Second 19 Day Break

  How do I begin to describe this 19 day break? Each day was a mini explosion of gorgeousness and adventure. There were 17 to 19 of us teenagers screeching the corners in 4 cars. We stayed in 9 airbnb's in total - 6 on the south island and 3 in Wellington on the north island. It was always a fun surprise to enter a new house and find rooms for those one to three nights. My favorite house was probably our second house we stayed in. It was a rustic little cottage near the beach. There was a trail only trailblazers could follow and a ravine so like Parkdale that led into a creek. The kitchen and dining room in the house were not wall papered so people were encouraged to write their names as a creative guest book on the walls. Surprisingly, there was already another Avonlea from Washington State written up on the walls from February. Weird.

The guest book wall.

Whararaki Beach - I'm third from left.

     Favorite place that everyone needs to go check out is Whararaki Beach in Nelson/Golden Bay. There are giant rocks, caves, seals, seals in caves, and seal pups. Take a meandering trail through the grasses and sheep to emerge onto a wide expanse of my favorite New Zealand beach ever. Hey, this beat Matapouri Bay that I raved so much about up north last 2 week break. Stay for the sunset. Only four of us did but everyone should have. I wanted to have my finger glued to my shutter button but that wouldn't capture the beauty. 

     One new thing I did was driving on the left side of the road. I don't like driving but I've missed it after not driving in such a long time so I gave it a go for about 2 hours one day. Brodie was having to drive 10 hours all that day so he got a break and I got to drive. Good deal. I didn't expect Brodie to use part of his time in waving his legs out the window to Ryan who waved his legs back enthusiastically in the car ahead of us. Nor did I expect a police car to come cruising up after we stopped for a break about 7 minutes later. "You guys look like you're about 12." - NZ police officer quote. Thankfully he hadn't seen the leg incident and after looking at our licences, he wished us a good day and left. 

     I had my birthday the day after Easter which was so weird not celebrating it with my family. I got to face time them still though and got a box the day after when we came back to Capernwray along with other boxes and cards - so nice! The group was super great and I got to have burgers (easter dinner) and gluten free brownies and ice cream with chocolate sauce. I had to blow out 19 candles with 17 people watching - phew, that was a challenge. We played body body which is a game like Mofia in the dark, and I got killed in the first round. There were pianos in the house and I got to play my heart out. It was a good day.

This picture was the night we stayed in my favorite house. We rode down to the beach at like 10? and made a fire but someone booted us off that part of the beach. We asked later and the locals said their was no fire ban or anything. Just a grumpy man, I guess. So we made a fire further down. I found Makenna's guitar in the back of the car and she strummed out some worship music while we listened or sang. The tide came in closer and closer and finally we left the rocky beach and went home to warm beds.

In Queenstown, we had a second worship night with another group and a devotional. It was so good. Song after song was played on the guitar while people harmonized their hearts out. This house we stayed in had an amazing view and heated tile floors in the bathroom. It was by far the most expensive house but it was worth the cost of $47 a night. All the airbnb's we stayed at had some form of free food for us and this house was no exception. One of the favorite parts was the milk frother and high scale coffee maker. We lived like rich students. It was awesome!

I'm fourth from the right in another jumping photo. This one is in front of Mt. Cook which you can spot between Corina's legs whose to the left of me. We spent quite a bit of time here, skipping rocks and taking pictures. There was a few moments of tenseness when Jason's phone died on his drone and it had to come back to the location without him being able to control it. On cue, we heard the sound of a plane just over the hills. Drone + plane = bad things happen. Thankfully, the plane never showed up although we heard it come closer. The drone landed back where it had started and everything was fine after that. Phew.

That night after exploring lakes, we decided to stay at the Church of the Good Shepherd for a cuddle puddle time. There were some sleeping bags in the car which we put over our legs and backs and then everyone drew close for warmth from the bitter cold. There were the random moments of people grabbing your leg, "whose this?" or, "can someone put these knobby knees somewhere else?" Because it was so dark, it was hard to figure out who was next to who. It was just us until from out of nowhere, about 20 Asians showed up in front of us to photograph the famous church behind us with all the stars. And there we are smack dab in front of the church. One guy went up to us and asked, "do you want us to take your picture?" Nathan held out his phone and the guy reached down as if to take it, then backed up, saying, "Oh that camera is trash." And then he left! Who does that? We were surprised and disgruntled. For a minute, we thought he was teasing and would come back but he didn't. It wasn't until like 2 minutes had passed, that he came back with a huge camera on a massive tripod. He told us to shine our phone screens at our faces so they'd light up while he took a 10 second long exposure time to capture the stars and the church in the background. We gathered around him afterward to see the final product and told him we were Bible school students. "ahh, then we are brothers and sisters!" Was his response. SO cool!

