Rain

Today it rains.

And for those of you who have ever camped in the rain, you know exactly what I mean. If there’s one teeny tiny hole in the tent, you’re doomed. Water collects inside, pools in all your clothes and books, soaks you as you unknowingly slumber in your sleeping bag and then never dries. Everything just gets wetter and wetter. I don’t think I’ll have to shower today. We girls are thinking about sleeping in the van tonight. That should be fun.

Yesterday. We picked up cans and cleaned the campground as the sleepy campers drug themselves out of tents and began their days. It absolutely amazes me how these guys can just bounce back – a mere few hours before they had been completely wasted and then they just get up the next morning and start it all again. What?? It’s like they don’t even get hangovers! Or they drink their way through it. I’m impressed.

We spent the afternoon resting and hanging out. I skyped my family! First, I got to talk to my Dad for the first time in over a month, and my Mom of course. And then I got to see my awesome big sis Jessica for the first time since I left nearly 5 months ago. And then some lovely friends – my sister Beks, Kari, Levi, Fart, and Kanaan. My day was definitely brightened by the wonderful people back home. Thank you guys for being so lovely.

And then, nighttime rolled in. and karaoke happened. It was so funny. And Ken was constantly turning down the mics because kids kept screaming curse words in them. And after karaoke, the DJ that the camp hired came and the party really started. I was on prayer from 9-10 and then after, I went to talk to the kids getting sausages. The first kid Steph and I met was a boy named Ollie. He was so funny. A total atheist through and through, he couldn’t believe that we were nice to him despite the fact he said to our faces so many times that he hated Christians and they are all f*****g stupid. He couldn’t believe we kept talking to him after he told us he didn’t believe in God or Satan. He’s been kicked out of churches and Christians have given him a terrible representation of Jesus, condemning him and ignoring him instead of loving him like Jesus told us to! Steph and I prayed he would remember us and come back. Then I met a girl named Lydia while she was talking to Maureen (the OJ leader) and it was awesome. She was so hungry to know, she asked so many questions and some really hard ones too. It’s really hard to tell someone that you believe if they decide not to accept Christ that they will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s hard to say “Yes, if your Nana didn’t accept Christ’s sacrifice before she died, then she isn’t there.” How do you say that? Do people get a second chance on Judgment Day? Or once you’re dead, are you a lost cause? Lydia was awesome; she was a breath of fresh air and man, so eager to know if God was real. She kept asking “How will I know? How will He tell me He’s real?” I had to explain that I couldn’t tell her God would do the same thing for each of us – He encounters us in our own unique ways because we are all different and He knows us inside and out since He created us – Psalm 139 – and when you know, you know. I told her to ask God for an encounter, to reveal Himself to her in an awesome and unforgettable, unexplainable way. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard having faith that God will do that. But I’m choosing to have faith and believe He’s gonna show up and she will experience Him in a way that will answer her questions and give her understanding. She let me pray for her, let Maureen give her a Bible and I gave her a C.S. Lewis book title (and incredible Christian apologist – if you’ve never read anything from Him, you totally should, he explains Christianity and faith in such simple and logical ways) and at 1:30 a.m. we finally went to bed.

Steph and I couldn’t go to sleep, we were still carrying burdens for the kids we talked to, so we held hands and prayed for them and gave the burden back to God and fell asleep holding hands. I’d say it was a beautiful end to a wonderful day.

Peace out Girl Scout

DrunkFest Day 1

Hello world! Sorry about my lack of blogging – Fiji was super hard to blog in because we went to the internet café once or twice a week and I didn’t have enough time in an hour to answer messages and emails and do my blog as well! But, happily, I am back in KiwiLand and I have WiFi!!! Whoop!

We roadtrippd from Auckland to Paihia after having the tremendous honour of staying with Beryl, the ministry director for the night. We made it to the campground, which was much smaller than we imagined, especially considering 1000 kids were going to be present for Drunkfest. We learned the names of our other team members for Operation Jerusalem and got a good night’s sleep before the New Year festivities began. What we’re doing here is ministering to the 1000 kids that come and get absolutely smashed beginning as early as 8 am all the way into the wee hours of the morning only to wake up and do it again. It amazes me how their bodies can handle it! We walk around, getting to know the kids, most of them underage, of course and getting to be friends with them. We hand out sausages and juice and we hold karaoke. We also reach out especially to the girls who are falling over so drunk they don’t even know where their tents are. We’re here to love on them, hold their hair while they’re throwing up, and just to show Jesus’s love instead of forcing it down their throats. I can’t tell them what they’re doing is wrong, because the things I do are just as bad. We’re all so broken, and it kills to see how broken and lost all of these kids are. Most the kids we talk to agree that it’s empty satisfaction, but they can’t find anything better. A lot of them are just plain bored. It breaks my heart to see girls giving themselves away in the dirt and wondering if they’ll even remember doing it. It’s hard to see guys unleashing pent-up anger and throwing barbs and punches and anything they can pick up.

