory! And it turned out pretty decently!! Today, I will attempt to make pancakes (the recepe that Micheal and Amber made on the last day of school) and Hokey Pokey. It should be fun!

I made it home!

2009-12-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

After 24 hours in the air, I am finally home! I watched way too many movies, slept a bit, and had some good conversations with the people next to me. I got a little miracle in Sydney: the flight was full and it was looking as if I would be spending the night in Australia but at the last minute, I got on the flight. Not only that, but there was an empty seat beside Cara so for the longest portion of the flight, we got to sit together!

I got back in time for the big Christmas meal with my dad`s side of the family and have been enjoying spending time with my siblings.

Week 13

2009-12-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

Last week of school before Christmas break!!!

The week started off really good with quiet day on Monday. Basically, we were all dropped off at the Waihi gorge with only our Bibles, pens, journals, and lunches (and a warm blanket) and we were told to spread out so that we couldn’t see any of the other students and then to spend the day with Jesus. I was slightly disappointed when I came home because I was expecting much more. The way Dale had talked it up it sounded as if every year, students came back with huge revelations, but I didn’t have any. Upon reflection and looking back over my notes, however, I did find that I had learned quite a bit. Most of the day was spent just being reminded of what I have been learning all year at the Crossing. I read through the first six chapters of Romans and found there the entire truth of victorious Christian living. It was good to get it from the scriptures rather than from various teachers. I think that discovering it for myself really helped my understanding.

I also read through a portion of Judges and came across a portion I had never read before. It spoke about when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River (after the forty years of wandering). God told the priests carrying the arc of the covenant to step into the river. The minute their feet touched the water, the flow was stopped and the water was held back further down the river and so the Israelites were able to cross on dry land. This made me realize that even when it seems like I am walking into an explosive situation, God is between me and the water. Although the Israelites were ‘lucky’ because they could see the symbol of the presence of God between them and the water, Jesus does say in John 21:29 “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” I can have complete assurance that if God calls me into a situation, He will see me through!

On Tuesday night, we watched the Nativity Story for family night. It was a really good presentation of the events! I find that I understand Christmas so much better now that I have spent a semester at The Crossing. One thing that struck me was when the wise men placed their gifts by the manger saying “for the King of kings,” and “for the High Priest of High Priests.” All three wise men were very ornately dressed and they had five camels well loaded with stuff. It made me realize the inadequacy of the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Really the only thing I can bring before such a King is my life, anything less seems trivial to me. Of course, life isn’t an easy thing to give up, but that’s the best part! With His life in me, Christ is the power by which I can give Christ everything. As weird as it sounds, Christ has given me everything so that I can give Him everything.

Since we had no DVD lectures this week, the classes that these lectures would usually take up were used to pack and clean. The house has been transformed as we put stuff away and give it one last thorough cleaning before the break. Since the guys will be changing rooms after the break, they had to empty everything out of their rooms and put it all in storage. I am really thankful that all the girls are in one room because it means that we can leave stuff in drawers and closets, we just needed to get everything put away so that nothing was visible.

On Thursday night, we had a talent show and a white elephant gift exchange. I was really surprised by some of the items in the talent show! Dale demonstrated some of his amazing guitar skills; Joel and Jonas danced to ‘Girls just want to have fun’ (they were dressed in dresses they borrowed from Kelsey and Amber so it was kind of creepy...); Ben and Robert each read a poem they had written; Ben, Robert, and Bryan played two songs (one of which was written by Ben. Bryan used a plastic bucket as a drum and played amazingly!); Amber, Kelsey, and Sheryl read a poem about life at the crossing (packed with awesome memories!); and Colin and Joseph sang a song.

There was also a Te Mapua ‘Oscar Awards Ceremony’ I could have attended on Thursday night, but arranging transportation would have been too difficult L. Te Mapua will be hosting another camp over New Years so that the at risk children will be out of their homes and in a safe and loving environment when they are most vulnerable, so you can be praying for these children as they hear the message of the gospel and are cared for in a way that some of them will never experience in their own homes.

On Friday morning, Amber and Michael made pancakes for everyone for brekkie (that’s what the Kiwi’s call breakfast). I helped flip. And then everyone cleaned and emptied rooms and as I write, students are moving suitcases downstairs and a few students have already left. Cara’s and my bus leaves at 3:20 this afternoon for Christchurch. I will be staying at the Sudima hotel for the night and then heading for the airport at 4:30am tomorrow morning to catch our flight to Sydney (which leaves at 7:00am). I am so excited to come home!

Journal for weeks 12 and 13

2009-12-15T22:43:00.000-08:00

Hey! Here are my journal entries for both week 12 and week 13. I added the last three paragraphs this afternoon (pertaining to class this morning)...

- Christ came to live in me and through me. I have been so focussed on the ‘through me’ aspect that I have been neglecting the ‘in me’ part. God has been reminding me that I need to allow Him to fill me up with Himself, with His love, His faithfulness, and all that He is before He can use me to reach others. He needs to become my only focus.

- Jesus used four ‘steps’ in discipling his disciples: evangelizing, establishing, equipping, and extending. He taught them in a hands-on way, not just telling them what to do but showing them and letting them do what He had asked of them. This is the same method that I can use to disciple younger Christians. But first, I need to go deeper with God, without worrying about the breadth of my ministry because as I draw near to God, He will deal with it.

- With all the great men and woman of the scripture, we find they were all great people of prayer, “Without God, I cannot, and without prayer, God will not.” I realized this week that I have not been spending enough time in prayer. This needs to be my main priority and I need to give God my best time.

- Just as everything I will ever be was genetically present at the moment I was conceived in my mother’s womb, everything I will ever be as a Christian was placed in my when I accepted Jesus as my saviour. He has given me a new identity, but it will take time and effort to grow into all God wants me to be. I therefore need to be diligent about spending time with my creator and getting to know my saviour. My fleshly self is a sinful descendant of Adam, but my spiritual self died on the cross with Christ and therefore I now live, but “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20) My future has also changed. The future of the flesh is uncertain, but my new self is filled with certain because my hope lies in the fact that I am a joint heir with Christ!

- The Christian life isn’t hard, it’s impossible. But Jesus will do the impossible through me if I will obey. His direction always guarantees His provision. Everything Christ did was to enable us to live or His glory.

- “Unless we give real content to the wrath of God, unless we hold that men really deserve to have God visit upon them the painful consequences of their wrongdoing, we empty God’s forgiveness of its meaning” (Leon Morris). Jesus died once for all to pay the penalty for my sin (dealing with my ‘disease’) and He rose again to give me new life (dealing with my state of spiritual death) and with it the power to live by faith. By understanding who I have become (a new creation and daughter of the King!), sin looses its appeal.

- My motivation for living as Christ would have me live needs to be simply because I love Him, not to try to earn acceptance, otherwise this is legalism. My power to live as Christ would have me live needs to come from Christ Himself indwelling me, otherwise I am doing it on my own power and am enslaved to the law.

- Upon conversion, the Holy Spirit transformed me, made me set apart, and sealed me. Now, the Holy Spirit is continuing to work in me by teaching me, empowering me to do what He asks, and leading me. He also intercedes for me when I don’t know how to pray, He is communicating to the Father on my behalf.

- I need to live in complete dependency on God. I still reside in a sinful body which will take over if I allow sin to reign. So I need to keep my relationship with God as my first priority because it is only by His strength in me that I can “not carry out the desires of the flesh”(Gal 5:16).

Week 12

2009-12-12T11:11:00.001-08:00

Our main lecturer this week is Lincoln Badger. He is a really good teacher with a passion for the material he is speaking on. He often goes off on tangents but even these are relevant to our Christian walk. We have also been listening to a DVD lecture by Sonny Westbrook called “How much can Jesus do.” So the focus of the week has been mostly on Jesus (not that that is different from any other week... :P).

This week has been fairly busy since our second Bible study was due. Many students spent most afternoons researching, looking up Greek words, and digging into God’s word. I am so glad to be learning how do create a Bible study. It’s not easy, but it’s such a valuable tool and it is allowing us to learn for ourselves from God’s word rather than always relying on our teachers and pastors to ‘feed’ us.

On Tuesday, I got my first bingo. Basically, if you are the only girl at a table with all guys or the only guy at a table with all girls, you have to stand up on your chair and yell bingo. Sheryl is pretty good at getting bingos and Dale has gotten one or two. Just another way the students here at The Crossing have fun...

Wednesday workday was really fun! I went to the Epp’s with Jordan and Jonas. We got tons of ivy and weeds pulled out and we started laying down hay to prevent new weeds from coming up. It was tough work and I got stabbed by several rose thorns, but iwas really rewarding to see the difference! And the best this about workday is that we get pudding (that’s the Kiwi word for desert) after tea!

After Wednesday tea, Cam and I went out for what has become our regular after-tea walk. It was super fun because we got to walk in the rain! We’ve had tons of good conversations and tons of laughs. On Tuesday, Cam and I started skipping/running/laughing/spinning our way down the drive on our way out for our walk. Apparently, Lincoln (our teacher for the week) watched us go by and then turned to Jordan and asked “What is that?” and “Is that a common occurrence?” Needless to say, I thought this was quite funny! As one of the students here pointed out, being willing to do stuff you would never be seen doing with people who weren’t your friends, to be crazy, and do wacky stuff with people can break down barriers and create stronger friendships. And besides, it is so much fun to run/skip/etc down the drive and let out some pent up energy and insanity!

On Friday, after a sumptuous Mexican meal put on by the staff, we had our last girl/guy night of the semester. The guys stayed at The Crossing and played a night game outdoors that seems to resemble capture the flag. The girls went to the Epps for our final “secret sister revealing party.” We each tried to guess who our secret sister was and then we revealed who ours was. I guessed right: Patti! But Sheryl didn’t guess that I was her secret sister. Just in case I forgot to explain what that was in a previous post, I will do so now. Basically, towards the beginning of the semester, we all filled out a sheet indicating out favourite candy, color, bible passages, etc, as well as specific items we would like prayer for over the course of the semester. The sheets were then distributed so that we each had someone else’s sheet and then we were to pray specifically for our secret sister throughout the semester. We also gave our secret sister notes and small gifts to encourage her and remind her that we were praying for her. It was tons of fun!

When we got back to the crossing, we decided to play an awesome game of sardines. It was so dark that there were areas in the house where I actually couldn’t see me hand in front of my face! And since we had rearranged the dinning room for the Mexican dinner, I ran into quite a few chairs on my way through. I ended up going to bed at midnight...

On Saturday, a bunch of us were planning on going white water rafting but since the water level was too high, it was cancelled. Instead, we went to castle hill. Our first stop was at a spot with tons of huge rocks. We climbed over, around, and through the rocks, exploring and playing tag. The wind was insane so at times I actually had to sit down to keep from being blown over! Afterwards, we went to a stream that ran through a cave. We followed the stream through the cave and out to the other side of the mountain, wading through water that was sometimes waist high, climbing down tiny waterfalls, scaling rocks all in complete darkness (we did have head torches, that is flashlights). At one point, I lost a crock while climbing down a small waterfall (I missed the memo indicating that we needed good shoes...) but it floated down stream and caught up with me about five minutes later. Unfortunately, I got the other crock stuck between two rocks shortly thereafter and the straps broke so I spent the majority of the walk with only one shoe. We were told to dress warmly (togs, that is swimsuits, with a long sleeve shirt and/or sweater) so I was expecting it to be really cold but it turned out not to be that bad! Once we got out at the other end, we went swimming in the river. We had a blast trying to fight our way against the flow trying to get up the river (as Joel said as he struggled against the flow “I’m a Christian!”). We would also climb along the bank and the get into the river further up and then let ourselves be pulled by the current down to the ‘pool’. The whole day was soooooooooooo much fun!

The day was very well finished with a hilarious game of volleyball. My coordination wasn’t very good though (probably because of my late night combined with an exhausting day...).

Just for Fun!

2009-12-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

Two activities that the students at the Crossing enjoy are the sheep beep shuffle and cow running. Here are the rules of the games:

Sheep beep shuffle
You will need: a car with a working horn and a field of sheep.

Number of players: Minimum 1, maximum equivalent to the number of seatbelts available in the car (plus or minus 2 depending on the moral standards of the driver).

Rules: As player 1 drives by a sheep field, he/she honks the horn. Now watch as all the sheep in the field go running in the opposite direction. Repeat for each pasture passed for extra added fun.

Provides plenty of entertainment and lots of laughs for all passengers in the car!

Cow Running
You will need: a field and plenty of cows

Number of players: 1 to everyone

Rules: As players approach the cows, they say “hey cow!” and clap their hands or make noise to attract the cows’ attention. Once the attention of the cows has been obtained, players run along the fence. Glory is earned according to the number of cows that run towards players and follow players along the fence. Extra glory can be earned if any player approaches the fence and touches a cow, provided that this does not take too much time so as to slow down the rest of the players who want to continue walking.

A wonderful game for children of all ages!

Did you know?

2009-12-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

Did you know (#3) that the Moa, a bird that resemble the ostrich but is much, much larger, was found only in New Zealand until it too was hunted to extinction by the Maori. The Moa could resembled a dinosaur because of feet with three talons and the fact that it couldn’t fly.

Did you know (#4) that the Kia is a parrot native to New Zealand that will dive at hikers and steal objects from backpacks or huts?

Week 11

2009-12-05T23:48:00.000-08:00

Two more weeks till Christmas break!

To give you an idea of the other students I am staying with here at the crossing, here are some links to their blogs. I would highly recommend checking out Adam’s blog, especially the guest post by Jordan Lee.
Adam’s blog: http://www.newzealandspiritparade.blogspot.com/
Cara’s blog: http://www.caraleekiwi.blogspot.com/

On Monday, Hobart (our dishwasher) broke which made lunch cleanup (my daily duty for the next three weeks) slightly more difficult. But the quality of Sheryl’s cooking was in no way diminished by the “hardships with Hobart” as Joel put it. Hobart is feeling much better now to the relief of all of the concerned students.

Our teacher this week, Lew Meyers (teaching on apologetics), has a really dry sense of humour so we have been quite enjoying his jokes! I think the final count on Wednesday was 49 jokes in four classes! And I think the total at the end of the week was somewhere around 90 (that we managed to pick up on, and that was only in class, not during meals and morning tea)! He mentioned that, if at all possible, it is a very good idea to become friends with an undertaker... because they will be the last ones to let you down. When discussing demons, he made sure to remind us always to make sure you pay your fees... otherwise you might be repossessed. He also told us about his sister who married an Aussie (and Australian). He would have preferred a human, but that’s ok (the NZ/Australian jokes can be quite funny!). And one more: A mother skunk had two sons, In and Out. And sometimes In was out and Out was in. And sometimes In was in and Out was out. But she always knew which was which, do you know how? Because In-stinked!

We also had a DVD lecture by the director of the Capernwray school in BC. He taught on the book of Deuteronomy. I though he was really interesting and it was quite neat to hear that he had a testimony quite similar to my own!

I have been trying to run every second (or third or fourth) day. It’s been tons of fun and I have actually noticed an improvement! Cara and Cam often invite me to join them on their runs.

We had workday on Thursday this week since it was raining on Wednesday. I got to trim rosebushes again! Joseph was trimming the big hedge and so I got to climb up on top of it. The branches are so dense and thick that I could actually walk around on top of the hedge! Although Robert, who climbed up with me, did fall through once or twice :P. Apparently (and I will have to try this some time), it is possible to scale the hedge directly without using a ladder!

I have spent quite a bit of time this week working on a Bible study on Titus 2:11-15 which is due next Friday. I am having much less difficulty on this Bible study than I was having on my first!

