International Loveeee

Sorry for not writing my blog on Friday night or Saturday night to Mom and Uncle Brian! Because I know that you two read my blog every morning with your coffee... You must have been so bored without my stories!

Last time I left off, I thought that I would be going to T-HOP (Taurunga House of Prayer) but the trip got called off! So instead I watched a sweet movie with Kat, Sarah, Aleisha, Carly, and Rich. It was called 'Father of Lights'. It is a documentary about evangelism and stuff. It was so cool. It made me super excited for outreach! I can't wait to find out where I will be going! One thing that really stood out to me was how simple a prayer can be! There is this evangelist that lives in Israel, and he has the gift of healing. He just goes around on the street and asks people if he can pray for them. And all he says is "Pain, get out. In Jesus name." That's it. And people get healed! So cool! I will do this one day!

I also had my 1 on 1 with Carly! It was so much fun to catch up with her! It is crazy, I have already been transformed so much, just since she has been gone! One thing that she said to me that hit home: I told her about how all of the staff at the fake-baptism had told me not to try to change myself and to just be myself because God made me perfect. Carly said that maybe God is telling me to keep on being myself. Because ever since I have been here I have been making myself super open and have been trying to peel off all of the layers and masks blocking the real me, and I feel like I am finally me. So I think God is saying - never go back to the way you were before you came to NZ! And I hope that I never do go back. Ever since that night at THOP, I have felt so filled with joy. I feel like I need to steal Marit's identity because I am JOY! (Every time Marit enters a room she says 'Joy is in the house!' haha and I feel like saying that too!)

On Saturday, A guy named Josh Kinkenberg came and talked to us Mus-O's (Music and Worshippers) about Prophetic and Effective Worship. It was pretty awesome. He was a tall dark and handsome Kiwi man, who is unfortunately happily married! Him and his wife run worship schools and such. He taught us some stuff about worship, and how to effectively lead. But the coolest thing was that he made us all prophesy over each other. We each got a piece of paper and wrote our name at the top. Then we folded it over so that you couldn't see who the paper belonged to. Then he mixed up the papers and handed them back to each of us. First we had to ask God for a word to write on the piece of paper that he wanted to say to that person. Then we passed the papers one person over and asked God to make an object in the room to stand out to us, and explain it's significance for the unknown person who's paper we had. Then we had to get him to show us a picture and explain it's significance. Then show us a scene and it's significance for the person that the paper belonged to. Then another word. Then a bible verse. So we wrote each of these things on different papers. Then he unfolded the papers and handed our own papers to us. And it was so crazy. All of the things on my paper totally made sense to me! Wow. Every day I experience things that make God so much more real! Man, God is so cool!

After supper yesterday evening I planned a little hang-out in our room time for my roomies and me. So Kat and Anne and me played Apples to Apples for a little while. It was really fun! It is nice to bond a bit with the girls in my room because I find that they are kind of quiet and keep to themselves quite a bit! So I am going to force them to be my friends, Mwahahah!

After Apples to Apples I went down to the outdoor pool where everyone else was having a bon-fire. It was such a warm night and the moon was so bright and beautiful! Oh man. Just so awesome. Fire and beautiful sky!!! My favorite things. But seriously. The moon down here in NZ is SO BRIGHT! Like I can't even believe it. It is insane. It lights everything up. Crazyness! And it is tilted funny, like sort of upside down/side-ways. So weird. I also miss the big and little dipper... but I have become friends with the southern cross instead...

During the bonfire I thought it would be fun to try skateboarding. Kyle has a skateboard and the 'pool' is not actually a pool, it is the remains of a pool. So it is basically a big cement pit in the ground with a rail and half pipe in it. So I went for a skate. I am such a skater chic. I was so good at it. Except there is this gigantic hole in the ground that I didn't see, and it made me fall, but that was totally not my fault... :P Brent came and joined me and we were super cool boarders together. Van tried to teach us how to ollie, but we already knew how... no big deal. But then I biffed so hard. I ollied in the air and instead of landing on my board with my feet, I landed on the cement with my elbow. I laid on the ground for a while and fake laughed, but I really wanted to cry. But Van was so cute, he was like "Aweee, are you OK!?!?!?" What a little gentleman. So cute. So this morning I discovered that my shin and elbow are quite bruised, and my ankle is all scratched up from my fall. Also, I have discovered a large goose egg on my head. I guess I hit my head too when I fell. Ohhh man. But I am such a pro skater. Just wait till I get back to Canada. I will show you all!

Then we decided that we would love to sleep out on the trampoline. But it was already occupado when we got out there. So I jumped on and squashed Brent over. It was really uncomfortable. But then Schnegg switched him out and it was better :) And Jacob was on top of Jacob and Hannah was on top of me. It was not the most comfortable. But then we just started tickling the boys and they got scared away. Probably the most awkward thing that has happened so far: While we were tickle waring I somehow got pushed on top of Matt and it was so inappropriate. Oh man. AWKWARD. HAHAHA

Anyways, once the boys finally left us alone, we slept. It was so lovely. I LOVE sleeping outside! Until I woke up at 5 AM soaking wet! It had rained on me. I was drenched and frozen! So I hung up my sleeping bag and crawled into my warm bed until breaky!!! I had my yummy oatmeal for breakfast. I love breakfast... and yes I had a giant spoon of peanut butter on my apple, Henk!!!!

The mus-o's got to go to Hamilton today. It was nice. We just chilled and walked around the mall and shopped and such. I was a bad person and bought a pair of shoes, and a pair of shorts... and a pair of Van-man-jeans. And some man tee's. There were some really good deals! I got 10 nail polishes for 10 dollars at K-Mart! And I got the man jeans for 20 dollars. and They were the skinny kind, so they look like girl jeans! And it is a miracle because they are actually long enough for me!!!!! I can even roll them up and they still reach my feet! So exciting! Matt and I also got some bonding time and walked all over the place looking for a cross necklace for him... we didn't find one though. All of the Christian stores were closed because it was Sunday. Why did we go to town on Sunday??? Lame. Oh well. It is kind of funny because he had a sad girl story about a girl named Steph that broke his heart a bit, and I had a sad story about a guy named Matt that broke my heart a little. Awe bonding <3

Then we went to Hamilton Gardens and looked around a bit. It is a big garden with a bunch of different areas. There are gardens for each country pretty much. The Japanese and Chinese and Indian ones were the coolest. The American one had a picture of Marilyn Monroe. Lame. We took so many pictures. It was like a giant photo shoot surrounded by pretty scenery! And it was SO NICE out today! Oh man. Spring is here and it is so wonderful! So many flowers blooming on trees everywhere!

This week and next week is Circuit Riders! I am SO EXCITED! There are two other DTS's that will be joining with us for Circuit Riders. We really have no idea what is going to happen, but it sounds so exciting! There will be lots of evangelism happening in Taurunga. So cool. We will be commuting from our base to Taurunga for this week, but next week we get to stay at the Marine Outreach base which is apparently beautiful... So that will be fun too!

Yay!