But it’s awesome to know people by name – so many people seek you out because you listen to them and they just want someone to talk to. I listened to so many stories last night and it’s so crazy – each and every one of these kids have a unique story and unique problems but they all turn to the same thing to try and answer their problems. And it’s funny, how much of a reputation we’ve already gained here. We’re referred to as the OJ’s (operation Jerusalem) or as “those Christian guys” – when someone’s in trouble or they need something people say “Go see those Christian guys! They can help!” and it’s crazy hearing that come out of their mouths! It’s funny, how when people are in deep trouble, they run to us because they know we’ve got something that’ll fix it. Hinthint: YOU CAN HAVE IT TOO. And that’s what we’re here to tell them.

Summer’s here! And summer looks so good on New Zealand. But I’m not gonna lie, it’s odd to be celebrating the New Year in the heat. You know how long it’s been since I’ve seen snow? Much too long. And I’ll have to wait another year to see it. Oh well.

Peace out Girl Scout!

Home

Okay.
I'm back.
In NZ.
And so happy to be here.
I'm going to miss Fiji - I have a family there, but there's just something about this place. I don't know what I'm going to do for the 6 months I have back in the US.

Things in Fiji were incredible, Van and I had vlogs - it was a lot easier to record what we did each day since we went to internet cafes like once a week.
Here's the address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ST4-o-liU&sns=fb

I will be posting soon!
Love you!

Nose Flutes

Day 7
Van and I do a video blog every night - I may see if I can upload one because they are super easy to do.
It's weird, hearing Christmas music when it's 90+ degrees outside - the stores have begun playing Mariah Carey and Justin Beiber. Not even the good Christmas music. I wanna hear some Micheal Buble, Barbra Streisand, maybe Kenny G.
Oi - the water was off for more than 2 days - we didn't have bucket showers for 2 days. Which means we were sooooo dirty. I thought I was getting tan. I wasn't.
By the way, that fried bread? It's spelled "Bobakau". It's so good. It's my favourite food here. Auntie makes it sometimes for breakfast and I eat until I feel like a balloon.
We've continued cleaning the church - I've scrubbed so many tiles that I thought my fingers might fall off! And then we painted more and it's nearly done! We finished up some last minute cleaning today in preparation for the opening tomorrow! It's so exciting! We learned a dance with the youth last night, and I feel quite tribal doing it! It involves a lot of clapping and shoulder-rolling. :)
We also visited the hospital the other night. Steph and I were together and we decided to visit the women's ward. Steph spotted one woman and we decided to encourage her. She was so sweet, her name was Alcosita (sp?) and she had diabetes and had left her home island to get treatment. She lost her leg and I think had to do dialysis. She gladly welcomed prayer and we talked to her for almost an hour - she really inspired me - her attitude was incredible in spite of the fact that she was all alone in a hot and dirty hospital for 3 months. I really got an attitude check.
Sarah has become my adoptive One-on-One - we had a lovely date the other day in the corner of the church during work break. She's going to marry a Kiwi and live in New Zealand forever.
I slept outside last night, thinking it would be cooler. It was. But Fijians are noisy. I didn't just hear the dogs last night, but some weird Hindi band playing their nose flutes and drums until 1 am. I will be sleeping inside from now on.
Also - there are "black fijians" and "white fijians". They all look black to me. But after church the other day, we were sitting around with some of the youth, jamming and one girl calls another girl white. I got so confused, I thought she was talkiong about me. Nope. Brown fijians are "white". What does that make me? Transparent? erp.
For those of you who planned on sending me stuff to the Fiji address, if you haven't sent it already, DON'T SEND IT.
I won't get it because I won't be there - I'll be in Suva! If you've sent it already, I should get it.
Bah, sorry my posts are so dry - I don't have much time in the internet cafes!
More to come soon!
Peace out girl scout!

Real Hobbit Feet

If you lovlies want to send me somthing for Christmas -

Hannah Douglass
12 Kama Street
Simla, Lautoka
Fiji

:)
I love presents.

