been awhile.

yeah my bad. i don't know why i haven't been writing. laziness i guess. well i will just catch you up really fast. last weekend we had a party out at the cowies for Marine Reach's 18Th birthday. there house is amazing but the view is breath taking.




also on part of their land there is a waterfall ans swimming hole. it was freezing but it was totally the dive in. you cant really see me in the picture, i am in the back pretty much in the waterfall.



so that was amazing and on Saturday i watched a movie that changed my life, it is called once and the music is amazing. it was so beautiful and the story is so refreshing! you have to look it up. i think that eden alex and emma would appreciate it. i have all the music so when i come home you may steal it from me. im serious this movie changed my life. i watched in and i felt all the songs in my soul. i know that sounds lame but it is true, it really touched me. alot of the songs i can really relate to.

also we had two car washes and the one that i worked at we made 700 dollars!!! isn't that great. amazing. so keep praying a supporting us. we are trying things from car washes busking. oh busking is their name for street performing. speaking of busking me and my danish love anna and davs went today for an hour and made 17 dollars. yeah 17 dollars an hour, not to shabby. i love singing with her. i think that we sound perfect together. random statement. i guess i have really cool eyes. i have had many people comment on how amazing they are from guys to girls friends and family. i just don't see what the fuss is about. they look normal to me...that may be because they are the only eyes i see when i look into the mirror. let me know if all these people are odd....

we have a new speaker and he is talking about our calling. he has an amazing story on how god called him to go to Afghanistan for 5 years when he was only 18. ahhhh im 18! he is such an inspiration and his wife is adorable. they met there but she if from California. i cant wait to see if i can get my calling from god through this week. wouldn't that be sweet! omg we sail to the great barrier island in two weeks and outreach in three!!! and next week's study is drama. cant wait.

ps mom i saw the pictures of cinder she is the cutest thing ever. i still need to meet roe..well see her.

love from me in nz.

RIP lola.

yeah she is gone and i cant really explain what happened. i was not there. all i know is that i miss her.

sermonette!!

yeah i am giving my sermonette tomorrow. it is like a little sermon that each of the students have to do! i am really excited to give it!!! mine is on how god had healed my family. it shall be pretty intense! so yeah today was just preparing for it and watching the office!! me havs and heather rented the whole second season and now watch it all the time. well that and i watch the it crowd with Lauren when i can. seriously the funniest British show i have ever seen in my life! well that and black adder which i miss and vented to Eden about the other day.

don't really have anything else to say. just that i like the taste of socks in my mouth!!...that was Duncan!! silly Canada!

well I'm going to get off now because i think i may get up for breakfast tomorrow....i know not me! ha ha



love from me in nz.

new speaker!

her name is Caroline and she is teaching on the fear of the lord. she is an amazing woman of god and i cant wait to see all i will learn from her! she is kiwi and maybe one of the most adorable people i have ever met. she is from Christchurch NZ so she is living on the ship! today's lecture was so good and all us girls were jazzed because we have had men speakers for about a month now and i love to have role models. she [Caroline] is becoming one i believe. oh i just figured how to download songs of myspace so go me!! i know I'm slow and most of you all already know how it do it!

after lectures i gave blood!!!! yeah boy is New Zealand. it was amazing. the ladies working there were so cute and so nice. a total of 12 went and only 5 could actually give blood. some had been to places where they couldn't aka Hayley who is from the UK and i guess they think she has mad cow. some due to tattoos and piercings and others because of iron. but i did it! and in like 3 minutes too! me and my daddy are bleeders! yeah go O negative!!!! i didn't even pump the little basketball they gave me.


not only did i give blood but also i cut my hair!!! well my bangs... that is it a swear! i will never cut my hair until it is down to the middle of my back. well that is my goal anyway. what do you think?



well that was pretty much my day. well i did call my love Eden Kathleen Olsen and have a chit chat with her. i miss her so much! cant wait to see here again! also havs made breakfast for dinner. yeah pancakes! they are delicious any time of the day. i want to go fishing.

love from me in nz.

easy like sunday morning.

today was easy going but i loved it!! i got up and got ready for church. i went to BBC with my family today instead of mosaic. Claire and sally picked me up at 1030 and we headed to church.

after church we all went home to their house and had lunch with the family. jack didn't go to church because he was out late the last night at a party, he totally is me! i am the sleeping kid! i woke up at ten today and all my class mates were teasing me and were like what time is it shouldn't you be asleep for another 7 hours..... ha ha very funny guys, but so true.

after lunch Claire and sally left and me and jack just hung out. we talked about this and that. about the differences in the words we say school and food from new Zealand and the states. apparently they don't have squirrels in New Zealand. weird eh. we also played JANGA!!! "elbows up and side to side!!!!" good times BYOG!!! ps i won both games. after janga i listened to jack play the sax and tried to figure out a rubix cube!! it is totally impossible...lol but then jack did it in like two minutes. it is so funny all the people i meet here remind me of people back home. it helps with the whole homesick thing though. well i haven't met anyone that is like Eden...she is everything at once and is so like me. so in other words i haven't met someone just like me! i have met people with similar qualities and quirks such as snapping their fingers as they walk and randomly hiccup!

