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.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Mid-School Report

Wow.

I am halfway through my DTS. Already, God has made me a completely different person than I was when I got here. I have never had so many revelations in my entire life. God is pulling me even closer to Him, breaking off chains of shame, rejection, self-hatred, pride, etc. and making me fall into even deeper love with Him than I ever imagined. My heart for worship has grown even bigger and I’m loving writing songs and enjoying God’s presence in the beauty of New Zealand.

Week One – The Holy Spirit – Mal Maloney

Goodness, what a week to dive into. We learned about the limitlessness of the Holy Spirit and how it is different from God and Jesus, but how it is still one with them. The idea of 1+1+1=1 will always blow my mind. Three revelations I had from this week were:

1)      Holy Spirit impact is what drives Faith, and the Biblical scripture enforces it.

2)      Matter doesn’t matter in the will of the Holy Spirit.

3)      My Spirit can store things my brain cannot and God chooses when to reveal it to me.

 

Week Two – Intercession/Hearing the Voice of God – Joshua Cole

This week was a major week of breakthrough for me. God used this week to cut off a lot of shame and fill my heart and mind with the knowledge and power of His love. Three revelations:

1)      God created longings in us that must be continually fulfilled by Him.

2)      Whether or not I feel His presence, God is always worthy of my attention.

3)      Shame burdens me and withholds me from deeper intimacy with God.

 

Week Three – Character and Nature of God – David Cole

Joshua Cole’s father, this man had a lot of years of testimony and knowledge under his belt. Through lots of different stories, I learned about God’s makeup.

1)      Because our emotions and feelings are made in His image, they are a merely a reflection of His own, which means when we hurt Him, we hurt Him more than anyone in the entire universe.

2)      His power is perfected in my weakness.

3)      God’s never gonna divorce me. He’s committed to me for eternity.

Week Four – The Father Heart of God – Frank Neae

God brought major revelation with my faith and unbelief this week and then He soothed my open wounds with His fatherly love. This was a week with MAJOR breakthrough – our first full-day fast happened this week and that evening, God broke some huge chains of self-hatred and shame off of me.

1)      Jesus did not die for our minds, but for our hearts. (My will = surrendered)

2)      Who gave/told me my identity?

3)      Jesus didn’t die merely so we could have a personal relationship with God, but He died so we could have HIS relationship with His and our Father.

 

Week 5 – Circuit Riders – Samuel Rodriguez and Chase Cofer

For week 5 and 6, we joined and evangelism conference in Tauranga where we learned radical boldness and love in sharing the simple Gospel with people. God gave me a heart and a passion for the lost I am NEVER gonna be the same. I’m now one of those crazy Jesus freaks that walks up to random strangers on the street to ask them if they “know Jesus.” *Warning – if you aren’t a follower of Christ, I’m probably gonna try and share His love with you.

1)      I want a heart for the lost.

2)      We are all soul-winners.

3)      God gives us all supernatural boldness in order to further His kingdom

 

Week 6 – Circuit Riders – Samuel Rodriguez and Chase Cofer

1)       Live un-offended.

2)      Love radically.

3)      Jesus is my one true love.

 

God has done so much to me these past 6 weeks and I can’t wait to see what He’s gonna do for the next 6 weeks! We are beginning to prepare for our outreach, my team of 8 is going to Fiji and then back to New Zealand! God is gonna do great things! I love you all!

God Bless!

-          Hannah

Heartsongs

I AM GOING TO FIJI!!! Okay guys; found out that my outreach is in Fiji! I have an awesome team!!!!!

Dave is our leader!

And then we have Sarah and Aleisha!

And the students on my team are:

ME

Jacob Van Zanten

Jacob McCormack

Beth Roughton

And last but not least…STEPHY REYNOLDS!!!

BOOM.

I’m super duper excited. We all got undercuts to honor our team. Except Sarah.

I’m super rad now. Who knew I would ever shave my head?

We finished Circuit Riders, one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I will never forget it and I am forever changed by it! I’m just warning you now – I’m a Jesus freak and I’m gonna try to make you one too.