Anywho.
The past couple of days have been sooo interesting. Sleeping in the heat is getting easier, I still want to shoot all of the obnoxious stry dogs, but they tell me that I shall soon be able to tune them out.
We started working on the hall where Pastor Jare's congregation will now meet. Man, it's so dirty - we basically scrubbed for 2 days straight - we scrubbed chairs, walls, floors, toilets, sinks, stairs, everything. And I think all the grime made it's way on me. Which means I GET MORE BUCKET SHOWERS. yay! I'm getting used to them - the water is cold - which can be a blessing or a curse. It's so relieving after our long treks around Lautoka, but quite shocking early in the morning. Sometimes, the landlord turns off the water in the Pastor's house, so we run out of water. Which means we're thirsty and dirty. But the water eventually turns back on, so it's okay.
I'm pretty sure my feet are indefinitely dirty. They will never be nice again. They are so gross, always filthy, covered in dirt and the skin is getting so dry and calloused from all our walking and the glittery pink nail polish on my toenails is almost unrecongnizable, all chipped and brown.
On the bright side, there aren't any mirrors anywhere, so I never know how gross I look. yay. It's kind of crazy, how I have to depend on my team to tell me how disgusting I look.
I've basically stopped really caring how I look, but i know that this humidity is making everyone's skin better, so I'm praying mine does the same! Wanna get rid of acne? Do a mission trip in Fiji! Woohoo.
Haha, reminds me of something that happened the other day -  Van walked in the living room and dejectedly said "I don't know which to charge - my iPod or my camera." There's only one outlet available in the house. #firstworldproblemsinasecondworldcountry
It was funny.
#YWAMhumor

more to come!
Peace out girl scout!

FIJI

Boy oh boy.
So sorry family and friends for not posting in quite a while. I was in denial that I was soon going to be leaving my DTS family forever and I didn't want to talk about it.
I may get around to talking about it one day.
Probably not.
But now, I'm in Fiji! Sitting in an internet cafe, sweating away.
It is super hot here - there's no AC anywhere, but I don't mind it so much.
Let's start with getting here.
It was a very quick 3 hour flight, and met Pastor Jare at the airport (he's Dan's dad!). We drove to Pastor's house, where we unloaded and found our rooms. One example of incredible Fijian hospitality - their family gave up their rooms so we could sleep inside - they sleep on the porch. And then we ate - and ate - and ate. That's all we seem to do is eat eat eat. People always want to feed us more. They say "come come, eat more, come come." Sunday morning when we woke up, we had devos, worship, and then we had Bomacow (sp?). It's fried bread.
SOOOOO GOOD. I want to eat it for the rest of my freaking life.
I'm in love with this place - Jare's family is the sweetest and I am so excited to help him build his church. We're focusing on the youth for this trip - our team is going to be pulling kids off the street and running youth services on SUnday afternoons. We'll also be doing prison ministry, on Wednesday, we'll be ministering to overcrowded men's prisons - chatting, singing, doing one of my favourite skits "Ropes". Man, I can't wait to get started. Mondays are our days off - we'll use that time to rest and fellowship.
We sleep with the windows open, on mats on the floor - if there's a breeze, it's really nice, but our mosquito nets don't do the greatest job of keeping it breezy. I don't sleep with a blanket or sheet or anything, it's so toasty. Also, we bathe using buckets. They're called "bucket baths" - heehee. I don't use conditioner because it takes too much water, but my hair naturally starts conditioning itself, thank goodness. And the humidity's so intense that I don't even worry about how my hair looks. And now I'm so happy i chopped it all off, or else I would be absolutely miserable.
Man, there's so much I want to say, I know this is a pretty dry entry, but I'm running out of time! I'll get around to saying it all when I can!
Love you guys, be blessed!

Fiji Prophie!

So, as most of you know, I’m going to Fiji with the MOST AWESOME TEAM EVA.

Here’s some info:

(ps – I copied most of my info from Steph’s blog – you should check it out - http://adventuresofstephreynolds.blogspot.co.nz/)

 

Leaders:
Dave Remus

From Ontario, Canada, this guy is pretty cool. He’s 19. One of my first impressions of him was finding out that he was doing a weeklong fast. I feel like that pretty much sums it up: He’s strong and well-disciplined, a perfect fit for team leader.

 

Sarah Lowe

She my American girl – or can I say California girl? My first impression of her was that I thought she looked a lot like Emily Osment – you know, the girl that was on Disney Channel? She’s got an absolutely gorgeous voice – we enjoy Civil Wars duets together and she’s the momma of the group – not only because of her age (26), but she’s got quite the momma’s heart.

 

Aleisha Mclennan

Is a crazy Kiwi. My first impression of her crazy dancing during worship. She, like Dave, is also 19 and full of so much life and joy and passion! She’s definitely a driving force in our team, her enthusiasm will be much appreciated! She also has a gift for identifying and connecting with kids – she’s brought 5 or 6 kids to salvation in the past month alone!

 

Students:

Me- Hannah Douglass

Well, if you didn’t know about me, I’m from Franktown, TN, in the U.S. of A. i enjoy singing way too much and I love food. I also love people in general, but I can get cranky if I’m cold, hungry, sick, or surrounded by Debbie Downers. So it’s a good thing I’m going to Fiji, where it’s like 200 degrees everyday, Fijians force you to eat literally tons of food (they’re well known for their hospitality), and no one on my team is a Debbie Downer. It’s gonna be great.