then at 5 jack dropped me off back at ship sweet ship in time for BBQ chicken and fruit salad! oh how delicious. i think that i shall spend the rest of my night finishing my journal and reading my love Jane Austin. i want to me a Mr. Darcy. he is amazing. i swear if i meet a guy with the last name Darcy i would seriously consider marrying him because of his last name...i a loser i know.

well i hope that you all had a great weekend!! Eden watch out i may call you tomorrow!!!



love from me in nz.

busy few days.

omg [oh my gosh, for dad!!!] this has been a crazy week!!! so much has happened! well shall we begin. Wednesday was really nothing to say...normal day in lectures and after, but Thursday is when the real party started....literally. Thursday was Kristin's 19th birthday!!!!

well it was a normal morning...well besides the fact that i got up at 430 am and climbed a mount!! i know me. i am the one in the class that sleeps till 825 when we have class at 830. what can i say i am amazing, i have had so much practice doing this because of mainstreet [as witt dawg]. ahhhh mainstreet. so yeah got up at climbed this


i know that it doesn't look that big but it is quiet a trek! but it was totally worth with because when you get to the top it is beautiful. i mean it was beautiful on the way up too




but the very top was the most amazing thing i have seen since i have been here. and most likely the top ten greatest sights i have ever seen in my whole life.






once we reached the top we had breakfast...so aka we are the breakfast club! yeah boy. such a good movie!!! so we walked down and went to lectures. so tired and almost fell sleep. morning tea was cupcakes though! i love cupcakes. lectures finally ended and free time!!!! yeah boy! so we decided to go out to dinner. the birthday girl chose Turkish. so we went to Turkish to go and had kebabs!



the whole time i was eating it i had flight of the conchords stuck in my head...the most beautiful girl in the room. look it up if you don't know it. it is totally worth a listen. dinner was finished so we walked back to the ship for small groups. out small group was joined with another and we all ate chocolate fondue and watched veggie tales. half of the girls have never seen it, like any of them. i guess the veggie ministry does not spread child evangelism to Europe. Kristin had seen it when she lived in Sudan. she loves them and had never seen the veggie movie Jonah. so we watched it! she loved it!! i mean her face..here is a visual



finally after watching the veggies, we went to bed. friday was a normal lecture day but in the afternoon we had wedding rehearsal. me anna and skyler sang in jeremey and lori's wedding. we sang great is thy faithfulness. it was such a blessing to them and it was fun too! so we had the rehearsal and then we all went to Zeytin's. this amazing greek/turkish resterant. they had amazing bread and dips and i had lamb. lamb is so good i am so happy that i am having it where there is more sheep than people. yeah that is a true fact for NZ.

saturday!! the big day. we had to come early and practice one more time. the wedding happened and it was so gorgeous. everything was amazing and the song was a great hit. it was so cute to see jeremy and lori holding each other close as we all sang their favorite hyme. they closed their eyes and sang with all their might. it was so lovely.

wedding kiss <3


after ceremony.




overall it has been a great day, and weekend. tomorrow is sunday and i hope i can chill with my family!! i love and miss you all and hope you enjoyed my pictures. i have to clean my noodle time dishes now and go to bed.

love from me in nz.

nothingness

that was today. im serious. i did nothing. it was just a chill day. we had 24 hour prayer today so i was up at 2 am to 4 am praying. and then at 8pm tonight, so i was tired. i slept for three hours and almost missed dinner. luckily i didn't. where that hack is havs we are supposed to be watching hairspray together!! i cant wait. we also got shes the man!! omg one of my favorite movies.


the one thing i can report on is that tomorrow in lectures we are going to talk about evolution an creation!!!! cant wait

mom and dad i will call you tomorrow i promise!! omg Jeremy and Lori are getting married in three days. cant wait to sing in the wedding. i get to go to the wedding reception and dinner. i feel so loved. please keep praying for outreach. and also if you i have written to have received my letters let me know so i can get excited!!!

love from me in nz.

the amazing decemberists.

oh what a glorious band they are and as i write this i shall go through the whole cd...well hopefully. well i really have been slacking in this hear blogging for the past few days because we have been so busy. so i will take this time now and tell you all about it!!

friday was the last day of lectures so we pretty much just went over everything we had covered over the whole week and had a time of prayer. i dont know why but that week didnt really do it for me. i mean i did learn some things but it was not like i did not stop me pen on the page. and also a lot of it was internal digesting! but i went to bed early that night because i was going to have a big day the next.

so on saturday i was meeting with me adopted family from BBC. i was kind of scared to see how it was going to go. i must admit was a little weird at the beginning but as the day went by it seemed like i had known them for a long time. so the family is the haywood family. dad peter. mother claire. 17 year old son jack. and 13 year old daughter sally. so they picked me up at the boat at nine and we went to coffee to get to know one another, it was just peter claire and sally at first but then jack met up with us later. we all went to an opening of a medical clinic on a mauri community that BBC had been helping build. i was fun but a bit long. we all were starving when it ended. so we all went to a big gathering after and had all this amazing food. also through out the day i was getting to know peter since he missed out coffee get together. amazingly we got along very well. we have a lot of things in common such as singing and dancing and we both love math and science. he wants to be a doctor and will be going to university next year. he also invited me to his high schools bible study on fridays. i really excited to do that.

