One more day until we head back to the shire!

Just like Frodo and Sam, I am nearing the end of my journey. Outreach is pretty much over. We are going to visit the cape tomorrow and driving back to Hobbiton on Thursday. We are leaving bright and early because it is about an 8 hour drive, I think.

The past few weeks I have been emersed in the Lord of the Rings. Why have I not read these books until now? They are amazing. I am starting to believe that I was meant to be born in Middle Earth, as an elf. At camp I always dressed up as an elf, and I think my heart lies in the forests and naturey places. I also think that Legolas and I would make a really nice couple. I can even shoot a bow and arrow (I may or may not be able to hit a target though). During elvin living at camp I was the Master of the Naar, which as we all know is the word for Fire in the Elvish language. Clearly I am an elf at heart. I also am tall and fair and wholly good with no evil at all in me. True story.

Anyhow, we have had an awesome past couple of days here in Kaitaia. I was sick with a migraine for a few days on the weekend, but I am better now! And Yesterday we went on an epic adventure on the 90 mile beach. I rode a horse named Star. Yes, I rode a horse on the beach in New Zealand. Kind of like an elf actually. I like to pride myself as being a horse whisperer of sorts, and Star loved me instantly. I can't however say that Beth's horse liked her. She got a sassy horse. It was funny. But the ride was pretty awesome, along a really long beach. We couldn't even see the end of it in either direction. There were a few distractions of course, because for some reason people are allowed to drive their vehicles all over the beach and dirt bikes like to play in the sand dunes. Thank goodness the horses were used to all of that! Anyways, it was an amazing experience that I will never forget!

And then after that, one of the guys from youth took us out jet skiing with his family. They have two big sea doos and they gave us rides on the sea doos and on 'biscuits' (aka tubes) and on wake surfs and skiis. It was really fun when Rayner drove. He was crazy. I had to hold on super tight. So fun.

I also got a sun burn, as usual. New Zealand really needs to invest in a new ozone layer for my skin's protection!!!

Anyways, more later....

I want a Lion in my Corn Field

It is bright and early on this fine Friday morning of the 25 of January 2013. This morning I pleasantly awoke in my non-bug-infested foam mattress with the morning sun streaming down on my face. For some reason I woke up at 7:30, even though we don't have to be up until 11. Dang. Oh well, this made time for me to hit up the free internet!

On Sunday, at church, this old man went up to the front to announce a miracle that he experienced. He had been in the hospital recently for heart surgery. He was close to death, but somehow pulled through (First miracle!). Then his doctor told him not to drive for 6 weeks after the surgery, but he's already driving 3 weeks after (Next miracle)! Then after church he proceeded to back his car into the side of our van. Hmm. Hahaha! He made a pretty substantial dent in the front door, probably the size of a basketball, and the door was very hard to open after that!

Other than that, it has been a pretty relaxed week up here in the far north. On Monday we drove the massive dented van 2.5 hours to Whangerei to visit Leish in the hospital. That was fun! I decided that I would try sitting in the back seat. Why did I try that? The first hour was windy windy hilly hilly. It was miserable. I felt so car sick! But we finally got there and got to visit Leish!

When we got back to the complex after our journey, Van's foot wound was ready to be tended to. Way back when, in Fiji, Van stepped on a rusty nail. The crazy Indian contractor guy squeezed all of the bad rustiness out, and I gave him some anti-biotics. The hole in the bottom of his foot healed up nicely, but there was a big nasty lump on the top of his foot, where the end of the nail made it through to. So on Sunday night, Van and I decided to attempt to pop it. It was hard and dark, like there was crusted blood crusted in the lump. But we tried anyways. We used a trusty safety pin to poke a few holes in the lump. But sadly we acheived nothing by doing this accept for causing much pain to poor Van. So I put some polysporin on it and a bandaid and left it for the doctors. BUT when we got back from our hospital visit, somehow all of the puss had moved it's way to the surface of his lump and it looked like a big nasty zit the size of a penny. I was so excited! I got out my safety pin and we got out the video camera. It was awesome. I poked a hole and then SO MUCH puss came gooping out of the new hole and the other holes from the other night. It looked like a monster giving birth. The puss was the color of ketchup mixed with mayo. Yummmm. It took a really long time to get all of the puss out and we used quite a bit of toilet paper to soak it up. It was kind of like a volcanoe, just slowly oozing lava. That was probably the highlight of my outreach, if not the highlight of my life.

Somehow Leish forced the doctors into letting her come back to Kaitaia on Wednesday. I don't know how she convinced them as she is still really sick. But she came back! We are trying to force her to rest and elevate but she is pretty stubborn. Her parents are here. Her mom flew all the way up from the bottom of the south island and her dad flew in from an oil rig in the ocean. Pretty serious. But I think she is getting better, as long as she rests!

On Tuesday we went to the church and planned out the events for the next week or so.

On Wednesday we were tourists. Shelley and the girls took us to Coopers beach for a beach day. It was awesome. The waves were really big. I was to chicken to swim, but I worked on getting back my Fiji tan. Then we went to Mangonui to a world-famous Fish Shop. I wasn't very excited to go to the fish shop. I was envisioning a bait store with fishing rods and such things. Not too exciting in my mind. But to my surprise, when we arrived, we found that it was actually a fish and chips joint. It was excellent.

In Mangonui I found a really awesome T-shirt that I love love love. But I didn't bring any money. But Shelley lent me the money. It was so nice. She came in the store with me, and took my shirt to the counter and paid with her card. It reminded me of my mommy. It was a nice moment because I have been really missing my family lately! It made me so happy.

Yesterday, we went to a movie with some youth and tweens from the church. We saw the Rise of the Guardians. It was so cute! I loved it. I want to marry Jack Frost. And Santa would be a big scary Russian. And then in the evening we ran a couples night at the church. We had childcare provided, and we put on a fancy dinner and movie night for the couples. It went so good! There were about 12 people there. We served Canadian style roast (cooked in maple syrup) and Beeth's momma's taters and some corn. Jacob and Beeth slaved away in the kitchen and Van, Hannah and I entertained and served. We had some games and such too. And after dinner we watched Second Hand Lions. Which is probably the cutest movie ever. I can't believe that I have never seen it before. It reminded me of the princess bride in a way, and it was so heartwarming. I think it might be my new favourite movie!