In order from left to right: Tobias (German), Corina (Canadian), Marie (German), Me, Jacob (Canadian)

 We stayed in Christchurch for several days which is the city that had a 6.3 earthquake in 2011 and then a shooting that killed 50 people just last month. We didn't die though and one day, five of us visited Akaroa area, just east of Christchurch. We spent the day exploring the land and then headed back after a gorgeous sunset and fog rolling in from the hills.

We're missing 3 people in this photo. Names left to right: Tobias, Jacob, Makenna, Jackson, Gracie, Ryan, Scott, Grace, Mallie, Corina, Brodie, Ceanna, Jason, Me, Marie

   
For Easter, we visited an Elim church and bombed their youth get together after. It was about 8 to 10 of them and 18 of us. We payed for our half of the pizza but got free soda, hot chocolate, coffee, and tea. They were very kind and we got to know all about their lives from Singapore, etc. and they got to experience Capernwray students for the first time which hopefully was a good thing for them. Afterwards we went to this museum which featured huge wax figures representing people of world war 1. My hand was about as big as half the figure's ear to put it in scale. I was a little creeped out by the realistic sweat, pores, and blood so I diverted myself to watching a lady try to park her car far down in the parking lot. It turned out to be a lot more painful then looking at bomb shelled people because I felt like this was much more truer to how my life will look like. Instead of death or honor after the grime and intensity in war, most of us are chosen to park a car. And this lady spent 10 minutes in the parking lot trying to park her car in a normal parking space. She got in other cars way as they tried to go around her. She wasn't even backing in! I learned from her that turning your wheels while not moving is terrible for your tires. And opening a door and hitting the car beside you is not great as well. My only hope is that when I park my car in life, Jesus will be at the wheel...not me. Because I know that by myself, I will probably take longer than 10 minutes to park my car - and that's both figuratively and literally.

Fiji. Beautiful green lush fields. Opaque pristine waters. Palm trees swaying in the warm tropical breeze. That's how the tourists see Fiji as and that's what they find. They don't venture inland into the squatter huddles around the bit of muddy river. They don't see the impact when the river floods and takes the little possession they have of land and belongings. The beautiful lush fields turn into a mess of mosquitoes and red clay the second you step into it. The clean waters are filtered - you don't find pristine blue waters in the interior. The palm trees are still beautiful - no comment needed.
A team of 11 of us headed out from Capernwray for two weeks of mission trip work. We experienced heat 100% humidity the second we stepped off the plane. The first couple days we were dead from the heat but it got better once it rained and clouds came in. Although it was hurricane season we thankfully didn’t get to know what that was like. Basically a normal day at island encounters went like so:
- 6:30 wake up time
- 6:45 devo
- 7 really good breakfast made of fruits (fresh watermelon, pineapple, bananas, avocados, passion fruit, guava, and papaya!)
- 7:30 to 8:30 was quiet time with Jesus (I read through Zachariah and half of Romans)
- 8:30 we met with sunscreen and bug spray ready for the day
We worked for 4 hours (except the last day when I got in 4 and a half hours) each day with a break for morning tea of fresh juice and cookies and Busa - a Fijian trail mix of raisins, nuts, curly crisps, and dried peas.
- 1 lunch ranging from bread and rice to boiled cassava - lots of starches!
After lunch we usually hung out, had a nap, or played some games. This was also a good time to prepare crafts for the kids activities we did in the afternoons.
- 3 or 4 we had kids ministry! We did a skit, song, and lesson around the Good Samaritan story in modern day life.
- 6 was dinner which was soup and rice or curry and rice or chutney, chicken, and rice.
- 7:30 was testimonies and going around the circle saying a high and low of the day and what we learned. That was really cool to hear what people had experienced that day. Afterwards, we played some games that people had in mind or oftentimes we had Deans Deep Discussions. This was when we plyed our leader Dean with questions about life and then after he gave his answer, we all discussed what he had said with what we had in our slight store of knowledge.
For tourist activities, we went to beachcombers island and experienced mud pools and zip lines upside down in a jungle under the hills of the sleeping giant. It was actually sad to see the stark difference between the tourist realm and the actual life of Fijians who live in dirt poor. But it was a very good time overall and our team bonded amazingly well!

