Insta-Friday

Some photos from this week!

This was our last week on campus, so I tried to spend some really good quality time with each of the girls I disciple and lead in Bible study.  Amy and I met up and grabbed fun coffee drinks!  This is such a great time to encourage one another and challenge the girls in areas I think they have potential to grow.  And since this is our last time to 'officially' meet, I shared some last words of wisdom.

Later on Monday we had our last CSL action group in Scorching Bay.

Where Emma attempted to part the Tasman Sea...

The girls gave Sarah and I such beautiful flowers!

We had a few sunny days this week, it's starting to feel like spring!

I love these boat houses by the waterfront.

We had our staff retreat at the end of this week, which was kicked off with buy one get one free breakfasts at one of our favorite cafes.

Roadtrip to Foxton Beach...

Foxton Beach.  We spent a few days this week evaluating our year as a team and leaving behind thoughts for next year since 7/9th of our team will be leaving at the end of this year.  Plus, it was awesome getting to spend time together one last time!

Ha, we were lucky to have a trampoline at our place!

Ha, and this photo from a cafe in town.  A perfect light bulb moment.

And that was my week!

Top 5 cafes

In honor of this being our last week on campus in Wellington, I thought I would do a week of themed posts!  5 days of 5 things.  I thought this might help me as I begin to process the past two years and be able to look forward.  So here we go...today I will share, my top 5 favorite cafes in Wellington.  That's an easy one :)

1.  Butler's Cafe: Free chocolate with every coffee.  And very close to our flat!

 2.  VicBooks - People's Coffee:  Best coffee on campus by far.  I don't know what they do, but it is amazing.  And everything is organic and fair trade!  Unfortunately I don't have any photos, which is a bummer.

3.  Chocolate Cafe in Days Bay: You can't beat the atmosphere or the view.  Right across the harbor from Wellington, only 20 minutes drive.  But you feel like you're on vacation, it's my little escape from the city.

4.  Karawaka: On a beautiful day, this is where I want to be.  It's right on the waterfront and they have great fries.  You can pick a seat on the grass and watch the people go by and the rowers practice in the harbor.

5.  Matterhorn:  They always have a fire lit and it's nice and warm and cozy.  In the winter I can't wait to go here.  It's one of the first cafes I ever went to in Wellington, so maybe I'm a little sentimental :)

Insta-Friday

My life this week in a few snapshots from Instagram!

The BEST sushi in Wellington - Midland sushi.  A nice treat on a rough day :)

Sarah O and I went to the NZ Symphony Orchestra.  For free!

I met with Emma for the last time, which was really sad.  But we went out for breakfast and I had the most delicious mushrooms on toast, which was happy.

Our National Director was in town on Wednesday and he treated us to drinks after work on Wednesday.  I love quirky places like this in Wellington.

Ryan and I disciple David and Amy, who are dating.  So on Thursday we had a double date discipleship appointment to talk about relationships, which was fun!  Even though David looks drugged out.

Wild calla lillies growing in our backyard.

Thursday was a beautiful day, so we picked up fish and chips and headed to Island Bay to watch the sunset. 

We are realizing more and more how much we are going to miss Wellington, so we are trying to be intentional with our remaining time here.  So, this past Saturday we planned a little fun day around town.  Starting with coffees and free chocolate at Butlers.

Followed by shopping in the rain on Cuba Street...  I love this large umbrella.

And we used a coupon on delicious seafood chowder.  Yum.

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!

Insta-Friday

Well, as usual, I am already a week behind here!  But, here are some photos from the last 2 weeks...

We are trying to take advantage of our time here in Wellington, so on Saturday we drove a few hours to the east coast, to Castle Point.  It was beautiful, so glad we did!

It was Islam awareness week on campus, so we invited the president of the Muslim group to come and we (well, Ryan organized it) discussed some of the differences between Islam and Christianity.  So many students have the mindset that "all religions are the same", so we were trying to make the point that that isn't possible.  These two religions, for example, make very different claims.  It was really good, not a heated debate or anything, just a nice friendly discussion.  It's pretty amazing actually, there aren't many places in the world where you could have had this type of atmosphere and discussion.

Blazer Thursday.  So, I sort of started this little experiment this term because I love blazers.  And I love that others are joining!

There's a new ice cream place in town, and it's less than a 5 minutes walk away.  Yikes.

This week we went to see WOW - the World of Wearable Arts.  It was fantastic - a fashion show, ballet, singing, art extravaganza.  I really can't describe it fully, but I loved it.  It's sort of a Wellington thing, and it's been so popular that now it is expanding quite a bit internationally.  Anyway, the show is mainly to display costumes made from every day items, but they are beautiful. WOW

And lastly, our final staff meeting of the year.  It was a sad sad morning.

All Blacks

The night before we went to Australia we went to the All Blacks game!  It's the first we've been to, and only the second time they've played in Wellington since we moved here.  Now that we are rugby fans, ha, it was really fun!

It was a typical Wellington day, and we were glad to have seats under the roof to block us from the rain.  Actually, the rain would come in, and swirl around the whole stadium.  So you would actually get hit on the side of your face all the time.  It was really odd.

And then, right after half time, the power in the whole stadium went out!  So, that was exciting.  They played a ton of songs about 'the lights going out'. 

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we got to go!

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!