This afternoon we are visiting the old fogies and playing some songs for them, and then a youth from the church is taking us Jet skiiing!!!!! Wooohooo! I'm excited!

Tomorrow we are having a fundraiser car wash at the church to rais money for some trips for the youth and tweens, Sunday we have Church (obviously) and I get to lead worship so I'm pretty stoked!

And Monday we might get to go horseback riding on the beach at sunset! How awesome is that. I am so excited!

And we will finnish off our programming on Tuesday with a tweens game and fun afternoon.

Wednesday we are taking a trip up to the cape, which is the farthest north you can go, and you can actually see where the currents from the two ocen bodies meet. It is the place where the Maori people say that their dead go after they die. Interesting. And apparently we get to tobbogan on sand dunes too. Yay! Since I am missing out on my snow, sand dunes will suffice I suppose!

And then Thursday morning we will depart on our 8 or so hour drive back to base! I am so excited to get back and finally see my computer again. I miss him so much. This is the longest we have been apart since I have owned him. That's more than 4 years. Maybe I have a problem...

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

THE CHILDREN'S PROGRAM IS OVER!!!

I feel bad for being glad that the program is over, but man am I glad. That was one of the most frustrating weeks that I have had since September. But even though there was a lot of frustration behind the scenes of the program, the kids made it worth it.

One of the things that made me most frustrated was that we had to prepare new crafts for the next day every evening after the program in the morning. Even though we spent most of last week preparing supplies and cutting stuff out for the crafts this week. All of our hard work from last week got trashed and we had to make new stuff the night before we needed it. It was like cramming for exams. I hate cramming for exams. There is a reason I am not in school right now.

But thank Jesus for the Pastor's wife. On Thursday night, she prepped all of the crafts for Friday. I think she must have stayed up all night. but it turned out pretty awesome. The crafts for the week were the armour of God. Which fit perfectly with our medieval theme. On Monday we made belts of truth. Tuesday was breastplates of righteousness. Wednesday was shields of faith. Thursday was the sword of the spirit. And Friday was the helmet of salvation.

At the end of the day on Friday, we let the children put on all of their armour, and then we sang a song called 'on the march'. It was so cute. All the kids were so in to it. There is one part of the song that says stuff like 'Hold high your sword of the spirit' and then the kids yell "I GOT THAT!" and it does it for all of the armour. They loved it.

In the learning centre on Friday, Beth did a salvation call for all of the kids. She got them to close their eyes, and then raise their hand if they wanted to accept Jesus into their life. All of them raised their hands. And then they all said the prayer together. It was pretty awesome. There were 21 kids in my group on the last day. (And I only had one youth helper!!! Thanks Azzy!) So all 21 gave their lives to the Lord. So cool. And in total, out of the 72 kids in attendance, 70 said the prayer accepting Jesus into their lives. Which is so cool. Because now God has his hand on their lives and who knows what might happen to them, but no matter what God will be there. It's pretty cool.

Now, if you have worked at camp with me you may know this... I don't really like children that much. Especially female children. But for some reason they LOVE me. I really don't like cuddling or holding hands or having 10 kids in my lap at once, and that is what girl children like. So poor Azzy had about 3 kids in her lap for the whole week. Oh man. But at the end of the week, one of the girls that was a bit high maintenance, gave me a bracelet. It was so sweet. Because I had really pushed her throughout the week. She really really wants attention because I don't think she gets much at home, so she misbehaves a lot and always runs off by herself to force the leaders to pay attention to her. I have her a few talks about how Azzy and I are here for all of the kids and we want to spend time with everyone. And by the end of the week she was a lot better, but I thought she probably wouldn't like me after all of that, but she did :)

And another girl in my group was so cute. Her mom has spinabifida, and on the first day she asked me if I knew what spinabifida is, and since I am a neuroscientist I actually know a lot about it. She was so excited that I knew what it was, that she introduced me to her mom and we had quite a good chat. Her mom doesn't have very severe spinabifida though, you would never know by looking at her. And I found out that her mom and dad own a cafe in town and they were the ones who had been making me my lovely allergen-free salads all week. How sweet. And then last night they dropped off some left over desserts from the cafe for us YWAMers, and since I can't eat them, the girl wrote me a note. It was so cute and warmed my heart!

So, even though I like female children a little bit better now, I still love my boys. Because instead of being clingy and whiney, they just like to destroy things. So much fun!

One other cool thing happened yesterday. A boy that was at the children's program, who has had some really really bad things happen to him (he was a victim of one of those pedophiles that have just been discovered here in Kaitaia), he said the coolest thing. Apparently he gets overcome by really crazy fits of rage and such things, and everyone was supposed to be really careful around him, but I never saw him act out. And he always knew all of the memory verses and stuff, so he was clearly excited about God. Anyways, I was testing out his armour at the end of the day, hitting his shield and his breastplate, and I said "Woah, this is pretty strong armour!" and he said "Yeah, that's because it's the armour of God!" and then he did a fancy little sword trick. It made me really happy.

So alas, the children's program is done. I did not really love it, but the children made it well worth while.

In other news, I have been growing out my leg and armpit hair since the beginning of outreach. I have grown my leg hair pretty long before because it is really blond and see-through, but I have never grown my armpit hair out before. I didn't think it would really get too bad, because my armpits aren't super hairy. But the hair is darkish and you can actually see it in contrast to my skin, and its getting really long. It's probably about 2 cm long. And I am actually getting really grossed out by it. I have 2 weeks left of outreach. And I can't decide if I should give in and shave it because it's really gross, or if I should wait it out until the end. I think I will probably hold out for the rest of the time, but it will be hard, because it is really gross and every time I lift up my arms accidentally I am ashamed.

