Monday Monday.

First thing Monday morning is our team staff meeting!  This is really our only time together as a full team to plan, talk about how things are going, and brainstorm ideas.  We spend several hours together and talk through all outreaches coming up, strategies for our student leaders, and have a lot of laughs.  I will really miss this team.  Oh, and we're cool and meet in a library.

After staff meeting, I meet with Sarah for my staff 'training' time.  We are reading a book together right now, which is about marriage.  Which is sort of funny because Sarah isn't married - but it is such a good book!  John Piper's This Momentary Marriage.

After we meet, we lead the CSL, or commited student leader, action group together.  This is such an amazing group of women, and is definitely my favorite time of the week.  We do an inductive study of a book each term, and right now we are finishing up Philippians.  They put in a lot of effort through the week to study the text, so we have great conversations every week.  Such a sweet time.

And last but not least, I meet with Cherie on Mondays for discipleship.  This is Cherie's first year on staff and first year out of Uni.  She is a blast to meet with, and it's fun having such an outgoing person on our staff team.  We usually get to talking and before you know it, it's dinner time.  

Mondays are usually long, but one of my favorites :)

My Day - Thursday

On Thursdays, our staff team starts the day with team prayer at St John's Church.  It's a great time for us to meet together, share prayer requests from our individual ministries and personal lives. 

Then I get to meet with Amy!  She is awesome.  Amy studies geology and loves science and rocks.  So, sometimes we talk about that, but mostly we talk about what life beyond uni will look like (she graduates in November) and what it means to be a geologist and walk with Christ.  We also go sharing every week on campus, which is fun.

 I have a few hours in the middle of the day that are filled with various things.  I usually meet up with Lauree, another staff woman, and we go sharing.  The past few weeks I have been meeting with students to plan the end of the year party.

And then I get to hang out with Sarah!  She is also graduating, so we've been going through some grad transition to the workplace magazine.  It's fun, and we have some great conversations.  I have been discipling Sarah for 2 years now, and she is such a blessing to me.  We also get to go sharing on campus during our time.  Sarah is hoping to go overseas next year and work with different children's' ministries.

At the end of the day on Thursdays, we have a women staff "meeting" or discussion.  It's a great time to connect and chat about our individual ministries and the women we work with...how their Bible studies are going that they lead, etc...  And then pray for one another.  And before you know it, it's 5:30 and time to go home!

Sydney Leadership Forum

After getting back from Fiji, I had a quick turn around, and Ryan and I headed to Australia.  We had been asked a few months ago to join in a leadership summit for Australia and New Zealand Campus Crusade staff.  We learned a lot!  I am always amazing at the great caliber of people that are on staff with Cru and I enjoyed getting to soak up some of the wisdom.  We learned some great skills in coaching others, managing finances well in our ministries, and how to send our students well into life beyond Uni.  Good stuff!

The summit was held outside of Sydney near the Blue Mountains at a camp, which had alpacas!  So that was entertaining during our morning tea times.

After the conference Ryan and I stayed in Sydney an extra 2 days through the weekend.  We spent Friday evening visiting an animal park, where we saw wallabies!

And a koala!

 And this crazy bird.

And most importantly, kangaroos!

Afterwards we went into town and visited the opera house with our new friends.

On Saturday we bought unlimited transport tickets, so we made the most of our time that day!  We had lunch after visiting Paddy's Market near Darling Harbour.

Then took the train out to Bondi Beach.

And this is a pretty sweet pool.

And then we took a ferry over to the Olympic Park.

And this sounds so wrong, but that night we had a kangaroo and emu pizza.  And a crocodile pizza.  It was delicious, but a bummer to be eating the animals we just saw!

 And ended our night back in Darling Harbour for fireworks!

We really do love Sydney, it's such a great city and so fun to get around.  If anyone ever wants to visit, just let us know, we would gladly join :)

Fiji Summer Project

I can not believe I haven't blogged in over a month!  Goodness, we have both traveled quite a bit this year and it's been hard to really settle into a routine.  A few weeks ago I was away on a summer mission trip (even though it was spring break really) during the uni holiday for 2 weeks.  I led a trip of 8 students and 2 other staff to Suva, Fiji.

Fiji isn't really that far from New Zealand, which is funny.  Only a 3 hour flight!  It's straight north, so warmer weather!  And tropical plants.

We were headed up to Fiji to do ministry at the University of the South Pacific and Fiji National University.  Fiji is a very 'spiritual' place, so students were very open to talking about different faiths, and had some familiarity with Christianity.  But for many, it is out of family obligation or heritage, and many churches aren't that strong or Biblical.  So it was really fun getting to talk to friendly students and share about God's love and grace!

We stayed with the campus directors in Suva, basically camping at their house.  It was very homey and we learned a lot about every day life in Fiji.  There are definitely some differences living in the tropics!  Everything molds quickly and ants can find food ANYWHERE.

Here we are on campus, of course there is a rugby field.

 The house we stayed at had a huge porch where we spent a lot of our time.  After the first few days our bums were getting so sore from sitting on the ground so much! 

Four of the students were from Wellington, and I've been working with them for the past 2 years.  That was the main reason I wanted to go on the trip and it was such a blast getting to hang out and do ministry with them.  They are amazing girls and I feel so blessed that the Lord has allowed them to be in my life here. (Zoe, Emma, Joane, and Sarah) 

Many of our students hadn't really experienced a different culture like Fiji.  The island culture is different, and their history is very different that New Zealand's.  So we all had our culture overload moments :)  I happened to have an upper respitory infection for most of the trip, which was lovely.  But I am grateful that I had enough stregnth to do ministry during the day with students and was mostly tired only at night.

