This Is Not Home.

The first few weeks here as I soaked in all of the breathtaking landscape of New Zealand, I was like a broken record saying "I can't believe we live here... Guys this is home now.  This is home."

And while it remains that the beauty still astounds me, I've realized something: This is not home.  Home is in Minnesota where it gets icy cold in the winter and I go into the ditch every year and kids go to school on snowmobiles and snowstorms make kids inattentive in school waiting for an early out.  Home is where the summers are staying out until unreasonable times at Lengby Lake after we all get off of work.  Home is going upstairs to tell my parents how my day was after I got home late from work.  Home is cuddling with Anthrax on the kitchen floor.  Home is fighting with Jonathan about the dumbest things.  Home is staying up until 3 in the morning on school nights because I didn't start my homework early enough.  Home is bonfires in the summer.  Home is where my family is and my lifetime friends.  Home is these guys (and some more than didn't get in this pictures :) )

 

 

Home is not New Zealand. 

 

On a lighter note, this blog post was actually supposed to be about the little differences between NZ and America, so I might as well share that too!

 

My favorite: shoes are not required here.  That means you can go to the grocery store, to church, basically anywhere without wearing shoes.  It's fantastic.  

Least favorite: wrong side of the road.  When I first got here I could hardly watch out the windshield because it was hard to get used to!  Also, because of this, I've decided not to be trained as a student driver and I miss being able to drive.

Driving: Their driving is just different altogether.  Their roads aren't as straight, but they seem to go faster.  Speeds are in kph instead of mph.  There are roundabouts instead of 4-way stops.  There apparently aren't 4-way stops anywhere!  Kiwis don't know what they are, and we joke that they wouldn't have the patience for them ;)

Lingo:  Sweet as! (and no, it's not complimenting someone's backside ;) )  Rubbish instead of garbage.  Jandels instead of flip flops.  Heaps instead of lots.  Lollies instead of candy.  Sunnies instead of sunglasses.  Togs instead of swimsuits.  Petrol instead of gas. 

Currency:  It's bright and plastic!  Also, they have dollar coins and 2 dollar coins.  Going shopping also comes out more even because their tax is already added into the price(AMERICA SHOULD DO THIS).


No matter how much I was excited to get out of Fosston, Minnesota I realize now how great I had it and how I'll never forget where I came from.  I miss going to town and knowing everybody at the stores I go to.  Here, I just have people asking me about my accent.  To any of you people at home reading this:  I love and miss you all so much.  I think about you all every day!

I promise I'll be more cheery when I write my next post.  :p

I'm still relying that God is in this place and He called me to leave home and come here.  Outreach is in 6 weeks.  Can't wait to minister to Filipinos and watch God work there. 

Hebrews 12: 1-5     "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him."

P.S. I've only had subway once since I've been here...it's more expensive and they don't have 5 dollar footlongs :(  I miss cheap cheap food! 

Higher Level Thinking is Not a Sin

This post isn't about any event that happened, but a series of conversations have sparked my interest to write a post about something I'm passionate for.  One of the first things I regrettably realized about this place is that science is not as loved as it is in my family back home.  Unfortunately, in many Christian circles, there are bad connotations around science and oftentimes "those scientists" get a bad name. 
 
What is science?  Google's definition is:
"The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment."

In my own words, science is how we interact (either through thinking about it or doing) with our world to study how it works.  The definition sure doesn't seem sacrilegious.  It's simply studying the world that God created, and as a Christian, finding God everywhere.

Romans 1:20 talks about how God's invisible qualities of eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen and understood from what has been made, and because of that people are without excuse to not know Him.  Psalm 19:1 says "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." 

As Christians, we shouldn't be afraid to learn about science, but instead excited to discover all of the ways that God has revealed Himself to us. 

One of the questions that the study of the universe brings up (at least for me) is "Why did God do it THAT way?"  I have some examples... (If you have more insight than me, please feel free to comment!)

1.  The human body will revert to a 25-hour sleep schedule with the absence of day and night.  I've found this one in several places, and I wonder why God would make the world spin around in only 24 hours.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-25-hour-day-cycle

2.  We can see stars that are millions of light years away, but where was the time for that light to get here?  Maybe God made an "old Earth" (which would also explain why rocks are dated for millions of years, if that is accurate), but WHY?  Or maybe, Darwin had part of the puzzle right, and we did get here by evolution, but it wasn't "dumb luck" and accidents.  Maybe, our God who is described as a potter in Jeremiah 18, made us in a more unique way than we imagined.  Jeremiah 18:4 says "But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."  God was using the potter as an illustration to Jeremiah of Himself and how he would tear down Israel if they didn't repent.  If God would wreck whole nations to rebuild them back into the way He wanted to, is it so impossible to consider that He would use a likewise way to create humans?  Taking millions of years to mend and mold the people that would be in His image?  Of course, most would like to read Genesis 1 thinking that a day equals a day...which it may very well have been that way.  It's just an interesting thing to think about.