Also, our team is getting kinda sick again. On Thursday morning, Leish could not walk on her leg. She had had boils on her ankle in Fiji. I thought they were gone by now because she never says anything, but nope. Boils are super prone to infection which makes them really scary, but I don't think she new that. And I don't think she was keeping them clean or else they would be gone by now. So anyways, Shelley forced Leish to go to the hospital (which was so good because she would have refused to go if anyone on the team tried to take her), and the docs said that she was lucky that she didn't have blood poisoning. And they put her on antibiotics and said that if it wasn't better in 48 hours that they would send her to the bigger hospital in Whangerei. Yesterday morning (after only 24 hours) they decided to drive her down in an ambulance. So I guess it wasn't getting any better. I think she might be getting surgery to get the infection out of her leg. Fun times. Prayer would be much appreciated!

But the one bonus of Leish being gone is that I can sleep on her mattress. In the complex we are staying in, we were given these foam mattresses to sleep on. I was really lucky and got the only one plagued by bed bugs. Literally. It is kind of funny because in Fiji before bed, Hannah would say "Good night" I would say "don't let the bed bugs bite" and Beth would say "Because there is literally thousands". Well, apparently we should have been saying this here in Kaitaia. I have little bites all over my entire body. My whole torso is covered and they are even on my BUTT! Stupid bugs. I am so itchy. And I was really looking forward to Wednesday because that was when we were supposed to leave for Aukland, and I could escape the dreaded bed bugs.

But now, it turns out we are just going to stay in Kaitaia for the rest of our outreach, which means 2 more weeks. So it is nice to be sleeping on a different mattress. Last night was the first night I didn't get totally munched.

We were supposed to go to Aukland for about a week to work with the C3 church in south Aukland and reach out to people on the streets, like the prostitutes. I was so excited for that! But the church cancelled on us, and we haven't been able to find any other replacement things to do in Aukland, so yesterday we found out that we will be staying in Kaitaia and helping run the church programs for the next couple of weeks. It should be pretty relaxed, so that's good I guess since everyone is getting sick. But I think I'll need to purchase a few books for myself because Kaitaia isn't too exciting. Haha. Ohhh small towns. I could never live in one.

Sarah went to the doctor yesterday because she was feeling really sick, and found out that she has strep throat. So I will be keeping my distance from that lady!

I just thank Jesus and my Mom (for letting me eat off of the ground and eat with dirty fingers as a child) for my good immune system!

The Jolly Jester Only has to be Jolly for one more Day. Praise Jesus.

I have a love-hate relationship for children and children's ministry. Every year when I worked at camp in the summers, I so looked forward to going to camp and acting like a child for a few months, but by the end of it I would decide that I hate children. Actually after about 2 full days of children I decide that I dislike them quite alot. And this week has proven no different than usual. I was kind of excited for the children's programme because I enjoy acting like I am a ten year old again. And just being silly and wearing rediculous costumes. But man, children are exhausting. But I do love them. The only reason that I bother with it is not for anyone but the children.

The week has been quite stressful. I had a mental breakdown on Monday because I was coming down off of a two/three day migraine of death and then I had a bit of a stressful time at the program and got kind of discouraged. I just needed to hear momma Reyns' voice. But I couldn't get on a computer at the library and everyone on the team was using their own computer. So I tried to phone home on a pay phone. Since when are pay phones so hard to use?!?!?! Like really, can't a person just put some money in and dial? Ugh. It took me so long to figure out how to dial collect to Canada, and then my parents weren't at home :( and my mom's cell doesn't accept collect calls. Poop stain. And then the stupid pay phone wouldn't accept my credit card, so I couldn't even pay for a call. I was so mad. I cried.

But then Dave took pitty on a poor crying Steph and let her use his MacBook to skype Momma Reyns. Thank God for Dave and his MacBook. And I let all of my frustrations out, and Momma Reyns encouraged me. And then I was good to go for the rest of the week. I think the theme of the week for me is remaining unoffended no matter what, and holding my tongue... a lot. I tend to be pretty opinionated and argue a lot if I don't agree with something. But I have held my tongue all week. Go Steph, Go!

This week I have been leading one of the age groups, I got the 9 and 10 year olds. They are hilarious. And they have a LOT of energy. We call ourselves the Knights of Ni (from Monty Python) and whenever we switch activity stations we hop around yelling "NI NI NI NI NI NI!" It's pretty fun and we have been successful in annoying EVERYONE. Score one for Knights of Ni.

The kids are super crazy all of the time. At the beginning of the week most of the girls were too shy to participate in games, but today was the first day that they ALL participated and it was awesome! They are loud and crazy (especially the boys) everywhere, except for the throne room. In the throne room, Beth teaches about the memory verse and the theme of the day. And it is so amazing. The second the kids step into the room, there is complete silence, and all of the kids eyes are on Beth as she tells the bible stories and gives them different types of puzzles about memory verses to help them learn the verses. It is amazing. And ALL of the groups are like this.

At the end of the day each day, the Jolly Jester MC (me), quizes the kids on the memory verses. They pretty much all know all of them. They even remember the ones from the first few days, and it was day 4 today. The kids are awesome.

My group is the loudest, and we have the most fun. In snack time it has become a tradition to tackle Steph and all of the youth helpers to the ground. So they tackle us. Jump on us. Sit on us. Fart on my head. And yell "Tell me everything you know!" or "Give me all of your money" or something to that effect. Then I get hulk like strength yel; "ARRRGGGG" and get up with all of them hanging on, and then they repeat the cycle. It's fun for them, and I don't have to plan or lead games or anything, so it works for me. But they do also ask really good questions about the lesson of the day, and stuff like that. They are a bunch of sweeties. I think everyone, including my helpers, are a bit afraid of the boys. But I love my boys. They are so much fun!

The other day when we got back from a long hard day of prepping crafts, we celebrated by jumping off of the upstairs landing in our complex. We stacked all of our mattresses at the bottom, and fell from the railing. It was awesome. Everyone else did belly flops onto the mattresses, but I was too chicken. I kept sticking my feet and arms out at the last minute. It was awkward. But so fun!