 

Stephanie Reynolds

Affectionately known as “Steph” by all or “Stephy Steph” by myself, this chickadee is the bees knees. She’s from Alberta, Canada and she lives off of rice and carrots because she’s allergic to almost every staple food product. We love to talk about poop together. On a more serious note, she is an incredible songwriter and she’s also like a big sis to me! She is bold and honest, something that will come in super honest on outreach. My first impression of her was her super hip self playing the guitar at King’s Kids.

 

 Bethany Roughton

Better watch out! She’s our other crazy Kiwi. She’s our baby, 17 years old and she’s got a passion and a boldness like no other. Quite the prayer warrior, she loves being in that place with God. She’s quite the comic, always saying the funniest Kiwi things that just make me laugh. She’s a closet musician and has a wonderful new haircut. My first impression of her was her being engulfed in all her lime green bedding. She loves green.

 

Jacob McCormack

From Portland, Oregon, he’s 20 years old and one of the the most fantastic, passionate, and talented musicians I have EVER met. He rocks at piano, he’s a beast at guitar, and he’s got a true heart of worship. He is an angel and always provides great music for my songs – I’d like to think he’s the John Paul White to my Joy Williams. He’s really super obsessed with kitty cats and purrs during worship. Jk – but he is an excellent purrer. My first impression of him was “Poor guy.” Because his airline lost his luggage and he had like a million hour layover in Australia and he missed his birthday because of the international dateline thingy!

 

Jacob Van Zanten

He’s 18, and all the freckles stand for the souls he’s eaten. JK! They stand for all the souls he’s gonna save! This awesome kiddo always makes my day better with his lovely smile and sincere affirmations. He’s got a gift for passionate prayer and speaking that really now starting to reveal itself in his life. From British Colombia, Canada, he has some strange vocabulary like “toque” (beanie) and “ill” (that’s sick bro!), but I’m introducing him to new words like “ya’ll” and “fried chicken”, so it’s okay. He's also the missing member of the boyband, One Direction.

 

What?

Outreach!

The scripture for our team is:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." (Isaiah 61:1-3)

We will be doing all sorts of things - from street evangelism to door knocking to children's ministry to helping out at churches... the list goes on.

 

Where?

Lautoka. Pastor Jare

Paihia/NZ. Operation Jerusalem.

Kaitaia/NZ. Pastor Graeam

Auckland/NZ. Pastor Trent. C3 South Aukland

 

When?

We will be leaving New Zealand on November 24 and flying to Fiji. We will be in Lautoka working with Pastor Jare. Pastor Jare is Dan's dad. Dan is one of the students on my DTS and he is from Fiji!!!! Our base has been doing outreach with Dan's dad for a long time, and finally Dan was able to come to New Zealand and take part in his own DTS!!! How awesome is that! I am so excited to stay with his parentals for a while! We will be staying in Fiji for about a month. We will arrive back in New Zealand on December 26. So we will get to have a Fijian Christmas! I am so pumped for that!

When we get back we will be volunteering in Paihia with Operation Jerusalem. Paihia on New Years is the place for young people to go and get drunk and party. So we will have a booth, giving out free sausages and water. It will be a super opportunity for us to minister to the youth of New Zealand! Beth is pretty nervous to hang around drunken youth, so pray for her! (And the rest of us too!)

Then we are going to Kaitaia. While there we will be planning and running a children's program. It will be kind of like Vacation Bible School (VBS)

And our last stop will be in south Aukland. This is a rough part of Aukland and we will be doing something at a big church down there called C3. There are lots of street people and prostitutes and stuff like that in that area. During our DTS, we have had 'Hope Cafe' every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during our break in the middle of the morning lecture. There is coffee and cookies and icecream available by donation. All of the money raised goes to the prostitutes in South Aukland. So we will actually get to meet these girls and minister to them! Pray for them

 

Why?

Why not?

Peace out girl scout

To Rebeka on Her Birthday

Dear Rebeka,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Little sister, I cannot believe you are SO OLD. Good gracious, you’re 18 today! You’re officially a woman and it’s crazy to see my little sister grow and blossom and become the beautiful woman she was meant to be. Sometimes, your beauty literally stuns me. You are so independent, so strong, and so secure in who God has made you that sometimes I have to remind myself that you are younger than me in all your wisdom. I am so blessed to have a best friend like you – a playmate since childhood and someone I’ve always been able to trust. I miss our late night bedtime conversations; I miss car jamming with you on the way home from church. I miss talking to you – you have such a deep and meaningful, yet such simple outlook on life – you never cease to amaze me with your maturity. I love your tender heart and your ability to forgive and forget anything anyone does to you. I love that you always laugh at my jokes and understand me better than any other human being. I love how you love others and how you don’t seek to make people like you, but you seek to be the woman God wants you to be. Also.

