I Will Put My Testimony Into You

Well it has been forever since I've made a proper blog post. My apologies. It's not like there hasn't been a lot of cool stuff going on, though. I guess I had a falling out. Anyways, I'll give you a quick fill in on what's going on the last month or so. The leaves are all turning red, orange, yellow and falling off the trees as winter is approaching. The sun goes down at 5:30pm and it feels like Christmas should be coming soon. The group is a lot quieter with Amber (the loudest person on earth) gone but it's been good. We miss them but no one is dying... except maybe Kelsey. I think she's missing Amber a lot. Easter break was awesome. I got to see a lot and laugh a lot. After spending 9 days on the south island I got a bit of a taste of the north island, spending a bit of time in Aukland and a bit in the Cormandel where myself and 9 others rented a beach house and did very little for 9 days. It was good to spend time with three (out of four) of the Adventure Bible School-ers before they left the group. I happened to be in Aukland for Record Store Day and so I was lucky enough to score a few sweet deals and at night I was able to go to a free gig (!!!) on the outskirts of Aukland with Robert. There were 7 bands playing that night and so it was cool to see what New Zealand indie bands were like... most of them sucked unfortunately, but the opening band was really good. They were called Artisan Guns and they were really quirky and fun-loving people. Robert and I actually talked with them after their show, they were nice people. A straight-forward indie rock band Clap Clap Riot was okay too but other than that the music was pretty weak and the groups were more into making noise and then drinking than anything else. Anyways, airports. Domestic flights in New Zealand are easiest things in the world. Now I.D. required. Check your bags, go through security, and you're on the plane. Takes five minutes. Really efficient.

So now I'm back to school. Two weeks of lectures with Jerry Benjamin (our first and only international lecturer this year... from Colorado Springs, USA) have come to a close and now we've got only four weeks left! I'm back in Room One with Joel B. (JB), Joel, and Bryan (with honourary member, Robert) and it's fun times. There have been a few lame pranks pulled this semester and a I've had a few "close encounters" with Joel. Sport of choice right now seems to be football.

This past week was super busy. Angela and I were planning everything for youth group one Wednesday at Timaru Life Church and I was also involved in a presentation for the Christian elementary school in Timaru (in which I was in a drama as a faithful friend and played a pirate searching for treasure in a sing-along action-song) which was for Thursday. There was a lot of stress on Angela and my part because after all the work we had put into the message for youth group we came to the conclusion we had about 30 minutes covered with stuff to do out of the hour and half we needed to fill. The night before Wednesday we prayed a bunch for our plans. Come Wednesday night 7:00pm, Angela and I were able to present a really cool message on Ephesians 1:15-20. Our goal was to make it as interactive as possible and really get the guys participating. At 8:25, as we were about to split off into small groups again to discuss, Hanna, our ministry co-ordinator who came to see how we'd do told us we should probably wrap it up shortly because it was five minutes until the end of youth group... Angela and I were obviously shocked. The one big thing we worried about coming into the day ended up being a non-issue. It was really cool to see God take the one thing that we thought was going to be a weak spot and totally take care of it and really bless us and our time at the youth group. We didn't even have time to do our "time-filling" game! So that was really cool.

On Saturday six of us went and climbed Mt. Peel. It was a gorgeous start to the day and we climbed up the steep mountain in three hours, crossing bush-y ridges and a few streams. On the way down we got rained on (Bryan was really hoping to hike in rain so he got his wish) and then we let ourselves go and flew (or ran as fast as possible) down the muddy steepness which was Mt. Peel. Of course there was quite a few slips and wipe outs. I was hiking in my Vans yet ironically I was the only one who didn't "eat it" yet I was close a few times.

I'll have more soon... with the most important stuff... what I've been learning!