I think this week has been a big growing experience for our team, and we now have more unity than we have all of outreach. It is us against the world. And we are winning. Awe yeah. As much fun as the program is, I am excited to be done. I am exhausted from being pinned to the ground and from endless piggy backs and yelling "NI NI NI NI NI...." I think I will lose my voice if this goes on for much longer...

January 14 2013

Today was the first day of clarity in my mind for quite some time. I have been bedridden. That makes me sound like an old cripple, but alas I am not. I am a healthy-able-bodied-person who gets stuck in bed with a migraine for days on end. Hmph. I hate ice cream. I am so mad at myself for ‘feeling bad’ for turning down an ice cream that the nurse ladies bought for me. I thought ‘Oh.. it won’t be too bad.’ Well, I was wrong. I had two days of a knotted stomach and explosions coming out of one end, and then two days of migraines. Not worth it at all. Remind me to never eat ice cream again.

So the last two/threeish days of my life have been blurred by drugs. Lots of drugs. I love drugs. Lots of ibuprophen and paracetemol. And then at the end of the first day of pain and suffering I realized that I have a secret stash of Tylenol 3’s from that time that my mom got her face cut open and decided that she didn’t need pain killers. Thank you mom for being tough and blessing me with codeine. After I uncovered my precious stash, life was good.

I somehow played uke for worship on Sunday at church with all of the blasting speakers and such, and then ran the kids games and bible study. I don’t know how that happened. But I went straight to bed after and slept ALLLLLLL DAYYYYYY. I took a small break from sleeping in the heat of the day because I was really hot. The hall that we are camped out in is SO STUFFY. Apparently it is dangerous to leave the windows open in Kaitaia because there are people lurkin’. So I was too scared to open the doors, but I opened all of the windows. There was no breeze outside and it was probs 30 degrees. I was sweating. I was an unattractive sweaty sickly woman who was afraid of light and sound. And it was really bright in the room so the only place that I could find refuge from the light is under my pillow. So I hate to choose between pain and heat. It was a difficult time. So I got annoyed with my useless attempt at sleeping and decided to finish the Lord of the Rings. I only had about a half of a chapter left of the first book, so I read it with one eye (because my right eye likes to stop working during times of migraine). It was fun.

I got all worked up with the intenseness of Frodo’s quest, and then the book ended, and I don’t have the next book. Ughhhhhhhh. Oh well. So I tried to go back to sleep. It was hot. And bright. And there were flies crawling all over my body. But I pretty much mastered the unconscious full body twitch to get bugs off every few seconds. No need to worry. And then I got really mad. And I made a fly trap out of an old bottle. I thought I was so clever. I filled it with juice and some extra sugar. But for some reason the flies still find me more appetizing. I even added nectarine pits. They still like me better. Boooo.

So today was the first day of the children’s holiday program. I woke up and drugged myself. Then I was loopy enough for the children, but I zoned out a LOT. And I had really pretty make-up. Similar to the make-up Sophie did for me the other night. Awe yeah. The morning was chaos, but the kids had fun! Wooo!

I had a bit of a mental break-down once we got back to our lovely abode at about 2 ish. I was just really overtired I think, maybe from my hot-sweaty-migraine-drug-induced-sleep for two days, and maybe coming down off of an ibuprofen high, and maybe a bit affected by my lady time, and I was a little on the edge after the morning of chaos, and I just wanted to talk to my mommy.  There were no computers available in the library, which only has 4 computers (WHY?). So I tried to find a land line to make a call using my phone card. The best I could do was find a pay phone. Pay phones suck. Why can’t you just pick it up and dial? It is SO COMPLICATED. After quite a few minutes I finally found out that the pay phone didn’t take my card. SO I tried to make a collect call. The directions on the phone were SO WRONG. I tried for like 15 minutes and finally just phoned the operator. And then my parents didn’t answer their phone. So I called the operator back and tried my mom’s cell phone which apparently doesn’t take collect calls. UGHHH. So I tried to pay with my credit card on the pay phone AND IT WOULDN’T TAKE MY CREDIT CARD. I was SO MAD. I started to cry.

I sat by myself and cried under a tree for a while. Then I found Dave and he let me use his cell phone to make a phone call to my parents. With my phone card, it only costs like 2 cents a minute or something to call Canada from a land line, but on a cell phone it costs 75 cents a minute. Unfortunately I only had 1 dollar left. Poooooooop. Dad answered, he sounded excited to hear my voice! That is a really spectacular response from my father. He is the strong, silent type. I told him I only have 1 minute, so got him to go on skype because Dave took pitty on me and let me use his MacBook. So finally I got to talk to my mommy on skype. It was good. Sometimes you just have to hear your mom’s voice.

I actually wasn’t missing home at all (except for the odd time here and there), until last week when I momentarily got to talk to my sister on skype. But the computer at the library was dumb and didn’t have a microphone for me to talk into, so I had to type. It was SO MUCH WORK. I think she enjoyed it because she just got to say whatever she wanted and I had to listen. But I was frustrated because I wanted to talk. It made me sad. And I realized that I have not seen her in SO LONG. And that realization made me really miss home a lot. And then I started to feel trapped by my DTS and got all claustrophobic, and then today when I couldn’t contact my family I freaked out. Man, I am ready to be done this DTS. I need my freedom back. And my fam jam. And my MacBook. And my Clyde. It’s been good, but outreach is getting a little bit long, and we have a lot of time to sit around and that isn’t good for me because then I think. Thinking is bad when you miss your family and they are on the other side of the planet. But there is only a couple weeks left. Praise Jesus.

This evening I got to continue my pitty fest because we went to see Les Miserable. Oh man. All I can say is that I am SO GLAD that I took my contacts out for the movie. It was amazingly good. But I cried like a baby. I was almost as bad as Hannah and Jacob. Embarrassing. But seriously, amazing movie. I will be buying the soundtrack, and maybe I will see it in theatres again. That’s how good it was. I think my favorite character is Ebony. She was such a hero. She broke my heart. And now my teary eyes are ready for sleep. DRUGGGGGGGGGGS.