On Sunday, we went into Timaru to attend the Life Church and in the afternoon, we helped out at the “Christmas Carol Cafe” put on by the Life Church. I read Isaiah 9:6 in French (they had several people reading different passages in different languages to emphasize the fact the message of the gospel is a global message). Robert, Colin, and Michael sang a few songs with Joseph on the guitar, Cam on the piano, and Bryan on the drums. It was beautiful! It’s really cool to hear the musical talent here at The Crossing! The entire event was really well done (although it was kind of weird at one point when Santa and Jesus were dancing on the stage together for the final song :P). What struck me most was that it wasn’t just a manger scene story, but they actually told the entire story, from Jesus’ birth to death to resurrection! What a good reminder that this season is not about a cute baby in a warm cozy stable but about the Son of God who came down to restore His name and to restore His creation to Himself for His glory!

On Saturday evening, after some encouraging, I went out to join the girls who were dancing on the road a little ways from the school (don’t worry, we stopped and got off the road long before the cars got close). It was wacky and fun and we laughed a lot!

I finally got a picture up of the awesome gang here at The Crossing in the header for my blog (sorry about the wierd colours, I have yet to find a color that is legible for the title). Just in case you were wondering, the people in the picture from left to right are (top row): Joseph, Dale Michael, Adam, Jordan, Colin, Joel, Jonas, Robert, Ben and Bryan. The second row, from left to right: Cam, Patti, Justus, Sheryl, Hanna, Isabelle, Kelsey, Cara, Amber, and me.

Journal for Week 11

2009-12-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

I decided to be ahead of schedule this time and post my journal for this week early!

- The Israelites needed to keep their mountaintop experience with them after they left the wilderness and went into Canaan. They could not stay at the mountain forever, they had to move on, but they had to remember and put into practice everything they had learnt on the mountain. In the same way, my year at The Crossing is like my ‘mountain top experience.’ I need to remember and put into practice what I am learning here. Everything I am learning is of no use if it stays here, I need to apply it and live it.

- God is unchanging and this is an attribute unique to God. God never changes for me, rather I change for Him (and through Him). This means that He always feels the same towards me no mater what I do because I am covered by Christ’s righteousness! And therefore, I can take courage in the fact that God is constant.

- Through His covenant with Abraham, Abraham had all that God is and God had all that Abraham was. This means that, since I have been grafted onto the family of Abraham, I am also part of this covenant and I have all that God is and He has all that I am!

- If I am a true soldier of God, the devil will come against me. And he will likely come in the same way as The Rabshakeh came to the Israelites in Isaiah 36 by making me assume I am out of God’s will when in fact God wants me to run directly to Him. The devil may use a little bit of truth to deceive me so I need to know God’s word so that I can tell the truth from a lie or a part-truth.

- A Christian will not be perfect the day after they are converted. And yet, we tend to immediately put restrictions on new Christians of what they should and should not do. Instead, we need to trust that God will work out the good work He has begun.

- God doesn’t want me to be committed to Him because that implies that I am still in control. Instead, He wants me to surrender to His life in me. As a Christian, I should be identified by Christ in me, but too often, I identify myself by what I do and don’t do.

- I need to be focused on the character of Christ rather than on the giants in my life. Whether circumstances are easy or hard is irrelevant because with God, all things are possible! If I focus on the circumstance rather than on Christ, I will come to wrong conclusions about Christ.

- There are two attitudes that will keep me from entering Canaan (the fullness of life available in Christ): an “I can do it myself” attitude and a “can’t I just have a little bit of Egypt?” attitude.

- Learning about apologetics is important so that I will be able to properly answer questions and so that I can be sure of what I believe. But I have to remember that debates won’t convert people, but instead I need to live in a way that can only be explained by Christ in me.

Journal for week 10

2009-11-30T10:31:00.000-08:00

Again, Sorry for the tardy journal entry, but hopefully, it is more coherent this way :P.

- Too often, I get comfortable where I am and then God uses the circumstances around me to get me moving again. My prayer is that I will learn to live like Paul, having more effect on the prisons in my life than they have on me. I want to use my ‘prisons’ to bring glory to God and allow other to see Christ in me. It is only through Christ, through repentance and faith, that I can be set free. And like Paul and Silas in prison, I can use my prison experience just as I can use any other experience as an opportunity to be bold and give the glory to God.

- As I obey Christ in the small things, He will entrust me to obey with bigger things. But I need to stop focussing on trying to figure out what the big things God wants to trust me with are and be faithful with the small things.

- In Philippians, Paul encourages us to be servants. This requires absolute obedience, absolute humility, and absolute servitude. First and foremost, I need to serve God, then I can properly serve others. I need to stop focussing so much on my rights and focus on the rights of others and I need to learn to love others the way they need to be loved, not the way I want to be loved. I need to open my eyes to see and observe, but I can never cultivate the habit of observing if I don’t get over my own needs.

- I want to learn to give thanks to God in ALL circumstances, for the circumstances (whether good or bad) and for who God is, and what He is doing in the circumstances. I want to have a perspective of proclamation and I want God to use me to be a witness to Him in every circumstance.

- My prayer is that God would work in me so I can put 1 Corinthians 10:31 into practice: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” However, I need to remember that the only way Christ will get glory out of me is through Christ in me, not by my own efforts.

- “The eternal enemy of the best is that which is good.” I need to be careful not to settle for good when I can have the best which is Christ. I need to be pure and blameless so that any accusation against me will not stick. I want to earnestly seek that which is best, not settling for what is merely good.

- My aim needs to be to focus people on Christ, not on myself.

- It was not I who stepped towards Christ first, but rather Christ who stepped towards me (Romans 5:6). I am powerless to get myself out of my situation! But it is Christ who works in me, empowers me, and energizes me according to His good purpose. God empowers me, but I still need to obey. As A. W. Tozer put it, “I am as holy as I choose to be.” I need to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. I also need to hold tight to my faith and then hold it out to others.

- I need to simply trust God rather than work to please God (which can only lead to insecurity). I need to have a singleness of purpose and forget what is behind (whether it is good or bad) because that can only ever pull me back and slow me down.

- God never intended the Israelites to stay in the wilderness for long. His plan was to bring them out of Egypt and then lead them to the promised land. It is much the same in the Christian life. Through His sacrifice, Christ saved me out of bondage to sin. Unfortunately, I have spent the majority of my life wandering in the desert. I had been saved, but I was not living in Canaan as God intended. I had not realized the dramatic change Christ’s life in me could make if I allowed Him. These ten weeks at Bible College have made me realize that the Christian life is not just a set of rules and a way of talking but now I realize the power of my new purity, my new identity, my new disposition, and my new power in Christ.

- Nothing I do is good unless it is God who is doing it.

- If God is working through me, I will get tired, but He will sustain me!

- In Peter Bichan’s lectures on Mount Somers last week, he asked the question “What do you want to be remembered for after you die?” I want to be remembered for being filled with the joy of Christ, being thankful for and in every situation, and for giving God all the glory. I want to be remembered for pointing people to Christ in every situation. I want to be hated or loved – I don’t mind which – just so long as Christ’s life in me causes others to react.

Week 10

2009-11-28T21:27:00.001-08:00

The tramp up mount Sommers was awesome! The first day was rather difficult with a very steep incline, but after stopping once completely out of breath, I learnt to pace myself. The first day (Tuesday) was the longest (about three and a half hours) and the most difficult. We reached the first hut at about 2pm and had lunch. The hut was really nice with bunk beds and a sink and a wood stove (which, fortunately, we didn’t have to use). However, since there weren’t enough bunks, some of the boys (who had brought tents and mattresses) camped outside. During the afternoon, we hiked up to some neat rock formations and I had my quiet time right beside the stream (it was quite beautiful!). No one slept too well either night, the first because it was our first night in the hut and the second because of a huge windstorm that beat against the second hut.

Peter Thomas, our teacher for the week, lead our expedition. During the tramp, He taught on Ephesians. We had classes in or just outside the huts and we also had a class on the last day on the mountain. It was really nice to get out of the classroom! My journal entry for this week will be posted at a later date seen as I have not had the opportunity to write it out yet.

The second day of hiking was easier and much more informative since I walked with Peter and he told us about NZ wildlife and tons of other stuff. During our tramp, Dale and Peter would give us questions to talk about in pairs. One was “If you were a dog, who would you bite?” Another one was “What fruit or vegetable best describes our life and why?” And another was “Describe the house you lived in when you were five.” All of the questions sparked some really interesting conversations!

Along the lower part of the mountain were tons of beach trees that were covered in a black moss like stuff. There are tiny bugs that live on the beach trees that produce a sweet liquid called honeydew. The last time the Capernwray students hiked this trail in previous years, the beach trees were covered in wasps that would collect the honeydew but this week, there were barely any wasps. This made hiking much easier and it also meant that we could stop for a sweet treat every now and then. You could collect two or three sweet drops on your finger and just eat it by itself.

We didn’t summit mount Sommers, instead we hiked around it and about half way up. We did get some pretty awesome views and we were blessed with amazing weather! We only had one injury. Bryan twisted his ankle on the last day as he was exploring the water caves.

We departed really early from the huts both mornings so we finished hiking for the day by 10 am! That meant that we had tons of time at the second hut to explore. We went swimming in Emerald Pool (a small pool in the river right bellow a small waterfall which we slid down). Since none of us had brought our togs (Kiwi for swimsuit), we went in with just our undergarments (guys and girls swam at separate times). We also hiked a little ways away form the hut to some water caves. We climbed through the caves, up the waterfalls and found some pretty cool places! We also got some nice girl time since the guys and the girls split up to do our exploring. I got some pretty awesome pictures!

In the evening of the second day, we walked up to a place right above Emerald Pool (on top of the cliffs that surround it) and had a worship and sharing time. It was really cool! It really hit me up there how small I am and how big God’s creation is and therefore how ginormous God is. It brought to mind Isaiah 40:12-14:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counsellor?
14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?
We were asked to pick out one object in nature and use it to illustrate how God has been speaking to us in the past few days. I chose a blade of grass and spoke about Isaiah 40: 6-8 and how it talks about how all men are like grass and their glory is like the flowers of the field. This life is so temporary and small in the grand scheme of things but God’s work stands forever and that is so amazing! One of the other guys shared about clouds. He said he really likes clouds and he was kind of disappointed that there weren’t any. He went on to say, however, that sometimes, even though we like the clouds, God takes them out of our life for a while. But He knows that if it was cloudy, there would be no way we could do what we are doing (in the example, this was swimming in Emerald pool). And God knows what we need and when we need it. And sometimes He takes things or people out of our lives for a time because He knows that that’s not what we need at the moment. I can say that I have seen God doing this in my life, taking away the things that distract me for a time so that I can focus on knowing Him.

God has been teaching me so much! I tend to hear something but then forget it just as quickly, but He has been faithful to tell me the same thing over and over again as I slowly learn. Going back to the basics of the Christian faith in these first 10 weeks at The Crossing have been so amazing! I don’t know why I haven’t heard all of this before – it was probably because I wasn’t listening – but hearing it for what sometimes feels like the first time (even if I have heard it several times already even at The Crossing) has been so amazing. And I am so grateful that God has moved some of the clouds out of the way for a little while so that I am not too distracted and so that I can focus on Him.

On Friday afternoon after a shorter-than-usual workday, we all got dressed up and then we decorated our Christmas tree and the house. Bruce (the elk in our classroom) is now our Rudolph and the rest of the house is all decked out. During our formal Christmas/American Thanksgiving supper, we even closed the drapes and lit candles so it felt more like Christmas. It’s so weird though to go outside and sit on the grass in the hot sun and think that Christmas is fast approaching! Later in the evening, we had a supper of tarts and eggnog and we played a game. The game consisted of pulling a “song title” or subject out of a hat and then we were given one minute to write lyrics and then we preformed it in front of the group. Some “titles” were “25 degrees on the 25th,” “Jordan fought a giant turkey and won,” and “A love song for a turkey.” They were all quite comical and we had a good laugh!

Saturday was a wonderfully relaxed day with ten of the fourteen students gone to Christchurch for some Christmas shopping and to attend the Coca Cola festival. For the four of us who stayed, Patti hosted a delicious meal of barbequed steak, scalloped potatoes, and salad. I managed to get quite a bit done with such a quiet house including writing and article for the trumpet, chatting with people from back home on the phone, and enjoying a quiet read.

After church on Sunday, Mrs Stephenson invited me up to her house for lunch. She is an amazing lady who goes to the first service at St. Andrews (which I have been walking in to town to attend for the past three or four weeks). She toured me around her house and her beautiful property. We chatted about our families. She told me about her grandchildren and how she met her late husband and how they had renovated their house. And she shared her testimony with me. Wow! She has an amazing testimony and I really admire her faith!
This evening (Sunday), the girls will be going to the Epp’s to visit with Patti. She is finding that since she no longer lives at the Crossing, she is not able to bond with the girls as well and so has proposed that we get together every second Sunday evening (when we don’t have Sunday night fellowship) so we can all get to know each other better.

Journal for week 9

2009-11-27T00:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry it took so long to get my journal for last week posted... Be sure to read the 'Did you know' post that I posted just a few minutes prior to this one!

- God placed the stars in the heavens and He names them and they proclaim His glory. It can be argued that the zodiac symbols tell the gospel!

- My prayer is that God would open my mind to understand the scriptures like He did for the two men on the road to Emmaus.

- God is real and God is speaking now!!!! He spoke tangibly and literally to the Israelites through the twelve stones on the high priest’s Ephod. He revealed His Shakina glory through the burning bush, the cloud and pillar of fire leading the Israelites. All of these show that God speaks literally and tangibly to His people, in History, and now! I also saw this demonstrated in the testimony of how God led Laurence and Peggy Epp to missions with Muslims. God spoke to each of them individually and made it clear that He was leading them to Yemen. This showed me that God still does reveal His will tangibly today! It made me realise that I need to trust that He will lead me. In fact, since He is I AM and is outside of time, He has already led me! It is not that He is outside of time as in that He is over time, but that He is now, He has no past or future, only ‘now’. Therefore, He has already accomplished His will in my life! I realise now that I can say, like Rahab, that He has given what He promised! He has saved me, He has redeemed me, He has accomplished His will in my life, and He has brought me into His presence (Ephesians 3:1, notice the past tense). And, when I am no longer in time, when I am with I AM, it will not be eternity in the sense of endless days but eternity in the sense of unlimited ‘now.’ Every moment will be filled and complete by the presence of God.

- Christ is better than angels, better than Moses, and better than a High Priest. This is because He is the Son of God, He is Creator, and He is to be served and worshiped. Because Jesus is the Son, He carries the attributes of God. This should be the same for me since I have been adopted as the ‘son’ of God and since Christ indwells me. Although Moses accomplished a lot, Jesus accomplished more, bringing all who will believe into eternal rest. This rest is a Sabbath rest, an active rest where everything that is done is done according to how God meant it to be done. A High Priest could only serve as a mediator between God and the people for a limited amount of time but Christ intercedes forever. He is the complete sacrifice and therefore I can be assured of my salvation.

- Jesus is also a better covenant, sanctuary, and sacrifice. He not only restored humanities relationship with God but renewed our inner nature! He made it possible for anyone to come into God’s presence and so I can come to God in confidence. Also, He is the final sacrifice. He only needed to die once.

- I need to be careful not to drift away from God. This can happen slowly, without me even noticing. I also need to be careful that my heart is not hardened and that I do not fall away from God because of ignorance or laziness.

- The law given to the Israelites was not meant to last forever. It was meant to show the character of God, to protect and instruct them. It was also to foreshadow the coming Messiah.

- The law cannot and never could bring salvation, it could only, like a mirror, reveal sin. Now, with the new covenant, our hearts are changed. It is internal as opposed to the external law.

Did you know?

2009-11-27T00:49:00.000-08:00

Did you know (#3) that the Moa, a bird that resemble the ostrich (but can be much larger), was found only in New Zealand until it too was hunted to extinction by the Maori. The Moa could resembled a dinosaur because of feet with three talons and the fact that it couldn’t fly.

Did you know (#4) that the Kia is a parrot native to New Zealand that will dive at hikers and steal objects from backpacks or huts?