We stayed in Tauranga for the 2^nd week of CR at the Marine Outreach base in a lovely valley – Gideon’s Valley to be exact. It was super nice and modern and sleek and we were on vacation for a week, but I’m glad to be back at our quaint little cottages at the base of the mountain. There’s something so homey about Crystal Springs. But I will miss one beautiful part of Gideon’s – the waterfall. There is this one unbelievable waterfall in the valley – it’s unreal. It’s so beautiful and majestic and powerful and it takes my breath away. I swear, I was down there every day having quiet time with God and peacefully watching the waterfall.

Saturday and Sunday were sooooo nice. The Musos relaxed both days; we sat around and wrote songs – our assignment this week was to write 2 – 4 line songs that focused on pushing into God’s presence and man, out group came up with some powerful worship songs. We have some crazy anointed worshippers here and it blows me away. I wasn’t planning on telling my lyrics for the world to see, I haven’t posted any of my songs because I feel super vulnerable when I share them, but I’m working on being vulnerable, so here’s the one I wrote:

God, you’ve heard every praise imaginable

So here’s my heartsong, it’s original

Lalalalalalalala

 

 etc. etc., you get the idea.

Basically, one thing I’ve been feeling lately is I long to give God a song or praise He hasn’t heard before – something He would delight in because it’s never been given to Him before. What could I possibly offer that He hasn’t experienced? He’s had entire worlds worship Him – the Seraphim fall before Him and worship for all eternity with every song ever imagined! So how could I give Him something He had never heard? So I give Him my heartsong, and the chorus of La’s express what words cannot.

So there it is.

Lalalalalalalala

This week, our lecturer is Goldie Gibson, a beautiful woman who runs marathons and 63 years old, and still has faith in God’s promise that He will bring her a husband. Man, she’s such a strong woman and carries so much Joy and Faith and Wisdom and I am just soaking up her lectures. She prayed over me on Monday and it was so powerful.

We interceded for the Nations yesterday and man; God gave me such a heart for the United States. During prayer, I got a scripture – Revelation 10:11:

And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

MAN. I have never read that before and it hit me soooo hard. The USA is a melting pot of peoples and cultures and God, in that moment, gave me a heart for revival in my country. I love intercession. All the time we spent at the Tauranga House of Prayer instilled such a passion in me for intercessive worship and 30 minute worship is never going to be enough for me! Goodness.

Anywho.

I love Jesus.

I hope you do too.

Otherwise, my posts would really freak you out.

I did my sermonette today! If you’re interested in knowing what God has told me about God-given dreams and desires and longings, message me and I’ll Skype you or send you my notes!

Peace out girl scout!

NARNIA

Our free weekend is over.
It went by soooo fast.
The students and staff get two free weekends during the DTS, and this weekend, all the students (minus Beth and Dan) rented some vans and went to Narnia.
It's true.

Saturday morning, we loaded up into the 2 vans, one girl van and one boy van (THE GIRL VAN WAS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST ONE) and we started the MOST AWESOME roadtrip in all history of roadtrips.
The great thing about New Zealand is, there are no interstates or big road systems. Everyone gets everywhere on small, curvy, lovely, country backroads. And though it's not very fast, it makes for the best, most amazing, roadtrip memories.

The girls' van had the good speaker system, so we jammed and partied - the windows down and music blaring with Marit expertly navigating the rather large, stick shift van on the LEFT side of the road. For the record, we only accidently drove on the wrong side of the road once. We were slightly lost. In Paeroa.

Man, the roads up over the mountains on the way to Coromandel are sketchy. There's literally no shoulder as you wind up the mountain - you swerve and you fall of s crazy cliff to your death. Steph and I fearfully clung to each other as we rounded each turn - we may or may not have let out a couple of gasps (screams). But Marit's a champ and we didn't die. Even though we went over that mountain FOUR TIMES.
Yeah - I tell the rest of that story later.
Anywho.
We made a pit stop and peed on the side of the road. I'm pretty sure Marit unintentionally mooned some lucky truckers. I love Marit.
As we got closer to Coromandel, the scenery just more and more beautiful and captivating - you can't tear your eyes away from it. So we all saw Chase and Sam at the same time. Yep, the dudes leading our Circuit Riders conference, the ones I've talked about previously, had the same exact idea as we did and were trekking out to Coromandel as well! So they joined us in our lovely journey! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

So yeah, we finally got there.
And we had to walk to the beach.
Cathedral Cove, its proper name.
And by walk, I mean a 45-minute-hike. You have to work for that beach.

