The Far North

Last Thursday, the guys at school all put on a girls’ night for us. It was super awesome. We all got dressed up and met in the seminar room. Then one by one the guys each came up to the room and escorted a girl. Basically it was just whichever was closest. At least for most people. We walked through the garden in partners and got pictures taken, which was kind of awkward but kind of cool. Then we ended up on the porch of the homestead. It seriously looked as if we were at a wedding or a grad banquet. The setting was beautiful. The food and dessert was great, and the guys served us all evening. Really great. Really cute. :)

Friday, I went on another weekend trip. Five of us—me, Janessa, Mark, Dan, and Matt—took Mark’s car and drove up to the Far North. The first night, we left about 10:30pm and reached the Bay of Islands at 4:00am. We set up our tents in a random lot on a hill and slept till 8:00. Then we went to a bakery for breakfast and headed off to Ninety-Mile Beach. We drove around there for a while. It was super fun! And we attempted skim-boarding but failed miserably.

After that, we went to some huge sand dunes that were 200 feet tall and so steep! We rented a board (sort of like a boogy-board) and sledded down the dunes. It was so fun! We got very, very sandy. Then we went to a beach and went swimming…tried to wash the sand off…failed. Then we had macaroni and creamy tomato mozzarella sauce—well, what Mark didn’t end up wearing. Check out the pictures on Facebook.

Then we headed to Cape Reinga, which is the north point. Oh my goodness, it was amazing! We stood on a huge cliff and looked out at the ocean, and there was nothing there. It was so cool! Again, look at pictures.

We drove to the Karikari Peninsula after that and set up our tents near a beach. Slept till 8:00 again, then headed home. It would have only taken us seven hours to get back to school, but we got caught in construction/accident traffic in Auckland for two hours. Anyway, great trip. So fun! Can’t wait for two week break!

Next week is ministry week. We’re split into teams of around ten each and spread all over the North Island. My group is in Hamilton at a church called Calvary Chapel. They’re based out of a school because they don’t have a church building. We’re leading a couple church services, hanging out with school kids at lunch times and doing activities with them—basketball, soccer, drama games, crafts. I’m involved in the drama stuff. We’re also doing community service stuff where we’re just going to go to people’s houses and ask if they need anything done. Like gardening, car washing, vacuuming, that sort of thing. Friday we’re doing street ministry. I’m kind of nervous about that, but it should be a good experience. Anyway, I could use a lot of prayer for that week. It’s going to be stretching. And pray for the people we’re going to meet, just that we’d be able to show Jesus’ love to them.

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your prayers! :)

Wow...

Last weekend was absolutely amazing! Seriously one of the best weekends I’ve ever had. Ten of us took two cars and drove up north Friday night for the weekend. We stayed at one girl’s (Mel’s) house in Paeroa the first night. Then Saturday we headed up to the Coromandel Peninsula to Cathedral Cove (Narnia :)). That was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We climbed over some rocks and went swimming at a beach where there were no people. Cathedral Cove was pretty busy. However, when we got back to our stuff, the seagulls had taken our loaf of bread out of the grocery bag, out of the bread bag, and eaten all of it. No lunch for us. Later we walked to a cave, looked around in there, swam to another cave, went in there. After that, we hiked back to the cars (it was about a half hour walk to the beach), and went to Hot Water Beach. Basically, it’s the same idea as the other beach I wrote about, except that the water was so hot that we couldn’t even stand in it. That is, once we could actually get to the water. We accidentally went at high tide instead of low, so we had to wait around till 10:00 at night to get to the hot water. But it was fun. We made spaghetti for supper…it didn’t end up getting cooked all the way, but whatever. It was still good. After supper, we went for a walk to some rocks and climbed on them. Yes, we did a lot of that. Then we went back to our picnic table and sang worship songs. That was fun. Finally, when 9:30 rolled around, we found the hot water…boiling, scalding water…and dug a little hole. It wasn’t really big enough so we ended up having a sand fight.

That night, we set up tents in an unfinished neighbourhood with only streets and grass. I slept really well.

The next morning, we got up and went to a town called Whitianga to eat breakfast. Well, we parked ourselves at a beach, but that was short lived. A police officer drove up to us and told us we had to leave because there was a tsunami warning. So we went to a café and bought muffins instead. Then we went to Mel’s friend’s house and hung out there for a bit. They were super nice, and their house was amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house with a better view than that.

After we left, we headed to Wairere Falls. The hike was only about half an hour, but it was all uphill. It was fun though. And the falls were beautiful. We got back to Capernwray about 3:30 that afternoon. What an amazing weekend!

Monday was Quiet Day. Basically, we had worship in the morning, we made a packed lunch, and we headed off by ourselves to be quiet and spend time alone with God. It was really cool. I took a blanket and sat in the garden most of the day. It was a really great day.

This week we had lectures on apologetics. We learned so much about how science and archaeology confirm what the Bible says.

Yesterday, me and two guys who lead youth group together went to a special creek before we had to go to youth. The water is special because it’s been underground for a hundred years. It’s really blue because it is so pure and clean. And it’s so cold! Oh my goodness it’s cold! We swam down the river and absolutely froze, but it was worth it.

Well, that’s all for now.