3.  God made the universe so big (could be infinite? I looked this up and found different answers) that where we are right now, there is NO WAY to explore all of it.  Why would God make such a big creation?  Especially the parts of the universe that aren't observable from Earth... (basically most of it ;) )  This also raises questions about if God has made other creatures, or other worlds with something else out there!  I find it arrogant to think we are the only ones out there.  I believe that God's love has the capacity to outstretch over ANYTHING He creates, and if there are more worlds... I sure hope to find out in Heaven!

4.  God gave humans a sexual desire that operates outside of a marriage, yet He has commanded that acting on it is permitted only inside of marriage.  Why.

5.  Going along with hormones, what about all of the chemicals that run our body?  Why would God make how we feel measurable?  Why would there be substances like serotonin and dopamine telling us how to feel?  Why are there illnesses such as depression that are because of a unbalance of these?  Do differences in brain chemistry affect our spiritual life?

6.  We sense the world with our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.  Will there be more senses in Heaven?  Are there actually more senses here that are in our minds so they can't be measured?  For example, is hearing God's voice a "sense"? 

Ok, it's midnight and that's as far as I'll go tonight.  Go ahead to comment with insight or even more questions!

Our world is so mind-boggling, I'll always be wondering about something. 

Everything is New.

My brothers and sisters in Christ here are already becoming my family.  I love them so much...just looking at all of their faces I am filled with awe at God's beautiful people :D

And what an adventurous lot!  Just this past week, Micah and I found a waterfall we hadn't been aware of, and the day after Jed, Nick and I went to check it out and see if we could climb it.  We ended up having to go back and scale the bank, thick with trees and other plants.  Holding on to the branches and roots while digging our bare toes into the dirt, we made it to the top and walked through the grass until we could climb down the hill at the top of the waterfall, at which point we realized it might be hard to get back the way we came.  With determined hearts we kept on going upriver and the guys (because I have no sense of direction) guessed where the base would be, and picked a hill to climb.  So we left the "safety" of the river to climb this hill, and lo and behold we could see our base from the top.  I can just imagine myself living in a jungle someday, foraging through until we found food and shelter. 

This is a picture of all the hills from the road...the river isn't visible because it's so small from that far away!  What a beautiful place I live in.

 

Tonight we went out to a night with the other YWAM base in Tauranga...Bethlehem.  We had an AMAZING night of worship, and then Andy Byrd spoke on sacrificial love.  It was probably one of the best messages I've ever heard.  Some of his points:

     *Why do we have so much controversy over different    denominations?  We all worship the same God, so let's all just jump in the Jesus river.

     *It's not that impressive to love a perfect God...it's a far greater feat to love imperfect people.

     *Jesus loved us sacrificially, so we need to "pay it forward" by loving everybody around us.

     (And this is my favorite)*We need to stop worrying so much about our future and what God is going to do.  Let's just love the people that God has placed in front of us, where we are, right now.  We fret so much about hearing to get a word, which is important, but it shouldn't be a hindrance from simply loving and serving those RIGHT HERE.

Here is a picture from tonight.  Reckless abandoned worship is our thing. 

 

Everything is new here.  My relationship with God.  It's like I wake up to a new understanding of Him every day, and each day I think I understand less because He keeps on getting bigger and bigger and sometimes it makes my brain hurt, but my heart soar.  How I relate to people is new... how I can let these people I just met hold my hand through these months of renewal.  How I see the world.  How I think.  My necessity for a personal relationship with The Creator of the universe... how it grates on my bones to not get quiet time alone with the God that is from everlasting to everlasting.  The God who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, The God who sent His Son to spill His blood to cover our sins and make us righteous to be with God.  I don't know why God did it the way He did... But I am trusting Him that it's in His hands and He has a perfect plan for His children!! 

 

God keeps on speaking to me that I am His child, His precious daughter whom He loves.

 

Our God is a God who's love is so abundant that it could save someone like me.

 

Whoa. 

 

 



 



Hearing God's Voice

This week's theme was Hearing God's Voice.  The funny thing is that I heard God's voice for the first time before the lectures even led to that!  I was having a pity party and telling myself that none of the higher up leaders knew me and I wouldn't be asked to staff, and all that drama that can go on in someone's head.  Then we were sitting listening to a lady talk about her work in China when the name "El Roi" came into my head and kept on pounding around in my brain!!  I already knew it was a name of God, but I didn't know what it meant.  So I looked it up, and it means "The God Who Sees".  So even if no one else does, God is reminding me that God still sees me!!

Other than that, some prophesy stuff happened this last week which I'm not really sure about, and you can message me if you want to talk about it. :)

Worship here is breathtaking, especially when we go acapella.  We have "family time" which is every Monday morning, and includes all of the students, all of the staff, and all of the staff that we usually don't see because they are working on the ship or somewhere else.  We sang "How Great Thou Art" with only voices, and somewhere over 100 voices rang out in our packed dining hall.  It was intense.

The scenery here is beautiful!  Yesterday a few of us students went with a staff member to hike up the river.  We went around waterfalls, sometimes climbing up steep hills covered in thorns to get back to the river.  The view was breathtaking!  This place is the most beautiful place I've been.

Tonight we are interceding for the sex trafficking that goes on at the Superbowl.  Please join us!