I Know It's Long. It's Been A While.

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote. But there is no way I’m going to remember all of it so I’m just going to word vomit on this post and hope it suffices. On Friday we left Laidlaw to go to the other side of New Zealand, Wellington, to stay with some people from a church that our leader is friends with. We all got separated into pairs and put into different host houses. They call it billeting. It has seriously been the best four days. There are about five different families we are with and some of them have kids, but when we’re all together it is a PARTY. One of the families has a great house with a huge living area with giant glass doors for a wall connecting to the outside with a great yard, and pool, deck, BBQ and lounging chairs. I mean, it’s kind of unreal. And just like all the rest of the time, we play sports constantly. The owners of the house, the Tennets, taught us a new game called crazy catch and rebound. I’m not going to try to explain them both because that would be dumb, but it involves a soccer ball, a net that bounces the ball back at you, only throwing and lots of strategy. The first night we got there, we didn’t even talk to anyone, we just started playing and that was the beginning of all our friendships. The dad of the house, Graham, is VERY competitive and some would say he always seems to give his team the advantage, but he would never admit it. He is awesome though and always makes the games more intense and gets everyone involved. Every night the group separates and goes back to their host families’ home, but during the day we are always together. In the morning we have our ministry class with our leader’s friend. I wish everyone I knew could listen in on this class. The curriculum and teaching is simple, but the significance and impact of the message is life altering. It’s a class about the six priorities of Jesus’ life, based off the verse 1 John 2:6, “Whoever claims to live in Him, must live as Jesus did”. So Matt, the teacher, led us through countless verses about the six things Jesus DID, not taught, but how he actually lived and let us have our own insights, but after each one he gives us time to ask ourselves, okay, so if this is how Jesus lived, what impact does that have in my life? What changes am I going to make? It sounds so simple, but guys, it has seriously changed my life. I love the way he teaches too, so laid back and humble (and hilarious), but so knowledgeable and scripturally grounded.

We haven’t had much time to ourselves the past couple days, seriously we have gone NON-STOP. We are all exhausted. Getting to know the host families has probably been our favorite part, the kids are all so interesting and want to be our best friends which makes us feel pretty good. The son in the Tennet’s family, Joel (11), has become one of my favorites. He tries with all his heart to annoy me, but I know we’re friends. Tonight he even let me hug on him and he sat on me for a good hour, trying to injure me most of the time, but he never got up, so I consider myself a winner.

All they do is feed us!! I think I’ve gained 10lbs in the last three days. Ice cream and gelato is at every corner and we get it just about that much.

We’ve done some cool things as a class too. Today we went to their Parliament and history museum. It was neat to learn all about their systems and culture and art and history. A lot to take in in one day.

On Saturday we went on probably the most ridiculous hike in my life. It was on a beach, so when we pulled up we thought, okay sweet a walk on the beach. Then we got out of the vans and were literally picked up by wind and thrown in the ocean. That was dramatic, but you understand. We walked down to the part where all the seals live by the huge rocks, but the whole walk we were attacked by tiny rocks being picked up by the wind and thrown at us. It hurt so bad!! Any part of your body exposed felt like it was asleep/ being attacked by fire ants/ had 1000 needles piercing it. I mean, it was probably the most miserable experience. And can I just say, this was a time in my life when I wanted nothing more than to shave off all my hair, because this kind of mane cannot be controlled by a hair tie when it comes to this type of hurricaneous wind. After we got back on the van, it looked like I had had dreads for about five years.  Seeing the wild seals chilling on the giant rocks was pretty sweet. But after a pros and cons list, I think I would skip that trip next time. Not to mention it was a 6-mile walk back with the wind in opposition to us. That’s a freaking workout. I’m 83% positive that if I threw a small child up in the air, the wind would have taken it away. If I started running, I had major hang time. It was ridiculous. Anyway, I digress.

On Sunday, the family I’m staying with, Kim and her daughter Ricky, took Christina and I to a really nice restaurant after church called Dockside, and it was right on the Waterfront looking out on the beautiful bay with all the sailboats. It was pretty incredible. Everyone here dresses so well and edgy I felt super out of place, but the restaurant was great and I wasn’t mad about the live music. We met up with the whole group plus the families later and they taught us how to play rugby and cricket. Now if that’s not cool, I don’t know what is. We even played tackle rugby, and let me tell you, even though I was 1 of 3 girls playing with about 15 men, they had no shame and gladly tackled me. I have the battle wounds to prove it. Even my uncle threw me to the ground, we still aren’t talking.

Maybe it’s just because we are staying with awesome families and doing a lot of fun stuff, but I really love the way people live here. It’s so much more relaxed and enjoyable. The families are so patient and loving, but real people and get competitive and joke at each other and things just go on. Everybody just loves to be together, surrounding food of course, and even the different families just stay at each other’s houses for hours and it’s no imposition. They are relaxed about time and show a lot of grace. Trying to figure out their phrases and terms for things is hilarious, but I’m starting to pick up the way they say things and it’s embarrassing. Even now as I’m typing this, the voice in my head has an accent.

The team is getting closer and closer, right now we all just love hanging out together. Nothing has gotten super deep yet, but we honestly haven’t had much time to just sit and talk with each other about where we are in life. I know it will come though and I’m really excited to get to know all their hearts better. I must have been pretty dumb, but when I signed up for the this trip I didn’t realize it was mostly for people who are mission orientated, and I’ve been feeling this past semester and even now some pulls towards that kind of thing, but I don’t know what that looks like at all and I’m excited that other kids on this trip will be searching for the same kinds of answers with me the next few months.

Oh and did I mention that we are supposed to be learning Chinese right now? Yeah, right.