 

Medieval Madness

We have spent this week medieval-izing the church and ourselves. We have been planning and prepping for the children's program since Monday. Jacob is in charge of crafts. Since the theme is medieval, the crafts will be the making of the armour of God. Pretty cool. So we have been making swords of the spirit, helmets of salvation, shields of faith, breastplates of righteousness and belts of truth. The kids will be split into 4 groups: the 5-6 year olds (Kings Kids), the 7-8 year olds (Jolly Jesters), the 9-10 year olds (Knights of Ni) and the 11-12 year olds (Medieval Mustangs). It should be pretty sweet. My group is the Knights of Ni. Even though none of the children will understand the monty pythons reference, I think it's funny. We watched monty python's quest fot the holy grail last week to get into a medieval mind-set. And we watched Robin Hood this week. There will be many references to monty python that none of the kids will understand. Mwahahaha.

One night this week, I can't remember which because the days are all muddled together, there was a strange noise in the night. It woke us all up at about 4:30 am. It was a high pitched screeching/whistling noise. I think the noise woke me up, but I didn't actually remember hearing it once I was awake, so I woke up to the sound of someone scampering across the room and crashing into one of the chairs at the table. And then I heard Jacob moaning. Ooops, he ran into a chair while he was rushing to catch a high-pitched screeching burgelar. We couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. Leish suggested that maybe someone was stealing the laundry machine that is hooked up to the back of the building outside. So someone went to check on it. It was still there.

There were various theories thrown around as to what caused the strange noise. All of them were really strange, as we were all half asleep still. Someone thought that we were being raptured. But Sarah pointed out that a heavenly trumpet would sound a lot more heavenly that the whistling noise. Someone else thought that the pipes had burst. That suggestion was closer to the truth. We finally discovered that the water tank was over heated.

Everyone then was frightened that the water tank would explode. I envisioned in my sleepy state, being splattered with scalding water all over my body and getting really bad burns that would forever scar my face, and then I envisioned that the hot water would start filling up the hall and that I would be drowned in hot water. But thankfully Van had seen an episode of myth busters and informed us that water tanks cannot explode, unless they are put together completely wrong. So I went to sleep.

On Wednesday we had a tween night at the church. We wanted to have a sleepover at the church with them, but unfortunately that could not be done. There have been recent uncoverings of sexual abuse of young boys by authority figures in the schools and churches in Kitaia. So parents are hesitant to let their children have sleepovers. For good reason. It sucks that stuff like this has to happen in the world. It actually makes me feel sick just thinking about it. So we had the tweens come to the church in the evening. We had snacks, played games, watched night at the museum and played hide and seek in the dark. And then they went home. It was pretty fun, and not having a sleepover saved us a lot of lost sleep.

During the day Sarah, Leish, Jacob and I went over to the old folks home to volunteer for a bit. We got to take some old ladies for a walk in their wheelchairs. It was fun. And quite an arm workout. And then the nurses treated us and the ladies to ice-cream. I always feel bad turning down icecream or something that I technically should not be eating, so I ate it... but I regretted it later.

On Thursday night it was Ladies night at the church. So Leish and Sarah baked some goodies and planned some fun games for us and the ladies. It was really fun. I met a lady named Janet. In one game I learned that she makes really good bacon and egg pie, that she was born in Wairua and that her dream job is a nurse, and that is what she did! She was such a sweet heart. We played the telephone pictionary game, and she was literally laughing the whole entire time. She made Hannah and I laugh really hard too, but just because she was laughing so hard. It took us SO LONG to finish the game because of all of the laughing. But it was fun! And hannahs paper started out as "hannah had long hair but then she cut it off" and ended up morphing to "Hairy people throwing coconuts" to "A vacation in Hawaii" to "Pirates pillaging Christmas island". Oh man. So funny. I died laughing.

While we were having a blast with the ladies, the boys were back at the complex waxing eachothers chests and watching a movie... or so we thought. Dave came and picked us up from the church and when we got back, Van openned the door to the complex and was wearing a black dress shirt with a bow tie (Who brings a dress shirt and bow tie on outreach? Only Van....), and in the background we heard Jason Mraz serenading us. We walked inside and there was candles in the shape of a heart on the floor and the table was decorated in candles. The boys pulled out our chairs for us, and served us fruit and yogurt (and chocolate!) and they had encouragement cards set out for us. What sweeties. My future husband has a lot to live up to.

It was a pretty late night, so we got to sleep in in the morning, we prepped a bit at the church and the ladies had a bible study and then we embarked on a journey out of town to the Pastor's and his families houses for an afternoon and dinner. It was so nice. They have a river on their land and most of us went swimming, but I didn't. My stomach has been acting up since I ate that icecream and I had deathly cramps cramping my style. So I sat in the sun and read the Lord of the Rings.

I don't know why I didn't read the Lord of the rings before now! It is so amazing! I literally can't put it down. I found it in the attick of the complex we are staying in, and I have barely put it down recently. I have now converted to being a Nerd of Middle Earth. And I am proud of it. I think I will buy every single book that is related to the Lord of the Rings when I get home.

We had supper and watched some movies. Grace (one of the girls) helped me bake some gluten, dairy, egg free peanut butter cookies!!!! They are so good. AND Sophie gave me a massage (I think I have a few bruises from the karate chops) AND Sophie painted my toe nailes and gave me a make-voer.  I got beautiful pink blush all over my face, and a deep red blush mustache and some bright blue eye shadow. I looked quite beatuiful I must say. I was a bit terrified when I looked in the mirror, and Dave and Leish literally pointed and laughed when they saw me. I was quite pampered.

Today it is really hot out and we are taking the youth out to the beach for the afternoon. A perfect day for the beach!

Sunday Morning Comas

It's been a pretty relaxed couple of days here in Kaitaia. We ran youth yesterday night. We had pizza, played some games and just hung out with the youth. They are super awesome! I am excited to get to know them more and to have them help out with the children's program. I think that the pizza was probably pretty awesome. Sarah put off her upcoming diet in order to eat seconds and maybe thirds and fourths. I lost track. I however, had gluten/dairy/egg free buns with tomatoe sause and pineapples on them. Mmmmm.

