The dating game

Last week I organized a little dating event for our students.  Dating and relationships are always a hot topic, and somehow we really don't talk about it a ton.  So, we figured it was about time!

This picture doesn't have much to do with dating, but we did have a wonderful Mexican lunch with our speakers.  I had the unfortunate job of being their escorts from the airport to campus (via lunch) :)

Nathan and Rachel Mills work for Family Life, a ministry that works with young families and dating couples.  They have been specializing in writing some dating material, on how to have healthy dating relationships.  It was great, and I picked up on a few things too!

We had FUSE that night, where we played the dating game.

Here's a video of Leigh who took his bachelor #1 role as the Hulk very seriously...

Insta-Friday

 Surprise surprise, but I really enjoy Instagram!  So, I thought I would share some photos from the week...

 Curry and Bollywood night at Zoe's

 Sunday afternoon in the city

Short trip out to Scorching Bay

 Max and Cherie were over for dinner - and Max takes awkward photos

Team dinner - all you can eat ribs!

 Leigh's rib pile

 A large platter of ribs!

 Date night to see a play

And milkshakes afterwards!

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.

the ballet

A few weeks ago we had a little staff women hang-out at the ballet!  I love the ballet, and I was thankful to have some ladies that were up for going!

Before the ballet, we enjoyed delicious Italian pizzas at Pizzeria Napoli.

The show of the night was Cinderella - seriously, does it get any girlier than that??

Thanks ladies for a fun night.

Amy's 21st

In New Zealand, having a 21st birthday party is a big deal.  It's sort of like a sweet 16 party in the States, but it's sort of a celebration of becoming an adult.  There are speeches, usually great food, and it's fun!

I have been discipling Amy since I moved here, and she is such an amazing girl.

The party was at one of our favorite restaurants, Tinakori Bistro.  Soooo good!

A little blurry.

And we got to hang out with Cody and Harriet.  It was fun to meet Amy's family, high school friends, and church friends.

Thanks for having us Amy!

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!

Taupo

After conference, Ryan and I were wiped!  We had a pretty busy trip to the States, and conference required some very long hours...so, we were glad to take a few days to recover on our way home in Taupo.  Max dropped us off as he drove home from conference to Wellington, and we stayed with our friends, Brandon and Jen.

Taupo is right next to Lake Taupo, which is really beautiful.

We joke that somehow we always end up eating at Burger Fuel whenever we are in Taupo.  It's delicious.

On the next day Ryan and I rode bikes over to 'Spa Park', where you can sit in a hot spring!  Ryan has been dreaming about this for a few months now, so it was time to make it happen.  The water is so hot, it actually takes a while before you can get all the way in.

The hot spring is right along the edge of the Waikato River - which is freezing.  So you have to find a happy balance.

We had a nice, chilly bike ride back to Brandon and Jen's.

We happened to be in town at the same time as Jen's mom, so we joined, and celebrated her birthday!  Brandon and Jenn were so wonderful to let us stay with them for the weekend.  We had a great time with them, and learned that Brandon and I actually went to the same elementary school, just a few years apart - isn't that nuts!?

The next morning we woke up nice and early and drove up to the Waitomo glow worm caves.  I've been wanting to make it up there, since it's on all of the "to-do" New Zealand lists.  Anyway, it was really beautiful.  We weren't allowed to take any photos, but it was amazing to see the caves covered in little blue lights from the glow worms.

We rode in these little boats through the cave into the grotto with the glow worms.  I couldn't help but think how creative is our God that would think to create these pretty little worms to live in a cave - maybe never to be seen.

The next day we were intended to fly home bright and early in the morning...but the propeller on our plane wouldn't start!  Not good.  So, we got to stay another day!

The lake in the morning...

And the mountains in the distance.

The sunset that night was so beautiful.

We finally made our flight the next morning, and look at our plane!  It was so tiny.  It felt like a private little tour down the north island.  But we made it safe and sound to windy Wellington :)

**Sorry, I feel like Instagram has hijacked my blog posts, so I apologize if you follow me there :)