I want to apologize for always making you the prince and me the princess when we played pretend.

Sorry.

I like being rescued! What can I say? And you liked fighting the imaginary wolves and dragons.

Sorry.

I would also like to apologize for locking you into lots of dark places i.e;

The trunk of the car

The pantry

The dryer

Our closet

Sorry.

Anywho.

I’m so proud of you! And I am so sad and sorry that I’m missing your birthday this year! I wish I could be there to sing the birthday song, help you eat the delicious Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, and give you your well-deserved birthday spanking. But, alas, I live on the other side of the world. So here’s to you, the best little sister/almost twin ever. I love you!

Happy birthday!

 

Invitations, Beaches and Hot Seats

My oh my, what a weekend! We had an awesome morning of worship led by Matt on Friday morning – I was so proud of the full band in the Gap! Then I received…A PACKAGE. THANK YOU MOMMY AND DADDY AND REBEKA FOR MY PACKAGE!!!

You have no idea how happy it made me. My letter from mom with literally a hundred questions that I will try my hardest to answer, a lovely letter from Rebeka’s boyfriend Bart (thanks buddy, love you too) and my sweet sissy Beks. Thank you to Dominic and Angelina for my sweet card for Dakota, it touched my heart! AND THANK YOU MOMMY FOR THE PRETTY PURPLE FLOWER, THE NAIL POLISH, THE FESTIVE DECORATIONS AND THE…SOUR PATCH KIDS. I have suddenly become everyone’s best friend here on base. Beth asked me “Are those American lollies?” oh how I adore Kiwi lingo.

Then, we had our last lecture with Beryl and we sadly bid her goodbye and I rushed back to my cottage to pack for the weekend trip to Raglan. Being I had about 10 minutes to do so, I was pretty frantic. So I ignored the knock on the cottage door and continued my rushed packing. But Tasia answered and came into my room and said “Hannah, you have a visitor!” So I stomped to the porch and upon seeing Jacob Van Zanten (whom we affectionately refer to as Van) demanded “What do you want?”

And then he put on his boy band face and began singing a remixed version of “What Makes You Beautiful” to me. And I stood there, so incredibly confused as he serenaded me. Then he finished, handed me an invitation to some dinner thing, I hugged him and he ran away.

Turns out the boys are planning some fancy dinner thing for the girl on November 7^th and all the girls were invited via scavenger hunts, secret packages, and chocolate surprises. There is a lovely air of mystery about it and it’s absolutely MADDENING. I just want to know what’s going on RIGHT NOW.

So yeah.

Then we drove to the beach and the red van had wonderful, deep, meaningful conversations about bioethics, evolution, Slurpees and nose rings.

Then we got to the beach house.

It was wonderful.

There were three bathrooms.

THREE.

AND A TV.

YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT’S BEEN SINCE I’VE SEEN A TV???

Plus, there were hammocks and rooftop porches and lovely verandas and I was so happy.

So we happily settled in, watched Soul Surfer and ate Dutch pancakes for dinner. Then, being the restless peeps we are, some of went for a walk in an attempt to play in the ocean.

We found a playground instead.

Typical.

After we satisfied the 6-year-olds inside each one of us on the seesaw, slides, and tire swings we went back to the beach house.

Then Matt and I wrote a ballin’ song on the roof. It’s no biggy. You’re awesome Matt.

Then I went to bed.

Saturday morning, Janessa woke me up! I had to make PANCAKES. Yummy! So we made pancakes. On a really bad stove. The heat wasn’t really optional; it kind of did whatever it wanted. Yeah.

But breakfast was still yummy.

And Schnegg is so funny. The entire morning, while we were making breakfast I was constantly laughing at his silly antics. I think his French accent just makes everything he says that much funnier.

Then, we went to THE BEACH.

Raglan is a surfers’ beach, which mean that there we HUGE waves. Just incredible – lifeguards advised us not to go far in the water because to rip was so strong.

Oh, and one more thing. It’s a black sand beach! The sand is volcanic and magnetized and black and it’s so different from any sand I’ve ever seen! It sparkles in the sun and is just so dazzling!

So we spent a few hours at Raglan – just relaxing and watching people ride by on their horses or families play in the low tide pools. Then Matt and Schnegg and I went for a walk and we had fun collecting shells (or I had fun finding them and putting them in Matt’s pocket) and I awkwardly stood by as Matt and Schnegg had a male modeling photoshoot. It was weird.

Oh yeah.

I got sunburnt.

In October.

How weird is that?

Then we went back to the beach house and relaxed while Johanna made THANKSGIVING DINNER.

I joined Hannah and Schnegg on the roof and it turned into the MOST AWESOME jam session in the history of jam sessions. I think we wrote like 5 different songs and remembered like 3 of them. It’s funny how the genre slowly changed from folk to gospelish to jazz and everything in between. Schnegg is an incredible guitarist and Hannah has the most beautiful voice EVER and I don’t think I could ever get tired of just jamming with them. They’re both just so beautiful.

