Circuit Riders

Goodness.
I am EXHAUSTED.
What a day.
First, I want to just say that Rebekah and Steph's sermons this morning were Great. They both touch me in a very deep way and I am sooooo happy God spoke to me through their words.
I put on makeup for the first time in weeks today! I did a makeup fast to re-align my focus, and man, was it awesome. I didn't think I needed it, my pride prevented me from seeing it, but GOSH DARN IT, I needed it. It's so much easier to focus on God when you take the attention away from yourself. Not that I'm planning on pulling a John the Baptist, running around naked and eating bugs, very soon, but becoming vulnerable and directing that attention towards Him makes a Huge difference. Not to mention it wrecks the teenage girl in me - the need to achieve earthly perfection is wiped away by His love and His prefect vision of me and man oh man it gets me every time! It's never gonna get old.
So yeah.
I put on make up.
And I'm only slightly ashamed to say it was to try and impress all the new, Jesus-crazy boys we were gonna meet today at Circuit Riders.
Sorry God.
Please make all the Jesus-crazy boys in the world ugly so I'm never distracted ever again.
Amen.
Jk.
Don't do that.
Just distract me with your beauty instead?
I'M GRASPING AT STRAWS SAVE ME JESUS.
Anywhooo.
We healed people today at the conference. It was crazy. To say I've seen people healed of diseases and injuries right before my eyes and to hear their testimonies is powerful.
You wanna know what Circuit Riders is, right?
Me too.
All I can tell you right now is it's basically a crash-course in on-the-spot, God-led ministry and sharing of the Gospel.
Scarrrry.
I'm slightly intimidated.
These guys have shared the Gospel with THOUSANDS.
yeahyeah.
More to come on that.
I have DINNER DISHES this week for my duty! Last week was lunch dishes, and the week before that was late dinner prep (we cook dinner and serve it!).
I love doing the dishes. It's my favorite duty. You get to fellowship with others working in the kitchen, singing, talking - having intense Jesus or relationship conversations to silly banter and bubble fights. And you can also slip into your own world and thoughts as you wash dishes and get lost in the beautiful handiwork right outside the window. I live in a dream world.
Tonight was great - I got to chitty chat with Carly, who was on lunch prep but helped me with dishes anywho! Then we continued our conversation alllll the way back to the cottage, where a random falling light almost killed us as it shattered into thousands of tiny pieces on the floor.
And now, I'm eating Swiss chocolate.
Thanks Schnegg.

Peace out girl scout.

Catch Up!

I DID MY LAUNDRY!

I'm so proud of myself!
The Musos also had a picnic. It was truly lovely. It was great, just relaxing and enjoying a beautiful day in the sun.

I got some amazing letters the past weeks. To every person who has sent me a letter, you are amazing and I love you more than life.

It's been a crazy week. Complete with bonfire shide-n-seek in the dark, and God has released me from some major stuff. I would write about it, but I would probs write a book and it still wouldn't even scratch the surface of what He's doing here.
I love everybody here so much. The students and the staff are incredible. I'm getting over being sick, and today, the Mus-Os went to Hamilton to go shopping and check out the Hamilton gardens. Because I was feeling like pooh, I sadly opted out. But I couldn't help but smile to myself as the boys came to the cottage door and shouted "GET BETTER DOUGLASS", or in frenchie Schnegg's case "GET BETTER DOOG-LASS." Elisa, my lovely German roomie, made me lunch and lovely Hannah came to visit me before the van left.
A few hours later, I finally dragged myself out of bed and took the most pitiful shower in all Hannah History. I forced some pills down my throat, ate Elisa's sandwhich, and skyped with my best friend, Mary Kate. Which was wonderful. I'm pretty sure she healed me. It was so good and refreshing to talk to her! I miss you boo!
Then I layed on the tramp with Beth and Brent. They're both great snuggle buddies. Then I went on the loveliest walk all by myself, and it was great. I just enjoyed the sunshine and talked to God and he romanced me with His creation. He said "Look at everything I created out of nothing just for you! This is for you to take delight in, because I want you to know how much I delight in you, my bride." He scattered little promises in all the wild daisies and shown down on me in the warm sunshine.
I found little Jacob after my walk, and we had ourselves a nice little impromtu jam session in the Gap. Then Carly joined us and totes showed us up with her awesome Adele piano skillz.
oh yeah,
btdubs,
CARLY'S HOME.
My one-on-one left me for her sister's wedding.
Sheese.
So selfish.
But she back now.
And I so happy.
This is her.