after we ate we all went back to the house. okay their house is so amazing. it is on this hill looking out over all of tauranga. the house itself is simply adorable. oh i never mentioned that they are no kiwi but english, they came to live here six years ago because peter got a jod. it felt so good to just be in a home. so we all just kinda chilled ate cookies had juice i got a tour of the home and then me and sally sat and watched flight of the conchords untiil they took me home. so then i took them on the ship and gave them a tour well not jack because he had to study for his exams coming up. okay so the school he goes to is just like harry potter. they have houses and they have points. they dress uniforms and they have head boys and girls. jack is a head boy too! yeah i found that so cool so i thought i would share that with you.

so basically hogwarts is really!!!!

so i got home at dinner time. after dinner me havs and heather watched friends unitl all of the students were going to go out to a bar and watch the all blacks game [nz rugby]. it was amazing and i kind of unterstand it now. also they won!! woot. and so the game ended at like 11:30 and most of us went to another bar and went dancing. this one bar called over ice had an amazing band and anna [my danish] sang with them! i was amazing. well it became like 1 am so we decided to head home.

luckely i have night church so i slept in until 2pm....ha ha i am amazing. everyone here thinks im insane and they say that i have been taking commas. that totally reminds me of dane cooks skit about how women exaderate and he believes them. if you dont know it you should either look it up or ask sarah murphy to listen to it because she has it on her ipod. mosaic church at five was amazing as always. i love home church!!

alright today was a new speaker. he is like 6 and a half feet tall...seriously. and he is speaking about why we believe what we believe. i am so excited we are going to touch all the top questions non believers have and how they are backed up with an answer with evidence. on wednesday we are going to cover creation and evolution. oh one of my favorite subjects to discuss!!! science and religion debates are my fav. ask sarah and alex. ahhh good times. well yeah i am excited. also we had another outreach meeting and what do you know i still owe 1,000 dollars for flights. so keep praying for me please!!!!!!! not just me but my whole team. all together we have to raise 13,600 dollars. so yeah and mom and dad i will call you tomorrow.

i will leave you with a picture i took yesterday.


look it is havs and heather and my finger tip! ah that is our favortie thing to wear in the galley. none of these plain white ones it is all about the land of ah's!!! go kansas...aka go adam.

ps i miss texting!!

love from me in nz

what an amazing day.

it was a packed day and it is 1:30 am and i have to get up in like seven hours so i will tell all about it tomorrow. i will tell you that it was most likely the best day i have had here so far. it had to do with adoption, fligh of the conchords,charlie, fish, all blacks and dancing. yeah much much more to be revealed!!!

until tomorrow



love from me in nz

sorry :[[[

okay so i totally didnt write for two days...i have been super busy and totally booked with stuff to do. well must report of my followers will become lost on my everyday adventures. well tuesday i had lectures nothing really that stuck out in my mind. but that day we were having 24 hour prayer. i had two slots and they were held i the surgery room on the top of the ship. it is a really cool space i should really take pictures eh. well anyway the best thing of that night was we had a group of korean intercession people. they were traveling all aroung New Zealand and wandted to pray for all of us who were living on the ship and just for the ministry in general. it was so amazing. the lady that prayed for me didnt really know english so there was a guy there who could translate. she was so adorable she would ask to embrace you while she prayed for you and then while she was praying would hold you close, stroke your head and rub your back. it was so powerful! so yeah that was one of my highlights for this DTS so far and i dont think i will forget it ever.

the next day [yesterday] lectures happened and nothing really to report. tomorrow we will have prayer time so that may be amazing! so yeah. after lectures we learned that we could go to an african choir. so we went and it was the watoto childrens choir. they were so good. all the children were rescued from uganda and placed in home with a mom because their parents were killed either from AIDS or the civil war. I HATE JOSEPH KONY!!! moving on. well these kids were so amazing you should totally check out there website

www.watoto.com

so yeah i have finally realized what my passions lay. i think that they are for the children of uganda and also the pro life cause. i am not sure what i will do with these passions but i know that god will lead me through it. so yeah.

today we have intercession, and we did it a little different. instead of praying of a nation we prayed for our home nations. we prayed for al1 nations. it was amazing. it is so cool how god spoke to us about things happening in a nation that we have never known. well after that we had lectures it was a hard class. alot of the things that jono said contradicted what other teachers had said and were hard to process. so yeah not the best lecture day. well if it emily's birthday and so we are going to have a party for her soon! she trued 21! woot woot. and after the party me and the small group are going to have a trip to the hot pools! i cant wait to swim! and in warm water too!!! well until tomorrow. keep praying for our outreach teams and also for me and my path!!

love from me in nz

can it wait till tomorrow

i hope that it can because i am really tired and have to get up early tomorrow. i am sorry but i will write tomorrow night about today and tomorrow. sorry for my family at home. but i so love your comments to my blog keep them coming!

love from a tired me in nz

noodle time!

is the best time time of the day. well times when it vomes to us here on the pacific link. we eat packaged noodles about three times a day, that and toast. and you know what is odd i dont like toast so i just eat bread with butter but i still call it toast...yeah im odd...