Makes NO Sense Compulsions

     Here at Capernwray, time seems to be poured out like a teakettle through a strainer into a cup of tea. The water in the teakettle is time. Going through the strainer full of tea leaves means events and scheduled plans get stopped for a while while the flavour (NZ spelling flavour vs. flavor - I wrote it then left it as is) it enhances throughout the months to come is in the cup of tea. My cup of tea this semester has been a very strong black taste so far. There has been a lot going on already and it feels I've already lived my 5 months here - 1. because the time goes by so fast...and 2. because God has been showing me a lot.

      For example, we had a ministry class a couple weeks ago and the person speaking, out of the blue, had some of us returning students get up and share the Gospel under 2 minutes to the class. We all did that last semester so it wasn't anything new but it had been awhile since we did it. That afternoon before the class, I felt like we were going to do it that night and also that I was going to be one of the ones picked on so I felt it best to prepare. Looking over my notes from last semester, I came up with some hand motions to portray the gospel visually - one of the students last semester had drawn the gospel story on a whiteboard which really helped because I'm a visual learner. I went over it quite a few times because I realized I didn't come up with the hand motions on my own and I wanted to share the gospel the best I could with the motions and idea that God had given me. At the end of the class that night, Michael called up Leonie and Andrew to share. I thought, ok maybe he'll call on me another night. But it didn't match up because I felt I was supposed to share that particular night. After Leonie and Andrew shared the gospel story beautifully, Michael said, "Oh and wait, Avonlea, you're going to share too." That's what I was expecting. Don't you love when God tells you something ahead of time! I shared what he had put on my heart to share and even though I got nervous as I always do in front of people, I stuck it out, thanks to the burning desire to say what God wanted me to show. 

      In this story, God used a past student (Caleb) to plant the idea of visually presenting the gospel. Then God used Michael to impulsively pick me to share that night after 2 students had already presented fabulously. Finally He used me to share what He wanted me to say. In stories like this, I've always kept quiet about how God used different people when I could see where all the strings came from and how they led to His glory. However, I've learned that by keeping God's workings quiet, we diminish the scope of glory that people praise Him with when they see all that he's doing. So I just wanted to share that with you and encourage you to tell people if you feel that compulsion as well. We might never hear a result that comes out of the compulsion, but if we know that's God's will - we don't need the pride of a result. 

Back In The Groove

     I'm back in New Zealand!!! I've been trying to keep up with the increase of students and as a result, student life in general. There are a lot of talented people including singers, gymnasts, and thinkers. There are a lot of Canadians this time from BC, Alberta, Manitoba, and one Saskatchewan and Yukon. Most of the America

ns are the ones that came back from last semester. Then there's 2 new dutch people and a lot of Germans. Also surprising is that there are no kiwis (New Zealanders) at all. Another surprise is an Aussie (Australian). Now when the lecturers make fun of Australians and then say, "Oops are there any Aussie's here?" We'll have whom they are looking for! 

    This week was mostly overview of life here at Capernwray. We did a Kahoots quiz to test our knowledge from mailboxes to modesty at the end of the week and everybody did a decent job. Friday night, we made our first fire of the term and sang worship songs and talked. Saturday, we went on a hike (Karangahake Gorge) then to the beach. Since it's been in the 80's - 90's all week, we were relieved when the beach day was cloudy. There were huge waves but we could still touch the ground so it was amazing to be rolled about by the foam or jump the crest only to fall a few feet down the other side when it broke. 

   I've been able to have some really amazing conversations with people. Meeting all the new people was as much a blast as I'd thought it would be. Thank you for continuing to read my blog and I love all the letters and packages! 

Bad picture but kind of shows the deep dark mining shaft we hiked into. No flashlights allowed so we could see the glow worms and experience for ourselves the darkness, puddles, and orange clay with a bunch of new friends. 

Back HOME

I'm back home now finally! I left July 12th and came home 2 hours before the 14th of December, gone a whole 154 days - 22 weeks - 5 and half months. And I'm going back again for another semester till the end of June! This next semester I've heard is quite different with about twice as many people as last semester. So far I have no idea what lecturers or teachings we'll be having - I'll see when I get there. I'm already excited to see what God will do with this next batch coming into Capernwray. As a returning student along with about 11 others, we'll be leaders in the sense we've already experienced one whole semester of God's goodness and faithfulness, learned and took to heart countless teachings of wisdom, and grew together closer to God. I can't wait to see what God will continue to do in us returning students as we adjust to these new roles of welcoming in others as well as trying to not remain inclusive in our group from last semester. It's a delicate balance but with God's timing, we should be able to adjust in a way that is empathetic and understanding towards others!