Week 9

2009-11-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

It’s good to be back home at The Crossing! This week, Peter Thomas (the son of Major Ian Thomas, the founder of the Capernwray Hall) is teaching on Hebrews. We also had a couple who came in and talked about witnessing to Muslims. Dale has also been teaching on Exodus. I will post my journal in a future post (probably around next Thursday or Friday) since I have not finished typing it up yet.

Monday afternoon, although I had planned to get ahead of some school work, was consumed with researching a concept I had never heard of before: that the speed of light is not constant but that it is in fact decaying over time! Peter Thomas brought up this subject (he has taught on Genesis and is quite knowledgeable in the subject of creation science) at the beginning of his first class. I spent the afternoon researching the concept as proposed by Barry Setterfield. Quite interesting... But it made me realise that I have a long way to go before I understand physics fully!
Tuesday lectures were amazing! God really spoke to me! For family night on Tuesday, we did a photo scavenger. Our families were split into two teams (I was with Cara, Kelsey, and Isabelle (Dale and Patti’s daughter)) who competed against each other, but we will also be competing all together against the other family group. The objective was to go around town getting pictures of as many items on the list we were given in a certain amount of time. The list included “take a picture with as many people on the street as possible” (We asked the people on a shuttle bus to get out and join in out picture and Amber’s group actually went into a restaurant and asked everyone to come out for a picture), “Go white water rafting,” “Take a picture with a Hyslop” (that’s the pastor’s family), “Climb a tree,” “Soak yourself in the river” (the river is still realy cold and jeans take a long time to dry...), “Get a stranger to push you in a cart,” “Push a stranger in a cart,” etc. It was tons of fun!!! My family group then went to Dale and Patti’s for supper (that is a late evening snack) and a few stories from Peter Thomas, our teacher for the week (the best was his story about how he was suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate Prince Charles and Lady Diana).

On Wednesday, I worked in the house with Hanna. Since it was Cameron’s birthday, we had tiramisu for desert. It was really good! After supper (and after writing a few letters!), Hanna, Michael, Adam, and I read the next two chapters of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.” I’m really enjoying reading through the chronicles of Narnia! They carry so much meaning and they often spark discussions within our reading group. They also spark fits of laughter! For Cam’s birthday, the girls took all the mattresses off the bottom bunks and pushed beds and dressers out of the way to make one giant bed on the floor. Amber and Kelsey then made a heart on the bed with flowers and made a trail of flowers leading up to the room. All the girls had a sleep over on the floor. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night in between two mattresses so I had to move, but it was a really neat idea! Since the single bed and two of the dressers were moved out of the way to make space for the mattresses on the floor we decided not to move them back since it gives us much more floor space. The room now feels much bigger!

On Friday after supper, we played a game of soccer in the back field. It was tons of fun (although the sand flies were slightly annoying...). Afterwards, we moved all the couches into the student lounge and watched Amazing Grace.

We had the option of going to a health seminar in Timaru on Saturday but Cam and I decided to get a ride into Timaru but get some much needed shopping done instead. I finally found a nice pair of running shoes!!!!! I also invested in a camping pillow (that will come in handy for out trip to Mount Summers next week). Saturday evening, we were invited to Tanya’s house (a friend of the Crossing’s) for a youth event. We were split into four teams and competed in a number of events throughout the evening. Tanya and James (another friend of the Crossing’s) also hosted a barbeque for everyone who participated. The first challenge was to build a raft that would carry our entire team down a section of the river. We also had to sing our national anthem while ‘floating.’ We were given three or four inner tubes per team, a few boards and several pieces of rope. On my team were Robert, Bryan, Adam, and Amber. Our raft was the best constructed but unfortunately it didn’t float (the largest inner tube was too deflated) and we forgot to sing our national anthems. So most of my team ended up pretty wet! At least we weren’t as wet as Jonas (he back flipped off his raft into the freezing cold water). It was really funny to watch the other teams go down!!

The last event was also hilarious! We were all tied together (in our respective teams) at the waist in a giant knot then we had to find four people who were hiding around the (rather large) property and collect a token from each. But we had to avoid the people with flashlights and, if we saw one, we had to hide under the sheet we were provided with so that they could not tell which team we were. Our team didn’t play quite by the rules, however, since we were all super tired. We did start in the right direction, but we got distracted and decided to all try to get into the back seat of a car that was parked in one of the fields (which was quite a feat since we were all tied together!). After that, we came across a hedgehog which Robert picked up and we carried with us for half the game. We ended up giving it to Tanya (I’m not sure she appreciated it... :P). Our team gave up before finishing but we had a blast!

On Sunday, Adam, Cameron and I walked into town to attend the earlier church service. I really enjoy singing the hymns. We stayed for the worship portion of the second service as well since Ben, Bryan, Michael, and Robert (four Crossing guys) were playing. Sunday evening, after fellowship, Patti invited all the girls up to her house for supper (evening snack) and some ‘girl time.’ The guys stayed at the Crossing to learn a Hakka. Unfortunately, this meant we got to bed really late (again...).

Monday afternoon, we spent most of our time packing and prepping for our hike up mount Summers. Everyone is excited! We are really hoping that the weather is not too cold (or too hot). We will be leaving the Crossing tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and getting back on Thursday afternoon.

Double Rap!

2009-11-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

Cara’s 18th birthday was on Saturday (while we were in Akaroa) and Cam’s 18th birthday was on Wednesday, so Joel and Ben performed a double rap for both of them on Wednesday. Here it is!

Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo
Cara this song is halfy about you
And the rest of the half we’ll get to, ooo
Cara I want to shave my facial hair off (Note: this is in reference to no-shave November)
But I know it makes your heart soft.
I bought batteries the other day
And now you’re two years younger than twentay.

And Cam, kabam, shuzam, ham, ram, sam
Pam and fam-ily is what you mean to me
Not directly but just spiritually
You are both girls
And you don’t like squirrels
Or possum feet
My apologeet. (Note: Joel mailed a possum foot to Cara as apratical joke which wasn’t received too well...)
You may want to travel to Calgaray
But don’t worry about that cuz
It’s your birthday!

Character Sketches

2009-11-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

Adam took the time to make character sketches of all the students at The Crossing. I will attempt to make up my own character sketches to give an idea of who I have been living with for the past eight weeks, but for now, here is a link to Adam's blog: http://newzealandspiritparade.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-character.html
Enjoy!

Week 8

2009-11-15T00:27:00.000-08:00

This week, Ian Hyslop taught on Exodus and we finished the DVD lecture on Galatians 2:17-21. Here is my journal entry:
- God’s law always comes before man’s law as was exemplified in Exodus when the midwives, because they feared God, did not kill the male children of the Hebrews as Pharaoh had commanded. This shows that God uses people not because of their ability but because of their availability.
- Had Moses been confident he was in the will of God, he would not have had to look over his shoulder before murdering the Egyptian. He was seeking to please people, not God. In the same way, I have to “be still and know that He is God,” stop worrying and taking matters into my own hands and trust that God will bring about His will in His time. If I do not go God’s way and in God’s time, it is worth nothing and can only lead to failure and wandering in the desert.
- From Moses’ attempt at leadership, I can learn that all my goals need to be drowned in prayer. I need to take time to slow down and listen to what God is saying through His word, through circumstances, and through other older mature Christians. God will lead me, one step at a time. When I am in the centre of God’s will, His plan will flow.
- I can be temped to see people who seem to be burning bushes – on fire and filled with God – and be jealous of them and then resign myself to be a ‘burnt up bush,’ a heap of ashes, or just a spectator, watching others live totally for God. But I need to realize that I am what I am by the grace of God and that it is the living Christ who works in me to accomplish His will. I need to remember that I am nothing except with Christ. God is the eternal I AM, He is adequate right now! What I have is what He is: He does not give me strength, He is my strength; He does not give me victory, He is my victory.
- When I find myself in life’s deserts, God does four things: He finds me, He shields me, He cares for me, and He guides me. He does all this whether I believe Him or not. The purpose of these deserts is to humble and test me so that the true condition of my heart may be revealed.
- From Moses’ excuses to God at the burning bush, I learned that I don’t need all the answers. God will provide them when I need them. I need to stop being worried about what might happen and take comfort in what God says will happen (Romans 8:28). God uses inadequate people (like me) simply because they are willing. I may not feel qualified or adequate, but God is, and He chooses to use me.
- Even though I may have come to a place in my life where I am totally committed to do what God asks of me, there may be hidden issues or unresolved sins that God still needs to work out. I need to be receptive to His prompting and willing to allow Him to work in me.
- The valleys of life often come after the mountains. I need to learn that the only place I can turn when I enter a valley is to God. The perfect framework for God to do His work is when the situation seems impossible to human standards and the people seem inadequate to human standards. God often brings us to the end of our resources so He can then prove Himself faithful.
- It is not getting rid of sins that makes me a Christian but rather the life of Christ within me. I need to examine myself to find evidence that the Holy Spirit is within me. These evidences are that I have a hunger to know Jesus Christ better, that I have a desire to be like Christ, and that the Holy Spirit is working through me through an eagerness to be useful.
- Victory has no meaning except in battle and therefore I need to be aware that there is still a spiritual battle today. But when Christ was raised from the dead, He was victorious over every enemy that threatens to defeat me. This is the power of the Christian life. The purpose of the Christian life is to realise that every wave that threatens me over my head is still under Jesus’ feet. Though I will suffer, God is always in complete control. He gives me peace in the midst of the storm, not a quiet countryside peace because it is the storms that keep me dependent on Him. The Christian life is permanent. Just like the shadow of a bus will never squish me, the shadow of a dog will never bite me, and the shadow of a stick will never hurt me, the shadow of death will never kill me!
- The greatest struggle is not understanding God’s will, but obeying and yet when I respond in that God has His best in store for me. And it is obedience that develops the kind of faith that allowed the Israelites to pack up and leave Egypt not knowing what they would eat or where they would sleep. When I walk in obedience to God, there will be testing, but God will provide. And just like God provided manna for the Israelites in the desert, He will provide abundantly.
- From the Passover, I learnt that God the judge and God the saviour are one and the same. Salvation was and is by substitution. In the same way as the lamb’s blood could not simply be shed, it had to be appropriated by sprinkling it on the doorposts, I need to appropriate the blood of Christ. My life, which has been purchased by God, now belongs to God just as the life of each firstborn Israelite belonged to God.
- When I reach the end of my rope, God wants me to let go and trust Him because He is fighting for me. I need to not be afraid, I need to stand still, I need to watch God come through, and I need to stop talking (telling others about my problems).
- If I am not living by faith, I am living by sin (Romans 14:3). Faith is an attitude of trust in an object that allows the object to work on my behalf therefore, the evidence of my faith is not what I do for the object but what I allow the object to do for me. I can no more live the Christian life by works that I can be saved by works. Instead of trying to do things for Christ, I need to allow Christ to live through me. I need to not commit myself to doing God’s will but instead commit myself to God. Obedience without faith produces legalism and faith without obedience produces mysticism, it is only with faith and obedience that I can fly.
Character doesn’t matter half as much as trust. I can be a good person but utterly useless to God but I can be a messed up person and useful to God. I need to remember that God is not only a God of heaven above but also, and most importantly, a God of Earth below. He is active and moving now, here. I need to stop doubting the Christ is sufficient. God uses messed up people. In fact, Rahab the prostitute was in the line of David and therefore in the line of Jesus! This does not so much show the ancestry of the King but the character of the kingdom!

My new study Bible came in this week! I’m so excited! It has already proved useful in helping to prepare for my Bible study.

On Tuesday, we had our second to last day with Bible in Schools since ministries are wrapping up next week for the Kiwi summer holidays. I will miss my wonderful group of students! They are such great listeners and participators and so enthusiastic! After the Christmas break, we will be assigned to a new ministry to give us a wide variety of experiences. Our Tuesday evening classes were held outside on the grass (on a spontaneous suggestion from Ian). We sat or lay on blankets or sat on lawn chairs. It was really neat! Although it was kind of weird to have Cam writing on my foot during the lectures...
For workday, I polished all the wood on the stairwell and dusted all the light fixtures. It was really fun (as usual :P)!!! For desert on Wednesday, we got apple pie!!! Yay!! Also, after a request from the student body, we are now getting fruit much more often which is kind of exciting.

Caution, this next paragraph may be extremely random and unconprehensible.
Our student council (that is Ben and Amber) organised a wacky game during supper on Wednesday. Basically, we were each given a task that we had to do during the entire meal but we weren’t allowed to tell anyone else what our task was. I had to stand up and clap each time someone poured themselves a glass of water. There were others like, each time Isabelle laughed, Jordan had to pass Dale a napkin. Each time someone passed Dale a napkin, Patti had to throw salt at Bryan. Each time someone threw salt at Bryan, He had to get up and say “Would you like some pepper with that Mrs. Epp?” Another one was that each time a staff member got up, Cara had to put vegetables in their water. Whenever Michael do the chicken dance, Ben had to get up and run around the table yelling “I can fly!” Michael had to do the chicken dance whenever Jonas sang “J and J awesome fitness club.” Jonas had to sing the fitness club theme song whenever anyone clapped (once Joel caught on, he would clap super often). And Dale had to get up and go around the table playing duck, duck goose whenever Joel got up and said “How was workday Joseph?”. Joel would say this whenever Sheryl gave a teaspoon to Dale. Sheryl gave a teaspoon to Dale whenever Amber said “Funny joke guys, funny joke!” Amber said that whenever Jordan gave a high five to anyone. Jordan gave a high five to any of the staff whenever they used a knife. This made for a really noisy, funny meal with lots of laughter and running around.

Last Saturday, I had booked a car online and they were supposed to e-mail us the confirmation within 24 hours. Unfortunately, I must have typed in the e-mail address wrong because we never got the e-mail and when we called on Wednesday, they said they had no cars available. After calling another rental place and finding out that we couldn’t drive unless we were over 21 yrs old, we were starting to freak out that we would not be able to make it to Akaroa (and our hostels were already booked!). But God provided a car! When Hanna found out that we still didn’t have a car, she told us that this past Sunday a lady at church had offered to lend her car to any students who needed it. It was so cool how God worked everything out!

Thursday, after a really good class form Ian and a very thought provoking DVD lecture from Charles Price, we all headed out for travel weekend. One group headed for Queens town for bungee jumping, luge rides and shopping (the bungee jumping didn’t happen though because of bad weather), Adam headed for Mount Cook, Michael left for Christchurch, and I headed with a group for Akaroa. In my group were Cam, Cara, Bryan, Jordan, Colin, Robert, and Stephen (Bryan’s friend). I bought all my groceries before hand which turned out to be a good idea and al lot cheaper than buying stuff in Akaroa. Basically, I had Pb & J sandwiches for lunches and suppers and I had left over porridge from the crossing for breakfast.

On the bus ride to Christchurch, Michael was trying to explain to the lady beside him what a dear look like (she had never seen one before). Jordan tried to help by stating “It’s like a big dog with antlers.” Every one cracked up (even some people three rows down!).

Driving to and from Akaroa was interesting. The road was super windy and narrow and steep and there are no guardrails and Stephen likes to drive fast. We took the bus to Christchurch and then we drove two cars the rest of the way to Akaroa (praise God for providing a car!). We got lost trying to find the hostel and ended up driving up this super steep, one lane road to a dead end. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to hike up to the hostel. We had to take a break at the end of the road though because the borrowed car was smoking so we had to let is cool. On our way back down (which was almost as scary as the way up), we stopped at a resort to get directions and almost hit the resident peacock. Finally, we found the hostel (it turned out that I was right when I suggested which way we should go :P). It is the highest hostel in New Zealand and is located on the side of the volcano looking out towards Otanerito bay (or long bay). It was a really nice place and we had the whole place to ourselves! The girls’ room was nicknamed the ‘hobbit’ room because you can’t stand up straight in it and the door was only about shoulder height. It was really cool! The view from the hostel was amazing!