Yesterday we walked around town. I found some sweet stuff in an Op Shop, but I only bought one sweater. That was quite the acheivement for me. And then we came across the most awesome of antique shops. Hannah and I walked through it at least 3 times and each time we found something we didn't see the time before. There was lots of furniture filled/covered with trinkets. There was lots of wall phones on the walls and old fashioned photographs hanging. There were old light fixtures hanging from the roof and some pitchforks and shovels. There were lots of old fashioned tools.

We found some beautiful old make-up compacts. Some fancy old hand mirrors with matching hair brushes. There were millions of spoons, some old binoculars, old lab goggles, so much beautiful jewelery and hair pins. I can't even remember everything that was in there, but it was amazing. Everyone else got bored and left me and Hannah there by our selves. I ended up getting this little tiny old pocket prayer book from 1915. It's pretty sweet, and an old leather bag. I'm pretty excited about it.

But I was happy to get out of there because the dust was atrocious in there. I don't normally use words like 'atrocious', but that is the only way to describe it. Jacob had to leave right away because his allergies acted up. And even me, who is not allergic to dust or pollen or any of that stuff started to get stuffed up pretty bad. I don't know how the owner can sit in there amongst all of that old dust every day. It's really gross to think about it actually, because dust is made up of old skin cells that have flaked off. So he inhales hundred-year-old skin all day every day. Fun times.

This morning the YWAM team got to lead the service at church. Jacob, Van, Hannah and I did worship, Beth did Communion, and then Jacob, Van and I shared some testimonies from our outreach so far. Highlights from Fiji and Paihia. The pastor was so kind and gave me the award for the best ability to speak clearly into a microphone. Score!

The people at the church are pretty awesome. We stayed and chatted for quite a while after the service. Everyone is really excited for us to be here. It seems like the YWAM team's presence is one of the highlights of the year at the church. They still have the pictures of laster years team on the wall. But we get to take those down and put our own up. Mwahaha.

Last night, one of the members of the church, Dr. Jake, brought is chiropractic table in after youth and gave some free adjustments to our team. OMGOSH I needed one so bad. My shoulders have been a mess since one of the first weeks in Fiji, and my left hip is always a problem. At home I go regularly to get my back cracked. Before he started, my hip would only bend at a 90 degree angle to my body, and when he was done it would bend so that my leg could touch my stomach. Wow. And my neck and shoulders feel free. Lets just say that I slept like a very happy log last night.

We are Loose

On January 2, we departed from the campground in Paihia. It was a bitter sweet moment. I was glad to be out of there and looking forward to having a sleep that did not involve booming base and screaming drunk girls. But I was sad to leave because I made so many new friends.

Before we left, I realized that I had not taken my migraine pills (which I am supposed to take every night before bed) in about 2 days. Now, there is a reason that I am supposed to take them before bed. It is because they make me very sleepy. I remember one time at home I took a pill in the morning. I was ready to go. I drove through Timmies and got some coffees and went over to my sisters house. But as soon as I sat down on her couch I was out. For at least an hour. Awkward. But I don't want to get migraines, so I took one in the morning on the second. And that ensured that I slept for the majority of the day. But to be honest, I probably would have slept without the pills too because I was so tired.

We left Paihia and headed towards Kaitaia, I think. I am not really sure where we were trying to go. I think the leaders wanted to find a beach to pitch our tent on and have a campfire for the night, for free. Too bad that's illegal. We drove around for hours (I think), and couldn't find anywhere secluded enough that we could get away with breaking the law. But somehow we ended up staying in a nice little batch on the beach. I was sleeping the whole time, so I don't really know how we stumbled upon this place, but it was probably because of God.

We had phoned a hostel and checked out prices for 8 people. They only had 4 beds, but they would let us pitch a tent outside for the other 4. But it would cost like 260 dollars or something like that. Ummmm to sleep in a tent? No thanks. But this batch costed around the same amount and there were 7 beds and it was about a minute walk to the beach. Need I say more?

We spent a bit of time on the beach, had some supper and then I went to bed early. It was such a glorious sleep. In a real bed. I haven't slept in a real bed for a REALLY long time. It was so comfy.

I don't remember a lot from that day because I was so drugged, but I do remember jumping on a trampoline and doing laundry. The trampoline had two inflatable jet skis on it. Sarah and I were jumping... well I was jumping... and I'm not sure what Sarah was doing, all I know is that she fell flat on her face. It was graceful. And then we jumped with the jet skis like we were riding them with no hands. We are so loose. (That means hardcore in Kiwi talk).

And I did laundry. Glorious. After a week of tenting and having my stuff get all wet when the tent flooded, it was so nice to do laundry in a real laundry machine. They actually smell nice now. Mmmmmm.

In the morning we continued our expedition to Kataia. And now we are in Kaitaia. We are working with a church here. We'll be helping with normal programs such as youth, women's and men's ministry, as well as with church. But the main thing is that in about a week we will be running a vacation bible school for the kids. So we will be planning and getting ready for that for the next week and a bit. I think it will be pretty awesome. A lot like camp. We are having a medieval theme. I get to be the jester. I'm so pumped. I am currently trying to decide what type of accent I am going to have. Since ever accent I try ends up being either British or Russian, I think it will be Brussian.

We are staying in a hall. We have foam mattresses to sleep on. TWO SHOWERS (unheard-of), toilets, a kitchen and even a laundry machine. Sweet set up. We are just relaxing for a few days and recuperating from Drunk Fest. I really need recuperation time. My cold finally is getting better after two nights of solid sleep. One more and I should be good to go.

When we were setting up our beds, Sarah and I thought of a new system. All of the noisy sleepers at one end and the quiet ones at the other end. Genius. So the noisy sleepers can keep each other awake and not bother any of us. So, we put me, Sarah and Beth at one end because we don't make noise or try to cuddle in the night. And we put Hannah and Leish at the other end because Leish scratches loudly in the night and Hannah likes to snore and cuddle. They will be perfect for each other. I got a little cuddled out in Paihia. Hannah thought it would be fun to force-spoon me. It would have been fine if she would be the big spoon because I hate being the big spoon. But of course, I had to be the big spoon. And her hair was in my face and I was suffocating from hair in nose and mouth and I was feeling really claustrophobic because she had me pinned between her and a pole, so I couldn't escape. It was such a horrible experience. But I rolled the other direction and butted her over and that was the end of that. But last night was glorious. I slept beside Beth and Sarah and neither of them touched me. I don't know how I will ever be able to have a husband since I dislike human contact so much.

