Words from the left hand side of the road!

I was sitting here today and I was like ooh I should blog, I said I would within the two weeks. Then I looked at the date ad realized that it had been two weeks exactly since my last post. So here is my two week update.

Timaru has been great! I have really enjoyed being here, Timaru is just as beautiful as I expected it to be. I dont know if anything in this country could be ugly.

As we have been in Timaru we have been staying with a family and it has been so nice. I have really enjoyed being a part of a family again. (not that my DTS hasnt been a family they have been every bit of a family and more) But, what I mean by that is that it has been nice to be back in a normal family type lifestyle. Waking up in the morning in a normal house, eating breakfast, heading out for the day, and then coming back, eating dinner, and then hanging out in the living room watching the news. The people and families of been more than accommodating to our team.

On another exciting note, something that I forgot to tell anyone that I have talked to back home. I have the joy and pleasure of driving here! Its been quite exciting learning how to drive on the left hand side of the road. And have gotten quite comfortable driving a manuel drive as well.

On a ministry note, our time here has been about the same as Dunedin. Personally I have a few more opportunities to speak and I even got the chance to MC our jump rally. It has been really fun.

A big part of this update is to also let you know whats next. We have two weeks left in New Zealand, and they we will be spent back in Dunedin. As my last blog stated we were supposed to be heading up to Nelson. There however in true YWAM fashion been a few changes made to our schedule. The doors in Nelson just werent really opening up for us, so we decided that going back to Dunedin (where we have quite a few contacts) would be our best bet.

So thats a little bit about me. Hope this finds you well and I will give you another update when I am back in Australia!

Love You all and see you soon!

Love and Light,

J.

Hello New Zealand!!!

Hello to those who are still actually reading this thing. Sorry for the gap between posts, I have been quite busy as of late which means hopefully you will find this blog somewhat entertaining.
For those of you that might not remember or know I am actually now on my outreach phase of my DTS. (Well I am on the second part of outreach, we have already done a short stent but this is the long one.) So , that puts my current location in Dunedin, New Zealand. I will be remaining in NZ for 4 more weeks, then 1 week in AUS, and then it will be time to return to the land of the free and the home of the brave. Just in time for the most important day of the year, and you know that would be my birthday of course! Dec. 17th for those of you forgetting, but don’t worry if you want to go ahead and send my presents to my house or give them to my mom to have when she picks me up from the airport that’s ok, I will not be upset! HAHA!!!!

Back to the point of my blogging, as I previously stated I have been quite busy. I guess as we like to say here “Welcome to outreach!” (Which is funny because we have now been on outreach for 5 weeks total, so the statement has slowly shifted to “it is outreach!”, welcome just seems a bit silly now).

I guess I will start from the beginning and just see where I go from there. Please forgive me if I wander off on some aimless rambling, I am not submitting this thing for a grade, however having an English teacher as a sister though I sometimes feel everything I type is being graded. (HAHA Love You Lish)

We flew into Dunedin on the 18th of October. We were traveled for 24 hours because of an 8 hour layover overnight in Christchurch. It was actually rather fun, we received a few stares as people entered the airport and there was this motley crew all spread out in the airport baggage claim area. Good stories though and some pretty funny pictures as well. Once we arrived beautiful scenery and yes sheep immediately welcomed us, there is indeed quite a number of sheep here it is no stereotype.

Even though many of us were in our sweats and we all were exhausted, we headed off straight to church. I mention this mainly because it has been very cool how welcomed we have been here. Every church we have been a part of has welcomed us with open arms. Families have fed us and given us more sweets than I have eaten in several years combined. But, even outside of the churches we have been treated very well. This town is beautiful in landscape and with people. It is one of the friendliest towns I have ever been to.

Yeah so day one we went to a church service and were taken to one of the elders houses and fed. We spent the afternoon just hanging out and fellowshipping with people from the church.
After most of us were fighting sleep as the afternoon went on we were finally taken to where we have been staying. Our entire team is sleeping in the basement of a church. It has been exciting living with the whole team; it has really given us a sense of family and unity. The church is nice as well, there is only one shower, but we have lots of toilets and a very large kitchen to cook all of our own meals. We also have been blessed with real mattresses, which has been rather nice!
The next couple of days were easy for us, we spent the time getting acclimated to the city, hanging out at the cafes, some prayer times, a bit of prior proper planning to prevent poor performance, and stocking up with food for our team. And then Wednesday we hit the ground running and its been a blur ever since. My numbers are not exact but I think we have done something around 12 or 13 school programs, 4 or 5 youth groups, a couple of church services, a girls group, and a men’s bibles study all in the last week and a half. Along with a city wide youth rally and open houses for people to learn more about missions and take a tour of the ship that is docked here that is a part of mercy ministries. (That is a branch of YWAM in case you were wondering out there)

In these programs, youth groups, and service the schedule and what was said has varied each time. The basic point however has been the same. We have just been encouraging people to get involved, get active, and realize that there is more to life than just what the norm is. And that we need to think outside of ourselves and give back in whatever way that may be for each person individually. Through this we have also looked for all opportunities to share the gospel and we spent a lot of time inviting people to the Jump rally that I mentioned, as well as for them to come down and visit the ship.

The ship has really just been a catalyst or talking point for us to get peoples attention and encourage them. As we have been here our goal has just been to allow our lives to be the gospel that people can see and hopefully though that we can love them and encourage them to love others and get active and get involved and not just sit back and watch life pass them by.
Now sadly my time here in Dunedin is winding down, but its ok because tomorrow we are heading off to Timaru for two weeks where it will be a lot of the same thing. We will be taking a bus; we have been told that it should be about 2 and half hours. Once we arrive in Timaru we are going to be billeted in with people of the community. The experience that billeting will provide could prove to be somewhat interesting but I am excited about it. We will be in Timaru for 2 weeks as well, and then our schedule becomes tentative. Our plan is then to head another 5 or 6 hours north from Timaru onto Nelson. Our time at Nelson will look very similar to our time in Dunedin and Timaru, but as I mentioned no plans in Nelson have been confirmed. I will keep you up to date with our activities as they happen and as I find out more.

I hope that you are all doing quite well out there, and I cant wait to get back and see everyone! Even though my time has been more than wonderful here and I could easily move to New Zealand, home will be a welcomed thing in my heart especially all of my friends and family, and I hoping for a bit of early snow as well so I can get out on those huge Paoli Peaks, that is just wishful thinking though.

Well I hope this was as interesting for you as I kept telling myself it was as I typed it. I will hope to give another update in a week and a half or two weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!

Love and Light,
J.