On Friday morning, after sleeping in (yay!) we watched a storm literally roll in over the ocean. It was moving so fast! We stood outside and watched it until it was over us and behind us. It hailed for most of the morning. Some of the gang headed into town for some exploring while some of us stayed behind just to relax. In the afternoon, once the sun came out, we went for a drive intending to go for a hike. We decided to explore and turned down a road into a beautiful lush valley. The one lane, gravel road – once again, twisting and turning wildly around cliffs on one side with a steep drop off on the other side and without a guardrail – led down to a private property. Once we got permission from the people there, we drove through a field down to an aqua blue bay boarded by huge cliffs. We all took off our shoes and ran around on the warm sand, collected shells, and climbed the smaller of the cliffs. From the top of the cliff, we could see seals swimming around in the water. And the boys got way too close to a seal on the beach: it started hissing at them! I even found a complete Paua shell! Afterwards, we drove down to long bay valley and went on a tramp to a beautiful waterfall. It was really steep but we got some really nice views.

Friday night, we watched LOTR. It was sooooooo funny listening to everyone make fun of it! The best was laughing at Legolas running, stopping to make a random comment, then starting to run again. Once it was pointed out to me, it was quite comical. The funniest quote was when Golum says to Sam "Stupid, fat hobbit!"

On Saturday morning, we all woke up at 5am and drove out to the farthest point and watched the sun rise over the ocean. It was beautiful!!! And it was rather cold :P. Afterwards, most of us went back to bed.

At 10:30, we headed into Akaroa for some sea kayaking. The owner of the hostel gave us a deal on the kayaks! We had three double kayaks and two singles. We went out from the bay all the way to the peninsula and part of the way around. Once we came around the peak of the peninsula, we were paddling against the wind. I was so glad that we had all rented wet suits! They were really tight and restricting but they really kept us warm. We paddled through pretty choppy waves. It was tough but so much fun! We stopped at a “beach” and climbed on the rocks to a cave like thing. The waves were hitting the back and making thundering noises, it was really cool! On the beach, you could hear the pebbles tumbling with each wave. Stephen (whom I was sharing kayak with) and I also got out to climb in another rock formation. We think we saw penguins but we weren’t sure. We also saw a jelly fish swimming right beside out kayak! The rock formations were really cool since it was all volcanic. We stopped and talked to some guys who were scuba diving for Paua shells. On our way back to Akaroa, we stopped at the same beach for lunch. A couple of us kayaked to a dock and Jordan and Stephen went swimming and did flips off the dock.

For supper, the owners of the hostel provided a barbeque (for an extra fee). I didn’t have any but they let me try some Paua meat. It was very strange.

On Sunday, we had to wake up early because we had to be out of the hostel by 7am so that we could be in Christchurch in time to catch our bus. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up when booking the bus and our ticked was booked for next Sunday. Stephen offered to drive us back to Geraldine. When we got back, we had to wash off the car we borrowed since it was super muddy from driving on dirt roads and through fields.

Week 7

2009-11-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

This week, Hayden taught us how to make a Bible study and Werner came in for the second half of the week to teach on Ephesians. Here is this week’s journal entry:
- It is of the utmost importance that I learn to learn from the Bible myself. In creating Bible studies, I will learn to “catch my own food” instead of always relying on others to feed me. In this way, I will be able to grow spiritually, to critique the scriptures, to challenge my faith, and to connect with the word of God.
- Through the law, I need to die to the law. Only Jesus Christ gives me this ability. The law of God reveals the characteristics of God (which are His glory). The problem with the law is not its content but its ability: it cannot change the heart. But, with Christ living in me, the law becomes not a command, but a promise!
- Because I have been made one with Christ, I have been crucified with Him. It was not only Christ on the cross, but me as well because Christ and I are one. Therefore, I HAVE BEEN (past tense) crucified with Christ. It is not something I need to try to accomplish (or something I can accomplish) as I had previously believed, but it is something that has already been done. When I come to God for forgiveness, I am not appealing to His mercy but His justice! Having sentenced the Son, He cannot sentence me!
- I have died to sin. This is not to say that sin does not affect me or tempt me, rather, the price for the sin – the “jail sentence” – has been paid in full. Since death is the consequence of sin and I have died with Christ, I have, in fact, died to sin. I no longer owe sin anything. Therefore, I need to allow Christ to use my body as an instrument of righteousness rather than letting sin use me as an instrument of wickedness. I cannot counter sin by legalism or licence, but rather by the life of Christ in me and this life does not come from trying but from trusting.
- I need to be in Christ here on earth in order to be in Him for eternity. Death is not so much a way to become closer to God as a change of scenery.
- In Ephesians, Paul calls the church to unity, and this unity can only be found in Christ. And it is Christ’s love that creates unity. The words “In Christ” or “In Him” appear 22 times in the first two chapters of Ephesians. This is because Paul is trying to emphasize that it is only in Christ that we have anything: spiritual gifts, power, everlasting life, etc. These gifts are not separate from Christ, but rather an integral part of Him.
- As a Christian, I need to speak the truth. My acts of service are worth nothing if I am not proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ. It is not a religious retreat that will convert someone but rather when God touches their heart.

This week started off rather meh since I was pretty low on sleep, but after a good talk with Hanna and Sheryl, I started feeling better. God is really teaching me to totally rely on Him, not on my own intellect. He has been slowly pushing me to stop worrying about the future and trust that He will provide and that He will make His will known and direct me.

Tuesday evening was family night. My group stayed at the crossing with Hanna, Sheryl, and Joseph. We played volleyball which ended up being tons of fun! And our team won (although this may be because there were five people on our team and only four on the other)! Afterwards, we played a few rounds of very competitive balderdash then we went down to the fire pit for a campfire with hot chocolate.

On workday, I was in the kitchen with Sheryl, cleaning every single nook and cranny. After cleaning out the fridge, Sheryl was going to compost the leftover fruit pizza, but instead, she said I could eat it so I have had some delicious snacks this week!

I spent most of my free time on Wednesday and Thursday working on my Bible study (the rough draft was due Friday). This one is on 2Timothy 1:8-12. The good copy is due next Thursday, right before we leave for travel weekend. It’s hard work, but I think it will be really rewarding in the long run being able to get something from the Bible for myself.

On Friday night, we had a semi-spontaneous girl’s night. Patti had a Mary Kay lady come over and so most of us splurged and bought cosmetics. Patti made delicious chocolate covered penut butter balls and we snacked on them and cheese and crackers throughout the evening. Afterwards, we watched a movie. Being over tired, I only watched the first twenty minutes before going to bed. All the girls slept over at the Epp’s, it was tons of fun! For breakfast, Patti made us baked French toast. It was absolutely scrumptious! And we also got fruit with breakfast which was a treat!

From 9am to 12pm, A bunch of us went to help out a family that is having a tough time (I’m not sure exactly what the situation is). We mowed their lawn, weeded their garden, fixed up their path, and generally cleaned up their front yard. There were probably about eight Capernwray students and a bunch of people from the local church. It was really fun and the transformation of the yard was amazing! Afterwards, another lady from the church served a barbeque at her house (which Patti and a few others had helped to prepare) for the people who helped out.

While the girls were getting beauty treatment advice, the guys were mud wrestling. Colin and Joseph dug up the pit in the afternoon with the tractor. Apparently, they had fun. But the girls have agreed that we want to mud wrestle and go possum hunting and drive a beat-up car around a dirt track and do all the other stuff that the guys get to do during guy nights!

The rest of the Crossing students had a slip-and-slide set up after lunch right up the street from the Epp’s. The tarps were set up on the grass on the side of a really steep one lane street and the boys were carrying large jugs of soapy water up from the Epp’s to keep the slide wet. It was the fastest slip-and-slide I have ever been on! The guys were having fun “ganging up” on people. Basically, if they felt someone was going too slow, they would run and slide down after them and take them out on their way down. It was really funny (and slightly painful :P).

During the afternoon, I did something I have never done before: I booked a rental vehicle to take from Christchurch to Akaroa for travel weekend. It was rather stressful, but in the end, I found a decent deal. Colin, Cara, Cameron, Brian, Steven (Brian’s friend), Jordan, Robert, and I are heading out to Akaroa from Thursday of next week till Sunday morning. We only have one definite activity planned: sea-kayaking. It should be tons of fun! For Saturday supper, Amber and Colin cooked a supper of baked mac and cheese (yay!) and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Sunday morning, after setting up for breakfast for the last time (duty rotations are on Monday), Jordan, Adam, and I walked into Geraldine to go to the first service at the local church (that is, the traditional service). I then stayed for the first half of the second service (the contemporary service), but left half way through to get some assigned Bible reading done. This was my second time attending the traditional service and I am really enjoying it! I have met some wonderful people and have been invited to one ladies house for lunch after the service in two weeks! I spent Sunday afternoon writing a letter to Penny (my co-counsellor from Te Mapua). I really need to start writing more letters! But time seems rather scarce with all the projects, assignments, classes, and activities we have.

On Sunday evening, Kris Banes (the guy who taught on Colossians and Jonah) came to the Crossing to perform a concert (it was open to the community. So in the afternoon, we cleaned up the formal loungs and set up chairs and vacuumed and set up candles and stuff. The concert was awesome! Basically, he played solo piano. He played a bunch of hymns and talked about the stories behind them. It was beautiful and relaxing!

Wednesday devotion

2009-11-03T23:45:00.000-08:00

Every Wednesday, a student is assigned to share a devotion during morning tea. Today (Wednesday) it was my turn to share. Basically, I was asked to share what God has been teaching me lately through His word and through the various classes we have been having. Here is what I talked about. I have not written out all the passages (although I did read them during the devotion) and so I would encourage you to look them up as that will make it all make more sense.

This week, I was reading Mathew and a passage in chapter 8 really stood out to me. Verses 5-10 and 13 really show the awesome power of prayer. Just as God spoke the light into existence, so can He give the answer to a prayer just by saying the word. There is a brilliant description of the power of the voice of God in Psalm 29. Also, Isaiah 55:10-22 really shows the power of God’s word. We bring our petitions to Jesus who is sovereign and if He tells His angels to go, they go. If He tells the stars to shine or the land to produce vegetation, it will be as He commanded. In the same way, any request we bring before the Lord that is within His will, He will answer. It is not a question of His capability because all He has to do is say the word! All thins are of God and therefore belong to Him and so He has the authority to move mountains in order to bring about His will. Mathew 8:5-10, 13 really spoke to me because it made me realise that when I ask God to bring about His will in my life, I can thank Him at the same time because I know that He has already said the word to put things into motion to accomplish it. It is when I come to God in complete faith of what He can and is doing that He is most pleased.
And so I want to pray like David in Psalm 25: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.” “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.” One thing that Kris taught that really spoke to me was on this topic. He said that God will always answer the prayer that is prayed according to His will. God has been teaching me that I need to let go of the worry I have for my future and totally trust in Him because His plans are far greater than mine and His will is far better than mine.
Therefore, there is tremendous power in prayer and God is delighted to answer the prayer that is prayed according to His will.
I went on a run yesterday (and I don’t run!) and so today I hurt. But I realised that running is a good example of how I need to trust God. Running has always been hard for me. It doesn’t take long before I am out of breath and ready to give up. And so that’s when I stop running and start walking. But after a while, I realized yesterday that I could start running again.
Trusting in God is hard! I keep wanting to give up and deal with issues in my life and so I stop running and start walking. But God gives me the strength to start running again, trusting that He will provide the strength I need.
Running hurts because it is stretching my muscles and my lungs further that what is comfortable. In the same way, it’s not always comfortable as God stretches me, teaching me to fully trust Him.
As I learned recently in a passage in Mathew 19, I need to give up everything and put Christ first before everything and follow Him. But it won’t be easy. I found tremendous comfort in verse 26 where Jesus says that it is actually impossible for any man to do this, but with Him, all things are possible! And so I can keep running, in faith, trusting that He will provide the strength I need.
To conclude, Psalm 20:7 says “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

Getting tired of rap?

2009-11-01T00:39:00.000-07:00

For Robert's birthday today, Tripple J (which has sort of turned into double J) decided that they were getting tired or rap so they decided to sing instead. Ben played guitar and Joel sang (Ben also did "backup"). Here is Robert's birthday song:
Today I was looking at a green plant
It was so green...
But that has nothing to do with this song.
Today is one of those days
of the year
Because it's novermber 1st
The first day of November
The first day after October.
Rob you play geetar like nothing
And all the ladies think you're something
YOu have long hair.
And nice underwear, not that I was looking.
Rob this song is for you.
(Ben's solo)
This song is for today (x2)
Singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY (repeat many times)

Being

2009-10-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a peom I wrote this week. I have published another poem on my poetry blog (www.angelathepoet.blogspot.com) called "Lost For Words." This next poem is called "Being."

Who, me?
I have died
To myself!
Am no longer!
After all
I am not,
But I know
I AM

Who me?
I can do nothing
Of myself!
Am incapable!
But can do all things
Through Christ
Who works through me!

And I know that since
He is I AM
I must be
I AM NOT
!

Who me?
I AM NOT!
And how freeing it is
To know
That I am no longer
That I am incapable
That I have died to myself
To know
That it is not what I give
(my life)
But what I receive
(His grace)
!
That it is not by my power
That I DO NOT DESERVE!

I am weak
And so His strength sustains me!
I am broken
And so His glory shines through the cracks!

Week 6

2009-10-31T21:28:00.001-07:00

Kris Banes taught on Colossians and Jonah this week. He is a very good teacher. We also finished the video series on the life of Joseph. Here is my journal entry.
- All scripture is God-breathed, God worked in the author’s bodies in natural ways to produce supernatural results. For this reason, I need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of the scripture to me. In God, I will find my self-worth (but not my self-esteem as this is not productive in my walk with Christ), and the assurance of my salvation. In order not to be deceived by false teachings, I need to know my shepherd so that I recognise His voice. I need to spend time in His word and in prayer so that I will know Him so well that I will recognise any counterfeit. I need to have a premeditated plan as to how I will live out my faith and be kept accountable. This is especially important as I am going to university next year. I need to be careful not to get caught up in university life but make a plan ahead of time of how I will live out my faith.
- Mercy is not getting what I deserve; grace is getting what I don’t deserve. God doesn’t just shower me with mercy, He also offers me unimaginable grace! And it is only standing in God’s grace that I can find true peace. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve, so what are we getting.
- Colossians 1:9-12 presents the prayer that God will answer. This is not because it has the ‘magic’ words, but rather because it is prayed according to God’s will. Although God does on occasion answer by yes my prayers that are not of His will, it is in order to teach me. God has, however, a ‘best’ for me, and that is only in His will. For this reason, I want to walk totally in God’s will (although self tends to get in the way) because He works ALL things together for good (His good, not necessarily mine) and for His glory. Also, as I learned form the story of Shadrak, Meshach, and Abednego, it is better to be in the fire with Christ, than out of the fire without Christ. If God can hold the entire universe together, I need to ask myself if I trust Him to hold my life together.
- The only way I can walk in a way pleasing to God is if I walk in faith. In this way, once I have accepted Christ’s sacrifice as the precious gift of the cleansing of my sin, I can come into God’s presence, but He doesn’t see me, He sees the lamb who is without sin and  He is smiling at me – an ear to ear smile!
- I have the same power as that that raised Christ from the dead sin because Christ lives in me. But it is a quiet power, a power that enables me to be humble, forgiving, longsuffering, and joyful.
- There is a danger that legalism will lead to pride and self righteousness in my life. I tend to be one to focus on the rules that need to be followed so I need to refocus and realise that ALL my sins, past and future, are nailed to the cross and I need to stop trying to take them down again. I need to de to my old self, and then I need to stop feeding my old self (with wrong images from the media) and start feeding the new self (with the word of God and fellowship with Him).
When I work, I need to work as for Christ, not for man. I need to work diligently, even when no on is watching.