Then we had THANKSGIVING DINNER. Early for the Americans, late for the Canadians.

It was soooo good. I had a food coma. We said things we were thankful for. I loved it.

Then I listened to some of Steph’s wonderful songs. She’s got such a talent for conveying heart messages in song. I just love listening to her play!

Then Jacob and I worked on the song I think I want to record for the album. He’s wonderful, I think I found my John Paul White in life. And then we worked on another song I started writing.

Then we all watched a movie and hit the sack.

Today, we got up late, relaxed, packed, cleaned and left the beach house. We got coffee, and I think I had about 5 cups of the delicious poison today. Guys, coffee is such a huge part of the culture here. You can’t just buy a cup of joe. Drip coffee doesn’t exist. You got your Flat Whites, your Mocha Lattes, your Vanilla Lattes, your Double Dirty Mochas Extra Foam, but no straight-up coffee. And iced coffee? It’s for babies. So yeah. Coffee. I had a lot of that. Which means, halfway into our road trip, I had to pee. Not your regular, “a bathroom break would be great right now” but a “IF YOU DON’T PULL OVER RIGHT NOW, I’M GOING TO SOAK THE SEAT” kind of pee. I was miserable as we bumped over every obstruction in the road. And we finally pulled over at Hamilton Gardens and I got to use the ladies’ room.

And then we finally went home.

And I was tired. All I wanted to do was sleep. So I skipped dinner. But then there was the normal Sunday 7 o’ clock pm meeting. Dangit.

So Elisa and I trudged up to the A-Frame.

And then I was on the Hot Seat.

If I haven’t talked about it before, we do it every Sunday night. One boy, one girl, free game. Tonight was the one night I definitely didn’t want to be on the hot seat. First of all, I looked like I’d been hit by a truck. My hair was crazy, my sunburnt skin made me look like a tomato and my crooked glasses and Elisa’s oversized sweater just finished off the unkempt look. Nope, I definitely didn’t want to be the center of attention for 29 other people. And I didn’t want to be encouraged. I was in a moping mood. So of course tonight would be the night where my name was called. Yep.

And I discovered something. The hot seat isn’t about making Hannah feel better. It’s about confirming God in Hannah. Woah. And I feel like it’s also for the encouragers – I often like people after I encourage people and my heart for them. The hot seat is so we all constantly have hearts for one another and I love that.

So yeah.

Insomnia.

Peace out girl scout.

Wans, Hakas and Songs

Hello friends!

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve blogged – it’s been a crazy week!

Sunday was wonderful – so relaxing with all the OPs still sailing, I managed to do my CIR, finish my book and book report, write a few letters AND finish TWO songs! It was great! And Elisa and I had a lovely date and watched Alice in Wonderland on my laptop in my comfy bed! I love my German roomie! She is so funny! All the Germans are! Marit cracks me up – in German, “v” makes a “w” sound and sometimes they have little slip-ups which make the funniest phonetic mistakes! Last week, Marit asked us “Who cleaned out the wans?”

Anyway, the Musos had a lovely song sharing session and then the Ops got back super late and it was so lovely to see all my sister and best friends again! I just hugged them so much! It was funny, how in mere moments, our cottage went from empty silence to comfortable noise that the normal pack of 6 girls makes on an average evening.

Then came wonderful Monday! This week, our own base director, Bearyl is our speaker, and man is she a powerful woman of God with an incredible gift of deliverance! In week four, she helped me get delivered from some serious stuff, so I have experienced firsthand God working through her to bring people out of oppression. Man, she’s delivered me from stuff I didn’t even realize was holding me down!

So Monday was incredible. I had an unforgettable Holy Spirit encounter when Bearyl prayed for me to receive the gift of deliverance. I feel like God is growing gifts within me that I never recognized – the spirit of discernment, gifting in dreams and visions and interpretation of both those and tongues. And the more I ask God for these, the more He gives! It’s crazy! I’m continually asking God for an increase in blessing of these gifts and to continue to develop them! I am so pumped for Spiritual Warfare! Man, my prayer life has gotten rocked so much lately and God is just pouring on the revelation!