In the same 'carpark' (that is what Kiwis call parking lots) as the hall we are in is a library. So we get free internet for the next 3 weeks. Score! And I talked to my mom on Skype today. It was nice. I am feeling like I will be ready to go home in a few months. I really miss Clyde. I love him so much. (He is my Jeep, incase you didn't know who Clyde is). And he is all lonely spending the long cold winter in my uncles shop. Poor Clyde. And it is my first winder that I have a car with a remote starter, and I don't even get to take advantage of it. How unfortunate. And apparently my mom just got a new car! Lucky lady. And my dad spent the day hunting a muskrat. How random is that? There was a muskrat hanging out in our garage, and my dad was changing the oil in one of the vehicles and the muskrat went for a swim in the old oil that had been drained from the car. HAHAHAHHAHA. So dad caught him and set him free by the lake near our house. We assume that his burrow is by the lake. But muskrats are supposed to hibernate, and it is the middle of winter. So weird. But it's true. I saw pictures.

January 2 2013

So, it is 2013. Sweet As Bro.

Yesterday was our last night at Paihia before we move on in life. Instead of having our usual sausage fest (haha, I'm punny, but not really), we put on a program in the tent where the DJ usually is. We had some musical numbers, some skits and some testimonies.

I went around before it started to tell people what was happening and invite them. I told one group that there would be skits, and with my Canadian accent they thought I said skids. Awkward. But we got that cleared up. And the next guys I went to tell listened to my explanation of what was happening and then asked "Bro, what are you on?" Bah!!! All of my life I always got bugged because I have droopy eyes, or 'bedroom eyes'. My eyelids just are big. Ok? Geeze. Leave me alone about it. Anyways, I always get asked if I'm high. And I never am. But now I have the best response ever! I said "I'm high on JESUS!" They thought I was weird. They jokingly asked if I wanted to sit with them, so I did. They didn't know how to respond. We played a card game called horse racing or something.

The program was pretty good. First, Hannah, Sarah and Jacob played a few songs. Then we did the creation skit. At one point Van hugs me. Sarah took a photo and it looked like we were about to make out. Hilarious. Hannah did her testimony. Some other guys that are working with Operation Jerusalem sang some songs. They were actually legit so good. Then there was my testimony and the ropes skit and Daves testimony.

It was so hard to give my testimony because most of the audience was drunk, and they kept asking questions and making comments. It was quite distracting. But entertaining. A lot of them thought it was pretty funny to heckle, but so many kids in the back were actually listening so intently. It was actually really cool.

At the end we tried to have some prayer. We were just gonna go around and pray for whoever wanted it, but then the microphone got commondeered by one of the other OJs and that plan didn't come to fruition. Which is frustrating and unfortunate. But one guy named Alex actually came out in front of everyone and accepted Jesus. It was really cool. He will be a radical Jesus lover and I am so excited for him. Everyone was making fun of him and he was just like "hey guys, it's not funny." And he is one of those cool dudez, so having everyone see that was probably so good.

So many of the youth actually came by after and told us what a good job we did with the program. Lots even said that it was better than the DJ, and they LOVED the DJ. So cool that we could do something totally chill and wholesome and they liked it better or as much as the sleezy DJ. Man, these kids are so hungry for God. Maybe all of this prophesy of revival starting in the North will come true!

Then Van and I sat up late with our favorite friend named Louis (like french pernounsiation). He has been in the camp site beside us all week and we have been coveting his amazing music. So he gave us a bunch of it. We hung out until the wee hours of the morning. It was awesome. We have made so many friends here.

It is really cool because so many of the youth kept coming back and visiting us. Even if they were atheist or unsure or whatnot, they knew that our tent was safe and that we loved them. Some boys even adopted me as their mother. I took care of their drunkenness one night, and the next night they kept coming by and checking in and it was like our tent was their homebase and if they lost eachother they would come find me. It was so cute.

One guy had an expensive radio, and he didn't want to leave it laying around, so he came to our tent and asked if he could leave it here and get it in the morning. He didn't even know us, but he knew that our tent was the only safe place here, and he trusted us. Pretty cool.

So regardless of how many souls were or were not saved the past 5 days, MANY seeds were planted. These kids will always remember the crazy foreign christians that loved them and accepted them no matter what. And that we were cool and able to have fun with them. We weren't just a bunch of people preaching perfection at them, because that's not what it's about. Love is Jesus' message, and I know that they recieved that from us this week.

Happy New Year!!!! (January 1)

I would have thought that after spending 4 months in New Zealand I would have caught on to all of the weird slang. I was wrong. The other day, a Kiwi was like "I'm gonna go spend the night at my parent's dry batch." I was like "What?" The only batch I know is a batch of cookies. And he tried to explain that he was going to this batch because it was dry. I was like... "Ok..." I had no clue. But apparently a 'batch' is a summer home or a cabin thingy. Weird. Who thought of that?

Then last night I was talking with these guys about snowboarding, and they told me about an indoor hill in Aukland. They said that all the 'Loose Bros' hang out there. Hmmm. In Canada 'Loose' implies flooziness. But apparently loose bros are just really intense or hard-core. Sweet. Love it. I'm gonna go to Aukland and hang with the loose bros.

Also, either I have been out of the real world for so long that I am behind in the current trends, or else Kiwi's have really weird fashion sense. There is a guy here with a mushroom cut. A MUSHROOM CUT?!?! I have legitimately not seen a mushroom cut since the nineties. Nick Carter apparently is making a comeback. And apparently frosted tips are back too? Really? The nineties? C'mon.