I basically ran the entire way.
Nothing was gonna keep me from kissing the sand that William Moseley once walked on.
I almost trampled Tasia and the Jacobs a couple of times.
And so, I finally made it to Narnia.
GUYS, IT'S JUST LIKE THE FREAKING MOVIE.

 

I walked through that cavernous arch right to the sparkling water and towering cliffs, as much in awe as the Pevensies would have been.
I threw down my towel and ran into the ocean and pretended I was Lucy Pevensie, joyfully rediscovering Narnia.

It was soooooo incredible, I just couldn't believe it.
Oh, and as usual, the water was cold.
Like, really cold.
Isn't it always?
I think that's the third time I've willingly thrown myself into frigid temperatures since I've been here.
Gosh, not to brag, but I'm living the life.
How many people get to do this?
Like zip.
Anywho, we frolicked in the ocean and jumped off rocks, screaming "FOR NARNIA" and took manymanymany pictures (which will come very soon!). We layed around, chit chatted, and played volleywall (it was a game Sam invented - I won't even try to explain it) until we decided we were hungry and we needed to find a place to sleep.

So I said goodbye to Narnia and trudged back up to the van.
When we got back, we found out some lady had talked a cop out of fining us $400 for double parking. And the boys' battery had died since Kyle left the lights on. But some angelic Kiwi gave us a jump start. God is so good.
So we were on our way to finding FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD.
So over the terrifying hill we went.
Steph and I snuggled to stay warm.
I love Steph.
I swear, we stopped by at least 3 towns before we found food we could all agree on. As we went to go eat, we last Sam and Chase to some teenage boys they felt they needed to share Jesus with. Gosh, I hope that, one day, hunger won't get in the way of my desire to share God's love with the world.
So some guy convinces us to eat at this pub. And we do. And some drunk, German woman named Marion strikes up a conversation with me. And she gives me the number of someone who could possibly let us pitch some tents in their yard (or at least that's what we thought). And then she let me pray for her. Which was awesome - God totally touched her and she nearly started crying.

And then we went over the mountain to the hot water beach.
It's hot because it's on top of a volcano.
Oh, yeah, by the way, we went at nighttime. Which means it was cold. And the Artic winds blowing of the Pacific aren't too forgiving. So it was cold. But the hot water was marvelous indeed. But let me tell you, that sand was PIPING HOT. The deeper you got into the sand, the hotter the water got! But the tide came in, and the water got cold, so we all ran screaming to the vans. Us girls loved our van. We changed in it, slept in it, ate in it, everything. So, naturally, it was a mess. It ate my sunglasses and gum in the first hour. Needless to say, we all just tossed everything everywhere and it was one big beautiful mess. But oh so comfy. I don't think there's ever been a more comfy mess.
So we found a campgroud. But it cost $21 PER PERSON to sleep there! PER PERSON. So we called the lady and found out she had 8 beds open in a hostel-like beach house and anyone who didn't want to pay to sleep somewhere could just stay in the vans and we could sleep on the side of the road. So back up over the mountains we went to the beach house! It was so lovely, driving in the dark New Zealand landscape, listening to James Vincent McMarrow. Just like a dream.
Just a note - I love our group. In case you didn't know.
We pray for EVERYTHING. All the time, and God totally blessed us.
We got to the beach house and piled out of the vans and prayed for our accomodations that night.
And then we went inside and found out the house had 10 extra beds open.
EIGHTEEN BEDS EXACTLY.
We had exactly 18 students on the trip.
We took God's subtle hint and took all the beds. And we slept like babies after some nice games of ping pong and fun snuggling time.
The next morning, we packed up and drove over the mountain for the last time. And we went to HAMILTON. I had such a relaxing time - before we got to Hamilton, we stopped in Peoroa - the historic location of the creation of the famous New Zealand drink of choice, L&P. After we ate and got a picture by the big bottle, we made the two-hour trek to Hamilton and relaxed! We went shopping, ate, and I got a new sweater. Maybe two. THANKS GRANDMA! :)
And finally, we made the last leg of the trip home. And I was so happy when we finally pulled into Crystal Springs, jamming to Taylor Swift.
God is good.
More to come.

Peace out girl scout.