anyway i am eating that right now and listening to hairspray the movie soundtrack. oh what a glorious movie and play. i want to be tracy some day! seriously i could totally do it! i am so jealous of tracy in the movie, i mean she gets to kiss link aka zach efron=hot! well not as hot as say christian bell or zac braff. but what ever movie on.

well today was a new week and so that means a new speaker but before i tell about it i will tell you what the last speakers prophectic word for me was. it was along the lines that my name means alot to me and it tells alot about me. he told me to pay attention to what moves in my life, maybe if that means something that gets me fired up. and that god will guide me in this. this was so amazing because it totally is right on. i mean i feel like i have compassion for every situation. i get moved so easily, even to the point of tears. my heart breaks for people and there stories. also the getting mad about things. i find that if something gets me pissed i will do everything in my power to stop or resolve the issue. one BIG example was my "abortion is murder" shirt that i wore at school and was even told that i was not allowed to wear at school because it was a distraction. to me that means that people didnt want to hear the truth about what abortion really is. and you know what i didnt care what people think. i wore it anyway. actually this is how sad these people are who want to deny the truth, well as some of you know i tried out for ASBEC the end of my junior year and i didnt make it just by student votes, but it is okay i got an appointed position. well anyway, i heard from many people who were asking around on why they didnt vote for me and many responses was because of the "abortion is murder" shirt. yeah i was speachless. for a few days i was pissed and didnt even want to be part of a leadership position because then i would have to lead "those" people. but i came around and how one of my best years and i believe that a big factor in that was being a part of ASBEC.

okay so they new speaker he is speaking on repentance. it was only the first day so he just laid down little things and a foundation to build on. so i will have more to report in the days to follow. but i can tell you that our speaker is kiwi and i love the accent, sometimes i get distracted and dont listen to what he is actually saying but the way he says the words. you would think that i would have gotten sick of hearing the accent but no! everytime i hear a kiwi speak i get all excited and want to ask them to say different word, i lay off of course because that would be just weird. but i do make hayley say random words like "holla back" because her english accent is so entertaining. and to my surprise jane's copying is pretty close. she also said that mine is not to shabby. shabby is a fun word to say, that and magma...popsicle sticks...rubbish..and others.

well after lectures we have new work duties. and i have lunch clean up!!!!! i love it so much. it takes like 45 minutes tops and then i have the rest of the day off. to celebrate my frist day off i wanted to go on a walk but it was so rainy and windy today that i was stuck inside. it was 20 knot winds...crazy eh? so instead i called all my besties that i could get ahold of. i guess i am quiet entertaining when i talk on the phone with eden sarah alex. i am in my best friend zone and then come to my new zealand sences and see caroline, anna and rachel all laughing at me and singing mr. darcy in my ear. oh what a glorious song but not the right time! oh well i love them!

to end this blog i would like to announce that i am on the cooking crew when we are on outreach! i cant wait. i get to go to all the local markets and buy a bunch of fruits and such things to prepare a mean. i am so excited to get a hold of the fruit. if you dont know, it is a long lasting dream of mine to try at least once a peice of fruit of all the fruits that grows on this earth. well that and becomeing an ipod person! i know alex you technically made me one but i want to be in the cool colorful commercial with the latest hot song in the background and dance my little heart out! ah what dreams they are! speaking of outreach our team has to raise about 12,000 dollars in 6 weeks so that we all can go. this is to pay for our flights. one team has it all paid for becaus it was the perfect amount that goes along with our school fees, but my team who are going to the solomon islands, the flight is 1,800 dollars. so have 800 paind of but we still have to raise 1,000 dollars each. i am one of those team members. i know that god will provide for me and my team but it would love for you all to pray with us! we are doing 24 hour prayer tomorrow and fasting one meal every couple of days to pray about it and seek god. so yeah. it is time for bed and i have to get my laundry out!

love from me in nz

Mosaic

is my new home church. my home church away from home! dont worry outward i have not forgotten you! i still download the podcast every sunday and listen to my amazing pastors paul and matt. and i listened the other day and it was the one year anniversary! that is so awesome and i am really sad that i missed. but woot outward and being one year old. i cant believe that it has only been a church for a year and has done so much. i mean i was there like three weeks as it started and i cant believe that i have been going there for that long. i really miss it but the church that i found today reminds my of outward so much...well besides the point that the pastor has a nz accent. but the building, decorations, worship, message, and the age of the body make me all feel like i am still at home. also it is a night church like outward so i can sleep in until...well noon! ahhhh i love my sleep. people here do not understand and cant believe that i can sleep all day. i dont know why but i just can. i think it might be a gift.

oh what an excellent cup of milo i am drinking right now!


anyway. well the church was amazing and four of my classmates have decided that we will attend this church every sunday. okay im not sure if i said this before but all of us here on the school are going to be adopted by a family from a babtist church and i have not met my family yet but some one did at church today and they said that she is really cool. i guess she was like running the tech for church. so that is cool. but yeah so im going to get adopted...again. lol long story. lets just say that i was adopted by my two swiss friends from south africa...yeah...