She's da bomb.
Then the Mus-Os came back.
And I felt so loved. I loved feeling loved. Like God's love was already brimming over in me, and then He made His love even better though these peeps.
They got me presents.

Thank you:
Schnegg - for the chocolate. :)
Kat - for the INCREDIBLE suction-sheep and my lovely PURPLE flowers :)
Johannah - the most beautiful scarf in the history of any scarves Hannah has ever owned
Sarah - my totally awesome PURPLE nail polish

thanks guys. :)
I love you all so much.
It's beddy-bye time! (Or time for me to actually start my CIR...which is due tomorrow. Whoops.)

Peace out girl scout.

Blue Water Walk

So, while Outdoor Pursuits did an adrenaline course, Music and Worship took a hike along the blue water mountain stream! It was beautiful. We all went one at a time, so it was just me, surrounded by New Zealand countryside and God. It was so peaceful and so surreal. I would do it again a million times over.
So we wrote songs. Our own personal Psalms.
Then we jumped in the river.
Which was cold.

Evidence:

 

It was even colder than the ocean.

 

Mattheiu and Matt love to snuggle.

 

 

 





OH LA VACHE!

The water was cold.
If you couldn't tell.
I'll tell you more about it later.
Peace out girl scout.

Sock Wrestling

I’m gonna do a post on the Blue River walk this weekend and song writing later, because it requires a lot of attention and I don’t have that time right now!

Wow, I’m so busy here, I’m never bored and I have to actually stay up late to do a blog post! We have optional prayer and worship stating at 6, then breakfast at 7 usually followed by base or Pursuits worship or intercession. Then there’s lectures and at 12:45 is lunchtime! Depending on the day, we have a little bit of free time to work on creative presentations/sermonettes/student worship/CIRs (creative integration record)/etc until 2 when have community rec or outreach or the DTS work program (projects around base). We have to complete our work duties (basically chores) every day. My first week was cottage duties, which consisted of vacuuming the cottage and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen among other things like emptying the trash. Last week I had breakfast dishes – I washed dishes with Henk after breakfast (my favorite duty so far!)! And this week I have late dinner prep, which means I go to the kitchen at 3:30 and cook with the dinner crew until we serve at 5:30. After dinner, depending on the day, we have small groups or base meetings, etc. Fridays are special because we go to town in the afternoon (if you want to Skype me, that is the time to do it since get free internet in the library!) and we go to the Tauranga House of Prayer at night. Saturdays are usually scheduled for outings for the different streams. Last weekend, Music and Worship (I will affectionately begin referring to us as “Musos”) did a Blue Water walk while Outdoor Pursuits (OP) did an adrenaline course. Sundays are reserved for relaxing and fellowship.

Well now.

Let me tell you about yesterday. For me, yesterday was Monday. I was tired. And late for breakfast since I overslept. So I consequently had to do breakfast dishes. The wash of shame is what I like to call it. This week David Cole is speaking on the Nature and Character of God. He’s been with YWAM for over 30 years and he’s got a lot of incredible things to say.

I swore I was going to do my laundry yesterday.

I didn’t.

Surprise.

I haven’t done my laundry since I left.

It just rains all the time and my clothes would never get dry on a line out here anyway! And when do I have the time?

Anywho.

Last night.

Small groups.

We had a girls’ night instead.

It was incredible.

We had a dance party in the lecture room. Then we ate junk food. And then we sock wrestled.

Talk about sisterly bonding time.

The point of the game, if you’ve never played, is to get the sock off your opponent’s foot. Usually it’s a sock that rises right up to the kneecap. Let’s just say it was the funniest thing I’ve seen in quite a long time. You should try it sometime. It’s actually hysterical.

Goodness. I’ll write about today tomorrow. That makes sense, right?

Peace out Girl Scout.

beachbeachbeach

Today was awesome.

We went to Tauranga. The beach just over the mountains. We all loaded up on the buses and drove to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.

When we arrived, Hannah and I charged the beach and victoriously danced and jumped for the beach WAS OURS. And then I climbed a dead tree. On the beach. It was awesome.
 

Then we split up according to our teams. The Outdoor Pursuits guys went to climb a mountain, Music and Worship hiked a much smaller island mountain, and our one Surfer hit the waves.

