I'm not really the writing type, but we are supposed to blog every week, so I will probably be posting a lot of pictures!
The past week and a half has been just amazing. It feels like we've been here a month and it's barely been a week. We are already having a blast serving and meeting amazing new people and experiencing a different but beautiful other culture. There are really too many things to talk about for me to put it all in a blog post, so I'm gonna give y'all a summary of our week and put up some photos, because a picture's worth a thousand words.
~We've been to 3 different youth groups in the past week, one of them twice. Wes and Sara have shared testimonies, Claudia and Kirstyn have preached sermons, Christine and I have led games and devotionals.
~We spent a day doing gardening work for a man with Lou Gehrig's disease, and learned about the joy of the Lord as our strength and how God gives grace through trials.
!We've spent some time cleaning and doing work for El Rancho, the beautiful camp and retreat center that we are staying at.
~We've been able to hang out with several international volunteers at El Rancho who don't know Christ and have been able to just reach out to them and show them the love of Jesus.
~We just finished a long planning session for the kids camps coming up in a couple weeks, and we are super psyched to see God work in 160 7-12 yr olds' lives!
~We've eaten delicious ice cream, already had more tea times than I can count, and tried fish & chips.
~We've learned some cool Kiwi lingo, like "sweet as" instead of "cool", and "heaps" instead of "lots", and "choice, cuz" instead of "good" or "great", and "no worries" instead of "you're welcome", and "hard out" instead of "asap". Also, at the McDonald's here they put a stick of chocolate called a flake in your ice cream cones!
THE RAINBOWS HERE ARE GORGEOUS. I put that in capitals because I can't stop smiling every time I see a rainbow here, which is often because it rains so much here. The rainbows actually are visible end to end, instead of just a little section, and the colors are vibrant and they actually look like rainbows in picture books. I've decided to use the rainbows as they were originally intended for us to use: as a reminder of God's promise and his faithfulness in always keeping his promises. So now every time I see a rainbow (so fairly often) I will take a minute to think about how faithful the Lord is to always follow through on his Word, and what that means for me personally.
So that's my little summary of our week so far, minus heaps because I don't think I could ever tell about everything that's been going on! I'll try to be posting photos as often as I can for you guys!
"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 perfector 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."