well there is nothing really else to report...oh yeah i called home today and talked to my bro! seth bro not dallas bro. okay let me say that i really miss that kid! i hope that he will be home when i get home and will not be doing shinanigins in idaho or where ever he will be. yeah so when i come home i guess we are going to be bunking...so he took out my amazing queen size bed and put in bunk beds...he is an odd fellow, but i love him!

hey seth... 45 seconds in!!!!


well other people want to use graham.

love from me in nz

lazy saturday.

as the title says i didnt really do that much. i got to sleep in until noon!!! woot just like home. well i was waken up to wish heather a happy 19th birthday by singing and eating birthday blueberrie muffins! they were delicious. so then i went to sleep. i awoke and decided to get a few things done. i did my journal and wrote a few letters and emials. it was just a lazy day! and it was amazing. then it got a little busy when everyone came back from their various adventures.

it was heathers birthday so we decided to throw here a little suprise party at the staff house. we tricked her by having our small group out and get some ice cream, lift, cola, and sour worms. we were driving and hayley was like hey we are near the staff house. heather got really excited and wanted to visit. she played in perfectly! so we walked in and she was all confused and then so happy! it was great! priceless. so we all sat down and had some of babes famous chocolate cake! mmm mmm mmm, that cake is good. she could totally sell it! i would buy it fo sho! well we all had our full of cake and so then we decided it was story time with patti. patti is so hilarious and she told us a few stories of her life and other embarassing stores of outreach...oh beef jearky and happy pizza! dont ask! i may tell you when i get home. it was getting late so we all went home and then watched august rush. i have seen that movie so many times so i left. i thought it was going to be karete kid which i have never seen but i was yet again disapointed! curse you Astronaut Farmer!! so here i am doing my blog thing!

okay so sad story i am out of cash ola on my phone card. i will have to get one next weekend. or you all can send me like ten bucks then i can buy one for like 575 minutes. yeah isnt that a great price. well i am getting tired and want to write in my journal as well. but before i do i will tell you another amazing fact. if i have a one dollar bill from america it equals like 7 solomon dollar bills. yeah thanks amazing exchange rate!!!



=





love from me in nz

total opposite day

today was awesome! okay so me and my danish love anna are in charge of creative worship so we have an hour to be as creative as we want to worship god. we can play games, sing songs, or whatever. well as you all know david our speaker was going to have prophedic words for all the students so me and anna decided to do your own spin on that. we had a paper for everyone and the paper had someone elses name on it. the person who recieved the paper couldnt know the name on it but was supposed to hear from god something to say to this person. ask for a word, verse, or words of encouragement. once you had heard from god you were then supposed to open it and give the slip to the person. then explain what you heard from god a pray with them. i has two slips because a few were missing, i was a little scared in the beginning because i have not really heard from god until i came here. i got a few things for both wrote them down and then opened them. i got a crew member and one of the student. to my amazement all what i had written down and shared with them was right on and was something that they needed prayer for or a word they needed to hear. it was amazing! isnt GOD amazing. then it came to me. caroline one of my swiss loves had my name. what she told me was so on. she told me that god told her that god wants to speak in me and that the holy spirit is present in me. wow was a conformation to what i wanted. also she say a picture of a heart and gods protection over it. this was so touching because i feel like i have had alot of heart break and ache in my life and finally i was free from that. i was so moved that i started crying. caroline prayed for me as we held each other tight! amazing things happened i that room. that was such an intense part that after we had time to kill so we wanted to play a game. we played fruit salad. if you dont know what that is you can ask me later.

then lectures started after we had moring tea and i had my usual kiwi! kiwis are so delicious. i could eat a million a day. but i shall not because that would destroy my mouth. i eat like three and my whole mouth goes numb. i dont know why but it hurts... i am eating one right now! anyway back to lectures, david just finished his shpeel on faith and the second half of lessons have us all a word from god. davs wrote most of it down so when i have a copy i will tell you all about it. but let me say he was right on! yeah extra god points today. he has spoken to me so much in the past two weeks and i love it. oh god what would i do without you, hell! what an easy question to answer. i love how faith is so easy and that the whole gospel is so easy. i mean it is pretty much laid out so that a child could understand it. i dont get people who think christianity is to complicated. if you feel like that please tell me because i would love to talk to you about it. that is another thing that god has given me over these six weeks, the courage to step out and talk about my faith. he was supplied me with so many good points and ways of explaining it that i have always wanted!

after lectures me and kristin went to the mount beach. it was so beautiful. we went into the ocean, sun bathed, and talked about the day. i think i got a little sun so that is a plus. i have to get my tan up before i hit the beaches of the solomon island. i cant wait to feel warm ocean water. that has been one of my dreams. when i get there i will jump in it. it will be like i was one of those kids who grew up in the middle of the country and have never been in the ocean but better! i will get my fair share of warm waves with the solomon islands and then hawaii when i return home. after a few hours we had to walk back. it was such a long walk and i was in flip flops. that=not a good combo. my feet hurt so bad and i was extremely tired. i came home and crashed in my coffin of a bunk that i love so dearly. i slept through dinner. jerk chicken that i help havs make the day before. they were amazing. i ate a few while in the galley waiting for jose to finish washing dishes so that i could rinse them! i love listening to music in the galley, it seems if it is good music that people flock in there and keep you company. it always happens when we use mine! yeah i have good music. one crew member says that i have the best ipod in the world!

