News from afar!

Hey everyone!
Sorry its been so long! Things have been very busy here and we've just got caught up in everything that has been going on.

Since we last blogged we have had lectures on Hearing God's voice, Relationships, Identity, Fear of the Lord and we've now onto a justice panel week with different speakers. Our justice stream afternoons we've discussed genocide, abortion, and war and reconciliation. We've been learning and experiencing so much. Its been amazing! And there is still so much more to learn!

We've also...
spent a Saturday at  Coromandel, going to a beach called Cathedral Cove where we baptised 4 students from our DTS, we have done a lot of painting around the base,  played various sports, the men of the group put on a breakfast for the ladies of the group to celebrate and honour them, eaten a lot of good food, worshipped together, been to church, played a lot of a card game called 'stik', hung out with some incredible people, had an English cream tea, had worship and prayer time with Tauranga House of Prayer and so much more!

Here are some photos of us getting up to all sorts!

Poverty Weekend

Last weekend we had a bit of a surprise. We were eating lunch on Friday and some guy we didn't really know came and gathered us all together and said we were a displaced people group from Bangladesh. The government were wanting to build a supermarket where we lived so they were moving us on. He gave us a bin bag and told us we had 5 minutes to pack in the bag; sleeping bag, water bottle, swimming costume, 1 change of clothes and bible and notebook. So we all legged it to our rooms! So crazy we didn't have a clue what was going on. Next thing they give us a tarpaulin, some rope, some buckets and matches and a bag of rice. We then had to walk on the road for 40 minutes between and escort of two cars up hill! and we arrived at the other base and went down into the valley, where there is nothing apart from a block of long drop toilets and we were just in a field next to the river and waterfall. So confused and not knowing what was happening. We then got put into families and given ages. We had to take on those ages. Ben was a Grandpa and Nai was a 6yr old. The staff just left us then. At that point we realized we would be staying the night, so we should build a shelter. So all the adults built a shelter with the tarp and rope. Grandpa made a fire and some others got water from the river to boil to drink, as we had no drinking water, and to use for cooking rice and beans later. Nai went off and played with the kids! And totally had fun acting 6yrs old!!! We had no idea how long we were going to be there or what was going to be happening. So a lot of time was spent kinda waiting around. We ate rice and beans with our hands for tea!! We picked our sleeping spots and then just sat around the fire and sang a bit and then prayed for each other. It was actually a really awesome time. There were 20 of us there but about 10 were left for the praying bit and we just went round praying for each other and getting words for each other. It was a really great time of bonding with people too. Ben and 2 others slept outside as there was no room under the tarp. We had pretty rough night and it rained in the morning so we had to get up pretty early and shelter. It was one of the students birthdays so we celebrated the best we could with what we had...a flower birthday crown, rice and beans for breakfast and an impromptu Olympic games between all our countries! oh yes, limbo is now a new Olympic sport!!! We're sad to say Canada won We did try our best but we were fairly outnumbered by the Canadians and Americans! 

Over the next two days we had various scenarios played out to us by the staff. They came in the night and tried to buy 3 children and in the end just took them, they came and adopted another 2 children, the adults had to go to work and the kids to school to make bracelets from grass, we had to barter with our bracelets,things we were wearing, and money they'd earned at work, to buy more food at the shop, we bought one piece of fruit each and 1 cupcake each! oh the joy of having something sweet to eat! They later told us 3 of us were ill and how long they had left before they died, and how much the medicine cost and then we had to choose who to save as we didn't have enough money for everyone. We also had a UN food drop at one point, but they gave us some things that we couldn't use because we had no way of opening them, we did get some tins of tuna though, so sharing a tin of tuna with 15 or so people was fun! Just a teaspoon of tuna with the rice and beans was sooo good though! The following morning we had a group of missionaries come really quickly and just take selfies with us and pictures of our home and us eating and cooking, and pray for healing and salvation and gave us jumpers we had no use for , they were pretty patronising! They then just left again as quickly as they arrived.

All these scenarios felt quite full on and really taught us so much about what its like for the poor and needy and marginalised. It really helped us to learn and also grow in friendships together as we were just totally in a vulnerable place not knowing what was going to happen next, being tired, dirty and smelly! With all these things they were trying to teach us compassion for the people we reach out to and get us to see things from their side and how sometimes what they're given etc isn't actually helping them. Trying to get us to feel some of the emotions of the people we'll reach out to. It was amazing how well it worked! On Sunday morning we then decided to pack down our shelter as we hoped they would be coming for us at some point that day! They finally arrived and said that the plans for the supermarket had fallen through and that we were able to return home! wowzas what a weekend. learnt so much about the situations people face and the emotions, dilemmas and traumas attached to them and got closer together as a group. It was great (can say that now were this end of it!!) it was hard though!

Powhiri

So here are some long awaited pictures of the Powhiri Ceremony we had. It was a time of being welcomed to New Zealand by the Maori tribe. Its a fairly formal ceremony with such a profound significance.  It was pretty moving. We had songs, speeches, warrior dance and we all did the hongi at the end (touching noses and breathing in the same air, symbolizing unity)
The song we sang both in english and maori was...

