Karangahake Mines

This weekend several of us went up to the Karangahake Mines. It is basically a bunch of old gold mines that they have turned into hiking trails. It was so pretty up there. We spent about three hours walking these trails. About the first twenty minutes of the hike was along this old railroad tunnel through some hills. Then we went up into the hills, along the river and into the old gold mines. We saw some glowworms!!! I had never seen any of those...they are cool little suckers!!! Anyway, we had a great time. There is a river that runs through there. Mark (from Oregon) and Lisa (from Germany) were trying to cross part of the river to take a shortcut to the other trail. They were trying to jump from one rock to the other but Lisa had her backpack and she thought that it would be a good idea to throw it across. Well it slid right off the rock and floated probably 150 yards down the river before Mark caught up with. It was so funny! It took a couple days, but finally her camera dried out and is working fine! There were a couple of suspension bridges that were nice and bouncey....we did a little experiement on what it will be like on the ship at sea. I think I may have a struggle with sea sickness. HA! So...thats that! Hope you are all doing good! I miss everybody! Heaps of love!

DTS Week One

New Zealand is a beautiful place!!! Our boat is docked at a port in the city of Tauranga..which is on the east coast of the North island of New Zealand. We will be docked here for 11 more weeks before sailing to The Great Barrier Island, then to Auckland for a few days, and then a five day sail to Fiji for outreach! I am not sure what type of things we will be doing on our outreach, but we will be there for 7 or 8 weeks. The next 11 weeks there will be various speakers coming to teach on topics like The Father Heart of God, Hearing God's Voice, Communicating Your Faith, Broken for His Purpose, Identity In Christ, and several others. This week we had a couple different speakers come for a day. Jesse Misa spoke on Embracing Change...he refered to this program as heart surgery, not school. Linda Cowie told some amazing stories about her journey with God including one where she was starting a school in Greece. The building that they acquired to have the school in was on the beach. But they had very little money to fund the school, or feed the kids. After some time things were a bit desperate but they managed to get by and feed the staff and kids. One morning the students and staff were gathered together to pray before school started when someone yelled for everybody to look out the window. There were thousands on fish washing up on shore. They spent the day gathering the fish, teaching the kids how to clean them and were able to eat for some time. Linda is a lovely woman of God and so facinating. She and her husband, David Cowie, began Marine Reach about 16 years ago. The next day David Cowie came to speak to us about the cost of following Jesus. In an attempt to prove a point he whipped out a can of lamb's tounge to share with us. I had to pass this time!! Theresa Micalina also spoke to us that morning about finding your identity in Christ. Anyway, not only is this a beautiful place, but God is at work here. I know that He is going to teach me so very much in the coming weeks!! Love you all!!! More to come soon!

Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane?

well...why not...it's kinda fun!! I agreed to go skydiving with Erin once she was done with her senior seaon...now I am hooked! Thanks alot Erin...skydiving isn't exactly the most economical addiction! I thought that it would be a good idea (most of you will disagree) to try to skydive in every country that I have the opportunity to visit. So last week when I was in Mexico with G-Ma, Pops, and Uncle Kevin I figured I might as well go for it. Actually, I wasn't going to do it, but G talked me into it. However, they all refused to join me!!! They did sit on the beach and wait for me to land. So anyway, this plane made the last one that I jumped from look like a 737....it was tiny! Dad will probably laugh, because I am sure that the one I jumped from in Mexico was the same size or bigger than the ones he had to jump out of. Anyway, when I jumped in Alabama I have to admit that I closed my eyes when I got to the door. I just couldn't look down with 14000 feet between me and the earth! Once I was out of the plane and it was too late to chicken out I opened my eyes. Well, this time I did not have that option becuase we actually had to get out of the plane onto this little bitty step and jump from there. So I actually did look down and kept my little eyes open the whole time!! IT WAS AMAZING!!!! I'm not sure that there is a better way to see God's creation! It was so beautiful!!!!! I reckon New Zealand is next on the list!!

Home Sweet Home

....well, at least for now this is my home!!! For the next five months or so I will be living on the Pacific Link! There are about 40 people living on this ship....I think 24 girls...with 3 showers. HA!!! So the living quarters are extremely small! I live in a little...i guess you could call it a room...with 3 other people. I have a little "bunk" type area that I sleep in...it has a tiny little cabinet that I can put a few books in and stuff. It is a pretty cool little setup!!! The ship has a pretty good size lobby that we have our classes in...we also spend a good bit of time just hanging out in there. We have a projector that we can watch movies on. And this is the best spot for the wireless signal!! Guess I will be in here a good bit!

Anyway, things are great so far!! Lots of new faces to learn and it will be an adjustment trying to learn how to live with 40 people....40 pretty cool people that are in love with God! The director talked alot this morning about how much they as a staff prayed for each and how it is not by accident that we are here. That was really good for me to hear, as it was hard to come this far away. So as hard as it will be sometimes to be so far away from all of you that I love dearly, I know this is where God wants me to be!!! I am so excited to see what God is going to teach me! More to come very soon!!! Much Love!!!!