On Monday, the Te Mapua staff came for lunch. It was supposed to be a surprise, but the word got out and we were all soooo excited (or at least I was :P)! I heard them come in while we were still in class and I was sitting there thinking “Hurry up Dale, I want to get out of class!” When we finally got out of class (:P) they were all in the living room and they had one of the praise songs playing and they were all dancing to it. It was really cool! For lunch, since it was raining, we spread out, some of us eating at the tables and others sitting on blankets on the living room floor. After lunch, we sang som of the songs and they taught us the action to “In the Light.” I was so excited to be ‘rocking out’ to the praise songs again! While talking to Miss Jai about the possibility of continuing to serve with Te Mapua, Miss Jai said that she went to one camp and she was addicted. It thought it was a really good description! Te Mapua has been on my mind ever since leaving. It is such an awesome ministry and I would love to serve with them again.

On Tuesday, we had our ministry (Bible in Schools). I think it went much better this time since we knew what we were doing. Basically, the government has allowed volunteers to go into schools and teach the Bible since there is no religious education. Officially, the school is closed down during the teaching time so that parents have the option of taking their children out of school if they don’t want them receiving the teaching. Ben, Cara, Bryan, and I are part of this ministry. Bryan and I are working with the equivalent to a kindergarten class. One of the reasons one of the teachers at this school is so open to the project is because most of the kids only know Jesus as a swear word. My prayer is that God will use us to plant a seed in the kids’ hearts and that we will be able to teach (without offending any parents or teachers) effectively and truthfully.

For workday, I cleaned the entire student lounge (which is our classroom). Once again, I really enjoyed workday!

Our Progress of Redemption project was due on Friday so everyone was scrambling to get theirs done on Wednesday and Thursday. Adam even pulled an all-nighter on Wednesday night. I had finished mine on Sunday of last week (although I did have to make a few adjustments after showing Dale) so busied myself with reading and getting ahead on other projects while most of the other students finished up their projects.

On Friday evening, Dale and Patti invited a couple of us up to their house to play risk and other board games. First, I played connect four with Isabelle and then I made origami boxes with Patti. I joined in on the second game of risk which was really fun! I was so tired though (since it was 10:30) that I didn’t bother using any strategy and I took all the other player’s advice (which was a bad idea :P) so I did not end up winning, but I had tons of fun anyway!
On Saturday, I went into town early with Ira (who stayed for the week to help Joseph out with the grounds work), Michael and Jonas to go to the farmer’s market. Michael and I each bought a loaf of fresh bread. It is soooooo good! We then met up with Dale and Patti so we went up to their house for tea and coffee (I had Chai tea, which I have discovered to be delicious!). I babysat Justus and Isabelle for about half an hour so that Dale and Patti along with a couple Crossing boys went out to get the Epp’s new piano. Apparently, Michael played the piano, which was in the trailer at the back of the car, all through Geraldine as they drove back! I played dress-up with Isabelle while Justus played air guitar at our “ball.” They are great kids and so much fun to hang out with!

Saturday afternoon was the light party (as an alternative for kids for Halloween) at the local primary school so a bunch of us helped out with that. We made crafts, had supper, and danced with the kids and they all had fun! Once back at the crossing, we had a pumpkin carving contest and we made caramel popcorn balls. I was on a team with Ben, Cameron and Robert and our pumpkin won. We made one of those funky pumpkins with an “uber complicated” design of a dragon on it. One of the other teams made a barfing pumpkin and the third team made an image of possum hunting (it was really funny!).

On Sunday, I went to the traditional service with Hanna. It was really nice and I got to talk with a lot of the people from Geraldine. I even got invited up to one of the lady’s house for afternoon tea at some point in the future! After the contemporary service, Michael, Cameron, Cara, Jordan, Adam, Jonas and I went out for a picnic lunch with a family from the church! It was tons of fun getting to know them and their four wonderful children!

When we got back, Cara, Cameron, Michael, Patti, Dale, Isabelle, Justus and I went out to pick elderflowers to make elderflower Champaign (it’s not an alcoholic drink, It’s just called Champaign because it’s fizzy). We made up the juice today, we will be bottling it up tomorrow and it should be good to drink in about two weeks! We might go out and pick more flowers to make more juice later this week since most of the flowers were not yet in bloom today

Since we had supper at the light party on Saturday, Adam, Amber, Jordan, and Kelsey are making pancakes with bacon and eggs and fruit pizza for desert. It smells delicious!!!!

Birthday Rap

2009-10-25T01:17:00.000-07:00

Ben, Joel, and Jonas (they call themselves "Tripple J") have begun a tradition of writing and performing a rap for each student and staff’s birthday. They will beat box and rap, usually right after supper. It’s really funny!!

Here is the rap for Michael’s birthday which was on the first week we were here:
Guess what’s today
I’ll tell you bab-a
Is it the day you get paid?
No! It’s your birthday! OK

You’re twenty now
But you’re not yet a big-fat-lazy cow
Soon you’ll have a mustache
But then you’ll be rolling around in your Ford Mustang with lots of cash
Now you’re broke though
But now you’ve found some dough, oh. OK

Oh now we are at Capernwray
The place you don’t smoke you just pray
Everyday, especially on Sunday
Then Monday, then Tuesday, not Wednesday (that’s workday),
But Thursday, and Friday, maybe Saturday
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey! OK

Staying up late drinking lots of coke
Writing a rap song ‘cuz we’re in a boat
This is my feeling it aint work or play
I’m just trying to say Happy Birthday! OK

And here’s the rap song for Jonas (Oct. 23rd) and Sheryl (Oct. 24th):
We’re rapping this rap cuz it’s your birthday
And now we’re talking anyway. Hey!
Jonas you’re 21 now
But you’re not a big fat old purple cow.
You love to drink juice and play starcraft
And you know what you’re not that ‘badft.’
King’s corner is your game of tricks
And when you put down six, you say “pick up sticks.”
Now we’ll rap about Sheryl.
Because she’s leaving ‘tomoroel’
She makes really great food
That is really good.
With the help of Hanna
She just ate a Banana.
You are both blond,
But Sheryl you are a little dirtier blond but that’s OK
And we’re rapping for both of you today
Cuz guess what, it’s your birthday! (It’s your birthday)

Week 5

2009-10-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

This week, we studied the book of Genesis. Richard Neville taught on the first 36 chapters and in a DVD series Billy Strachan taught from chapter 37 and on (the life of Joseph). I believe we will be continuing the series on the life of Joseph next week. As usual, here is my journal entry for this week:
- God revealed Himself as trinity, even though this is an impossible attribute for me to understand, because it is who He is. The fact that He is three in one means that we, the church, need to be one with each other and one with God just as God is one. Every practical longing of my heart – for community, for love, for acceptance, and for order – is fulfilled only in a triune God. I have therefore been adopted into the perfect community.
- I need to come at the scriptures, not trying to squeeze the answers I need out of it, but understanding the original context of the text. Once I understand why, when, where, and for whom the text was written, I can then get something out of it for myself. I can squeeze any answer out of the scriptures, but it would be the answer I want, not the meaning that was intended. By coming at it with an understanding of context, on the other hand, I can see what it was intended to communicate.
- There are two main worldviews, or stories, and I need to decide which one I will live in: the evolutionary or Biblical story. My worldview will determine the decisions I make and the actions I take. I tend to seek a ‘reasonable Christianity,’ taking bits and pieces from each worldview and making Jesus into what I want. I can only truly live in God’s story once I understand what has come before me (the fall, Abraham, the covenant, Jesus, etc) and what is to come after me (new heaven and new earth). I need to live for God, in His story, and with Him completely indwelling me.
- God is good.
- I can see that God is good in how He provided for all of humanities needs in creation. He created life and loves all of life deeply. God did not intend for us to suffer, but there is still pain and suffering in the world due to Adam and Eve’s first sin. God does, however, use even suffering to further His perfect will. God can and does use suffering in my life to teach me, to mould me, and to bring Himself glory because it is only with His spirit in me that I can withstand pressure. I need to be consistent and faithful and totally trusting that God is in control and that He is good all the time and in every circumstance. It is when I forget that God is good that I am most vulnerable to fall into sin. I need to remember that, whatever may happen, God is always in control and working out His good and perfect will. Through it all, God gets all the glory. For me to claim any of the glory would be as silly as a bottle claiming the glory for the milk inside it!
- I need to be careful not to put my faith in the technologies of this world but in God who can and does work through them. It’s not that I can’t take medicine or use the internet for example; instead I need to constantly remind myself that they are gifts from God and not gods in themselves. I need to live in response to God’s promises, trusting in His guidance, and believing that His plan is better than mine could ever be and not be enticed away by attractive alternatives or impulses of the moment.
- I need to remember that God is all-powerful: if He is for me, who can be against me? Just as God was with Jacob (as He showed in Jacob’s dream of the angels climbing between heaven and earth) God’s armies are still at work in the world today, even though I cannot see them. I need not be afraid because, as Elisha said, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
- I tend to see God first and foremost as a God of love – which He is – while forgetting that He is also a God of perfect wrath. No one in the Bible hugs God on their first encounter. I never realized that God is more like a lion than a lamb: able to tear me to pieces. But I know that, because of the righteousness of Christ that clothes me, I can approach the throne of God with both dignity, but also totally humbly. “The dignity comes from the fact that [I’m] now worthy to come [...] at all times; the humility comes from the fact that [I] had absolutely nothing to do with this worthiness” (Revolution Within, P.63). I realise that I have been worshiping a god that I have made small and nice and gentle. I now realise that I want to know God for who He is, not as how I would prefer Him to be.

I have started making myself mochas for morning tea ad they’re really good! Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure about the ratio of coffee to Milo (the New Zealand semi-equivalent to hot chocolate) at first. The first cup I made was pretty good, so, because the tea cups are pretty small, I made myself a second one but I put in way too much coffee. I couldn’t make it taste better no mater how much Milo and sugar I added! I have now figured out the ratio and really enjoy having mochas.

On Tuesday, we had a girls/guys night. The guys went out to a muddy racetrack and raced around an old car that had all its windows smashed out, then they went to someone’s house for steak and potatoes, and, once it was dark enough, they went out possum and rabbit hunting. We, on the other hand, got all dressed up and went to the Epp’s house. We had a delicious appetizer of crackers, baguette, cheese, and tons of different spreads (like tuna, pesto, and crab) . For tea (or supper), we had a salad with fried cheese and mango. The fried cheese was really good! It was kind of salty like feta but quite dense. For pudding (what we Canadians would call desert), we had chocolate fondue. Afterwards, we watched a movie while getting a foot spa. It was really relaxing and it was nice to spend some time with the girls!

For workday Wednesday, Kelsey and I pruned the rosebushes around the property. It’s scary to cut these huge branches off the rosebush (especially on the first bush I did) because I felt like I was killing it! But by the end, it was really neat to see how much of a difference it really makes. I really like workdays because it s so rewarding to get the work done and to see the difference it makes.

In the first week of school, the guys thought it would be funny to play a prank on the girls. So one night, they took the mattress from Joel B.’s bed (since he hasn’t yet come to the Crossing) and leaned it up against the girls’ bedroom door with a chair behind it to make it more difficult to get out. We decided we had to get even, but figured we should wait so that our revenge would be unexpected. And so, the night after the possum incident (see the post for week 4), we woke up at 2:30am to set up our prank (I didn’t participate, I just watched). We attached wire to the door handles, tying them to each other in an attempt to make it impossible for them to open their doors. Unfortunately, the wire didn’t stay as well as we had hoped and so the prank kind of flunked. To return the favour, late Friday night, the guys took one shoe from each pair on the shelves just outside our room (and there are quite a few pairs!) and hid them all around the house. There was a shoe between the rungs on the banister, one in the fridge, two hanging from Bruce (the dear head on the wall in the student lounge), some on various crown mouldings around the house, one in a vase in the dining room, one hanging from a light fixture, one beneath the bag of one of the rubbish bins, some in the student mailboxes, some above various cupboards, and many more! It was hilarious!!! I got some pictures of some of the more creative spots. Now we are left with the dilemma of how to get a proper revenge. If you have any suggestions of harmless pranks, I would love to hear about them! You can leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. Thanks!

I must tell you about Adam’s laughing fits, they are quite amusing!!! It started in Werner’s classes in the first week of classes. Werner would make Adam laugh with his way of saying things and Adam would go completely red in the face and laugh, almost silently, hysterically for minutes at a time. It got to the point where he would start to laugh and then the people beside and behind him would notice and start to laugh and tell the people beside them, and it would quickly spread to the rest of the class. I would hear “Oh, he’s gone again!” and would know immediately that it was Adam that they were talking about. Thankfully, Werner took it well. Since then, Adam has had numerous laughing fits which we tease him about but I don’t think he minds too much.

I spent a lot of time this week working on a project on the progress of redemption (which I finished on Sunday, even though it is only due next Friday). Basically, the project consists of finding a way to illustrate the progress of redemption (God's plan and how He has, is, and will be working it out). We can write a poem, make a movie, do an oral, draw a picture, or anything else we can think of. I made a video on windows moviemaker complete with my own photography, funky transitions and text, and even music! I’m really glad I’ve seen Ben fool around on moviemaker because that meant that I wasn’t learning completely from scratch. I really had fun with it!

On Friday, Michael and I started a ‘book club.’ Hanna joined us. We’re reading out way through the chronicles of Narnia, starting with the ‘Magician’s Nephew.’ We each take turns reading a chapter out loud. It brings back memories of reading with Mom. I think it brought back good memories for everyone because we spent the next hour talking about our families. The plan is to read one chapter a night (perhaps more on weekends when we have more time). At the rate we are reading, we might finish the book by next Sunday!

On Saturday, a bunch of us walked down to Keen road (it took about half an hour at a slow pace) and then we decided to follow Keen road since we had heard it came to the Waihi river (which is the river that runs from the Crossing to Geraldine that we have walked along in the past). As it turns out, thr road not only comes to the river, but actually crosses it without a bridge! While we were there, a car drove through the water witch came to about the middle of our calves. It was really neat! We spent about 15 minutes there, walking through the freezing cold water, throwing rocks to try to splash each other and generally having a good time. I really enjoy the walks we take as a group because we get to just goof around and have fun. For supper, it was Michael, Cara, and Ben who cooked and they made chicken put pie that wasn’t quite pie. Basically, it was the pie filling but with dumplings on top instead of a pie crust. It was slightly late, but it was worth the wait!

On Sunday, Ira came for supper. He will be staying for the week to help out with projects aroud the property. Ira was a student here last year and he served at the Te Mapua camp when the Capernwray crew was there. It was really nice reconnecting with him! And I got his Te Mapua pictures!!!!!!! For Sunday night fellowship, Werner spoke on Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. He is such a good teacher!

I have made some changes to previous posts and have made them bold so feel free to go back and read them!

I would still appreciate prayer for Joel B. as he is still waiting for his student visa to come in. Also, I have been struggling to get enough sleep, sometimes by lack of discipline and sometimes due to the fact that we are five girls sharing a room and we don’t all go to bed at the same time.

A little reminder, I would love to hear about your best harmless prank ideas! We aren’t allowed into the boys’ rooms, that is just about the only restriction.

Why I believe that it is important to study creation science

2009-10-21T00:10:00.001-07:00

I believe that the account of creation is the foundation of the rest of the biblical truths. If the first Adam did not smear God’s glory by choosing not to believe his Creator, then there is no need for the second Adam, who is Christ, to be the perfect sacrifice and atonement for the original sin. Also, if each of the creation days were in fact millions of years where evolution would take place, this would allow for death and suffering before the fall, and God could not have declared His creation to be very good. I therefore believe that the first 11 chapters of Genesis should be interpreted literally, that God created the earth and everything in the earth in six literal days, that Noah’s flood was a global flood, that the vast majority of the fossil record we have today comes from this flood, and that the earth is six to ten thousand years old as can be calculated by the historic account of scripture.