Averaging 4 months of eating oatmeal for breakfast at school, I'm very thankful for a mom who makes gluten free/egg free banana chocolate chip pancakes for me while I'm home.

Lecture Overview!

     How long has it been since I posted last? Quite a few weeks! What have I been doing in that time? Quite a few things! In lectures, we've gone over James, World Religions, Missions, Nehemiah, Doctrines, and God in Film. I'll explain each one, some more in depth than others.
     For James, we read through each chapter over the week. A note on that is that faith is proven by the trials, not produced.
      In World Religions (First half of week 6), we looked at a bunch of different cults from Jehovah Witnesses to Mormons. What I understood from those lectures was that in all religions and cults, they never know for sure if they're saved because of their work based salvation. The lecturer took us through many different beliefs and how you can counteract in particular instances with what they believe.
     Missions classes (2nd half of week 6) were interactive which I really enjoyed. In one class, we watched a video on the persecuted church. It was put together really well and took us through the lives of people around the world in persecution. Then we picked out of a box either number 1, 2, or 3. This represented the Hindu cast system. 1's were the elite. They had a special lunch with fancy dishes and they weren't allowed to work for work day. They also weren't allowed to talk to the 2's or 3's.

The 1's lunch

The 3's lunch - rice.

2's had a normal lunch and work day which was what I ended up being. 3's had to eat lunch in a separate area away from us on the ground. They only got a little of the lunch and they had to eat with their hands. Their work day was long and hard. The staff picked numbers too and it was funny to see which ones got what! At the end we debriefed it. It was interesting to see who liked what. For us 2's things were pretty normal but some of the 3's were so pumped to get to do it hard while some 1's were not feeling so great that they couldn't hang out with us. The day after, we went on a prayer walk around different sections of Cambridge. When we came in for morning tea that consists of hot chocolate, tea, and homemade cookies, we were surprised by just a huge pot of water with a ladle and plastic cups. The fridge was placed backwards against the wall so no one could get into it and all the mugs had been taken away. We drank our water while still having good discussion time around tables. That night as I was getting ready for bed, Yvonne the RA gave me a note. This is what it said:

Hello! This is Michael, I was so excited to have you show up for our gathering last week. I am excited to see you again this week to Worship our God together. Remember don't be late and don't get caught! We will be worshiping tonight at 3:30 am. in the back paddock in the trees. I will see you there! Don't bring a Bible just in case you run into the authorities!

Wow, was I excited! Wake up at 3:30 to meet in the cow field? Let's do it!
At 3:30 sharp, I met Elise and Holly and we crept down to the meeting place, over the fence that is sometimes electric to find ourselves in a circle with our fellow students huddled around candles that let off a flickering glow. Michael explained that this was how people of the persecuted church met and that since they (and we) couldn't bring Bibles, anyone that wanted to share a short message, devo, or memory verse off the top of their heads could. After we did that, there was a time of popcorn prayer for the persecuted church and then we had worship. Since we didn't have a guitar on hand and we had to keep it quiet, people suggested songs and then someone would start us off singing. Afterwards, we had a time of communion and then we scurried off to our beds at 4:45 am. only to awake at the usual time for breakfast, 7:30. Josiah and Azariah never got a note so they slept through our meeting! Our study papers for the term were due that morning at 8 am too and so there was a lot going on! Our final mission classes were two activities we did outside and there a little hard to explain so I won't but they were very insightful and we debriefed them later on. Over all those 3 days were so interesting with a different view on how we take our life so much for granted from meals being different to community and sleep schedule being radically changed. But the focus still remained the same and I think those that kept the same focus of seeing Jesus through all of it grew through this experience instead of just focusing on the negative of missions week. Personally, I loved it even though it was challenging.
     The week after, we traveled back to Nehemiah's day and age. Going through his story was very interesting, how important unity was to build the wall against the enemy which can be a lesson learned as well spiritually. The lecturer picked each of us for different jobs to build an actual wall around a picnic table. None of us knew each others jobs though except who the supervisors and engineers were. I was one of the engineers - excuse me, do I look engeneeric? No. Raphi and I had the plans but we were only allowed to talk to the supervisors who would direct the workers. It was chaos. Some students were working well but others were complaining while they did it. Others were encouraging but they didn't really work hard themselves. Still others set up useless piles of bricks and logs or got in the way of Raphi and I trying to measure the length, width, and height of the future enclosed structure. While this was going on, the family that lives on site here came out with water balloons and started chucking them at us! This was the analogy of what was happening to Nehemiah's wall. Finally, the lecturer brought us in and divulged the information that he had chosen certain groups to be distracters, complainers, lazy workers, etc. We had 10 minutes left till morning tea and he said if now we all worked together, how fast we could complete it? We finished it and then everyone stood on the wall and it held. It was left up throughout the entire week to remind us how fast it took once we were united in a single purpose.
     And that led up to this week which was doctrines and also God in Films. Doctrines was very intellectual and I felt like my brain was right on the end of the train trying to keep up with everything that was being said particularly since he'd ask questions and then we'd have to discuss what had been talked about in regards to the context before the question. At the end, we had a debate over whether justification is more important than sanctification. Then for God in Films, another lecturer went through different clips and how we engage with them and then also discussed worldview of the different films. On Thursday night, everyone went to a movie group at a house and then debriefed it on Friday along the lines of the hero's journey, truths and lies, and theological themes.
And that is the the extent as far as lecturing goes.