Gosh, it was so beautiful. There’s something so romantic about a cold beach. I don’t know what, but it is. God just swept me away in the beauty of His creation.

The water was so crystal clear. On one side of the small island mountain, waves crashed against these incredible rocks, and on the other side was complete peace; still clear water and shady trees. It was so breathtaking to see God’s handiwork in such a wide spectrum on such a small piece of the Earth.

After we finished exploring our little island, we split up into 2 teams of 5 for a scavenger hunt. Matt (a Canadian) was our fearless leader, and the rest of our team was Hannah (a lovely Kiwi), Mattheiu (he’s a French-speaking Swiss kiddo), and Noemi (Austria – THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC AHHHHH) (sorry) (not really). We managed to create a pyramid with random strangers on the beach, find Dora the Explorer paraphernalia, get Burger King crowns and convince random strangers to wear them, have an organized dance party (JUMP ON IT) in the middle of the sidewalk, interview a local, and serenade an old couple with “Kiss the Girl” until they felt led to a little bit of PDA themselves, in under a couple of hours. We also managed a few other tasks, amongst them taking many group pictures and blazing trails in overgrown forests atop urban hills. I also somehow ended up singing “How Sweet It Is” with a sidewalk guitarist in exchange for an apple.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the dream team jumped in the ocean after completing said obstacles. We changed into our bathing suits and ran screaming into the unforgiving Pacific. Why unforgiving? Do you know how close New Zealand is to Antarctica??? Did you now that the hottest it gets in the peak of summer is around 85 degrees Fahrenheit? And that is in the PEAK of summer. We’re still in spring.

And so it was. Literally the coldest water I have ever willingly thrown myself into. I couldn’t feel my limbs. When I first hit the water, it was so cold that I could not breathe. Really, it took my breath away. Then came the stinging and then the numbness. It was crazy. It only hurt after I got out of the water and my body began to thaw again. I never thought that warmth returning to my body would be such a painful experience.

Legit.

Our team won the scavenger hunt by the way.

Pictures to come soon.

 

Peace out girl scout.

Constellations

Wow, I have so much to say about the lectures. This week’s guy, Joshua Cole, says amazing things that can only come from God himself. More to come on everything later.

Today was the first time we did a local outreach. I would have loved to have picked the option to sing at the local coffeehouse, but I didn’t really put time into putting anything together, so the rest home it was! (We had three options: coffee shop performance, rest home, or Kid’s Club)

The rest home in Matamata houses elderly people who aren’t entirely sound of mind. As soon as I walked through the door, my heart began to break for these people who had been cast off. One woman could only speak clearly one word at a time. She would say to me “lovely, lovely” and then begin prattling off, repeating syllables and sounds like she was carrying a conversation, completely unaware that no one could understand the words she was saying. One man wandered the halls with drool dripping down his face like a wide-eyed baby. When I walked into the open room, one woman, Eileen was her name, just silently took my hand and slowly led me around the home, going in circles, like a goldfish unknowingly discovering its bowl for the hundredth time. I talked to Richard who can’t even remember his children’s’ names and thinks Patsy Cline is still alive.

The mental state of some people, like Ira, who is literally a different person every time YWAMers visit (her characters range from loud lawyers to satisfied housewife) actually provides a bit of comic relief until you realize that this is real life. Not some movie plot aiming to get cheap laughs, but people who have literally lost their minds.

It was sobering, and I’m not gonna lie, I was a little relieved to be back on the bus and on the way to the base.

Tonight we decided we were gonna finish all the movies we’ve started over the past two weeks. The Gap (the place where we hang out and watch movies) gets locked up at 10, so we have to be outta there. Unfortunately, we usually don’t start a movie until 8 or 8:30. So we always have 15-30 minutes left in a movie when we have to shut it down and get back into our cabins/cottages. So tonight was the night. We finish The Lorax, Star Trek, Prince of Egypt, and Tarzan. BAM.

And then we went star tipping. If you don’t know what that is, find someone that does. It’s basically the most fun you’ll ever have.

By the way. The stars here. Are incredible. And so different from the ones back home. Different constellations altogether. And since there’s no city for miles and miles and miles, just lots of mountains and cows and sheep, you look up and see thousands of stars in one glace. It puts perspective on the saying “count the stars”.

 

Peace out, girl scout.