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.