I believe that it is vital to address the creation/evolution debate from the standpoint that debates will never convert anyone. It must be the Holy Spirit revealing the biblical truths to the individual. Mathew writes “no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (11:27). All of scripture is God-breathed and therefore a proper understanding of the scriptures can only come from God.

I believe that every person should be treated with a great respect of his/her beliefs. I have seen (in myself included) a condescending attitude created by a faith in creation science. Without a complete understanding of the scientific evidence, a person can be led to believe that they have all the right answers concerning creation and therefore look down on others who hold different beliefs. I now believe that the evidence can point both towards creation and towards evolution. The main difference between these two belief systems is the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Neither argument can be proven because neither can be disproven, except by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when presenting creation, I believe one should fully rely on God’s guidance and present the message in love and never with contempt. A belief system, no matter how different from my own, does not make another person to be of lesser intellect than myself, no matter how illogical this belief system may seem.
Ex: “[...] The little known Laws of Information Theory [...] completely destroy the materialistic concepts that are taught as fact in schools and in the media. [...] The only explanation for the incredible complexity of the biological information in living things is that the incredible God of the Bible created it that way!” -excerpted from a schedule of a “deconstructing Darwin” seminar (http://creation.com/sherbrooke-dd-conference).

I have always believed, however, that it is vital to study creation and to present the scientific evidence of creation to make people aware that Genesis can be taken literally. I personally do not want to have a blind faith by believing in something that has no scientific grounding. I also believe that it is important for Christians to realise that scientific evidence does support the truths of the Bible.

Having said this, I am still left with a few questions:
- Is the study of creation science a valid and good science?
- Is there any real value in ministries that promote creation science? Is the study of creation science a vital ministry?
- Should such ministries promote the fact that Genesis chapters 1 to 11 are vital to the Christian worldview? Are these chapters vital to a proper Christian worldview?
- Is my dream to study and teach creation a valid one?
- If so, how should I approach the study of creation? What should be my attitude both towards Creation science and the first 11 chapters of Genesis?
- Is there danger that teaching a limited amount of information about creation will cause a believer to feel contempt towards unbelievers? How should this issue be approached? How can the material be taught differently so as to create a healthy understanding of scriptures and science?
- What about the balance between faith and science? Is there any value in studying science at all?Some creation science ministries claim that the teaching of creation is the most basic and important element of a proper Christian worldview, is this accurate? What about other ministries (e.g. balloons and tower in CMI image of creation vs. evolution)?

A joke!

2009-10-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Michael (who studied in engineering at the University of Fairbanks Alaska before coming to The Crossing) told me this joke and I just had to share it!
Two men went out hunting and killed a bear. Unfortunately, they couldn’t figure out what kind of bear it was. Was it a brown bear, a grizzly bear, a polar bear, a cinnamon bear...? So they took it into town and asked everybody there what kind of bear they thought it was, but no one could tell them. Finally, they asked the chemists at the University of Fairbanks Alaska what kind of bear it was. The chemists responded: “Put the bear in water and if it dissociates, it’s a polar bear!”

Week 4

2009-10-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

This week in class, we have been learning about God’s awesome plan and how He uses anyone who is simply willing to come to Him His way. In a DVD lecture given by Billy Strachan, I learned that God wants my life to be free of leaven which gets in the way of my relationship with Him. He wants me to ‘eat Him and drink Him,’ not just to associate with Him. In other words, He wants me to assimilate Him. Just as when I eat a loaf of bread, the bread becomes a part of me, so God wants to become a part of me. He wants me to be intimate with Him. Billy used the image of a business transaction, saying that all the best deals are worked out over a meal because there, you can talk freely, it is an intimate setting. In the same way, Billy showed that there are many examples throughout the Old Testament of God appearing to someone and then this person would bring the Lord meat (a perfect sacrifice) and unleavened bread. So God also wants the same thing from me. Jesus is my perfect sacrifice, and now God wants me to come to Him as bread without leaven because just a small portion of leaven mixed in with the rest of the loaf makes the whole loaf puffed up and full of air. To give an idea of what I have been learning, here is my journal entry for this past week:
- God’s plan for me goes beyond my wildest dreams! In the beginning God was. Then he created our universe to perfectly mirror His awesome glory. When Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, God could have ditched us and started again, but instead He began writing the story of history, the story of redemption. He made a promise to Eve that through her seed, a saviour would come to atone for the sins of the world. He made a covenant with Abraham that a nation would come from his seed and that from his descendants would come one who would bless the nations. Throughout the Old Testament, God worked out His perfect plan, providing a leader for the people of Israel, providing land for them to settle, providing a law for them to follow and providing conditions under which the people could thrive and form a great nation. But Israel’s sin led to division and captivity at the hands of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. But God used even their captivity for the furthering of His plan by allowing the Jews to spread our and construct synagogues that would allow for the rapid spread of the gospel eight hundred years later. Finally the scene is set for the arrival of Jesus. The promise that was made 4000 years ago to Eve was fulfilled. Tracing the progress of redemption really showed me that God is in control of every situation, both good and bad, and that He works all things together for good and for His glory.
- God will use anyone who is willing to come His way. He doesn’t want me to be something else, He wants me simply to let Him work through me. He used big mouth Sampson, cry baby Japhthah, ‘never sure’ Gideon, scaredy cat Barak, adulterer and murderer David, filthy mouthed Isaiah and so many more. God lets me run away and hide when He calls, but if I realise that God can use me and am willing to come to Him His way, He will use me. Also, I don’t need to see or feel what God is doing through me, if it’s God doing it, He gets the glory and I don’t need to know about it. I simply need to fully trust Him.
- God doesn’t want me to identify with Him, He wants me to assimilate Him. When Jesus shared the Passover meal with Hs disciples, He told them to eat Him and drink Him. In the same way as I eat and drink for the nourishment of my body, ‘eating and drinking’ Jesus should be more important to me as it is my spiritual nourishment. God wants the first fruits of my time. He wants me to come to Him simply to be with Him. He wants an intimate relationship with me. He doesn’t want any of my leaven: Herodinism (making myself and more important) my Saduceeism (rationalizing my way out of faith) or Phariseeism (making pretences and wearing masks). He wants me to get rid of every trace of leaven so that He can start using me – weaknesses and all! And once I have an intimate relationship with Him, He can make me fruitful. But I must never forget the bread, the unleavened bread of fellowship with Jesus Christ. Just as I would never skip breakfast, I should never skip enjoying the living Jesus.

On Tuesday, we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. We celebrated it on Tuesday so that we would be celebrating it on the actual Thanksgiving Day back in Canada. We all dressed up, although Ben and Joel seemed to understand “dressing up” in the same way as Natania does and dressed as Samurai with their kimonos and bandanas. For supper, we had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes (TONS of mashed potatoes :P), carrots, peas, stuffing, gravy, garlic bread, and even cranberry jelly! It was sooooo good and we were all really full after. It was really nice to feel connected to everyone back home by celebrating though. Before supper, we went outside and got some group pictures (which I will endeavour to upload next time I am at the library in Geraldine). The dining room was all decorated for thanksgiving with nice tablecloths, centrepieces made of evergreen branches, leaves, and pinecones, and there were even maple leaves (or the closest NZ equivalent to maple leaves) with our names on them as place markers.

Tuesday evening, we split up into our two family groups for family night. My group went to the Epp’s house this time. We played a game, kind of like the ‘out of the box’ game I’ve played at home, where we each pulled out a question from a box and then we answered it or talked about it for a while. We didn’t play any intense games like the last family night, but it was fun just to hang out around the fireplace and talk. Colin told one of the funniest stories I have ever hear and we all cracked up, it was hilarious! And we got to have apple and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

For workday on Wednesday, Joel, Robert and I went to the Epp’s house and got some gardening done. Joel, Justice (Dale and Patti’s son), and I seeded grass. It was funny because the grass seeds were bright pink and blue. I also weeded a large portion of the garden in their backyard. I really enjoyed it because I could work in silence and just spend some time by myself and with God. In the evening, most of the students went to play soccer at the local high school. I didn’t go, hoping that I could get to bed early, but that didn’t happen :P. I have been trying to catch up on sleep all week but since we are five girls sharing a room, there are always people coming in after I have gone to bed and turning on lights and making noise. We all try to be quiet and let people sleep, but it can be challenging to work around each others schedules.

On Thursday, we skyped Joel B. who is still waiting for his student visa in order to come join us at the crossing. Joel didn’t know that Dale knew it was his birthday so we all surprised him by singing happy birthday to him over skype. He told Dale later that it made his day.

Speaking of sleep, last night (Saturday), we were all in bed by 9:30. I was so excited to finally get a decent night’s sleep and to be able to recover from camp a bit more. At about 10:15, Amber and Kelsey jumped up on their beds screaming, turned on all the lights, opened the door to the room and ran downstairs because they had hear a rodent (probably a possum) crawling around on the roof and squealing. Both Cara and I were slightly annoyed at being woken up, but there was no way we would be able to fall back asleep just yet. After telling the boys and everyone downstairs about the rodent, the Amber and Kelsey came back upstairs and jumped into bed together since they were scared. Once Cara heard the rodent, she got scared too and joined them in the single bed. We then all decided to go back to sleep and the room got quiet. That’s when Cameron opened the door and walked into the room. Kelsey grabbed Amber’s arm, screamed and sat bolt upright in bed and of course, because she screamed, she scared the rest of us so we all screamed. Cameron kind of stood there wondering who her crazy roommates were. That’s when the boys decided to prank us. They took a ladder, propped it up against the roof and began scratching at our windows and throwing rocks at the wall to make a pitter-patter sound. Of course, all the girls freaked out, until we went to the window and heard one of the boys yell “ouch” when he fell off the six foot ladder and onto the hedge. We spent a lot of time laughing hysterically and finally went to sleep at about 11:00. So much for going to bed early!

During the day on Saturday, a bunch of us went on a tramp just outside of Geraldine. It was a beautiful trail that started off at a kiln (that Ben scaled) and then followed a river for a while before climbing a hill and finishing at a pinnacle with a panoramic view. We ate out lunch at the top of the pinnacle. During the hike, some of the guys had a ‘role play’ going where we were all on a ship and the were assigning tasks to each person. Joseph (who was leading the expedition) was the captain, Joel was first mate and Jonas was second mate, Colin was the judge/elder/wise guy (I think it’s because he has a beard), Ben was the scout (and was promoted to super scout because he climbed the ‘balancing rock’), Cameron was the spokesperson but got demoted to cooks assistant, Robert was the cook but then claimed kingship, Adam was the spy, Bryan was the assassin, Jordan was weapons specialist, Michael was the spokesperson because Cameron was demoted, and I was the foreign affairs minister since I am bilingual. It was really funny to play along and everyone was talking (or trying to talk) like we were on a ship. It turns out that our captain doesn’t know much about sailing (as we were leaving the pinnacle, he instructed us to “tighten the... ropes that pull the thingy and move the sail.”). Cara, Amber, Kelsey, and Sheryl drove into Christchurch to get some shopping done.

I have been trying to go for a walk every day or every second day. The area around the school is perfect for walking or running since there are very few cars (and lots of sheep :P). A bunch of us often walk into town if we have a free afternoon. It’s about a

It was Cameron, Robert, and Joel’s turn to cook Saturday tea so they made gyros. It was delicious!!!!! For desert, they made brownies. Not only that, but they managed to get supper done on time (unlike Jonas and I :P)!

For church today, we drove into Timaru to Life Church. It was a very young church and I really enjoyed the more upbeat worship songs. The sermon was on the gospels and eyewitness accounts. It was very interesting!

This coming week, we will be studying Genesis. I am so excited! I am amazed at how much I am learning and how much my relationship with my creator is changing!

A Day at The Crossing

2009-10-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a description of a typical week for me:
I like to wake up at about five to seven so that I am out of the room by 7:15. I then go outside for 45 minutes of quiet time. Breakfast is from 8:00 to 8:20. We get porridge and toast every morning except on weekends and Wednesdays. Amber makes the best porridge!!! At the moment, I am on clean up duty after breakfast, but this will change next week when we get a new set of duties.
Classes run from 8:45 to 9:35 then from 9:40 to 10:30 with a break in between. 10:30 to 11:20 is morning tea where we have devotions, book studies, or prayer time all together. The last morning class goes from 11:30 to 12:20 and is a DVD lecture (all the other lectures are either skype classes, or done by the main lecturer). Lunch is at 12:30.
There are no classes in the afternoon. Instead, we have time to prep for our ministry, we are out doing our ministry, or there is free time. Wednesday afternoons are work afternoons where we all have tasks to do in the house, on the grounds, or at the Epp’s house (Dale Epp is the principle).
Tea (what we would call supper) is at 5:30. We have evening classes from 7:00 to 7:50 and from 8:00 to 8:50 on Monday and Thursday from the main lecturer. On Tuesday evenings, we either have family night which is tons of fun) or classes. On Wednesday evenings, we rent the gym at the local high school gym and we go play soccer.We get Saturdays off, but there tends to be an optional organised activity we can take part in (like going to Timaru, the beach or on a hike). Sunday mornings, we go to church in Geraldine. The afternoons are free. In the evening of every second Sunday, we have Sunday Fellowship, where someone (usually the main lecturer for the next week) comes and presents a message that introduces the material for the next week and we sing some praise songs. After that we have supper (which here essentially means an evening snack). The hour between tea and Sunday night fellowship is spent in silence so that we can spend some time with God.

My Testimony

2009-10-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

I am a science student because I love figuring things out. I love having the solid facts, the evidence. I love finding the values I need, plugging them into the right equation and coming out with an answer. For this reason, I think that explaining my testimony in terms of a mathematical function makes sense. So let’s start with a variable, something that changes depending on its position on the x-axis, on the y-axis, on the z-axis, and if you get really advanced, in time. That variable is me: Angela. Now what good is a variable if there is no function? If I were a variable, I think my function would be a sine function. So now we have sin(Angela). For those of you who for whom trigonometry is very far back, a sine function looks like a wave. This, I have found, is a pretty accurate description of my walk with God. Too many times in the past, I have come to a point in my life where I was way down (at y=-1 on the sine function) and have turned back to God, realizing that I couldn’t do anything on my own, and have given my life back to the Giver of Life (I would now be at y=1 on the sine function). And too many times, once the difficult time was over, I would take back control of my life, letting God take back the roll of co-pilot. With that said, here is my story.

When I was six years old, I remember sitting on the couch in my living room, following my mom in a prayer of salvation. After growing up in a Christian home and attending church and Sunday school regularly, I had decided that I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart.
Thirteen years have passed since that day. Never once have I doubted that I had a saviour in Jesus Christ, or that the Creator of the universe had a plan for my life, but my faith slowly became stale.

I spent the first 12 years of my life in Montreal, attending church regularly with my family. In fifth grade, my Sunday school teacher taught about Noah’s ark. I was introduced to creation science and this strengthened my faith. I became convinced that the first chapters of Genesis should be interpreted literarily.

Since then, God has taught me so much about Himself through my study of creation. I never wanted a blind faith, simply believing because my parents had told me to, so studying creation has strengthened my faith because I can see that the truths of the Bible are, in fact, supported by scientific evidence. In many of the times when I have felt most distanced from God, a reason has come up for me to study creation and once again, I have become excited about what God has done and is doing.

When I was twelve, my family moved to Sherbrooke. I started high school and I entered into what I now see as a darker part of my life. I felt lost, lonely and confused. Having left all my childhood friends back in Montreal, I craved true friendship, which I wasn’t finding in my friends at school. And so I began looking for friendship. I joined my church youth group, but felt that I had only found superficial friendships with people much younger than myself. I began attending women’s lunches and outings with my mom, but found I couldn’t associate with these women in the way I needed. I developed huge crushes on guys. None of these satisfied me. I pleaded with God to give me one good friend. Looking back, I think I spent too much time pleading with God to give me one true human friend and not enough time strengthening my relationship with him. I felt distanced from God, but I still believed in Him and believed that He had a plan and a purpose for my life. As a pubic declaration of this faith I was baptised in 2007.