Meanwhile, there have been many social activities going on but I can't begin to start on them because that would take me forever to write! Maybe I'll just write about Friday, two days ago. On that day, we finished up lectures, then headed to choir after lunch (we're practicing for carols by candlelight which will happen on the 7th and 8th). After that, Caleb got baptized in the pool in front of Capernwray students and family and friends. It's been really cool to see how God's worked in his life over these past months. After that we had dinner than headed off to a kayaking adventure in the dark. The nine of us went up a river (first time kayaking in a current)! We could dimly see the forms of the other kayaks as we paddled up 20-40 minutes to where glow worms were. They covered both sides of a ravine we paddled into with some waterfalls cascading down. At the end, our guide, a very nice christian man, handed around some Whitaker's chocolate while explaining about the glow worms life cycle. Interestingly enough, he said that though they look amazing on the outside with the glow, inside is actually a mosquito like creature. It made a really cool illustration of how we are like that mosquito like creature who will never catch insects (bring others to God) without our light/glow which is Jesus. Afterwards, we paddled back and changed into dry clothes while the guide brought out hot chocolate in a thermos and a jar of strawberry marshmallows. It was such a good night! However I did find a huhu beetle crawling on my throat in which I screamed before flinging it to the ground. They can bite and they're like the size of half my hand - so nasty!

I'm going to be back in the states in less than two weeks! I'm excited to see home, family, and friends again!!!!!!!!!

Picture of the huhu beetle - not my hand, thank goodness, by the way.

Beginning the kayaking adventure.

Sunny November craziness

Doug (WA), Dylan (OR) in the background, Hannah (Germany), and me.

On top of the mountain.

Went on a spontaneous 5.5 mile hike on Friday after a week of studying 1 Corinthians!

We had Halloween here. In NZ among Christians, it takes on a darker meaning and so churches put on light parties for youth. Capernwray helped out at two different church events. The one I was stationed to was outside and it reminded me a lot of fourth of July. There were rides and bouncy houses. I manned a bean bag toss (corn hole) for four hours in the shade thankfully since it was so sunny. There was also a free sausage sizzle which when kiwis say that means a piece of bread wrapped around a sausage.

On Saturday, we had a youth event for youth groups to come to at Capernwray. There was about 45 that showed up and we played games, had worship and a message, and then supper. Now supper in NZ means dessert basically. So supper consisted of hot chocolate, cake, and cookies. We got to talk with the kids and Chelsea shared her testimony with them which was really powerful. It was a good night.

Today, I had powerhouse ministry in the church. I'm now helping teach Sunday school to 9-11 year olds. There are a lot of them and some quite rowdy (it doesn't help that they're mostly boys;) While the man in charge named Kevin was closing us in prayer, I felt that the boys would act up and sure enough I opened my eyes to see one of them jilt the door open to let an orange cat slide in. On cue, I scooped the cat up and stood holding him while Kevin continued to pray. Finally he finished and I opened my eyes to find all the kids crowding around me petting the cat I held cradled. Good listening skills kids.....

Week 5 coming up! This is going to be my busiest week so prayer for that please! We're doing evangelism, I'm presenting my oral report, we're completing a project on a person in church history, continuing work on my study paper, and going to a play (Annie) yay! Also I'm on prayer for each day which means I pray before and after each dinner meal and think up a ministry to pray for!