Overall we had a blast and saw the Lord doing some really cool things.  Over 20 students decided to follow Christ and we were able to follow up with many more and explain the foundations of the Christian faith.  Thank you to everyone that has been so supportive of this trip!

Fiji

Have I mentioned I'm going to Fiji this Sunday?  Goodness, I've been so behind on this blog, and I'm really sorry for that!  For some reason this term has felt so much busier than in the past.  With our normal campus responsibilities, trying to sort out the future, and planning for a two week summer project (or, spring project) to Fiji...it has all been wonderfully busy :)

I am helping to lead the trip and will be going with four Wellington students, which I'm really excited about.  All four of them are amazing women that I have had the opportunity to work with over the past year and a half.  We will be going to Suva and doing outreach with students at the University of the South Pacific, where we will meet students and hopefully get to chat with many of them about the love of Christ.  There are other Student Life staff in Suva, so we will get to encourage them and do ministry with them.  And!  There is a STINT team of Americans which all went to Miami of Ohio.  What a small world...and two of them even lived with my brother at uni.

While I love getting to do ministry in a different culture, I am mostly looking forward to serving alongside the Wellington women.  I have been able to teach them, and I've seen them learn a lot about ministry and sharing the gospel.  But here we will be doing ministry together and learning together.  I always love seeing how God teaches students on summer projects!

Anyway, please pray that God would be teaching us more and more about Himself.  Pray that we would have many fruitful conversations and that many would come to an understanding of who Christ is and what that means for their lives.  And lastly, that we would be an encouragement to those already doing ministry in Fiji.  And pray for Ryan and I, as he is not coming and communication could be a bit tricky.

Video!

Some of you might have seen Ryan and I talk a little about the ministry here in Wellington while we were home in the States.  We used this video at a few churches and I just thought I would share it here for anyone that is interested in watching!  These are students that Ryan and I personally work with, and love dearly.

It was really encouraging for us to hear some of these things and see what the Lord is teaching them through Student Life.

Enjoy!

 

A midwinter Christmas party

So what do you do when Christmas is in the summer, and it leaves you with a really long winter with no holidays?  Throw a midwinter Christmas party obviously!

For FUSE this month we had a Christmas themed party - sugar cookies and all.

And, to make sure the evening was memorable, we had a wrapping paper Santa costume model-off.  Hilarious.  Finding Christmas paper in July wasn't easy, but thank goodness we were able to hunt some down.

All of the contestants:

And the judges...

Ping's stuffed belly was a nice touch.

And Rachel had a dance!

Anyway, it was great fun.  We also had a great discussion from the Bible prior to this, but photos of that aren't quite as entertaining :)  I'm loving what some of the students are learning right now, it's really encouraging to see.  They want to grow and learn and dig into the Bible.  Praise the Lord for what He is doing!

Winter Conference

Soon after returning from the States, Ryan and I were headed straight off to our student winter conference.  It was held up in Ngarauwahia (middle of nowhere), just north of Hamilton.  Conferences are always fun, and, well, quite long.  We were there for almost 6 days with students.  The main theme of the conference came from Philippians 3,

“...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We learned about the goal towards which we are striving - understanding and experiencing the treasure of the Gospel.   What does it mean to strive, and where does our power and strength to strive come from.

Our flight to Hamilton was absolutely beautiful.  I took this quick photo out the window as we were taking off.  This is a view up the coast outside of Wellington.

Once we arrived in Hamilton, it was quite cold.  There was a frost on the ground each morning which was a little new.  We don't usually see a frost in Wellington so close to the ocean.

Set up for conference.  Cherie, Sarah, and I hung loads of bunting.

Wellington staff and students were in charge of the worship band, so it was fun to see them really go for it.  We also had a little bit of a sports theme with the Olympics coming up.

On one of the days we spend some time training students on how to share their faith with others.  I'm sure you've noticed that in Student Life we really value being able to share the Gospel with others, and how important it is that every Christian and communicate what it is they believe and why.

Later that night we had a dance party - Geek themed!  It was a lot of fun, and the costumes were hilarious.

Including my husbands....ghetto geek.

There were a lot of geek glasses floating around, and suspenders...

On the last night we had a nice banquet for the students, where the staff actually serve the meals.  Here are most of the Wellington girls:

And Ms Sarah and Joane:

And lastly, a group shot of all the Wellington students!

It really was a great conference, and I'm thankful for some really encouraging and challenging conversations with students.  I know they were challenged and trying to process things they were learning.  And conference is a great time for that :) 

Women's Retreat

 A few weeks ago we had our men's and women's retreats!  We had about 20 girls come to The Street City Church and spend the night.  It was great to meet all of the new girls involved in Bible studies!  We made pizzas in the kitchen and then dessert pizzas - which actually turned out pretty gross...  Our method needs some refining :)

Here are some pictures of all the ladies...

 Sarah, Joane, and Amy

 Amy and a few new Bible study ladies

 Bronwyn and her new friend

 Harriet and Pearl

 Sara, Kudzi, Melissa and Emma

Zoe, Theresa, Ailsa, Rachel and Grace

After the pizza making adventure, we hung out all evening and just had fun.  The next morning Lauree and I both gave talks about serving and loving one another.  It was such a fun time, and I am always reminded of how grateful I am to have such wonderful women involved in Student Life!