Hey All!
First off I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY sorry I haven't blogged in an Uber long time!! So I guess this one is going to be uber long!!
Ok, 2md week of lectures we had our first speakers Jamie and Kim! Jamie is from Sydney and Kim is from Brisbane, and they came and taught us about the Reaching Backpackers, and oh my goodness I learned so much (ok lets get this right I've been learning a freaking alot everyday). I went from thinking backpacking is just something people do for fun, to knowing that it is a lifestyle that people choose and there are different types of backpackers; and all of them come down to people searching for something. This week was so amazing for me just because my perspective on backpackers as well as the ministry that I'm going into got turned around (for the good), and now I'm super excited! On Wednesday, all our small groups got divided and sent out to two different places; each girl small group was partnered up with a guy small group and we stayed in a hostel! Yup that's right folks, April experienced her very first hostel! We went down to this beautiful peninsula and went to a town called Akaroa! Akaroa was amazing! Sunny and warm, beautiful ocean, and beautiful mountains! When we got to the hostel there wasn't very many people around, so we decided to tour around the town then meet back there for supper (or should i say dinner they don't call it supper here). So that's what we did, when we came back for "dinner" there was a lot more people around which was awesome. we talked to people ate food, and then ended up playing pictionary with some backpackers all night! It was fantastic! The next morning we got up made pancakes, shared them with some of our friends from the night before, then packed our stuff up and headed out from the hostel. We stayed in town we just had to have our stuff out. Our team then met down by the pier to do some recap and prayer time, which ended up being super awesome because instead of praying together we all partnered off and did a prayer walk through town. So Katie and I started out on our adventurous prayer walk! What was a prayer walk through town turned into a prayer walk through town and up a mountain! We got to this bridge and then saw that there was a paved road going up a mountain so we figured it was still apart of town (which it was), but shortly going down this road i saw this narrow walking path so of course me being me was like "dude! we gotta go down this!" So that's what we did, and oh my lanta I'm so glad we did because it was BEAUTIFUL! We ended up hiking to the top and were in awe of God's creation. That day, we ended up just hanging out in Akaroa until about 3 in the afternoon. When we got back everyone was super excited to see each other and share their stories, it was so awesome! Friday was our first actual Friday Night Evangelism, and I'm on a team for the Beach/Park! And we gotta sick team! So basically we hit up the beach or park looking for people. So that Friday we hit up a park that had some people throwing a frisbee around and then there was two other people doing something with a rugby ball i think; so we were like sweet and started throwing a frisbee with eachother right close near by and with in about 5 minutes we had both groups come together and had a game of Ultimate going down. Freaking awesome right?! My fave game ever while evangelizing! It was a great time, and we met some really awesome people. That weekend I was a weekend warrior so I didn't get to go on the weekend trip, but stayed back with a team and cleaned and kept the base going; it was a fantastic time!
Third Week of lectures we had a lady named Mandy come and teach us about the Holy Spirit. This week was super super crazy awesome for me spiritually. I'm not going to share everything that happened because I'd be writing a book. But basically I was stressed about finances, stuff to do with home, and a few other things and everything on my list that I was stressed about God gave me reasons to not be stressed. A lot of healing for me happened through learning about the Holy Spirit. You know it's God when, someone prays for you about something that you've never told anyone about and have been struggling with since a child... When this happened I completely broke down before God, the Holy Spirit and everyone in the room. It was so amazing, and tremendous healing came from it! This didn't just happen to me but to a bunch of other people too. Holy Spirit week was amazing!
That Friday we hit up a different park and put on a sausage sizzler and went and gathered people to come! nothing better than free food right?! well we didn't get as many people as we hoped to but it was still awesome! The next day I did something completely new... I climbed my first mountain! I know i know i said Katie and hiked one in Akaroa, but that was nothing compared to Authors Pass! It was a 3 hour hike up, and about a 2 hour hike down. I don't think my muscles ever hurt so bad hahaha! Katie and I hiked just the two of us up to the hut which took about and 1 and 45 minutes. and we were pretty speedy. Once everyone got to the hut we had lunch then kept going. This time I hiked with some stellar guys named Erik who is from Sweden, and Evan who is from Colorado. It was probably one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done! I wanted to give up so many times, but they guys wouldn’t let me, they were great because they totally could have kept going at their own speedy pace but they stuck with me which was so awesome! When we got to the top of the peek it was soooooo amazing!!!! Such Beauty! Evan soon had this fascination with making a snow ball and rolling it down the peek. It was pretty awesome because it’d get bigger and bigger as it went down... Soon enough all three of us were making snow balls. Once the group was together we were taking pictures, Erik made a snowman named Swen, Even was being crazy, then we all started having a snow fight which was awesome! Then we headed back down the mountain and Erik and I had a blast, he taught me Swedish, I was a hopeless case... I learned how to say skeet shooting, I love you, count to seven and.. “Mata mig jag vill ha oxfilé, klyftpotatis och en stek till” which means “Feed me a steak, some cut potatoes, and another steak” Yup that’s right folks, I am set for when I travel to Sweden.
Fourth Week of Lectures,
For the forth week we had an awesome speaker named Dalton... Well I can’t really say much of about what he talked about because it was so crazy and he went super fast so I’m still processing what he all said.
Friday night we ended up going to the big mall in Christchurch because it was raining. At first I was quite frustrated with myself because I found it really difficult to just go up to a person and start talking to them. So for an hour I was bummed. After an hour I had to go pick something up from a grocery store, no body else needed anything so I just told them I’d be right back, well Mary Loyd followed me in and as soon as we were outta ear shot from the group she was like “ok April what’s up.”... It’s crazy how well a person can know you after only a month! Well I told her what was going on and she was ok lets pray, so we did, and then we set off out on our own. So the first thing we did was go and find the coffee shop that we were going to meet the team at later on, and it was an amazing thing we did. We walked in there and there was no one there except for the girl working, so I swallowed my fear and walked straight up to her and started talking... Well 45 minutes later we were laughing and having a great time. I felt like I should do something nice for her, and since I found out that she doesn’t get to eat anything that they sell I asked her what her favourite thing to eat was and bought it for her. She was speechless, and had no idea what to do. So then she gets her cake thing out that looked amazing, and then she told me that she wanted to show the same kindness to me by giving me a coffee on the house. I was like “No its ok, cuz then it kinda defeats my purpose.” And then i got “no no, its ok, its not coasting me anything cuz its on the house.” Well people I had the most AMAZING coffee I’ve ever tasted! After that Mary Loyd and I met 4 other people and had great conversations with them!
Saturday for the weekend trip we headed out to a place called Kiakoura! When we first got there we went for a hike along the coast looking at the beautiful Turquoise Ocean and seals! On the first hour of the hike Matt and I hiked together and got to have some great catch up time... Life at the base is super crazy and since Matt is staff his schedule is even crazier than mine so we hardly get time together so it was really nice to talk with him! After the hike we headed to our campsite which was pretty much right on the beach! My van team made super that night, and then later on we had a HUGE bon fire on the beach!! The next morning we woke up had breaky, packed up our stuff then hung out at the beach until lunch... Had lunch then headed home! Weekend= Success!
