Praying Trees

Yesterday at Sunday fellowship in the evening, we did something really cool. At least, I thought it was pretty neat. There are a lot of trees on campus here. Some are native to NZ, but there are also a lot of them that are from other countries. Basically, we got into small groups and then went around the campus to different trees on a map we got and prayed for the country that specific tree was from. We prayed for the believers, the missionaries, the unbelievers, the governments. We spent a couple minutes at each tree, and it was so cool. We all learned a lot, and I figure, each country got about a half hour of prayer all together. Remember to pray for our fellow Christians in countries around the world who aren’t free to worship as we are.

God makes me laugh

I’ve been planning since I got here to get up in the mornings and do a quiet time of reading my Bible and praying, but it’s just so easy to hit snooze on the alarm. You know how it is. Well, there was a lady named Elizabeth Thomas who gave a couple lectures on quiet time with God and prayer, and it really made me want to do this even more. That evening, I asked God to give me motivation in the morning to get out of bed and go do my quiet time. Then I realized that could come in the form of a bug in my bed or something like that, so I took it back. Yeah, I know. Whatever. In the morning, I got up and went outside to spend some time with God—just me and him. And it was amazing. So glad I did it! Halfway through my quiet time, I remembered what I’d asked for the night before. Motivation.

That morning when my alarm (my cell phone) went off, I grabbed for it, and it fell off the shelf onto my bed. Then I grabbed for it again and it fell to the floor. When I realized that this had been my motivation for getting up in the morning, I laughed. God can be so amusing! Anyway, just thought I’d share that because it really impacted me.

Hot tubs and hermeneutics

I had one of the most amazing natural experiences of my life on Thursday! So at Capernwray, we’re placed in family groups that we do stuff with once or twice a week. As a kick-off, my group went to a beach near a town called Kawhia. It was about an hour and a half drive from school. We ate fish and chips first, which was yummy. Anyway, then we headed to the beach, but this wasn’t any normal beach. It had black sand, and there was something special that happened as the tide was going out. Can anyone guess what it is? That’s right (or wrong, depending on what you said)! There were hot springs under the sand, so if you dug a hold in the right spot, it would fill with hot water! We dug a natural hot tub! It was about a foot and a half deep in the middle and around seven feet in diameter. Basically, we ran back and forth from the hot tub to the ocean and watched the sunset. It was amazing! I have lots of awesome pictures I just put on facebook, so go look at them!

On Sunday, I went to the Salvation Army church. That was an experience. About thirty people, and totally unorganized. But it was really focused on evangelism. And everyone was really nice. The sermon was like five minutes. And the music was kind of…well, everyone sang their heart out whether they were on key or not, which I thought was really cool. So yeah, that will be interesting. We’re going to the same churches for the whole time we’re here.

Oooo! And we got to pick a seminar we’re going to do for the whole term today—out of four. I’m doing hermeneutics. If you don’t know what that is, look it up! I’ll write more when I can. :)

End of Vacation

I love NZ! It’s so beautiful here! Okay, so it rained a lot in the past two days, but that’s okay. It was still warm. We went to Mission Bay yesterday. It was nice, but just normal. Nothing special about it. We collected a lot of sea shells, and Janessa and I hiked up a mountain and found a memorial. That was cool. There was a great view from the top. I broke my flipflop, which sucked. That evening, we hung out at the hostel and played Dutch Blitz and Cheat. Fun times!

Today, we went to Long Bay. It was farther away, but it was so much more fun and beautiful! I finally found some cheap flipflops at a mall before we left. They were $2.50! Yay! Anyway, after the slow hour long bus ride, we made it to Long Bay Regional Park. We walked along the beach and over the rocks and took lots and lots of pictures. Then we hiked up the mountain and took pictures up there too! There were lots of parasurfers (no idea if that’s what they’re called) at the beach. That looks like so much fun, but I couldn’t do it. Too much skill involved. ;)

This evening, we were going to go to a Thai restaurant, but it was closed because it was a holiday here today. Some anniversary thing. So we ended up going to a Greek restaurant, which was really yummy. Then we came back here and packed up. We’re leaving for school tomorrow morning! Can’t wait!