Home. For. Good.

Last Saturday spent in Auckland scooting around town.

I'm home finally! This year has been crazy - the whole year at Capernwray went by so fast! I have learned so much: be it the academic side of writing 8 page bible studies to growing closer with God. Some ways of this is through multiple discussions per day with people who are actively striving to follow God as well as spending quiet times with God going over different incidents in the Bible as well as in my life. I also learned to get out of my comfort zone in multiple things from deep talks to speaking in front of schools about God. Relying on Him no matter what was really important - to have that indwelling of Christ consistently.

Remembrance back to Fiji ziplining upside down. Not pictured here are the poor orphans, the destitute shanties, and the places no tourist would think to enter. Helping in those places meant a heap more to me than being in the air for a minute. 

At the close, we have a big party dinner where everyone dresses up and does a dance for a certain theme the night before Graduation. My family group was randomly selected to do Greatest Showman! Leonie and I choreographed a super fun dance to the opening song. We had acrobats, bearded lady, tall man, fat lady, tatoo guy, muscle girl, lion, and more! Everyone did awesome:)

The end was hard to say goodbye. We'd all gotten so close to each other. We will always be friends though and there are already reunions being planned!

This semester was famous for injuries and relationships. So many people were taken to the hospital over the two terms. Good thing we're required to have insurance. Mitchell started the season off by dropping weights on his toes, followed by a concussion performed by Grass. Then Leonie dropped glass bowls and shards of glass cut open her hands. One bounce at a trampoline park brought Dylan down with a dislocated arm which Sadie preceded to copy! Finally to top it off, Jaedyn sprained her foot badly while playing smash face and got taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Any more? I probably missed a couple. Speaking of couples, this is quite a semester for that as well. About 30% of the students went back home with a new boyfriend or girlfriend. Every couple weeks, a new pair would pop up and everyone would add them to the growing list. Because we're from all over the place, it was interesting to see which countries matched up. One night, a kayaking trip turned into pretty much only couples going so a singles group was held in the homestead. After a fun devo, we were presented with a power point with multiple slides on ways to get out of our singleness. It was all a big joke and a big success. Half way through a phase of speed dating questions, one "couple" left. We cheered them out the door. So there you have it - our semester also grew a lot closer spiritually to God. It was so cool to see the hunger that arose for more of Him and less of ourselves. There were intentional conversations about questions or thoughts about the Bible outside of lectures, book group, family time, etc. where we dove into God's word already. In fact, injuries and relationships only increased our dependence on Him. 

I will miss New Zealand. It's roses and ripe lemon trees in winter continually remind me that even though it should be dark and cold, life still produces a harvest. No matter what low times should come, God will still make roses and lemons out of the mess if we surrender the dark and let in the light. 

3rd and Final Ministry Week in the Kiwi capital of the World where we served coffee in the rated best cafe in all NZ!

This ministry week has been amazing. We went to the Orchard church in Te Puke, NZ, which is the kiwi capital of the world. God has taught all 9 of us so much. In Bible in Schools, I taught on Perseverance and then various students implemented that important concept into the story of Paul and Silas for the kids. While we taught on perseverance, it was ironic that we actually were thrown into practicing perseverance ourselves by relying on God’s strength throughout the week. We would have fallen apart if we hadn’t persevered with God’s strength this week due to a number of incidents that happened. At the start of the week, we had Jaedyn and Brodie who both were pretty sick. We managed to do morning tea for oldies, Sunday school, college youth night, dismantled a kiwi orchard, and more. We were playing smash face with the youth for youth group on Friday night when Jaedyn’s foot decided to sprain/fracture itself. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital while the rest of us which had shrunk to five to carry on the night quickly readjusted ourselves and led games, worship, testimony, and swing dancing. Later on at about 11, we learned she was ok but has the crutches. Some new things for me that I experienced was being so close to such a bad injury and feeling helpless because you can’t take the pain again but you can turn to God and I really felt thankful that He can be there always. 

Another new thing was a Progressive dinner. The first house was appetizers, second house was main meal, and the third was dessert. I’d never heard of it before so it was really fun to try. The only stressful thing was a game that we played in which you start out with 5 clothespins and if you say yes or no or nod your head then you lose a clothespin to the person who made you say or do the taboo. I’m a very verbal empathetic to people talking so my talking was very stilted and my neck got stiff from not nodding at every word. The worst trap was I’d be talking and then they’d say, “really??” How do you answer to a question like that without saying yes or no or nodding the affirmative!? 
We also worked at the voted best cafe in New Zealand which was an amazing opportunity. They are Christians who got together a couple years ago and decided to start a cafe for the community. They love volunteers and do free pizza nights with about 200 people coming to that now. Also when you buy a cup of coffee, they donate part of the money so you’re actually buying clean water for folks in Cambodia.

Jaedyn (pictured above) and me cut up kiwis and bananas for smoothies and had the opportunity to serve coffees, yes!

A tea for FairHaven schools on a sprightly afternoon. 

GF Waffles topped with butterscotch syrup, walnuts, bananas, and cream at the Daily. This was the morning. Little did I know I'd be back 2 more times that day for more! (Not Waffles - other yummy goodness) 

 Our billet hosting Corina and I was super nice and I loved being in her home. We were only a 2 minute walk from the church and there were kiwi orchards all about the place. She made it so cozy to come back from busy days to a warm atmosphere of fire and tea and conversation.There was a piano there with vintage sheet music that we rummaged through. I played select Sound of Music songs while Corina sang. Good days. It's actually not quite cold for winter or rainy. We've had beautiful sunshine and short sleeves - a good old sixty degrees about every day. In the back yard of our billets Karen's house were mandarin, lemon, and persimmon trees ripe with fruit. So good!