On Monday, Matthew and Schnegg sang a song that they wrote over the weekend, crazily enough, over spiritual warfare! Man, it was so powerful and it was so great to see my brothers in Christ to rise up and become warriors of God! I am so proud of them! The boys also had their first Haka rehearsal. Watching them learn it was pretty entertaining – they slowly moved from floundering spaghetti noodles to strong warriors. The Haka they learned is “Te Waka” – a Maori battle cry that prepared the men for fighting. Te waka means war canoe, and the men chant about gearing up for war, getting in the war canoe and do preparing for battle. Before fighting, the men would beat their chest so hard and furiously that they would draw blood. If you’ve ever seen a group of native men preform a Haka, it’s absolutely terrifying. Rich, a rather large Kiwi leader here, has Maori background, and he leads the Haka, and it’s truly powerful. There is something so powerful about it. This particular Haka has the words changed a little bit – instead of declaring death, it declares life and fighting the Enemy rather than killing man. And the boys did it on Tuesday morning, and I was so proud! Watching all my boys become warriors and fiercely declare spiritual warfare on the Enemy was so powerful and they blew me away! Well done boys! I mean, MEN! Though it's not nearly as epic as in real life, here's the vid:

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/hannah.douglass.3/posts/460782010631402?notif_t=like

Tuesday was a blah day. Not gonna lie, a lovely string of things just shot my attitude and Satan was determined to rob me of my joy, but God restored it to me after a “get it together” chat with my one-on-one, Carly and some intense conversation with Jesus. And they filled in my favorite potholes on the drive during work program! I was so sad – I’ll have no more puddles to jump in on rainy days!

Oh yeah! I almost forgot about Tuesday! So, I run to breakfast, as usual, in my Pajamas and crazy hair, only to fins our entire DTS standing outside the A-Frame and Rich telling us that there had been a burglary and that they had stolen all the instruments and computers and equipment and we were all shocked. Though I was slightly relieved to learn that it was just a burglary, because my first initial thought was something had happened to Bearyl, who is fighting breast cancer. (please keep her in your prayers!) I felt so bad for people like Henk, whose beautiful guitar was left in there, or Noemi, whose iPhone was left there overnight. So we began to pray for the burgalers, waiting outside for the police to show up and fingerprint the place when the door to the A-Frame opened and out came the staff, all dressed up and fancy shmancy. And turns out, we were punked. There was no robbery. But there was BREAKFAST. Funny how my thought process went from Bearyl to burglary to breakfast all in under 5 minutes. So they beautifully served us a HUGE hot breakfast with pancakes, french toast, hash browns, eggs, bacon, fruit and yogurt, coffee, tea, juice - the SHABANG. Man, it was so sweet. I love the staff, they are such a blessing to us.

Then there was yesterday!

God has been blessing our school with some incredible angelic occurrences! During lunch, Miranda was getting delivered by Bearyl, and I thought I heard a trumpet sound in the lecture room, and when I looked in, all I saw was Miranda getting prayed over by Bearyl and Aleisha and a couple other people, but I didn’t really think about it, maybe I heard things, you know?

And then we found out something crazy today. A lot of people heard a trumpet sound when Miranda was getting delivered, but no one was blowing the shofar.

GUYS THERE WAS AN ANGEL BLOWING A TRUMPET IN OUR LECTURE ROOM.

ISN’T THAT CRAZY???

So yeah.

I had a wonderful date with Jesus after an eventful community rec time of nonstop cricket. I went on a walk, he showed me boiling water. If you’re really interested in what the heck that means, please ask, I’d be happy to tell you.

Then I had AWESOME prayer in the prayer room! Man, God is so good. Mom – you and I need a skype date SOON.

Then Matt and I had a lovely late dinner date with Rebekah and Schnegg and Henk. I had Kraft mac ‘n cheese for the first time in MONTHS. Thank you Beth!

Then we played with a random dog running around the base and went to sleep!

Today was awesome – we dealt with generational strongholds. I love learning about this stuff – I wish we had more than one week with Bearyl!

We broke generational strongholds off my life today – from as far as ten generations back all the way to my future bloodline. And man, was that powerful!

Then, Elisa and Hannah and I had a lovely show at Robert Harris, the coffeeshop. We made over $20 in tips today, it was crazy!!! We decided that we should go pro. So our band name is…ready for it?...it’s super hip and cool:

 

Hannah Squared and Their German Friend

 

It might look cooler if we did it like this:

 

Hannah² and Their German Friend

 

BAM

We’re going to have a field photoshoot and everything.

And Schnegg will be our official photographer.

He doesn’t know it yet.

But he is.

AND MACKENZIE PUCKETT.

You’ll never guess what song I make them sing all the time.

Don’t you worry there my honey…

Ladeedeedadeedeedeedum

Bunnies

 

J

Everytime I sing that song, I think of you, my dear.

 

AND THEN HANNAH AND I WENT ON A DATE.

Yesyesyes, that required ALL CAPS.

Because it was a really good date.

We went swimming at Opal Springs – the hot springs next door.

I love me some Hannah.

Then we had our first outreach prep meeting! It was good! I am getting sooooo excited for Fiji! God is giving me a heart for that place and all the members of my team! I think I’m gonna copy Steph’s idea and do an entry where I do a profile of my team. It’ll be awesome.