Two years ago, I started cegep. The significantly increased workload caused me to come out of the ‘lower point’ I had been in for most of my high school years. I once again became fascinated with creation science and studied it at every possible opportunity. I have had some wonderful debates with both my peers and my teachers on this subject. This was great for my faith in God but my relationship with my creator was still lacking. I read my Bible and my motto was “pray without ceasing” but it was more religious than anything else. I desperately wanted to be close to my creator but nothing I did seemed to make any difference. And so, throughout this time, I would give my life back to God. I would get so down that the only way I could turn was to Him. But after turning back to Him during the low points, I would keep falling back into life without the satisfaction I craved because I kept taking my life back.

And so, in March of last year, I decided to apply to Bible College, hoping to find there whatever it was that I craved. And now, as I sit here, two days into classes, I have no idea what to write. I think I should start by saying that I have now realised that I have been getting it wrong this whole time. It has always been about me: “What can God do for me?” “God, please get me out of this tough situation” “God, please give me just one good friend” “God, please, please, please... Do this for me.” But I get it now! It’s not about me! It’s about God and His glory. I think the verse that really spoke to me this week was “seek first,” or ONLY, “the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.” So this time, I didn’t give my life back to God, because I could just keep doing that and it would get me nowhere. Instead, I decided to seek ONLY God.
I have really seen God working in my life over the past nineteen years simply by my own failure to realise the point of my existence. More recently, I have realised that, by my attempts to follow all the rules in order to (subconsciously) earn my way to heaven, I have come to a point where I now understand that it is utterly impossible for my to live up to the standards that God has set for me.

A verse that has really stood out for me in the past is in Isaiah 40 which really talks about God’s supreme glory. In verses 25 and 26, we read “(25)’To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. (26)‘Lift your eyes and look to the Heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.’” I used to read this verse with the emphasis on verse 26, marvelling at God’s awesome creation, but now I see that it is not so much about what He has created for me, but what He did and how He deserves all the glory.

So, as you can see, God has slowly been taking my sin(Angela) function and is moulding it into His function, maybe even an exponential function (Say x7) where I can continuously grow in Him, depend solely on Him, and value Him above all else. I don’t quite get the whole ‘God is all about Himself’ concept yet; I am still trying to wrap my head around it. In fact, I doubt I will ever fully grasp it, but at least now, my spiritual asymptote has been moved closer to infinity –or eternity.

Week 3

2009-10-11T01:19:00.001-07:00

Ministry week was amazing! The school was split into two groups and we each went to a different camp. The other group went to a CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) camp. From what I have heard, it sounded pretty ‘chill’ and fun. Our camp was a Te Mapua camp at the Woodend campsite. Te Mapua is an organisation that runs camps and extracurricular activities for underprivileged children. We were working with children aged 5 to 10, most of whom came from very difficult backgrounds. During the two days of training, the staff told us about some of the children’s backgrounds. It was terrifying and heartbreaking to hear about some of these kids who had live through physical, sexual, and mental abuse. We learned of the neglect that some of these children face on a daily basis and of the poor living conditions of some of the poorer families. Each child is sponsored by the government, so they are children who would not be able to attend camp under normal circumstances. Many of the staff and volunteers were in tears as our hearts broke for these precious children. For confidentiality reasons, we were not told which children came from which backgrounds, but we heard about children who were not yet potty trained, children who did not know how to use utensils, children who had never seen a vegetable, and children who were commonly referred to by swear words. We were also told about some of the results of such neglect: some of the children were ADD, ADHD, ODD, and bruised and scared (mentally and physically). Needless to say, after the two days of training, I was terrified to meet these kids that I subconsciously though of as little dirty monsters. But during the training, we were given half an hour to simply spend some time in prayer and in ‘God’s special book, the Bible.’ During this time, I came across a passage in Psalms talking about how God cares for the outcast of society. Reading this helped me realise that I needed to let God take control of the week. I realised that there was no way I could love these kids enough, I had to simply let God love them through me. Knowing that there was nothing I could do to make this week be a success and knowing that it was all in God’s hands and for His glory gave me the sense of peace I really needed.

I was assigned to the bus team, meaning that I got to go meet the kids at the church where they were being dropped off and then I accompanied them on the bus back to camp. Seeing the precious children made me realise that they were just kids. They had all the same quirks, fears, expressions, and ‘cutensses’ as any other children their age. I was delighted to meet the nine beautiful girls who would be in my cabin. For safety reasons, there are always two leaders to a cabin and it is essential that a leader never be alone with a child. My co-leader for the week was Penny. She was amazing with the kids and she was so good at keeping our group on track. We balanced each other well: she was great one on one with the kids and I felt more comfortable managing them as a group.

Te wonderful thing about the camp was that it was ALL about the children. They were put first in everything. They were the only ones to do the activities – such as go-karts, climbing wall, archery, and water slide – while the adults supervised and made sure the kids were enjoying themselves and were being kept busy. The kids got seconds, thirds, and fourths if they wanted and the leaders only got more once the kids were completely satisfied. This is because many of the kids don’t get to have three full – or healthy – meals a day. We had to keep the kids entertained all the time: even free time was very structured, with leaders interacting with the children. This was partly because, left to themselves, they would get themselves into trouble, and also because we wanted them to really feel loved and be able to just be kids. We had about 45 minutes away from the kids for a leaders meeting in the evenings and we had a few minutes to shower – there were scheduled showers so that there was only one leader per cabin showering per night so that the other could be with the kids – and get ready for bed.

The leaders got to lead ‘Power Hour’ each day, which was where we would explain the gospel in terms that the children would understand, sing praise songs, and perform skits. The theme of the week was ‘Sent to Save,’ so we had mailboxes, giant envelopes, and huge packages as props and as a background for the stage. We also had a mailbox for each cabin and the children would receive letters, such as instructions for activities, throughout the week. There was a new them each day: sent to love, sent to show, sent to save, and sent to share. The first day, we learned that God loved us so much he made everything in the world for us and he sent His son for us. The second day, we learned that Jesus was sent to show us to go God’s way and we learned that when we sin, we can’t be close to God. The third day, we learned that Jesus was sent to save us from our sin so that we could be close to God again. On the third evening, the kids had a special party in their cabins where they were invited to ask God to be the boss of their lives. Both cabin leaders shared their testimony (in a child friendly way) and explained how having God as the boss of our lives has changed us. In my cabin, all but one of the girls – who had run off and was playing in the hallway – said that they wanted to make God the boss of their lives. My prayer is that this decision is not just a camp thing, but that it will change their lives. On the fourth day, the kids learned that they are now sent to share God with the world. Power Hour was tons of fun! The first day, I got to present the sentence from the Bible (the memory verse). I got to be silly and make the kids laugh. We got the kids yelling, whispering, and chanting the sentence from the bible. The second day, I got to play Zacchaeus in a skit we presented. I think my favourite part, however, was the kids praise. We got to be crazy and do awesome actions and it was tons of fun! I loved to watch the kids rocking it out! They were awesome!

It turned out to be an amazing experience to pour everything I had into these children and it was so rewarding at the end when they all asked God to be the boss of their lives.

We were all exhausted and quite hungry at the end of camp. When we met back at Amy Boss’s house for the debrief, we devoured at least ten pizzas in 15 minutes! During the debrief, we filled out a form on each child that will help the Te Mapua follow up well on each of them. There is a Tuesday night program for all the kids and the staff also visit the schools and homes on a regular basis. I think it is so cool how well the kids are cared for before camp (the staff meet all the kids and learn tons about them before camp even starts) and even after camp. They keep a file on each child so that they can minister to them in the best possible way. After the debrief, we went around the circle and we each shared one thing about how God had worked in us that week. We then got to honour one person and one person got to honour us. The group from Capernwray had to leave right after the sharing circle so the staff gave us a bag of lollies (which are just candies and treats) – which we devoured on the way home – and after many hugs and thank yous we left.

It was amazing how tight the bonds were that had formed in that one week at camp. I think there are two reasons for this. The first is that camp is so intense, since we are interacting with the kids at every moment, that we had to rely completely on each other for so much. The second is that we were constantly building each other up. So many times during the training, we had the opportunity to honour people and tell them what they were doing that was so amazing or simply thank them for some thing they did that really impacted us. Also, during our short meetings in the evenings during camp, we had the chance to honour our fellow leaders. We even received letters from Amy Boss in our cabin mailbox just pointing out some of our strengths and encouraging us in our work. It was so cool to be able to tell build each other up! It was even more fun to honour someone else that it was to be honoured!

This ‘honouring’ system was also used with the kids. We would build them up at every opportunity. I had one girl who would not sit still and who would always get up from the table or leave the group so whenever she was sitting quietly at the table or during an activity – even if it was only for thirty seconds – I would tell her how amazingly she was doing. After any activity, the staff would have lollies that they would give out to kids who were listening well or doing awesome actions during the praise and everyone would cheer for them.

I think God used this week to teach me to fully rely on Him. It is once I came to the end of myself that He could fully use me and love these precious children through me. Hanna gave each of us a slip of paper at the beginning of the week with a quote by Major Ian Thomas on it. It read: “I can’t. He (God) never said I could. He can and always said He would.” This was a real encouragement to all of us as we struggled with the seemingly impossible task ahead, and throughout the week, fully trusted that God was in control. I also had to give these children up to Him because, after camp, it is only Him who can make a lasting difference in their lives. As Amy Boss put it, He lent these precious children to us for a week. It was difficult to send the kids home on Friday knowing some of the backgrounds, but it was made easier knowing that the Te Mapua team will continue to support them and knowing that God is still holding them in the palm of His hand.

I have spoken quite a bit about Amy Boss. She is the one who began the Te Mapua ministries. She has such a beautiful heart and such an anointing for taking care of the ‘outcast’ children. She is so passionate about what she is doing and it is obvious that she truly cares about each one of the kids. It was a wonderful experience to be able to learn so much from her. I think one thing that I learned a lot about was discipline. It was so rewarding to first encourage the good behaviour before trying to correct the bad. Even when we were ‘angry’ with a child, we would make it positive. For example, if a child was climbing on another child’s bunk, instead of saying “You are not allowed up there,” we would say “Sweetie, I would love it if you could come down from there.” I had one child whom I had asked to come down from a bunk but she had not obeyed so when I asked her the second time, I said “Honey, I’d love it if you could come and sit here with the group, thank you for being such a good girl and coming down right away when I ask you, you are such a good girl.” She gave me a surprised look and came down immediately. This form of discipline makes it so that the children are so much more willing to do as they are asked and they are less likely to resist. Aside from discipline, Amy Boss taught me the importance of building people up. She is so good at making people feel right at home, accepted, and valued.

The Te Mapua team has said that they might come down to visit us at Capernwray at some point this year. It would be sooooooo cool to see them all again!

We got home from camp on Friday night, well, more like Saturday morning at 12:30am, to find the other half of the student body had waited up for us! There were tons of shrieks and a huge group hug. We were so happy to see each other again (it’s amazing to see how we’ve become so much like a family in only three weeks) and we were also relieved to be home from camp. Camp was extremely difficult and challenging, but I got a lot out of it and I am very glad I went. I think the Te Mapua organization is such a blessing and it would be so cool if it eventually became international. After the reunion in the student lounge, us girls went upstairs and talked till at least 2am about our experiences.

On Saturday, most of us spent the day simply recovering. We had breakfast at 11. Jonas and I made poutine for supper (every Saturday, a different group of students makes supper) with fruit salad for desert. Unfortunately, it took way longer than we thought so it was an hour and a half late, and I killed the gravy (the recipe I got of the internet was kind of gross). But we still got a few compliments and Sheryl did manage to save the gravy.

Today (Sunday), after church I went out for a photo shoot to get some pictures of the school, the grounds, and the surrounding mountains. Tonight, we will have Sunday night fellowship and Werner will be speaking (yay!!).

I would really appreciate prayer for the children whose lives were made better for four days at camp. My prayer is that Te Mapua will be able to support them and that God would continue to work in their lives and in the lives of the people around them.

Week 2

2009-10-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

This week we started actual classes and it was amazing! I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know! Werner Schreiber taught on the Sermon on the Mount (Genesis 5-7). Basically, what we learnt was that these passages, although often interpreted prescriptively (telling you what to do), are actually descriptive of what our lives would be like if we had Christ indwelling us. We also watched a DVD series titled ‘History’ by Louis Giglio and Andy Stanley. It was all about how God is full of Himself – and if He weren’t, He wouldn’t be God – and how God deserves all the glory. It was an amazingly powerful DVD! I plan on buying myself a copy so I can watch it again. We also read the first two chapters of two books we will be reading throughout the semester. The first, ‘Revolution Within,’ is also about how God deserves all the glory and how we can be transformed from the inside out if we admit this and seek only His glory. The second, ‘Knowledge of the Holy’ by A W Tozer, explained why it is so important to know God’s characteristics and then goes on to explain some of them. The one we studied this week was that God is Incomprehensible: that we tend to bring Him down to human sizes when in fact He is too big to be understood by human minds. We also got a class by Dale on the importance of the scriptures.

Every two weeks, we have to write a journal entry about what we have learned. We have to summarize the parts that seemed most relevant and important to us. To give you an idea of what I have been learning, here is my journal entry:
- Acting out in anger in response to someone else, worrying, holding a grudge against someone, or being impatient with someone are not so much reactions as they are revelations of the heart. Therefore, I must, as well as asking for forgiveness for the action, ask God to reveal what is in my heart that is the real cause for the action. Only once the problem with the heart – which is the true problem – has been identified can I confess and can the heart be changed.
- The law of the Old Testament can only make me aware of my sin. I cannot be righteous by observing the law (Romans 3:20) because it is unable to change the heart. Jesus shows in the Sermon on the Mount that it is utterly and completely impossible to abide by the law, but with His Spirit in control of my life, the desire to please Him is much stronger than the law. The Beatitudes are not prescriptive (telling me what to do); rather, they are descriptive of what my life would be if I had the Lord in my heart. If it were prescriptive, it would be the same as the law: unable to change the heart. So the only way to bring about true change in my life is to be changed completely from the inside (Ezekiel 36:24-27).
- Either I can live for me, or I can live for God. I need to abandon my “what’s in it for me” mentality and focus on bringing God the glory because I cannot serve two masters. I need to completely die to myself. I need to drive a stake through the heart of ‘self’ so that God can completely live through me and transform me.
- God demands all the glory, point final! If he didn’t demand all the glory, He wouldn’t’ be God. If He didn’t put all His value in Himself, He would put His value in something greater and He would therefore not be God. God loves me more than I could ever love myself, but He loves me much, not most. Everything God has ever done for me is really only for His glory. I tend to make God small so that He can fit into my plans when, in fact, it is Him who is making a place for me in His amazing plans. He doesn’t need me, He would get His glory with or without me, so I can choose to live for myself, trying to steal a piece of God’s glory, or I can die to myself, realising that I am not God, and live only for I AM.
Aside from classes, we had a few fun activities this week. On Tuesday, for family night, we split up into two groups, one group staying at The Crossing with Hanna, Sheryl, and Colin and the other going to the Epp’s with Dale, Patti, and Joseph. We played games, talked, learnt more about each other and generally had fun! We played midnight madness – where each person rolls a dice and when you land on 6 you start writing numbers from 1 to 100 until someone else gets a 6 and takes the pen from your hand, the first one to 100 wins – and another similar game that involved putting a hat, scarf and mitts on and trying to eat a piece of chocolate with a fork. We also played a really fun game, kind of like broken telephone, where each person has a stack of papers and writes a sentence on the first page. You then pass the stack to the next person who reads the sentence and then, having put the first page on the bottom of the pile, draws a picture of the sentence. The next person gets the stack, looks at the picture, and writes a sentence about it. The final result can be quite hilarious. We finished the evening with hot chocolate, brownies and ice cream.