pause, juice break!!! i forgot i bought a big thing of delicous juice the other day!
so refreshing!

well after galley work i got on the internet and just realized that i had comments on my blog from my dad mom and the gradparents. it was so exciting to read them! i miss them so much and i cant wait to come home and tell them all about what i have experienced and learned. well i also got on myspace, facebook and my msn. and i had to write like five really long emails. you have no idea how long that takes and it really takes it out of you. but with me i always do it. some people here are like "im too tired to write back, ill do it later" and forget. i try and always keep in contact. well the emials were good today nothing that made me melancholy. alot of them actually made me happy. i am excited for tomorrow because i am going to call all my besties from my phone card and on sunday call the parentals.

well i cant really think of anything else to say but i love and miss you all. i think i am going to go and watch either veggie tales or stranger than fiction. i dont really have a picture from my camera of the beach today so i will just give you this one. lame google image but yeah, sorry


love from me in nz

thursday=up and down day

i love thursday. i have small groups on this day. so all of today i was looking forward to it. it was so hard to focus on lectures because one i stayed up way to late...well early and didnt take a showed to wake myself up. lectures were still good though. we got to hear a little about our speakers life before he was a christian and his home life. i was really tragic but also so enchoraging because he has become an awesome man of god. i cant wait till tomorrow becaue david has the spiritual gift of prophacy. maybe he will have a word for me.

well the fest of the day was pretty much a blur until tonight. so we aka my small group was really excited about this weeks get together because we were going to go bowling. okay i totally such at bowling but to my surprise i won. well just by one pin. but i think that it was a rigged machine because sometimes when you wouldnt hit a pin and it would still say that you hit one. this was odd because the place was called ten pin bowling. it was more like eleven pin! well anyway that was amazing i got a 72, crap but still won but whatever it doesnt matter to me i just had fun. the place was so american like you wouldnt be able to tell that you were in another country if all you did was go to the bowling. i do not wish that on anyone though so dont do it. after magical bowling we went to the mount beach in the dark. it is quite funny how almost every small group we end up going to the beach. it was amazing. the stars were very bright the waves were big and the water was not that cold. i was so excited to get to the beach and like a true oregon beach girl i threw off my flats, rolled up me pants and ran out into the water. kristin my swedish love was hesitant to join me but finally did. she had never experiance the wonderfulness of running out while a wave is going out into the ocean and then waiting for another to come out and run so that it doesnt "catch" you. she was having so much fun. she loved it so much that she didnt want to come home even when we were soaked to our thighs. because we loved that beach so much and i have never seen it in the day light we have decided to go to it tomorrow afternoon if the weather will allow.

i love bowling shoes

i won!!!


we returned home wet and covered in sand but happy as ever. this was well until i got on my email. i had a few emails from different people back home and they were not that pleasent. i learned about some stuff that i didnt really want to know. it also made me want to come home. this was not a very settling thing to think. i mean i am having the time of my life and i am feeling like i want to leave? i suddenly felt sick to my stomach and began to cry not because i was home sick but because at that moment i knew that this is the only place that i want to be at this moment. i am so happy that i am not at home. i mean i love home and all but i love it here and now just a little more. i dont know i have realized that i have not really had any strong christian relatiohships with anyone my age. this is because i have moved from church to church and have not really had a solid foundation with people my age such as a youth group. poeple i can relate to and talk about my spiritual struggles. i have come to realize that i really need that and i dont have that at home, but here i do have it, everyday all around the clock. i feel so close to these people and i cant imagine leaving them! i have been praying alot if i am to stay for the another half year after my school working on the ship, and honestly right now that is looking pretty good. i realize that in my last blog that i said that i miss high school but now tonight as god has revealed this to me i dont miss it. i am happy for the memories but i am ready to move on and start a new life. this does not mean that i will loose contact with all of my friends for high school i just dont want to be a main part of their high school experiance. they need to have and make there own. i have been there and done that. i am ready to make college and life away from home and my home town experiences and i am happy to say that i am on the right track. being here has opened my eyes and my heart to what is really out there and gods plan for me. i dont want people at home to be offended once they read this. there is nothing that any of them could have done different, this is an issue between me and god. no one else. seriously no one! not even you. well i have to go to bed now i am in a inbetween mood of deep sadness and utter joy! well thus ends my up and down day. i hope that tomorrow will be better.

love from me in nz

wow what a day!

first off i would like to tell you all that while i am writing this blog i am always eating. for example yesterday i was eating these amazing noodles. they where like ramon but on crack...in a good way and drinking milo [the new zealand hot chocolate]. now i am drinking bay harvest tropical juice and corn flakes [i miss you bjorn!!!].

so today i actually got up at a good hour showered and practiced worship. oh yeah you guys dont know i am part of a worship team here. it is me heather and lane. we call ourselves team delta...i dont know why and everytime i think about it i think of math! thanks jennings. random statement: so you know that it is winter here due to the fact that i am in the southern hem. well because it is winter i have to listen to christmas music. it is like christmas in july or when i was little i would listen to the same christmas cd over and over. that would not be so bad but my room back then was located at the end of a very long hall way and the computer that we played the cd on was at the other end so to make me sleep the whole family had to listen to Manhattan Transfer all year long. i can very get sick of that cd or any christmas songs for that matter and i still listen to the cd. at the moment i am listening to happy christmas (volume 4) it is quite enjoyable.