The past two nights have been super awesome! Even more kids came by on the 30th and then on the 31st! And we have been having some regulars come and hang out for a lot of the day. We have come to love them. Well, we actually loved them the whole time, but now we are attached to them. They just come and chill with us for the majority of the day. It's awesome. They say that they like coming over to our place because it is a safe place and the people are chill to hang out with. Awesome. That's the whole point of this.

On the 30th, I met some lovely boys that were very drunk. I took care of them for the majority of the night and fed them bread and water. They loved when I said "Drink some water" because Canadians say WA-TERRRR and Kiwis say WA-TAH. So it was amuzing for them to listen to me tell them to hydrate. They were cute and hung around a long time.

Oli brought a bunch of his friends over in the afternoon too and they became our besties. I served them Milo all day/night long. I have become the best Canadian Milo maker that ever lived. Probably because no Canadians have ever made Milo before. Milo is kind of like hot chocolate, but it is less sweet. You put in a couple scoops of Milo, some sugar, some milk, and hot water. It is the best. All of the Kiwi's love the Milo that I make. Maybe it is because they are drunk and can't actually taste the milo, but I choose to believe that it is because I am so good at making it.

We keep on getting sicker and sicker. I feel like poop this morning. Too many late nights. My throat is quite sore and I sound like a man. It is unfortunate. But we just have one night to go! And I made quite the amazing discovery! There are warm showers! I was looking on the wrong side of the bathroom before! So yesterday I had a warm shower. It was glorious. Praise Jesus for hot water that falls on your head.

Every morning we get up and pick up cans and bottles and garbage from around the camp site to help people out. I met some good buddies down by the river. Most people just watch you pick up their trash as you wander by their tents and such, which is fine because it is my job to do it. But these guys, they refused to let me pick up their rubbish! They took my trash bag and picked it up for me. And then they did it again the next day! I love them. So today I went straight down to their tent and they were all still asleep, so I picked up all of their trash and hung their wet clothes that were all over the ground on the line and gathered their belongings into a neat row. Just because they are awesome.

Every evening, before the loud music commences, we have a little worship session in the markie where the dancing usually is. Yesterday (New Years Eve), we were worshipping and a bunch of the kids that have been hanging out with us came by and joined and then a bunch of random drunk passerbys came too. It was so amazing. Maybe they thought they were being funny and making a joke, but it was so cool! Because the dark spirits of alcoholism and perversion and lust and all of these things have such a hold over these kids, and words have power. They were singing the words to the songs (there were handouts with words on them), and when they declared Jesus' Lordship and Glory, whether they knew what they were saying or not, the demons were terrified. Because Jesus has won against them already, and they have to flee from Jesus and carriers of Jesus Christ. There was a prophet guy there with us for the night and he said that he saw angels decend over us as we were worshipping. It was actually so powerful seeing all of those drunks worshipping. We got out a jimbay too and they were just drumming away to their hearts content. Thank you God. And then a few of those guys stayed and asked us questions and came back repeatedly throughout the night. Awesome.

One girl came right over to me after worship. She didn't even introduce herself or anything. She just launched right in to a bunch of questions about Christianity in todays world. She is a Christian and always has been. But the influence of her friends and of the world has brought her into parties and such things. She knows that its wrong and doesn't like it, but doesn't really know what to do. I got to really encourage her and let her know that she is loved no matter what and that God does not judge her, he still loves her the same, he just is sad seeing her struggle. We chatted for quite a long time and it was really awesome and I got to pray for her! It was really awesome and we are going to stay in contact by emails and such! So cool.

Last night there were actually so many girls that were curious about me and my faith. I got to talk to close to 6 I think. And it was so cool because they are so open and curious. When I spoke their eyes were wide and glued to me and they were hanging off of every word. It was so cool. The theme of the night was really just the message of Jesus' love. They are all so used to condemnation by christians for drinking or sex or drugs or whatever it may be. And I was so glad to encourage them and just share about my life and my experiences and show them how imperfectly perfect I am. They can relate to me because I used to party like them. It was just so cool.

There was one guy that I got into a deep convo about christianity with right over midnight. So I spent the new year preaching the message that Jesus preached. I was telling the guy about the difference between religion and christianity. And that people have made christianity into a religion with a bunch of rules and guidlines that are hard to follow and no one can live up to. People in church often aren't completely honest about their struggles, and everyone acts all perfect when in reality no one is perfect. It's not possible not to sin. The only person that has never sinned is Jesus. I told this guy that the main message that Jesus preached was to love God, love one another and tell the world about God. And that the way to do that is not by scaring people by threatening hell over them. It is to simply lead by example and they'll come running. And we saw it so clearly this week. These people can see something different about us, and they always come up and ask about it. We don't even have to lead them to the subject of Jesus, they want to hear it and ask about it.

Anyways, this guy was so encouraging. He was so into it and he said "Man, if every christian was like you, then christianity would actually be cool." I told him that's because all I am doing is sharing what Jesus' message was - Love. His mind was blown. And the clock struck 12 and he just waved it off and wanted to keep talking. Awesome.

There were so many other convo's along the same lines. So many seeds have been planted this week for the kingdom of God and it is so exciting.

The prophet guy that came last night is this super cool old dude. He just walked up to me and said "You're not a church person, are you?" Those were the first words he ever said to me, and I hadn't said anything to him. I was like, "No, I'm not actually." And he said "Yes, you are a rare type of person, you are a kingdom person and you can see God's kingdom everywhere and understand that every person in the world was created for God's kingdom. The Church and the world will try to change you but never change." Cool. I feel like the kingdom and not the church has been a major theme of this week for me in all of the conversations that I have had with people. He also explained that I really understand the kingdom and that I am able to communicate it and explain it to people to teach them. Crazy! That's what I've been doing all week, and especially last night. Awesome Possum.

We saw a major clash of kingdoms outside of our campsite last night. There were 5 fights right beside our camp and every single one of them ended up on top of our tents and they got torn and broken. It is because the kingdom of sin is threatened by our presence here.

Anyways, I am excited for one more night of this! And I am so thankful that the sun is out and our tent only got flooded once. Yesssssss.