Wairua tapu
Kuhu mai
No mai ki kone
Wairua tapu

Ara Hia
Korero mai ano
Amene

Holy spirit welcome
You are welcome here
Guide us holy spirit
Speak to us again

Week 1 of Lectures

Hey everyone!
So we've come to the end of our first week of lectures! Wow this is just the beginning but already God is broadening and deepening our understanding of Him.
Just to give you a little insight into what our week looks like first...
We start with Breakfast (most important meal of the day!) 6.30-7.15am, then we have a small tidy up job we have to do for 30mins, then we have 45mins for quiet time. Then the rest of the morning is spilt into 3, first part being worship or intercession or Whanau Time (Family time with all the staff and students from all the DTS') and the second two parts being lectures. Then the afternoons are taken up with bigger work duties, fitness sessions or Justice discussion/lecture time. And evenings are then either free,a justice movie, small groups or outreach preparation.We also fit into our week church on Sunday and a one on one session with a leader,writing a 3 page journal once a week and at the moment we are reading a book and doing a book review. (those of you who know Nai well, reading a 200 page book in 11 days is gonna be a challenge!) So it's pretty jam packed! We're loving it though! We are enjoying spending time with all the students and staff, discussing what we're learning etc, worshipping, talking, praying, playing games!
We managed to escape for a bit of time together today to explore the beautiful scenery! (see pic!)

This weeks lectures were on worship and intercession.
It was great not only to receive teaching on this but put it into practice too.Some main things that stood out to us or were good to be reminded of...
- Worship is us simply responding and giving back to Him what He has given to us.
- You can't fully compliment/praise someone you don't know or you haven't spent time with, without it being shallow or sounding fake and without it being based mainly on appearance. Deep compliments/praise come from knowing someone deeply and spending lots of time with them. It's the same with our praise of God, the more time we spend with Him and the more we know Him the more fully we can praise Him.
- Intercession needs to start with us asking God what his will is. Also we're standing in the gap for the people or situation, representing earth to heaven, putting ourselves in their position and identifying with them - this is so helpful and aids intercession so much.

Lots to be learnt and applied! This weeks lectures are on the Nature and Character of God. How is that going to be condensed into a week?!

Thanks for your continued prayers. Praying for you too, much love from us.

We're here!

Wow we made it! What a crazy whirlwind the last 2 months has been. From moving out of our house on the 13th/14th December,finishing our jobs, then leaving England on the 29th December, and then finally getting to New Zealand on 10th January and finishing our final leg of the journey and arriving at the YWAM base/our 'home' for the next 5 months yesterday afternoon! 

We feel hugely blessed,grateful and excited (if a little daunted at the same time!) to be here and want to say a huge thank you for your love, support, and prayers. Thanks for journeying with us in this all. We are so thankful! 

Today we had our first day of our Justice DTS (discipleship training school). It's so exciting to be starting, after quite a journey (spiritually and physically!) to get to this point. We're excited to find out all that God has in store for these next 5 months we get to spend together with Him! 

There are 20 of us on this DTS and we have 7 people staffing it, with speakers from lots of different places that will be coming in each week to share on different topics. We are all staying in a house together down the road from the main Tauranga YWAM base. 

Tomorrow we have an official Maori 'Welcoming to the land' called a 'Powhiri'. The local Maori tribe will be welcoming us with a whole amazing ceremony which will include a warrior challenge, exchanging of speeches,songs and we get to do the 'Hongi' (google it! great way to get to know people!) and we will share food together. We are really excited about this really cultural experience...look forward to showing you pics! 

Till next time...

Trust without borders...

The last year or so seems to have been a constant journey for us, of learning to trust. God keeps asking us, "do you trust me?" do you really trust me?" "how about in this?" and we discover again and again that after all this time we still haven't learnt to fully trust Him. We still haven't learnt what it means to trust without borders, without limits, to let go completely, to give over our whole lives in submission and trust.We still try to hold onto things in some small way, thinking that some level of holding on, keeps us in control of our lives, as if us being in control is better than God being in control.  And we loose sight of the fact that he is trustworthy, completely and utterly. Our lives our in the best  hands when we give them over to him, entrusting every part to his care, his shepherding, his control. We sing, speak and hear about putting our trust in God. But when push comes to shove, do we really trust him in everything?
At this time, we feel pushed even more into the need for abandoning ourselves in trust in Him.
We are this point where we need to trust God so much more than we've ever done before. We're in this crazy place of uncertainty, that is pushing us to the limits, where we're outside of our comfort zones, where we have to depend on Him so much more.
Yes it's all change at the moment; having moved out of our house, packed up the belongings we're keeping, our last days at work getting so much closer, and sorting all those final details of things that need to be sorted before leaving the country for 6 months.
And we're at that point again where God is asking us if we still trust him, if we trust him when are comforts and securities are not there. If we trust that he is unchanging and faithful, when so much is changing.

Our prayer is that every day we learn to trust Him with that bit more of our lives than we did yesterday.

What we'll be upto...

Justice Discipleship Training School - Lecture phase...

This will be 3 months in which we will explore some of the issues that are at the core of social injustice today. We will also dig deep in order to understand God's heart for justice and allow Him to bring into focus ways that we can actively take part in making a difference, both within our individual spheres of influence, and around the world.This DTS will be our opportunity to learn more about God and about how WE can change our world...one person at a time. 

Justice Discipleship Training School - Outreach phase...

2 months of practically outworking what we've learnt during lecture phase in a country in the South East Asia area. Some of the things we could be doing; working alongside human trafficking ministries, sharing our personal testimonies, practically helping at the ministry locations, working with street kids, going to slums and sharing the love of Jesus, relationship building, putting a face or faces to the issues which connect people to our heart, prayer walks impacting local cultural strongholds, visiting and praying for the sick in hospitals.