On Friday, we had a comedy night and we watched a Brian Regan act. It was not hilarious, but we all got a good laugh.

On Saturday, we all went to a beach in Timaru (Brown’s beach or Winchester beach depending on who you ask). We parked the vans and walked (or rode Joseph’s motorbike) about half an hour down the beach to the mouth of a river where we could fish for whitebait (which is a delicacy here). You had to stand by the water with a net and wait for a wave. As the wave went back out, you put the net in the water (it is a pretty solid metal net) and caught the fish as they were pulled back out to sea. I didn’t actually fish because it involved getting very wet in frigid water. I did, however, try one of these tiny see-through fish. It was really gross because the fish was still moving when I put it in my mouth. It didn’t taste like anything but salt water, but it crunched when I bit it. Some people swallowed them whole and said that they could feel it for a few seconds squirming in their throats and stomachs. There were some really neat clay formations, made by the waves hitting the beach repeatedly, which looked like little peninsulas. Along the beach, I collected some multicoloured rocks. I even some green ones! The others were orange, red and pink. The beach was super windy and cold, but even so, Jonas, Kelsey, Amber, Ben, Michael, and Joel actually went in. I had a wonderful time, and I will sleep well tonight!

Tonight, Amber, Colin, and Bryan (the three redheads :P) are making pirogees for supper and banana boats for desert, it should be good!

Tomorrow, we leave for camp (for our ministry week). Your prayers for lots of sleep, for patience with the kids, that we would be able to minister the gospel effectively, and for safety would be greatly appreciated! We will be working with kids aged 8 to 12 and hopefully, we will have a blast!

Week 1

2009-09-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Wow! I’ve already been at The Crossing for a week. It seems to have flown by, and yet I am also amazed at how it seems like we have all been here for so long! Everyone is super friendly! The weather here is surprisingly cold. I had always assumed that New Zealand was always warm and tropical so this comes as a shock to me (and to many of the others here as well). I have had to go out shopping for a warm blanket and hope to purchase some slippers, gloves, hat and a new wool sweater. Since there is no central heating, we heat with wood fires in the student lounge and the formal lounge. We also have heaters in our beds that we turn on half an hour before bed so that it is nice and toasty when we get in. We have had off and on sunny weather for most of the past week, although it rained yesterday and is overcast today.

The house we are staying in, which was until very recently a bed and breakfast when there was no school, is beautiful. As one of the students put it, it looks ‘antiquated.’ We love to hang out in the formal lounge (which is basically our living room) and play card games (such as king’s corner and UNO), talk, read, and laugh. There is usually someone playing the guitar or the piano (sometimes both) which makes for a very nice atmosphere. It is not rare to have a large group of students and staff huddled around the fire where it is warmest. I share a room with the four other girls (Amber, Cara, Kelsey, and Cameron). I sleep on the top bunk above Cameron. We have decided to decorate our room with pictures that we have placed all along the ledge of the crown moulding all around the room. At the moment, I only have one picture (so if anyone feels like including a photograph with a letter, that would be awesome!).

Meal time is quite fun. We make a point of changing tables at every meal so that we can have a chance to talk with different people and get to know everyone. The food is delicious: Sheryl is an awesome cook! Every Saturday, there will be a different pair of students cooking the meal and desert. We still don’t know who we will be teamed up with, but I am already thinking of what I would love to make (something Québécois, like ‘pudding chomeur’).

To make the school run more smoothly, we all have duties. I am on breakfast clean up as my daily duty and I vacuum and clean the dining room/formal lounge and student lounge/classroom as my weekly duty. We also have a work day on Wednesday afternoons where we get split up into teams to do stuff like clean the kitchen, weed the gardens, mow the lawns, sweep, vacuum, etc.

Every Friday, there is a free trip into town so that we can stock up on necessities such as chocolate, toiletries, food (we have a fridge in the student lounge where we can store snacks and stuff), stationary, stamps, etc. We have to pay for any other trips, but they are not too expensive. On Monday (the first day we were here), a bunch of us decided to walk into town. Dale had said that we could actually walk along the riverbed since it is so low. We ended up having to cross the river several times since it crisscrossed back and forth along the riverbed. I managed to cross on rocks for the first bit, but eventually, we all had either waded ankle high with our shoes on or were walking barefoot through the freezing cold water. It was tons of fun!! I can’t wait to do it again, although this time I will wear flip-flops or crocks so that the rocks won’t be so painful.

The more intense classes will begin tomorrow and the guest speaker for the week will be arriving tonight for Sunday night fellowship. This week has been mostly orientation and getting to know each other. It has been really fin, but I can’t wait to start classes!

Next week, we will be going to help at two different camps, probably as counsellors, with kids aged 8 to 12. I had to buy a sleeping bag for this (I actually found a small one for only 45NZD!). Apparently it will be cold and I have been advised to bring a hot water bottle to stick in my sleeping bag to keep warm. Please pray that we will have patience with the kids since we will likely not be getting enough sleep and that we will be able to be effective witnesses to the kids.

Many of the students have taken up running in the morning before breakfast. I tried running the first morning, but had to stop half way. I now plan on walking in the mornings, this way I can bring my camera to take pictures of the postcards from God.

If you would like to pray for us here at The Crossing, here are the names of the students: Cara, Kelsey, Cameron, Amber, Jordan, Adam, Ben, Robert, Michael, Bryan, Joel, Joel B. (who is still waiting for his student visa so that he can join us), and Jonas. The staff are Hanna, Sheryl, Dale, Patti, Joseph, Colin, and Justice (5 yrs old) and Isabelle (8 yrs old) (Dale and Patti’s kids).

I would love to hear from you! My address here is
124 Woodbury Road
R.D. 1
Geraldine
New Zealand

Touring, last day!

2009-09-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

Sunday
We found a nice church in Geraldine and decided to attend the ‘contemporary’ service at 11. It turns out that this is the church where most of the Capernwray staff goes on a regular basis. The service was interesting (it was on Nehemiah chapter 9 and getting to know God). In the afternoon, Mom, Dad, and I drove to Peel forest and went for a hike. The woods were beautiful and full of birds we couldn’t see but could hear all around us. We hiked up to a waterfall and then over to the biggest tree in the forest that is 4 meters in diameter and 31 meters in height. When we got back to the hotel, I repacked since my stuff has expanded over the week we have spent touring. I am excited to start school tomorrow!

Touring, Day 6

2009-09-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday
After a rather relaxed day yesterday, we decided to go hiking around Lake Tekapo. We chose a path that brought us to a point on the edge of the lake from which we could see the snow covered peaks of the mountains that surrounded us. It was a beautiful site, with the mountains all around and the impossibly blue-green lake. After the hike, we drove up to the Mt John Observatory to find out about star gazing. The tour turned out to be slightly out of our price range, so we decided to find a nice spot out of town to see the stars from. Although the sun was below the mountains by 6:30, we waited until 8 for the sky to be dark enough for the first stars to appear. And when they appeared, it was beautiful!!! Because of all the measures the town takes to avoid light pollution, we could see the sky perfectly and it was absolutely filled with stars! The weird part was that we didn’t recognise any of the constellations.

Touring, Day 5

2009-09-18T15:46:00.001-07:00

Friday
I finished the book I had been reading today. It is called “My Sister’s Keeper” (it was recently turned into a movie). Although it has many references to sex, drugs, alcohol, and drugs, it is also filled with humanity, heart, and life. Following the life of a thirteen year old girl who decides to sue her parents for the right to her own body, the novel is written from the perspective of several people, making it a fascinating read. Anna was conceived to be a genetic match for her sister, who is dying of leukemia. All her life, she has given blood, bone marrow and had countless operations to help save her sister, but now she wants to stop. Following a fascinating ethical issue, this is the kind of novel that leaves you both hungry for more, filled with questions, but also satisfied with the answers you have. It is the type of novel that has me praying for the characters, even though I tell myself that that is silly – they are purely fictional. It is the type of novel that leaves you teary but oh so happy.

Touring, Day 4

2009-09-18T15:45:00.001-07:00

Thursday
We woke up to a beautiful clear sky today. The plan for the day was to hike the Heritage trail in the morning and then go on a cruise in the afternoon however, after a walk around the town, Dad decided he had had enough walking for a little while. We are all still a little sore after yesterday’s hike. So instead we walked around town, looking through shops. After finding an internet cafe and chatting with people back home (eee), we ate lunch and headed down to the main quay for our cruise. It was a wonderful day to be out on the water and the view was fabulous! We got to see seals, four hector’s dolphins )also known as New Zealand dolphins), and even an albatross. Hector’s dolphins are the smallest species of dolphin in the world, measuring only one to two meters. They live in small pods of three or four. We also went around to the mouth of an old volcano that the water has been eroding, revealing a vertical lava flow - a rare phenomenon. Another interesting rock formation was a small cave that waves would roll into, hit the back, and a spray, kind of like that of a whale, shoots out the front. It was quite neat! On the way back to the bay, Mom, Dad and I were at the front of the boat. The wind, combined with the speed of the boat (which was headed into the wind) made for extremely strong winds that made our eyes water and our clothing flap violently. Dad was the first to decide that he had enough and went bellow to warm up. Mom and I stayed above, literally leaning on the wind. Finally, when I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, I went bellow. Mom stayed above the entire time and, by then end, was the only one there! I guess this confirms where I get some of my insanity from (although much of it is probably due to overconsumption of chocolate).

The road to Akaroa is beautiful in a rather terrifying way. Twisting and turning up and around hills dotted with sheep, it reminds me of Ireland. The only difference being that in Ireland, the incredible narrow roads are lined with rock walls whereas the road to Akaroa has absolutely nothing on either side – there are not even any guard rails between the road and the cliffs that are terrifyingly close. Although equally as narrow, the road from Christchurch is almost dead straight. This difference is quite noticeable since we are driving both roads one after the other.

Did you know?

2009-09-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Did you know (#1) that originally there were no land mammals in New Zealand? Rabbits were introduced and, since they had no predators, spread much too quickly. Possums were then introduced as predators to the rabbits. Unfortunately, the possums found it easier to hunt Kiwis, the famous wingless birds native to New Zealand, than rabbits and so possums have now also become part of the pest problem.

Did you know (#2) that gorse was introduced to New Zealand in the 1800’s and is now a rampant weed. Its beautiful bright yellow flower covers the hillside. Fortunately, gorse provides an excellent nursery to native trees. In fact, the soil in which gorse is growing is more fertile that otherwise. A native tree will begin to grow in the protection of the gorse and as it matures, will grow above the gorse and take over. Since gorse need direct sunlight, the tree will end up smothering it.

Touring, Day 3

2009-09-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today, we woke up early so that we could begin exploring. Our plan was to head down to Pigeon bay to hike along a path that follows the coastline. Unfortunately, this path was closed for lambing season. We soon decided on another trail called Hinewai Reserve. It was a lovely trail that started at the top of a ridge, went down a steep incline into the valley and then up onto a second ridge and back over to where it began. We chose to walk one of the shorter trails and this ended up taking us three hours. It was beautiful and very well maintained. An amazing feature was that the foliage would change so drastically around us depending on our altitude and our proximity to a stream. We saw several beautiful waterfalls and stopped for lunch on a narrow bridge over one of the falls. After such an intense hike, we will all sleep very well tonight!

Touring, Day 2

2009-09-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 14th
Today, we started out by touring down town Christchurch. Driving on the left was both stressful and disorienting, even for me in the back seat. Our first stop was Christchurch Cathedral. This beautiful cathedral has a lookout point at the top of one of the towers (which we unfortunately did not get to see since the Holy Communion was in 15 minutes). I saw a hilarious note pad in the gift shop that read “Man cannot live on chocolate alone, but woman can.” We then drove to the botanical gardens where we ate lunch while being occasionally sprayed by the nearby fountain.
After lunch, we toured ‘Rutherford’s Den,’ the place where Rutherford began his studies on radiation. There were some neat demos of his early research and a simulated lecture in one of the old lecture rooms. Did you know that Brazil nuts are slightly radioactive, that students of this university in Christchurch had to wear gowns and mortar boards during all lectures, or that Rutherford’s research led to the invention of the smoke detector?
After an informative tour, and after dropping off some maple syrup for the daughter of a friend, we headed off for Akeroa along a beautiful (and terrifying) winding road. It reminded me of driving in Ireland, only instead of rock walls on either side of the narrow road, there were cliffs (and no guard rails!). We found a nice hostel in down town Akeroa and cooked up some supper. Unfortunately, since this hostel does not have wireless internet (and dad can’t seem to crack into one of the secured networks :P), I will have to post this entry tomorrow.

Touring, Day 1

2009-09-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

We are now officially at our destination! We arrived in Christchurch last night at about midnight. We checked in to a hotel and were all asleep the minute our heads hit the pillow. I was so grateful for a proper bed after 41 hours of travel. The stopover in Sydney, Australia was a refreshing change from being seated for 15 hours on the flight from Vancouver. Since we had about twelve hours between flights, we decided to leave the airport and tour for a while. This also served to get us all exhausted enough so that we would sleep soundly (I think I was asleep before our next flight even left the ground). The tour was short but sweet. We saw the Sydney opera house, walked through the botanical gardens, and stopped for ice cream (chocolate, of course).
I was worried by the fact that it was so hot in Australia (even though it was only the end of winter) and so was quite relieved when we landed in Christchurch and found that the weather was quite moderate. In fact, today (Monday) was overcast and slightly windy, but not too cold so that we had to wear big sweaters.
After sleeping in this morning, we packed up out gear, rented a car, and headed out to Orana Wildlife Park. We saw cute little meerkats (that weren’t so cute when they started growling and fighting over pieces of meat), tons of birds that came right up close, beautiful lions, rhinos with kind eyes, wild dogs, cheetahs, lemurs, spider monkeys (it was really neat to see them climbing using their tail as both balance and as a fifth hand), and best of all, kiwis. Kiwis actually look remarkably like the fruit that shares their name. They look quite funny but also rather huggable. Since kiwis are nocturnal, they are kept inside in an artificial night environment so that visitors can see them during the day. There is a lighting system all along the ceiling which lights up during the night to make these birds think it is day so that they will be out when the visitors are there.. The best part about this park was that they had a feeding schedule that allowed visitors to make their way around the park while stopping at certain exhibits to see the animals up close as they were fed. This also gave us a chance to talk to the park volunteers and learn more about the animals.

First Stop: Vancouver

2009-09-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Ah! Solid ground! We have arrived at the Vancouver airport after 5 hours in the air. One of our three plane trips is now over. Even though it is 1am body clock time (It's 10 pm Vancouver time) we are all having a rather late supper as we wait for our connection to Sydney, Australia. We already have our boarding passes, so it looks pretty good for getting on tonight, yay! I picked up a new book at the Montreal airport called 'My Sister's Keeper' (the movie was just recently playing in theatres) and am really enjoying it! It's a new writing style, and that, I find, it the most intriguing part of a novel. Our next flight leaves in two hours and hopefully we will all get some sleep then. Once we reach Sydney, we will have a 12 hour wait for our last (3 hour) flight to Christchurch, NZ.

Four days till departure!

2009-09-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

Four days until I leave for New Zealand! I am pretty excited! I still have to pack most of my stuff, but the prep for leaving is coming along nicely. The plan at the moment is to leave this Friday (the 11th of September) so that we can be in New Zealand by the 15th. And by 'we', I mean me, my mom, and my dad. My parents will be accompanying me to New Zealand and we will do some touring for a week before I start school. My parents will then continue touring for one and a half weeks to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary (one year early). During my stay in New Zealand, I will try to keep this blog as up to date as possible. I would love to hear from you either through e-mail or by leaving a comment on this blog. Thanks for reading!