lunch was pumpkin chicken veggie soup. it was really good but at the same time i felt a little guilty because the night before i had watched veggie tales. did i just eat the entire veggie ministry? i hope not, but if they dont put out a new movie you know why. after lunch we had some free time that i wasted trying to play guitar until i became frustrated and so went out on the town with hayley [my small group leader]. we bought stamps so now i can send you guys snail mail. so send me mail so i can have you addresses. we had to be back at three thirty because we had to attend a medical elective. it is not really an elective because we have to attend it so i have dubbed it a workshop. we learned in the workshop about the ship and what it brings when it does medical outreaches. the specialize in dental medical and eyes surgery. we heard some amazing stories. i cant wait to make my own stories on my outreach in the solomon islands. about the solomon islands, i guess that is it kinds expensive to fly there so i will have to fundraise again and most likely ask for support from home so please be aware! love you all.

for dinner we had Kebabs. they where delicious! havs is becomeing quiet a little cook in that little galley. i must have had 50! jk like 6...7...

dinner was not the end of my day, we had our first outreach meeting! i was really excited to hear more about this since it has all been a big surprise to us students so most of the details are hush hush. what we did find out is that we are going to sail to the great barrier island before we go on outreach. the ship is coming and i cant wait. it will be almost summer by then so it shall be gorgeous!

picture for you visual folks.

then we fly to our team islands. yeah ARAWA!!! then we meet up and do the south island tour. so yeah a crazy day and here i am at the end of it. personaly i really like blogging. i dont know if you enjoy reading it but i enjoy writing it. i like it beceause i can do it everyday for the rest of my life, well unless the internet crashes randomly...hope that doesnt happen! time for bed, well stay up a little longer and then try to sleep but end up reading pride and prejudice and listening to my ipod into the wee hours of the morning. one more thing i promise, if you are form home then this will amaze you. so you all know how i yell at stupid boys and there fat heads because they put on my glasses and stretch them out, well i have been trying to fix them and nothing has worked. so there i was sitting the the kitches on graham and i get up to fill my green plastic cup with water and i step on something and hear what sounds like a crack. i look down and realize that i had just stepped on my beautiful valentino glasses. gosh why does this happen to me, i loose them find them and break them all in the same week! so all discouraged i pick them up thinking to find the frame broken or a lens cracked. to my amazement they where not broken but when i put them on they were just right for my face again, not stretched out!!! ah ha good times. to correct myself they were broken, then lost, then found, then fixed. just my own little verse of amazing grace right there.
okay getting off!!

love from me in nz

BURRITOS!!!

if you havent guessed that is what i had for dinner last night! i actually had to ask someone. sad i know. okay so scary slash amazing thing happened today. i lost my glasses like a week ago and was really sad about it and frightened to tell the parentals about it. but then i was making my bed and i have a hunch to look under the mattress. and yeah they were there! and not broken! PRAISE THE LORD! that is what i get for "focusing on Jesus." ah ha i crack myself up! that is an inside joke with the small group so if you dont get it that is okay.

on to the daily life of me. i got up at 8 15 and had class as 830. i wasnt even late. dont ask me how i do it. all my fellow classmates are impressed, i think it is because i have had so much preactice getting up 15 minutes before mainstreet starts and still making it on time [sometimes]. good times. i going to miss high school but more about that later. after class i was so tired that i went to sleep again and even slept through lunch. i heard that we had nasty tomatoe rice and such so i was no that sad that i missed it. so there i was sleeping in my bunk when a loud fire drill goes off. so i get and am about to go to the top deck where we are to meet in a real drill and then i hear jeremy [the captain] that this is a drill not real. so i go back to bed. i awake again in a few minutes to find two of the deck hands in full fire safety suits with a fire hose. so im freaking out half asleep. i finally come to my sences and see that it is fake because 1. im still alive 2. i dont see any flames. so im okay. then i hear them going through the steps. they call "ANY VICTIMS?" and i hear, "YES, FOUR." that means me and three others girls who were sleeping at the time. then they say "TOO MANY IT IS A LOST CAUSE!" great i am a lost cause and if that was a real fire i would be dead. that is just a happy thought to have when you wake up. so im dead ps.

after dying i got up to play more guitar have a creative worship meeting and eat dinner. dinner was superb. chicken stuffing and potatoes! it was fun eating it but cleaning up after it=no fun at all. it is fun for the first hour that you are rocking out to the ipod and washing dishes but as the minutes and hours go by you want to drown yourself in the dirty food water. I HATE SILVERWARE! done. i cant wait to have a different duty! perhaps house keeping, i would not mind polishing brass...

after dinner and clean up i turned on my computer [Graham, yes alex i named my computer] and got on myspace. i love getting messages from home! omg i cant believe that high school starts tomorrow and im not there. this is the time where i tell you all the things that i miss about high school without missing high school:

1.superfanning
2.dancing and singing to the pep band
3.choir
4.the play
5.driving people home and to school
6.leaving class to go to roth's or B&T
7.hottie
8.the fourth year of focus groups
9.witt. period.
10.dances
11.spirit weeks
12.random matching days
13.THE MATTRESS!
14. lunch in the choir room
15.two dollar rice which is now 2.50 dollar rice :[
16.retreats
17.being a senior
18.dressing jazzy for band concerts
19.leadership class
and of course
20. alex, sarah, eden, helena and all the rest of my underclassmen loves!!!!

i think i shall end this pretty soon me and heather are going to watch veggie tales on graham when i am finished. it is one that i have never seen so i am quiet excited. i am also excited for this weekend i think that all of us are going to go to cathedral cove. if you dont know what that is and have seen the chronicles of narnia: price caspian, it is the place where the kids first are at when they return to Narnia at the beginning of the movie. if you have not seen the movie here is a picture:

from outside the cove

inside the cove


well the veggies and heather are calling my name! i love you all and miss you dreadfully

love from me in nz

my fingers hurt.

lol okay well it is my second blog! no way i am actually am going to keep up with it. well i dont know. it is so weird writing this everyday, i wonder if anyone actually reads this. if you do let me know because it would be nice that i am not just writing this for nothing... i wan to know if people at home really miss me and want to know what i am doing here in NZ!

moving on. today is monday even though when i post this it says that it will be sunday, dont know why that is and im too lazy and tech-retarded to look up how to fix it, so if you know how please inform me! thanks. we had a new speaker a real person. he is teaching on faith! oh what an amazing thing! he said something that really hit me today. he was talking about how people say that they dont have any faith! he said that that is a loads of rubbish!!! okay people show faith everyday, in everything that they do. we have faith in the people that make our cars to trust that they made in right so it will not randomly burst into flames while we are sitting at a red light, we have faith that the planes and the pilots that we take to travel the world will not crash and we will get to where we are going safely, pretty much we have faith in everything that we do the moment we wake up and walk out our door. this really hit me because i dont understand if us as humans are taught to have faith in people why cant we just take that faith that we all can understand and exercise everyday and focus it on god. it is not hard to have faith in god and once you have realized that nothing seems impossible. i have heard countless stories these past few weeks about faith and what it has done in the lives of people around the world. it have brought healing, funds, security, love and many more things. this is only one day of his teachings i cant wait to see what the next few days will bring. okay lets get out of my mind and onto what else i did today.

for morning tea we had cucumbers! delicious. i am so happy that havs is cooking. i shared how happy i was that she his here and that i get to help her cook that i made her a prezzie out of the fridge letter magnets! would you like to see it...okay



isnt that just fun! well i thought it was so shut up! after morning tea came lunch it was pizza, homemade=delicious! after lunch i decided that i wanted to play the guitar again. i picked up and played it until dinner [that is why the headline is what it is] if you dont know when you first start playing your fingers arent used to it so if you play for the first time you fingers ache for a while. mine hurt so bad that it is some what painful to type. well to answer your question was i just playing random cords the answer in NO. i actually was learning one of my new favorite songs, it is called louis, louis. it is amazing and it kind of easy to play. good beginners song. it has like 5 main chords and i am really good at four of them so it is pretty much made!

dinner was...wow i cant remember what was for dinner...that is really sad. ill ask havs tomorrow and tell you all if you really want to know. after dinner i played my song again along with singing various songs that everyone was playing. there is a total of five guitars on the ship and it seems like at lease one person is playing on in the lounge at any given moment. i sang songs from "hit me baby one more time" to out own song "oh mr. darcy." okay hilarious thing, all the guys here are doing shaveless september, they where going to do no shave november but we will be on outreach then and we dont know if that will be culturally okay...so yeah im really excited. one guy even shaved his head...with a razor...so gross!

we had a community meeting tonight. all us chillins got to meet the staff at the office and random marine reach supporters. it was really cool. i got to see babes [the cutest little phillapino woman who would be on the other end of my crazy stressed out emails when i first applied to marine reach] and of course patti! patti is the best. she invited us to stay at this amazingly huge house for girls night and we went hot tubing and watch P&P! she used to be a DTS director and went out on outreaches and we say her sing a song about it, it was compiled of eating bugs, sketch vans, and wanna be deck hands...in other words it was very entertaining and all true about the outreaches that year. i want to write a song about my outreach too! anna my danish love and partner on the mr. darcy song is on the other outreach team so i think we shall come together at the end and make one! maybe possibly sing it at our graduation on the 12th of december i believe.

well it is getting late so i think i shall go to bed because i have to get up in 7 hours to make breakfast for all. oh cool thing before i go. the captain on the ship is getting married to one of the crew and we all got i nvited to their wedding, but it gets better, me and anna are leading a song that the wedding!!! wow what an honor! they are getting married in 19 days so pray for them, and me. i love and miss you all. really i actually have a rough day the other day when i was listening to my new "home" playlist,that is made up of all the songs that remind me of home, on my ipod and just burst into tears on the top deck...it was bad but i recovered! so to say all that i miss you and if you write to me please send me pictures of us so i can decorate my bunk!

love from me in NZ