Oh yeah, i almost forgot!!! Musos are going to Raglan beach tomorrow to brush up on our songs for the album! I'm so excited to just relax at the beach house, just spend a weekend songwriting and chilling out! We're also going to celebrate THANKSGIVNGGGGG. It's been far too long since I've had the pleasure of a food coma.

Man, I’ve written a Lot. And to think, it’s not even everything.

I love Jesus.

And worshipping Him is awesome.

If you don’t do it very often, you should try it sometime. God created worship for US! Imagine that!

I’m gonna go shower now. I don’t think I’ve done that in a while. Woohoo

 

Peace out girl scout.

 

Bobs 'n Such

What a great week! Goldie Gibson was beautiful, I loved her lectures and her story and God really spoke to me through her!

Oh, yeah. On Thursday, after local outreach at the nursing home, Hannah cut my hair off.

I’m officially insane.

God’s been convicting me of a lot of stuff lately, one of them being how much I love my hair. I had a lot of pride in it – I’ve never had short hair in my entire life. Not even when I was a little girl. Which was pretty funny, because I was bald on the top of my head, but my mom refused to cut the remainder of hair that grew elsewhere because she loves long hair, so I was a little mullet child. That may have been where #Hannahprobs began.

Anywho.

I realized that I worshipped my long hair as part of my identity and that’s one of the reasons I hadn’t cut it off in the past. I thought to myself that people saw me and thought to their little selves “Oh look! There goes Hannah – the girl with the long brown wavy hair! I love her long brown and wavy hair; it just makes her so beautiful.”

Yeah.

I have stupid thoughts sometimes.

A lot.

I should think about Jesus more.

So I grabbed Hannah before I lost my God-given courage and ran into the cottage, grabbed my scissors, pulled my hair into a loose ponytail and said “Do it.”

And she picked up the scissors.

And my insides began screaming.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING CUTTING OF YOUR HAIR NO ONE WILL LOVE YOU YOUR FACE WON’T LOOK GOOD YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO BRAID IT OR PUT FLOWERS IN IT OR HAVE BEAUTIFUL LONG HAIR ANYMORE NONONONONO HANNAH I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ARE ACTUALLY DOING THIS.”

My heart was pounding, my hands were shaking and I’m pretty sure if I had tried to stand up, I would have passed out.

I closed my eyes.

And Hannah began to shear.

With every cut, the loud “shhhhhhep” made my insides cringe.

I involuntarily whimpered.

And a full 3 minutes later I was finally holding my ponytail in my hand.

HAIR THAT HAD BEEN ON MY HEAD MERELY MINUTES AGO LAY LIMP IN MY HANDS.

It was too real.

I actually did it.

Or Hannah did.

And I felt so relieved.

Man, what a burden lifted from my shoulders! Literally, a weight came off of me and I felt so…FREE.

It’s like my new hair represents that new Hannah Douglass.

Though the change on the outside isn’t nearly as dramatic as the change on the inside.

So yeah.

Short hair.

I have that now.

Later that night, we drove to Tauranga and had an incredible night of worship with Sean Feucht, one of the guys that invented BurNights, also heavily involved in Jesus Culture and IHOP (international house of Prayer – not pancakes, unfortunately). Man, I could just worship forever. Which is good, because one day, that’s all I’ll be doing. Worshipping forever at the feet of the Creator. What a Paradise.

This weekend, the OPs went sailing! How awesome is that?
Not as awesome as doing a songwriting workshop with Luke Parker and his buddy Strahan. Look ‘em up. Not only are they INCREDIBLE musicians, but their worship ushers in the presence of God like crazy. As soon as they touch the guitar, the room is just filled with the Holy Spirit. Man, I could’ve listened to them all day long. I even bought their demos. But live is even better than recording. Goodness.

So we shared songs. Which was terrifying, especially in with these guys, who have performed and worshipped and recorded so much, but we did. I wrote a song yesterday, so it was really new, maybe I’ll record it with Jacob and post it on here, but Jacob just nailed the guitar and we did it for the first time, and God was so helping me along, I was so terrified! Man, God is so good.

And then Steph and I wrote a song.

And then Elisa joined us on the violin.

Steph, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m posting the lyrics.

 

I come to You

Humbled and alone

I sing to You

My audience of one

I want to delight You

I long to please You and You alone

I want to sing for You

I’ll serenade You and You alone

I know everytime I sing to You

I know there’s a standing ovation in Heaven

 

I promise, it sounds 100% better than it looks!

And then I had worship practice with Hannah and Jacob and Henk!

Love them!

And now, it’s just me and Elisa, two of us, in a cottage built for 6.

It’s rather lonely without all the other OP girls.

Only slightly relaxing.

But we’re listening to the Luke Parker and Strahan CD, so it’s very relaxing.

Peace out girl scout.